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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 Reason, what a nice barrier!
For ever separate, yet for ever near!

Remembrance and Reflection how allied;

What thin partitions Senfe from Thought divide!
And Middle natures, how they long to join,

Yet never país th' infuperable line!
Without this juft 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 ethereal, human, angel, man,
Beaft, bird, fish, infect, what no eye can fee,
No glafs can reach; from Infinite to thee,

VARIATION.

Ver. 238, Ed. 1.

Ethereal effence, fpirit, fubftance, man.

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240

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From thee to Nothing.-On fuperior 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 destroy'd:

From Nature's chain whatever link you ftrike,
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.

245

And, if each fyftem in gradation roll Alike effential to th' amazing Whole, The leaft confufion but in one, not all

That fyftem only, but the Whole must fall.
Let Earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and Suns run lawless through the fky;
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.

250

255

All this dread Order break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm!-oh Madnefs! Pride! Impiety!

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 fame;
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame;

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265

270 Warms

Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,

Glows in the stars, 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;

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 fmall;
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 degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee,
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as bleft as thou.canft 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;

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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.

Reafon, to think of God, when the pretends,

Begins a Cenfor, an Adorer ends.

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ARGUMENT OF

EPISTLE
TLE II.

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

ufe, ver. 93 to 130.

I. THE business of Man not to pry into God, but to ftudy himfelf. 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 ftronger, and why, ver. 67, &c. Their end the fame, ver. 81, &c. III. The Paffions, and their The Predominant Paffion, and its force, ver. 132 to 160. Its Neceffity, in directing Men to different purposes, ver. 165, &c. Its providential Ufe, 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 Reafon, ver. 202 to 216. V. How odious Vice in itself, 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 state, and every age of life, ver. 273, &c.

EPISTLE

K

EPISTLE

II.

NOW then thyself, prefume not God to scan,
The proper ftudy of Mankind is Man.

Plac'd on this ifthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wife, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic fide,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or reft;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason fuch,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of Thought and Paffion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd or difabus'd;
Created half to rife, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd:
The glory, jeft, and riddle of the world!

5

10

15

Go, wondrous creature! mount where Science guides, Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;

20

Inftruct

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 2. Ed. ft.

The only fcience of Mankind is Man.

After ver. 18, in the MS.

For more perfection than this ftate can bear
In vain we figh, Heaven made us as we are.
As wifely fure a modest Ape might aim
To be like Man, whofe faculties and frame

He

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