15. Above, how high, progreffive life may go! 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 feries 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 reason to think, that it is fuitable to the magnificent harmony of the univerfe, and the great defign 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 reafon then 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 strike, Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike t. THIS doctrine is precisely the fame with that of the philofophical emperor ‡. 17. Juft as abfurd, 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. Η Γηρεται γαρ το ολόκληρον, εαν και ότι εν διακοψης της συνάφειας και συνέχειας, ώσπερ των μορίων, έτω δε και των αιτίων διακοπτεις δε όσον επι σοι όταν δυσα ρεσης, και τρόπον τινα αναιρής. M. Antoninus, Lib. v. S. 8. § Ver. 265. As, As, when it is faid, that, Æfculapius hath prescribed to one a course of riding, or the cold bath, or walking bare-footed; fo it may be faid, that the nature prefiding in the whole, hath prefcribed 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 compofition of all things. M. Antoninus, B. 18. All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is and God the foul; Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent, As full as perfect in vile man that mourns, * Ver. 267. 5. WHILST WHILST I am tranfcribing this exalted description of the omniprefence of the Deity, I feel myfelf almoft tempted to retract an affertion in the beginning of this work, that there is nothing transcendently fublime in POPE. Thefe lines have all the energy and harmony that can be given to rhyme. They bear fo marvellous a fimilitude to the old Orphic verfes quoted in the valuable treatife Περι Κοσμs, that I cannot forbear introducing them, as they are curious and fublime. Ζευς πρώτος γενετο, Ζευς ύσ]αλος αρκικεραυνος Ζευς κεφαλη, Ζευς μεσσα· Διος δ' εκ παντα τευχταπό Ζευς αρσην γενείο, Ζευς αμβροτος επλέίο νυμφη. NOR have we a lefs example of fublimity in the three preceding lines, which defcribe the univerfal confufion that muft enfue, * Αρισοτέλης Περι Κοσμο, pag. 378. edit. Lugduni. fol. 1590. upon upon any alteration made in the entire and coherent plan of the creation. Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly, IT is very obfervable that these noble lines were added after the first edition. It is a pleafing amufement to trace out the alterations that a great writer gradually makes in his works. Many other parts of this epiftle have been judiciously amended and improved. At first it ran, How inftinct varies! what a hog may want And again; What the advantage, if his finer eyes Which lines at prefent ftand thus, How inftinct varies in the grovling fwine, |