Together let us beat this ample field,

10.

Try what the open, what the covert yield;
The laten tracts, the giddy heights, explore
Of all who blindly creep, or fightless 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 ; 15
But vindicate the ways of God to Man.

I. Say firft, of God above, or Man below,
What can we reafon, but from what we know?
Of Man, what fee we but his station here,
From which to reason, or to which refer?

NOTES.

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VER. 12. Of all who blindly creep, &c.] i. e. Those who only follow the blind guidance of their Paffions; or those who leave behind them common fenfe and fober reafon, in their high flights through the regions of Metaphyfies. Both which follies are expofed in the fourth epiftle, where the popular and philofophical errors concerning Happiness are detected. The figure is taken from animal Life.

VER. 15. Laugh where we muft, &c.] Intimating that human follies are fo ftrangely abfurd, that it is not in the power of the most compaffionate, on fome occafions, to reftrain their mirth: And that human crimes are fo flagitious, that the most candid have seldom an opportunity, on this fubject, to exercise their virtue.

VER. 19, 20, Of Man, what fee we but his ftation here, From which to reafon, or to which refer?] the fenfe is, We fee nothing of Man, but as he ftands at prefent in his ftation here: From which ftation, all our reasonings on bis nature and end must be drawn; and to this ftation they

Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known,

'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. He, who thro' vaft immensity can pierce,

See worlds on worlds compofe one universe,

Obferve how fyftem into fyftem runs,

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What other planets circle other funs,

What vary'd Being peoples ev'ry ftar,

May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are.
But of this frame, the bearings, and the ties,
The ftrong connexions, nice dependencies,
Gradations juft, has thy pervading foul
Look'd thro'? or can a part contain the whole?
Is the great chain, that draws all to agree,
And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee?

NOTES.

30

mufl be all referred. The confequence is, all our reafonings on his nature and end must needs be very imperfect.

VER. 21. Thro' worlds unnumber'd, &c.] Hunc cognofcimus folummodo per Proprietates fuas & Attributa, & per fapientiffimas & optimas rerum ftructuras & caufas finales. Newtoni Princ. Schol. gen. fub fin.

VER. 30. The ftrong connexions, nice dependencies,] The thought is very noble, and expreffed with great philofophic beauty and exactnefs. The fyftem of the Universe is a combination of natural and moral Fitnesses, as the human fyftem is, of body and fpirit. By the ftrong connexions, there, fore, the Poet alluding to the natural part; and by the nice dependencies to the moral. For the Essay on man is not a fyftem of Naturalism, but of natural Religion. Hence it is, that, where he fuppofes diforders may tend to fome greater

II. Prefumptuous Man! the reason wouldst thou find, Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind? 36 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 stronger than the weeds they fhade? 40 Or ask of yonder argent fields above,

Why Jove's Satellites are lefs than Jove?

Of Syftems poffible, if 'tis confeft

That Wisdom infinite muft form the best,
Where all muft full or not coherent be,
And all that rifes, rife in due degree;

NOTES.

45

good in the natural world, he supposes they may tend likewife to fome greater good in the moral, as appears from thefe fublime images in the following lines,

If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's defign, Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?

Who knows, but he, whofe hand the light'ning forms, Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the ftorms: Pours fierce ambition in a Cæfar's mind,

'Or turns young Ammon loose to fcourge Mankind?

VER: 35 to 42.] In these lines the poet has joined the beauty of argumentation to the fublimity of thought; where the fimilar inftances, propofed for his adverfaries examination, fhew as well the abfurdity of their complaints against Order, as the fruitleness of their enquiries into the arcana of the Godhead.

Then in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain,
There must be, fomewhere, fuch a rank as Man:
And all the question (wrangle e'er so long)
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?

Respecting Man, whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to all.
In human works, tho' labour'd on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;
In God's, one fingle can its end produce;
Yet ferves to fecond too fome other use.

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

59

55

60

When the proud fteed fhall know why Man restrains

His fiery course, or drives him o'er 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 dulnefs comprehend 65
His actions', paffions', being's, use and end

VARIATIONS.

In the former Editions, ver. 64.

Now wears a garland, an Egyptian God: altered as above for the reason given in the note.

NOTES.

VER. 64.-Egypt's God] Called fo, because the God Apis was worshiped univerfally over the whole land.

Why doing, fuff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why This hour a flave, the next a deity.

Then say not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought:

70

His knowledge measur'd to his state and place;

His time a moment, and a point his space.

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. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prefcib'd, their prefent state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could fuffer Being here below?

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to day,
Had he thy reafon, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the laft, he crops the flow'ry food,
And licks the hand juft rais'd to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n:

VARIATIONS,

After ver. 68. the following lines in the first Ed.

If to be perfect in a certain fphere,
What matters oon or late. or here or there?
The bleft to day is as completely fo,

As who began ten thousand years ago.

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