"Th' exceptions few; fome change fince all began:
"And what created perfect ?"-Why then Man?
If the great end be human happiness,

Then Nature deviates; and can Man do lefs?
As much that end a conftant course requires.
Of show'rs and funshine, as of Man's defires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wife..

1.5.0

If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's defign,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?

156

Who knows but he whose hand the light'ning forms,

Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the ftorms;
Pours fierce Ambition in a Cæfar's mind,

Account for moral, as for natʼral things:

From pride, from. pride, our very reas'ning fprings;

Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind? 160

In both, to reafon right is to submit.

Why charge we Heav'n in thofe, in thefe acquit?

Better for Us, perhaps, it might appear

Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never paffion difcompos'd the mind..
But ALL fubfifts by elemental strife;
And paffions are the elements of life.

165

1.70

The gen'ral ORDER, fince the Whole began,.

Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man.

VI. What would this Man? Now upward will he foar,

And little less than Angel, would be more?

Now looking downwards, juft as griev'd appears

175.

To want the ftrength of bulls, the fur of bears.
Made for his ufe, all creatures if he call,
Say what their use, had he the pow'rs of all:
Nature to thefe, without profufion kind,

The proper organs, proper pow'rs affign'd;

1:80

Each feeming want compenfated of course,
Here with degrees of fwiftnefs, there of force;

All in exact proportion to the state;

Nothing to add, and nothing to abate.
Each beaft, each infect, happy in its own;

185

Is Heav'n unkind to Man, and Man alone?

Shall he alone, whom rational we call,

Be pleas'd with nothing, if not bless'd with all? --
The blifs of Man (could Pride that bleffing find)

Is not to act or think beyond mankind;

No pow'rs of body or of foul to fhare,
But what his nature and his ftate can bear.

Why has not Man a microfcopic eye!
For this plain reafon, Man is not a Fly.
Say what the ufe, were finer optics giv'n,.
Tinfpect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,
To fmart and agonize at ev'ry pore?
Or, quick effluvia darting thro' the brain,
Die of a rofe in aromatic pain?

If Nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears,

And ftunn'd him with the mufic of the fpheres,
How would he with that Heav'n had left him ftill
The whifp'ring Zephyr, and the purling rill?
Who finds not Providence all good and wife,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?

VII. Far as Creation's ample range extends,
The scale of Senfual, Mental pow'rs afcends:
Mark how it mounts, to Man's imperial race,
From the green myriads in the peopled grafs :
What modes of Sight betwixt each wide extreme,
The mole's dim curtain, and the linx's beam ::
Of Smell, the headlong lionefs between,
And hound fagacious on the tainted green:
Of Hearing, from the life that fills the flood,
To that which warbles thro' the vernal wood?
The fpider's touch, how exquifitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.
In the nice bee, what fenfe fo fubtly true

From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew? 220
How Inftinct varies in the growling wine,
Compar'd, half reas'ning elephant, with thine!

"Twixt that, and Reafon, what a nice barrier?
For ever fep'rate, yet for ever near !
Remembrance and Reflection how ally'd;
What thin partitions Senfe from Thought divide?

225

ss find

ill

And Middle natures, how they long to join,
Yet never pass th' infuperable line!
Without this juft gradation could they be
Subjected, thefe to thofe, or all to thee?
The pow'rs of all fubdu'd by thee alone,
Is not thy Reason all these pow'rs in one?

230

235

VIII. See, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high, progreffive life may go !
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vaft chain of Being! which from God began,
Natures æthereal, human, angel, man,
Beaft, bird, fish, infect, what no eye can fee,
No glafs can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to Nothing. On fuperior pow'rst
Were we to prefs, inferior might on ours:
Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where, one ftep broken, the great fcale's deftroy'd:
From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,

240

245

Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each fyftem in gradation roll

Alike effential to th' amazing Whole,
The leaft confufion but in one, not all
That fyftem only, but the Whole muft fall.
Let Earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and funs run lawless thro' the sky;
Let ruling Angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heav'n's whole foundations to their center nod,
And Nature trembles to the throne of God.

All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for thee?

Vile worm !-oh Madness! Pride! Impiety!

IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread,

Or hand, to toil, afpir'd to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or car repin'd
To ferve mere engines to the ruling Mind?
Just as abfurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame:
Just as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND of ALL ordains.

250

LA

255

ESSAY ON MAN.

All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the foul;
That chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame;
Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame;
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees,
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent;
Breaths in our foul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile Man that mourns
As the wrapt Seraph that adores and burns:
To him no high, no low, no great, no fmall;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

EP. I.

X. Cease then, nor ORDER Imperfection name:
Our proper blifs depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: This kind, this true degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n beftows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as bleft as thou canst hear:
Safe in the hand of one difpofing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal Hour...
All Nature is but Art unknown to thee;

270

275

280

285

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not fee; 290 All Difcord, Harmony, not understood;

All partial Evil, univerfal Good:

And, fpite of Pride, in erring Reafon's fpite,
One Truth is clear, "Whatever is, is RIGHT.,'

F

How

EPISTLE II.

Comp NOW then thyfelf, prefume not God to fcan, "Twixt The proper ftudy of Mankind is Man.

For ever this ifthmus of a middle state,

Remembrankly wife, and rudely great :

What thin

;

With too much knowledge for the Sceptic fide,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or reft
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reafon fuch,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much;
Chaos of Thought and Paffion, all confus'd;
Still by himfelf abus'd, or difabus'd;
Created half to rife, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd:

The glory, jeft, and riddle of the world!

1010

15

20

Go, wondrous creature! mount where Science guides,
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides ;
Inftruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun;
Go, foar with Plato, to th' empyreal fphere,
To the first good, firft perfect, and first fair,
Or tread the mazy found his follow'rs trod;
And quitting fenfe call imitating God;
As Eaftern príefts in giddy circles runs,
And turn their heads to imitate the Sun..
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule
Then drop into thyfelf, and be a fool!

Superior beings, when of late they faw
A mortal Man unfold all Nature's law,
Admir'd fuch wisdom in an earthly shape,
And fhew'd a NEWTON as we fhew an Ape.

Could he, whofe rules the rapid Comet bind,
Describe or fix one movement of his mind?
Who faw its fires hère rife, and there defcend,
Explain his own beginning, or his end?
Alas what wonder! Man's fuperior part
Uncheck'd may rife, and climb from art to art;
But when his own great work is but begun,
What Reason weaves, by Paffion is undone.

Trace Science then, with Modefty thy guide
First strip off all her equipage of pride;

30.

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