Never elated when one man's oppress'd;
Never dejected while another's bless'd.

Line 331

Line 379

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 323 Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature's God.1 Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe. Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, Pursue the triumph and partake the gale? Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend. That virtue only makes our bliss below, And all our knowledge is ourselves to know. To observations which ourselves we make, We grow more partial for th' observer's sake.

Line 385.

Line 390

Line 397

Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 11. Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect.

Line 20.

In vain sedate reflections we would make

When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.

Line 39.

Not always actions show the man; we find
Who does a kindness is not therefore kind.

Line 109.

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 reasoning, not in acting lies.

Line 115.

"T is from high life high characters are drawn ; A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.

Line 135

"T is education forms the common mind:

Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined.

See Bolingbroke, page 304.

2 See Dryden, page 273.

Line 149

8 'Tis virtue makes the bliss where'er we dwell. · COLLINS: Oriental Eclogues, i, line 5.

Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes,
Tenets with books, and principles with times.1

Moral Essays. Epistle i Line 172.

"Odious! in woollen! 't would a saint provoke,"
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.
And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath
Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death.
Whether the charmer sinner it or saint it,
If folly grow romantic, I must paint it.
Choose a firm cloud before it fall, and in it
Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute.

Fine by defect, and delicately weak."

Line 246.

Line 262.

Epistle ii. Line 15,

With too much quickness ever to be taught;

With too much thinking to have common thought.

Atossa, cursed with every granted prayer,
Childless with all her children, wants an heir;
To heirs unknown descends the unguarded store,
Or wanders heaven-directed to the poor.

Line 19.

Line 43.

Line 97.

Line 147.

Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour,
Content to dwell in decencies forever.

Line 163.

Men, some to business, some to pleasure take; woman is at heart a rake.

Line 215.

But every
See how the world its veterans rewards!
A youth of frolics, an old age of cards.

Oh, blest with temper whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day!
Most women have no characters at all.

She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
Or if she rules him, never shows she rules.

Line 243.

Line 257.

Line 2

Line 261.

̧1 Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis (All things change, and we change with them). MATTHIAS BORBONIUS: Delicia Poetarum Germa norum, i. 685.

2 See Prior, page 287.

And mistress of herself though china fall.

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 268.

Woman's at best a contradiction still.

Line 270.

Who shall decide when doctors disagree,
And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me ?

Blest paper-credit! last and best supply!
That lends corruption lighter wings to fly.

Epistle iii. Line 1.

Line 39.

P. What riches give us let us then inquire:

Meat, fire, and clothes. B. What more? P. Meat,

clothes, and fire.

Line 79.

But thousands die without or this or that,

Die, and endow a college or a cat.

Line 95.

The ruling passion, be it what it will,
The ruling passion conquers reason still.
Extremes in Nature equal good produce;
Extremes in man concur to general use.

Line 153.

Line 161.

Rise, honest muse! and sing The Man of Ross.
Ye little stars! hide your diminish'd rays.1

Line 250.

Line 282.

Who builds a church to God and not to fame,
Will never mark the marble with his name.

Line 285.

In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung.

Line 299.

Where London's column, pointing at the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies.
Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven,
And though no science, fairly worth the seven.

To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite,
Who never mentions hell to ears polite.2

1 See Milton, page 231.
2 See Brown, page 287.

Line 339.

Epistle iv. Line 43.

Line 149.

Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere,
In action faithful, and in honour clear;
Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end,
Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend.

Epistle to Mr. Addison. Line 67.

"T is with our judgments as our watches, Go just alike, yet each believes his own.1

none

Essay on Criticism. Part i. Line 9

One science only will one genius fit:
So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,
And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art.
Those oft are stratagems which errors seem,
Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream."

Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind;
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep,
or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.

Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!

Line 60

Line 152.

Line 177.

Part ii. Line 1.

Line 15.

Line 32.

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.1
True wit is Nature to advantage dress'd,

Line 53.

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.

Line 97.

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

1 See Suckling, page 256.

Line 109.

2 Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus (Even the worthy Homer some

times nods).-HORACE: De Arte Poetica, 359.

3 See Bacon, page 166.

4 See Suckling, page 257.

Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a style,
Amaze th' unlearn'd and make the learned smile.
Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 126

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold,
Alike fantastic if too new or old :
Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

Some to church repair,

Not for the doctrine, but the music there.
These equal syllables alone require,
Though oft the ear the open vowels tire;
While expletives their feeble aid to join,

Line 133.

And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.

Line 142.

A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along.

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.
'T is not enough no harshness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.

Line 156.

Line 162.

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow:
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

Line 166.

Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move;
For fools admire, but men of sense approve.

Line 190.

But let a lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens! how the style refines!

Line 220

Envy will merit as its shade pursue,

But like a shadow proves the substance true.

Line 266