Page:An Essay on Man - Pope (1751).pdf/56

 One thinks on heav'n's own spirit fell, Another deems him instrument of hell; If feel heav'n's blessing or its rod, This cries, There is, and that, There is no. What shocks one part, will edify the rest, Nor with one system can they all be bless'd. The very best will variously incline, And what rewards your virtue, punish mine. 'Whatever is, is right.'This world, 'tis true, Was made for but for too: And which more bless'd? who chain'd his country, say, Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day? ' sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed.' What then? Is the reward of virtue bread? That vice may merit; 'tis the price of toil; The knave deserves it when he tills the soil; The knave deserves it when he tempts the main, Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. The good man may be weak, be indolent, Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. But grant him riches, your demand is o'er. 'No—shall the good want health, the good want pow'r?' Add health, and pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing; 'Why bounded pow'r? why private? why no king?' Nay, why external for internal giv'n? Why is not man a god, and earth a heav'n? Who ask and reason thus will scarce conceive gives enough, while he has more to give: