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The blifs of Man (could Pride that bleffing find)

Is not to act or think beyond mankind;

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No pow'rs of body or of foul to share,

But what his nature and his ftate can bear.

Why has not man a microscopic eye ?

For this plain reafon, Man is not a Fly.

Say what the ufe, were finer optics giv'n,
T'infpect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n ?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,
To fmart and agonize at every pore?
Or quick effluvia darting thro' the brain,
Die of a rose in aromatic pain ?

If nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears,

And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,
How would he wish that teav'n had left him ftill
The whifp'ring Zephyr, and the purling rill?
Who finds not Providence all good and wife,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies ?

VII. Far as Creation's ample range extends,
The scale of fenfual, mental pow'rs ascends:
Mark how it mounts to Man's imperial race,
From the green myriads in the peopled grass:
What modes of fight betwixt each wide extreme,
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam:
Of ímell, the headlong lioness between,
And hound fagacious on the tainted green :

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VER. 202. Stunn'd him with the mufic of the fpheres,] This inftance is poetical and even fublime, but misplaced. He is arguing philofophically in a cafe that required him to employ the real objects of fenfe only and, what is worse, he speaks of this as a real object-If NATURE thunder'd, etc. The cafe is different where (in ver. 253.) he speaks of the motion of the heavenly bodies under the fublime imagery of ruling Angels: For whether there be ruling Angels or no, there is real motion, which was all his argument wanted; but if there be no mufic of the Spheres, there was no real found, which his argument was obliged to find.

VER. 213. The headlong lionefs] The manner of the lions hunting their prey in the Deferts of Africa is this: At their first going

Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,
To that which warbles through the vernal wood?
The spider's touch, how exquifitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:
In the nice bee, what fenfe so subtly true
From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?
How Inftinct varies in the grov'ling fwine,
Compar'd, half-reas'ning elephant, with thine!
'Twixt that, and Reason, what a nice barrier ?
For ever sep❜rate, yet for ever near !
Remembrance and Reflection how ally'd ;

What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide?
And Middle natures, how they long to join,
Yet never pass th' infuperable line!
Without this juft gradation could they be
Subjected, thefe to thofe, or all to thee?
The pow'rs of all fubdu'd by thee alone,
Is not thy Reason all these pow'rs in one?

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VIII. See, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,

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All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high, progreffive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vaft chain of being! which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,
Beaft, bird, fish, infect, what no eye can fee,
No glass can reach; from Infinite to thee,
From thee to Nothing.-On fuperior pow'rs
Were we to prefs, inferior might on ours;

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out in the night-time they set up a loud roar, and then liften to the noife made by the beafts in their flight, purfuing them by the ear, and not by the noftril. It is probable that the ftory of the jackal's hunting for the lion, was occafioned by observation of this defect of fcent in that terrible animal.

VER. 238. Ed. ift.

VARIATIONS.

Ethereal effence, fpirit, fubftance, man..

Or in the full Creation leave a void,

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Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd:
From Nature's chain whatever link you ftrike,
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each fyftem in gradation roll
Alike effential to th' amazing Whole,
The leaft confufion but in one, not all
That fyftem only, but the Whole muft fall.
Let Earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and Suns run lawless thro' 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, 255
And Nature trembles to the throne of God.
All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm!-oh Madness! Pride! Impiety!

IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread,

Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd
Tò ferve mere engines to the ruling Mind?
Juft as abfurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame;
Just as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains
The great directing MIND of all ordains.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the foul;

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VER. 253. Let ruling Angels, etc.] The poet, throughout this poem, with great art ufes an advantage, which his employing a Platonic principle for the foundation of his Effay had afforded him and that is the expreffing himself (as here) in Platonic notions; which, luckily for his purpose, are highly poetical, at the fame time that they add a grace to the uniformity of his reafoning.

VER. 265. Just as abfurd, etc.] See the profecution and application of this in Ep. iv.

VER. 266. The great directing Mind, etc.] "Veneramur autem ❝et colimus ob dominium. Deus enim fine dominio, providentia,

et caufis finalibus, nihil aliud eft quam FATUM et ÑATURA.” Newtoni Princip. Schol. gener. fub finem.

That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame;
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame;

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Spreads undivided, operates unfpent;

Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;

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 fmall;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

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X. Cease then, nor ORDER Imperfection name: Our proper blifs depends on what we blame. Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n beftows on thee. Submit-In this, or any other sphere, Secure to be as bleft as thou canft bear: Safe in the hand of one difpofing Pow'r, Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;

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All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not fee; 290 All Difcord, Harmony not understood;

All partial Evil, univerfal Good:

And, fpite of Pride, in erring Reafon's fpite,
One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

VARIATION S.

After ver. 282. in the MS.

Reafon, to think of God, when the pretends,
Begins a Cenfor, an Adorer ends.

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE II.

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

ufe, ver. 93 to 130.

I. THE bufinefs of Man not to pry into God, but to ftudy him felf. His Middle Nature: his Powers and Frailties, ver. I to 19. The Limits of his Capacity, ver. 19, etc. II. The two Principles of Man, Self-love and Reafon, both necessary, ver. 53, etc. Self-love the ftronger, and why, ver. 67, etc. Their end the fame, ver. 81, etc. III. The PASSIONS, and their The Predominant Paffion, and its force, ver. 132 to 160. Its Neceffity, in directing Men to different purposes, ver. 165, etc. Its providential Ufe, in fixing our Principle, and ascertaining our Virtue, ver. 177. IV. Virtue and Vice joined in our mixed Nature; the limits near, yet the things feparate and evident: What is the Office of Reason, ver. 202 to 216. V. How odious Vice in itfelf, and how we deceive ourselves into it, ver. 217. VI. That, however, the Ends of Providence and general Good are anfwered in our Paffions and Imperfections, ver. 238, etc. How ufefully these are diftributed to all Orders of Men, ver. 241. How ufeful they are to Society, ver. 251. And to Individuals, ver. 263. In every ftate, and every age of life, ver. 273, etc.

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