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EPISTLE I.

Of the Nature and State of Man with refpe&t to the Universe.

OF Man in the abftract.-I. That we can judge only. with regard to our own fyftem, being ignorant of the relations of fyftems and things, ver. 17, &c. II. That Man is not to be deemed imperfect, but a Being fuited to his place and rank in the creation, agreeable to the general Order of things, and conformable to Ends and Relations to him unknown, ver. 35, &c. III. That it is partly upon his Ignorance of future events, and partly upon the hope of a future ftate, that all his happinefs in the present depends, ver. 77, &c. IV. The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to

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more Perfection, the cause of Man's error and mifery.The impiety of putting himself in the place of God, and judging of the fitnefs or unfitnefs, perfection or imperfection, juftice or injuftice, of his dispensations, ver. 109, &c. V. The abfurdity of conceiting himfelf the final cause of the creation, or expecting that perfection in the moral world, which is not in the natural, ver. 131, &c. VI. The unreasonableness of his complaints against Providence, while on the one hand he demands the Perfection of the Angels, and on the other the bodily qualifications of the Brutes; though, to poffefs any of the fenfitive faculties in a higher degree, would render him miserable, ver. 173, &c. VII. That throughout the whole visible world, an univerfal order and gradation in the fenfual and mental faculties is obferved, which causes a fubordination of creature to creature, and of all creatures to Man. The gradations of fenfe, inftinct, thought,. reflection, reafon; that reafon alone countervails all the other faculties, ver. 207. VIII. How much farther this order and fubordination of living creatures may extend above and below us; were any part of which broken, not that part only, but the whole connected creation must be deftroyed, ver. 233. IX. The extravagance, madness, and pride of such a defire, ver. 250. X. The confequence of all the abfolute fubmiffion due to Providence, both as to our prefent and future ftate, ver. 281, &c. to the end.

EPISTLE

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EPISTLE I.

WAKE, my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of Kings.

Let us (fince 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 flowers promiscuous shoot;
Or Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.
Together let us beat this ample field,

Try what the open, what the covert yield;
The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore
Of all who blindly creep, or fightlefs foar;
Eye Nature's walks, fhoot 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 fee we but his station here,

From which to reason, or to which refer?

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Through worlds unnumber'd though the God be known,
'Tis ours to trace him only in our own.
He, who through vaft immenfity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
Obferve how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other funs,

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What

What vary'd Being peoples every ftar,
May tell why Heaven has made us as we are.
But of this frame the bearings and the ties,
The strong connections, nice dependencies,
Gradations juft, has thy pervading foul

Look'd through? or can a part contain the whole ?
Is the great chain, that draws all to agree,
And drawn fupports, upheld by God, or thee?

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II. Prefumptuous Man! the reason wouldst thou find, "Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and so blind? First, if thou canft, the harder reason guess," Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less? Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or weaker than the weeds they fhade; Or ask of yonder argent fields above, Why Jove's Satellites are lefs than Jove?

Of Syftems poflible, if 'tis confeft, That Wisdom infinite muft form the beft, "Where all muft full or not coherent be,

And all that rifes, rise in due degree;

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Then, in the scale of reasoning life, 'tis plain,

There must be, somewhere, such a rank as Man:
And all the question (wrangle e'er fo long)

Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?

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Refpecting Man, whatever wrong we call

May, must be right, as relative to all.

In human works, though labour'd on with pain,

A thousand movements fcarce one purpose gain:
In God's, one fingle can its end produce;
Yet ferves to fecond too fome other use.

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So Man, who here feems principal alone,
Perhaps acts fecond to fome fphere unknown,
Touches fome wheel, or verges to fome.goal;
'Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole..

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When the proud fteed shall know why man reftrains
His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains;
When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod,
Is now a victim, and now Ægypt's God:
Then fhall Man's pride and dulness comprehend
His actions', paffions', being's, use and end;
Why doing, fuffering, check'd, impell'd; and why
This hour a flave, the next a deity.

Then fay not Man 's imperfect, Heaven in fault;
Say rather, Man 's as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur'd to his ftate and place;
His time a moment, and a point his space.

άς

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If to be perfect in a certain sphere,

What matter, foon or late, or here, or there?

The bleft to-day is as completely fo,

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As who began a thousand years ago.

III. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescrib'd, their present state:

VARIATIONS.

In the former Editions, ver. 64.

Now wears a garland an Ægyptian God.

After ver. 68, the following lines in the first Edition.

If to be perfect in a certain fphere,

What matter, foon or late, or here, or there?
The bleft to-day is as completely so,

As who began ten thousand years ago.

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