What vary'd Being peoples every star, May tell, why Heav'n has made us as we are. Look'd thro'? or can a part contain the whole? 30 II. Prefumptuous man! the reafon wouldft thou find, 35 Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind? First, if thou canft, the harder reason guess, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no lefs? Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or ftronger than the weeds they shade? 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, 45 Then, in the fcale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain, There must be, fome where, fuch a rank as Man; And all the question (wrangle e'er fo long) Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong? 50 Refpecting man, whatever wrong we call, May, must be right, as relative to all. In human works, though labour'd on with pain, A thoufand movements fcarce one purpofe gain; 55 Yet ferves to fecond too fome other use. So Man, who here feems principal alone, 60 When the proud fteed shall know why Man restrains Then fay not Man's imperfect, heav'n in fault; 65 70 What matter, foon or late, or here or there? As who began a thousand years ago. III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, 75 All but the page prefcrib'd, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what fpirits know: 80 The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play? 85 Who fees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 190 Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar; Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore. · Hope fprings eternal in the human breast: * Man never. Is, but always To be bleft: Lo, the poor Indian! whofe untutor'd mind Where slaves once more their native land behold, 95 100 105 He asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire; But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company. IV. Go, wifer thou! and, in the fcale of fenfe, Say, here he gives too little, there too much: In Pride, in reas'ning Pride, our error lies; 120 125 Afpiring to be Angels, Men rebel; And who but wishes to invert the laws Of ORDER, fins against th'Eternal Cause. V. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, Earth for whofe ufe? Pride anfwers, "Tis for mine: رو For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow'r, Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev'ry flow'r; Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew "The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; „For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings; For me, health gushes from a thousand fprings; Seas roll to waft me, funs to light me rife; "My foot-ftool earth, my canopy the skies." رو But errs not nature from this gracious end, » Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws; Th'exceptions few; fome change fince all began: And what created perfect? Why then Man? If the great end be human Happiness, Then Nature deviates; and can Man do lefs? 130 135 140 145 150 As much that end a conftant course requires Of show'rs and fun-shine, as of Man's defires; As much eternal fprings and cloudless skies, As Men for ever temp'rate, calm and wife. If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's defign, 155 Who knows but he, whofe hand the light'ning forms, 169 Why charge we Heav'n in thofe, in these acquit? Better for Us, perhaps, it might appear, 165 170 The gen'ral ORDER, fince the whole began, Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man. VI. What would this Man? Now upward will he foar, And little less than Angel, would be more; Now looking downwards, juft as griev'd appears 175 To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears. Nature to these, without profusion, kind, 180 Here with degrees of fwiftnefs, there of force; Nothing to add, and nothing to abate. Each beast, each infect, happy in its own: 185 Be pleas'd with nothing, if not blefs'd with all? The blifs of Man (could Pride that blefling find) Is not to act or think beyond mankind; 190 No pow'rs of body or of foul to share, But what his nature and his ftate can bear. Why has not Man a microfcopic eye? 195 |