Of systems possible, if 'tis confest, That wisdom infinite must form the best, Then, in the scale of reasoning life, 'tis plain, In human works, though labor'd on with pain, 45 50 55 60 When the proud steed shall know why man restrains His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains; 43. If 'tis confest, that infinite Wisdom must form the best of possible systems. 45. Where all must fall, or not be coherent. 49. Wrangle may be, by hypothesis, put in the imp. m. or in the subj. m.-if we or you wrangle. 50. The phrase, if God has placed him wrong, is in apposition with question. 51. Respecting, by some, is called a prep. and it may be a part. — That, respecting man, which we call wrong 55. In God's works one single purpose, san, &c When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod, Then shall man's pride and dullness comprehend His actions', passions', being's, use and end; 66 Why doing, suff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why This hour a slave, the next a deity. Then say not, man's imperfect, Heaven in fault; Say, rather, man's as perfect as he ought; 70 His knowledge measured to his state and place; His time a moment, and a point his space. If to be perfect in a certain sphere, What matter, soon or late, or here, or there? As who began a thousand years ago. 75 III. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescribed, their present state; From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer being here below? 80 63. Oxen were offered in sacrifice by most of the ancients, as well as the Jews. With the Egyptians, the species ox, was sacred, and an object of worship. When heir god, the bull Apis, died, in the reign of Ptolemy Lagus, the expenses of his funeral pomp exceeded 50,000 French crowns. 75. Blest, a part. used for its s. or, the man, who is (or who began to be) blest to-day, &c. 76. Years-Nouns of time and distance, and manner, with the noun, home, are put in the obj. case, without any word expressed to govern them a prep. being understood. 80. Being is a noun- - Who could suffer (i. e. bear the Durden of) existence here below. The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 85 90 Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; Wait the great teacher, death; and God adore. 95 Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; 100 81. If the lamb, which thy riot dooms, &c. (if he) had thy reason, would he skip and play? He is only a repeti tion of the subject, and in app. with lamb. 85. Interjections govern both the nom. and obj. of pronouns, but the nom. only of nouns. 87. Who relates to Heaven, which is here used for God, and God, in the end of the line, is connected with who, by the conj. as-or, those nouns which follow the conj. as, and have a like meaning with those to which they are con nected, may be considered in apposition with the same. 92. Wait for the great teacher. By a particular usage of language, the obj. case is put after many verbs which do not pass over to them, as the real objects of an action. His soul proud science never taught to stray 106 Yet simple nature to his hope has given, He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire; 110 But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company. 115 IV. Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense, Weigh thy opinion against Providence ; Call imperfection what thou fanciest such; Say, here He gives too little, there too much; Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust, Yet say, if man's unhappy, God's unjust; If man alone engross not heaven's high care, Alone made perfect here, immortal there; Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, Rejudge his justice, be the god of God! In pride, in reasoning pride our error lies; All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, 120 125 102. To the solar walk, that is, the circuit of the sun. 113. Go, thou, who art wiser than the poor Indian. 115. Call that, imperfection, which thou fanciest to be such. 120. If he be not alone made, &c. then snatch — Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, And who but wishes to invert the laws Of order, sins against the Eternal Cause. 130 V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine, Earth for whose use? Pride answers, """Tis for mine; 135 "For me, kind nature wakes her genial power, "Suckles each herb and spreads out ev'ry flow'r ; "Annual for me, the grape, the rose, renew "The juice nectarius, and the balmy dew; "For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings; "For me, health gushes from a thousand springs; "Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; "My footstool earth, my canopy the skies." 140 But errs not nature from this gracious end, From burning suns when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep 145 Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? "No, 'tis replied, the first Almighty Cause "Acts not by partial, but by general laws; "The exceptions few; some change since all begun : 129. He who, &c. sins. When but can be changed into only, without injuring the sense, it is an adverb. 141. But does not nature err from this gracious end? viz: the blessings enumerated above. |