Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, In human works, though labour'd on with pain, Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. /55 160 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, Then say not, man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; If to be perfect in a certain sphere, What matter soon or late, or here or there? As who began a thousand years ago. 65 70 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, Had he thy reason would he skip and play? That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n; A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd 85 And now a bubble burst, and now a world. Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar: Rests and expatiates in a life to come. Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor❜d mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; 100 His soul proud science never taught to stray Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n, Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'u; 105 Where slaves once more their native land behold, He asks no angel's wings, no seraph's fire; But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company. IV. Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; Aspiring to be angels, men rebel; 115 24120 4125 And who but wishes to invert the laws Of order, sins against th' Eternal Cause. 130 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; "Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew "The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; "For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings; 135 66 For me, health gushes from a thousand springs; "Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; "My footstool earth, my canopy the skies." But errs not nature from this gracious end, From burning suns when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep 140 *Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? "No ('tis reply'd) the first Almighty Cause 27 145 "Acts not by partial, but by general laws; If the great end be human happiness, Then nature deviates: and can man do less? If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's design, Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms, 150 156 160 Why charge we Heav'n in those, in these acquit? In both, to reason right, is to submit. 165 Better for us, perhaps it might appear, The gen'ral order, since the whole began, Is 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; Now looking downward, just as griev'd appears Is, not to act or think beyond mankind; But what his nature and his state can bear. 175 180 / 185 190 Why has not man a microscopic eye ? For this plain reason-man is not a fly. Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, 195 And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres, The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill? Who finds not Providence all good and wise, 205 |