And some reason for it, ver. 140. Education alters the nature, or at least character of many, ver. 149. Actions, passions, opinions, manners, humours, or principles, all subject to change. No judging by nature, from ver. 158 to 178.-III. It only remains to find (if we can) his ruling passion: that will certainly influence all the rest, and can reconcile the seeming or real inconsistency of all his actions, ver. 175. Instanced in the extraordinary character of Clodio, ver. 179. A caution against mistaking second qualities for first, which will destroy all possibility of the knowledge of mankind, ver. 210. Examples of the strength of the ruling passion, and its continuation to the last breath, ver. 222, &c.

YES, you despise the man to books confined,

Who from his study rails at human kind;

Though what he learns he speaks, and may advance
Some general maxims, or be right by chance.
The coxcomb bird, so talkative and grave,1
That from his cage cries cuckold, whore, and knave,
Though many a passenger he rightly call,
You hold him no philosopher at all.

And yet the fate of all extremes is such,
Men may be read as well as books, too much.
To observations which ourselves we make,
We grow more partial for the observer's sake;
To written wisdom, as another's, less :

Maxims are drawn from notions, those from guess.
There's some peculiar in each leaf and grain,
Some unmarked fibre, or some varying vein :
Shall only man be taken in the gross ?

Grant but as many sorts of mind as moss.

ΙΟ

▲ A fine turned allusion to what Philostratus said of Euxenus, the tutor of Apollonius, that he could only repeat some sentences of Pythagoras, like those coxcomb birds, who were taught their ev πράττε and their Ζεὺς ἵλεως, but knew not what they signified. Warburton.

That each from other differs, first confess;
Next, that he varies from himself no less :
Add nature's, custom's, reason's, passion's strife,
And all opinion's colours cast on life.

Our depths who fathoms, or our shallows finds,
Quick whirls, and shifting eddies, of our minds?
On human actions reason though you can,
It may be reason, but it is not man:
His principle of action once explore,
That instant 'tis his principle no more.

Like following life through creatures you dissect,
You lose it in the moment you detect.

Yet more; the difference is as great between
The optics seeing, as the object seen.

All manners take a tincture from our own;

Or come discoloured through our passions shown.
Or fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies,

Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousanu dyes.
Nor will life's stream for observation stay,

It hurries all too fast to mark their way:

In vain sedate reflections we would make,

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When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take. 40
Oft, in the passions' wild rotation tost,

Our spring of action to ourselves is lost :
Tired, not determined, to the last we yield,
And what comes then is master of the field.
As the last image of that troubled heap,
When sense subsides, and fancy sports in sleep,
(Though passed the recollection of the thought,)
Becomes the stuff of which our dream is wrought:
Something as dim to our internal view,

Is thus, perhaps, the cause of most we do.

True, some are open, and to all men known;

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Others so very close, they're hid from none;
(So darkness strikes the sense no less than light)
Thus gracious Chandos 1 is beloved at sight;
And every child hates Shylock, though his soul
Still sits at squat, and peeps not from its hole.
At half mankind when generous Manly raves,2
All know 'tis virtue, for he thinks them knaves:
When universal homage Umbra pays,3
All see 'tis vice, and itch of vulgar praise.
When flattery glares, all hate it in a queen,*

While one there is who charms us with his spleen.
But these plain characters we rarely find;
Though strong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind :
Or puzzling contraries confound the whole;

Or affectations quite reverse the soul.
The dull, flat falsehold serves for policy;
And in the cunning, truth itself's a lie :
Unthought-of frailties cheat us in the wise;
The fool lies hid in inconsistencies.

See the same man, in vigour, in the gout;
Alone, in company; in place, or out;
Early at business, and at hazard late;
Mad at a fox-chase, wise at a debate;

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1 James Brydges, first Duke of Chandos, whose hospitality and supposed personal munificence to Pope the latter was accused of having requited, by satirising the decorations and furniture of the duke's house at Canons in the epistle which now stands the fourth of the series, Of the Use of Riches. See lines 97 and following. Pope denied the pecuniary obligation, and defended himself against the charge of having alluded to the duke's house. The duke accepted the explanation; and Pope has recorded his gratified feeling in the above praise of "gracious Chandos."

Manly is the hero of Wycherley's Plain Dealer. The author himself was commonly known by the title of Manly Wycherley. 3 Bubb Doddington.

4 Supposed to refer to Queen Caroline.

Drunk at a borough, civil at a ball;
Friendly at Hackney, faithless at Whitehall.
Catius1 is ever moral, ever grave,

Thinks who endures a knave, is next a knave,
Save just at dinner-then, prefers, no doubt,
rogue with venison to a saint without.

A

Who would not praise Patritio's high desert,2
His hand unstained, his uncorrupted heart,

His comprehensive head! all interests weighed,
All Europe saved, yet Britain not betray.
He thanks you not, his pride is in piquet,
New-market-fame, and judgment at a bet.

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What made (say Montagne, or more sage Charron!) Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon?

A perjured prince a leaden saint revere,3
A godless regent tremble at a star? 4
The throne a bigot keep, a genius quit,5
Faithless through piety, and duped through wit?
Europe a woman, child, or dotard rule,
And just her wisest monarch made a fool?

Know, God and Nature only are the same:
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.

1 Charles Darlineuf.

2 Lord Godolphin.

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3 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.

4 Philip Duke of Orleans, Regent of France in the minority of Louis XV., superstitious in judicial astrology, though an unbeliever in all religion.-Warburton.

5 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 reassume it, was imprisoned till his death.

In vain the sage, with retrospective eye,

Would from the apparent what conclude the why, 100
Infer the motive from the deed, and show,

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

Some plunge in business, 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 impelled
Charles to the convent, Philip to the field.

Not always actions show the man: we find
Who does a kindness, is not therefore kind;
Perhaps prosperity becalmed his breast,

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:
Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,
His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.

But grant that actions best discover man;
Take the most strong, and sort them as you can.
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.

ΙΙΟ

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