Page:An Essay on Man - Pope (1751).pdf/35

 Nor virtue, male or female, can we name, But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame. nature gives us (let it check our pride) The virtue nearest to our vice ally'd; Reason the biass turns to good from ill, And reigns a, if he will. The fiery soul abhorr'd in , In charms, in  is divine. The same ambition can destroy or save, And make a patriot as it makes a knave. light and darkness in our chaos join'd, What shall divide? the within the mind. in nature equal ends produce, In man they join to some mysterious use; Tho' each by turns the other's bounds invade, As, in some well-wrought picture, light and shade, And oft so mix, the diff'rence is too nice, Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. ! who from hence into the notion fall, That vice or virtue there is none at all. If white and black blend, soften, or unite A thousand ways, is there no black or white? Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; 'Tis to mistake them costs the time and pain. is a monster of so frightful meinmien [sic], As, to be hated, needs but to seenbe seen [sic]; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.