Through worlds unnumber'd, though the God be known, Tis ours to trace him only in our own. He, who through vast immensity can pierce, See worlds on worlds compose one universe, What other planets circle other suns, What varied being peoples every star, 25 May tell, why Heaven has made us as we are. The strong connexions, nice dependencies, Look'd through? Or, can a part contain the whole? And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee? 30 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, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less! Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade? Or ask of yonder argent fields above, Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove? Of systems possible, if 'tis confest That wisdom infinite must form the best, And all that rises, rise in due degree; X 40 45 Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis p'ain, There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man; And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong? 50 Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, In human works, though labour'd on with pain, In God's, one single can its end produce, So man, who here seems principal alone, 5 6 When the proud steed shall know why man restrains His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains; 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 dulness comprehend 65 Then say not, man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought; 70 His knowledge measur'd to his state and place, 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 prescrib'd, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know; Or who could suffer being here below? 80 The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, he thy reason would he skip and play? as'd to the last, he crops the flowery food, 1 licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. lindness to the future! kindly giv'n, at each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n; 10 sees with equal eye, as God of all, iero perish, or a sparrow fall, ms or systems into ruin hurl'd d now a bubble burst, and now a world. Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar: 85 90 95 ie soul uneasy, and confin'd from home, ests and expatiates in a life to come. Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor❜d mind 100 105 Where slaves once more their native land behold, le asks no angel's wings, no seraph's fire; But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, 110 IV. Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; 1 1 1 Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be angels, men rebel; And who but wishes to invert the laws Of order, sins against th' Eternal Cause. 13 V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine, Earth for whose use ? Pride answers, "Tis for mine: "For me kind Nature wakes her genial power, "Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower; 13 14 But errs not nature from this gracious end, From burning suns when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? If the great end be human happiness, 145 150 156 Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms, 160 Why charge we Heav'n in those, in these acquit? 165 Better for us, perhaps it might appear, The gen❜ral order, since the whole began, Ís kept in nature, and is kept in man. 170 VI. What would this man? now upward will he soar, And little less than angel, would be more; 1 |