What! you (she criedl) unlearn’d, in arts to please, |. Above, below, withont, within, around,
Slaves to yourselves, and even fatigu'd with ease, Confus'd, unnumber'd pultitudes are found,
Who lose a length of undeserving days- Who pass, repass, avance, and glide away;
Would you usurp the lover's dear-bought praise? | Hosts rais'd by fear, and phantoms of a day:
To just contempt, ye rain pretenders, fall; Astrologers, that future fates foreshew;
The people's fable and the scorn of all ! Projectors, quacks, and lawyers not a few;
Straight the black clarion sends a horriol sound, Anů priest, and party zealots, numerous bands,
Loud laughs burst out, and bitter scoffs fly round; Withi home-born lies, or tales from foreign lands;
Whispers are heard, with taunts reviling loud, Each talkd aloud, or in some secret place;'
And scornful hisses run thru' all the crowd. And wild impatience star'd in er'ry face.

Last, those who boastof mighty mischiefs done, The Mying rumors gather'd as they rollod,
Enslave their country, or asurp a throne; Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;
Or who their glory's dire foundation laid And all who told it added something new,
On sov reigns ruin'd, or on friends betray'd ; And all who treard it made enlargements too ;
Calm thinking villaius, trhom no faith could fix, In ev'ry ear it spread, on ev'ry tongue it grew.
Of crooked counsels and dark politics - Thus flying east and west, and nurth and sonth,
Of these a gloomy tribc surround the throne, News iravell’d with increase from mouth 10
And beg to make th' iminurtal treasons known. mouth.
The trumpet roars, long fleaky flaines expire, So froin a spark that kindled first by chance,
With sparks that seein'd to set the world on fire. With gath'ring force the quick'ning flames
Ar the dread sound pale mortals stool ayhast,

advance; And startled nature trembled with the blast. Till to the clouds their curling heads aspire, This Having heard and seen, some pow'r un. And tow'rs and temples sink in fiords of fire. krorii,

When thus ripe lies are to perfection sprung, Strait changʻd the scene, and snatch'd me from Fill groww, and fit to grace a mortal tongue, the throne.

Thro' thousand vents impatient, forth they flow, Before my view appear'd a structure fair, And rush in millions on the world below; Its site uncertain, if in carth or air;

Fame sits Jost, and points thein out their course, With rapid motion turn'd the mansion round; Theirdate determines, and prescribes their force; With ceaseless noise the ringing walls resound; Soine to retain, and some to perish soon; Not less in-number were the spacious doors Or wane and was alternate like the inoon. That leaves on trees, or sands upon the shores ; Around a thousand winged wonders fly, [sky. Which still unfolded stand, by wight, by day, Borne by the trumpet's blast,and scatter'd thro the Pervious to winds, and open ev'ry way,

There, at one passage, oft you may survey As Aarnes by nature to the skies asceud, A lic and truth contending for the way; As weighty bodies to the ceritre tend, And long 'twas doubtful, both so closely pent, As to the sea returning rivers roll,

Which first should issue thro' the narrow vent: And the touch'd neodle trembles to the pole ; At last agreed, together out they fly, Hither, as to their proper place, arise

Inseparable now the truth and lie; All various sounds from earth, and seas, and skies, The strict companions are for ever join'd, Or spoke aloud, or whispet'd in the ear; And this orthatunmix'd no mortal e'er shall find Nor erer silence, rcst, ut peace is here.

While thus 1 stood, intent to see and hear, As on the shooth expansc of crystal lakes One carne, methought, and whisper'd in my ear: The sinking stone at first a circle makes ; What could thus high thy rash ambition raise ? The trembling surface, by the motion stirr'd, Ast thou, fond youth, a candidate for praise Spreads.in a second circle, then a third; "Tis true, said I, not void of hopes 1 came, Wide, and more wide, the floatingrings advance for who so fond as youthful bards of Farre? Fill at the wat'ry plain, and to the margin dance: Burt few, alas! the casual blessing boast, Thusev'ry voice and sound, when first they break, So hard to gain, so easy to be lost. On neighb'ring air a soft impression make; Ilow vain that second life in others' brenth, Another ambient circle then they trove; Th' estate which wits inherit after death! That, in its turn, impels the next above; Ease, health, and life, for this they must resign ; Thro' undulating, air the sounds are sent, Unsure the tenure, but how vast the fine I And spread o'er all the fluid element.

The great man's curse, without the gains, endure: There various news I heard of love and strife, Be envied, wretched - and be Natter'd, poor ; Of peace and war, health, sickness, death, and all luckless wits their enemies profest, life;

And all successful, jealous friends at best. Of loss and gain, of famine and of store ; Nor fame I slight, nor for her favors call; Of storms and sea, and travels on the shore; She comes 'unlook'd for, if she comes at alla Of prodigies, and pertents seen in air; But if the putchase cost so dear a price or fires and plagues, and stars with blazing hair: As soothing folly,' or exalting vice; Of turns of fortune, changes in the state; Oh! if the Muse must flatter lawless sway, 'The falls of favorites, projects of the great ; And follow still where fortune leads the way; Of old xismanageinenis, taxations new : Or if no basis bear my rising name All neither wholly false, 'nor wholly true. But the fallen ruins of another's farc.

Then

Then teach me, Heaven! to scorn the guilty bays, the bodily qualifications of the Brules; though Drive from my breast that wretched lust of praise, to possess any of the sensitive faculties in Unblenishid let me live, or die unknown ; higher degree would render him miserable. Oh grant an honest fanze, or grant me none ! That throughout the whole visible world an

universal order and gradation in the sensual $15. The happy Lifeofa Country Parson. Pope.

and mental faculties is observed, which causes

a subordination of creature to creature, and In Imitation of Dr. Swift.

of all creatures to Man. The grudutions of Parson, these things in thy possessing

sense, instinct, thought, relection, reason ; Are better than the Bishop's blessing

that Reason alone couniervails all the other faA Wife that makes conserves; a Siecd

culties.--Dow ynuch farther this order and subThat carries double when there's need;

ordination of living creatures may extend October's store, and best l'irginia ;

above and below us; were any part of which Tythe-Pig, and mortuary Guinea ;

broken, not that part only, but the whole conGazettes sent gratis down; and franka,

nected creation mussbedestroyed.--The extraFor which thy patron's weekly thank'd ; vagance, inadness, and pride of such a desire. A large Concordance, bound long since ; - The consequence of all the absolute submis Serinons 10 Charles the first when Prince ; sion due to providence, loth as to our present A Chronicle of antient standing;

and future state. A Chrysostoin to smooth thy band in. AWAKE my Saint John! Icave all meaner The Polyglott – three parts - my text,

things
Hoybeit - likewise-how to my next. To low ambition and the Pride of Kings.
Lo! here the Septuagint-and Paul, Let us, since life can little more supply
To suin the whole the close of all.

Than just to look about us, and to die,
He that has these, may pass his life, Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man ;
Drink with the Squire, and kiss his Wife; A mighty maze! but not without a plan; [shoot;
On Sundays preach, and cat his fill;

A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous And fast on Fridays if he will:

Or Garden, templing with forbidden fruit.
Toast Church and Queen, explain the News, Together let us beat this ample field,
Talk with Churchwardens about pews, Try what the open, what the covert yield !
Pray heartily for some new Gift,

The latent tracis, the giddy heights explore, And shake his head at Dr. St.

Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar ;

Eye Nature's walks, shoot Folly as it Aies, $ 16. An Essay on Man. In Four Epistles. Pope. And catch the manners living as they rise; To H. St. John Lord Bolingbroke.

Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,

But vindicate the ways of God to Man;
EPISTLEI.

Say first, of God almove, or Man below,

What can we reason, but from what we know? Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to from which to reason, or to which refer?

Of Man, what see we but his station here, the Universe.

Through worlds upnumber'd to the God be Of Man in the abstract.-- That we can judge Tis ours to trace him only in our own. [known, only with regard to our own system, being ig. He who thru' vast immensity can pierce, norant of the relations of systems and things. See worlds on worlds compose one universe, That Man is not to be deemed imperfect

, but Observe how system into system runs, a Being suited to his place and rank in the What other planets circle other suns, creation, agreeable to the general Order of What varied Being peoples ev'ry star, things, and conformableto Ends and Relations May tell why Heaven has made us as we are. to him unknown.-- That ii is partly upon his But of this fraise the bearings and the ties, ignorance of future events, and partly upon The strong connexions, nice dependencies, the hope of a future stałe, that all his hapa Gradations just, has thy pervading soul piness in the present depends. The pride of Look'd thro'? or can a part contain the whole? ciming at more knowledge, and pretending to Is the great chain that draws all to agree, more perfection, the cause of Man's error and And drawn supports, upheld by God or thee? misery. The impiety of putting himself in the Presumptuous Man! the reason would'st thou find Place of God, und judying of the fitness or Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind ? anfitness, perfection or imperfection, justice of First if thou canst, the harder

reason guess, injustice, of his dispensations. The absurdity Why foru'd ng weaker, blinder, and no less ; O conceiting himself the final cause of the cre- Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made alion, or expecting that perfection in the moral Taller and stronger than the iveeds they shade ; world which is not in the natural. – The Or ask of yonder

argent fields above, unreasonableness of his complaints against Pro- Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove. sidenee, while on the one hand he demands Of systems possible, if 'tis confest de perfections of the Angels, and on the other That Wisdom infinite must form the best,

Where

ARGUMENT.

23

Where all must fall or not coherent be, Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
And all that rises rise in due degree;

Weigh thy Opinion against Providence ;
Then in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain, Call inpersection what thou fanciest such ;
There must be somewhere such a rankas Man: Say, here he gives too little, there too much :
And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust;
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?

Yet cry, if Man's unliappy, Gol's unjust; Respecting Man, whatever wrong we call, If Man alone engross noi Heaven's high care, May, inust be right, as relative to all.

Alone inade perfect here, immortal there :
In human works, tho' labor'd on with pain, Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; Re-judge his justice, be the G d of God.
In God's, one single can its ends produce, In Pride, in reas'ning Pride our error lies;
Yet serves to second too some other use ; All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
So Man, who here seems principal alone, Pride is still aiming at the blest abodes ;
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown, Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.
Touches some wheel, or verges to same goal; Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,
'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. (strains Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebel :

When the proud Seed shall know why man re- And who but wishes to invert the laws
His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains, of Order, sins against the Eternal Cause.
When thedull Os, why now he breaks the clod, Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine,
Is now a victim, and now Egypt's God; Earth for whose use ? Pride answers, “ 'Tis for
'Then shall Man's pride and dulness comprehend “ mine :
His actions', passions', being's, use and end; “For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow's,
Why, doing,sufiring, check'd, impell’d, and why " Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev'ry Aow'r,
This hour a slave, the next a deity.

“ Annual for ine the grape, the rose, renew Then say not Man's imperfect, Heaven in " The juice nectareous, and the balny dew; Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought : [fault; “ For me the mine a thousand treasures brings, His knowledge measur'd to his state and place, “ For me health gushes from a thousandsprings; His time a nioment, and a point his space. “ Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise ;

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate, My footstool earth, my canopy the skies." All but the page prescrib'd, their present state; But errs not Nature from this gracious end, From brates what men, from inen what spiri:s From burning suns when livid deaths descend, Dr who could suffer Being here below : [know ; When earthquakes swallow of when tempests The lamb thy riot Jooms to bleed to-day;

sweep Had he thy Reason, woulel he skip and play? Towns to one grave, whole Nations to the deep? Please to the last, he crops the flow'ry food, “ No ('tis replied); the first Almighty Cause And licks the hand just rais’d to shed his blood. “ Acts not by partial but by gen’ral laws; (gan : Oh bliniless to the future ! kindly given, “ Th'exceptions few ; some change since all beThat each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven;" And what created perfect?"- Why then man! Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, If the great end be human Happiness, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall ;

Then Nature deviates ; and can Man do less? Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd;

As much that end a constant course requires And now a bubble burst, and now a world.[soar; Of show'rs and sunshine, as of Man's desires ;

Hope humbly then ; with trembling pinions As much eternal springs and cloudless skies, Wait the great teacher Death, and God adore. As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise. What future bliss he gives not thee to know ; If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's But gives that Hope to be thy blessing now; Why then a Borgia or a Cataline? [design, Hope springs eternal in the human breast : Whoknowsbuthewhose havdihelightning forms, Man never Is but always, To be blest. Who heavesold ocean, and who wingsthesiorms, The soul uncasy, and confin'd from home, Pours fierce Ambition in a Cirsar's inind, [kind? Rests and expatiates in a life to come

Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge inanLo! the poor Indian, whose untutorid mind From pride, from pride, our very reas'ningsprings; Secs God in clouds, or hears him in the wiud; Account for moral as for nai'ral things; His son proud Science never taught to stray Why charge we IIcaven in those, in these acquit, Far as the solar walk, or milky way;

In both, to reason right, is to subinit. Yet simple Nature to his hope has given, Better for us, perhaps, it might appear, Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heaven; Were there all harmony, all virtue here; Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, "That never air or ocean felt the wind; Some happier island in the wat'ry waste ; That never passion discompos'd the mind. Where slaves once more their native land behold, But all subsists by elemental strife : No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. And passions are the elements of Life. To Be, contents his natural desire,

The gen'ral Order, since the Whole began, !le asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire; Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man. But thinks, adınitted to that equal sky,

What would this Man? Now upward will he I!is faithful dog shall bear him company. And, little less than Angel, woykl be more: (soar,

New

ܪ

Now, looking downward, just as grier'd appears Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
To want the strength of bülls, the fur of bears. No glass can reach ; froiu Infinite to thee,
Made for his use all creatiires if he call, From thee to Nothing. -- On superior pow'rs.
Say what the use, had he the pow'rs of all ? Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Nature to these, without profusion kind, Or in the full creation leave a void,
The proper organs, proper pow'rs assign'd; "There, one step broken, the great scale's de-
Fach seeining want compensated of course,

stroy'd : Here with degrees of swifiness, there of force ; From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, All in exact proportion to the state :

Tenth, or ten-thousandih, breaks the chain alike. Nothing to add, and nothing to abate :

And, if each symptom in gradation roll Each beast, each insect, bappy in its own : Alike essential to the amazing Whole, Is Heaven unkind to Man, and Van alone? The least confusion but in one, not all Shall be alone, whom rational we call, That system only, but the whole must fall. Be pleasd with nothing, if not blest with all? Let earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,

The bliss of inan, (could Pride that blessing Planets and Suns run lawless thro' the sky; Is not to act or think beyond manhind: (find) Let ruling Angels from their spheres be hurl'd, No pow'rs of body or of soul to share, Being on Being wreck'd, and world ou world; But what his nature and his state can bear. Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod, Why has not man a microscopic eye?

And Nature tremble to the throne of God: For this plain reason, Man is not a fly.

All this dread Order break--for whom? 'for thee? Say, what the use, were finer optics given, Vile worin ! -oh madness, pride, impiety! T'inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven? What if the foot, ordain'd'the dust to tread, Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the bead? To smart and agonise at every pore?

What if the headl, the eye, or ear repin'd Or, quick effluvia darting thro' the brain, To serve mere engines to the ruling mind? Die of a rose in aromatic pain,

Just as absurd for any part to claim
If Nature thunder'd in his opening cars,

To be another, in this gen'ral frabic;
And stunn'd him with the inusic of the spheres, Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains
How would he wish that lleav'n had left him still The great directing Mind of all ordains.

The whispering Zephyr, and the purling rill! All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Who finds not Providence all good and wise, Whose body Nature is, and God the Soul;
Alike in what it gives and what denies? That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same,
Far as Creation's ainple range estends,

Great in the earth as in th' ethereal frame; The scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends : Warms in the sun, refresho in the breeze, Mark how it mounts to Man's imperial race,

Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; From the green myriads in the peopled grass :

Lives thro' all life, extends tbro' all extent ; That modes of sighit berwixt cach wide extreme, Spreads undivided, operates anspent ; 'The mole’s dim curtain, and the lynx's beam! Breathes in our soul, inforins our mortal part, Of sniell, the beadlong lioness beiween, As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; And hound sagacious on the tainted green! As full, as perfect, in vile Man thai mourns, Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood, As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns : To that which warlales through the vernal wood! To him no high, no low, no great, no small; The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! He fills, be bounds, connects, and equals all. Feels at each thread, and lives along the line Cease then, nor Order Imperfections name: In the pice bee what sense so subtly true Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew? Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree How instinct varies in the grov'ling swine, Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee. Compar’dl

, half-reasoning elephant, with thine! Subinit - in this, or any other sphere, Twist that and Reason whai a nice barrier! Secure to be as ülest as thou canst bear: For ever sep'rate, yet for ever near !

Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Remembrance and Reflection how allied, Or in the natal, ar the mortal hour.
What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide! All Nature is but art unknown to thee ;
And middle natures how they long to join,

All Chance, Direction which thou canst not sce; Yet never pass th' insuperable line!

All Discord, Harmony not understood ; Without this just gradation could they be All partial Evil, universal Good: Subjected, these to those, or all to thee? And spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,

powers of all, subdued by thee alone, One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right. Is not thy Reason all these pow'rs in one ?

EPISTLE II. See thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth, All matter quick, and bursting into birth. Above, how high progressive life may go ! Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Around, how wide! how deep extend below!

Himself, as an Individual. Vast chain of being! which from God began; The Business of Man not to pry into God l'ul to Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,

sludy Himself.

His Middle Nature ; his 24

Powers

The

ARGUMENT.

Powers and Frailties. -- The Limits of his Deduct but what is Vanity of Dress, Capacity. The two Principles of Man, Self- Or Learning's Luxury or idleness ; love and Reason, both necessary. - Self-love 'Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain, the stronger, and why. - Their end the same. Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pam; --The Passions, and their use. The Predo- Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts minant Passion, and its force. - Its necessity of all our Vices have created Arts; in directing Men to different Purposes. — Its Then see how little the remaining sum, providential Use, in fixing our Principle, and which serv'd the past, and mustthetime to come! ascertaining our Virtue. - Virtue and Vice Two Principles in human nature reign; joined in our mixed Nature ; the limits near, Self-love to urge, and Reason to restrain : yet the things separate and evident: What is Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call; the Office of Reason. - How odious Vice in Each works its end, to move or govern all: itself, and how we deccive ourselves in it. And to their proper operation still That, however, the Ends of Providence and Ascribe all Good; to their improper, Il. general Good are imswered in our Passions Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; and Imperfections. How usefully these ure Reason's comparing balance rules the whole, distributed to all Orders of Men. —Iļow use- Man, but for that, no action could átrend; pul they are to Society, and to Individuals, in And, but for this, were active to no end; every state and prery age of life.

Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar'spot,
Kxow then thyself

, presnme not God to scan; To draw nutrition, propagate, and not :
The proper stady of Mankind is Van. Or, meteor-like, flanie lawless thro' the roid,
Plac'd on this i thonis of a middle state, Destroying others, by himself destroyed.
A being darkly wise, and rudely great; Most strength the moving principle tequires;
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side, Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires.
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, Sedate and quiet the coinparing lies,
He hangs between ; in doubt to act or rest, Formu'd but to check, deliberate, and advise.
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast; Self-love, still stronger, as its objects nigh;
In doubt his, Mind & Body to prefer ; Reason 's at distance and in prospect lie:
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err; That sces immediate good by present sense ;
Alike in ignorance, his reason sach,

Reason, the future and the conseqnence. Whether he thinks too little, or too much : Thicker than argunvents temptations throng; Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd, At best more watchfulthis, but that more strong Still by himself abus'd or disabas'd;

The action of the stronger to suspend Created half to rise, and half to fall;

Reason still rise, to Reason still attend. Great lord of all things, yet a prey to an ; Attention, habit and experience gains ; Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurlid: Each strengthens Reason, and Sc!f-love restrams, The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! Let subtle schoolmen teachi these friends to fight, G), wond'rous creature! 'mount whereScience More studious to divide than to unite ; guides,

And Grace and Virtue, Sense and Reason 'split,
Go, measure earth, wcigh air, and state the tides; With all the rash dexterity of wit.
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run, Wits, just like Fools, at war about a namic,
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun : Have full as oft no meaning, or the same.
Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere, Self-love and Reason to one end aspire ;
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair; Pain their aversion, Pleasure their desire ;
Or iread the mazy round his followers trod, But greedy that, its object would devour,
And quitting sense call imitating God; This taste the honey, and not wound the flow's.
As Eastern priests in giddy circles run, Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,
And turn their heads to imitate the Sun. Our greatest eril, or our greatest good.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdomn how to rule; Modes of Self-love the Passions we may call,
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool! 'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all :

Superior beings, when of late they saw But since not ev'ry good we can divide,
A mortal Man unfold all Nature's law, And Reason bids us for our own provide;
Adinir'd such wisdom in an earthly shipe, Passions, tho' selfish, if their means be fair,
And show'd a Newton as we show an Aple. List under Reason, and deserve her care;

Could he, whose rules the rapid cowet bind, Those that imparted court a nobler aim,
Describe or fix one movement of his Mind? Exalt their kind, and take some Virtue's name,
Who saw 'its fires here rise, and there descend, In lazy Apathy let Stoics boast
Explain his own beginning or his end? Their Virtile fix'd ; 'tis fix'd as in a frost;
Alas, what wonder! Man's superior part Contracted all, retiring to the breast :
Uncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to art; But strength of mind is Exercise, 'not Rest.
But when his own great work is but begun, The rising tempest puts in act the soul;
What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone. Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.

Trace Science then, with Modesty thy guide; On-life's vást ocean diversely we sail, Tirst strip off all her equipage of Pride's Reason the card, båt Passion is the gale:

Noz