Behold the blessing then to none denied
But through our vice, by error or by pride;
Which nothing but excess can render vain,
And then lost only when too much we gain.
[1442] The sense of this ill-expressed line is, that bad men taste the gifts of fortune less than good men, in proportion as they obtain them by worse means. The couplet was originally thus in the MS.:
The good, the bad may fortune's gifts possess;
The bad acquire them worse, enjoy them less.
[1443] "That" is put improperly for "those that."
[1444] MS.:
Secure to find, ev'n from the very worst,
If vice and virtue want, compassion first.
[1445] But are not the one frequently mistaken for the other? How many profligate hypocrites have passed for good?—Warton.
Men not intrinsically virtuous have often had the good opinion of the world; the happiness they want is a good conscience.
[1446] After ver. 92 in the MS.:
Let sober moralists correct their speech,
No bad man's happy: he is great, or rich.—Warburton.