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

NOTES.

270

a line that overturns all Spi- | of St Paul; but, if that nozism from it's very foundations.

But this fublime defcription of the Godhead contains not only the divinity

will not fatisfy the men he writes againft, the philofophy likewife of Sir Ifaac Newton.

The poet fays,

All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,
Whofe body Nature is, and God the foul,
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame,
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame,.
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent.

The Philofopher :- In ipfo | deftituitur.-Omnia regit & continentur & moventur uni- omnia cognofcit.—Cum unaverfa, fed abfque mutua paf- quæque Spatii particula fit fione. Deus nihil patitur ex femper, & unumquodque Ducorporum motibus ; illa nul- rationis indivifibile momenlam fentiunt refiftentiam ex tum, ubique, certe rerum omomnipræfentia Dei.-Corpo- nium Fabricator ac Dominus re omni & figura corporea non erit nunquam, nufquam.

Mr Pope :
Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair, as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile Man that
As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns:
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

mourns,

Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees,

NOTES.

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 complecta

tur.

overthrow all he has been advancing throughout the body of it: For Spinozifm is the deftruction of an Universe, where every thing tends, by a foreseen contrivance in all it's parts, to the perfection of the whole. But allow him to employ the paffage in the sense of St Paul, That we and all creatures live, and move, and have our being in God; and then it will be feen to be the most logical support 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 foreseen contrivance, and a prefent direction of all it's parts, to the perfection of the whole; it might be ob

But now admitting, for argument's fake, there was an ambiguity in these expreffions, fo great, as 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 used to exprefs the Omniprefence of God in terms that any reli gious Theift might employ. In this cafe, I fay, how arejected, that fuch a dispofiwe to judge of the poet's tion of things implying in meaning? Surely by the God a painful, operofe, and whole tenor of his argu- inconceivable extent of Proment. Now take the words vidence, it could not be fupin the fenfe of the Spino- pofed that such care extendzists, and he is made, in the ed to all, but was confined conclufion of his epiftle, to to the more noble parts of

Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,

Spreads undivided, operates unspent ;

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,
As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns :

To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. 280

X. Cease then, nor ORDER Imperfection name:
Our proper blifs depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n beftows on thee.
Submit.In this, or any other fphere,

Secure to be as bleft as thou canft bear:
Safe in the hand of one difpofing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

VARIATIONS.

After 282. in the MS.

Reason, to think of God when she pretends,
Begins a Cenfor, an Adorer ends.

NOTES.

the creation. This grofs conception of the First Caufe the poet exposes, by fhewing that God is equally and intimately present to every particle of Matter, to every

285

fort of Subftance, and in every instant of Being.

VER. 278. As the rapt Seraph, &c.] Alluding to the name Seraphim, fignifying burners.

All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not fee; All Difcord, Harmony not understood;

All partial Evil, univerfal Good:

291

And, fpite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite, One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, is RIGHT.

ARGUMENT OF

EPISTLE II.

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Himself, as an Individual.

I. THE bufinefs of Man not to pry into God, but to Study himself. His Middle Nature; his Powers and Frailties, 1 to 19. The Limits of his Capacity,

19, &c. II. The two Principles of Man, Selflove and Reafon, both necessary, 53, &c. Selflove the ftronger, and why, 67, &c. Their end the fame, 81, &c. III. The PASSIONS, and their ufe, 93 to 130. The predominant Paffion, and it's force, 132 to 160. It's Neceffity, in directing Men to different purposes, 165, &c. It's providential Ufe, in fixing our Principle, and afcertaining our Virtue, 177. IV. Virtue and Vice joined in our mixed Nature; the limits near, yet the things separate and evident: What is the Office of Reafon,

202 to 216. V. How odious Vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it, 217. VI. That, however, the Ends of Providence and general Good are answered in our Paffions and Imperfections,

238, &c. How ufefully these are diftributed to all Orders of Men, 241. How useful they are to Society, 251. And to the Individuals, 263. In every state, and every age of life, * 273, &c.