Is not to act or think beyond mankind;
No powers of body or of soul to share,
But what his nature and his state can bear.
Why has not man a microscopic eye?
For this plain reason, man is not a fly.

Say what the use, were finer optics given,

T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,

To smart and agonize at every pore?

190

195

Or quick effluvia darting through the brain,
Die of a rose in aromatic pain?

If nature thundered in his opening ears,

200

And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,
How would he wish that heav'n had left him still
The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill!
Who finds not Providence all good and wise, 205

190. Not to act or think beyond mankind is a substantive phrase used as a nom. after is, and to share no powers, is connected with it.

193-204. These lines have very often been misunderstood, and turned out of their true meaning. The poet adverts to the five senses, in order; asking first, Why man has not a microscopic eye, i. e. an eye formed to see the smallest objects, as are those of flies? and then answers, because man is not a fly. On the principle of optics, if we could see much more minutely, we could not take in so large a space of the heavens at one view; as a fly cannot see the whole of one side of a building upon which he may light. What would be the use, if finer touch were given, if this keener sensation cause or make us smart and agonize at every pore. Smell is supposed to be occasioned by some effluvia passing through the brain; and what the use, were this sense so quick, or the effect of these passing effluvia so powerful, as to make us die of the smell of a rose in aromatic pain?

Alike in what it gives, and what denies ?

216

VII. Far as creation's ample range extends, The scale of sensual, mental powers ascends; Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race, From the green myriads in the peopled grass: 210 What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam; Of smell, the headlong lioness between, And hound sagacious on the tainted green; Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood, To that which warbles through the vernal wood! The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line: In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew! How instinct varies in the grovelling swine, Compar'd, half-reasoning elephant, with thine! 'Twixt that, and reason, what a nice barrier! Forever separate, yet forever near!

211. How many modes or degrees of sight are there between the dimness of the mole's, and the sharpness of the lynx's? What may be made a com. rel. or a demonstrative pronoun.

213. The lion is said to be defective in the sense of smell, so much so as not to pursue his prey by scent, as do the hounds.

215. The life that fills the flood — fishes, which are in a degree destitute of hearing.

217. It (i. e. the spider's touch) feels.

222. The elephant is here addressed, and called half. reasoning, on account of his superior sagacity, compared with other animals.

223. "Twixt that and reason, i. e. 'twixt the instinct of the elephant and reason

Remembrance and reflection how allied!

225

230

What thin partitions sense from thought divide !
And middle natures how they long to join,
Yet never pass th' insuperable line!
Without this just gradation, could they be
Subjected, these to those, or all to thee?
The powers of all subdued by thee alone,
Is not thy reason all these powers in one?
VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and
this earth,

235

All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high! progressive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach ; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing.-On superior powers
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one step broken, the great scale's de-
From nature's chain whatever link you strike,

240

[stroy'd :

237. Vast chain of being! comprehending natures ethereal, &c. In exclamatory sentences, like this, the noun, as chain, seems to be a nom. independent, in a different sense from that where an address is made; but we have no established rule for it, and therefore must under stand a verb.

239. What that which no glass can reach, viz. animalcules, which cannot be discovered even by the best magnifiers; extending from infinite to thee. Extending agrees with which, after being, in line 237.

250

Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain aiike.
And, if each system in gradation roll
Alike essential to the amazing whole,
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole must fall.
Let earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature trembles to the throne of God:
All this dread order break-For whom? for thee?
Vile worm!-O madness! pride! impiety!

256

IX. What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread,

260

Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head?

What if the head, the eye, or ear, repined
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another in this gen'ral frame;
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains

The great directing Mind of all ordains.

265

All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and God the soul; That, changed through all, and yet in all the same, Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame; Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,

259. What-see note to ver. 173.

262. Engines is in the nom. c. after to serve.

270

269. That-a rel. pro. referring to soul for its antecedent, and in the nom. case to warms.

Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; Lives through all life, extends through all extent; Spreads undivided, operates unspent;

Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 275
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. 280
X. 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.

285

291

276. Which is as full. A hair may be considered as the most insignificant, and the heart as the noblest part of mortal man. The idea was probably suggested by this passage of scripture; Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without his notice, and the hairs of our head are all numbered.

281. Do not name or call order, imperfection.