Ev'n in the wretch, who wretches can despise,
Still self-conceit will find a time to rise.
Quintus salutes you with forbidding face,
And thinks he carries his excuse in lace:
You ask, why Clodius bullies all he can ?
Clodius will tell you, he's a gentleman :
Myrtilla struts and shudders half the year,
With a round cap, that shews a fine-turn'd ear:
The lowest jest makes Delia laugh to death;
Yet she's no fool, she has only handsome teeth.
Ventoso lolls, and scorns all human kind,
From the gilt coach with four lac'd slaves behind :
Does all this pomp and state proceed from merit?
Mean thought! he deems it nobler to inherit :
While Fopling from some title draws his pride,
Meanless, or infamous, or misapply'd ;
Free-mason, rake, or wit, 'tis just the same,
The charm is hence, he has gain'd himself a name.
Yet, spite of all the fools that pride has made.
'Tis not on man an useless burthen laid;
Pride has ennobled some, and some disgrac'd;
It hurts not in itself, but as 'tis plac'd:
When right, its view knows none but virtue's bound;
When wrong, it scarcely looks one inch around.
Mark! with what care the fair one's critic eye
Scans o'er her dress, nor lets a fault slip by ;T
Each rebel hair must be reduc'd to place
With tedious skill, and tortur'd into grace;
Betty must o'er and o'er the pins dispose,
Till into modish folds the drapery flows,
And the whole frame is fitted to express
The charms of decency and nakedness.
Why all this art, this labor'd ornament ?
To captivate, You'll cry, no doubt, 'tis meant.
True. But let's wait upon this fair machine
From the lone closet to the social scene; 109
There view her loud, affected, scornful, sour,
Paining all others, and herself still more.
What means she, at one instant to disgrace
The labor of ten hours, her much-lov'd face?
Why, 'tis the self-same passion gratify'd;
The work is ruin'd, that was rais'd by pride.
Yet of all tempers, it requires least pain,
Could we but rule ourselves, to rule the vain.
The prudent is by reason only sway'd,
With him each sentence and each word is weigh'd;
The gay and giddy can alone be caught
By the quick lustre of a happy thought;
The miser hates, unless he steals your pelf;
The prodigal, unless you rob yourself;
The lewd will shun
you, if your wife prove chaste;
The jealous, if a smile on his be cast;
The steady or the whimsical will blame,
Either, because you're not, or are the same;
The peevish, sullen, shrewd, luxurious, rash,
Will with your virtue, peace, or interest, clash ; /20
But mark the proud man's price, how very low!
'Tis but a civil speech, a smile, or bow.
Ye who, push'd on by noble ardor, aim, In social life to gain immortal fame, Observe the various passions of mankind, General, peculiar, single, or combin'd: How youth from manhood differs in its views, And how old age still other paths pursues; How zeal in Priscus nothing more than heats, In Codex burns, and ruins all it meets ; 130 How freedom now a lovely face shall wear, Now shock us in the likeness of a bear; How jealousy in some resembles hate, In others, seems but love grown delicate; How modesty is often pride refin❜d,
And virtue but the canker of the mind:
How love of riches, grandeur, life, and fame, Wear different shapes, and yet are still the same.
But not our passions only disagree,
In taste is found as great variety:
Sylvius is ravish'd when he hears a hound,
His lady hates to death the odious sound:
Yet both love music, though in different ways;
He in a kennel, she at operas.
A florist shall, perhaps, not grudge some hours,
To view the colors in a bed of flowers;
Yet, shew him TITIAN'S workmanship divine,
He passes on, and only cries, 'tis fine.
A rusty coin, an old worm-eaten post,
The mouldy fragment of an author lost,
A butterfly, an equipage, a star,
A globe, a fine lac'd hat, a china jar,
A mistress, or a fashion that is new,
Have each their charms, though felt but by a few.
Then study each man's passion and his taste,
The first to soften, and indulge the last :
Not like the wretch, who beats down virtue's fence,
And deviates from the paths of common sense;
Who daubs with fulsome flattery, blind and bold,
The very weakness we with grief behold.
Passions are common to the fool and wise,
And all would hide them under art's disguise ;
For so avow'd, in others, is their shame,
None hates them more, than he who has the same.
But taste seems more peculiarly our own,
And every man is fond to make his known;
Proud of a mark he fancies is design'd
By nature to advance him o'er his kind;
And where he sees that character impress'd,
With joy he hugs the favorite to his breast.
But the main stress of all our cares must lie, To watch ourselves with strict and constant eye: To mark the working mind, when passion's course Begins to swell, and reason still has force; Or, if she's conquer'd by the stronger tide, Observe the moments when they first subside; For he who hopes a victory to win
O'er other men, must with himself begin;
Else like a town by mutiny oppress'd,
He's ruin'd by the foe within his breast ;
And they alone, who in themselves oft view
Man's image, know what method to pursue.
All other creatures keep in beaten ways,
Man only moves in an eternal maze :
He lives and dies, not tam'd by cultivation,
The wretch of reason, and the dupe of passion;
Curious of knowing, yet too proud to learn;
More prone to doubt, than anxious to discern :
Tir'd with old doctrines, prejudic'd at new;
Mistaking still the pleasing for the true;
Foe to restraints approv'd by gen'ral voice,
Yet to each fool-born mode a slave by choice:
Of rest impatient, yet in love with ease;
When most good-natur'd, aiming how to teaze:
Disdaining by the vulgar to be aw'd,
Yet never pleas'd but when the fools applaud,
By turns severe, indulgent, humble, vain;
A trifle serves to lose him or to gain.
Then grant this trifle, yet his vices shun,
Not like to CATO or to CLINIAS' SON:
This for each humor every shape could take,
Ev'n virtue's own, though not for virtue's sake
At Athens rakish, thoughtless, full of fire,
Severe at Sparta, as a Chartreux friar;
In Thrace, a bully, drunken, rash, and rude;
In Asia gay, effeminate, and lewd;
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