Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

tions, ver. 238, &c. How usefully these are distributed to all orders of men, ver. 241. How useful they are to society, ver. 251. And to individuals, ver. 263. In every state, and every age of life, ver. 273, &c.

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE III.

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to Society.

I. THE whole Universe one system of society, ver. 7, &c. Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, ver. 27. The happiness of animals mutual, ver. 49. II. Reason or instinct operates alike to the good of each individual, ver. 79. Reason or instinct operates also to society, in all animals, ver. 109. III. How far society is carried by instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by reason, ver. 128. IV. Of that which is called the state of nature, ver. 144. Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of arts, ver. 166, and in the forms of society, ver. 176. V. Origin of political societies, ver. 190. Origin of monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal government, ver. 212 VI. Origin of true religion and government, from the same principie of love, ver. 231, &c. Origin of superstition and tyranny, from the same principle of fear, ver. 237. &c. The influence of self-love operating to the social and public good, ver. 266. Restoration of true religion and government on their first principle, ver. 285. Mixt government, ver. 288. Various forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 300, &c.

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV.

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to Happiness.

1. FALSE notions of Happiness, philosophical and popular, answered from ver. 19 to 27. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, ver. 30. God intends happiness to be equal; and to be so, it must be social, since all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, not particular laws, ver. 37. As it is necessary for order, and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods should be unequal, happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 51. But notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, ver. 70. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this world; and that the good man has here the advantage, ver. 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of nature, or of fortune, ver. 94. IV. The folly of expecting that God should alter his general laws in favour of particulars, ver. 121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that whoever they are, they must be happiest, ver. 133, &c. VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with. or destructive of, virtue, ver. 167. That even these cap make no man happy without virtue : Instanced in riches, ver. 183. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205. Greatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior talents, ver. 259, &c. With pictures of human infelicity in men possessed of them all. ver. 269. &c. VII. That virtue only

constitutes a happiness whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 309. That the perfection of Virtue and Happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 326.

AN

Essay on Man.

EPISTLE Ι.

AWAKE! my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of kings.
Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us and to die)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;

A mighty maze! but not without a plan;
A wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot,

5

Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.

Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield;

10

The latent tracts, the giddy heights explore
Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;
Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise;
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
But vindicate the ways of God to man.

I. Say first, of God above, or man below,
What can we reason, but from what we know?
Of man what see we, but his station here,
From which to reason, or to which refer?

15

20

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,

Observe how system into system runs,

25

What other planets circle other suns,

What varied being peoples every star,

May tell, why Heaven has made us as we are.
But of this frame, the bearings and the ties,

The strong connexions, nice dependencies,

30

Gradations just, has thy pervading soul

Look'd through? Or, can a part contain the whole?

Is the great chain, that draws all to agree,

And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee?

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?

40

Of systems possible, if 'tis confest

That wisdom infinite must form the best,

Where all must full or not coherent be,

45

And all that rises, rise in due degree;
Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain,
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?

[ocr errors]
« ZurückWeiter »