The blifs of Man (could Pride that bleffing find)
Is not to act or think beyond mankind;

No pow'rs 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.
Say what the ufe, were finer optics giv'n,
T' infpect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,
To fmart and agonize at ev'ry pore?
Or quick effluvia darting thro' the brain,
Die of a rofe in aromatic pain?

If nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears,

And ftunn'd him with the mufic of the fpheres,
How would he wish that Heav'n had left him still
The whifp'ring Zephyr, and the purling rill?
Who finds not Providence all good and wife,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?

ORDER and SUBORDINATION prevail through all the WORKS of GOD, which form one entire WHOLE. [POPE.]

AR as Creation's ample range extends,

FA

The fcale of fenfual, mental pow'rs 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 fmell, the headlong lionefs between,
And hound fagacious on the tainted green:
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,
To that which warbles through the vernal wood?
The fpider's touch, how exquifitely fine?
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:
In the nice bee, what fenfe fo fubtly true
From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?
How inftinct varies in the grov❜ling fwine,
Compar'd, half-reas'ning elephant, with thine!
'Twixt that, and reason, what a nice barrier ?
For ever fep'rate, yet for ever near!
Remembrance and reflection how ally'd;
What thin partitions fenfe from thought divide?
And middle natures, how they long to join,
Yet never pafs th' infuperable line!

Without

Without this juft gradation, could they be
Subjected, these to thofe, or all to thee?
The pow'rs of all fubdu'd by thee alone,
Is not thy Reafon all these pow'rs in one?
See, thro' 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,
Beaft, bird, fifh, infect, what no eye can fee,
No glafs can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing.-On fuperior pow'rs
Were we to prefs, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great fcale's deftroy'd:
From Nature's chain whatever link you ftrike,
Tenth, or ten thoufandth, breaks the chain alike.
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 muft fall.
Let earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and funs run lawless thro' the fky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature tremble to the throne of God.

All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm!-oh Madnefs! Pride! Impiety!
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 repia'd
To ferve mere engines to the ruling Mind?
Juft as abfurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral 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 thro' all, and yet in all the fame;
Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame;
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees,

Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpentuh se'nola
Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part o
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; A
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

M

Cease then, nor ORDER Imperfection nameoftusy Our proper blifs depends on what we blame.thulas?{ Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n beftows 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 Pow'r, odi Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

All Nature is but Art unknown to thee; bna

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not fee; ni14 All Difcord, Harmony, not understood;

All partial Evil, univerfal Good,

And, fpite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,

One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

The different OFFICES of REASON and SELFLOVE. {POPE.]

WO Principles in human nature reign,

TW Self-love, to urge, and Reafon, to restrain

Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,"
Each works its end, to move or govern all :
And to their proper operation ftill,

Afcribe all Good, to their improper, Ill.

Self-love, the fpring of motion, acts the foul SoT

Reafon's comparing balance rules the whole;od

Man, but for that, no action could attend,"

And, but for this, were active to no end
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot:
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless thro' the void,
Deftroying others, by himself deftroy'd.s
Most strength the moving principle requires;
Active its talk, it prompts, impels, infpires,
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies,
Form'd but to check, delib'rate, and advife. Caro
F

Self

Self-love, ftill stronger, as its objects nigh; ou ov
Reason's at diftance, and in profpect lieben elegan
That fees immediate good by prefent fenfe;
Reason, the future and the confequence.

Thicker than arguments, temptations throng,
At beft more watchful this, but that more ftrong.
The Action of the stronger to fufpend

09

Reason still use, to Reafon ftill attend.quod si ella el

Attention, habit and experience gains;

Each ftrengthens Reason, and Self-love restrains.

Let fubtle schoolmen teach thefe friends to fight,
More ftudious to divide than to unite ;

And Grace and Virtue, Senfe and Reafon fplit,
With all the rafh dexterity of wit.

Wits, juft like Fools, at war about a name,

Have full as oft no meaning, or the famed gaļ
Self-love and Reafon to one end afpire,

Pain their averfion, Pleasure their defire;

But greedy That, its object would devour, tooli

This tafte the honey, and not wound the flow'r:
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,

Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

SALIS be On the PASSIONS.lt

[POPE.]

TODES of Self-love the Paffions we may call:

M is real good, or feeming, moves them all:

But fince not ev'ry good we can divide,

And reafon bids us for our own provide:

Paffions, tho' felfish, if their means be fair, pos
Lift under Reason, and deserve her care; a odioła
Thofe, that imparted, court a nobler aim, vol 363
Exalt their kind, and take fome Virtue's name, Jonas
In lazy Apathy let Stoics boast

Their Virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a froft; sudbin
Contracted all, retiring to the breaft;

But ftrength of mind is Exercise, not Reft:
The rifing tempeft puts in act the foul,

Parts it may ravage, but preferves the whole.
On life's valt ocean diverfely we fail, gull dipl
Reafon the card, but paffion is the gale; intrevis
Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find, Lais stabst
He mounts the form, and walks upon the wind.

Paffions,

Paffions, like elements, tho' born to fight,
Yet, mix'd and foften'd, in his work unite
Thefe 'tis enough to temper and employ;
But what compofes Man, can Man deftroy?
Suffice that Reafon keep to Nature's road,
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair pleafure's fmiling train,
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of pain,
Thefe mixt with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind:
The lights and fhades, whofe well accorded ftrife
Gives all the ftrength and colour of our life.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;
And, when in act they ceafe, in profpect rife:
Prefent to grafp, and future ftill to find,
The whole employ of body and of mind.
All fpread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff'rent fenfes, diff'rent objects ftrike;
Hence diff'rent Paffions more or lefs inflame,
As ftrong or weak, the organs of the frame;
And hence one MASTER PASSION in the breast,
Like Aaron's ferpent, fwallows up the reft.

As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,
Receives the lurking principle of death:

The young disease, that muft fubdue at length, Grows with his growth, and ftrengthens with his strength:

So, caft and mingled with his very frame,

The mind's difeafe, its RULING PASSION Came;
Each vital humour which fhould feed the whole,
Soon flows to this in body and in foul:
Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dang'rous art,

And pours it all upon the peccant part.

Nature its mother, Habit is its nurfe;

Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worfe; et Ab
Reafon itself but gives it edge and pow'r;

As Heav'n's bleft beam turns vinegar more four
We, wretched fubjects tho' to lawful fway, ms pl
In this weak queen, fome fav'rite ftill obeyuni? MM
Ah! if the lend not arms, as well as rules,adw full
What can the more than tell us we are fools?

Teach