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Each beast, each infect, happy in its own:

Is Heaven unkind to Man, and Man alone?
Shall he alone, whom rational we call,

Be pleas'd with nothing, if not bleft with all ?
The blifs of Man (could Pride that bleffing find)
Is not to act or think beyond mankind;

No powers of body or of foul to fhare,

But what his nature and his ftate can bear.
Why has not Man a microscopic eye?

For this plain reason, Man is not a Fly.

185

190

Say what the ufe, were finer optics given,

195

T' infpect a mite, not comprehend the heaven?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,

To smart and agonize at every pore?

Or quick effluvia darting through the brain,
Die of a rofe in aromatic pain?

200

If nature thunder'd in his opening ears,

And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,
How would he wish that Heaven had left him ftill
The whispering Zephyr, and the purling rill !
Who finds not Providence all good and wife,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies ?

VII. Far as Creation's ample range extends,
The scale of fenfual, mental powers afcends :
Mark how it mounts to Man's imperial race,
From the green myriads in the peopled grafs ;
What modes of fight betwixt each wide extreme,
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam :
Of smell, the headlong lionefs between,
And hound fagacious on the tainted green :

205

210

Of

Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,
To that which warbles through the vernal wood?
The spider's touch, how exquifitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:
In the nice bee, what fenfe fo fubtly true
From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew :
How Inftinct varies in the groveling fwine,
Compar'd, half-reafoning elephant, with thine!
'Twixt that, and Reafon, what a nice barrier!
For ever separate, yet for ever near!

Remembrance and Reflection how allied;

What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide!
And Middle natures, how they long to join,
Yet never pass th' infuperable line!
Without this just gradation, could they be
Subjected, these to thofe, or all to thee?
The powers of all fubdued by thee alone,
Is not thy Reafon all these powers in one?

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220

225

230

VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and this

earth,

All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high, progreffive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vaft chain of being! which from God began,
Natures æthereal, human, angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, infect, what no eye can see,
No glafs can reach; from Infinite to thee,

235

240 From

Ver. 238. Ed. ift.

VARIATION.

Ethereal effence, fpirit, fubftance, man.

From thee to Nothing.-On superior powers

Were we to prefs, inferior might on ours;

Or in the full Creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great scale's deftroy'd :

From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each fyftem in gradation roll
Alike effential to th' amazing Whole,
The leaft confusion but in one, not all

245

That fyftem only, but the Whole must fall.
Let Earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and Suns run lawless through the sky;
Let ruling Angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on Being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And Nature trembles to the throne of God.
All this dread Order break--for whom? for thee?
Vile worm !-oh Madness! Pride! Impiety!

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255

IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread,

Or hand, to toil, afpir'd to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear, repin'd
To ferve mere engines to the ruling Mind?
Juft as abfurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this general frame:
Juft as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains
The great directing Mind of all ordains.

All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the foul;
That, chang'd through all, and yet in all the same;
Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame;

260

265

270 Warms

Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees,
Lives through all life, extends through all extent;
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent;

Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;

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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.
X. Ceafe then, nor Order Imperfection name:
Our proper blifs depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: This kind, this due degrce
Of blindness, weaknefs, Heaven beftows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as bleft as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one difpofing Power,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;

275

280

285

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not fee; 290

All Difcord, Harmony not understood :

All partial Evil, universal Good.

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

VARIATION.

After ver. 282. in the MS.

Reason, to think of God, when she pretends,

Begins a Cenfor, an Adorer ends.

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ARGUMENT OF

EPISTLE II.

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

I. THE bufiness of Man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His Middle Nature: his Powers and Frailties, ver. 1 to 19. The Limits of his Capacity, ver. 19, &c. II. The two Principles of Man, Self-love and Reason, both neceffary, ver. 53, &c. Self-love the stronger, and why, ver. 67, &c. Their end the fame, ver. 81, &c. III. The Paffions, and their ufe, ver. 93 to 130. The Predominant Paffion, and its force, ver. 132 to 160. Its Neceffity, in directing Men to different purposes, ver. 165, &c. Its providential Use, in fixing our Principle, and afcertaining our Virtue, ver. 177. IV. Virtue and Vice joined in our mixed Nature; the limits near, yet the things feparate and evident: What is the Office of Reason, ver. 202 to 216. V. How odious Vice in itfelf, and how we deceive ourselves into it, ver. 217. VI. That, however, the Ends of Providence and general Good are answered in our Paffions and Imperfections, ver. 238, &c. How usefully these are diftributed to all Orders of Men, ver. 241. How ufeful they are to Society, ver. 251. And to Individuals, ver. 263. In every ftate, and every age of life, ver. 273, &c.

EPISTLE

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