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 fcarce one purpose gain; 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 dulnefs comprehend 65 His actions', paffions', being's, ufe and end; Why doing, fuff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why This hour a flave, the next a deity. Then fay not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought: 70 His knowledge measur'd to his state and place; If to be perfect in a certain fphere, What matter, foon or late, or here or there? The bleft to-day is as completely fo, 75 As who began a thousand years ago. III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescrib'd, their present state: VARIATIONS. In the former Editions, ver. 64. Now wears a garland an Ægyptian God. After ver. 68. the following lines in the first Edition. If to be perfect in a certain sphere, What matter, foon or late, or here or there? The bleft to-day is as completely fo, As who began ten thousand years ago. From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could fuffer Being here below? The lan b thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or fyftems into ruin hurl'd, 80 85 And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 90 Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar; Lo, 95 100 105 VARIATION S. After ver. 88, in the MS. No great, no little; 'tis as much decreed In the firft Folio and Quarto, What blifs above he gives not thee to know, Where slaves once more their native land behold, He asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire; But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, IV. Go, wifer thou! and in thy fcale of fenfe, 110 115 120 125 Of ORDER, fins against th' Eternal Cause. 130 V. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, Earth for whofe use? Pride answers, ""Tis for mine: VARIATIONS. After ver. 108. in the first Edition; But does he fay the Maker is not good, VER. 131. Afk for what end, etc.] If there be any fault in these lines, it is not in the general fentiment, but a want of exactness in expreffing it. It is the highest abfurdity to think that Earth is Man's footftool, his canopy the Skies, and the beavenly bodies lighted up principally for his ufe; yet not fo, to fuppole fruits and minerals given for this end. "For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow'r, 135 140 But errs not Nature from this gracious end, From burning funs when livid deaths defcend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? "No ('tis reply'd), the first Almighty Cause "Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws; 145 "Th' exceptions few; fome change fince all began: "And what created perfect ?"-Why then Man ? If the great end be human Happiness, 150 Then Nature deviates; and can Man do lefs? 156 Who knows but he, whofe hand the lightning forms, Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the ftorms; Pours fierce Ambition in a Cæfar's mind, Or turns young Ammon loose to fcourge mankind? 160 VER. 150. Then Nature deviates, etc.] "While comets move in "very eccentric orbs, in all manner of pofitions, blind Fate could "never make all the planets move one and the fame way in orbs "concentric; fome inconfiderable irregularities excepted, which "may have rifen from the mutual actions of comets and pla"nets upon one another, and which will be apt to increafe, "till this fyftem wants a reformation." Sir Ifaac Newton's Optics, Queft. ult. From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning fprings; Why charge we Heav'n in thofe, in these acquit? Better for us, perhaps, it might appear, 165 170 The gen❜ral ORDER, fince the whole began, Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man. VI. What would this Man? Now upward will he foar, And little lefs than Angel, would be more; Now looking downwards, just as griev'd appears 175 Say what their ufe, had he the pow'rs of all ? 180 Nothing to add, and nothing to abate. Each beaft, each infect, happy in its own: 185 Is Heav'n unkind to Man, and Man alone? Shall he alone, whom rational we call, Be pleas'd with nothing, if not bleft with all? VER. 169. But all fubfifts, etc.] See this fubject extended in Ep. ii. from ver. 90 to 112, 155, etc. VER. 174, And little less than Angel, etc.] Thou haft made him a little lower than the Angels, and haft crowned him with glory and benour. Pfalm viii. 9. VER. 182. Here with degrees of Swiftness, etc. c.] It is a certain axiom in the anatomy of creatures, that, in proportion as they are formed for itrength, their fwiftnefs is leffened; or as they are formed for swiftnefs, their ftrength is abated. |