He, who through vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,

Observe how system into system runs,

thor

What other planets,

while other suns,

that

which

25

What varied being peoples every star,

May tell why Heaven has made us as we are.
But of this frame, the bearings and the ties,
The strong connections, nice dependencies,
Gradations just, has thy pervading soul

30

Looked through? or can a part contain the whole? Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, when it is And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee? II. Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find,

35

Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind?
First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess,imper mord
Why formed no weaker, blinder, and no less?

Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks were made
Taller or weaker than the weeds they shade?
Or ask of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove?

40

23-28. He, who can pierce, see, and observe, may tell, &c. When a nom case is immediately followed by a relative, you must look for its verb beyond the relative sentence and its connections.

29-32. Has thy pervading soul looked through the bear ings, ties, &c., of this frame?

37. If thou canst guess, then guess the harder reason. Guess in the end of the line is in the imp. mode.

40. Then the weeds, which they shade, are made.

42. Why Jupiter's moons or satellites, are less than the planet itself?

Of systems possible, if 'tis confest,

That wisdom infinite must form the best,
Where all must fall or not coherent be,
And all that rises, rise in due degree;

Then, in the scale of reasoning life, 'tis plain,
There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man;
And all the question (wrangle e'er so long)

Is only this, if God has placed him wrong?
Respecting man, whatever wrong we call which
May, must be right, as relative to all.

In human works, though labor'd on with pain,

A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; •hurpose"

In God's, one single can its end produce,

Yet serves to second too some other use.

So man, who here seems principal alone,

for a

Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown, man Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal;

'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

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 oposition 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, can, &c

When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod,
Is now a victim, and now Egypt's god;

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?
The blest to-day is as completely so.

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 speties ox, was sacred, and an object of worship. When heir god, the bull Apis, died, in the reign of Ptolemy Lagas, 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 ourden of) existence here below.

which

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly given,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven
Haven Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,

A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

.90

Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher, death; and God adore.
What future bliss, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

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 repetition 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 connected, may be considered in apposition with the same.

32. 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
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;

106

Yet simple nature to his hope has given,
Benind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heaven;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the watery waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold;
To be, contents his natural desire,

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,
of the be note
Alone made perfect here, immortal there;
the 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