Of order, sins against the eternal cause.

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;

130

Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower :
Annual for me, the grape, the rose, renew
The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew;

135

95

For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings;
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
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
'No,' 'tis replied 'the first almighty cause
Acts not by partial, but by general laws;

The exceptions few; some change since all began:
And what created perfect?'-Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,

Then nature deviates; and can man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of show'rs and sun-shine, as of man's desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men forever temperate, calm, and wise.

140

145

150

If plagues or earthquakes break not heavens design, 155
Why then a Borgia or a Catiline?

Who knows, but he whose hand the lightning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms,

Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar's mind,

Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind? 160 From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs; Account for moral as for natural things:

Why charge we heaven in those, in these acquit ?

In both, to reason right, is to submit.

Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,

Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind,
That never passion discompos'd the mind.
But all subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The general order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.

165

170

175

VI. What would this man? Now upward will he soar, And, little less than angel, would be more; Now looking downward, just as grieved appears To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears. Made for his use all creatures if he call Say what their use, had he the powers of all? Nature to these, without profusion kind, The proper organs, proper powers assign'd; Each seeming want compensated of course, Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force; All in exact proportion to their state, Nothing to add, and nothing to abate. Each beast, each insect, happy in its own: Is heaven unkind to man, and man alone?

180

15

185

1

Shall he alone, whom rational we call,

Be pleased with nothing, if not blest with all?

The bliss of man, (could pride that blessing find)

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.

Say what the use, were finer optics given,

195

To 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?

200

If nature thunder'd in his opening ears,

And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,

How would he wish, that heaven had left him still

The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill!

Who finds not providence all good and wise,

205

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 :
What modes of sight, betwixt each wide extreme,
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam:
Of smell, the headlong lioness between,
A hound sagacious on the tainted green;

Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,

210

215

I be st

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,
Compared, half reasoning elephant, with thine!
'Twixt that, and reason, what a nice barrier;
Forever separate, yet forever near!

Remembrance and reflection, how allied;
What thin partitions sense from thought divide!
And middle natures, how they long to join,
Yet never pass the 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?

220

225

230

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 etherial, human, angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no man 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,

240

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroyed :

From nature's chain, whatever link you strike,

245

Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.

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;
Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature tremble to the throne of God.
All this dread order break-For whom? For thee?
Vile worm! O madness! pride! impiety!

250

255

IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread, Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the head?

What if the head, the eye, or ear, repin'd

To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd, for any part to claim
To be another in this general frame :
Just as absurd, to mourn the task or pains,
The great directing MIND of ALI. ordains.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,

260

265

Whose body nature is, and God the soul;

That, chang'd through all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame;
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,

270

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,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;

275

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.

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.

280

285

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear,

All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good.

290

"Whatever is, is RIGHT."

294

EPISTLE II.

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to Himself as an Individual.

The business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His middle nature; His powers and frailties, and the limits of his capacity, 43. The two principles of man, self-love, and reason, both necessary; self-love the stronger, and why; their end the same, 83. The passions, and their use, 83-120. The predominant passion, and its force, 122-150. Its tendency in directing men to different purposes, 153, &c. Its providential use, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue, 167. Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate, and evident. What is the office of reason, 187, &c. How odious vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it, 209. That, however the ends of providence and general good are answered in our passions, and imperfections, 230, &c. How usefully they are distributed to all orders of men, 233. How useful they are to society, 241, and to individuals, 253. In every state, and in every age of life, 263, &c.

I. KNOW then thyself, presume not God to scan;
proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,

The

A being darkly wise, and richly great :
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,
With to much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;

Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

5

10

15

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,

Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,

20

Correct old time, and regulate the sun;

Go, soar with Plato to the empyreal sphere,