"IT is not Pride that animates me, a "Dedication of my felf to God is my "chief Duty and my great Motive. I am "always perfectly contented with my "Creator; but, by an Effect of his Grace "and Affiftance, I am never enough "fatisfied with my felf, to indulge my " felf in an undisturbed Repofe, to give my felf up to Indolence, and neglect 66 making a further Progress."

WILL any one dare, on the contrary; to praise a Man who says "As for "me I do not afpire to fo many Perfecti66 ons. I do not trouble my felf with thefe "fine Ideas. I do not enquire either

what I am, or what I can or ought "to do. I care for nothing but the pre"fent Day. I eat, drink, fleep, and "walk. I eat when I am hungry, "drink when I'm dry, go to Bed when "I'm fleepy, rife when I please, I feast "daily, and whenever I find Means or

66

Opportunity, I give my felf up to "Pleasure. I go on in an inconfiderate "Manner, I live without Conftraint, "and am fubject to nothing, as much as "I can I make my Inclinations my Rule. "Let

Let People think what they please of "me, I live for my felf, and not for o"thers; I will not facrifice my felf to the chimerical Defire of a Reputation." Is this Modefty or Pride?

But if it be true, that after Death any thing remains of Man, that one of his Substances continues to think and live, and that his Sovereign Master, conformably to the Opinion of many Perfons of an improv❜d Understanding, and who are very far from being fanciful, afk him how it came to pass that he conducted himself with fo much Indolence, and so little Reafon, will this Man, or what remains of him dare to answer, It was not my Bu-finefs, I was born, I have lived and died, fuch as you made me. Ah! Wretch, did not I make thee capable of thinking and living better? Waft thou not encom paffed with a thousand Perfons, whose Examples excited thee to do fo? Whom did it depend on but thy felf to imitate them?

Mr Pope continues, Verse 127,

Ask for what End the heav'nly Badies fbine Earth for whose Use? Pride anfwers, 'tis for mine.

It seems to me that there wou'd be more Simplicity and Ignorance, than Pride in this Answer.

In my Infancy I believed, as others did, that the Earth was made for the Habitation of Man, the Animals and Plants for his Ufe, the Sun and Stars to give him Light, and to render the Earth fruitful; and I do not remember that thefe Ideas ever inspired me with Vanity. When, as I advanced further in Knowledge, I thought that the Planets might be inhabited by Beings like ourfelves; when I carried this Conjecture ftill further to those Planets, which may furround the fixed Stars, which I conceive to be fo many other Suns, my Vanity was not at all mortified at it. I was delighted, and am fo ftill, with thinking that other Beings, more perfect than I, glorify our common Creator, and serve him in a more exact Manner. I love to join my Thanksgivings, weak as they are, to the more lively Emotions of their Acknowledgments. WHEN Mr Pope adds, Verse 133, &c. and makes Man fay.

For

For me the Mine a thousand Treafures brings For me Health gushes from a thousand Springs,

&c.

It is plain that his Fancy diverts itself with Poetic Exaggerations. When 'tis faid that God made Man the Lord of all, the Senfe of these Expreffions amounts to this, That God has made human Nature capable of receiving a Part from all; and that which is true of human Nature in general, does not however extend to every Man in particular.

But errs not Nature from this gracious End From burning Suns, when livid Deaths defcend When Earthquakes fwallow, or whon Tempests

fweep

Town to one Grave, and Nations to the Deep. No 'tis reply'd the first almighty Cause

Acts not by Partial, but by general Laws

Mr Pope feems to think that Reason is afleep when 'tis not awakned by Pride. Good Senfe might have inspired this Answer without its being dictated by Pride. The Mixture of Good and Evil, which we find in the World has

aftonished

The

aftonished the wifeft Philofophers. Bleffings which God heaps upon Men, in fuch great Abundance, and with so much Regularity, made them conclude that an all-wife and good Providence pre fided over human Nature. On the other hand, the Calamities to which we fee our felves expofed, aftonished them; and in order to reconcile thefe with the Goodness of God, they have exercis'd their Minds in a great many happy Conjectures. They were principally embarraffed with the internal Defects of human Nature. The History of the Fall, if the Memory of it had been preferv'd, might have remov'd these Difficulties. The Books: wherein this History is preferv'd, have fuch Marks of being Authentick, as render them venerable to every Man who will make use of his Reafon; and many Learned Men have given Proofs of their being fo, which Unbelievers have never been able to weaken; and this History in itself contains nothing but what may eafily be believed.

INTELLIGENCES of a Perfection, Knowledge and Power, incomparably fuperior

to