Epistle II of An Essay On Man — Vocabulary
Alexander Pope
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  Yes, Nature's road must ever be preferred;
  Reason is here no guide, but still a guard:
  'Tis hers to rectify, not overthrow,
  And treat this passion more as friend than foe:
  A mightier power the strong direction sends,
  And several men impels to several ends:
  Like varying winds, by other passions tossed,
  This drives them constant to a certain coast.†1 more

  In lazy apathy let stoics boast
  Their virtue fixed; 'tis fixed as in a frost;
  Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
  But strength of mind is exercise, not rest:
  The rising tempest puts in act the soul,
  Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.†1 more

  See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
  Even avarice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;
  Lust, through some certain strainers well refined,
  Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
  Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
  Is emulation in the learned or brave;
  Nor virtue, male or female, can we name,
  But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame.†

  On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
  Reason the card, but passion is the gale;
  Nor God alone in the still calm we find,
  He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind.†

  Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride)
  The virtue nearest to our vice allied:
  Reason the bias turns to good from ill
  And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.†

  See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
  Even avarice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;
  Lust, through some certain strainers well refined,
  Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
  Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
  Is emulation in the learned or brave;
  Nor virtue, male or female, can we name,
  But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame.†

  See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
  Even avarice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;
  Lust, through some certain strainers well refined,
  Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
  Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
  Is emulation in the learned or brave;
  Nor virtue, male or female, can we name,
  But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame.†

  The fiery soul abhorred in Catiline,
  In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:
  The same ambition can destroy or save,
  And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.†

  Self-love and reason to one end aspire,
  Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire;
  But greedy that, its object would devour,
  This taste the honey, and not wound the flower:
  Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,
  Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.†

  Self-love and reason to one end aspire,
  Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire;
  But greedy that, its object would devour,
  This taste the honey, and not wound the flower:
  Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,
  Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.†

  See some strange comfort every state attend,
  And pride bestowed on all, a common friend;
  See some fit passion every age supply,
  Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.†

  Trace Science, then, with Modesty thy guide;
  First strip off all her equipage of pride;
  Deduct what is but vanity or dress,
  Or learning's luxury, or idleness;
  Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain,
  Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;
  Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts
  Of all our vices have created arts;
  Then see how little the remaining sum,
  Which served the past, and must the times to come!†

  What crops of wit and honesty appear
  From spleen, from obstinacy, hate, or fear!†

  As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath
  Receives the lurking principle of death;
  The young disease that must subdue at length,
  Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength:
  So, cast and mingled with his very frame,
  The mind's disease, its ruling passion came;
  Each vital humour which should feed the whole,
  Soon flows to this, in body and in soul:
  Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
  As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
  Imagination plies her dangerous art,
  And pours it all upon the peccant part.†

  In lazy apathy let stoics boast
  Their virtue fixed; 'tis fixed as in a frost;
  Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
  But strength of mind is exercise, not rest:
  The rising tempest puts in act the soul,
  Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.†

  See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
  Even avarice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;
  Lust, through some certain strainers well refined,
  Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
  Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
  Is emulation in the learned or brave;
  Nor virtue, male or female, can we name,
  But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame.†

  That counter-works each folly and caprice;
  That disappoints th' effect of every vice;
  That, happy frailties to all ranks applied,
  Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
  Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
  To kings presumption, and to crowds belief:
  That, virtue's ends from vanity can raise,
  Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise;
  And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
  The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.†

  See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
  Even avarice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;
  Lust, through some certain strainers well refined,
  Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
  Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
  Is emulation in the learned or brave;
  Nor virtue, male or female, can we name,
  But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame.†

  Let power or knowledge, gold or glory, please,
  Or (oft more strong than all) the love of ease;
  Through life 'tis followed, even at life's expense;
  The merchant's toil, the sage's indolence,
  The monk's humility, the hero's pride,
  All, all alike, find reason on their side.†

  Yes, Nature's road must ever be preferred;
  Reason is here no guide, but still a guard:
  'tis hers to rectify, not overthrow,
  And treat this passion more as friend than foe: