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not from the imaginary music of the spheres. Locke's illustration of this doctrine, is not only proper, but poetical. "If our sense of hearing were but one thousand times quicker than it is, how would a perpetual noise distract us; and we should, in the quietest retirement, be less able to sleep or meditate, than in the middle of a sea-fight."

13. From the green myriads in the peopled grass
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam;

Of smell the headlong lioness between,
And hound sagacious on the tainted green :

The spider's touch how exquisitely fine,

Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.†

These lines are selected as admirable patterns of forcible diction. The peculiar and discriminating expressiveness of the epithets distinguished above by italics, will be particularly regarded. Perhaps we have no image in the language, more lively than that of the last verse. "To live along the line" is equally bold and beautiful. In this part of this Epistle the poet seems to have remarkably

* Essay on Human Understanding, vol. I. pag. 255.

+ Ver. 210.

remarkably laboured his style, which abounds in various figures, and is much elevated, POPE has practised the great secret of Virgil's art, which was to discover the very single epithet that precisely suited each occasion.

14. Without this just gradation, could they be
Subjected, these to those, or all to thee?
The pow'rs of all subdu'd by thee alone,
Is not thy reason all these pow'rs in one ?*

"Such, then, is the admirable distribution of Nature; her adapting and adjusting not only the stuff or matter to the shape and form, and even the shape itself, and form, to the circumstance, place, element, or region; but also the affections, appetites, sensations, mutually to each other, as well as the matter, form, action, and all besides; all managed for the best, with perfect frugality, and just reserve: profuse to none, but bountiful to all: never employing in one thing more than enough; but with exact economy, retrenching the superfluous, and adding force to what is principal in every thing, And is not thought and reason principal

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in man? Would we have no reserve for these? No saving for this part of his engine ?"*

15. Above, how high progressive life may go !
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Nature's æthereal, human angel, man;
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing.t

"That there should be more species of intelligent creatures above us, than there are of sensible and material below us, is probable to me from hence; that in all the visible corporeal world, we see no chasms, or gaps. All quite down from us, the descent is by easy steps, and a continued series of things, that in each remove differ very little from one another. And when we consider the infinite power and wisdom of the Maker, we have reason to think, that it is suitable to the magnificent harmony of the universe, and the great design and infinite goodness of the architect, that the species of creatures should

*The Moralists, vol. ii. pag. 199.

+ Ver. 235.

also,

also, by gentle degrees, descend to us downwards; which, if it be probable, we have reason then to be persuaded, that there are far more species of creatures above us, than there are beneath; we being in degrees of perfection, much more remote from the infinite being of God, than we are from the lowest state of being, and that which approaches nearest to nothing."

16. From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.†

This doctrine is precisely the same with that of the philosophical emperor.

17. Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains, The great directing MIND of ALL ordains.§

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* Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, vol. ii. pag. 49.

+ Ver. 245.

* Πήρεται γαρ το όλοκληρον, εαν και ότι αν διακοψης της συνάφειας και συνέχειας, ὥσπερ των μορίων, έτω δε και των αιτίων· διακοπτεις δε ὅσον επι σοι όταν δυσαρέσης, και τρόπον τινα αναιρης M. Anto ninus, Lib. v. S. 8.

§ Ver. 265.

Here, again, we must insert another noble sentiment of the same lofty writer:

As when it is said, that Esculapius hath prescribed to one a course of riding, or the cold bath, or walking bare-footed; so it may be said, that the nature presiding in the whole, hath prescribed to one a disease, a maim, a loss of a child, or such like. The word prescribed, in the former case, imports, that he enjoined it as conducing to health; and in the latter, too, whatever befals any one, is appointed as conducive to the purposes of Fate or Providence. Now there

is one grand harmonious composition of all things, M. Antoninus, B. 5,

18. All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul;

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

Warms in the sun,

Glows in the stars,

Lives thro' all life,

Spreads undivided,

refreshes in the breeze,

and blossoms in the trees;

extends thro' all extent,
operates unspent ;

Breathes in our soul, 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;

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