Like bubbles, on the sea of matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preserving soul
Connects each being, greatest with the least;
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;
All serv'd, all serving: nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends unknown.
, Has God, thou fool! work'd solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawu,
For him as kindly spreads the flowery lawn:
Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own, and raptures swell the note.
The bounding steed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer :
The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labors of this lord of all.
27. Has God worked, &c. Work is here made a regular verb, which is seldom the ease, except in the sea-phrase, "he worked his passage." So in some of Pope's other writings, we find catched instead of caught.
29-30. He who, &c. spreads.
40. Part pays a part of the products of the year must be expended in support of the ox, by whose labors they were increased.
Know, nature's children all divide her care; The fur that warms a monarch warmed a bear. "See all things for my
"See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose;
And just as short of reason he must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
Grant that the powerful still the weak control;
Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole:
Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows,
And helps another creature's wants or woes.
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove?
Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings?
Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?
Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods,
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods:
For some, his interest prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:
All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy
Th' extensive blessings of his luxury.
That very life his learned hunger craves,
He saves from famine, from the savage saves;
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast,
And, till he ends the being, makes it blest :
53-6. The falcon, jay, and hawk regard not the colors, brilliancy, or musical powers of those creatures which they devour. They have but one object, which is, to satisfy hunger.
Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain,
Than favor'd man by touch ethereal slain.
The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er!
To each unthinking being, Heaven, a friend,
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end:
To man imparts it; but with such a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too:
The hour conceal'd, and so remote the fear,
Death still draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great standing miracle! that heaven assign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.
II. Whether with reason, or with instinct blest, Know, all enjoy that power which suits them best; To bliss alike by that direction tend,
And find the means proportion'd to their end.
Say, where full instinct is th' unerring guide,
What pope or council can they need beside?
Reason, however able, cool at best,
Cares not for service, or but serves when prest,
Stays till we call, and then not often near;
But honest instinct comes a volunteer,
68. Favor'd man-It has been the opinion of many, both ancient and modern, that those who were struck by lightning, were sacred personages, and particular favorites of heaven; because they were relieved from the terrors and pains of a natural death.
77. Exclamatory sentences, like this, seem to have an independent sense in the third person, as in the second, when an address is made,-Great standing miracle; that heaven did assign to its only thinking thing (or man) this turn of mind.
Sure never to o ershoot, but just to hit,
While still too wide or short is human wit;
Sure by quick nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier reason labors at in vain.
This too serves always, reason never long:
One must go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing powers
One in their nature, which are two in ours!
And reason raise o'er instinct as you can,
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man.
Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To shun their poison and to choose their food?
Prescient the tides or tempests to withstand,
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand?
Who made the spider parallels design,
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
Who bid the stork, Columbus like, explore
Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before?
Who calls the council, states the certain day?
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?
III. God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds:
But as he fram'd a whole, the whole to bless,
On mutual wants built mutual happiness;
So from the first, eternal order ran,
And creature link'd to creature, man to man.
97. And raise reason o'er instinct as you can raise it. Raise is, by hypothesis, in the imp. mode.
101. Who gave them foresight to withstand? prescient is an adj. agreeing with them understood.
Whate'er of life all-quick'ning ether keeps,
Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the
Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds.
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood,
Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood,
Each loves itself, but not itself alone,
Each sex desires alike, till two are one.
Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace;
They love themselves, a third time, in their race.
Thus beast and bird their common charge attend,
The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend :
The young dismiss'd to wander earth or air,
There stops the instinct, and there ends the care,
The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace,
Another love succeeds, another race.
A longer care, man's helpless kind demands;
That longer care contracts more lasting bands:
Reflection, reason, still the ties improve,
At once extend the int'rest and the love.
115-118. One nature feeds the vital flame, and swells the genial seeds of everything of life, which all quickening either keeps or breathes, or shoots, or pours, &c., the verbs being connected, in each case, by or. This construction may, however, be doubted, and we are inclined to adopt the following: Let or be taken for either as or whether, it will read thus-One nature feeds, &c., of whatever, &c. all quick'ning either keeps (or sustains) either as (or whether) it breathes, or shoots, or pours (i. e. puts forth) profusely, &c. 130. Another love succeeds, another race succeeds.
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