EPISTLE IV.

:

OUR Poet having, in the three former Epiftles, treated of Man in all the three respects in which he can be confidered; namely, firft, Of his Nature and State with respect to the Univerfe; fecondly, With refpect to Himfelf; thirdly, With refpect to Society feems to have finished his fubject in the three foregoing Epiftles. This fourth Epiftle, therefore, on Happiness, may be thought to be adfcititious, and out of its proper place, and ought to have made part of the fecond Epiftle, where Man is confidered with refpect to Himself. I formerly mentioned this to Dr. Akenfide and Mr. Harris, who were of my opinion.

Of the Nature and State of MAN, with respect to Happiness.

II. It is the End of all Men,

God intends Happiness to be

I. FALSE Notions of Happiness, Philofophical and Popular, anfwered from Ver. 19 to 27. and attainable by all, Ver. 30. equal; and to be fo it must be social, fince all particular Happiness depends on general, and fince he governs by general, not particular Laws, Ver. 37. As it is necessary for Order, and the peace and welfare of Society, that external goods Should be unequal, Happiness is not made to confift in these, Ver. 51. But, notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of Happiness among Mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two Paffions of Hope and Fear, Ver. 70. III. What the Happiness of Individuals is, as far as is confiftent with the conftitution of this world; and that the good Man has here the advantage, Ver. 77. The error of imputing to Virtue what are only the calamities of Nature, or of Fortune, Ver. 94. IV. The folly of expecting that God fhould alter his general Laws in favour of particulars, Ver. 121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that whoever they are, they must be happiest, Ver. 133, &c. VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconfiftent with, or deftructive of, Virtue, Ver. 165. That even these can make no Man happy without Virtue: Inftanced in Riches, Ver. 183. Honours, Ver. 191. Nobility, Ver. 203. Greatness, Ver. 215. Fame, Ver. 235. Superior Talents, Ver. 257, &c. With pictures of human Infelicity in Men poffeffed of them all, Ver. 267, &c. VII. That Virtue only conftitutes a Happiness, whose object is universal, and whofe profpect eternal, Ver. 307, &c. That the perfection of Virtue and Happiness confifts in a conformity to the ORDER of PROVIDENCE here, and a Refignation to it bere and hereafter, Ver. 326, &c.

EPISTLE IV.

OH HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim!

Good, Pleasure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy

name:

That something still which prompts th' eternal figh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die,

Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool, and wife.

5

Plant

VARIATIONS.

VER. 1. Oh Happiness! &c.] In the MS. thus:

Oh Happiness! to which we all aspire,

Wing'd with ftrong hope, and borne by full defire;
That eafe, for which in want, in wealth we figh;
That ease, for which we labour and we die.

NOTES.

VER. 1. Oh Happiness!] He begins his addrefs to Happiness after the manner of the ancient hymns, by enumerating the titles and various places of abode of this goddefs. He has undoubtedly perfonified her at the beginning, but he feems to have dropped that idea in the feventh line, where the deity is fuddenly tranfformed into a plant; from thence this metaphor of a vegetable is carried on diftinctly through the eleven fucceeding lines, till he fuddenly returns to confider Happiness again as a person, in the eighteeenth line,

"And fled from Monarchs, ST. JOHN! dwells with thee." For to fly and to dwell, cannot justly be predicated of the fame fubject, that immediately before was defcribed as twining with laurels, and being reaped in harvests.

Of

Plant of celestial feed! if dropt below,

Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'st to grow?
Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious fhine,
Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field?

Where grows?-where grows it not? If vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the foil:
Fix'd to no spot is happiness fincere,

15

'Tis no where to be found, or every where:

"Tis

NOTES.

Of the numberless treatises that have been written on Happinefs, one of the most sensible is that of Fontenelle, in the third volume of his works. Our Author's leading principle is, that Happiness is attainable by all men ;

"For mourn our various portions as we please,
Equal is Common Senfe, and Common Eafe."

So Horace alfo in Epift. xviii. b. I.

Æquam mi animum ipfe parabo."

"But Horace," fays a penetrating obferver on human life, "was grofsly mistaken: the thing for which he thought he stood in no need of Jupiter's affiftance, was what he could leaft expect from his own ability. It is much more eafy to get even riches and honours by one's industry, than a quiet and contented mind. If it be faid, that riches and honours depend on a thousand things which we cannot difpofe of at pleasure, and that therefore it is neceffary to pray to God that he would turn them to our advantage; I anfwer, that the filence of the paffions, and the tranquillity and ease of the mind, depend on a thousand things that are not under our jurifdiction. The ftomach, the spleen, the lymphatic veffels, the fibres of the brain, and a hundred other organs, whofe feat and figure are yet unknown to the anatomists, produce in us many uneafineffes, jealoufies, and vexations. Can we alter thefe organs? Are they in our own power?"

Seneca, by writing De Beatâ Vitâ, made neither his readers nor himself happy.

'Tis never to be bought, but always free,

And fled from Monarchs, ST. JOHN! dwells with

thee.

Afk of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are

blind;

This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind;
Some place the bliss in action, some in ease,
Those call it Pleasure, and Contentment these ;
Some funk to Beasts, find pleasure end in pain;
Some fwell'd to Gods, confefs ev'n Virtue vain!

NOTES.

20

Or

VER. 18. ST. JOHN! dwells with thee.] Among the many paffages in Bolingbroke's Pofthumous Works that bear a close resemblance to the tenets of this Effay, are the following: Vol. iv. octavo edition, pp. 223. 324. 388. 389. alfo pp. 49. 316. 328. 336, 337. 339. And in Vol. v. pp. 5, 6. 17. 92. 51. 113. 310. Some place the blifs in action,

VER. 21, 23.

Some funk to Beafts, &c.]

1. Those who place Happiness, or the fummum bonum, in Pleasure, Hdon; fuch as the Cyreniac fect, called, on that account, the Hedonic. 2. Those who place it in a certain tranquillity or calmnefs of Mind, which they call Evbuuía; fuch as the Democritic fect. 3. The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The Protagorean, which held that Man was πάντων χρηματων μέτρον, the meafure of all things; for that all things which appear to him, are, and those things which appear not to any Man, are not; fo that every imagination or opinion of every Man was true. 6. The Sceptic: Whofe abfolute doubt is, with great judgment, faid to be the effect of Indolence, as well as the abfolute truft of the Protagorean: For the fame dread of labour attending the search of truth, which makes the Protagorean prefume it is always at hand, makes the Sceptic conclude it is never to be found. The only difference is, that the lazinefs of the one is desponding, and the laziness of the other fanguine; yet both can give it a good name, and call it HAPPINESS.

W.

VER. 23. Some funk to Beafts, &c.] Thefe four lines added in

the