Let ruling Angels from their spheres be hurl'd, All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for thee? IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread, Or hand, to toil, afpir'd to be the head? 260 To serve mere engines to the ruling Mind? To be another, in this gen'ral frame: Juft as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains 265 NOTES. greffive and attractive motions: which like equal weights in a balance, keep it in an equilibre. VER. 253. Let ruling Angels, &c.] 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 himfelf (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 reasoning. VER. 259. What if the foot, &c.] This fine illuftration in defence of the Syftem of Nature, is taken from St. Paul, who employed it to defend the Syftem of Grace. VER 265. Just as abfurd, &c.] See the prosecution and application of this in Ep. iv. P. VER 266. The great directing mind, &c.] "Veneramur autem et colimus ob dominium. Deus enim fine do All are but parts of one ftupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the foul; r NOTES. minio, providentia, et caufis finalibus, nihil aliud eft quam FATUM et NATURA." Newtoni Princip. Schol. gener. fub finem. VER. 268. Whose body Nature is, &c.] A certain examiner remarks, on this line, that " A Spinozift would ex"prefs himself in this Manner." I believe he would, and fo, we know, would St. Paul too, when writing on the fame fubject, namely the omniprefence of God in his Providence, and in his Subftance. In him we live and move, and have our being, i. e. we are parts of him, his offSpring, as the Greek poet, a pantheift quoted by the Apoitle, obferves: And the reafon is, because a religious theift and an impious pantheist both profess to believe the omniprefence of God. But would Spinoza, as Mr. Pope does, call God the great directing Mind of all, who hath intentionally created a perfect Universe? Or would a Spinozift have told us, The workman from the work diftinct was known, a line that overturns all Spinozifm from its very foundations. But this fublime defcription of the Godhead contains not only the divinity of St Paul; but, if that will not fatisfy the men he writes againft, the philosophy likewise of Sir Ifaac Newton. The poet fays, All are but parts of one ftupendous whole, That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same ; Warms in the fun, as in th' æthereal frame refreshes in the breeze, ; Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees, That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame; Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame; NOTES. Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent, 270 The Philofopher :- "In ipfo continentur et moventur uni"verfa, fed abfque mutua paffione. Deus nihil patitur ex corporum motibus; illa nullam fentiunt refiftentiam ex "omnipræfentia Dei-Corpore omni et figura corporea "deftituitur.-Omnia regit et omnia cognofcit.-Cum "unaquæque Spatii particula fit femper, et unumquodque Durationis indivifibile momentum, ubique certe rerum omnium Fabricator ac Dominus non erit nunquam, nufquam.' 66 Mr. Pope : Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part, ; Sir Ifaac Newton :-" Annon ex phænomenis conftat "effe entem incorporeum, viventem, intelligentem,omnipræfentem, qui in fpatio infinito, tanquam fenforio fuo, res ipfas intime cernat, penitufque perfpiciat, totafque "intra fe præfens præfentes complectatur." 66 But now admitting, there was an ambiguity in these expreffions, fo great, that a Spinozist might employ them to express his own particular principles; and fuch a thing might well be, because the Spinozifts, in order to hide the impiety of their principle, are wont to exprefs the Omniprefence of God in terms that any religious Theift might employ. In this cafe, I fay, how are we to judge of the Warms in the fun, refreshes in.the breeze, Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees, Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part, 275 As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; As full, as perfect, in vile Man that mourns, NOTES. poet's meaning? Surely by the whole tenor of his arguinent. Now take the words in the fenfe of the Spinozifts, and he'is made, in the conclufion of his epiftle, to overthrow all he has been advancing throughout the body of it: For Spinozifm is the deftruction of an Universe, where every things tends, by a foreseen contrivance in all its parts, to the perfection of the whole. But allow him to employ the paffage in the fenfe of St. Paul, That we and all creatures live and move and have our being in God; and then it will be seen to be the most logical fupport of all that had preceded. For the poet having, as we fay, laboured through his epiftle to prove, that every thing in the Universe tends, by a forefeen contrivance, and fent direction of all its parts, to the perfection of the whole; it might be objected, that fuch a difpofition of things implying in God a painful, operofe, and inconceivable extent of Providence, it could not be supposed that such care extended to all, but was confined to the more noble parts of the creation. This grofs conception of the First Cause the poet exposes, by fhewing that God is equally and intimately present to every particle of Matter, to every fort of Subftance, and in every instant of Being. pre VER. 278. As the rapt Seraph, &c.] Alluding to the Name Seraphim, fignifying burners. To him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. 280 X. Ceafe then, nor ORDER Imperfection name: Our proper blifs depends on what we blame. Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree VARIATIONS. After 282. in the MS. Reason, to think of God when the pretends, NOTES. VER. 281. Ceafe then, nor Order] That the reader may see in one view the Exactness of the Method, as well as Force of the Argument, I fhall here draw up a short fynopfis of this Epiftle. The poet begins by telling us his fubject is an Effay on Man: That his end of writing is to vindicate Providence: That he intends to derive his arguments, from the visible things of God feen in this fyftem: Lays down this Propofition, That of all poffible fyftems infinite Wifdom has form'd the beft: draws from thence two Confequences, 1. That there must needs be fomewhere fuch a creature as Man; 2. That the moral Evil which he is author of is productive of the Good of the Whole. This is his general Thefis; from whence he forms this Conclufion, That Man fhould reft fubmissive and content, and make the hopes of Futurity his comfort; but not fuffer this to be the occafion of PRIDE, which is the cause of all his impious complaints. He proceeds to confirm his Thefis-Previously endear yours to abate our wonder at the phænomenon of moral |