As much that end a constant course requires
Of show'rs and sun-shine, as of man's desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men forever temperate, calm, and wise.

If plagues or earthquakes break not heaven's design, 155 Why then a Borgia or a Cataline?

Who knows, but he whose hand the lightning forms, Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar's mind,

Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind? 160
From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs;
Account for moral as for natural things:

Why charge we heaven in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right, is to submit.
Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind,
That never passion discompos'd the mind.
But all subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The general order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.

165

170

VI. What would this man? Now upward will he soar, And, little less than angel, would be more; Now looking downward, just as grieved appears To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears. Made for his use all creatures if he call

175

Say what their use, had he the powers of all?
Nature to these, without profusion kind,

The proper organs, proper powers assign'd;

180

Each seeming want compensated of course,

Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force;

All in exact proportion to their state,
Nothing to add, and nothing to abate.
Each beast, each insect, happy in its own:
Is heaven unkind to man, and man alone?
Shall he alone, whom rational we call,

Be pleased with nothing, if not blest with all?

The bliss of man, (could pride that blessing find)

Is not to act or think BEYOND mankind;

190

No powers of body or of soul to share,

But what his nature and his state can bear.
Why has not man a microscopic eye?

"For this plain reasɔn, man is not a fly.

Say what the use, were finer optics given,

195

To inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,

To smart, and agonize at every pore?

Or quick effluvia darting through the brain,

Die of a rose in aromatic pain?

200

If nature thunder'd in his opening ears,

And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,

How would he wish, that heaven had left him still

205,

The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill!
Who finds not providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?

VII. Far as creation's ample range extends,
The scale of sensual, mental powers ascends:
Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race,
From the green myriads in the peopled grass
What modes of sight, betwixt each wide extreme,
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam:
Of smell, the headlong lioness between,
A hound sagacious on the tainted green ;

210

Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,
To that which warbles through the vernal wood!
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine,
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:
In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true,
From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew!
How instinct varies in the grovelling swine,
Compared, half reasoning elephant, with thine!
Twixt that, and reason, what a nice barrier;
Forever separate, yet forever near !
Remembrance and reflection, how allied;
What thin partitions sense from thought divide !
And middle natures, how they long to join,
Yet never pass the insuperable line!
Without this just gradation, could they be
Subjected, these to those, or all to thee?
The powers of all subdued by thee alone,
Is not thy reason all these powers in one

215

220

225

230

VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth,

All matter quick, and bursting into birth.

Above, how high progressive life may go !

235

Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no man can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee;
From thee to nothing.-On 'superior powers
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,

240

Where, one step broken, the great scale 's destroyed:
From nature's chain, whatever link you strike,
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.

245

And, if each system in gradation roll,
Alike essential to the amazing whole ;
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole, must fall.
Let earth unbalanc'd, from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;
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.

250

255

All this dread order break-For whom? For thee?

Vile worm! O madness! pride! impiety!

IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread,

Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the head?

260

What if the head, the eye, or ear, repin'd

To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd, for any part to claim

To be another in this general frame :

Just as absurd, to mourn the task or pains,
The great directing MIND of ALL ordains.

265

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,

Whose body nature is, and God the soul;

That, chang'd through all, and yet in all the same,

Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame;

270

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,

Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;

Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent,

Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,

275

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 small;
He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all.

X. Cease then, nor ORDER Imperfection name :
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear;
Safe in the hand of one disposing power,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

280

285

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction which thou canst not see ;
All discord, harmony not understood;

290

All partial evil, universal good.

And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, "Whatever Is, is RIGHT.”

294

EPISTLE II.

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to Himself as an Individual.

The business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His middle nature; His powers and frailties, and the limits of his capacity, 43. The two principles of man, self-love, and reason, both necessary; self-love the stronger, and why; their end the same, 83. The passions, and their use, 83-120. The predominant passion, and its force, 122-150. Its tendency in directing men to different purposes, 153, &c. Its providential use, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue, 167. Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate, and evident. What is the office of reason, 187, &c. How odious vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it, 209. That, however the