VII. That Virtue only constitutes a Happiness, whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal, v.307, etc. That the perfection of Virtue and Happiness consists in a conformity to the Order of Providence here, and a Resignation to it here and hereafter, v.326, etc.
EPISTLE IV.
Oh, happiness, our being's end and aim!
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die, Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, O'erlooked, seen double, by the fool, and wise.
Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below, Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?
Fair opening to some Court's propitious shine, Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine?
Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, Or reaped in iron harvests of the field?
Where grows?--where grows it not? If vain our toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:
Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere, 'Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere;'Tis never to be bought, but always free, And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.
Ask of the learned the way? The learned are blind;This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind;Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, Those call it pleasure, and contentment these;Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain;Some, swelled to gods, confess even virtue vain;Or indolent, to each extreme they fall, To trust in everything, or doubt of all.
Who thus define it, say they more or less Than this, that happiness is happiness?
Take Nature's path, and mad opinions leave;All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;And mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is common sense, and common ease.
Remember, man, "the Universal Cause Acts not by partial, but by general laws;"And makes what happiness we justly call Subsist not in the good of one, but all.
There's not a blessing individuals find, But some way leans and hearkens to the kind:
No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, No caverned hermit, rests self-satisfied:
Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend:
Abstract what others feel, what others think, All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink:
Each has his share; and who would more obtain, Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain.
Order is Heaven's first law; and this confest, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence That such are happier, shocks all common sense.
Heaven to mankind impartial we confess, If all are equal in their happiness:
But mutual wants this happiness increase;All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance is not the thing;Bliss is the same in subject or in king, In who obtain defence, or who defend, In him who is, or him who finds a friend:
Heaven breathes through every member of the whole One common blessing, as one common soul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike possessed, And each were equal, must not all contest?
If then to all men happiness was meant, God in externals could not place content.
Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, And these be happy called, unhappy those;But Heaven's just balance equal will appear, While those are placed in hope, and these in fear:
Nor present good or ill, the joy or curse, But future views of better or of worse, Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise, By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies, Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys, And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind, Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.
But health consists with temperance alone;And peace, oh, virtue! peace is all thy own.
The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain;But these less taste them, as they worse obtain.
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right;Of vice or virtue, whether blessed or cursed, Which meets contempt, or which compassion first?
Count all the advantage prosperous vice attains, 'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains:
And grant the bad what happiness they would, One they must want, which is, to pass for good.
Oh, blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below, Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe!
Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest.
But fools the good alone unhappy call, For ills or accidents that chance to all.
See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just!
See god-like Turenne prostrate on the dust!
See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife!
Was this their virtue, or contempt of life?
Say, was it virtue, more though Heaven ne'er gave, Lamented Digby! sunk thee to the grave?
Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, Why, full of days and honour, lives the sire?
Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath, When Nature sickened, and each gale was death?
Or why so long (in life if long can be)
Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me?
What makes all physical or moral ill?
There deviates Nature, and here wanders will.
God sends not ill; if rightly understood, Or partial ill is universal good, Or change admits, or Nature lets it fall;Short, and but rare, till man improved it all.
We just as wisely might of Heaven complain That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain, As that the virtuous son is ill at ease When his lewd father gave the dire disease.
Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause Prone for His favourites to reverse His laws?
Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires, Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?
On air or sea new motions be imprest, Oh, blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast?
When the loose mountain trembles from on high, Shall gravitation cease, if you go by?
Or some old temple, nodding to its fall, For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall?
