"And what created perfect?" Why then man? Then nature deviates; and can man do less? 150 13 Of showers and sunshine, as of man's desires; ine, As much eternal springs and cloudless skies, for. As men forever temperate, calm, and wise. [sign, If plagues or earthquakes break not heaven's de Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline; [forms, ; 5 Who knows, but He whose hand the lightning 162 Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind? Better for us, perhaps, it might appear, 165 151-153. That end as much requires eternal springs, &c., as it requires that men should be forever temperate, &c. 156. Catiline and Borgia were two of the most abandoned and bloody demagogues, that ever lived. 158. Who knows but he, whose hand, &c., pours? 159--160. Julius Cæsar is here meant. Alexander the Great was vainly styled the son of Jupiter Ammon: thence he is called young Ammon. 166. If all were harmony there, (i. e. in the operations of nature,) and all virtue here, (i. e. in the actions of men.) But all subsists by elemental strife; The general order, since the world 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? 174 The proper organs, proper powers assigned; 180 185 All in exact proportion to the state; 173. What would this man do or have; or what wishes this man. When the interrogative is not directly the nom. to the verb, there being no other nom. case, it is either the nom. after the verb, governed by it, or by a prep. expressed or understood. 179-181. Nature, being kind without profusion, assigned the proper organs, &c., and compensated each seeming want. 184. To add and to abate seem to imply a passive signification - Nothing to be added and nothing to be abated. Is not to act or think beyond mankind; 177 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? wil For this plain reason, man is not a fly. Say what the use, were finer optics given, 174. T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven ? Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, To smart and agonize at every pore? Or quick effluvia darting through the brain, Die of a rose in aromatic pain? 0 190 195 200 If nature thundered in his opening ears, 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? 1 Alike in what it gives, and what denies ? 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, 215 Compar'd, half-reasoning elephant, with thine! 'Twixt that, and reason, what a nice barrier! Forever separate, yet forever near! 211. Ноw mаny 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 halfreasoning, 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 S, e, Remembrance and reflection how allied! 211 Without this just gradation, could they be 215 ! 225 230 VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth, 235 All matter quick, and bursting into birth. 240 237. Vast chain of being! comprehending natureş 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. |