Origin of true religion and government from the principle of love; and of superstition and tyranny from that of fear.
The influence of self-love operating to the social and public good.
Restoration of true religion and government on their first principle.
Mixed government.
Various forms of each, and the true use of all.
ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV.
OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HAPPINESS.
I. False notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered from ver. 19 to 26. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, ver. 29. God intends happiness to be equal; and, to be so, it must be social, since all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, not particular laws, ver. 35. As it is necessary for order, and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods should be unequal, happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 49. But notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, ver. 67. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this world; and that the good man has here the advantage, ver. 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of nature, or of fortune, ver. 93. IV. The folly of expecting that God should alter his general laws in favour of particulars, ver. 121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that whoever they are, they must be happiest, ver. 131, &c. VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of virtue, ver. 167. That even these can make no man happy without virtue: instanced in riches, ver. 185. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205. Greatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior talents, ver. 259, &c. With pictures of human infelicity in men possessed of them all, ver. 269, &c. VII. That virtue only constitutes a happiness whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 309. That the perfection of virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 327, &c.
EPISTLE IV.
O Happiness! our being's end and aim,[1404]
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die;
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 5
O'erlooked, seen double by the fool and wise:[1405]
Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below,[1406]
Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?[1407]
Fair op'ning to some court's propitious shine,[1408]
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming[1409] mine? 10
Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield,
Or reaped in iron harvests of the field?[1410]
Where grows!—where grows it not?[1411] If vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:[1412]
Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere,[1413] 15
'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where:
'Tis never to be bought, but always free;
And, fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.[1414]
Ask of the learn'd the way! The learn'd are blind;
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; 20
Some place the bliss in action,[1415] some in ease,[1416]
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these;
Some sunk to beasts find pleasure end in pain;[1417]
Some swelled to gods confess e'en virtue vain;[1418]
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall, 25
To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.[1419]
Who thus define it, say they more or less
Than this, that happiness is happiness?[1420]