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Lives through all life, extends through all extent
Spreads undivided, operates unspent,

Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;

As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns;
To him, no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all.

Cease, then, nor Order imperfection name:
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee,
Submit, in this, or any other sphere,

Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one disposing power,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see! All discord, harmony, not understood;

All partial evil, universal good.

And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear: "Whatever is, is RIGHT.'

EPISTLE II.

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HIMSELF, AS AN INDIVIDUAL.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE business of man is not to pry into God, but to study himself. His middle nature; his powers and frailties, and the limits of his capacity. The two principles of man, self-love and reason, both necessary: self-love the stronger, and why: their end the same. The passions, and their use. The predominant passion, and its force; its necessity in directing men to different purposes; its providential use, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue. Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate, and evident. What is the office of reason. How odious vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it. That, however, the ends of providence and general good are answered in our passions and imperfections How usefully these are distributed to all orders of men. How useful they are to society, and to the individuals, in every state, and in every age of life.

KNOW then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is Man.

Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,

With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,

He hangs between, in doubt to act, or rest,
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 reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much;
Chaos of thought, and passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd;
Created half to rise, 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, jest, and riddle of the world!

Go, wond'rous creature! mount where science guides,

I

Go measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides,
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old time, and regulate the sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect and first fair:
Or tread the mazy round his foll'wers trod,
And quitting sense call imitating God,
As eastern priests in giddy circles run
And turn their heads to imitate the sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule-
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!

Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal man unfold all nature's law,
Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And show'd a NEWTON as we show an ape.

Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind, Describe, or fix, one movement of his mind? Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend, Explain his own beginning, or his end?

Alas what wonder! man's superior part

Uncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to arts But when his own great work is but begun, What reason weaves, by passion is undone.

Trace science, then, with modesty thy guide; First strip off all her equippage of pride; Deduct what is but vanity or dress,

Or learning's luxury, or idleness;

Or tricks to shew the stretch of human brain, Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain; Expunge the whole, or lop the excrescent parts Of all our vices have created arts;

Then see how little the remaining sum,

Which serv'd the past, and must the times to

come..

Two principles in human nature reign;
Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain;
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,
Each works its end, to move, or govern all:
And to their proper operation still
Ascribe all good; to their improper, ill.

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul;
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.
Man, but for that, no action could attend,
And, but for this, were active to no end.
Fix'd, like a plant, on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate and rot;
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void,
Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.

Most strength the moving principle requires,
Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires;
Sedate and quiet, the comparing lies,
Form'd but to check, delib'rate and advise.
Self-love, still stronger, as its object's nigh;
Reason's at distance, and in prospect lie;
That sees immediate good by present sense;
Reason, the future and the consequence:
Thicker than arguments temptations throng,

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