Wits, juft like Fools, at war about a name, 85
Have full as oft no meaning, or the fame.
Self-love and Reason to one end aspire,
Pain their averfion, Pleasure their defire;
But greedy That, its object would devour,
This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r:
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,

Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

III. Modes of Self-love the Paffions we may

call:

'Tis real good, or feeming, moves them all:

But fince not ev'ry good we can divide,

And reafon bids us for our own provide;

95

Paffions,

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 86. in the MS.

Of good and evil Gods what frighted Fools,
Of good and evil Reason puzzled schools,
Deceiv'd, deceiving, taught

COMMENTARY.

phers. It was of importance, therefore, to reprobate and fubvert a notion that ferved to the fupport of fo dangerous an error: And this the Poet hath done with much force and clearness.

VER. 93. Modes of Self-love, etc.] Having given this account of the nature of Self-love in general, he comes now to anatomize it, in a discourse on the PASSIONS, which he aptly names the MODES OF SELF-LOVE. The object of all thefe, he fhews (from Ver. 92 to 101.) is good; and, when under the guidance of Reason, real good, either of ourselves, or of another; for fome goods not being capable of divifion, or

commu

Paffions, though selfish, if their means be fair,
Lift under Reason, and deserve her care;
Those, that imparted, court a nobler aim,

Exalt their kind, and take fome Virtue's

Their Virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is Exercise, not Reft:
The rifing tempeft puts in act the soul, 105
Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.
On life's vaft ocean diverfely we fail,

Reason the card, but paffion is the gale;

VARIATIONS.

Nor

After Ver. 108. in the MS.

A tedious Voyage! where how useless lies
The compass, if no pow'rful gufts arise ?

COMMENTARY.

communication, and Reason at the fame time directing us to provide for ourselves, we therefore, in pursuit of thefe objects, fometimes aim at our own good, fometimes at the good of others: when fairly aiming at our own, the quality is called Prudence; when at another's, Virtue.

Hence (as he fhews from Ver. 100 to 105.) appears the folly of the Stoics, who would eradicate the Paffions, things fo neceffary both to the good of the Individual and of the Kind. Which prepofterous method of promoting Virtue he therefore very reasonably reproves.

VER. 105. The rifing tempeft puts in act the foul,] But as it was from obfervation of the evils occafioned by the paffions, that the Stoics thus extravagantly projected their extirpation,

the

Nor God alone in the still calm we find,

He mounts the ftorm, and walks upon the

the Poet recurs (from Ver. 104 to 111.) to his grand principle fo often before, and to fo good purpose, infifted on, that partial Ill is univerfal Good; and fhews, that though the tempeft of the Paffions, like that of the air, may tear and ravage fome few parts of nature in its paffage, yet the falutary agitation produced by it preferves the Whole, in life and vigour. This is his first argument against the Stoics, which he illufrates by a very beautiful fimilitude, on a hint taken from Scripture:

"Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find,

"He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind."

NOTES.

VER. 109. Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find, He mounts the ftorm, and walks upon the wind.] The Tranflator turns it thus,

"Dieu lui-même, Dieu fort de fon profond repos.' And fo, makes an Epicurean God, of the Governor of the Universe. M. De Croufaz does not spare this expreffion of God's coming out of his profound repofe. It is, fays he, ex"ceffively poetical, and prefents us with ideas which we ought not to dwell upon," etc. and then, as ufual, blames the Author for the blunder of his Tranflator. Comm. p. 158.

66

VER. 109. Nor God alone, etc.] Thefe words are only a fimple affirmation in the poetic drefs of a fimilitude, to this purpose: Good is not only produced by the fubdual of the Paffions, but by the turbulent exercife of them. A truth conveyed under the moft fublime imagery that poetry could conceive or paint. For the author is here only fhewing the providential iffue of the Paffions; and how, by God's gracious difpofition, they are turned away from their natural deftructive bias, to promote the Happiness of Mankind. As to the method in which they are to be treated by Man, in whom they are found, all that he contends for, in favour of them, is only this, that they fhould not be quite rooted up and de5 stroyed,

Paffions, like elements, tho' born to fight, Yet, mix'd and foften'd, in his work unite: Thefe, 'tis enough to temper and employ; But what composes Man, can Man destroy?

Suffice

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 112 in the MS.

The foft reward the virtuous, or invite;
The fierce, the vicious punish or affright.

COMMENTARY.

VER. III. Paffions, like elements, etc.] His fecond argument against the Stoics (from Ver. 110 to 133.) is, that Paffions go to the compofition of a moral character, juft as elementary particles go to the compofition of an organized body: Therefore, for Man to project the deftruction of what composes his very Being, is the height of extravagance. 'Tis true, he tells us, that these Paffions, which in their natural ftate, like elements, are in perpetual jar, must be tempered, softened, and united, in order to perfect the work of the great plaftic Artist; who, in this office, employs human Reafon; whose business it is to follow the road of Nature, and to observe the dictates of the Deity;-Follow her and Gɔd. The use and importance of this precept is evident: For in doing the firft, fhe will difcover the abfurdity of attempting to eradicate the Paffions; in doing the fecond, fhe will learn how to make them subservient to the interests of Virtue.

NOTES.

ftroyed, as the Stoics, and their followers, in all Religions, foolishly attempted. For the reft, he conftantly repeats this advice,

"The action of the ftronger to fufpend,
"Reason still use, to Reafon fill attend."

115

Suffice that Reafon keep to Nature's road,
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure's fmiling train,
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain,
These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind: 120
The lights and fhades, whofe well-accorded ftrife
Gives all the ftrength and colour of our life.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;
And when, in act, they cease, in prospect, rise:
Present to grasp, and future ftill to find,

125

The whole employ of body and of mind.
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff'rent fenfes diff'rent objects ftrike;

COMMENTARY.

Hence

VER. 123. Pleasures are ever in our hands er eyes;] His third argument against the Stoics (from Ver. 122 to 127.) is, that the Paffions are a continual fpur to the pursuit of Happinefs; which, without thefe powerful inciters, we should neglect; and fink into a fenfelefs indolence. Now Happinefs is the end of our creation; and this excitement, the means to that end; therefore, these movers, the Paffions, are the inftruments of God, which he hath put into the hands of Reafon to work withal.

VER. 127. All Spread their charms, etc.] The Poet now proceeds in his fubject; and this laft obfervation leads him naturally to the difcuffion of his next principle. He fhews then, that though all the Paffions have their turn in fwaying the determinations of the mind, yet every Man hath one MASTER PASSION that at length ftifles or abforbs all the rest. The fact he illuftrates at large in his epistle to Lord Cobham.

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