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.
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 changed his mind,
Perhaps was sick, in love, or had not dined.
Ask why from Britain Cæsar would retreat?
Cæsar himself might whisper, he was beat.
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 chancellor juster still;

A gownman learn'd, a bishop what you will;
Wise, if a minister; but, if a king,

130

More wise, more learn'd, more just, more every thing. Court virtues bear like gems, the highest rate,

141

Born where heaven's influence scarce can penetrate:
In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like,

They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
Though the same sun with all-diffusive rays
Blush in the rose, and in the diamond blaze
We prize the stronger effort of his power,
And justly set the gem above the flower.

'Tis education forms the common mind:
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
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 scrivener, an exceeding knave.
Is he a churchman? then he's fond of power⚫
A quaker? sly: a presbyterian? sour:
A smart free-thinker? all things in an hour.

15

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.

160

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 chanced to meet a minister that frown'd. Judge we by nature? habit can efface, Interest o'ercome, or policy take place : By actions? those uncertainty divides: By passions? these dissimulation hides: Opinions? they still take a wider range : Find, if you can, in what you cannot change. Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes, Tenets with books, and principles with times.

170

180

III. Search then the ruling passion: There, alone. The wild are constant, and the cunning known; The fool consistent, and the false sincere; Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here. This clew once found unravels all the rest, The prospect clears, and Wharton stands confess'd. 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: Though wondering 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, Enough if all around him but admire, And now the punk applaud, and now the friar. Thus with each gift of nature and of art, And wanting nothing but an honest heart: Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt, And most contemptible, to shun contempt;

199

His passion still, to covet general praise,
His life, to forfeit it a thousand ways;
A constant bounty, which no friend has made;
An angel tongue, which no man can persuade;
A fool, with more of wit than half mankind,
Too rash for thought, for action too refined⚫
A tyrant to the wife his heart approves;
A rebel to the very king he loves;

200

He dies, sad outcast of each church and state,
And harder still! flagitious, yet not great.
Ask you why Wharton broke through every rule;
'Twas all for fear the knaves should call him fool.
Nature well known, no prodigies remain,

Comets are regular, and Wharton plain.

Yet, in this search, the wisest may mistake, 210 If second qualities for first they take.

When Catiline by rapine swell'd his store:
When Cæsar made a noble dame a whore

In this the lust, in that the avarice,

Were means, not ends; ambition was the vice.
That very Cæsar, born in Scipio's days,
Had aim'd like him, by chastity, at praise,
Lucullus, when frugality could charm,
Had roasted turnips in the Sabine farm.
In vain the observer eyes the builder's toil,
But quite mistakes the scaffold for the pile.
In this one passion man can strength enjoy,
As fits give vigour just when they destroy.
Time, that on all things lays his lenient hand,
Yet tames not this; it sticks to our last sand.
Consistent in our follies and our sins,
Here honest Nature ends as she begins.

Old politicians chew on wisdom past,
And totter on in business to the last;
As weak, as earnest; and as gravely out,
As sober Lanesborow dancing in the gout.
Behold a reverend sire, whom want of grace
Has made the father of a nameless race,

220

230

Shoved from the wall perhaps, or rudely press'd
By his own son, that passes by unbless'd:
Still to his wench he crawls on knocking knees,
And envies every sparrow that he sees.

A salmon's belly, Helluo, was thy fate;
The doctor call'd, declares all help too late.
'Mercy!' cries Helluo, 'mercy on my soul!
Is there no hope ?-Alas!-then bring the jowl.'
The frugal crone, whom praying priests attend,
Still strives to save the hallow'd taper's end,
Collects her breath, as ebbing life retires,
For one puff more, and in that puff expires.

240

'Odious! in woollen ! 'twould a saint provoke,' Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke; 'No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face; One would not, sure, be frightful when one's deadAnd-Betty-give this cheek a little red.'

251

The courtier smooth, who forty years had shined An humble servant to all human kind,

Just brought out this, when scarce his tongue could stir,

'If-where I'm going-I could serve you, sir!'

'I give and I devise,' old Euclio said,

And sigh'd, 'my lands and tenements to Ned.' 'Your money, sir?'-' My money, sir, what all? Why, if I must'-then wept, 'I give it Paul.' 'The manor, sir ?'-'The manor ! hold,' he cried, 260 'Not that, I cannot part with that,'-and died. And you! brave Cobham, to the latest breath, Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death: Such in these moments as in all the past,

Oh, save my country, Heaven!' shall be your last.

EPISTLE II.

TO A LADY.

ARGUMENT.

Of the Characters of Women.

That the particular characters of women are not so strongly marked as those of men, seldom so fixed, and still more inconsistent with themselves, ver. 1, &c. Instances of contrarieties given, even from such characters as are more strongly marked, and seemingly, therefore, most consistent: as, 1. In the affected.-2. In the soft natured.3. In the cunning and artful.-4. In the whimsical.-5. In the lewd and vicious.-6. In the witty and refined.-7. In the stupid and simple, ver. 21 to 207. The former part having shown that the particular characters of women are more various than those of men, it is nevertheless observed that the general characteristic of the sex, as to the ruling passion, is more uniform, ver. 207. This is occasioned partly by their nature, partly by their education, and in some degree by necessity, ver. 211. What are the aims and the fate of this sex:-1. As to power.-2. As to pleasure, ver. 219. Advice for their true interest.The picture of an estimable woman, with the best kind of contrarieties, ver. 249 to the end.

There is nothing in Mr. Pope's works more highly finished than this epistle: yet its success was in no proportion to the pains he took in composing it. Something he chanced to drop in a short advertisement prefixed to it on its first publication, may, perhaps account for the small attention given to it. He said that no one character in it was drawn from the life. The public believed him on his word, and expressed little curiosity about a satire, in which there was nothing personal.

NOTHING SO true as what you once let fall, Most women have no characters at all.'