Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Senfe, 81 And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own. But these less taste them, as they worse obtain. Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right? Which meets contempt, or which compaffion firft? COMMENTARY. 85 Count account of its nature; and tells us, it is all contained in health, peace, and competence; but that these are to be gained only by VIRTUE, namely, by temperance, innocence, and industry. WARBURTON. VER. 83. The good or bad, &c.] Hitherto the Poet hath only confidered health and peace : "But Health confifts with Temperance alone; And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own." One head yet remained to be spoken to, namely, competence. In the purfuit of health and peace there is no danger of running into excefs; but the cafe is different with regard to competence: here wealth and affluence would be apt to be mistaken for it, in men's paffionate purfuit after external goods. To obviate this mistake, therefore, the Poet fhews (from ver. 82 to 93.), that, as exorbitant wealth adds nothing to the Happiness arifing from a competence; fo, as it is generally ill-gotten, it is attended with circumstances which weaken another part of this triple cord, namely peace. "Reafon's whole pleasure, all the joys of Senfe, Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence. And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own.' NOTES. WARBURTON. VER. 88. Which meets contempt,] Compaffion, it will be faid, is but a poor compenfation for mifery. WARTON 90 Count all th' advantage profp'rous Vice attains, VARIATIONS. Who After Ver. 92. in the MS. Let fober Moralifts correct their speech, COMMENTARY. VER. 93. Oh blind to truth, &c.] Our Author having thus largely confuted the mistake, that Happiness consists in externals, proceeds to expose the terrible confequences of fuch an opinion, on the fentiments and practice of all forts of men; making the Diffolute, impious and atheistical; the Religious, uncharitable and intolerant; and the Good, restless and discontent. For when it is once taken for granted, that happine's confifts in externals, it is immediately seen that ill men are often more happy than the Good; which fets all conditions on objecting to the ways of Providence: and some even on rafhly attempting to rectify its dispensations, though by the violation of all laws, divine and human. Now this being the most important part of the fubje&t under confideration, is defervedly treated most at large. And here it will be proper to take notice of the art of the Poet in making this confutation serve, at the fame time, for a full folution of all objections which might be made to his main propofition, that Happiness confifts not in externals. I. He begins, firft of all, with the atheistical complainers; and pursues their impiety from ver. 92 to 131. "Oh blind to truth! and God's whole fcheme below," &c. WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 92. to pass for good.] But are not the one frequently mistaken for the other? How many profligate hypocrites have paffed for good? 7 WARTON Who fees and follows that great scheme the beft, 95 For ills or accidents that chance to all. See FALKLAND dies, the virtuous and the just! 100 See COMMENTARY. VER. 97. But fools, the Good alone unhappy call, &c.] He expofes their folly, even in their own notions of external goods. 1. By examples (from ver. 98 to 111.), where he fhews, first, that if good men have been untimely cut off, this is not to be afcribed to their virtue, but to a contempt of life, which hurried them into dangers. Secondly, That if they will fill perfift in afcribing untimely death to virtue, they must needs, on the fame principle, ascribe long life to it also; consequently, as the argument, in fact, concludes both ways, in logic it concludes neither. "Say, was it Virtue, more tho' Heav'n ne'er gave, Lamented Digby! funk thee to the grave? Tell me, if Virtue made the Son expire, NOTES. WARBURTON. VER. 99. See FALKLAND] His genius, his learning, his integrity, his patriotifm, are eloquently difplayed by Cowley, as well as by Clarendon ; but Lord Orford thinks the portrait by the latter too flattering and over-charged. If any proofs had been wanting of the violence and haughtinefs of archbishop Laud, this virtuous nobleman's oppofing him would have been sufficient. He affifted Chillingworth in his great work againft Popery; and he wrote fome very elegant verfes to Sandys, on his Tranflation of the Pfalms. The gallantry of Sir Philip Sidney, mentioned in a fucceeding line (101.), cannot be difputed; but whether the death of this valorous knight was a proper example of fuffering virtue to be here introduced, is another question. WARTON. VER. 100. See god-like TURENNE] This great general was killed July 27, 1675, by a cannot-fhot, near the village of Saltyback, in gave, See SIDNEY bleeds amid the martial ftrife! NOTES. 105 Why in going to choose a place whereon to erect a battery. "No one," fays Voltaire," is ignorant of the circumstances of his death; but we cannot here refrain a review of the principal of them, for the farse reason that they are still talked of every day. It feems as if one could not too often repeat, that the fame bullet which killed him, having shot off the arm of St. Hilaire, lieutenant-general of the artillery, his fon came and bewailed his misfortune with many tears; but the father, looking towards Turenne, faid, 'It is not I, but that great man, who fhould be lamented.' Thefe words may be compared with the moft heroic fayings recorded in all hif tory; and are the best eulogy that can be bestowed upon Turenne. It is uncommon under a defpotic government, where people are actuated only by private interefts, for those who have ferved their country to die regretted by the public. Neverthelefs, Turenne was lamented both by the foldiers and people; and Louvois was the only one who rejoiced at his death. The honours which the king ordered to be paid to his memory are known to every one; and that he was interred at St. Denis, in the fame manner as the constable du Guefclin." But how much is the glory of Turenne tarnished by his cruel devastation of the Palatinate? WARTON. VER. 101. See SIDNEY bleeds] Among the many things related of the life and character of this all-accomplished perfon, it does not feem to be much known, that he was the intimate friend and patron of the famous atheist Giordano Bruno; was in a fecret club with him and Sir Fulk Greville, held in London in 1587; and that the Spaccio della Bestia Triomfante was at that time con pofed and printed in London, and dedicated to Sir Philip. See General Dictionary, vol. iii. p. 622. WARTON. VER. 104. Lamented DIGBY!] The Honourable Robert Digby See Epitaphs. Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath, Lent Heav'n a parent to the poor and me? NOTES. 110 What VER. 107. Why drew] M. de Belfance, bishop of Marseilles. This illuftrious prelate was of a noble family in Guienne. In early life he took the vows, and belonged to a convent of Jefuits. He was made bishop of Marseilles in 1709. In the plague of that city, in the year 1720, he distinguished himself by his zeal and activity, being the paftor, the phyfician, and the magistrate of his flock, whilst that horrid calamity prevailed. Louis XV. in 1723, offered him a more confiderable bishopric (to which peculiar feudal honours were annexed), that of Laon in Picardy. He refufed, however, to quit that of Marfeilles, giving for a reason, that he could not defert a flock which had been fo endeared to him by their misfortunes and his own exertions. The king, however, infifted upon his accepting of the privilege of appealing, in all his own caufes, either temporal or fpiritual, to the Parliament of Paris. The Pope fent him from Rome an ornament called Pallium, worn only by archbishops. He died at a very advanced age, in the year 1755, after having founded a college in Marseilles, which bears his name, and after having written the Hiftory of the Lives of his Predeceffors in that See. When he was grand vicar of Agen, he published the life of a female relation of his, who was eminent for her piety, with this title, "Vie de Sufanne Henriette de Foix Candale." Vaniere has finely celebrated him. Lib. iii. of the Prædium Rufticum. WARTON. VER. 108. When Nature ficken'd,] A verse of marvellous comprehenfion and expreffiveness, adopted from Dryden's Miscellanies, v. 6. The effects of this peftilence are more emphatically fet forth in these few words, than in forty fuch Odes as Sprat's on the Plague at Athens. A fine example of what Dion. Halicarnaffus calls Πυκνότητος και σεμνότητος. WARTON. VER. 110. Lent Heav'n a parènt, &c.] This laft inftance of the Poet's illustration of the ways of Providence, the reader fees, has a peculiar |