Say what the use, were finer optics giv❜n, T' infpect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n. Formerly it stood, No felf-confounding faculties to fhare; At prefent, No pow'rs of body or of foul to fhare, It appeared at first, Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man, We read at present, A mighty maze! but not without a plan. 19. Submit.In this, or any other sphere, I cannot refift the pleasure of illuftrating this fentiment in the words of a writer, whose friendship I efteem to be no finall happiness and honour. "Teach us each to regard himself, but as a part of this * Ver. 285. great great whole; a part which for its welfare we are as patiently to refign, as we refign a fingle limb for the welfare of our whole body. Let our life be a continued fcene of acquiefcence and of gratitude; of gratitude, for what we enjoy; of acquiefcence, in what we fuffer; as both can only be referable to that concatenated order of events, which cannot but be beft, as being by thee approved and chofen *." 20. All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction which thou canst not fee; All partial evil, univerfal good †. THIS is the doctrine that reigns throughout the lofty hymn of Cleanthes the Stoic, particularly in thefe beautiful and mafculine verses. Ουδε τι γιγνεται έργον επι χθονι σε διχα Δαίμων, *Three Treatifes by James Harris, Efq; pag. 231 + Ver 289. Ωδε Ω δε γαρ εἰς ἐν ἁπαν]α συνηρμοκας εσθλα κακοισιν, Thus tranflated by Mr. West For nor in earth, nor earth-encircling floods, 21. Chaos of thought and paffion, all confus'd; Created half to rife, and half to fall; It was remarked long ago in the Adventurer, that thefe reflexions were minutely copied from Pafcal, who fays; * Hymn. apud Hen. Steph. pag. 49. See to this purpose a fine paffage in Plutarch de Animi Tranquillit. in vol. ii. pag. 473, 474. fol. Francfourti, 1620. Particularly the paffage of Euripides there quoted. + Epift. ii. v. 13. No. 63. "What "What a chimera then is man! what a confused chaos! what a fubject of contradiction! a profeffed judge of all things, and yet a feeble worm of the earth! The great depofitary and guardian of truth, and yet a mere huddle of uncertainty! the glory and the scandal of the universe." 22. Superior beings when of late they faw A mortal man unfold all nature's law, THE author of the letter on the Marks of imitation, is induced to think, from the fingularity of this sentiment, that the great poet had his eye on Plato, ότι ανθρωπων ὁ σοφωτατος προς θεον πίθηκος φανείται. But I am more inclined to think that POPE borrowed it from a paffage in the zodiac of Palingenius, which the abovementioned Adventurer has also quoted, and which POPE, who was a reader of the poets of Palingenius's age, fome of whom he publifhed, was more likely to fall upon, than on this thought of Plato. * Ver. 34 Simia cœlicolûm risusque jocufque deorum eft; Tunc homo, quum temerè ingenio confidit, et audet 23. Trace science then, with modefty thy guide; Or tricks to fhew the ftretch of human brain, THE abufes of learning are enumerated with brevity and elegance, in these few lines. It was a favourite subject with our author; and it is faid, he intended to have written four epistles on it, wherein he would have treated of the extent and limits of human reason, of arts and sciences useful and attainable, of the different capacities of different men, of the knowledge of the world, and of wit. Such cenfures, even of the most unimportant parts of literature, fhould not, however, be carried too far and a fenfible writer obferves, that there * Ver. 43. There is fome obfcurity in this line, occafioned by omitting the relative. |