Is this too little for the boundless heart?
Extend it, let thy enemies have part:

Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense,
In one close system of benevolence:

Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,

And height of bliss but height of charity.

God loves from whole to parts: but human soul
Must rise from individual to the whole.
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;
The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, the o'erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in, of every kind;
Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest,
And heaven beholds its image in his breast.

Come then, my friend! my genius! come along;
Oh, master of the poet, and the song!

And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends,
To man's low passions, or their glorious ends
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise,
To fall with dignity, with temper rise;
Formed by thy converse, happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe;
Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reason, or polite to please.
Oh! while along the stream of time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame,

Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,

Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?

When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,

360

370

380

Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend?
That urged by thee, I turned the tuneful art
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For wit's false mirror held up nature's light;
Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right;
That reason, passion, answer one great aim;
That true self-love and social are the same;
That virtue only makes our bliss below;
And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know.

390

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.1

DEO OPT. MAX.

FATHER of all! in every age,
In every clime adored,

By saint, by savage, and by sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou Great First Cause, least understood:

Who all my sense confined

To know but this, that thou art good,

And that myself am blind;

1 Concerning this poem, it may be proper to observe, that some passages in the preceding essay having been unjustly suspected of a tendency towards fate and naturalism, the author composed this prayer as the sum of all, to show that his system was founded in free-will, and terminated in piety; that the First Cause was as well the Lord and Governor of the universe as the Creator of it; and that, by submission to his will (the great principle enforced throughout the Essay), was not meant the suffering ourselves to be carried along with a blind determination, but a religious acquiescence and confidence full of hope and immortality. To give all this the greater weight and reality, the poet chose for his model the Lord's Prayer, which of all others, best deserves the title prefixed to this paraphrase. Warburton.

Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see the good from ill;
And binding nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will.

What conscience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,

This, teach me more than hell to shun,
That, more than heaven pursue.

What blessings thy free bounty gives,
Let me not cast away;

For God is paid when man receives,
To enjoy is to obey.

Yet not to earth's contracted span
Thy goodness led me bound,
Or think thee Lord alone of man,
When thousand words are round;

Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Presume thy bolts to throw
And deal damnation round the land,
On each I judge thy foe.

If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, oh, teach my

To find that better way.

IO

20

30

heart

Save me alike from foolish pride,

Or impious discontent,

At aught thy wisdom has denied,

Or aught thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,

To hide the fault I see;

That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me

Mean though I am, not wholly so,
Since quickened by thy breath;
Oh, lead me wheresoe'er I go,

Through this day's life or death.

This day, be bread and peace my lot:
All else beneath the sun,

Thou knowest if best bestowed or not;
And let thy will be done.

To thee, whose temple is all space,

Whose altar earth, sea, skies,

One chorus let all being raise,

All nature's incense rise!

40

50

MORAL ESSAYS.

IN FOUR EPISTLES TO SEVERAL PERSONS.

Est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia, neu se
Impediat verbis lassis onerantibus aures :
Et sermone opus est modo tristi, sæpe jocoso,
Defendente vicem modo rhetoris atque poetæ,
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque
Extenuantis eas consultò.-HOR.

Sat. I. x. 17-22.

THE Fifth Epistle of the Moral Essays (to Addison) was written in 1715. The Fourth Epistle (to the Earl of Burlington) was published in 1731, under the title Of Taste, subsequently altered to Of False Taste, and ultimately to Of the Use of Riches. The Third Epistle (Of the Use of Riches, to Lord Bathurst) followed in 1732.

In the same year appeared the first two Epistles of the Essay on Man, the Third succeeding in 1733. In this year also came out the Epistle On the Knowledge and Characters of Men, addressed to Lord Cobham, now the first of the Moral Essays. The Epistle (now the Second of the Moral Essays) to a Lady, On the Characters of Women, appeared in 1735.

EPISTLE I.

TO SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, LORD COBHAM.1

ARGUMENT.

OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND CHARACTERS OF MEN.

That it is not sufficient for this knowledge to consider man in the abstract books will not serve the purpose, nor yet our own experience singly, ver. I. General maxims, unless they be formed upon both, will be but notional, ver. 10. Some pecu

liarity in every man, characteristic to himself, yet varying from himself, ver. 15. Difficulties arising from our own passions, fancies, faculties, &c., ver. 31. The shortness of life, to observe in, and the uncertainty of the principles of action in men, to observe by, ver. 37, &c. Our own principle of action often hid from ourselves, ver. 41. Some few characters plain, but in general confounded, dissembled, or inconsistent, ver. 51. The same man utterly different in different places and seasons, ver. 71. Unimaginable weakness in the greatest, ver. 70, &c. Nothing constant and certain but God and nature, ver. 95. No judging of the motives from the actions; the same actions proceeding from contrary motives, and the same motives influencing contrary actions, ver. 100.-II. Yet to form characters, we can only take the strongest actions of a man's life, and try to make them agree. The utter uncertainty of this, from nature itself, and from policy, ver. 120. Characters given according to the rank of men of the world, ver. 135.

1 Sir Richard Temple, created Viscount Cobham by George I. in 1718, and made a field-marshal in 1742, was on intimate terms with Pope during the latter part of the poet's life.

H