Or fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies,

Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand 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,

35

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

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 past 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;
Others so very close, they're hid from none;
(So darkness strikes the sense no less than light)
Thus gracious Chandos 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 gen'rous Manly raves,
All know 'tis virtue, for he thinks them knaves:
When universal homage Umbra pays,

All see 'tis vice, and itch of vulgar praise.
When flatt'ry 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 falsehood serves for policy;
And, in the cunning, truth itself's a lie:

50

60

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

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

Who would not praise Patricio's1 high desert,
His hand unstain'd, his uncorrupted heart,
His comprehensive head, all interests weigh'd,
All Europe saved, yet Britain not betray'd?
He thanks you not, his pride is in picquet,
Newmarket fame, and judgment at a bet.

What made (says Montaigne, or more sage Charron 2) Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon?

A perjured prince 3 a leaden saint revere,

A godless regent tremble at a star?
The throne a bigot keep, a genius quit,

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;

36

00

90

''Patricio: Lord Godolphin.- Charron:' an imitator of Montaigne.— 'Perjured prince:' Louis XI. of France. See Quentin Durward.'-' Godless regent:' Philip Duke of Orleans, Regent of France in the minority of Louis XV., a believer in judicial astrology, though an unbeliever in all religion.

VARIATIONS.

After VER. 86, in the former editions-
Triumphant leaders, at an army's head,
Hemm'd round with glories, pilfer cloth or bread:

VOL. II.

As meanly plunder as they bravely fought,
Now save a people, and now save a groat.

B

A bird of passage! gone as soon as found,
Now in the moon perhaps, now under ground.

II. In vain the sage, with retrospective eye,
Would from the apparent what conclude the why,
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 impell'd
Charles1 to the convent, Philip 2 to the field.

Not always actions show the man: we find
Who does a kindness, is not therefore kind;
Perhaps prosperity becalm'd 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 reas 'ning, 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.

97

110

120

Charles: Charles V.-2 Philip: Philip II. in the battle of Quintiu.

Ask why from Britain Cæsar would retreat?
Cæsar himself might whisper he was beat.
Why risk the world's great empire for a punk?1
Cæsar perhaps might answer he was drunk.
But, sage historians! 'tis your task to prove
One action, conduct; one, heroic love.

'Tis from high life high characters are drawn ;
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn;
A judge is just, a chanc'llor juster still;
A gownman, learn'd; a bishop, what you will;
Wise, if a minister; but, if a king,

129

More wise, more learn'd, more just, more everything. 140
Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate,
Born where Heaven's influence scarce can penetrate:
In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like,
They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
Though the same sun with all-diffusive rays
Blush in the rose, and in the diamond blaze,
We prize the stronger effort of his power,
And justly set the gem above the flower.

"Tis education forms the common mind,
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
Boastful and rough, your first son is a squire;
The next a tradesman, meek, and much a liar;
Tom struts a soldier, open, bold, and brave ;
Will sneaks a scrivener, an exceeding knave:
Is he a Churchman? then he's fond of power:
A Quaker? sly: A Presbyterian? sour:
A smart free-thinker? all things in an hour.
1 Punk: Cleopatra.

150

VARIATIONS.

VER. 129, in the former editions

Ask why from Britain Cæsar made retreat?
Cæsar himself would tell you he was beat.

The mighty Czar what moved to wed a punk The mighty Czar would tell you he was drunk.

Ask men's opinions: Scoto now shall tell
How trade increases, and the world goes well;
Strike off his pension, by the setting sun,
And Britain, if not Europe, is undone.

That gay free-thinker, a fine talker once;
What turns him now a stupid silent dunce?
Some god, or spirit he has lately found;
Or chanced to meet a minister that frown'd.
Judge we by nature? Habit can efface,
Int' rest o'ercome, or policy take place:
By actions? those uncertainty divides::
By passions? these dissimulation hides:
Opinions? they still take a wider range:
Find, if you can, in what you cannot change..
Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes,
Tenets with books, and principles with times.
III. Search, then, the ruling passion there,
alone,

::

The wild are constant, and the cunning known;
The fool consistent, and the false sincere ;
Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here..
This clue once found, unravels all the rest,
The prospect clears, and Wharton stands confess'd:
Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days,
Whose ruling passion was the lust of praise:
Born with whate'er could win it from the wise,
Women and fools must like him or he dies;
Though wondering senates hung on all he spoke,.
The club must hail him master of the joke.
Shall parts so various aim at nothing new?
He'll shine a Tully and a Wilmot 1 too.
Then turns repentant, and his God adores
With the same spirit that he drinks and whores ;;

1Wilmot Earl of Rochester.

158.

170

180: