who are Witneffes of it in others. If Nature deviates from what Men defire, Why Should

not Men deviate from what God demands? I anfwer, that Men are free and active Beings, who, 'tis true, have no Right to do it, but yet have a Power of deviating from the Ways which are prefcribed to them, may add fecond Faults to the firft, and crown their Disobedience with Rebellion, Nature

➖➖➖➖➖ as much ---- a conftant Course requires
Of Show'rs and Sun-shine, as of Man's Defires;
As much eternal Springs, and cloudlefs Skies,
As Man for ever temp'rate, calm and wife.

A CONTINUAL Spring, and Skies for ever cloudlefs, would be fatal to the Earth and its Inhabitants; but can it be look'd upon as an Evil, that Men fhould be for ever temperate, calm, and wife? I can fee no Justice in this Comparison, and the Fire of Poetry must have carry'd Mr Pope far beyond thofe Bounds wherein. Profe requires that Reafon fhould be confin'd.

If Plagues or Earthquakes break not Heav'n's Defign,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?
I 3

THESE

THESE Words have no Senfe but in the Leibnitzian Syftem, which confounds Moral with Phyfical, and in which all that we call Pleasures, Pains, Contentment, Inquietudes, Wisdom, Virtues, Truths, Errors, Vices, Crimes, Abominations, are the inevitable Confequences of a Concatenation, either eternal, or as ancient as the World; but it is this very Thing that renders this System fo fhocking, that the bare propofing of it is fufficient to make good People tremble. 'Tis very great Matter of Mortification to Human Nature, that this Syftem was invented by one Man, and adopted by many others.

Better for us perhaps it might appear,

Were there all Harmony, all Virtue here ;
That never Air or Ocean felt the Wind,
That never Paffion difcompos'd the Mind.
But all fubfifts by Elemental Strife,
And Paffions are the Elements of Life.

THESE laft Words feem to me to be a ftrong Proof that Mr Pope's Design is to overthrow Fatalism, and fhew all the Impertinence of it. For is it poffible that a Poet, whofe Genius has ren

der'd

der'd him fo celebrated, would condefcend to write for the moft uncultivated Minds, which have nothing but confused Ideas, who know nothing but what the Prejudices of the Senses teach them, and who are ready to give themselves up to the most difproportionate Comparisons, provided they be confidently proposed, and contain a Collection of high Words?

IN corporeal Nature there is not one little Mass that is perfectly fimple, all are compofed of little Particles which are called elementary; their Mixture is followed by Fermentations, fometimes weak, and fometimes ftronger, which diminish thefe Particles ftill more. Thus divided, and thus agitated, they ferve for the Nourishment and Increase of organical Bodies; and it is to this Increase that we give the Name of Life. Have the Paffions any thing in common with thefe Particles? Do their Mixture and Conflict ferve for Nourishment to the Thinking Substance, and conftitute its Life? I love Poetry, as you know, Sir: I feel the Influence of Mr Pope's, even thro' a Profe Translation; but I confefs to you, that if

his

his Work pleases me in general, there are fome Places in it which mortify me, and This in a very particular Manner. I give into what enlightens me, but diffent from that which does nothing but dazzle. This laft is the Effect of fophiftical Comparifons, and Words without Meaning or Senfe.

MR Pope, at the 164th Verfe, introduces a Madman upon the Stage, and afks,

What wou'd this Man? Now upwards will be foar,
And little less than Angel, would be more ;
Now looking downwards, just as griev'd appears.
To want the Strength of Bulls, the Fur of Bears.

AND after having put the whimsical Imaginations of this Madman into Verfe, he concludes that

The Blifs of Man (could Pride that Blessing find)
Is not to act or think beyond Mankind;
No Pow'rs of Body or of Soul to Share,
But what his Nature and his State can bear.

THERE is Truth in this Thought, but we must not stretch it too far. We ought to live in a Refignation to our Condition, though

though our Knowledge is bounded, and our Virtue imperfect. But this Refignation is very far from an Indolence, which keeps us quiet in our Ignorance and its Confequences, and takes away from us the Thought of endeavouring to get clear of it, to diffipate it by little and little, and to render ourselves perfect by Degrees. This is not a rash Enterprize, our' Nature is capable of it; this is not Pride, but Duty: We are under an Obligation of behaving ourselves, of thinking and acting conformably to that Nature we have received. The Plants grow, our Soul too may grow in Knowledge and Virtue. The Growth of Plants is an Effect of external Caufes, but that which thinks in us, has a Power of acting upon itself.

ALL that Mr Pope adds, verfe 185, &c. leads us naturally to conclude with him,

Who finds not Providence all good and wife;
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?

IN fome of the following Verfes, Mr Pope defcribes, with a great deal of Elegance, the Gradations of Beings, which

God