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A perjur'd Prince, a leaden saint revere,
A godless Regent tremble at a star?
The throne a bigot keep, a genius quit,
Faithless through piety, and dup'd through wit?
Europe a woman, child, or dotard rule,

And just her wisest monarch made a fool?

90

Know, GoD and NATURE only are the same: 95 In man, the judgment shoots at flying game; A bird of passage! gone as soon as found; Now in the moon perhaps, now under ground.

II.

In vain the sage, with retrospective eye, Would from th' apparent What conclude the Why,

Infer

After ver. 86. in the former editions :

Triumphant leaders, at an army's head,

Hemm'd round with glories, pilfer cloth or bread;
As meanly plunder as they bravely fought,
Now save a people, and now save a groat.

VER. 89. A perjur'd Prince, Louis XI. of France wore in his hat a leaden image of the Virgin Mary, which, when he swore by,

he feared to break his oath.

VER. 90. A godless Regent tremble at a star?] Philip Duke of Orleans, Regent in the minority of Louis XV. superstitious in -judicial astrology, though an unbeliever in all religion.

VER. 91. The throne a bigot keep, a genius quit,] Philip V. of Spain, who, after renouncing the throne for religion, resumed it to gratify his queen; and Victor Amadeus II. King of Sardinia, who resigned the crown, and trying to re-assume it, was imprisoned till his death.

VER. 93. Europe a woman, child, or dotard rule,

And just ber wisest monarch made a fool ?]

The Czarina, the King of France, the Pope, and the above-mentioned King of Sardinia.

Infer the motive from the deed, and shew,

That what we chanc'd was what we meant to do.
Behold! if fortune or a mistress frowns,

101

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Some plunge in bus'ness, others shave their crowns:
To ease the soul of one oppressive weight,
This quits an empire, that embroils a state :
The same adust complexion has impell'd
Charles to the convent, Philip to the field.

Not always actions shew the man: we find
Who does a kindness, is not therefore kind;
Perhaps prosperity becalm'd his breast;

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Perhaps the wind just shifted from the east:
Not therefore humble he who seeks retreat,
Pride guides his steps, and bids him shun the great:
Who combats bravely, is not therefore brave,
He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave;

115

Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,

His pride in reas'ning, not in acting lies.

But grant that actions best discover man;

Take the most strong, and sort them as you can. 120 The few that glare each character must mark,

You balance not the many in the dark.

VER. 107. The same adust complexion has impell'd
Charles to the convent, Philip to the field.]

What

Philip II. was of an atrabilaire complexion. He derived it from his father Charles V. whose health, the historians of his life tell us, was frequently disordered by bilious fevers: the same complexion not only drove them variously, but made each act contrary to his character; Charles, who was an active man, when he retired into a convent; Philip, who was a man of the closet, when he gave the battle of St. Quintin.

What will you do with such as disagree?
Suppress them, or miscall them policy?
Must then at once (the character to save)
The plain rough hero turn a crafty knave?

Alas! in truth the man but chang'd his mind,
Perhaps was sick, in love, or had not din’d.
Ask why from Britain Cæsar would retreat?
Cæsar himself might whisper he was beat.

125

130

Why risk the world's great empire for a Punk?

Cæsar perhaps might answer he was drunk.

But, sage historians! 'tis your task to prove

One action conduct; one, heroic love.

'Tis from high life high characters are drawn; A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn; A judge is just, a chanc❜lor juster still;

136

A gownman, learn'd; a bishop, what you will;

Wise,

VER. 129. in the former editions:

Ask why from Britain Cæsar made retreat?
Cæsar himself would tell you he was beat.
The mighty Czar what mov'd to wed a Punk?
The mighty Czar would tell you he was drunk.

And as Cæsar afforded better to make him the

Altered as above, because Cæsar wrote his Commentaries of this war, and does not tell you he was beat. an instance of both cases, it was thought single example.

VER. 129. Ask why from Britain] In former editions, the third and fourth lines were,

The mighty Czar what mov'd to wed a Punk?

The mighty Czar would tell you he was drunk.

But it was altered as above; and altered for the worse. It is strange that Pope should not have known that drunkenness w not one of Cæsar's vices.

Wise, if a minister; but, if a king,

141

More wise, more learn'd, more just, more ev'ry thing.
Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate,
Born where heav'n's influence scarce can penetrate :
In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like,

They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
Tho' the same sun with all-diffusive rays

145

Blush in the rose, and in the diʼmond blaze,
We prize the stronger effort of his pow'r,
And justly set the gem above the flow'r.

'Tis education forms the common mind,
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclin❜d.
Boastful and rough, your first son is a 'squire;
The next a tradesman, meek, and much a liar;
Tom struts a soldier, open, bold, and brave ;
Will sneaks a scriv❜ner, an exceeding knave:
Is he a churchman? then he's fond of pow'r :
A quaker? sly: a presbyterian? sour:
A smart free-thinker? all things in an hour.
Ask men's opinions: Scoto now shall tell
How trade increases, and the world goes well;
Strike off his pension, by the setting sun,
And Britain, if not Europe, is undone.

That gay free-thinker, a fine talker once,
What turns him now a stupid silent dunce?
Some god, or spirit he has lately found;
Or chanc'd to meet a minister that frown'd.

150

155

160

165 Judge

VER. 165. Or chanc'd to meet Sir Robert when he frown'd.

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Judge we by nature? Habit can efface, Int'rest o'ercome, or policy take place: By actions? those uncertainty divides:

By passions? these dissimulation hides :

Opinions? they still take a wider range :
Fird, if you can, in what you cannot change.

170

Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes, Tenets with books, and principles with times.

III.

180

Search then the RULING PASSION: There, alone, The wild are constant, and the cunning known; 175 The fool consistent, and the false sincere ; Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here. This clue once found, unravels all the rest, The prospect clears, and WHARTON stands confest. Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days, Whose ruling passion was the lust of praise: Born with whate'er could win it from the wise, Women and fools must like him, or he dies Tho' wond'ring senates hung on all he spoke, The club must hail him master of the joke. Shall parts so various aim at nothing new? He'll shine a Tully and a Wilmot too. Then turns repentant, and his God adores With the same spirit that he drinks and whores ;

:

185

Enough

VER. 187. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, famous for his wit

and extravagancies in the time of Charles the Second.

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