Who reasons wifely is not therefore wife, But grant that Actions beft discover man; 119 Take the most strong, and fort 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 fuch as difagree? Suppress them, or mifcall them Policy? Muft then at once (the character to fave) 125 The plain rough Hero turn a crafty Knave? COMMENTARY. VER. 119. But grant that Actions &c.] But (fays he) if you will judge of man by his Actions, you are not to felect fuch only as you like, or can manage, you must fairly take all you find: Now, when you have got thefe together, they will prove fo very discordant that no confiftent Character can poffibly be made out of them. What is to be done then? Will you fupprefs all those you cannot reconcile to the few capital Actions which you chufe for the foundation of your Character? But this the laws of truth will not permit. Will you then mifcall them? and fay they were not the natural workings of the man, but the difguifes of the politician? But what will you get by that, befides reverfing the best known Character, and making the owner of it the direct oppofite of himself? However, this (fays NOTES. to their 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. VER. 117. Who reafons wifely &c.] By reafening is not here meant fpeculating; but deliberating and refolving in public counfels; for this inftance is given as one, of a variety of actions 139 Alas! in truth the man but chang'd his mind, VARIATIONS. VER. 129, in the former Editions, Afk why from Britain Cæfar made retreat? Alter'd as above, because Cæfar wrote his Commentaries of this war, and does not tell you he was beat. As Cæfar too afforded an inftance of both cafes, it was thought better to make him the fingle Example, COMMENTARY. our author) the reasoning and philofophic hiftorian has been always ready to do with the Actions of great men: of which he gives two famous inftances in the life of Cæfar. The conclufion, from the whole, is, that Actions do not fhew the Man. NOTES. VER. 130. Cafar himself might whisper he was beat.] Cæfar wrote his Commentaries, in imitation of the Greek Generals, fort the entertainment of the world: But had his friend afked him, in his ear, the reafon of his fudden retreat from Britain, after fo many pretended victories, we have caufe to fufpect, even from his own public relation of that matter, that he would have whilper'd he was beat. VER. 131. Why risk the world's great empire for a Punk?] After the battle of Pharfalia, Cæfar purfued his enemy to Alex 'Tis from high Life high Characters are drawn; More wife, more learn'd,more juft, more ev'ry thing. COMMENTARY. VER. 135. 'Tis from high Life, &c.] The poet having done with the Philofopher, now turns to the Man of the world; whofe first mistake is in fuppofing men's true Characters may be known by their ftation. This, tho' a mere mob-opinion, is the opinion in fashion, and cherished by the Mob of all ranks; therefore, tho' beneath the poet's reasoning, he thought it deferving of his ridicule; and the ftrongeft was what he gives (from 134 to 141) a naked expofition of the fact; to which he has fubjoined (from 140 to 149) an ironical apology, that, as Virtue is cultivated with infinitely more labour in Courts than NOTES. andria, where he became infatuated with the charms of Cleopatra, instead of pufhing his advantages, and difperfing the relicks of the Pharfalian quarrel, (after narrowly escaping the violence of an enraged populace) he brought upon himself an unneceffary war, at a time his arms were moft wanted elfewhere. VER. 141. Court-virtues bear, like Gems, &c.] This whole reflexion, and the fimilitude brought to fupport it, have a great delicacy of ridicule. 145 Tho' the fame fun with all-diffufive rays COMMENTARY. in Cottages, it is but just to set an infinitely higher value on it; which, fays he with much pleasantry, is most agreeable to all the fashionable ways of eftimation. For why do the connoiffeurs prefer the lively colour in a Gem before that in a Flower, but for its extreme rarity and difficulty of production? VER. 149. 'Tis Education forms &c.] This fecond mistake of the Man of the world is more ferious; it is, that Characters are beft judged of by the general Manners. This the poet confutes in a lively enumeration of examples (from 148 to 158) which fhew, that how fimilar or different foever the Manners be by Nature, yet they are all new nodel'd by Education and Profeffion; where each man invariably receives that exotic form which the mould he falls into, is fitted to imprint. The natural Character therefore can never be judged of by these fictitious Manners. 9 NOTES. VER. 152. The next a Tradefman, meek, and much a lyar ;] "The only glory of a Tradefman (fays Hobbes) is to grow exceffively rich by the wisdom of buying and felling." A purfuit very wide of all vain-glory; fo that if he be given to lying, it is certainly on a more fubftantial motive, and will therefore rather deferve the name, which this philofopher gives it, of vifdom. SCRIBL, Tom ftruts a Soldier, open, bold, and brave; Will fneaks a Scriv'ner, an exceeding knave: 154 Is he a Churchman? then he's fond of pow'r:) A Quaker? fly: A Presbyterian? fow'r: A fmart Free-thinker? all things in an hour, Afk men's Opinions: Scoto now shall tell How Trade increafes, and the world goes well; Strike off his Penfion, by the fetting fun, 160 And Britain, if not Europe, is undone. That gay Free-thinker, a fine talker once, What turns him now a stupid filent dunce? Some God, or Spirit he has lately found; Or chanc'd to meet a Minister that frown'd. 165 Judge we by Nature? Habit can efface, Intreft o'ercome, or Policy take place: COMMENTARY. VER. 158. Afk mens Opinions: &c.] The third miftake is in judging of mens characters by their Opinions and turn of thinking. But thefe, the poet fhews by two examples (from 157 to 166.] are generally fwayed by Intereft, both in the affairs of Life and Speculation. VER. 166. Judge we by Nature? &c.] The poet having NOTES. VER. 164, 165. Some God, or Spirit he has lately found; Or chanc'd to meet a Minifter that frown'd.] Difafters the most unlooked for, as they were what the Free-thinker's Speculations and Practice were principally directed to avoid.-The poet here alludes to the ancient claffical opinion, that the fudden vifion of a God was fuppofed to ftrike the irreverend obferver speech |