Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their happiness:
But mutual wants this happiness increase, 55
All nature's diff'rence keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend: 60
Heav'n breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole
One common blessing, as one common soul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike possess'd,
And each were equal, must not all contest?
If then to all men happiness was meant, 65
God in externals could not place content.
Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those;
But heav'n's just balance equal will appear,
While those are plac'd in hope, and these in fear: 70
Not present good or ill, the joy or curse,
But future views of better, or of worse.
Oh sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?
Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, 75
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and nature meant to mere mankind;
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Ly in three words, health, peace, and competence. 80
But
