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2. But vindicate the ways of God to man.

This line is taken from Milton:

And justify the ways of God to man.*

POPE seems to have hinted, by this allusion to the Paradise Lost, that he intended his poem for a defence of Providence, as well as Milton: but he took a very different method in pursuing that end; and imagined, that the goodness and justice of the Deity might be defended, without having recourse to the doctrine of a future state, and of the depraved state of man.

"

3. But of this frame, the bearings, and the ties,f
The strong connections, nice dependencies,
Gradations just, has thy pervading soul

Look'd thro'? Or can a part contain the whole?

Imagine only some person entirely a stranger to navigation, and ignorant of the nature of the

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sea,

Paradise Lost, b. i. ver. 26.

μέρη προς αυτο το όλον δεν σκοπειν, ει σύμφωνα και αρμόττονίας

Plotinus.

sea, or waters, how great his astonishment would be, when finding himself on board some vessel anchoring at sea, remote from all land prospect, whilst it was yet a calm, he viewed the pondérous machine firm and motionless in the midst of the smooth ocean, and considered its foundations beneath, together with its cordage, masts, and sails above. How easily would he see the Whole one regular structure, all things depending on one another; the uses of the rooms below, the lodgements, and the conveniences of men and stores! But being ignorant of the intent or design of all above, would he pronounce the masts and cordage to be useless and cumbersome, and for this reason condemn the frame, and despise the architect? O, my friend! let us not thus betray our ignorance; but consider where we are, and in what an universe. Think of the many parts of the vast machine, in which we have so little insight, and of which it is impossible we should know the ends and uses: when, instead of seeing to the highest pendants, we see only some lower deck, and are in this dark case of flesh, confined even to the hold and meanest station of

the

the vessel."* I have inserted this passage at length, because it is a noble and poetical illustration of the foregoing lines, as well as of many other passages in this Essay.

4. Presumptuous man! the reason would'st thou find,
Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind?
First, if thou can'st, the harder reason guess,
Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less.†

VOLTAIRE,

* Characteristics, vol. ii. pag. 188. edit. 12mo.-There is a close resemblance in the following lines with another passage of Shaftesbury's Moralists:

What would this man? Now upward will he soar,
And little less than angel, would be more;
Now looking downwards, just as griev'd appears,
To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears.

Not so, said I,
As if he were

"Ask not merely, why man is naked, why unhoofed, why slower footed than the beasts: Ask, why he has not wings also for the air, fins for the water, and so on: that he might take possession of each element, and reign in all. neither; this would be to rate him high indeed! by nature, lord of all, which is more than I could willingly allow. 'Tis enough, replied he, that this is yielded. For if we allow once, a subordination in his case; if Nature herself be not for man, but man for Nature; then must man, by his good leave, submit to the elements of Nature, and not the elements to him." Vol. ii. pag. 196, ut supra.

+ Ver. 35.

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VOLTAIRE, in the late additions to his works, has the following remarkable words: "I own it flatters me to see that POPE has fallen upon the very same sentiment which I had entertained many years ago. "Vous vous étonnez que Dieu ait fait l'homme si borné, si ignorant, si peu heureux. Que ne vous étonnez-vous, qu'il ne l'ait pas fait plus borné, plus ignorant, & plus malheureux? Quand un Français & un Anglais pensent de meme, il faut bien qu'ils ayent rai

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5. The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.†

The tenderness of this striking image, and particularly the circumstance in the last line, has an artful effect in alleviating the dryness in the argumentative parts of the Essay, and interesting the reader.

* Oeuvres de Voltaire. Tom. iv. pag. 227.

↑ Ver. 81,

6. The

6. The soul uneasy, and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.*

In former editions it used to be printed at home; but this expression seeming to exclude a future existence, (as, to speak the plain truth, it was intended to do,) it was altered to from home; not only with great injury to the harmony of the line, but also, to the reasoning of the

context.

7. Lo the poor Indian! whose untutor❜d mind

Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ;
His soul proud science never taught to stray,
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;

Yet simple nature to his hope has giv❜n,
Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, an humbler heav'n ;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste,

Where slaves once more their native land behold;
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
TO BE Content's his natural desire;

He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.†

POPE has indulged himself in but few digressions in this piece; this is one of the most poeti

cal,

* Ver. 97.

+ Ver 99.

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