And which more bless'd? who chained his country, say, Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day?[1471] "But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed." What then? Is the reward of virtue bread?[1472] 150 That vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;[1473] 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.[1474] The good man may be weak, be indolent; 155 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?[1475] 160 Nay, why external for internal giv'n? Why is not man a god, and earth a heav'n?"[1476] Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive God gives enough while he has more to give:[1477] Immense the pow'r, immense were the demand; 165 Say, at what part of nature will they stand? [Sidenote: That external goods are not the proper rewards of virtue, often inconsistent with, or destructive of it; but that all these can make no man happy without virtue. Instances in each of them.] What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy, Is virtue's prize. A better would you fix? Then give humility a coach and six,[1478] 170 Justice a conqu'ror's sword, or truth a gown,[1479] Or public spirit its great cure,[1480] a crown.[1481] Weak, foolish man! will heav'n[1482] reward us there,[1483] With the same trash mad mortals wish for here? The boy and man an individual makes,[1484] 175 Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes? Go, like the Indian, in another life Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife, As well as dream such trifles are assigned, As toys and empires, for a god-like mind: 180 Rewards, that either would to virtue bring No joy, or be destructive of the thing: How oft by these at sixty are undone The virtues of a saint at twenty-one! [Sidenote: 1. Riches.] To whom can riches give repute or trust,[1485] 185 Content, or pleasure, but the good and just?[1486] Judges and senates have been bought for gold, Esteem and love were never to be sold.[1487] O fool! to think God hates the worthy mind, The lover and the love of human kind,[1488] 190 Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, Because he wants a thousand pounds a year.[1489] [Sidenote: 2. Honours.]