You counsel well to bid me arm my mind.
Wou'd the receipt were easy, as 'tis kind;
But hard it is for misery to reach
That fortitude prosperity can teach.
Cou'd I forbid what has been to have been,
Or lodge a doubt on truths myself have seen;
Cou'd I divest remembrance of her store,
And say, collect these images no more;
Cou'd I dislodge sensation from my breast,
And charm her wakeful faculties to rest;
Cou'd I my nature and myself subdue,
I might the method you prescribe pursue.
But if unfeign'd afflictions we endure,
If reason's our disease, and not our cure,
Then seeming ease is all we can obtain;
As one, who long familiariz'd to pain,
Still feels the smart, but ceases to complain.
Tho' young in life, yet long inur'd to care,
Thus I submissive every evil bear:
If unexpected ills alone are hard,
Mine shou'd be light, who am for all prepar'd:
No disappointments can my peace annoy,
Disuse has wean'd me from all hopes of joy:
The vain pursuit for ever I give o'er,
Repuls'd I strive, betray'd I trust no more:
Mankind I know, their nature, and their art,
Their vice their own, their virtue but a part;
Ill play'd so oft, that all the cheat can tell,
And dang'rous only where 'tis acted well.
In different classes rang'd, a different name
Attends their practice, but the heart's the same.
Their hate is interest, interest too their love,
On the same springs these different engines move:
That sharpens malice, and directs her sting,
And thence the honey'd streams of flattery spring.