equally true, that the worst kind of government, when the form of it is preserved, and the administration perfect, is the most pernicious. However, I am free to confefs, that though, taking the whole context together, the meaning of these lines may be well afcertained, yet the expreffion is, to fay no more, obfcure; and does by no means convey that meaning with our author's ufual perfpicuity. For, notwithstanding his apology, and the very ingenious expofition of his commentator, the expreffion is too general to admit of fuch limitations as the true conftruction requires. The poet, having explained the true principles of policy and religion, and fhewn, that however the world may difagree about religious and political principles, yet charity is, neverthelefs, the concern of all mankind, he concludes this epiftle with the following incompa rable lines. Man, like the gen'rous vine, fupported lives; "The ftrength he gains is from th' embrace he gives. "On their own Axis as the Planets run, "Yet make at once their circle round the Sun; "So two confiftent motions act the Soul; "And one regards itfelf, and one the Whole*." The *The fame fentiment we find in fubftance, thus expreffed by Lord Bacon-" There is formed in every thing a double nature of good: the one, as every thing is a total or fub 66 "ftance The poet has here, with peculiar fkill and felicity, contrived, that the fame ornaments which embellish his verfe, fhould ftrengthen These beautiful and fublime his argument. fimilies, afford the most apt and powerful illuftration of the truth of that propofition, which he would imprint on the reader's mind, namely, that Self-love and Social are the fame. Having thus difplayed the nature of man in his various relations, in his fourth and laft Epiftle, he confiders his nature and state with refpect to happiness, the end which every human being purfues. This epiftle opens with an invocation to happinefs; and the reader will find a fummary of falfe and true felicity in the following lines: wherein the poet, with his ufual addrefs, has contrived to illuftrate the propofition he would prove, by the most beautiful images, conveyed in the moft harmonious verfification. "Oh Happiness! our being's end and aim! "Good, Pleafure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy "name: "That fomething ftill which prompts th’eter"nal figh, "For which we bear to live, or dare to die, "stance in itself; the other, as it is a part or member of a great body; whereof the latter is in degree the greater "and the worthier, because it tendeth to the confervation "of a more general form." "Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, Plant of celeftial feed! if dropt below, Say in what mortal foil though deign'ft to "grow? "Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious fhine, "Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field? "We ought to blame the culture, not the "Fix'd to no fpot is Happinefs fincere, "'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where." The poet having farther expofed and confuted the idle notions concerning happiness, which were propagated by the antient philofophers; of whom fome placed it in action, fome in eafe*, &c. he proceeds more particularly to explain in what it truly confifts. "TakeNature's path, and mad Opinion's leave, "All ftates can reach it, and all heads conceive; *Mr. POPE, in one of his letters to Mr. Allen, has, in few words, expreffed his idea of Happiness To be at "eafe," fays he, "is the greatest of happiness (at cale, I "mean, both of mind and body) but to be ide is the greatest of unhappinefs, both to the one and the other." " Obvious "Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; "There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; "And mourn our various portions as we "pleafe, 66 Equal is Common Senfe, and Common Ease." It will probably occur to the learned reader, that the poet has here adopted the fentiments of the Grecian fage, who faid" That if we live according to Nature, we fhall never be poor; and if we live according to Opinion, we "fhall never be rich." Our poet then goes on to fhew in what true happiness confifts; which he thus forcibly explains. "Know, all the good that individuals find, "Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind, Reafon's whole pleafure, all the joys of fenfe, "Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence. "But Health confifts with Temperance alone; "And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy The ftrong and affecting manner in which these fentiments are expreffed, naturally difpofes a mind of any fenfibility, to that ferene and placid ftate which is attendant on virtue. The invocation, and emphatic repetition in the last line, have a peculiar energy and pathos. To To those who impioufly arraign providence for not preventing the evils which befal the good and juft in this world; our author answers in the following lines. "Shall burning Etna, if a fage requires, "Forget to thunder, and recall her fires? "On air or fea new motions be impreft, "Oh blamelefs Bethel *! to relieve thy breaft? "When the loofe mountain trembles from on "high, "Shall gravitation ceafe, if you go by? "Or fome old temple, nodding to its fall, "For Chartres' head referve the hanging "wall?", This argument, by which the poet fhews that the evils complained of, could not be prevented, without continually reverfing the established laws of nature, is finely illuftrated. * In a letter which our author, foon after the death of his mother, wrote to Mr. Bethel, he feems to hint at this paffage: "I have now but too much melancholy leifure, and no "other care but to finifh my Effay on Man. There will "be in it but one line that will offend you (I fear) and yet "I will not alter it or omit it, unless you come to town and "prevent me before I print it, which will be in a fortnight in all probabil ty. In plain truth, I will not deny myself "the greatest pieafure I am capable of receiving, becaufe "another may have the modefty not to fhare it. It is all a poor poet can do, to bear teftimony to the virtue he can"not reach befides that, in this age, I fee too few good "examples, not to lay hold on any I can find." The |