THE

DESIG

N.

AVING propofed to write fome pieces on

H Human Life and Manners, fuch as (to ufe my

Lord Bacon's expreffion) come home to Mens Bufinefs and Bofoms, I thought it more fatisfactory to begin with. confidering Man in the abftract, his Nature and his State; fince, to prove any moral Duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is neceffary first to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its being.

The science of Human Nature is, like all other scien ces, reduced to a few clear points: There are not many certain truths in this world. It is therefore in the Anatomy of the Mind, as in that of the Body; more good will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible parts, than by studying too much fuch finer nerves and veffels, the conformations and uses of which will for ever escape our obfervation. The difputes are all upon these last, and I will venture. to fay, they have lefs fharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other, and have diminished the practice, more than advanced the theory, of Morality. If I could flatter myself that this Effay has any merit,. it is in fteering betwixt the extremes of doctrines feemingly oppofite, in paffing over terms utterly unintelli

gible, and in forming a temperate yet not inconfiftent, and a short yet not imperfect system of Ethics.

This I might have done in profe; but I chose verse, and even rhyme, for two reasons. The one will ap- pear obvious; that principles, maxims, or precepts fo written, both strike the reader more strongly at first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards: The other may seem odd, but is true; I found I could exprefs them more shortly this way than in prose itself; and nothing is more certain, than that much of the force, as well as grace of arguments or instructions, depends on their concifeness. I was unable to treat this part of my fubject more in detail, without becoming dry and tedious; or more poetically, without facrificing perfpicuity to ornament, without wandering from the precision, or breaking the chain of reasoning: If any man can unite all these without diminution of any of them, I freely confefs he will compass a thing above my capacity.

What is now published, is only to be confidered as a general Map of MAN, marking out no more than the greater parts, their extent, their limits, and their connection, but leaving the particular to be more fully delineated in the charts which are to follow. Confe

quently, thefe Fpiftles in their progrefs (if I have health and leisure to make any progrefs) will be lefs dry, and more fufceptible of poetical ornament, I am here only opening the fountains, and clearing the paffage. To deduce the rivers, to follow them in their courfe, and to obferve their effects, may be a tafk more agreeable.

[7]

ESSAY on MAN,

IN

FOUR EPISTLES,

T.O

H. St. John, Lord Bolingbroke.

ARGUMENT OF

EPISTLE I.

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to the UNIVERSE.

O F Man in the abstract.-I. That we can judge only with regard to our own fyftem, being ignorant of the relations of fyftems and things, ver. 17, etc. II. That Man is not to be deemed imperfect, but a Being fuited to his place and rank in the creation, agreeable to the general Order of things, and comformable to Ends and Relations to him unknown, ver. 35, etc. JII. That it is partly upon his ignorance of future events, and partly upon the hope of a future ftate, that -all his happiness in the prefent depends, ver. 77, etc. IV. The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more Perfection, the cause of Man's error and mifery. The impiety of putting himself in the

place of God, and judging of the fitness or unfitness, perfection or imperfection, justice or injustice, of his difpenfations, ver. 109, etc. V. The abfurdity of conceiting himself the final cause of the creation, or expecting that perfection in the moral world, which is not in the natural, ver. 131, etc. VI. The unrea fonableness of his complaints against Providence, while on the one hand he demands the Perfections of the Angels, and on the other the bodily qualifications of the Brates; though, to poffefs any of the fenfitive faculties in a higher degree, would render him miferable, ver. 173, etc. VII. That throughout the whole visible world, an univerfal order and gradation in the fenfual and mental faculties is obferved, which causes a fubordination of creature to creature, and of all creatures to Man. The gradations of fenfe, inftinct, thought, reflection, reason; that Reason alone countervails all the other faculties, ver. 207. VIII. How much further this order and fubordination of living creatures may extend, above and below us; were any part of which broken, not that part only, but the whole connected creation must be destroyed, ver. 233. IX. The extravagance, madness, and pride of fuch a defire, ver. 250. X. The confequence of all, the abfolute fubmiffion due to Providence, both as to our prefent and future ftate, ver. 281,&c. to the end.