36

40

Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee? II. Presumptuous Man! the reason wouldst thou find, Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind? First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less ? Afk of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade? Or ask of yonder argent fields above, Why JOVE's Satellites are less than Jove? Of Systems possible, if 'tis confeft That Wisdom infinite must form the best, Where all must full or not coherent be, And all that rises, rise in due degree; Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain, There must be, somewhere, such a rank as Man: And all the question (wrangle e'er so long)

Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?

NOTES.

45

50

greater good in the natural | good in the moral, as appears world, he supposes they may from these sublime images in tend likewise to some greater | the following lines,

If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?
Who knows, but he, whose hand the light'ning forms,
Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the storms;
Pours fierce Ambition in a Cæfar's mind,

Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?

C

Respecting Man, whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to all.
In human works, tho' labour'd on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;
In God's, one fingle can it's end produce;
Yet serves to second too fome other use.
So Man, who here seems principal alone,
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown,
Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal;
'Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole.

55

60

When the proud steed shall know why Man restrains

His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains;

When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod, Is now a victim, and now Ægypt's God :

Then shall Man's pride and dulness comprehend 65 His actions', passions', being's, use and end;

Why doing, suff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why

This hour a slave, the next a deity.

VARIATIONS.

In the former Editions * 64.

Now wears a garland an Ægyptian God.

After 68. the following lines in first Ed.
If to be perfect in a certain sphere,
What matters foon or late, or here or there?
The blest to-day is as completely fo
As who began ten thousand years ago.

Then say not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault;

Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur'd to his state and place;

70

His time a moment, and a point his space.
If to be perfect in a certain sphere,

A

f

What matter, foon or late, or here or there?

The blest to-day is as completely fo,

75

As who began a thousand years ago.

1

III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate,

80

All but the page prescrib'd, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could fuffer Being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play?

L

Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.

Oh blindness to the future! kindly given,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n :
Who fees with equal eye, as God of all,

A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,

VARIATION 8.

After 88. in the MS.

No great, no little; 'tis as much decreed

That Virgil's Gnat should die as Cæfar bleed.

NOTES.

VER. 87. Who Sees with equal eye, &c.] Mat. x. 29.

A

85

Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

90

Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar;

Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What future bliss, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy bleffing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The foul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

95

Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; 100 His foul, proud Science never taught to stray Far as the folar walk, or milky way; Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n,

Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n;

VARIATIONS.

In the first Fol. and Quarto, y 93.

What bliss above he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy bliss below.

NOTES.

VER. 97.- from home, By these words, it was the poet's purpose to teach, that the present life is only a state | exercise of it's qualities.

of probation for another, more fuitable to the essence of the foul, and to the free

Some fafer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier ifsland in the wat'ry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.

105

To Be, contents his natural defire,
He asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire;

110

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,

His faithful dog shall bear him company.

IV. Go, wiser thou! and, in thy scale of sense,

Weigh thy Opinion against Providence;

Call imperfection what thou fancy'st such,
Say, here he gives too little, there too much :
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,

115

Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjuft;

If Man alone ingross not Heav'n's high care,

Alone made perfect here, immortal there :
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Re-judge his justice, be the God of GOD.

120

VARIATIONS.

After 108. in the first Ed.

But does he say the maker is not good,
Till he's exalted to what state he wou'd:
Himself alone high Heav'n's peculiar care,
Alone made happy when he will, and where?