Page:An Essay on Man - Pope (1751).pdf/31

 subtle school-men teach these friends to fight, More studious to divide than to unite, And grace and virtue, sense and reason split, With all the rash dexterity of wit: Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, Have full as oft no meaning, or the same. Self-love and reason to one end aspire, Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire; But greedy that its object would devour, This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r: Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood, Our greatest evil, or our greatest good. of self-love the passions we may call; 'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all; But since not every good we can divide, And reason bids us for our own provide; Passions, tho' selfish, if their means be fair, List under reason, and deserve her care; Those that imparted court a nobler aim, Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name. lazy apathy let stoics boast Their virtue fix'd, 'tis fix'd as in a frost, Contracted all, retiring to the breast; But strength of mind is exercise, not rest: The rising tempest puts in act the soul, Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole. On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale;