Of vice or virtue, whether blest or curst, Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, .5 In the MS., "Let sober moralists correct their speech, No bad man's happy: he is great, or rich." 6 [Lucius Cary, the second Viscount Falkland, whose memory Clarendon has embalmed in one of his most finished and beautifully-drawn characters. He was learned, eloquent, and high-minded, but probably better fitted for speculation than action. His first public services were on the side of the Parliament, but he afterwards embraced the cause of Charles, and died in battle, a volunteer, at Newbury, in 1643, aged thirty-four.] 7 "This epithet has a peculiar justness; the great man to whom it is applied not being distinguished, from other generals, for any of his superior qualities so much as for his providential care of those whom he led to war; which was so uncommon, that his chief purpose in taking on himself the command of armies seems to have been the preservation of mankind. In this godlike care he was more distinguishably employed throughout the whole course of that famous campaign in which he lost his life."—Warburton. [Marshal Turenne was killed by a cannon shot, July 27, 1675, near the village of Saltyback. Voltaire, in his affectionate record of his death, says, "It seems as if one could not too often repeat, that the same bullet which killed him, having shot off the arm of St. Hilaire, lieutenant-general of the artillery, his son came and bewailed his misfortune with many tears but the father, looking towards Turenne, said, 'It is not I, but that great man who should be lamented.' These words may be compared with the most heroic sayings recorded in all history.'"] 8 [Sir Philip Sidney, the flower of the English nobility, in the chivalrous and romantic reign of Elizabeth, was mortally wounded in a victorious action near Zutphen, and died on the 17th of October, 1586. His body was brought Say, was it virtue, more though Heaven ne'er gave, Tell me, if virtue made the son expire,9 105 Why, full of days and honour, lives the sire ? Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath, When nature sicken'd, and each gale was death ? 10 Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me? 11 110 What makes all physical or moral ill? There deviates nature, and here wanders will. Or change admits, or nature lets it fall, 115 When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 120 Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires,13 Forget to thunder, and recall her fires? to England, and buried in St. Paul's, amidst the tears and regrets of the whole nation, by whom he seems to have been idolised. Sidney's prose and verse, his Arcadia, Defence of Poesy, and Songs and Sonnets, gave him a high reputation in his own day, but the want of nature and genuine passion has been fatal to their popularity. Some of his fine lines and sentiments, however, are still current, and his name and history possess a never-dying interest.] 9 [See Pope's epitaph on the Hon. Robert Digby, who died in 1727.] 10 [The celebrated Bishop of Marseilles, M. de Belsance, distinguished himself in a particular manner, by his intrepid zeal and philanthropy during the time of the great plague in Marseilles, in 1720. The bishop lived till 1755. The two lines of Pope were worth more than all the honours heaped upon the good prelate by Louis XV. and the Pontiff.] 11 [Pope's mother died the same year, 1733, that this fourth epistle was published.] 12 In the MS. "Of every evil since the world began, The real source is not in God, but man." 18 [Alluding to the fate of the elder Pliny, who, being at Misenum during the great eruption of Vesuvius, in the first year of Titus, and being anxious to make observations on the phenomenon, incautiously exposed himself, and was suffocated.] On air or sea new motions be impress'd, 125 Oh blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast? 14 When the loose mountain trembles from on high, Or some old temple, nodding to its fall, For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall? 130 But still this world (so fitted for the knave) Contents us not. A better shall we have? A kingdom of the just then let it be: But first consider how those just agree. 135 But who, but God, can tell us who they are? One thinks on Calvin Heaven's own spirit fell; 140 145 And which more blest? who chain'd his country, say, Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day? "But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed." What then? is the reward of virtue bread? 150 That, vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil; The knave deserves it, when he tempts the main, Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. 155 "No-shall the good want health, the good want power?" Add health and power, and every earthly thing, "Why bounded power? why private? why no king ?" 160 Nay, why external for internal given? Why is not man a god, and earth a heaven? God gives enough, while he has more to give ; 14 [Hugh Bethel, Esq., the poet's friend, who was afflicted with asthma. For Chartres (v. 130) see Moral Essays, Ep. II.] Immense the power, immense were the demand; What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, 165 170 Weak, foolish man! will Heaven reward us there 175 Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes? Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife; 180 185 O fool! to think God hates the worthy mind, 190 Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, Honour and shame from no condition rise: 195 “What differ more (you cry) than crown and cowl?" 200 Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow : Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings, 205 In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece: 16 210 16 In the MS. thus: "The richest blood, right honourably old, |