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should in the quieteft retirement, be lefs able to fleep or meditate, than in the middle of a fea-fight."

13. From the green myriads in the peopled grass-
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam;
Of smell the headlong lionefs between,

And hound fagacious on the tainted green:
The spider's touch how exquifitely fine,

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

THESE lines are felected as admirable

patterns of forcible dict on. The peculiar and difcriminating expreffiveness 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 Epiftle the poet seems to have remarkably laboured his ftyle, which abounds in various figures, and is much elevated. POPE has practifed the great fecret of Virgil's art, which was to discover the very fingle epithet that precisely suited each occafion.

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14. Without this juft gradation, could they be
Subjected, these to thofe, or all to thee?
The pow'rs of all fubdu'd by thee alone,
Is not thy reafon all these pow'rs in one * ?

"Such then is the admirable diftribution of nature, her adapting and adjusting not only the ftuff or matter to the shape and form, and even the fhape itself and form, to the circumftance, place, element, or region; but also the affections, appetites, fenfations, mutually to each other, as well as the matter, form, action, and all befides; all managed for the best, with perfect frugality and just referve: profufe to none, but bountiful to all: never employing in one thing more than enough; but with exact œconomy retrenching the fuperfluous, and adding force to what is principal in every thing. And is not thought and reafon principal in man? Would we have no referve for these? No faving for this part of his engine +†?"

* Ver. 229.

The Moralifts, vol. ii. pag. 199.

15. Above,

15. Above, how high, progreffive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vaft chain of being! which from God began,
Natures ætherial, human, angel, man,
Beaft, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing *.

"THAT there fhould be more fpecies of intelligent creatures above us, than there are of fenfible and material below us, is probable to me from hence; that in all the vifible corporeal world, we fee 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 confider the infinite power and wisdom of the maker, we have reafon to think, that it is fuitable to the magnificent harmony of the universe, and the great design and infinite goodness of the architect, that the fpecies of creatures should also, by gentle degrees, defcend to us downwards: which if it be probable, we have reason thẹn to

* Ver. 235.

be

be perfuaded, 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 ftrike, Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike †.

THIS doctrine is precisely the fame with that of the philosophical emperor ‡.

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

Here again we must infert another noble fentiment of the fame lofty writer,

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

† Ver. 245.

1 Πηρεται γαρ το όλοκληροι, αν και ότι αν διακοψης της συνάφειας και συνέχειας, ώσπερ των μορίων, έτω δε και των αιτίων· διακοπτεις δε όσον επί σοι όταν δυσα ρεσης, και τροπον τινα αναιρής. 6. 8,

§ Ver. 265.

M. Antoninus, Lib. v.

As, when it is faid, that, Æsculapius hath prescribed to one a course of riding, or the cold bath, or walking bare-footed; fo it may be faid, that the nature presiding in the whole, hath prescribed to one a disease, a maim, a lofs of a child, or fuch like. The word prescribed, in the former cafe, 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.compofition of all things. M. Antoninus, B. 5,

18. All are but parts of one stupendous whole,

Whose body nature is and God the foul;

That chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same
Great in the earth, as in th' ætheriai frame;
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars, and bioffoms in the trees;
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent;
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 mourns,

As the rapt feraph that adores and burns:
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals ali

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