ILLINOIS
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Production Note
Digital Rare Book Collections Rare Book & Manuscript Library University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign 2016THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARYA N
ALEXANDER POPE, Efq.
Enlarged and Improved by the Author.
Together with his MS. Additions and Variations as in the Laii Edition of his Works.
With the N O T E S of
William
UNDO Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, m dcc lxxi.
[Pr, i s, 6 d ]
s
O N
A[ Hi ]
S
ADVERTISEMENT,
HE ESSAY ON MAN, to ufc the
Author’s own Words, is a perfett Sy-
ftem of Ethics', in which Definition he included Religion: For he was far from that * Opinion of the noble Writer of the CharaEle-rijtics, that Morality could long fupport itfelf, or have even a real exiilence, without a reference to the Deity. Hence it is that the Firft Epiftle regards Man with refpeit to the Lord and Governor of the univerfe; as the Second with refpedt to himfelf; the Third to Society \ and the Fourth, to Happinefs. Having therefore formed and finiihed his EJfay in this View, he was much mortified whenever he found it confidered in any other; or as a part and in-trodu&ion only to a larger work. As appears from the conclufion of his fecond Dialogue, intitled m dcc xxxvm, where he makes his impertinent advifer fay,
Alas / alas! pray end what you began,
And write, next Winter, more EJfays on Man.
By the Ed i tor.
A 3IV
ADVERTISEMENT.
which a MS. note of his thus explains:
“ The Author undoubtedly meant this as a tc Sarcafm on the ignorance of thofe friends <s of his, who were daily peitering him for ct more Effays on Man, as not feeing that the 46 fourEpiftles he had publiihed entirely com-“ pleated that fubjeft.” But it muil be owned, that the Public, by the great and continued demand for his Effay, fufficiently freed itfelffrom thisimputation of wrong Judgment. And how great and continued that demand has been, appears from the vail variety of pirated and imperfed Editions continually ob- * traded on the world, ever fince the frit publication of the Poem ; and which no repeated profecutions of the Offenders have been able totally to reftrain.
Thefe were the confiderations which have now induced the Proprietor to give one perfect Edition of the EJJay on Man, from Mr. Pope's laft corredions and improvements; that the Public may from henceforth be fupplied with this Poem alone, in a manner fuitable to its dignity, and to the honeil intention of its great Author.
^Concerning the Universal Prayer, which concludes the E^ffay^ it may be proper tp obferye, that, ibme paffages in the EffayV
ADVERTISEMENT.
having been unjuftly fufpe&ed of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalifm, the Author compofed that Prayer as the Sum of all, to Ihewthat his Syitem was founded in Free-will, and terminated in Piety : That the firft Caufe was as well the Lord and Governor as the Creator of the Univerfe; and that by Sub-miflion to his W ill (the great principle i nforced throughout theEJfay) was not meant the fuffer-ing ourfelves to be carried along with a blind determination *, but a religious acquiefcence, and confidence full of hope and immortality. To give all this the greater weight and reality the Poet chofe for his Model the Lord’s Prayer, which of all others belt deferves the title prefixed to his Paraphrafe.
The Reader will excufe my adding a word concerning the Frontifpiece.; which, as it was defigned and drawn by Mr. Pope himfelf, would be a kind of Curiofity, had not the excellence of the thought otherwife recommended it. We fee it reprefents the Vanity of. human Glory, in the falfe purfuits after Happinefs: where the Ridicule in the Curtain cobweb, the Death’s head crowned with laurel, and the feveral Infcriptions, have all the force and beauty of one of his befb written Satires: Nor is there lefsexpreffion in the bearded Phi-A 4VÎ advertisement.
lofopher fitting by a fountain running towafte and blowing up bubbles with a ftraw from a Email portion of water taken out of it, in a dirty diih -, admirably reprefenting the vain bufinds of School-Phifofophy, that, with a little artificial logic, fits inventing airy arguments in fupport of falfe fcience, while the human Undemanding at large is fuffered to lie wafte and uncultivated.THE
DESIGN.
TT A V ING propofed to write fome pieces on Human Life and Manners, fuch as (to ufe my Lord Bacon’s expreffion) come home to Men $ Bufinefs find Bofoms, I thought it more fatisfa&ory to begin with confidering Man in the abftraCt, his Nature and his State: flnce, to prove any moral duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatfoever, it is neceflary firft to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpofe of its being.
The fcience of Human Nature is, like all other fciences, reduced to a few clear points: There are not many certain truths in this world. It is therefore in the anatomy of the Mind as in that of the Body: more good will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible parts, than by ftu-dying too much fuch finer nerves and veflels, the conformations and ufes of which will for ever efcape our obfervation. The difputes are all upon thefe la ft, and I will venture to fav, they have lefs ifiarpened the wits than the hearts of men againft each other, and have diminifhed the practice more than advanced the theory of Morality. If I could flatter myfelf that this Eflay has any merit, it is in fleering betwixt the extremes of doCtrines ieemingly oppofite; in paifing over terms utterly unintelligible $ and in forming a temperate, yet not inconjiftent j and a Jhort, yet not imperfeft fyftem of Ethics.viil	THE DESIGN.
This I might have done in profe; but I chofe verfe, and even rhyme, for two reafons : The one will appear obvious; that principles, maxims, or precepts fo written, both itrike the reader more flrongly at firil, and are more eafily retained by him afterwards. The other may feem odd, but it is true; I found I could exprefs them more fhortly this way than in profe itfelf, and nothing is truer than that much of tht force, as well as grace, of arguments or initrudtions depends on their concifenefs. I was unable to treat this part of my fubjeft more in detail, without becoming dry and tedious ; or move poetically, without facrificing perfpicuify to ornament, without wandering from the precifion, or breaking the chain of reafoning. If any man can unite all thefe, without diminution of any of them, I freely confefs he will compafs a thing above my capacity.
What is now publiihed, is only to be conlidered as a general map of Man, marking out no more th an the greater parts, their extent, their limits, and their connexion, but leaving the particular to be more fully delineated in the charts which are to follow. Confequentlv thefe Epiilles in their pro-grefs (if I make any progrefs) will be lefs dry, and more fufceptible of poetical ornament. I am here only opening the fountains, and clearing the pailage: to deduce the rivers, to follow them in their courfe, and to obferve their effects, would be a talk more agreeable.( ix )
THE.
CONTENTS.
EPISTLE I.
Of the Nature and State of Man, with refpedl to the Universe.
Q F Man in the abfraff— That we can judge only with regard to our own fyitem, being ignorant of the relations of fyferns and things, ver. 17, &c.
That Man is not to be deemed imperfect, but a Being fuited to his place and rank in the creation, agreeable to the general Order of Things, and conformable to Ends and Relations to hi?n unknown, ver. 33, &c.
That it is_ partly upon his Ignorance of future events, and partly upon the Hope of a future Jlate> that all his Happinefs in the prefent depends, ver. 77, &c*§»
The pride of aiming at more Knowledge, and pretending to more Perfection, the caufe of Man's error and mijery. The impiety of putting himfelf in the place of God, and judging of the fitnefs or unfitnefs, perfection or imperfection, jujiice or injußice of his difpenfations,	Ver. 113, &c.
ÜTZ^abfurdity of conceiting himfelf the final caufe of the creation, or expecting that perfection in the moral •worlds which is not in the natural, ver. 137, &c.
The unreafonablenefs of his complaints againß Providence, while, on the one hand, he demands the Perfections of the Angels; and, on the other, the bodily qualifications of the Brutes; though to poffefs any of the fenfitive faculties in a higher degree, would render him mijerable,	ver. 173, &c.
That throughout the whole vfible worlds an univerfal order and gradation in the fenfual and mentalfaculties is cbferved, which caufes a fubordination of creature to creature, and of all creatures to Man. The gradation cf fenfe, inftin<$, thought, reflection, reafon ; that Reafon alone countervails all the ether faculties,	ver> 207.
Hew much farther this order and fubordination of living creatures may extend, above and below us y were any part of which broken, not that part only, but the whole connected creation muß be defrayed,
ver. 233.^extravagance, madnefs and pride offuchade-
firey	ver. 259.
the conference of all, the abfolute fubmiffion due to Providence, both as to our prefent«W future ftate.
v. 281, &c. to the end.
EPISTLE II.
Of the Nature and State of Man, with refpeU to Himfelf, as an Individual.
'*j-m N P bnfmefs of Man not to pry into God, hut to Jludy himfelf. His Middle Nature; his Powers and Frailties,	ver. 1, &c.
The Limits of his Capacity,	ver. 19, &c.
The two Principles of Man, Self-love and Reafon, both necejfary,	ver. 53, &c.
Self-love the f ranger, and why,	ver. 67, &c.
Their end the fame,	ver. 81, &c.
The Passions, and their ufe,	ver. 93, &c.
jTta predominant Pailion, and its force, ver. 131, &c.
to 160.
//; necejftty, /« directing Men to different purpofes,
ver. 165, &c.
7/i providential life, in fixing our Principle,	af-
certaining our Virtue,	ver. 175.
3XÜ
CONTENTS.
Virtue and Vice joined in our mixed Nature j the limits near, yet the things feparate and evident: What is the Office of Reafon, ver. 195, &c. How odious Vice in itfelf \ and bow we deceive our-
felves into it,	ver. 2175	&c*
That, however, the Ends of Providence and general Good are anfwered in our Paffions and Imperfections,	ver. 219» &c-
How ufefully thefe	are	difributecl to all Orders of
Men,	ver. 241, &c.
How ufeful they are to	Society,	ver. 249» ^c*
And to Individuals,	ver> 2^3*
In every Rate, and every age of life, ver. 271, &c.Of the Nacuve and State of IVJ3.11 'with rcfpsSi
to Society.
^HE whole Univerfe one fyjlem of Society,
ver. 7, he.
Nothing made wholly for itfelf, nor yet wholly for another,	ver. 27
The happinefs of Animals	mutual,	ver.	40,.
Reafon or Inftind operate alike to the good of each Individual,	ver< ,..0
Reafon or Inftin£l operate alfo to Society in all Ani-
wa^si	ver. 109.
How far Society carried by Infinff, ver. 115. How much farther by Reafon,	ver. 13 ri
Of that which is called ihe State of Nature, ver. 147. Reafon inf ruffe d by Infinff in the invention of Arts,
ver. 170.
And in the Forms of Society,	ver. 179,
Origin of Political Societies,	Ver. 199,
Origin of Monarchy, ,	ver. 210.
Patriarchal Government,	ver. 216.
It
CONTENTS.
If
Origin of true Religion and Government, from thé fame Principle of Love,	ver. 235, &c*
Origin of Super fit ion and Tyranny, from the fatne Principle of Fear,	ver. 237> &c*
The infuence of Self-love operating to the focial and public Goody	ver.	269.
Ref oration of true Religion and Government on	their
frf principle y	ver.	283.
Mixt Government y	ver.	289.
Various forme of each y and the true end of ally
ver. 303, &c.
EPISTLE IY.
Of the Nature and State of Man with refpedf to Happiness.
TfALSE Notions of Happinefs, Philofophical and ■*	Popular, anfweredy	ver. 19 to 26.
It is the end of all Men, and attainable by ally ver. 29. God intends Happinefs to be equal; and to be fiy it muß be focial, fince all particular Happinefs depends on generaly and fince he governs by general, not particular Laws,	ver, 35.CONTENTS.	'x#
Js it is necejjary for Order, and the peace and welfare of Society, that external goods fhould be unequal, Happinefs is not made to conßß in thefe,
ver. 49.
But, notwithßanding that inequality, the balance of Happinefs among Mankind is kept even by Providence, by the twoPaffions c/’Hope^Fear, ver. 67.
What the Happinefs of Individuals is, as far as is conßß ent with the conßitution of this world; and that the good man has here the Advantage, ver. 7 7.
The error of imputing to V irtue what are only the calamities of Nature, or o/Fortune,	ver. 93.
<The foliy of expecting that God fnould alter his general Laws in favour of particulars,	ver. 121.
That we are not judges who are good; but that, whoever they are, they muß be happieß, ver. 133, &c.
j hat external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconßßent with or deßruäive of Virtue,
ver. 169.
That even thefe can make no Man happy without Virtue:
tnfianced in Riches,
Honours,
Nobility Greatnefs,
Fame,
Superior Talents,xvi	CONTENTS.
With piflures of human Infelicity In Men foffejl of them all,	ver. 277, &c.
That Virtue only confltutes a Happinefs, whofe ob-jefi Is univerfal, and whofe profpedt eternal,
ver. 329, &c.
That the perfection ¿>/~ Virtue Happinefs confifls /««conformity to the Order ¿^Providence here, and a Refignation to it here and hereafter,
ver. 327, &c.11 ]
A N
E S S A Y on MAN.
EPISTLE I.
wake, my St. John ! leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of Kings. Let us (fince Life can little more fupply Than juft to look about us and to die)
A mighty maze ! but not without a plan ;
Ver. i. Awake, my Sr. John !] The opening of this poem, in fifteen lines, is taken up in giving an account oftheSubjedl; which, agreeable to the title, is anEssAr on Man, or a Philosophical Enquiry into his Nature and End, his EaJJions and Purfuits,
The Exordium relates to the whole work, of which the EJjay on Man was only the firft book. The 6th, 7th, and 8th lines allude to the fuhjedt ofthis EJjay, viz. the general Order and Defign of Providence ; the Conftitution ©f the human Mind; the origin’, uie, and end of the
Expatiate free o’er all this fccne of Man ;	5
notes.
B 22	ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. I,
A Wild, where weeds and flow’rs promifcuous (hoot; Or Garden, tempting with forbidden Fruit.
NOTES.
Paffions and Affeaions, both felfifh and focial ; and the wrong purfuits of Power, Pleafure, and Happinefs. Tiie i Oth, i ith, 12 th, Sec. have relation to the iubjeCts of the books intended to follow, viz. the Characters and Capacities of Men, and the Limits of Science, which once tranfgreifed, ignorance begins, and error follows. The i 3th and 14th, to the Knowledge of Mankind, and the various Manners of the age. Next, in line 16, he tells us with what defign he wrote, viz.
T'3 vindicate the nays of God to Man.
The Men he writes againft, he frequently informs us, are fuch as neigh their opinion againft Providence (ver. 114.) fuch as cry, if man s unhappy, God's unjuf (ver. 118.) or fuch as fall into the notion, that Vice and Virtue there is none at all, (Fp. ii. ver. 212.) Phis occafions the poet to divide his vindication of the ways of God into two parts. In the firit of which he gives direCl anfwers to thofe objections which libertine Men, on a view of the diforders arifing from the perverfity of the human will, have intended againft Providence. And in the fecond, he obviates all thofe objections, by a true delineation of human Nature; or a general, but exact, map cf Man. The firft epiitle is employed in the management of the frit part of this difpute ; and the three following in the difeuffion of the fecond. So that this whole book con-ftitutes a complete Ef'ay on Man, written for the belt purpofe, to vindicate the nays of God.
Ver. 7, 8. A Wild,—or Garden,] The Wild relates to the human pajfons, productive (as he explains in the fecond epiitle; both of good and evil. The Garden, .to human reafon, fo often tempting us to tranfgrefs the bounds God has fet to it, and wander in fruitlefs enquiries.3
Ep. I. ESSAY ON MAN.
Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield ; io The latent traits, the giddy heights, explore Of all who blindly creep, orfightlefs foarj Eye Nature’s walks, (hoot Folly as it flies,
And catch the Manners living as they rife ;
:/ Laugh where we mull, be candid where we can 15 But vindicate the ways of God to Man.
I. Say firft, of God above, or Man below,
What can we reafon, but from what we know ? Of Man, what fee we but his ilation here,
From which to reafon, or to which refer ?	20
NOTES.
Ver. 12. Of all who blindly creep, fife.] i. e. Thole who only follow the blind guidance of their Pafiions ; or thofe who leave behind them common fenfe and fober reafon, in their high flights through the regions of Me-taphyflcs. Both which follies are expofed in the fourth epiftle, where the popular and philofophical errors concerning Happinefs are detedled. The figure is taken from animal Life.
Ver. 15 Laugh where we muß, fife.] intimating that human follies are fo Arangely abfurd, that it is not in the power of the mofi compafftonate, on fome occasions, to reflrain their mirth : And that human crimes are fo flagitious, that the moll candid have feldom an opportunity, on this fubjetf, to exercife their virtue.
Ver. 19, 20. Of Man, what fee we but his fiat ion here, From which to reafon, or to which refer The fenfe is, We Jee nothing of Man. but as hefiands at pre-fent in his ß at ion here: From whichflation, all our reafonings on his nature and end muß be drawn; and.to this ß at ion they
£325
4	ESSAY ON MAN.	Ep.f.
Thro’ worlds unnumber’d tho’ the God be known, f Fis ours to trace him only in our own.
He, who through vaft immenfity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compofe one univerfe, Obferve how fyftem into fyftem runs,
What other planets circle other funs,
What vary’d Being peoples ev’ry ftar,
May tell why Heav’n has made us as we are But of this frame, the bearings, and the ties,
The ftrong connexions, nice dependencies, Gradations juft, has thy pervading foul Look’d thro ? or can a part contain the whole ?
Is the great chain, that draws all to agree,
And drawn fupports, upheld by God, or thee ?
30
NOTES.
muß be all ref erred. The confequence is, all our reafon-ings on his nature and end mull needs be very imperfeft.
Ver. 21. Ybro* worlds unnumber d, 15c.] Hunc co-gnofcimus folummodo per Proprietatesfuas& Attributa, &per fapientiflimas & optimas rerum ftru&uras & caufas finales. Nenvtoni Princ. Scbol. gen. fub fin.
Ver. tO. Thefirong connexions, nice dependencies, ~\ The thought is very noble, and exprefled with great philofo-phic beauty and exadtnefs. i he fyilem of the Univerfe is a combination of natural and moral Fitneifes, as the human fyftem is, of body andfpirit. By the ftrong connexions, therefore, the Poet alludes to the natural part; and by the nice dependencies to the moral, tor the EJJ'ay cn Man is not a fyftem of Natural;fin, but of natural Religion. Hence it is, that, where he fuppofes diforders may tend to fome greater good in the natural world, heEp.I. ESSAY ON MAN.	5
II. PrefumptuousMan! the reafon wouldil thou find, Why form’d fo weak, fo little, and fo blind ?	36
Firft, if thou canft, the harder reafon guefs,
Why form’d no weaker, blinder, and no lefs.
A fit of thy mother Earth, why oaks are made Taller or flronger than the weeds they ihade ?	40
Or aik of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove’s Satellites are lefs than Jove ?
Of Syilems poffible, if’ tis confeit That Wifdom infinite muil form the beft.
Where all muil full or not coherent be,	45
And all that rifes, rife in due degree ;
fuppofes they may tend likewife to fome greater good in the moral, as appears from thefe fublime images in the following lines,
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav’n’s defign, "Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline ?
Who knows, but He, whofe hand the lightning forms. Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the ilorms ; Pours fierce ambition in aCtefar’s mind,
Or turns young Ammon looie to fcourge Mankind?
Ver. 3 5 to 42.] In thefe lines the poet has joined the beauty of argumentation to the fublimity of thought; where the fimilar inilances, propofed for his adveriaries examination, fhew as well the abfurdity of their complaints againft Order, as the fruitlejjnej'i of their enquiries into the arcana of the Godhead.
B 46	ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. I.
Then, in the fcale of reas’ning life, ’tis plain, There muft be, fomewhere, fuch a rank as Man : And all the queftion (wrangle e’er fo long)
Is only this, If God has plac’d him wrong ?	50
Refpediing Man, whatever wrong we call, > May, muft be right, as relative to all.	j
In human works, though labour’d on with pain,
A thoufand movements fcarce one purpofe gain ;
In God’s, one fingle can its end produce} 55 Yet ferves to fecond too fome other ufe.
So Man, who here feems principal alone,
Perhaps a£ts fecond to fome fphere unknown, Touches fome wheel, or verges to fome goal }
*Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole.	60
When the proud fteed {hall know why man reftrains His fiery courfe, or drives him o’er the plains ; When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod, Is now a vicftim, and now iEgypt’s God :
Then {hall Man’s pride and dulnefs comprehend 65-His actions’, paffions’, being’s, ufe and end ;
VARIATIONS.
In the former editions, ver. 64,
Now wears a garland, an -¿Egyptian God : altered as above for the reafon given in the note.
Ver. 64.—Egypt's God:) Called fo, becaufe the God Jpis was worfhipped univerfally over the whole land,£p,I; ESSAY ON MAN.	f
Why doing, fuff’ring, check’d, impell’d j and why This hour a Have, the next a deity.
Then fay not Man’s imperfedf, Heav’n in fault; Say-rather, Man’s as perfedf as he ought :	70
His knowledge meafur’d to his ftate and place ;
His time a moment, and a point his fpace.
If to be perfedt 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 thoufand years ago.
HI. Heav’n from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prefcrib’d, their prefent ftate : From brutes what men, from men what fpirits know: Or who could fuffer Being here below ? So The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reafon, would he ikip and play ? Pleas’d to the laft, he crops the flow’ry food,
And licks the hand juft rais’d to Hied his blood. Oh blindnefs to the future ! kindly giv’n, 85 That each may fill the circle mark’d by Heav’n :
variations.
After ver. 68, the following lines in the firfl Ed.
If to be perfedt in a certain fphere,
What matters foon or late, or here or there ?
The bleft to-day is as completely fo,
As who began ten thoufand years ago.■
a	ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. I.
Who fees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero periih, or a fparrow fall,
Atoms or fyilems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burft, and now a world. go Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar j Wait the great teacher Death ; and God adore.
variations.
After ver. 88. in the MS.
No great, no little ; »tis as much decreed That Virgil’s Gnat ihould die, as Czefar bleed.
NOTES.
Ver. 87. Who fees nvith equal eye. &c. ] Matth. x. 29, Ve R. 91Hope humbly then ; j The Hope of a happy ful turity was implanted in the human bread by God himself for this very purpofe, as an earned of that Blifs, which always flying from us here, is referved for the good Man hereafter f he reafon why the poet chufes to infid on this proof of a future date, in preference to otners,^is in order to give his fydem (which is founded an a iuolime and improved Plaionifm) the greater grace Ox uniformity tor hope was Plato’s peculiar argument ior a future date ; and the words here employed—the Joul uneafy, &c. his peculiar expreflion. The poet in tins place, therefore, fays in exprefs terms, that God gave us hope to/apply that future blifs, which he at prefent keeps hid from us In his fecond epidle, ver. 274, he gees dill further, and fays, this hope quits us not even at Death, when every thing mortal drops from us:
Hope travels thro5, nor quits us when we die.
And, in the fourth epidle, he ihews how the fame hope is uprccfofz future date, from the confidcration of God’ss
£P.L ESSAY ON MAN.
What future blifs, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy bleffing now.
VARIATIONS.
In the frit Fol and Quarto,
What blifs above,he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy blifs below.
NOTES.
giving man no appetite in vain, or what he did not intend ihould be fatisfied ;
He fees why Nature plants in Man alone Hope of known blifs, and Faith In blifs unknown : (Nature, whofe di&ates to no other kind Are giv’n in vain, but what they feek they find.)
It is only for the good man, he tells us, that Hope leads from goal to goal, &c. It would be itrange indeed then, if it ihould prove a delufxon.
Ver. 93. What future blifs, fsk.JJt hath been objefted, that the SyJletn of the left weakens the other natural arguments for a future ftate ; becaufe, if the evils which tood Men fuffer promote the benefit of the whole, then every thing is here in order ; and nothing amifs that wants to be fet right: Nor has the good man any reafon to expert amends, when the evils he fullered had fuch a tendency. To this it may be replied, .. That the poet tells us/(Ep. iv. ver. 361 ) That God loves from whole to parts. 2. That the fyftem efthe beft is fo far from weakening thofe natural arguments, that it flrengthens and fupports them. For if thofe evils, to which good men are fubjett, be mere Diforders, without tendency to the greater good of the whole; then, though we muftindeed conclude that they will hereafter be let right, yet this view of things, reprefenting God as buffering diforders for no other end than to fet them right, gives us a veryio
ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. I.
Hope fprings eternal in the human breait:	95
Man never Is, but always To be blefl: :
The foul, uneafy and confin’d, from home,
Reils and expatiates in a life to come.
NOTES.
low idea of the divine wifdom. But if thofe evils (according to tlxtfyftern of the bejl) contribute to the greater perfection of the whole; fuch a reafon may be then given for their permiffion, as iupports our idea of divine wifdom to the higheft religious purpofes. Then, as to the good man’s hopes of a retribution, thofe frill remain in their original force : For our idea of God’s juitice, as)d how far that juftice is engaged to a retribution, is exadly and invariably the fame on either hypothecs For though the J'yftem of the bef fuppofes that the evils themfelmes will be fully compenfated by the good they produce to the whole, yet this is fo far from fup-pohng that particulars ihall iufFer for a general good, that it is eifential to thisfyftem to conclude, that, at the completion of things, when the whole is carried to the hate cf utmoft perfection, particular and univerfal good ihall coincide.
Such is the world's great harmony, that fprings From Order, Union, full Confent of things : ’Whzrfhiatla.ndgreat, where weak svAmigbty, made Tofcrve, not fujfer ; firengthen, not invade, &c.
Ep. iii. ver. 295.
Which coincidence can never be, without a retribution to good men for the evils they fuffered here below.
Ver . 97.- from heme.'] The conilruClion is, “ The “ foul being from home (confined and uneafy) expa-<£ tiates,” c5c. by which words it was the Poet’s purpofc to teach, that the prelent life is only a date of probation for another, more fuitable to the eilence of thf fojjl, and to the free exercife of its qualities,If
Ep. I, ESSAY ON MAN.
Lo, the poor Indian ! whofe untutor’d mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ; 100 His Soul, proud fcience never taught to ftray Far as the Tolar walk, or milky way;
Yet iimple Nature to his hope has giv’n Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav’n ; Some fafer world in depth of woods embrac'd, 105 Some happier iiland in the watry wade,
Where Haves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Chriftians thiril for gold. To Be, contents his natural defire,
He aiks no Angel’s wing, no Seraph’s fire; no
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 108. in the jfiril Ed.
But does he fay the Maker is not good,
’Till he’s exalted to what ftate he wo ad :
Himfelf alone high Heav’n’s peculiar care,
Alone made happy when he will, and where ?
NOTES.
Ver. 99. Lo, the poor Indian ! is'c.) The poet, as wc faid, having bid Man comfort himfelf with expectation of future happinefs, having ihewn him that this hope is an.earneft of it, and put in one very necefiary caution,
Hope humbly then, with trembling pinions foar;
provoked at thofe mifcreants whom he afterwards (Ep. iii. ver. 263.) defcribes as building Hell on fpite. and Heaven on pride, he upbraids them (from ver. 99 tc 112.) with the example of the poor Indian to whom alfo nature hath given, this common hope of Mankind: But
it	ESSAY ON MAN.
But thinks, admitted to that equal iky,
Ep. h
His faithful dog ihall bear him company.
IV. Go, wifer thou ! and, in thy fcale of fenfe, Weigh thy Opinion againft Providence ;
Call imperfection what thou fancy’ft fuch, 115 Say, Here he gives too little, there too much; Deftroy all creatures for thy fport or guft,
Yet cry, If Man’s unhappy, God’s unjuft;
If Man alone ingrofs not Heav’n’s high care, Alone made perfect here, immortal there :	12®
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, Re-judge his juftice, be the God of God.
In Pride, in reas’ning Pride, our error lies ;
All quit their fphere, and ruih into the ikies.
NOTES.
though his untutored mind had betrayed him into many chilchih fancies concerning the nature of that future ftate, yet he is fo far from excluding any part of his own fpecies (a vice which could proceed only from the pride of fcience) that he humanely admits even his faithful dog to hear him company.
j _ y	°	T Ti	Ic? - 1 A «
Ver. 123. In Pride, Arnobius nas palled the
fame cenfure on thefe very follies, which he iuppofes to arife from the caufe here affigned—“ Nihil eft quod nos “ fallat, nihil quod nobis polliceatur fpes caifas (id « quod nobis á quibufdam dicitur viris immoderata fui n opinione fublatis) animas immortales eife, Deo rerum “ ac principi, gradu próximas dignitatis, genitor itlo “ ac patre prolatas, divinas, fapientes, do&as, ñeque ulla corporis attreftatione contiguas.” Mverjus gentes.Ep. î.
ESSAY ON MAN.
Pride ftill is aiming at the bleft abodes, I2-Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods. Afpiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,
Afpiring to be Angels, Men rebel:
And who but wiilies to invert the laws Of Order, fins againft th’ Eternal Caufe. 139 V. Aik for what end the heay’nly bodies ihine, Earth for whofe ufe ? Prideanfwers, «’Tis for mine. “ For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow’r/ u Suckles each herb, and fpreads out ev’ry fiow’r • Annual for me, the grape, the role renew 13s “ The juice ne&areous, and the balmy dew;
“ Eor me, the mine a thoufand treafures brings;
“ Eor me, health guihes from a thoufand fprings |
NOTES.
Ye a, 131. AJk for what end the heav'nly bodies Jhine, life.] 1 he ridicule of imagining the greater portions of the material fyftem to be folely for the ufe of man, Philofophy has fufficiently expofed: and Common fenfe* as the poet obferves, inftrufts us to know that our fellow creatures, placed by Providence the joint-inhabitants of this globe, are defigned by Providence to be joint-lharers with us of its bleffings.
Ver. ib. AJk for what end, <Ac. j If there be any fault in thefe lines, it is not in the general fentiment, but a want of exa&nefs in expreffing it.—it is the higheft abfurdity to think that Earth is man’s footfool, his canopy the Jkies, and the heavenly bodies lighted up principally for his ufe; yet not fo, to fuppofe fruits and minerals given for this end.
¡1 'n
ESSAY ON MAN,
Ep. I.
i( Seas roll to waft me, funs to light me rife; te My footftool earth, my canopy the ikies.” 140 But errs not Nature from this gracious end, From burning funs when livid deaths defcend, When earthquakes fwallow, or when tempefts fweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep ?
“ No, (’tis reply’d) the fir ft Almighty Caufe 145 *6 A£ts not by partial, but by gen’ral laws ;
<e Th’exceptions few; fome change fmce all began : <c And what created perfedt?”—Why then Man?
* If the great end be human happinefs,
Then Nature deviates ; and can Man do lefs ? 150 As much that end a conftant courfe requires \ Of ihow’rs and funihine, as of Man’s defires ; J As much eternal fprings and cloudlefs ikies,
As men for ever temp’rate, calm, and wife.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav’n’s defign, Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline ?	156
NOTES.
Ver. 150. Then Nature deviates,&c.'] “ While comets “ move in very eccentric orbs, in all manner of pofi-“ tions, 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 adions of comets and “ planets upon one another, and which will be apt to “ increafe, till this fyftem wants a reformation.” Sir Ifaac Newton s Optics, Shhuajl. ult.
Ver. 155. Ijplagues, <sc.] What hath milled fome£p. I. ESSAY ON MAN,' i5
Whoknows but he, whofe hand the light’njng forms, Vv’ho heaves old Ocean, and who wings the ftorms ; Pours fierce Ambition in a Cæfar’s mind, 159 Or turns young Ammon loofe to fcourge mankind ?
NOTES,
perfons in this paffage, is their fuppofing the companion to be between the effeéts of two things in this fib-lunary world ; when not only the elegancy, but the juft-îiefs of it, confifcs in its being between the effeas of a thing in the unluerfe at large, and the familiar and known effeas of one in this fublunary world. For the poiition infoiced in theie lines is this, that partial evil tends to the good of the whole*
Refpeaing Man, whatever wrong we call,
May, muft be right, as relative to all. ver. 5 r. How does the Poet enforce it ? if you will believe thefe perfons, in illufirating the effeas of partial moral evil in a particular fyftem, by that of partial natural evil in, the J'ame fyitem, and fo he leaves hispoftion in the lurch. But the Poet reafons at another rate : The way to prove his point, he knew, was to illuftrate the effea of partial moral evil in the univerfe, by partial natural evil in a particular fyjlem. Whether partial moral evil tend to the good of the univerfe, being a queftion which, by reafon of our ignorance of many parts of that univerfe, we cannot decide, but from known effefts ; the rules of argument require that it be proved by analogy, i. e. fetting it by, and comparing it with, a thing certain ; and it is a thing certain that partial natural evil tends to the good of o\xr particular fyjlem.
_Ver. i ç7. Who knows but he, É5T] The fublimity with which the great Author of Nature is here charac-terifed, is but the fécond beauty of this fine paffage. The greateft is the making the very diipenfation objected to, the periphrafis of his Title,
C16 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep.X.
From pride, from pride, our very reas’ning fprings; Account for moral, as for nat’ral things:
Why charge we Heav’n in thofe, in thefe acquit? In both, to reafon right is to fubmit.
Better for Us, perhaps, it might appear, 165 Were there all harmony, all virtue here j
NOTES.
iß
Ver, 165. Better for Us, It might,- fays he, perhaps, appear better to us, that there were nothing in this world but peace and virtue ;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never paffion difcompos’d the mind.
But then confider, that as our naturalfyfem is fupported by the itrife of its elementary particles ; fo is our intellectual fyfem by the conflict of our PaiFions, which are the elements of human aCtion.
In a word, as without the benefit of tempeiluous winds, both air and ocean would Itagnate, corrupt, and fpread univerfal contagion throughout all the ranks of animals that inhabit, or are fupported by them; fo, without the benefit of the Paffions, fuch virtue as was merely the effeCt of the abfence of thofe Paffions would be a lifelefs calm, a ftoical Apathy.
Contra&ed all, retiring to the bread :
Buthealth of mind is Exercife, notRef. Ep.ii. ver. 103,
Therefore, inftead of regarding the conflict of the elements, and the paffions of the mind as diforders, you ought to confider them as part of the general order of Providence : And that they are fo, appears from their always preferving the fame unvaried courfe, throughout all ages, from the creation to the prefent time:
The genral order, lince the Whole began,
Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man,]Ep. 1:
ESSAY ON MAE vj
That never air or ocean felt the wind ;
That never paffion difcompos’d the mind.
But all fubiifts by elemental ftrifej
And paffions are the elements of life.	tjo
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 ?
Nowlooking downwards, juft as griev’d appears 175 To want the ftrength of bulls* the fur of bears;
NOTES.
We fee, therefore, it would be doing great injuftice to otir author to fufpeCl that he intended, by this, to give any encouragement to vice. His fyftem, as all his* E-thic Epiiiles ihew, is this: That the paffions, for the reafons given above, are neceftary to the fupport of Virtue : That, indeed, the Paffions in excefs *produce Vice, which is, in its own Nature, the greateft of all Evils, and comes into the world from the abufe of Man’s free-will 5 but that God, in his infinite wifdom and goodnefs, deviouily turns the natural bias of its malignity to the advancement of human happinefs, and makes it productive of general Good :
Th’ eternal Art educes Good from III
Ep. ii. ver,
Ver. 169. But allfulfißs, fife.] See this fubjeCl extended in Ep. ii. from ver. 90 to 112, 355, 8cc.
Ver. 174. And little lefs than Angel, (Ac.] Thou haß made him a little lower than the Angels, and haß crowned him with glory and hontur, Pfalm viii. 9.
C 2Ep.I,
- : :

180
ii ESSAY ON MAN.
Made for his ufe, all creatures if he call,
Say what their ufe, had he the pow’rs of all : Nature to thefe, without profufion kind,
The proper organs, proper pow’rs affign’d ;
Each feeming want compenfated of courfe,
Here with degrees of fwiftnefs, there of force All in exact proportion to the Hate ;
Nothing to add, and nothing to abate.
Each beait, each infedt, happy in its own:
Is Heav’n unkind to Man, and Man alone ? Shall he alone, whom rational we call,
Be pleas’d with nothing, if not blefs’d with all ? The blifs of Man (could Pride that bleffing find)

Is not to adt or think beyond mankind -3 No pow’rs of body or of foul to lhare,
But what his nature and his ftate can bear Why has not Man a microfcopic eye ?
For this plain reafon, Man is not a Fly.
Say what the ufe, were finer optics giv’n,
T* infpeft a mite, not comprehend the heav’n ? Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o’er,
To fmart and agonize at ev’ry pore ?
19q
*95
Ver. 182. Here with degrees of fwiftnefs, Ifc.] It is a certain axiom in. the anatomy of creatures, that in proportion as they are formed for ilrength, their fwiftnefs is leifened; or, as they are formed for fvyiftnefi? their ftrength is abated. P.Ep. I.
essay on man.
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 wiih that Heav’n had left him ilill The whifp’ring Zephyr, and the purling rill ? Who finds not Providence all good and wife, 205 Alike in what it gives, and what denies ?
VII. Far as Creation’s ample range extends, The fcale of fenfual, mental pow’rs afcends : Mark how it mounts, t.o Man’s imperial race, From the green myriads in the peopled grafs : 210 What modes of fight betwixt each wide extreme, The mole’s dim curtain, and the lynx’s beam: Of finell, the headlong lionefs between,
And hound fagacious on the tainted green :
notes.
YE.R- 2°2. Stunn'd him with the mufic ofithefipheresA This inftanceis poetical, and even i'ublime, but mif-piaced. He is arguing philofophically in a cafe that required him to employ the real objects of fenfe only • and what is worfe, he fpeaks of this as a real objeft — //Nature thunder'd,, &c. The cafe is different where (in ver. 253.) he fpeaks of the motion of the heavenly bodies under the fublime Imagery of ruling Angels: For whether there be ruling Angels or no, there is real mo-ton, which was all his argument wanted; but if there e no mufic ofithe fpheres, there was no real found, which his argument was obliged to find.
Ver. 213, The headlong lionefs] The manner of the C320 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. I.
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood, 215 To that which warbles thro’ 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 thehealing dew ? 220 How Infiindt varies in the grovhing fwine, Compar’d, half-reas’ning elephant, with thine! ’Twixt that, and Reafon, what a nice barrier ? For ever fep’rate, yet for ever near ! Remembrance and Reflection how ally’d ;	225
What thin partitions Senfe from Thought divide ?
NOTES.
lions hunting their prey in the deferts of Africa is this: At their firft going out in the night-time they fet up a loud roar, and then liften to the noife made by the beails In their flight, purfuing them by the ear, and not by the noftril. It is probable the itory of the Jackal s hunting for the lion, was occafioned by obfervation of this defeat of fcent in that terrible animal. P.
Ver. 224. For ever fep'rate^ fife.] Near, by the iimili-tude of the operation ; feparate, by the immenfe difference in the nature of the powers.
Ver. 226. What thin partitions, £?£■.] So thin, that the Atheiftic philofophers, as Protagoras, held that thought ‘was only fenfe $ and from thence concluded, that every imagination or opinion of every man was true . Hoarse <pccv-tacrioc Erh	But the poet determines more philo
fophically, that they are really and effentially different, how thin foever the partition is by which they are divided. Thus (to illuftrate the truth of this obfervation) when a geometer confiders a triangle, in order to demanitrateJSr.T. ESSAY ON MAN.
And Middle natures, how they long to join.,
Yet never pafs th’ infuperable line !
Without this juft gradation could they be Subjected, thefe to thofe, or all to thee ?
The pow’rs of all fubdu’d by thee alone,
Is not thy Reafon all thefe pow’rs in one ?
VIII. See, thro’ this air, this ocean, and this earth. All matter quick, and burfting into birth.
Above, how high, progreffive life may go !	235.
Around, how wide ! how deep extend below ? Vaft chain of Being ! which from God began. Natures aethereal, human, angel, man, a t 1 0 n s,
VARI
Ver. 238.. Ed. iff.
Ethereal eifence, fpirit, fubilance, man.
NOTE S.
the equality of its three angles to two right ones, he has the pidture or image of fome fenfibie triangle in his mind, which is fenfe; yet notwithftanding, he muft needs have the notion or idea of an intelleftual triangle in his mind, which is thought; for this plain reafon, becaufe every image or pidture of a triangle muft needs be ob-tufangular, or redtangular, or acutangular: but that which, in his mind, is the fubjedt of this propofition, is the ratio of a triangle, undetermined to any of thefe fpecies. On this account it was that Ariftotle faid,
No'/¡¡¿día rtvi diahrsi, 78 ¡¿y (pavldcr^xTCi £ 'vea >* ¿Hi tuvtcí <p«y-
7xtj[A0ila. aXK UK ocvev (paf.cicrfAotTojv. ’The conceptions of the Mind differ fomenuhat from fenfibie images ; they are not fenfibie images, and yet not quite free or difen gagedfrom
Ver. 237. Vajl chain of Being /] Who will not ac-
c22
ESSAY ON MAN.
Ep. T,
Beaft, bird, fiih, infedl, what no eye can fee,
No glafs can reach ; from Infinite to thee, 240 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 ftep broken, the great fcale’s deftroy’d : From Nature’s chain whatever link you ftrike, 243 Tenth, or ten thoufanath, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each fyftem in gradation roll Alike efiential to th’ amazing Whole,
The leaft confufion but in one, not all
That fyftem only, but the Whole rrmft fall. 250
Let Earth unbalanc’d from her orbit fly,
Planets and funs run lawlefs thro’ the iky ;
NOTES.
knowledge, therefore, that fo harmonious a connexion in the difpolition of things as is here defcribed, is tran-fcendently beautiful ? But the Fatalifts fuppofe fuch an one—What then ? Is the Firfl Free Agent, is the great Caufe of all things, debarred from a contrivance fo exquisite, becaufe fome Men, to let up their idol, Fate, abfurdly reprefent it as prefiding over fuch a fyftem.
Ver. 243. Or in the full creation leave a void, tiff.] This is only an illuftration, alluding to the Peripatetic plenum and vacuum ; the full and void here meant, relating not to Matter, but to Life.
Ver. 24.7. And, if each fyftem in gradation roll] The verb alludes to the motion of the planetary bodies of each, fyftem ; and to tht figures defcribed by that motion.
Ver. 251. Let Earth unbalancedJ i- e* Being no longer kept within its orbit by the different directions IEp.L ESSAY ON man. 23
Let ruling Angels from their fpheres be hurl’d, Being on being wreck’d, and world on world ; Heav’n’s whole foundations to theircenter nod, 255 And Nature trembles to the throne of God.
All this dread Order break —for whom ? for thee? Vile worm !—oh Madnefs! Pride ! Impiety !
IX. What if the foot, ordain’d the dull: to tread, Or hand, to toil, afpir’d to be the head ?	260
What if the head, the eye, or ear repin’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 talks or pains 265 The great directing Mind of All ordains.
NOTES.
of its progreffive and attractive motions; which, like equal Weights in a balance, keep it in an equilibre.
Ver. 253. Let ruling Angels, iftc. ]The poet, throughout this poem, with great art, ufes an advantage, which his employing a Platonic principle for the foundation of his Effay had afforded him; and that is, the exprefling him-felf (as here) in Platonic notions; which, luckily for his purpofe, are highly poetical, at the fame time that they add a grace to the uniformity of his reafoning.
Ver. 259. What if thefoot, &c.] This fine illuflration in defence of the Syjlem of Nature, is taken from St. Paul, who employed it to defend the Syftetn of Grace.
Ver. 265. Juft as abfurd, &c.] See the profecution and applifcation of this in Ep. iv. P.
Veh. 266. cl he great dir effing Mind, lftc.~\{C Veneramur i£ autem et colimus ob dominium. Deus enim fine do-24 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. i,
All are but parts of one ilupendous whole, Whofe body Nature iss and God the foul ;
NOTES.
et minio, providentia, et cauiis finalibus, nihil aliud eli “ quam Fatum & Natura.” Newton! Princip. Sebo/, gener.fub finem.
Ver. 2Ó8. Whofe body Nature is, A certain exa-miner remarks, on this line, that “ A Spinoiift would ex-V prefs himfelf in this manner.” I believe he would, and fo, we know, wopld St. Paul too, when writing on the fame fubjeft, namely, the omniprefence of God in his Providence, and in his Subitanee. In him we live, and move, and have our being ; i, e. we are parts of him, his offspring, as the Greek poet, a pantheiil quoted by the Apolide, obferves : And the reafon is, becaufe a religious theift, and an impious pantheiit, both profefs to believe the omniprefence of God. But would Spinofa, as Mr. Pope does, call God the great dirediing Mind of all, who hath intentionally created a perfeft Univerfe ? Or would a Spinoiiit have told us,
The workman from the work diitindt was known,
a line that overturns all Spinozifm from its very foundations.
But this fublime defeription of the Godhead contains not only the divinity of St. Paul ; but, if that will not fatisfy the men he writes againil, the philofophy iikewife of Sir Ifaac Newton ;
The Poet fays,
All are but parts of one ilupendous whole,
Whofe body Nature is, and God the foul ;
That, chang’d thro’ all, and yet in all the famej Great in the earth, as in th’ aethereal frame ; Warms in the fun, refreihes in the breeze,
Glows in the itars, and bloifoms in the trees,Ef.L essay ON MAN. as
That, chang’d thro’ all, and yet in all the fame; Great in the earth, as in th’ ¡ethereal frame ; 270
notes.
Lives thro’ all life, extends thro’ all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent.
The philofopher:—“ In ipfo continenturetmoventur univerfa, fed abfque mutua paffione. Deus nihil pa-“ titur ex corporum motibus; ilia nullam fentiuntre-“ fiftentiam ex omniprsefentia Dei—Corpore omni et « fiffura corporea deftituitur.—Omnia regit et omnia cognofcit.—Cum unaquaeque Spain particula *< per, et unumquodque Durations lndiviiibile mom n-« turn, ubique certe rerum omnium Fabricator ac Do-“ minus non erit nunquam, nufquam.’V
Mr. Pope:
Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfedl, 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 5 He fills, he bounds, conne&s, and equals all.
Sir Ifaac Neton Annon ex phamomenis conftat
<C efle entern incorporeum,viventem, intelligentem, om-niprsefentem, qui in fpatio infinite, tanquam ienfono fuo, res ipfas intime cernat, pemtuique perfpiciat, « totafque intra fe preens pnefehtes
But now admitting, there was an ambiguity m thete expreffions fo great, that a Spmozift might to exprefs his own particular principles, and inch a thing might well be, becaufe the Spinozifts, m order to hide§the impiety of their principle, are wont to exprefs the Omniprefence of God in terms that a^y re ig Theift might employ : In this cafe, I fay, h	■
to judge of the Poet’s meaning ? Surely by the wh26 ESSAY ON MAN. Ei>. I>
Warms in the fun, refrelhes in the breeze,
Glows in the fiars, and bloiToms in the trees, Lives thro* all life, extends thro* all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unfpent;
Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part, 275 As full, as perfedl, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile Man that mourns,
As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns :
N O i E S.
tenor of his argument. Now take the words in the Senfe of the Spinozifts, and he is made in the con-eliiiion of his Epiille, to overthrow all he has been ad-
t!}™ughr0ut thf body of it: For Spinozifm is the deftrudhon of an Univerfe, where every thing; tends, by a forefeen contrivance in all its parts, to the per-fe6hon of the whole. But allow him to employ the pai age in the fenfe of St. Paul, That vje and all creates live, and move, and have our being; in God: and
!fef ? \vdl be iee,n to be the moil logical fupport of all that had preceded _ For the Poet having, as we fay, laboured through his Epiille to prove, that every thing
10 r C ^?lv*r.fe tenc^s» by a forefeen contrivance, and a preient direftion of all its parts, to the perfe&ion of the " 0 e *. Il ^igbt be objefted, that fuch a difpoiition of „ lngs implying m God a painful, operofe and incon-livable extent of Providence, it could not be fuppofed a *uc, care extended to all, but was confined to the more noble parts of the creation. This grofs concepts r Flrft £aui*e the. P.oet expofes, by ihewing . ,° equally and intimately prefent to every
f MatrteJ*.t0 evei7 iort of Subitance, and in every inftant of Being.
NA‘ T’-f- S‘7tK Alluding to the
• ame heap him, fignifying burners.To him no high, no low, no great, no fmall;
He fills, he bounds, conne&s, and equals all. i*g0 Xt Ceafe then, nor Order Imperfection name * Our proper blifs depends on what we blame. Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree Of blindnefs, weaknefs, Heav’n bellows on thee.
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 282. in the MS.
Reafon, to think of God when ihe pretends. Begins a Cenfor,^an Adorer ends.
NOTES.
Ve r . 2 81. Ceafe then, nor Order] That the reader may fee in one view the exadtnefs of the Method, as well as Force of the Argument, I fhall here draw ud a ihort fynopfis of this Epillle. The Poet begins by telling us his fubjeft is an Eifay on Man : That his end of writing-is to vindicate Providence : That he intends to derive hii1 arguments/™» the vifible things of God feen in this fyßem : Lays down this Propofition, That of all poffibh Jyfiems infinite Wifdom has formed the beß : Draws from thence two Confequences, 1. That there muß needs be Somewhere fuch a creature as Man; 2. That the moral Evil which he is author of is productive ofthesoodofthe whole. This is his general Theiis; from whence he iorrns this conclufion, That Man fhould refi fubmiffive and content, aud make the hopes of futurity his comfort • butnotfuffer this to be the occafton of Pride, which is the caufe of all his impious Complaints.
He proceeds to confirm his Theiis—Previoufly endea* vours to aba|e our wonder at the phenomenon of moralESSAY ON MANj Ei. L
Submit.—In this, or any other fphere, 285 Secure to be as bleft as thou canit bear :
Safe in the hand of one difpofing Pow’r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee *
All Chance, Direaion, which thou canft not fee j All Difcord, Harmony not underftood j 291 All partial Evil, univerfal Good : notes.
Evil; lhews, firft, its Ufe to the perfeBion of the Univerfe, by Analogy, from the ufe of phyfecal Evil in this particular fyftem—Secondly, its ufe in this fyft em, where it is turned, providentially, from its natural bias to promote Virtue. Then goes on to vindicate Providence from the imputation of certain fuppofed natural Evils ; as he had before juilified it for the permifiion of real moral Evil, in ihewing that, though the atheift’s complaint againft Providence be on pretence of real moral Evil, yet the true caufe is his impatience under imaginary natural Evil; the iffue of a depraved appetite for *fantaftical advantages, which, if obtained, would be uje-lefs or hurtful to Man, and deforming and deftruftive to the Univerfe, as breaking into that Order by which it is fupported.—He deferibes that Order, Harmony, and clofe connexion of the Parts ; and by ihewing the intimate prefence of God to his whole creation, gives a reafon for an Univerfe fo amazingly beautiful and perfed. From all this he deduces his general Conclufion, That Nature being neither a blind chain of Canfes and EffeBs, Tier yet the fortuitous refult of wandering atoms, but the wonderful Art and Direction of an all-wife., all-good, and free Being; Whatever is, is Right, with regard U the Difpofttion of God, and its Ultimate Tendency ; which once granted, all complaints againft Providence are at an end,
5Ep. I.
29
ESSAY ON MAN.
And, fpite of Pride, in erring Reafon’s fpite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.'
notes.
Ver. 294. One truth is clear, Whatever is, is rightl\ What are we to underhand by thefe words ? Did the Poet mean right with regard to Man, or right with regard to God ; right with regard to itfelf, or right with regard to its ultimate tendency ? Surely with regard to God ; for he tells us his deiign is to vindicate the ways of God to Man. Surely, with regard to its ultimate tendency; for he tells us again, all partial ill is univerfal good, ver, 291.VARIATIONS.
Ver. 2. Ed. ift.
The only fcience of Mankind is Man.
NOTES.
Ver. 2. The proper Jiudy, &c.] The Poet having ihewn, in the firf ep’ftle, that the ways of God are too high for our comprenenfion, rightly draws this con-clulion, and methodically makes it the fubjeft of his Introdu&ion to the fecond, which treats of the Nature of Man.
Ver. 3. Plac'd on this ifhmus, &c.] As the Poet hath given us this defcription of Man for the very contrary purpofe to which Sceptics are wont to employ fuchkind of paintings, namely, not to deter men from thtfearch, but to excite them to the difccvery of truth ; he hath, with great judgment, reprefented Man as doubting and wavering between the right and wrong objeft; from which ilate there are great hopes he may be relieved by a careful and circumfpeft ufe of Keafon. On the contrary, had he fuppofed Man fo blind, as to be bulled in chufing, or doubtful in his choice, between two ob-je£ls equally wrong, the cafe had appeared defperate, and all fudy of Man had bee» effcftttally difcouraged.Ep. II.
ESSAY ON MAN. ar
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic fide, 5 With too much weaknefs for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between ; in doubt to a&, or reft ;
In doubt to deem himfelf a God, or Beaft ;
In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err ; ¡q Alike in ignorance, his reafon fuch,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much $
notes.
, Ver. 10. Born hut to die, fcfc.] The author’s meaning is, that, as we are born to die, and yet to enjoy feme fmall portion of life ; fo, though we reafon to err, yet we comprehend fome few truths. This is the weak Hate of .Reafon, in which Error mixes itfelf with all its true conclufions concerning Man’s Nature.
Ver. n. Alike in ignorance, Sifr.] i. e. The proper fphere of his Reafon is fo narrow, and the exercife of it fo nice, that the too immoderate ufe of it is attended with the fame ignorance that proceeds from the not ufmg it at all. Yet, though in both thefe cafes, he is abufed by himfelf, he has it Hill in his power to difabufe himfelf, in making his pailions fubfervient to the means, and regulating his Reafon by the end of Life.
Ve R. 12. Whether he thinks too little, or too much; ] This is fo truet< that ignorance arifes as well from puihing our enquiries too far, as from not carrying them far enough, that we may obferve, when Speculations, even in Science, are carried beyond a certain point; that point, where ufe is reafonably fuppofed to end, and mere curiolity to begin ; they conclude in the moil extravagant and fenfelefs inferences ; fuch as the unreality of matter; the reality of fpace; the fervility of the will, tdc. 1 he reafon of this fudden fall out of full light into utter darknefs appears not to refuitfrom the
uESSAY ON MAN.
32 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. II.
Chaos of Thought and Paffion, all confus’d j Still by himfelf abus’d, or difabus’d j Created half to rife, and half to fall ;	15
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of Truth, in endlefs Error hurl’d;
The glory, jeft, and riddle of the world !
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 18, in the MS.
For more perfe&ion than this date can bear In vain we figh, Heav’n made us as we are.
As wifely fure a modeft Ape might aim To be like man, whofe faculties and frame He fees, he feels, as you or I to be An Angel thing we neither know nor fee. Obferve how near he edges on our race ;
What human tricks! how rifible of face!
It muil be fo—why elfe have I the fenfe Of more than monkey charms and excellence ? Why elfe to walk on two fo oft effay’d ?
And why this ardent longing for a maid ?
So Pug might plead, and call his Gods unkind Till fet on end and married to his mind.
Go, reas’ning thing ! affume the Doftor’s chair, As Plato deep, as Seneca fevere :
NOTES.
natural condition of things, but to be the arbitrary decree of infinite wifdom and goodnefs, which impofed a barrier to the extravagances of its giddy lawlefs creature, always inclined to purfue truths of lefs importance too far, to the neglett of thofe more neceifary for his improvement in his dation here.Ep. II. ESSAY ON MAN. 33
Go, wond’rous creature ! mount where Science guides,
Go, meafure earth, weigh air, and ftate the tides 1 20 Inftrudt the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun ;
Go, foar with Plato, to th’ empyreal fphere,
To the firft good, firil perfect, and firit fair 5 Or tread the mazy round his follow’rs trod;	25
And quitting fenfe call imitating God;
As Eaftern priefts in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the Sun,
VARIATIONS.
Fix moral fitnefs, and to God give rule,
Then drop into thyfelf, &c.	—
Ver. 21. Ed. 4th and 5th.
Shew by what rules the wand’ring planets dray, Correit old Time, and teach the Sun his way.
NOTES.
Ver. 20. Co, meafure earth, OV.] Alluding to the noble and ufeful project of our modern Mathematicians, to meafure a degree at the equator and polar circle, in order to determine the true figure of the earth; of great importance to aftronomy and navigation.
Ver. 22. Corredl old Time,] This alludes to Sirlfaac Newton’s Grecian Chronology, which he reformed on thofe two fublime conceptions, the difference between the reigns of kings, and the generations of men ; and the pofition of the colures of the equinoxes and folftices at the time of the Argonautic expedition.Ep. ir.
34 ESSAY ON MAN,
Go, teach Eternal Wifdom how to rule—-Then drop into thyfelf, and be a fool!
Superior beings, when of late they faw A mortal Man unfold all Nature’s law, Admir’d fuch wifdom in an earthly ihape, And ihew’d a Newton as we ihew an Ape,
notes.
Vh_r. 29, 30. Go, teach Eternal Wifdom, &c.] Thefe tvv0 lines are a concluiion from all that had been faid Irom ver. 18, to this eifedl: Go now, vain Man, elated with thy acquirements in real fcience, and imaginary intimacy with God ; go, and run into all the extravagancies I have exploded in the firft epiftle, where thou pietendeft to teach Providence how to govern ; then drop into the obfcurities of thy own nature, and thereby manifeft thy ignorance and folly.
Y e r . 31. Superior beings, &c.] In thefe lines he fpeaks to this effea : But to make you fully fenfible of the difficulty of this ftudy, I ihallinilance in the great Newton himfelf; whom, when fuperior beings, not long fince, faw capable of unfolding the whole law of Nature, they were in doubt whether the owner of fuch prodigious fsgacity ihould not be reckoned of their own order ; juft as men, when they fee the furprifing marks of Reafon in an Ape, are almoil tempted to rank him with their own kind. And yet this wondrous Man could go no further in the knowledge of himfelf than the generality of h:s Ipecies. In which we fee it was not Mr Pope’s intention ^ to bring any of the Ape’s qualities, but its fagaaty, into the comparifon. But why the Ape’s, it m^y be faid, lather than the fagacity of fome more decent animal, particularly the half reafoning elephant, as the poet calls it; which, as well on account of this its Superiority, as for its having no ridiculous fide, like theEp. II. ESSAY ON MAN. 35
Could liC) whofe rules the rapid Cornet bindj 33 Defcribe or fix one movement of his mind ?
VARIATIONS.
Yer. 35. Ed. ill.
Could he, who taught each Planet where to roll, Defcribe or fix one movement of the Soul ? Who mark’d their points to rife or to defeend, Explain his own beginning or his end ?
NOTES.
Ape, on which it could be viewed, feems better to have deferred this honour ? I reply, Becauie, as none but a^fhape refembling human, accompanied with great fagacity, could occafion the doubt of that animal’s re* lation to Man, the Ape only having that refemblance, no other animal was fitted for the companion. And on this ground of relation the whole beauty of the thought depends; Newton and thofe fuperior fpirits being equally framed for immortality, though of different orders. And here let me take notice of a new fpecies of the Sublime, of which our poet may be juitly faid to be the maker; fo new, that we have yet no name for it, though of a nature diitinCt from every other poetical excellence. The two great perfections of works of genius are Wit and Sublimity. Many writers have been witty, feveral have been fublime, and fome few Shave even poifeifed both thefe qualities fe-parately; but none that I know of, befides our Poet, hath had the art to incorporate them ; of which he hath given many examples, both in this Eifay and his other poems, one of the nobleft being the paifage in queftion. This feems to be the laft effort of the imagination, to poetical perfection ; and in this compounded excellence the Wit receives a dignity from the Sublime, and the Sublime a fplendor from the Wit; which, in their hate of feparate exiftence, they both wanted.
D3ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. II.
36
Who faw its fires here rife, and there defcend, Explain his own beginning, or his end ?
Alas what wonder ! Man’s fuperior part Uncheck’d may rife, and climb from art to art; 40 But when his own great work is but begun,
What Reafon weaves, by Paffion is undone.
Trace Science then, with Modefty thy guide 5 Firft firip off all her equipage of pride j Dedudl what is but Vanity, or Drefs,	45
Or Learning’s Luxury, or Idlenefs 5
NOTES.
Ver. 37, Who fanu its fires here rife, £sV.] Sir Ifaac Newton, in calculating the velocity of a comet’s motion, and the courfe it defcribes, when it becomes vifible in its defcent to, and afcent from, the Sun, conjectured, with the higheil appearance of truth, that comets revolve perpetually round the Sun, in ellipfes vaftly eccentrical, and very nearly approaching to parabolas. In which he was greatly confirmed, in obferving, between two comets, a coincidence in their perihelions, and a perfect agreement in their velocities.
Ver. 45. — Vanity, or Drefs,] Thefe are the firft parts of what the Poet, in the preceding line, call the fcholar’s equipage of pride. By Vanity is meant that luxuriancy of thought and exprefiion in which a writer indulges himfelf, to ihevv the fruitfulnefs of his fancy or invention. By drefs is to be underftood a lower degree of that praftice, in amplification of thought and ornamental exprefiion, to give force to what the writer would convey : but even this, the Poet, in a fevere fearch after truth, condemns; and with great judgment. Concifenefs of thought and fimplicity of exprefiion, being as well the beit infruments, as the beft 'vehicles ofEp. II. ESSAY ON MAN.	37
Or tricks to ihew the ftretch of human brain, Mere curious pleafure, or ingenious pain ; Expunge the whole, or lop th’ excrefcent parts Of all our Vices have created Arts;	5°
Then fee how little the remaining fum,
Which ferv’d the paft, and mud the times to come !
II. Two principles in human nature reign ; Self-love, to urge, and Reafon, to reftrain;
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,	S3
Each works its end, to move or govern all:
notes.
Truth. Shakefpear touches upon thisTatter’ ^ntage with great force and humour. The Flatterer lays to Timonm diftrefs, “ I cannot rmrthe monftrous buYL » of their ingratitude with any fixe of words. ft-other replies, - Let it go naked, men may fee t the
Veiir46. Or learning's Luxury, or Idlenefs;] The Luxury of Learning confifts in dreffing «P and difguhing old notions in a new way, fo as to make them more faih ion able and palateable ; inftead of examining an fcrutini/ing their truth. As this is often done lor pon p a„d“ew, it is called luxury : as it is often done to fave
t>ains and labour, it is called tdlenejs.
P yER 47. Or tricks to jhew the ftretch of human brain,] Such as"the mathematical demo„aratione concermng the /mail quantity of matter; the	of it, -	•
J v E1. 48. 'Mere curious pleafure, or ingenious pain, JThat is, when Admiration fets the mind on the rack.
Ver. 49. Expunge the whole, orlop th excrejcen pa Of all	Jr Vices bLcreated Arts;] i.
natural Philofophy, Logic, Rhetoric, Poetry &c that adminifa to luxury, deceit, ambmon, efteimnacy, &.
D 4£p. ii.
3S
essay on man.
And to their proper operation ftill,
Afcribe all Good, to their improper, 111,
Self-love, the fpring of motion, ads the foul ; Reafon’s comparing balance rules the whole. 60 Man, but for that, no adlion could attend,
And, but for this, were a&ive to no end :
Fix’d like a plant on his peculiar fpot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot;
Or, meteor-like, flame lawlefs thro’ the void, 65 Deflroying others, by himfelf deftroy’d.
Moll flrength the moving principle requires; A£tive its talk, it prompts, impels, infpires ;
Sedate and quiet, the comparing lies, horm’d but to check, delib’rate, and advife. Self-love ftill Wronger, as its obje&s nigh;
Reafon s at diflance, and in profpedt lie:
That fees immediate good by prefent fenfe; Reafon, the future and the confequence.
Thicker than arguments, temptations throng, 75 At be ft more watchful this, but that more ftrong. The a&ion of the ftronger to fufpend Reafon ftill ufe, to Reafon ftill attend.
7 o
NOTES.
\ er, 7 ¿.Peafon, the future and the confequence. 1 i. e Bv expenence Reafon colieds the future ; and by arguml tatiqn, the confequence.	'	*39
Ep.II. ESSAY ON MAN.
Attention, habit and experience gains;
Each ftrengthensReafon, and Self-love reftrains. 8e Let fubtle fchoolmen teach thefe friends to fight, More ftudious to divide than to unite;
And Grace and Virtue, Senfe and Reafon fplit,
| I With all the rafh dexterity of wit.
| Wits, juft like fools, at war about a name, 85 Have full as oft no meaning, or the fame.
Self-love and Reafon to one end afpire,
Pain their averfion, Pleafure their defire ;
I a But greedy 1 hat, its ohjedh would devour,
This tañe the honey, and not wound the flow’r: <jo
variations.
After ver. 86. in the MS.
Of good and evil Gods what frighted Fools,
Of good and evil Reafon puzzled Schools,
Receiv’d, deceiving, taught•-——
s
NOTES.
Ver. 81. Let fubtle fchoolmen,&<r.J This obfervation on the folly of the fchoolmen, who confider reafon and the paffions as two oppoilte principles, the one ¿-Wand the other evil, is feafonable and judicious; for this folly gives great fupport to the Manichsean or Zoroaftrian error, the confutation of which was one of the author’s chief ends in writing. For if there be two principles in nun, a good and bad, it is natural to think him the joint produft of the two Manichaean deities (the firft of which contributed to his Reafon, the other to his Paf-fiff) rather than the creature of one Individual Caufe. This was Plutarch’s notion, and, as we may fee in him,4j>	ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. II.
Pleafure, or wrong or rightly underftood,
Our greateil evil, or our greateft good.
III. Modes of Self-love the Paffions we may call: 'Tis real good, or Teeming, moves them all:
But fince not ev’ry good we can divide,	9S
And Reafon bids us for our own provide;
Paffions, tho’ felfiih, if their means be fair,
Lift under Reafon, and deferve her care ;
Thofe, that imparted, court a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take fome Virtue’s name. ICO In lazy Apathy let Stoics boaft Their Virtue fix’d; his fix’d as in a froft s Contra&ed all, retiring to the breaft;
But firength of mind is Exercife, not Reft .
The rifing tempeft puts in aft the foul, 105 Parts it may ravage, but preferves the whole, On life’s vaft ocean diverfely we fail,
Reafon the card, but Pailion is the gale 5
VARIATIONS.
After ver. ic8- in the MS.
A tedious voyage! where how uieleis lies The compafs, if no pow’rful guits arife ?
NOTES.
of the more ancient Manichaeans. It was 01 importance, therefore, to reprobate and fubvert a notion tha. faved to the fupport of fo dangerous an error.Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find,
He mounts theftorms,and walks upon the wind. 110 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 deilroy ? Suffice that Reafon keep to Nature’s road, 115 Subjedt, compound them, follow her and God.
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 112. in the MS.
The foft reward the virtuous, or invite ;
The fierce, the vicious punifh or affright.
NOTES.
Ver. 109. Nor God alone, &V.] Thefe words are only a fimple affirmation in the poetic drefs of a fimilitude, to this purpofe : Good is not only produced by the fab-dual of the paffions, but by the turbulent exercife of them. A truth conveyed under the moil fublime imagery that poetry could conceive or paint, f or the author is here only ihewing the providential iflue of the Paffions, and how, by God’s gracious difpofition, they are turned away from their natural bias, to promote the happinefs of Mankind. As to the method in which they are to be treated by Man in whom they are found, all that he contends for, in favour of them, is only this, that they fhould not be quite rooted up and deftroyed, as the Stoics, and their followers in all religions, foolishly attempted. For the reft, he conftantiy repeats this advice,
The aflion of the ftronger to fufpend,
Reafon ftill ufe, to Reafon ftill attend.4* ESSAY ON MAN. Ef. II.
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleafure’s fmiling train, Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain,
Thefe mix d with art, and to due bounds confin’d, Make and maintain the balance of the Mind : 120 The lights and ihades, whofe well-accorded ftrife Gives all the ftrength and colour of our life.
Pleafures are ever in our hands or eyes;
And when, in a&, they ceafe, in profpeft, rife: Prefent to grafp, add future flill to find, 125 The whole employ of body and of mind.
All fpread their charms, but charm not all alike; j On different fenfes difPrent obje&s firike ;
NOTES.
Ver. i 27. All fpread their charms, &c,] Though all the Paffions have their turn in fwaying the determinations of the mind, yet every Man hath one Master Passion that at length hides or abforbs all the reft. The faét he illuftrates at large in his epiftle to Lord Cob-ham. Here (from ver. 126 to .149.) he giveth us the caufe of it. Thofe Pleafures or Goods, which are the objects of the Paffions, affeét the mind by {hiking on the fenfes; but, as through the formation of the organs of our frame, every man hath fome one fenfe ilronger and more acute than others, theobjeft which ftrikes that ilronger and acuter fenfe, whatever it be, will be the objeft moil defired ; and confequently, the purfuit of that will be the_ ruhng paffion. That the difference of force in this ruling paffion ihall, at firft, perhaps, be very fmall, or even imperceptible; but Nature, Habit, Imagination, Wit, nay, even Reafon itfelf ihall affiil its growth, till it hath at length drawn and converted every other into itfelf. All which is delivered in aESSAY ON MAN.
Ef. II.	o o n. I KJ IN M A N.	4 J
Hence different paffions more or lefs inflame,
As ftrong or weak the organs of the frame ; j3o And hence one Master Passion in the breaft, Like Aaron’s ferpent, fwallows up the reft.
As Man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,v Receives the lurking principle of death ;
The young difeafe, that mu ft fubdue at length, 135
Grows with his growth, and ftrengthens with his ftrength :
So, caft and mingled with his very frame,
The Mind’s difeafe, its ruling Passion came* Each vital humour which ihould 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 fun&ions fpread, Imagination plies her dang’rous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.
NOTES.
ilrain of Poetry fo wonderfully fublime, as fufpends for a while, the ruling paffion, in every Reader, anden-grofies his whole Admiration.
This naturally leads the Poet to lament the weaknefs and infufficiency of human reafon ; and the purpofe he had in fo doing, was plainly to intimate the neceffity of a more perfett difpenfation to "Mankind.
Ver. *33« As Man, perhaps, & c. ] “Antipater Sido-‘ <{ n.lu.s Poeta omnibus annis uno die natali tanturncor-“ ripiebatur febre, et eo confumptus eft, fatis lono-a ‘ fenefta.” Plin. N. H. 1. vii. This Antipater was m the times of Craffus, and is celebrated for the quicknefs of his parts by Cicero.
44 ESSAY ON MAN.
Nature its mother, Habit is its nurfe;
Wit, Spirit, Faculties but make it worfe;
Reafon itfelf but gives it edge and pow’r ;
As Heav’n’s bleil beam turns vinegar more four.
We, wretched fubje&s though to lawful fway, In this weak queen, fome fav’rite ftill obey $	150
Ah ! if ihe lend not arms, as well as rules,
What can ihe more than tell us we are fools ? Teach us to mourn our Nature, not to mend,
A iharp accufer, but a helplefs friend !
Or from a judge turn pleader, to perfuade 155 The choice we make, or juftify it made.
NOTES.
Ver. 147. Reafon itfelf The Poet, in fome other of his epiftles, gives examples of the do&rine and precepts here delivered. Thus, in that Of the ufe of Riches, he has illuftrated this truth in the character of Cotta: Old Cotta iham’d his fortune and his birth,
Yet was not Cotta void of wit or worth.
What tho’ (the ufe of barb’rous fpits forgot)
His kitchen vy’d in coolnefs with his grot ?
]f Cotta liv’d on pulfe, it was no more Than bramins, faints, and fages did before.
Ver . 149- We, wretchedfubjeSls, &c.~\ St. Paul himfelf did not chufe to employ other arguments, when difpofed to give us the higheftidea of the ufefulnefs of Chriftiani-ty. (Rom. vii.) But, it may be, the Poet finds a remedy in Natural Religion. Far from it. Fie here leaves reafon unrelieved. What is this then, but an intimation that we ought to feek for a cure in that religion, which only dares profefs to give it l43
Ep. h. essay ON MAN.
Proud of an eafy conqueft all along.
She but removes weak paffions for the ftrong:
So, when fmall humours gather to a gout,
The dodtor fancies he has driv’n them out. i(& Yes, Nature’s road muft ever be preferr’d j Reafon is here no guide, but ftill a guards ’Tis hers to redtify, net overthrow,
And treat this paflion more as friend than foe :
A mightier Pow’r the ftrong diredtion fends, 165 And fev’ral Men impels to fev’ral ends;
NOTES.
Ver. 163. 'Tis hers to reflify, life.] The meaning of this precept is, That as the ruling Paflion is implanted by Nature; it is Reafon’s office to regulate, diredl, and refrain, but not to overthrow it. To regulate the paflion of Avarice, for inftance, into a parflmonious dif-penfation of the public revenues; to direct the paflion. of Love, whofe objedl is worth and beauty,
To the firilgood, fir ft perfeft, and firft fair,
to KaXov r olya-bov, as his matter Plato advifes; and £0 refrain Spleen to a contempt and hatred of Vice. This is what the poet meant, and what every unprejudiced man could not but fee he mutt needs mean by rectifying the master passion, though he had not confined us to this fenfe in the reafon he gives of his precept in thefe words:
A mightier Pow’r the ftrong diredlion fends,
And fev’ral Men impels to fev’ral ends :
For what ends are they which God impels to, but xhz ends of Virtue? *	8J
46 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. II.
Like varying winds, by other paiEons toft,
This drives them conftant to a certain coaft.
Let pow’r or knowledge, gold or glory, pleafe,
Or (oft more ftrong than all) the love of eafe ; 170 Thro’ life ’tis follow’d, ev’n at life’s expence; The merchant’s toil, the fage’s indolence,
The monk’s humility, the hero’s pride,
All, all alike, find reafon on their fide.
Th’ Eternal Art educing good from ill, 175 Grafts on this Pafiion our beft Principle :
'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix’d,
Strong grows the Virtue with his Nature mix’d; The drofs cements what elfe were too refin’d,
And in one int’reft body ads with mind. 180 As fruits, ungrateful to the planter’s care,
On favage flocks infer ted, learn to bear ;
NOTES.
Ver. 175. Th' Eternal Art, £ic.]The author, throughout thefe epiftles, has explained his meaning to be, that vice is, in its own nature, the greateil of evils; and produced by the abufe of man’s free-will,
What makes all phyfical and moral ill ?
There deviates Nature, and here wanders Will:
but that God, in his infinite goodnefs, deviouily turns the natural bias of its malignity to the advancement of human happinefs : a dodrine very different from the Fable of the Bees, which impiouily and foolilhly fup-pofes it to have that natural tendency.
3Ep. II.
The fureil Virtues thus from pailions ihoot,
Wild Nature’s vigor working at the root.
What crops of wit and honeity appear ' From fpleen, from obftinacy, hate, or fear !
See anger, zeal and fortitude fypply 3 Ev’n av’rice, prudence; iloth, philofophy ;
"Luft, thro’ fome certain itrainers well refin’d, \
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind ; 4 go Envy, to which th’ ignoble mind’s a ilave,
Is emulation in the learn’d or brave;
Nor Virtue, male or female, can we name,
But what will grow on Pride, or grow on Shame.
Thus Nature gives us (letit check our pride) 195 Idle virtue neareil to our vice ally’d ;
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 194. in the MS.
Flow oft, with Paffion, Virtue points her Charms! Then iliines the Flero, then the Patriot warms. Peleus’ great Son, or Brutus, who had known, Had Lucrece been a whore, or Helen none ?
But Virtues oppofite to make agree,
That, Reafon ! is thy tails.; and worthy Thee. Hard talk, cries Bibulus, and reafon weak.
—Make it a point, dear Marquis! or a pique. Once, for a whim, perfuade yourfeif to pay A debt to reafon, like a debt at play.
For right or wrong have mortals fuffer’d more ? B—• for his Prince, or ** for his Whore ?
Eep. ir.
4b essay on man.
Reafon the bias turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.
The fiery foul abhorr’d in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:	200
The fame ambition can deitroy or fave,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.
This light and darknefs in our chaos join’d, What fhall divide ? The God within the mind.
VARIATIONS.
Whofe felf-denials nature moil controul ?
His, who would fave a Six-pence, or his Soul ? Web for his health, a Chartreux for his fin, Contend they not which fooneft ihall grow thin ? What we refolve, we can: but here’s the fault, We ne’er refolve to do the thing we ought.
NOTES.
Ver. 197. Reafon the bias, Cffr.] Left it ihould be objected, that this account favours the doCtrine of Necef-ftty, and would infinuate that men are only ailed upon, in the production of Good out of Evil; the Poet here teacheth, that Man is a free-agent, and hath it in his own power to turn the natural paffions into Virtue or info Vices, properly fo called :
Reafon the bias turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.
Ver. 204. 'The God <within the mind.] A Platonic phrafe for Confcience ; and here employed with great judgment and propriety. For Confcience either lignites, fpeculatively, the judgment we pafs of things upon whatever principles we chance to have; and then it is only Opinion, a very unable judge and divider. Or
*j£p.IL ESSAY ON MAN. 49
Extremes in Nature equal ends produce, 205 In Man they join to Tome myflerious ufe;
Tho’ each by turns the other’s bounds invade,
As, in fome well-wrought picture, light and ihade,
/ And oft fo mix, the difference is too nice ’ Where ends the Virtue, or begins the Vice. 210
Fools! who from hence into the notion fall, That Vice or Virtue there is none at all.
If white and black blend, foften, and unite A thoufand ways, is there no black or white?
NOTES.
elfe it iignifies, pra&ically, the application of the eternal rule of right (received by us as the law of God) to the regulation of our actions; and then it is properly Conscience, the Gcd (or the law of God) within the mind, of power to divide the light from the darknefs in this chaos of the paftions.
Ver. 205. Extremes in Nature equal ends produce,] The Poet here reafons to this effect, That though indeed Vice and Virtue fo invade each other’s bounds, that fometimes we can fcarce tell where one ends, and the other begins, yet great purpofes are ferved thereby, no lefs than the perfe&ing the conftitution of the whole, as lights and ihades, which run into one another in a well-wrought picture, make the harmony and fpirit of the compofition. But, on this account, to fay there is nei-therVice norVirtue, the Poet fiiews would be juft as wife as to fay, there is neither black nor white; becaufe the Ihade,of that, and the light of this, often run into one another:
Aik your own heart, and nothing is fo plain ;
?Tis to miftake them, coils the time aad pain,
E"zEp. II
50 ESSAY ON MAN.
Aik your own heart, and nothing is fo plain;
’Tis to miftake them, coils the time and pain.
Vice is a moniler of fo frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be feen ;
Yet feen too oft, familiar with her face,
We firil endure, then pity, then embrace. 22© But where th’Extreme of Vice, was ne’er agreed : Afk where’s the North ? at York,’tis on the Tweed; In Scotland, at the Orcades ; and there,
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where. No creature owns it in the firil degree,	225
But thinks his neighbour further gone than he; Ev’n thofe who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier natures ihrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.	230
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 220. in the firil Edition, followed thefe,
A Cheat! a Whore ! who ftarts not at the name, In all the Inns of court or Drury-lane ?
After ver. 226, in the MS.
The Col’nel fwears the Agent is a dog,
The Scriv’ner vows th’ Attorney is a rogue. Againil the Thief th’ Attorney loud inveighs,
For whofe ten pound the County twenty pays. The Thief damns Judges, and the Knaves of State; And dying, mourns fin all Villains hang’d by great.Ep. II.
Virtuous and vicious ev’ry Man muft be, ^
Few in th’ extreme, but all in the degree The rogue and fool, by fits is fair and wife $ , And ev’n the bed;, by fits, what they defpife. / ’Till but by parts we follow good or ill;	235
For, Vice or Virtue, Self directs it itill;
Each individual feeks a fev’ral goal; jButHEAv’N’s great view is One,and thattheWhoIe. That counterworks each folly and caprice ;
That difappoints th’ effedts of ev’ry vice ;
That, happy frailties to all ranks apply’d;
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the ilatefman, rafhnefs to the chief,
To kings prefumption, and to crowds belief
NOTES,
Ver. 7.31. Virtuous andcvicious endry Man muß be,—• Fenxi in th’ extreme, but all in the degree ,*] Of this th« Poet, with admirable fagacity, affigns the caufe, in the following line :
For, Vice or Virtue, Self directs it itili.
An adherence or regard to what is, in the fenfe of the world, a man’s own interelt, making an extreme in either Vice or Virtue almoit impoffible. Its efFedt in keeping a good Man from the extreme of Virtue, needs no explanation^ and in an ill Man, Self-intercft fhewing him the neceffity of feme kind of reputation, the procuring, and preferring that, will keep him from the extreme of Vic;ea
e352
Ep. IJ.
ESSAY ON MAN.
That Virtue’s, ends from Vanity can raife, 245 Which feeks no int’reil, no reward but praife ; And build on wants, and on defers of mind, The joy, the peace, the glory of Mankind.
Bids each on other for ailiftance call,
’Till one Man’s weaknefs grows the ilrength of all» Wants, frailties, paffions, clofer ilill ally The common int’reil, or endear the tie.
Ver. 249. Heaadn forming each on other to depend,J Hitherto the Poet hath been employed in difcourfmg of the ufe of the Pallions, with regard to Society at large ; and in freeing his doftrine from objections : This is thefrf general divilion of the fubjeft of this epiftle.
He comes now to ihew the ufe of thefe Paffions, with regard to the more confined circle of our Friends, Relations, and Acquaintance: and this is the fécond general divilion.
Ver. 253. Wants, frailties, pajjions, clofer fill ally The cosnsnon int'ref, &c.] As thefe lines have been mif-underilood,I ihallgive the reader theirplain and obvious meaning. “ To thefe frailties (fays he) we owe all the endearments of private life ; } et when we come to that age, which generally difpofes Men to think more feri-oufly of the true value of things, and confequently of their provifion for a future ftate, the confideration, that the grounds of thofejoys, loves, and friendlhips, are wants, frailties, and paffions, proves the bell expedient to wean us from the world ; a difengagement fo friendly to that provifion we are now making for another.” ‘I he obfervation is new, and would in any place be ex-
Heav’n forming each on other to depend,
A mailer, or a fervant, or a friend,	250
NOTES.£p.n. ESSAY ON MAN. 53
To thefe we owe true friendfhip, love fincere, 255 Each home-felt joy that life inherits here ;
Yet from the fame we learn, in its decline,
Thofe joys, thofe loves, thofe int’refts to refign ; Taught half by Reafon, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pafs away. 26© Whate’er the Paffion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will change his neighbour with himfelf.
NOTES.
tremely beautiful, but has here an infinite grace and propriety, as it fo well confirms, by an inftance of great moment, the general thefis, that God makes III, at every jlep, productive of Good.
Ver. 261. Whatever the PaJfion,&c,~\ The Poet having thus fhewn the ufe of thePaffions in Society, and in Do-mefic life, he comes, in the laft place, to ihew their ufe to the Individual, even in their illufions; the imaginary happinefs they prefent, helping to make the real mife-ries of life lefs infupportable. And this is his third general diviiion :
—Opinion gilds with varying rays Thofe painted clouds that beautify our days, Sec. One profpeil loft, another Rill we gain ;
And not a vanity is giv’n in vain.
Which muft needs vaftly raife our idea of God’s good-nefs, who hath not only provided more than a counterbalance of real happinefs to human miferies, but hath even, in his infinite compailion, beftowed on thofe, who were fo fooliih as not to have made this provifion, an imaginary happinefs ; that they may not be quite overborne with the load of human miferies. This is the Poet’s great and noble thought; as ftrong and folid as it is new and ingenious; which teaches, “ 1 hat thefe illufions are the follies of Men, which they wilfully fall
E 454 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. Hi
The learn’d is happy nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty giv?n,	265
The poor contents him with the care of Heav’n. See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fmg,
The fot a hero, lunatic a king;
The ilarving chemifl in his golden views Supremely bleft, the poet in his Mufe.	27®
See feme ftrange comfort ev’ry date attend, \ And pride bellow’d on all, a common friend :
See fome fit paffiori ev’ry age fqpply,
Hope travels thro’, nor quits us when we die.
notes.
into, and through their own fault; thereby depriving themfelves of much happinefs, and expoiing themfelves to equal mifery : But that ftill God (according to his nni verbal way of working) gracioufly turns thefe follies fo far to the advantage of his miferable creatures, as to be the prefent folace and fupport of their diftreffes —Tho’ man’s a fool, yet God is wife.
VER.270.—the poet jn his Mufe. ] The author having faid, that no one would change his profeilion or views-for thofe of another, intended to carry his obfervation ilill further, and ihew that IVlen were unwilling to ex-change their own acquirements even for thofe of the fame kind, confeifedly larger and infinitely more eminent, in another. To this end he wrote,
What partly pleafes, totally will ihock :
I queilion much, if Toland would be Locke : but wanting another proper inftance of this truth when he publifhed his laft Edition of the Effay, he reierved the lines above for fome following one.£p. IL ESSAY ON MAN.
Behold the child, by nature’s kindly law, > 275 Pleas’d with a rattle, tickled with a Straw :
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite :
Scarfs, garters, gold, amufe his riper itage,
And beads and pray’r-books are the toys of age : 280 / Pleas’d with this bauble itill, as that before ; A \ ’Till tir’d he fleeps, and Life’s poor play is o’er. Mean-while Opinion gilds with varying rays Thofe painted clouds that beautify our days ; r Each want of happineis by Hope fupply’d, , 285 I And each vacuity of fenfe by Pride :
NOTES.
VER.280.zfai/ heads andprayer-hooks are the toys ofage : J A Satire on what is called in Popery the Opus operatum. As this is a defcrîption of the circle of human life returning into itfelf by a fécond childhood, the Poet has, with great elegance, concluded his deicription with the fame image with which he fet out.
Ver. 286, And each ajacuity of fenfe hy Pride .*] An eminent C a fui ft, Father Francis GaraJJe, in his Somme Tkeo-logique, has drawn a very charitable conclufion from this principle. “ Selon la juftice (fays this equitableDivine) “ tout travail honnête doit être recompenfe de louange “ ou de Satisfaction. Quand les bons efprits font un “ ouvrage excellent, ils font juftement recompenfêz par “ les Suffrages du Public. Quand un pauvre efprit “ travaille beaucoup, pour faire un mauvais ouvrage, ‘‘ il n’eft pas jufte, ni raifonable, qu’il attende des lou-“ anges publiques, car elles ne lui font pas dues- Mais “ afin que Ses travaux ne demeurent pas fans recom-56 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. U, jTiiefe build as fail as knowledge can deftroy;
( In folly’s cup ftill laughs the bubble, joy;
! OiiC profpecSt loft, another ftill we gain ;
And not a vanity is giv’n in vain ;	290
Ev’n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine,
T he fcale to meafure others wants by thine.
See! and confefs, one comfort ftill muft rife ;
Tis this, I ho Man’s a fool, yet God is wise.
n	À.JE.
penfe, Dieu lui donne une fatisfaélion perfonelle que !! Pcr[onne ne peut envier fans un injuftice plus que barbare; tout amfi que Dieu, qui eft jufte, donne de ' la fatisfaction aux Grenouilles de leur chant. Au-“ irement la blâme public, joint à leur mécontentement, ieroxt fuiKfant pour les réduire au defefpoir.”I 57 3
EPISTLE Ilf.
H
ERE then we reft : “ The Univerfal Caufe ic Adds to one end, but ads by various laws.’*
VARIATIONS*
Ter. i. in feveral Edit, in 4to.
Learn, Dulnefs, learn! “ The Univerfal Caufe, &c*
N p T E S.
Ep. III. We are now come to the third Epiftle of the Eflay on Man. It having been (hewn, in explaining the origin, ufe, and end of the Paflions, in the fecond epiltle, that Man hath focial as well as felfifh paflions, that do&rine naturally introduces the third, which treats of Man as a social animal; and connedts it with the fecond, which confldered him as anlNDiviDUAL. And as the conclufion from the fubjedl of the firft epiftle made the introduction to the fecond, fo here again, the conclufion of the fecond,
(Ev’n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine, The fcale to meafure others wants by thine, ) maketh the introduction to the third.
Ver. i. Here then vie reft: “ f he Univerfal Caufe e< Adis to one end, hut a£ls by various /arw.'1] The reafon of variety in thofe laws, which tend to one and the fame end, the good of the Whole generally, is, becaufe the good of the individual is likewife to be provided for; both which together make up thegood oftheWhole univerfally. And this is the caufe, as the Poet fays elfewhere, that Each Individual feeks a fev’ral goal, put to prevent our refting there, God hath made each need the afiiftance of another; and fo58 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. III.
In all the madnefs of fuperfiuous health,
The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth.
Let this great truth be prefent night and day ;	5
But moil be prefent, if we preach or pray.
NOTES.
On mutual wants built mutual happinefs.
It was neceifary to explain the two firft lines, the better to fee the pertinency and force of what followed), where the Poet warns fuch to take notice of this truth, whole circnmUances placing them in an imaginary flatten of independence, and a real one of infenfibility to mutual Wants (from whence general Happinefs refults) make them but too apt to overlook the true fyftem of things ; viz. Men in full health and opulence. This caution was Decenary with regard to Society; but ftill more neceifary with regard to Religion. Therefore he efpecially recommends the memory of it both to Clergy and Laity, when they preach or pray; becauie the preacher, who doth not confider the fir ft Caufe under this view, as a Being confuking the good of the whole, mnft needs give a very unworthy idea of him ; and the lupplicant, who prayeth as one not related to a whole, or as diifegardirg the happinefs of it, will not only pray in vain, but offend his Maker by an impious attempt to counterwork his difpenfation.
Ter. 3 ■ —fuperjluous health,'] immoderate labour and ftudy are the great impairers of health : They, whofe flation lets them above both, mud needs have an abundance 01 health, which, not being employed in the common femce, but wafted in luxury, the Poet properly calls aJuperjluiiy.
Vcr. 4. —impudence of wealth.] Becaufe wealth pretends to be wifdom, wit, learning, honefty, and, i*i fhort, all the virtues in their turns.Ep. III. ESSAY ON Man. 59
Look round our world; behold thechain of Love Combining all below and all above.
See plaftic Nature working to this end,
The fingle atoms each to other tend,	I®
Attrafl, attracted to, the next in place . Form’d and impell’d its neighbour to embrace.
I. See Matter next, with various life endu’d,
Prefs to one center Hill, the genTai Good.
See dying vegetables life fuiiain,
1 See life diilblving vegetate again :
All forms that periih other forms ihpply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)
• Like bubbles on the fea of Matter borne,,
.. They rife, they break, and to that fea return, ys# Nothing is foreign 5 Parts relate to wholes ! One all-extending, all-preferring Sou!
NOTES.
'*• Ver. 12. Form'd and imped'd, &c ] To make Matter fo cohere as to fit it for the ufes intended fey its Creator, a proper configuration of its infenfible parts, is as necef-fary as that quality fo equally and univerially conferred upon it, called Attraction* To exp refs the foil part of this thought, our Author fays form'd, and to expreli the latter, imped'd.
Ver. 22. One ad-extending, all-prtfer*umg ficul] Which, in the language of Sir Ifaac Newton, is, “ I)eus “ omnipraefens eft, non per virtutem iblatn, fed etiam “ per fubftantiam : nam virtus fine fubftantia fubiiftere / non poteft.” Newt, Print, fichol. gen, fubfin*60 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. Ill; Conners each being, greateft with the leall;
Made Beaft: in aid of Man, and Man of Beaft;
All ferv’d, all ferving: Nothing {lands alone ; 25 \ The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.
Has God, thou fool l work’d folely for thy good,' ' Thy joy, thy paftime, thy attire, thy food ?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
For him as kindly fpread the flow’ry lawn :	36
Is it for thee the lark afcends and fings ?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee thee the linnet pours his throat ? Loves of his own and raptures fwell the note.
The bounding fteed you pompouily bellride, 35 Shares with his lord the pleafure and the pride.
Is thine alone the feed that iirews the plain ?
The birds of Heav’n fhall vindicate their grain. Thine the full harveft of the golden year ?
Part pays, and juftly, the deferving fleer :	40
The hog, that plows not nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this Lord of all.
•NOTES.
Ver. 23, Greatefl with the leafi ;] As ailing more ilrongly and immediately in beads, whofe inftinft is plainly an external reafon ; which made an old fchool-man fay, with great elegance, “ Deus eft anima “ brutorum.”
In this ’tis God directs
8Sp.in- essay on man.
Know, Nature’s children all divide her care * The fur that warms a monarch, warm’d a bear. While Man exclaims,“ See all things for my ufe!” 4 5 “ See man for mine !” replies a pamper’d goofe ; And juft as fliort of Reafon He muft fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
Grant that the pow’rful ftill the weak controul; Be Man the Wit and Tyrant of the whole:	5,3
Nature that Tyrant checks ; He only knows,
And helps, another creature’s wants and woes.
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 46. in the former Editions,
Vt hat care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat him,
All this he knew; but not that ’twas to eat hi®. As far as goofe could judge, hereafon’d right-But as to man, miiiook the matter quite.
NOTES.
Ver, 4~. See all things for my ufe!) On the contrary ihe wife man hath faict, The Lord hath made all things for himfdf. Prov xvi. 4.
Ver. 50. Be Man the Wit and Tyrant of the whole r| Alluding to the witty fyfiem of that Philosopher, which made Animals mere Machines, infenfible of pain <ot pleafure ; and fo encouraged Men in the exercife of that Tyranny over their fellow-creatures, confequent on fuck a principle.
Ver. i Nature that Tyrant checks ; J I grant, indeed, fays the Poet, that Man alFeéts to be the Wit and Tyrant of the whole, and would fain fhake off

62 E S S A Y O N M A N. Er. IIE Say, will the falcon, Hooping from above,
Smit with her varying plumage, fpare the dove ? Admires the jay the in fed’s gilded wings ?	55
Or hears the hawk when Philomela lings ?
Man cares for all : to birds he gives his woods, To beails his paflures, and to fiih his floods;
For fome his int’reil prompts him to provide,
For more his pleafure, yet for more his pride :	6®
NOTES.
——•— that chain of love,
Combining all below and all above :
But Nature, even by the very gift of Reafon, checks this Tyrant. For Reafon endowing M an with the ability of fettino- together the memory of the paft, with his con« jedures about the future; and paft misfortunes making him apprehenfive of more to come, this difpofeth him to pity and relieve others in a ftate of fuffering. And the paffion growing habitual, naturally extendeth its effed to all that have a fenfe of fuffering. _ Now as brutes have neither Man’s Reafon, nor his inordinate Self- love, to draw them from the fyftem of Benevolence: So they wanted not, and therefore have not, this human fympathy,ofanother’s mifery. By which paffion, we fee thofe qualities, in Man, balance one another; ynd lb retain him in that general Order, in which Providence hath placed its. whole creation. But this is not all; Man’s intereft, amufement, vanity, and luxury, tie him ftill clofer to the fyftem of benevolence, by obliging him to provide for the fupport of other animals ; and though it be, for the molt part, only to devour them ■w;th the greater guft, yet this does not abate the proper happinefs of the animals fo preferved, to whom Providence hath not imparted the ufelefs knowledge of their end.
763
Ep.lit. ESSAY ON MAN.
All fefed on one vain Patron, and enjoy Th’ extenlive bleffing of his luxury,
That very life his learned hunger craves;
He faves from famine, from the favage faves j Nay, feails the animal he dooms his feaft,
And, ’till he ends the being, makes it blefit;
Which fees no more the ftroke, or feels the pain, Than favour’d Man by touch etherial ilain.
/The creature had his feaft of life before ;	^
Thou too muft periih, when thy feaft is o’er !
To each unthinking being, Heav’n a friend, —r Gives not the ufelefs knowledge of its end :
To Man imparts it; but with fuch a view As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too; The hour conceal’d, and fo remote the fear, 75 Death ftill draws nearer, never feeming near. Great (landing miracle ! that Heav’n affign’d Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.
II. Whether with Reafon, or with Inftindf blefb V Know, all enjoy that pow’r which fuits them beft; 80 To blifs alike by that diredlion tend,
And find the means proportion’d to their end.
NOTES.
Ver. 68. Thanfavour*d Man,	Several of the
ancients, and many of the Orientals fince, efteemed thofe who were (truck by lightning as facred perfonsr and the particular favourites of Heaven , P.
F64 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. IIL
Say, where full InftimSt is th’ unerring guide, What Pope or Council can they need befide ? Reafon, however able, cool at beft,	85
Cares not for fervice, or but ferves when preft, Stays till we call, and then not often near j But honeft Inftindt comes a Volunteer,
Sure never to o’er-ihoot, but juft to hit;
While {till too wide or ihort is human Wit;	9©
Sure by quick Nature happinefs to gain,
Which heavier Reafon labours at in vain.
This too ferves always, Reafon never long;
One muft go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing pow’rs 95 One in their nature, which are two in ours ;
And Reafon raife o’er Inftinft as you can,
In this ’tis God direits, in that ’tis Man.
Who taught the nations of the field and wood To ihun their poifon, and to chufe their food ? 10Q Prefcient, the tides or tempefts to withftand,
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fandi
variations.
After ver. 84. in the MS.
While Man, with op'ning views of various wayr Confounded, by the aid of knowledge firays:
Too weak to chufe, yet chuiing ftill in hafte,
One moment gives the pleafure and diiiafte^Ep. III.
Who made the fpider parallels defign,
Sure as Dsmoivre, without rule or line ?
Who bid the ftork, Columbus-like, explore 105 Heav’ns not his own, and worlds unknown before ? Who calls the council, ftates the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way -III. God, in the nature of each being, founds Its proper blifs, and fets its proper bounds :	11©
f But as he framed a Whole, the Whole to blefs, On mutual Wants built mutual Happinefs :
So from the firft, eternal Order ran,
And creature link’d to creature, man to man. Whate’er of life all quick’ning rether keeps, 115 Or breathes thro’air, or ihoots beneath the deeps* Or pours profufe on earth, one nature feeds The vital flame, and fwells the genial feeds.
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood*
Or wing the iky, or roll along the flood, 120 Each loves itfeif, but not itfelf alone,
Each fex defires alike, ’till two are one.
Nor ends the pleafure with the fierce embrace; They love themfelves a third time in their race. Thus beaft and bird their common charge attend, The mothers nurfe it, and the fires defend ; 126 The young difmifs’d to wander earth or air,
There flops the Inftinft, and there ends the care'; F 266
ESSAY ON MAN,	EpTIL
The link diflolves, each feeks a freih embrace, Another love fucceeds, another race.	13®
A longer care man’s helplefs kind demands j That longer care contrails more lading bands; Reflexion, Reafon, dill the ties improve,
At once extend the int’red, and the love j With choice we fix, with fympathy we burn ; 135 Each virtue in each paffion takes its turn ;
And dill new needs, new helps, new habits rife, That graft benevolence on charities,
Still as one brood, and as another rofe,
Thefe nat’ral love maintain’d, habitual thofe : 140 The lad, fcarce ripen’d into perfect Man,
Saw helplefs him from whom their life began : Mem’ry and fore-cad jud returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age; Whilepleafure, gratitude, and hope, combin’d, 145 Still fpread the int’red, and preferv’d the kind.
IV. Nor think, in Nature’sState they blindly The date of Nature was the reign of God :	[trod ,
Self-love and focial at her birth began,
Union the bond of all things, and of Man. 150 Pride then was not j nor Arts, that pride to aid; Man walk’d with bead, joint tenant of the ihade;
NOTES.
Ver. it; 2. Man walk'd with Leaf, joint tenant of the fade;] The Poet itill takes his imagery from Platonic67
Er.III. ESSAY ON MAN.
The fame his table, and the fame his bed ;
No murder cloath’d him, and no murder fed.
In the fame temple, the refounding wood, 155 All vocal beings hymn’d their equal God :	__
NOTES.
ideas for the reafon given above. Plato had faid from old tradition, that, during the golden age, and under the reign of Saturn, the primitive language then in ufe was common to man and beafts. Moral inftruftors took advantage of the popular fenfe of this tradition, to convey their precepts under thofe fables, which give fpeech to the whole brute creation. The naturalifts underftood the tradition to fignify, that, in the firft Ages, Men ufed inarticulate founds, like beafts, to exprefs their wants and fenfations; and that it was by flow degrees they came to the ufe of fpeech. This opinion was afterwards held by Lucretius, Diodorus Sic. and Gregory of NyiT.
Ver. 156. All ‘vocal beings, fife.] This may be well explained by a fublime palfage of the pfalmift, who, calling to mind the age of innocence, and full of the great ideas of thofe
—---— Chains of Love,
Combining all below, and all above,
Which to one point and to one center bring Beaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King;
breaks out into this rapturous and divine apoftrophe, to call back the devious creation to its priftine reftitude (that very ftate our author defcribes above): “ Praife “ the Lord, all his angels; praife him, all ye hofts. “ Praife ye him, fun and moon ; praife him, all ye *' ftars of light. Let them praife the name of the Lord, “ for he commanded, and they were created. Prane “ the Lord, from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps; “ lire and hail, fnovv and vapour, ftormy wind fulfilling
F 363
ESSAY ON MAN. Ep, III,
The ihrine with gore unftain’d, with gold undreft, Unbrib’d, unbloody, flood the blamelefs prieft : f Heav’n’s attribute was Univerfal Care,
1 And man’s prerogative to rule, but fpare. 160
NOTES.
his word : Mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and “ all cedars: BeaJIs and all cattle, creeping things and “flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; “ princes} and ap judges of the earth. Let them praife “ the name of the Lord; for his name alone is excel7 “ lent, his glory is above the earth and heaven.” P/alm cxlviii.
Ver. 158. Unbrib'd, unbloody, UV.] i. e. The flate defcribea, from ver. 261 to 269, was not yet arrived. For then when fuperftition was become fo extreme as to bribe the Gods with human facrifices (fee ver. 267.) Tyranny became neceflitated to woo the prieit for a favourable anfwer:
And play’d the God an engine on his foe.
Ver. 1 59. Hsav n's attribute, 95V.] The Poetfuppofes the truth of the Scripture account, that Man was created Lord of this inferior world (Ep. i. ver. 230.)
Subjedied thefe to thofe, and all to thee.
What hath milled fome to imagine him here fallen into a contradiction, was, I fuppofe, fuch paflages as thefe,
Aik for what end the heav’nly bodies Urine, &c.
And again,
Has God, thou fool! work’d folely for thy good, &c. But, in truth, this is fo far from contradicting what is here faid of man’s prerogative, that it greatly confirms it, and the Scripture account concerning it. And be-caufe this matter has been miflaken, to the difcredit of the Poet’s religious fentiments, by readers, whom the condudt of certain licentious writers, treating this fub-ject in an abufive way, hath rendered jealous and mif-truftful, I lhall endeavour to explain it. Scripture fays.Ep.Ill- ESSAY ON MAN.
Ah ! how unlike the man of times to come !
Of half that live the butcher and the tomb ; Who, foe to Nature, hears the gen’ral groan, Murders their fpecies, and betrays his own.
But juft difeafe to luxury fucceeds,
And ev’ry death its own avenger breeds;
The Fury-paffions from that blood began, And turn’d on Man a fiercer favage, Man.
See him from Nature rifing flow to Art!
To copy Inftin<3: then was Reafon’s part; Thus then to Man the Voice of Nature fpake— - s‘ Go, from the Creatures thy inftruddions take :
170
NOTES.
that Man was made Lord of All. But this Lord, become intoxicated with Pride, the common effect of fo-vereignty, erefted himfelf, like more partial monarchs, into a tyrant. And as Tyranny confifts in fuppoiing «//made for the ufe of one; he took thofe freedoms with all, that are confequent on fuch a principle, He foon began to confider the whole animal creation as his ilaves rather than as his fubjefts; as being created for no ufe of their own, but for his only ; and therefore treated them with the utmoft barbarity : And not fo content, to add infult to this cruelty, he endeavoured to philo-fophize himfelf into an opinion that animals were mere machines, infenfible of pain or pleafure. Thus Man affefted to be the Wit as well as Tyrant of the Whole: and it became one who adhered to the Scripture account of Man’s dominion, to reprove this abufe of it, and to fhew, that
Hcav’n’s attribute was Univerfal Care,
And Man’s prerogative to rule, but fpare;
Ve*u i 7.1, Thus then to Man,life.] The Poet reprefents
F 4
■70 ESSAY ON MAN* Ep. Ill*
<e Le^rn from the birds what food the thickets yield; “ Learn from the beafls the phyfic of the field ; f( Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 i( Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave ;
Learn of the little Nautilus to fail,
“ Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale, -
NOTES.
the invention of Arts as only leifons learnt of brute animals, guided by initinft, in order to humble human arrogance, and raife our idea of infinite wifdom. This he does in a profopopceia, the moft fublime that ever entered into the human imagination ;
Thus then to Man the Voice of Nature fpake :
“ Go, from the creatures thy inftruétions take, Sec.
“ And for thofe Arts mere Inilintt could afford, f{ Be crown’d as Monarchs, or as Gods ador’d.” Ver. 173. Learn from the birds, £sV.] It is a caution commonly pradifed among Navigators, when thrown upon a defert coaft, and in want of refreihments, to ob-ferve what fruits have been touched by the Birds, and to venture on thefe without further hefitation.
Ver. i 74. Learnfrom the beafs, fife.] See Pliny’s Nat. Hiß, 1. viii. c. 27. where feveral inilances are given of Animals difeovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own ufe of them, and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing by their own praétice.
Ver. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus] Oppian Halieut. lib. i. deferibes this fifh in the following manner : “ They fwim on the furface of the fea, on the back of their “ ihells, which exadly refemble the hulk of a ihip ; iC they raiie two feet like mails, and extend a mem-£i brane between, which ferves as a fail ; the other two “ feet they employ as oars at the fide. They are “ n fit ally feen in the Mediterranean.” P,Ep. III.
ESSAY ON MAN.
u Here too all forms of focial union find,
“ And hence let Reafon, late, inftru£f mankind: 180 “ Here fubterranean works and cities fee;
“ There towns aerial on the waving tree.
££ Learn each fmall People’s genius, policies, t{ 1 he Ant’s republic, and the realm of Bees : How thofe in common all their wealth beftow, 185 “ And Anarchy without confufion know ;
And thefe for ever tho’ a Monarch reign,
££ Their fep’rate cells and propertie maintain. iC Mark what unvary’d laws preferve each ftate, ' e£ Laws wife as Nature, and as fix d as Fate, 190 ££ In vain thy Reafon finer webs fhall draw,
££ Entangle Juftice in her net of Law,
££ And right, too rigid, harden into wrong;
<£ Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too ftrong, ££ Yet go ! and thus o’er all the creatures fway, 195 (( Thus let the wifer make the reft obey;
<£ And for thofe Arts mere Inftindt could afford,
*£ Be crown’d as Monarchs, or as Gods ador’d.”
V. Great Nature fpoke; obfervant Men obey’d ; Cities were built, Societies were made :	200
Ver. 197. In the firil Editions,
Who for thofe Arts they learnt of Brutes before, As Kings iliall crown them, or as Gods adore.72
ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. III.
Here rofe one little ilate ; another near
Grew by like means, and join’d, thro’ love or fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the flreams in purer rills defcend ? What War could raviih, Commerce could bellow, And he return’d a friend, who came a foe. 206 Converfe and Love mankind might ilrongly draw» When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law.
VARIATIONS.
Ver. 261. Here rofe one little fate,&c.~\ In the MS. thus, The Neighbours leagu’d to guard their common fpot, And Love was Nature’s diftate, Murder, not.
For want alone each animal contends;
Tigers with Tigers, that remov’d, are friends.
Plain Nature’s wants, the common mother crown’d, She pour’d her acorns, herbs, and ilreams around. No Treafure then for rapine to invade,
What need to fight for fun-fhine or for ihade ?
And half the caufe of ccnteil was remov’d,
When beauty could be kind to all who lov’d.
NOTES.
Ver, lgg. Obferajant Man obey'd;] The epithet is beautiful, as fignifying both obedience to the voice of Nature, and attention to the leifons of the animal ¡creation.
Ver. 208. When Lo-ve was Liberty,] i. e. When men had no need to guard their native liberty from their governor by civil pactions; the love which each matter cf a family had for thofe under his care being their beil fecurity.Ep. til essay on man.
Thus States were form’d ; the name of King unknown,
’Till common int’reft plac’d the fway in one. 210 Twas Virtue only (or in arts or arms, DifFufing bleffings, or averting harms)
The fame which in a Sire the Sons obey’d,
A Prince the Father of a People made.
VI, Till then, by Nature crown’d, each Patriarch fate,	2 15
King, prieft, and parent of his growing ftate;
NOTES.
Ver. 209. Thus fates were form'dThis is faid in confutation of that idle hypothefis which pretends, that God conferred the regal title on the fathers of families \ from whence men, when they had inftituted Society, were to fetch their Governors. On the contrary, our author Ihews, that a King was unknown, ’till common intereft, which led men to inftitute civil government, led them at the fame time to inftitute a governor. How-*, ever, that it is true that the fame wifdom or valour, which gained regal obedience from fons to the lire, procured kings a paternal authority, and made them con-fidered as fathers of their people. Which probably was the original (and, while miftaken, continues to be the chief fupport) of that flavifh error: antiquity re-prefenting its earlieft monarchs under the idea of a common father,	avfyuv. Afterwards indeed they became a kind of fofter-fathers,	Ka&iv, as Homer
calls one of them : ’Till at length they began to devour that flock they had been fo long accuftomed to ihear ; and, as Plutarch fays of Cecrops, be £Wiciy^o-j Kj $cx)to)ilk'<$'n yivo/Aivov TYPANNON.
Ver. 211. 'Twas Virtue only, SsV.] Our author hath good authority for this account of the origin of king-74 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. III.
On him, their fecond Providence, they hung, Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wond’ring furrow call’d the food, Taught to command the fire, controul the flood, 220 Draw forth the monfters of th’ abyfs profound, Or fetch th’ aerial eagle to the ground.
’Till drooping, fick’ning, dying they began Whom they rever’d as God to mourn as Man : Then, looking up from fire to fire, explor’d 225 One great Firft Father, and that firfl: ador’d.
Or plain tradition, that this All begun,
Convey’d unbroken faith from fire to fon ;
The Worker from the work diftindl was known, And Ample Reafon never fought but one :	230
NOTES.	**
fhip- Ariftotle allures us, that it was Virtue only, or m arts or arms: Kadirula.i @ccat'\ev<; lx. rm Iwruixuv xaB
hTn(x>Xr,i> ccgsTvs, y]	ran ocnco tvs dgilvsj V	virego-
TOiisTH yivHS-
Ve r . 219, Hefrom the wond'ringfurrow, CSV.] i. e. He fubdued the intraftability of all the four elements, and made them fubfervient to the ufe of Man.
Ver. 225.Tbetijlookingupj&c.] ThePoet heremaketh their more ferious attention to Religion to have arifen, not from their gratitude amidft abundance, but from their helpleflhefs in diftrefs; by ihewing that, during the former ftate, they refted in fecond caules, the immediate authors of their bleffing, whom they rever'd as God j but that, m the other, they reafoned up to the Firjl;
Then, looking up from fire to fire, &c,7S
Ep. HI. ESSAY ON MAN.
Ere Wit oblique had broke that Ready light, Man, like his Maker, faw that all was rights To Virtue, in the paths of Pleafure trod, >c] And own’d a Father when he own’d a God.
Love all the faith, and all th’ allegiance then j 2 j For Nature knew no right divine in Men,
No ill could fear in God ; and underflood ' A fov’reign being but a fov’reign good.
(True faith, true policy, united ran,)
That was but love of God, and this of Man. 240
Who firil taught fouls enilaved, and realms undonea I h enormous faith of many made for ones notes.
This, T am afraid, is but too true a reprefentation of human nature.
VeR» 231. Ere Wit oblique,	A beautiful allufion
to the effe&s of theprifmatic glafs on the rays of light.
Vjer. 241. Who fixjl taught fouls enjla'u d, &c,] The Poet informs us, agreeably to his exaft knowledge of Antiquity, that it was the Politician, and not the Prieft „ (as our illiterate tribe of Free-thinkers would make us believe) who firil corrupted Religion. Secondly, That the Superilition he brought in was not invented by him, as an engine to play upon others (as the dreaming Atheift feigns, who would thus miierably account for the origin of Religion) but was a trap he firil fell into himfelf.
Ver, 242, TV enormous faith, £sY] In this Ariilotle placeth the difference between a King and a Tyrant, that the firil fuppofeth himfelf made for the People; the other that the People are made for him : BsWai
0 BASIAEYS s i1 atl Cpv\a^, cWty? ol fhev evoi r«? stria? l*^sv	vsaeyuw, o ¿'e	pro vGpifyrca	h of
\ 776 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep.iiL
That proud exception to all Nature’s laws,
T’ invert the world, and counterwork its Caufe ? Force firft made Conqueft, and that Conqueft, Law; ’Till Superftition taught the tyrant awe, 246 T^en ihar’d the tyranny, then lent it aid,
A*£dGods of Conqu’rors, Slaves of Subje&s made: She ’midft the lightning’s blaze, and thunder’s found, When rock’d the mountains, and when groan’d the ground,	250
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, To Pow’r unfeen, and mightier far than they : She, from the rending earth and burfting ikies, Saw Gods defcend, and fiends infernal rife;
NOTES.
TYPANMI2 rmfo<; d&oGheinsi xotvov, el 7vi iSiaf uCps* Ad«; %«>• Pol. lib. v. cap. to.	.
Ver. 245. Force firjl made Conqueft, C5V.J All this is agreeable to fail, and fheweth our author’s exaft know-ledge of human nature. For that impotencj of mind (as the Latin writers call it) which giveth birth to the enormous crime neceffary to fupport a Tyranny, naturally fubje&eth its owner to all the vain, as well as real, terrors of Confcience: Hence the whole machinery of Superftition.
It is true, the poet qbferves, that afterwards, when the Tyrant’s fright was over, he had cunning_ enough, from the experience of the effedl of Superftition upon himfelf, to turn it by the afliftance of the Prieft (who for his reward went iharerwith him in the Tyranny) aS his beft defence againft his Subjects. For a Tyrant naturally and reafonably deemeth all his Slaves to b# Ns enemies.Ep. III. ESSAY ON MAN, ^ Here fix’d the dreadful, there the bleft, abodes; 255 Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods ; Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjuft,
Whofe attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Lull -Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form’d like tyrants, tyrants would believe. 260 Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;
And hell was built on fpite, and heay’n on pride. Then facred feem’d th’ etherial vault no more 5 Altars grew marble then, and reek’d with gore : Then fir ft the Flamen tailed living food ;	265
Next his grim idol fmear’d with human blood ; With heav’n’s own thunders ihook the world below» And play’d the God an engine on his foe.
NOTES.
Ver. 257. Gods partial, changeful, iffc.] The ancient Pagan Gods are here very exaftly deferibed. This fact is a convincing evidence of the truth of that original, which the Poet giveth to Superftition ; for if"thefe phantafms were hr ft raifed in the imaginationofTyrants, they inuft needs have the qualities here aftigned to them. For Force being the Tyrant’s Virtue, and Luxury his Happinefs, the attributes of his God would of courfe be Revenge and Luft; in a word, the anti-type of him-felf. But there was another, and more fubftantial caufe, of the refemblance between a Tyrant and a Pagan God; and that was the making Gods of Conquerors, as the Poet fays, and fo canonizing a tyrant’s vices with his perfon.
Ver. 262.—And hemdn on pride.] This might be very well faid of thofe times, when no one was content to go to heaven without being received there on the footing of a God*	j7a ESSAY ON MAN. Ep.IIL
So drives Self-love, thro’juft, and thro’unjuft, To one Man’s pow’r, ambition, lucre, luft. 27Q The fame Self-love, in all, becomes the caufe Of what reftrains him, Government and Laws, for, what one likes, if others like as well,
Wh it ferves one will, when many wills rebel ? How fhall he keep, what, fleeping or awake, 275 A weaker may furprize, a ftronger take ?
Hb fafety muft his liberty reftrain :
All join to guard what each defires to gain;
Forc’d into virtue thus by Self-defence,
.Ev’n Kings learnt juftice and benevolence :	2S0
Self-love forfook the path it firft purfu’d,
And found the private in the public good.
’Twas then, the ftudious head or gen’rous mind» Follow’r of God or friend of human-kind.
Poet or Patriot, rofe but to reftore	285
The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before ; Relum’d her ancient light, not kindled new j If not God’s image, yet his ihadow drew :
NOTES.
Ver. 283. ’Twas then, lie.] The Poet feemeth here to mean the polite and flouriihing age of Greece ; and thofe benefa&ors to mankind, which he had principally, in view, were Socrates and Aristotle ; who, of all the Fagan world, fpoke belt Qf God, and wrote beft 0!
Government.feIII. ESSAY ON MAN. 75
Taught PowYs due ufe to People and to Kings ; Taught nor to flack, nor ftrain its tender firings, 2 90 The lefs, or greater,, fet io juftly true,
That touching one nluft ftrike the other too ;
Till jarring int’refts of themfelves create Th’ according mufic of a well-mix’d State.
Such is the World’s great harmony, that fprings 295 From Order, Union, full Confent of things:
notes.
, Ver. 295. Such is the World's great harmony, &c.] A harmony very different from the pre-rjlablijh'ed harmony of the celebrated Leibnitz, which fixeth us in a Fatality deftru&ive of all Religion and Morality. Yet hath .the Poet been accufed of efpouiing that impious whimfey. The pre-efablijhed hartkony was built upon, and is an outrageous extenfion of, a conception of Plato, who, combating the atheifUcal objeftions about the origin of E-vil, employs this argument in the defence of Providence : “ That amongft an infinite number of poffible (t worlds in God’s idea, this, which he hath created £‘ and brought into being, and which admits of a mix-“ ture of Evil, is the belt. But if the belt, then Evil “ confequently is partial, comparatively final], and (l tendeth to the greater perfection of the whole.” This Principle is efpoiifed and fiipported by Mr. Pope with all the power of reafon and poetry. But neither was Plato a Fatalift, nor is there any fatalifm in the argument. As to the truth of the notion, that is another queilion ; and how far it cleareth up the very difficult controverfy about the origin of Evil, is flill another. That it is a full folution of all difficulties, ! cannot think, for reafons too long to be given in this place. Perhaps we fhall never have a full folution in this world; and it may be no great matter though we have not, as
Ggo ESSAY ON MAN, Ep. IU.
Where (mail and great, where weak and mighty, made
To ferve, not fuffer, ftrengtben, not invade; f More pow’rful each as needful to the reft, ;
And, in proportion as it bleíTes, bleft j	30G
Draw to one point, and to one center bring Beaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King,
For Forms of Government let fools conteft ; Whate’er is beft adminifter’d is beft :
NOTES.
ive are demonftrably certain of the moral attributes of the Deity. However, Mr. Pope may be juftified in receiving and inforcing this Platonic notion, as it hath been adopted by the moil celebrated and orthodox divines both of the ancient and modern church.
Ver. 303. For Forms of Government let fools contef;] The feafonablenefs of this reproof will appear evident enough to thofe who know, that mad difputes about Liberty and Prerogative had once well-nigh overturned our Coniiitution ; and that others about Myitery and Church-Authority had almoft deftroyed the very fpirit of our Religion.
Ver. ib. For Forms of Government, &c.~\ Thefe fine lines have been ftrangely mifunderftood: the author, again ft his own exprefs words, againft the plain fenfeof his fyftem, ha been conceived tornean, That all Governments and all Religions were, as to their forms and objects, indifferent. But as this wrong judgment proceeded from ignorance of the reafon of the reproof, as explained above, that explanation is alone fufficient to rectify the miftake. But the reader will not be dif-pleafed to fee the Poet’s own apology, as I find it written in the year 1740, in his own hand, in the margin of a book, where he found thefe two celebrated linesKf. III. ESSAY ON MAN. Si For Modes of Faith let gracelefs zealots fight; 305 <
His can’t be wrong whofe life is in the right:	/
NOTES.
mifapplied ; “ The author of thefe lines was far from “ meaning, that Ho one form of Government is, in it-“ felfj better than another (as, that mixed or limited Monarchy, for example, is not preferable to abfolute) but that no form of Government, however excellent “ °r preferable, in itfelf, can be fufiicient to make a people happy, tlnlefs it be adminiftered with integri-“ ty. On the contrary, the bell fort of Government, te when thz forth of it is preferved, and the adminijira-“ Hon corrupt, is molt dangerous.”
Ver. 305. For Modes of Faith, To fuppofe the Poet to mean, that all Religions are indifferent, is an equally wrong as well as uncharitable fufpicion. Mr. Pope, though his fubje£l, in this Ejfay on Man, confine eth him to Natural Religion (his purpofe being to vindicate God’s natural difpenfations to Mankind again!! the Atheift) yet giveth frequent intimations of a more fubJime difpenfation, and even of the neceffity of it; particularly in his fecond epillle (ver. 149, &c.) where lie confeffeth the weaknefs and infufficiency of human Reafon.
And in his fourth epillle, where, fpeaking of the good Man, the favourite of Heaven, he faith,
For him alone Hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens hill, and opens on his foul;
’Till lengthen’d onto Faith, and unconfin’d,
It pours the blifs that fills up all the mind.
Put Natural Religion never lengthened Hope on to Faith; nor did any Religion, but the Chriltian, ever conceive that Faith could fill the Mind with Happinefs.
Laftly, In this very epillle, and in this very place, fpeaking of the great Keitorers of the Religion of Nature,
o %$2
ESSAY ON MAN. Ep.IIL
f In Faith and Hope the world will difagree,
But all Mankind’s concern is Charity :
NOTES,
he intimates that they could only draw God’s Jhadony, not his image:
Relum’d her ancient light, not kindled new,
]f not God’s Image, yet his lhadow drew :
as reverencing that truth, which telleth us, this difco-▼ery was referved for the glorious Gofipel of Chrif, <wbo is the image of God, 2 Cor. iv. 4.
Ver. 305. For Modes of Faith let gracelefs zealotsfight;J Thefe latter Ages have feen fo many fcandalous contentions for Modes of Faith, to the violation of Chriftian Charity, and diihonour of facred Scripture, that it is not at all ilrange they ihould become the objedt of fo benevolent and wife an Author’s refentment.
But that which he here feemed to have more particularly in his eye, was the long and mifchievous fquabble between W—d and Jackson, on a point confeifedly above Reafon, and amongft thofe adorable myfteries, which it is the honour of our Religion to find unfathomable. In this by the weight of anfwers and replies, redoubled upon one another without mercy, they made fo profound a progrefs, that the One proved, nothing hindered in Nature, but that the Son might have been the Father ; and the Other, that nothing hindered in Grace, but that the Son may he a sneer Creature. But if, inftead of throwing fo many Greek Fathers at one another’s heads, they had but chanced to reflect on the fenfe of one Greek word, AI1EIPIA, that it fignifies both infinity and Ignorance, this lingle equivocation might have faved them ten thoufand, which they expended in carrying on the controverfy. However thofe Mifts that magnified the Scene, enlarged the Character of the Combatants; and no body expectingEp. III. ESSAYONMAN. 83
AH mu ft be falfe that thwart this One great End ; And, all of God, that blefs Mankind or mend, 310
NOTES.
common fenfe on a fubjedl where we have no ideas, the defeits of dulnefs difappeared, and its advantages (for, advantages it has) were all provided for.
The worft is, fuch kind of Writers feldom know when to have done. For writing themfelves up into the fame deluiion with their Readers, they are apt to venture out into the more open paths of Literature, where their reputation, made out of that fluff, which Lucian calls prefently falls from them, and their nakednefs appears. And thus it fared with our two Worthies. The World, which mull have always fome-thing to amufe it, was now in good time grown weary of its playthings, and catched at a new objeft that pro-mifed them more agreeable entertainment, Tindal, a kind of Baftard-Socrates, had brought our fpeculations from Heaven to Earth ; and, under the pretence of advancing the Antiquity of Chriftianity, laboured to undermine its original. This was a controverfy that required another management. Clear fenfe, fevere reafoning, a thorough knowledge ofprophane and fa-cred Antiquity, and an intimate acquaintance with human Nature, were the qualities proper for fuch as engaged in this Subjeft. A very unpromifing adventure for thefe metaphyfical nurflings, bred up under the lhade of chimeras. Yet they would needs venture out. What they got by it was only to be once well laughed at, and then forgotten. But one odd circumftance de-ferves to be remembered; though they wrote not, we may be fere, in concert, yet each attacked his Adver-fary at the fame time, fattened upon him in the fame place, and mumbled him with juft the fame toothless rage. But the ill fuccefs of this efcape foon brought Q 384 ESSAY ON MAN. Eh. III.
Man, like the gen’rous vine, fupported lives; The ftrength he gains is from th’ embrace he gives. On their own Axis as the Planets run,
Yet make at once their circle round the Sun j So two confident motions the Soul;	3*5
And on§ regards Itfelf, and one the Whole.
NOTES.
them tpthemfelves. The One made a fruitlefs effort to revive the old game, in a difcourfe on clhe importance of the do ¿trine of the Trinity ; and the Other has been ever fince, till very lately, rambling in Space.
This ihort hiitory, as infignificant as the fubjefls of it are, may not be altogether unufeful to pofterity. Divines may learn, by thefe examples, to avoid the mif-chiefs done to Religion and Literature, through the affectation of being wife above what is written, and knowing beyond what can be underltood.
Ver. 307. In faith and hope, C_Jr.] And ncnv alideth faith, hope, and charity, thefe three ; but the greatefi of thefer'is charity. 1 Cor. xiii. 13.
Ver. 311. Man, like the gen rous vine, & c.] Having thus largely confidered man in his focial capacity, the Poet, in order to fix a momentous truth in the mind of his reader, concludes the epiftle in recapitulating the t<rjpo Principles, which concur to the fupport of this part of his chara&er, namely, Self-love and social ; and ihewing, that they are only two different motions of the appetite to Good; by which the Author of Nature hath enabled Man to find his own happinefs in the hap pinefs of the Whole. This he illuilrates with a thought as fublime as that general harmony he defcribes: For he hath the art of converting poetical ornaments into ph.ilofophic reafoning; and of improving a fimilc into an analogical argument;Er.III. ESSAY ON MAN. 85 Thus God and Nature link’d the gen’ral frame. And bade Self-love and Social be the fame.
On their own Axis as the Planets run,
Yet make at once their circle round the Sun ;
So two confident motions aft the Soul;
And one regards Itfelf, and one the Whole.
Thus God and Nature link’d the gen’ral frame, And bade Self-love and Social be the fame,[ «6 3
EPISTLE IV,
f'"\H Happiness ! our being’s end and aim, Good, Pleafure, Eafe, Content! whatever thy name :
That fomething {till which prompts th’ eternal figh, Eor which we bear to live, or dare to die,
VARIATIONS.
Ver. I. Oh Happinefs, &c.] In the MS. thus :
Oh Happinefs! to which we all afpire,
Wing’d with ftrong hope, and born by full defire ; That eafe, for which in want, in wealth we figh ; That eafe, for which we labour and we die.
NOTES.
Ep. IV. The two foregoing epiftles having confider-ed Man with regard to the Means (that is, in all his relations, whether as an Individual, or a Member of Society) this laft comes to confider him with regard to the End, that is, Happinefs.
It opens with an Invocation to Happinefs, in the manner of the ancient poets, who, when deftitute of a patron-god, applied to the Mufe, and, if ihe was engaged, took up with any fimple Virtue next at hand, to infpire and profper their undertakings. This was the ancient Invocation, which few modern poets have had the art to imitate with any degree either offpirit or decorum but our author hath contrived to make it fubfervient to the method and reafoning of his philofo* phic compofiticn. I will endeavour to explain fo uncommon a beauty.
1Ep. IV. ESSAY ON MAN. t?
Which ilill fo near us, yet beyond us lies, 5 Overlook’d, feen double, by the fool, and wife.
NOTES.
It is to be obferved, that the Pagan deities had each their feveral names and places of abode, with fome of which they were fuppofed to be more delighted than others, and confequently to be then moil: propitious when invoked by the favourite name and place : Hence we find, the Hymns of Homer, Orpheus, and Callimachus to be chiefly employed in reckoning up the feveral names and places of abode by which the patron God was diftinguiihed. Our Poet hath made thefe two cir-cumftances ferve to introduce his fubjeff His purpofe is to write of Happinefs; method therefore requires that lie firfl: define what men mean by Happinefs, and this he does in the ornament of a poetic Invocation; in which the feveral names, that happinefs goes by, are enumerated.
Oh Happinefs! our being’s end and aim,
Good, Pleafu re, Eafe, Content! whate’er thy Name.
After the Definition, that which follows next, is the propofition, which is, that human Happinefs conjifsnot in external Ad-vantages, but in Virtue. For the lubjeft of this epiftle is the dete&ing the falfe notions of Happinefs, and fettling and explaining the true; and this the Poet lays down in the next fixteen lines. Now the enumeration of the feveral ftuations in which Happinefs is fuppofed to refide, is a fummary of falfe Happinefs, placed in Externals:
Plant of celeilial feed! if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign’il to grow ? Fair op’ning to fome Court’s propitious ihine,
Or deep with Di’monds in the flaming mine ? Twin’d with the wreaths Parnaflian laurels yield* 0r reap’d in iron harvefts of the field ?S8 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. IV. Plant of celeilial feed ! if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign’ft to grow ? Fair op’ning to fome Court’s propitious fhine,
Or deep with Pi’monds in the flaming mine ? io Twin’d with the wreaths Parnafllan laurels yield. Or reap’d in iron harvefts of the field ?
Where grows?—where grows it not? If vainour toil» We ought to blame the culture, not the foil : Fix’d to no fpot is happinefs frncere,	15
Tis no where to be found, or ey’ry where:
’Tis never to be bought, but always free,
And fled from monarchs, St. John ! dwells with thee. Aik of the Learn’d the way ? The Learn’d are blind ;
This bids, to ferve, and that to ihun mankind j 20
notes.
The fix remaining lines deliver the true notion of Happi-uels to be in Virtue, Which is fumm’d up in thefe two ; Fix’d to no fpot is Happinefs fincere,
Tis no where to be found, or ev’ry where.
The Poet having thus defined his terms, and laid down his propofition, proceeds to the fupport of his Thefis; the various arguments of which make up the body of the Epiftle.
Vbr.6. O'er look'd, feen double, ] O'erlook'dby thofe who place Happinefs in any thing exclufive of Virtue; feen double by thofe who admit any thing elfe to have a ihare with Virtue in procuring Happinefs; thefe being the two general miftakes that this Epiitle is employed in confuting.fp.iy. ESSAY ON MAN. B9
Some place the blifs in adtion, fome in eafe, Thofe call it pleafure, and contentment thefe; Some funk to Beafts, find pleafure end in pain; Some fwell’d to Gods, confefs ev’n Virtue va,in; Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,	25
To truft in ev’ry thing, or dpubt of all.
Who thus define it, fay they more or lefs Than this, that Happinefs is Happinefs ?
notes.
Ver. 21, 23. Borne place the blfs in action,—Borne funk to BeaJ}s,&c.] 1. Thofe who place Happinefs, or the fum-mutn bonum, in Pleafure, 'H<W, fuch as the Cyrenaic fe£t, called, on that account, the Hedonic. 2. Thofe who place it in a certain tranquillity or calmnefs of mind, which they call E^i«, fuch as the Democratic fett. 3. The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The Protagorean, which held that Man was <rsunuv	fr^ov, the mea-
sure of all things ; for that all things which appear to him are, and thofe things which appear not to any Mian are not; fo that every imagination or opinion of every Maa was true. 6. The Sceptic; whofe abfolute Doubtis, with great judgment, find to be the effe&of Indolence, as well as the abfolute Truft of the Protagorean : For the fame dread of labour attending the fearch of truth, which makes the Protagorean prefume it to be always at hand, makes the Sceptic conclude it is never to be found. The only difference is, that the lazinefs of the one is defpond-ing, and the lazinefs of the other fanguine; yet both can give it a good name, and call it Happinefs.
Ver. 23. Some funk to Beafs,i£c.] Thefe four lines added in the laft Edition, as neceffary to complete the fummary of the falfe purfuits after Happinefs amonglt the Grdfck philofdphers,$8 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep.IV.
Take Nature’s path, and mad Opinion’s leave; All ftates can reach it, and all heads conceive; 30 { Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell ;
I There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; And mourn our various portions as we pleafe, Equal is Common Senfe, and Common Eafe.
Remember, Man, tc the Univerfal Caufe 35 <( Adis not by partial, but by gen’ral laws And makes what Happinefs we juftly call Subfift, not in the good of one, but all.
There’s not a bleffing Individuals find,
But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind, 40 No Bandit fierce, no Tyrant mad with pride,
No cavern’d Hermit refts felf-fatisfy’d :
Who moil to ihun or hate mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend :
Abftracl what others feel, what others think, 45 All pleafures ficken, and all glories fink :
Each has his fhare; and who would more obtain, Shall find, the pleafure pays not half the pain.
Order is Heav’n’s firft law; and this confefl, Some are, and muil be, greater than the reft, 5©
NOTES*
Ver. 49. Order is Hearn's firjl la<w{] i. e. The firft law made by God relates to Order; which is a beautiful allufion to the Scripture hiilory of the Creation, when God firft appeafed the diforders of Chaos, and feparated the light from the darknefs.Ip. IV. ESSAY ON MAN.
More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence That fuch are happier, ihocks all common fenfe. Beav’n to Mankind impartial we confefs,
If all are equal in their Happinefs:
But mutual wants this Happinefs increafe; 5^ All Nature’s difference keeps all Nature’s peace. Condition, circumftance is not the thing j Blifs is the fame in fubjedt or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend :	6a
Heav’n breathes thro’ ev’ry member of the whole One common blefling, as one common foul.
But fortune’s gifts if each alike poflefl:,
And each were equal, muff: not all conteft?
If then to all Men Happinefs was meant,
God in externals could not place Content.
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 52. in the MS.
Say not, “Heav’n’s hereprofufe, there poorly faves. And for one Monarch makes a thoufand flaves.’* You’ll find, when Caufes and their Ends are known, ’Twas for the thoufand Heav’n has made that one. After ver. 66. in the MS.
’Tis peace of mind alone is at a ftay:
The reil mad fortune gives or takes away.
All other blifs by accident’s debarr’d;
But Virtue’s, in the inftant, a reward;
In hardeft trials operates the beii,
And more is reliih’d as the more «¡lilreih§2 ESSAY ON MAN. E?. W,
Fortune her gifts may varioufly difpofe,
And thefe be happy call’d5 unhappy thofe;
But Heav’n’s juft balance equal will appear* While thofe are plac’d in Hope* and thefe in Fear'.70 Not prefent good or ill, the joy or curfe,
But future views of better, or of worfe.
Oh fons of earth ! attempt ye ilill to rife*
By mountains pil’d on mountains, to the ikies r Heav’n ilill with laughter the vain toil furveys, 75 And buries madmen in the heaps they raife.
Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and Nature meant to mere Mankind, Reafon’s whole pleafure, all the joys of Senfe,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence* But Health confifls with Temperance alone; 81 And Peace, oh Virtue ! Peace is all thy own.
NOTES.
Ver. 79. Reafon's whole pleafure, If c.] This is a beautiful periphrafis for Happinefs; for all we feel of good is by fenfation and reflexion.
Ver. 82. And Peace, &c.] Confcious Innocence (fays the Poet) is the only fource of internal Peace ; and known Innocence, of external; therefore Peace is the foie iifue of Virtue; or, in his own emphatic words, Peace is all thy own; a conclufive obfervation in his argument, which ftands thus : Is Happinefs rightly placed in Externals ? No; for it confifts in Health, Peace, and Competence. Health and Competence are the produd of Temperance, and Peace of perfed Innocence.
6
Ip. IV.
The good or bad the gifts of Fortune gain;
But thefe lefs tafte them, as they worfe obtain. Say, in purfuit of profit or delight,	g^
Who riik the raoft, that take wrong means or right? Of Vice or Virtue, whether bleft or curft,
Which meets contempt, or which compaifion firft ? Count all th’ advantage profp’rous Vice attains, ’Tis but what Virtue flies from and difdains :	20
And grant the bad what happinefs they wou’d,
One they muft want, which is to pafs for good.
Oh blind to truth, and God’s whole fchemebelow, Who fancy Blifs to Vice, to Virtue Woe I
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 93. in the MS.
Let fober Moralilts correct their fpeech. No bad man’s happy: he is great, or rich.
NOTES.
Ver. 93. Oh Hind to truth, & c.] Oar Author having thus largely confuted the miftakeof Happinefs s confift-ing in externals, proceeds to expofe the terrible confe-quences of fuch an opinion on the fentiments and practice of all forts of men, making the DilTolute impious and atheiftical; the Religious uncharitable and intolerant; and the Good reiilefs and difcontent. For when it is once taken for granted, that Happinefs confiils in externals, it is immediately feen, that ill men are often more happy than good; which fets all conditions on obje&ing to the ways of Providence : and fome even on raflily attempting to reftify its difpenfations, though by the violation of all Law, divine and human.f4. ESSAY ON MAN; Ei*. IV;
Who fees and follows that great fcheme the beft, 95 Beft knows the bleffing, and will moil: be bleft. But fools the Good alone, unhappy call,
For ills or accidents that chance to all. J See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the juft!
See god like Turenne proftrateon the duft! icr* See Sidney bleeds amid the martialftrife !
Was this their Virtue, or Contempt of Life?
Say, was it Virtue, more tho’ Heav’n ne’er gave* Lamented Digby ! funk thee to the grave ?
Tell me, if Virtue made the Son expire, 105 Why, full of days and honour, lives the Sire ? Why drew Marfeilles’ good Biihop purer breath, When Nature ficken’d, and each gale was death ? Or why fo long (in life if long can be)
Lent Heav’n a parent to the poor and me ?	11®
NOTES.
Ver. too. See god-like 'Turenne] Tkis epithet has a peculiar juftnefs; the great man to whom it is applied, not being diftinguiihed, from other generals, for any of his fuperior qualities, fo much as for his providential care of thofe whom he led to war ; which was fo uncommon, that his chief purpofe, in taking on himfelf the command of armies, feems to have been the pre-fervation of mankind. In this god-like care he was more diilinguiihably employed throughout the whole courf* of that famous campaign in which he loft his life.
Ver. 110. Lent Heci'v’n a parent,&c.~\ Thislaftinftance
®f the Poet’s illuftration of the ways of Providence; theJEp.IV. essay on man.
What makes all phyfical or moral ill ?
There deviates Nature, and here wanders Will. God fends not ill; if rightly underftood,
Or partial 111 is univerfal Good,
Or change admits, or Nature lets it fall *
Short, and but rare, till Man improv’d it all.
We juft as wifely might of Heav’n complain That righteous Abel was deftroy’d by Cain,
As that the virtuous fon is ill at eafe When his lewd father gave the dire difeafe. 120 Think we, like l'ome weak Prince, th’Eternal Caufe, Prone for his fav’rites to reverfe his laws ?
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 116. in the MS.
Of ev’ry evil, fince the world began,
The real fource is not in God, but Man.
NOTES.
reader fees, has a peculiar elegance; where a tribute of piety to a parent is paid in a return of thanks to, and made fubfervient of his vindication of, the Great Giver and Father of all things. The Mother of the Author, a perfon of great piety and charity, died the year this poem was finished, <viz. 1733.
Ver. 121. Think we, likeferne weakPrinee,c.] Agreeable hereunto, holy Scripture, in its account of things under the common Providence of heaven, never repre-fents miracles as wrought for the fake of him who is the objeft of them, but in order to give credit to fame of God’s extraordinary difpenfations to Mankind.
Hg5 essay on man. ep.ivy
Shall burning .¿Etna, if a fage requires,
Forget to thunder, and recall her fires ?
On air or fea new motions be impreft,	125
Oh blamelefs Bethel I to relieve thy breaft ?
When the loofe mountain trembles from on high, Shall gravitation ceafe, if you go by ?
Or fome old temple, nodding to its fall,
For Chartres’ head referve the hanging wall ? 130 But ftill this world (fo fitted for the knave) Contents us not. A better ihall we have ?
A kingdom of the Juft then let it be :
But firft confider how thofe Juft agree.
The good muft merit God’s peculiar care; ^135 But who, but God, can tell us who they are ?j) One thinks on Calvin Heav’n’s own Spirit fell; Another deems him inftrument of hell;
If Calvin feel Heav’n’s blefling, or its rod,
This cries there is, and that, there is no God. 140 What ihocks one part will edify the reft,
Nor with one fyftem can they all be bleft.
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 142. in fome Editions,
Give each a fyilem, all muft be at ftrife;
What different fyftems for a Man and Wife ?
The joke, though lively, was ill-placed; and ther^ fore ftruck out of the text.
NOTES.
Ver. 123. Shall burning JEtna, fifc.] Alluding to the fate of thofe two great Naturalifts, Empedocles and'£p. IV. ESSAY
The very beft will varioufly incline,
And what rewards your Virtue, puniih mine. Whatever is, is right.—This world, ’tis true, Was made for Cafefar—but for Titus too :	146
And which morebleft? who chain’d his country, fayj, Or he whofe Virtue figbi’d to lofe a day ?
“ But fometimes Virtue ftarves, whileVice is fed.5* What then ? Is the reward of Virtue bread ? icq That, Vice may merit, ’tis the price of toil $
The knave deferves it, when he tills the foil,
The knave deferves it, when he tempts the main, Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. The good man may be weak, be indolent;	155
Nor is his claim to plenty, but content.
But grant him Riches, your demand is o’er ?
** No—ihall the good want Health, the good want Pow’r ?”
Add Health, and Pow’r, and ev’ry earthly thing,
*4 Why bounded Pow’r ? why private ? why no king ? ic Nay, why external for internal giv’n ?	161
u Why is not Man a God, and Earth a Heav’n ?” Who aikand reafon thusj will fcarce conceive God gives enough, while he has more to give:
Pliny, who both periihed by too near an approach to .¿Etna and Vefuvius, while they were exploring the caufe of their eruptions.
H 298 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. IV.
Jmmenfe the pow’r, immenfewere thedemandj 165 Say, at what part of nature will they Hand ?
What nothing earthly gives, or can deftroy, The foul’s calm fun-fhine, and the heart-felt joy, Is Virtue’s prize : A better would you fix,
Then give Humility a coach and fix,	17Q
Juftice a Conqu’ror’s fword, or Truth a gown, Or public Spirit its great cure, a Crown,
Weak, fooliih Man ! will Heav’n reward us there With the fame trafh mad mortals wifh for here? The Boy and Man an individual makes, 175 Yet figh’ft thou now for apples and for cakes ?
Go, like the Indian, in another life Expedí thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife :
As well as dream fuch trifles are affign’d,
As toys and empires, for a god-like mind. 180
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 172. in the MS.
Say, what rewards this idle world imparts Or fit for fearching heads or honeit hearts,
NOTES.
Ver. 177. Go, like the Indian, GV.] Alluding to the example of the Indian, in Epitl. i. ver. 99. which thews, that that example was not given to diicredit any rational hopes of future happinefs, but only to reprove the folly of feparating them from charity : as when
—Zeal, not charity, became the guide,
And hell was built on fpite, and heav’n on pride.Ep. IV.
ESSAY ON MAN.
Rewards, that either would to virtue bring No joy, or be deftra&ive of the thing :
How oft by thefe at fixty are undone I he Virtues of a faint at twenty-one I To whom can Riches give Repute or Truft, 185 Content, or Pleafure, but the Good and Juft ? Judges and Senates have been bought for gold, Efteem and Love were never to be fold.
Oh fool ! to think God hates the worthy mind, The lover and the love of human kind,	190
Whofe life is healthful, and whofe confcience clear, Becaufe he wants a thoufand pounds a year.
Honour and ihame from no condition rife ;
A£t well your part, there all the honour lies. Fortune in Menhasfome fmall diff’rence made, 195 One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;
NOTES.
Ve r . 193. Honour andflamefrom no condition rife, LY] What power then has fortune over the Man ? None at all. For as her favours can confer neither worth nor wifdom ; fo neither can her difpleafure cure him of any of his follies. On his Garb indeed fhe hath fome little influence ; but his Heart ftill remains the fame.
Fortune in Men has fome fmall difference made, One f aunts in rags, one flutters in brocade.
But this difference extends no further than to the habit: the pride of heart is the fame, both in the flaunter and the flutterer, as it is the Poet’s intention to inflnuate by the ufe of thofe terms.
H100
ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. IV.
The cobler apron’d, and the parfon gown’d,
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown’d.
“ What differ more (you cry )than crown and cowl?’* I’ll tell you, friend j a wife man and a fool. 200 You’ll find, if once the monarch a£ts the monk. Or, cobler-like, the parfon will be drunk,
Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow; The reft is all but leather or prunello.	204
Stuck o’er with titles, and hung round with firings^ That thou may’ft be by kings, or whores of kings. Boaft the pure blood of an illuftrious race,
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece:
But by your father’s worth if your’s you rate, Count me thofe only who were good and great. 21Q Go ! if your ancient, but ignoble blood Has crept thro’ fcoundrels ever fince the flood,
Go ! and pretend your family is young ;
Nor own, your fathers have been fools fo long.
VARIATIONS.
Ver. 207. BoaJ} the-pure Hood, £ffc.] In the MS. thus;
The richeft blood, right-honourably old,
Down from Lucretia to Lucretia roll'd,
May fwell thy heart, and gallop in thy breafl. Without one dafh of uiher or of prieit:
Thy pride as much defpife all 'other pride As Chrifl-Church once ail colleges belide.Ep. IV. ESSAY ON MAN. ioi
What can ennoble fots, or flaves, or cowards ? 215 Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards.
Look next onGreatnefs; fay where Greatnefs Iks. « Where, but among the Heroes and the Wife ! 5 Heroes are much the fame, the point’s agreed, From Macedonia’s madman to the Swede ;	220
The whole ftrange purpofe of their lives, to find Or make, an enemy of all mankind !
Not one looks backward, onward ftill he goes, Yet ne’er looks forward further than his nofe.
No lefs alike the Politic and Wife;	225
All fly flow things, with circumfpe&ive eyes ; Men in their loofe unguarded hours they take,
Not that themfelves are wife, but others weak.
But grant that thofe can conquer, thefe can cheat; ’Tis phrafe abfurd to call a Villain Great:	230
Who wickedly is wife, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, fmiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed 235 Like Socrates, that Man is great indeed.
What’s Fame ? a fancy’d life in others breath, A thing beyond us, ev’n before our death.
Juft what you hear, you have, and what’s unknown The fame (my Lord) if Tully’s, or your own. 24a H 4102
ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. IV.
All that we feel of it begins and ends In the fmall circle of our foes or friends ;
To all befide as much an empty ihade An Eugene living, as a Csefar dead ;
Alike or when, or where, they ihone, or ihine, 245 Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.
A Wit’s a feather, and a Chief a rod ;
An honeil Man’s the nobleft work of God.
Fame but from death a villain’s name can fave,
As Juftice tears his body from the grave ;	250
When what t’ oblivion better were refign’d,
Is hung on high, to poifon half mankind.
All fame is foreign, but of true defert ;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart: One felf-approving hour whole years outweighs 255 Of iiupid ftarers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil’d feels,
I ban Caefar with a Senate at his heels.
In Parts fuperior what advantage lies ?
"Tell (for You can) what is it to be wife ?	260
Xis but to know how little can be known ;
To fee all others faults, and feel our own : Condemn’d in bus’nefs or in arts to drudge, Without a fecond, or without a judge :
Truths would you teach, or fave a finking land ? 265 All fear, none aid you, and few underhand.Ep.IV. ESSAY ON MAN.
Painful Preheminence 1 yourfelf to view Above life’s weaknefs, and its comforts too.
Bring then thefe bleflings to a ftria account; Make fair deductions ; fee to what they mount: 27Q How much of other each is fure to coif;
How each for other oft is wholly loft ;
How inconfiftent greater goods with thefe ;
How fometimes life is rifqu’d, and always eafe: Think,' and if ftill the things thy envy call, 275 Say, would ft thou be the man to whom they fall! To figh for ribbands if thou art fo iilly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.
notes.
Ver. 267. Painful Preheminence, iffc.} The moil plau-fible rival of Virtue is knowledgegained by fuperiorparts: yet even this is fo far from giving any degree of real Happinefs, that it deprives man of thofe common comforts of life, which are a kind of fupport to us under the want of Happinefs. Such as the more innocent of thofe delufions which he fpeaks of in the fecond Epiitle.
Thofe painted clouds that beautify our days, &c.
Now Knowledge deilroyeth all thofe comforts by fetting man above Life’sweakneiTes: So that he who has difcard-ed Virtue, and thinks to attain Happinefs by Knowledge alone, reverfes the fable; and in a prepoiterous attempt to gain the fubftance, lofeth even the ihadow. This I take to be the fenfe of this fine ftroke of fatire; and the truth conveyed under it the author had feen exemplified.
ESSAY ON MAN.
Ep. IV.
104
Is yellow dirt the paflion of thy life ?
Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus’ wife. 28® If Parts allure thee, think how Bacon ihin’d,
The wifeft, brighteft, meaneft of mankind:
Or ravifh’d with the whittling of a Name,
See Cromwell, damn’d to everlafting fame !
NOTES.
Ver. 28r, 283. If Parts allure thee,—Orra'vijh'd ‘with the nvhifling of a Name,] Thefe two inilances are chofen with great judgment: the world, perhaps, doth not afford two inch other. Bacon difcovered and laid down thofe principles, by whofe afliilance Newton was enabled to unfold the whole law of Nature. He was no lefs eminent for the creative power of his imagination, the brightnefs ©f his conceptions, and the force of his expreffion: Yet being legally convi&ed of bribery and corruption in the adminiftration of juflice, while he prefided in the fu-prcme Court of Equity, he endeavoured to repair his ruined fortunes by the moil profligate flattery to the Court : Which from his very firfl entrance into it, he bad accuftomed himfelf to pradlife, with a proflitution that difgraceth the very profeffion of letters.
Cromwell feemeth to be diitinguifhedin the moil eminent manner, with regard to his abilities, from all other great and wicked men, who have overturned the Liberties ©f their Country. The times in which others have fuc-eeeded in this attempt, were fuch as faw the fpirit of Liberty fuppreifed and flifled by a general luxury and venality: But Cromwell fubdued his country, when this fpirit was at its height, by a fuccefsful ilruggle againil Court-oppreffion ; and while it was conduced and fup-portedbyafetofthegreateilGeniufesforGovernmentthe world ever faw embarked together in one common caufe„
Vsr. 283. Or ra'vijhd with the whifling of a NameEp. IV. ESSAY ON MAN,
If all, united, thy ambition call,
From ancient ftory learn to fcorn them all.
There, in the rich, the honour’d, fam’d, and great, See the falfe fcale of happinefs complete !
In hearts of Kings, or arms of Queens who lay,
290
How happy thofe to ruin, thefe betray
Mark by what wretched fleps their glory grows, From dirt and fea-weed as proud Venice rofe.
In each how guilt and greatnefs equal ran,
And all that rais’d the Hero, funk the Man:
Now Europe’s laurels on their brows behold, 295 But ftain’d with blood, or ill-exchang’d for gold: Then lee them broke with toils, or funk in eafe, Or infamous for plunder’d provinces.
,Oh wealth ill-fated ! which no a£t of fame E’er taught toihine, or fan&ified fromihame! 300
NOTES.
And even this fantailic Glory fometimes fuffers a terrible reverie.—Sacheverell, in his Voyage tolcolumbkill, deferib-ing the church there, tells us, that, “ In one corner is a *£ peculiar Inclofure, in which were the monuments of “ the kings of many different nations, as Scotland, Ire-“ land, Norway, and the JJle of Man. This (faid the “ perfon who ihewed me the place, pointing to a plain <{ ftone) was the monument of the Great Te a gu e, king “ of Ireland. I had never heard of him, and could not “ but reflect of how little value is Greatnefs, that has “ barely left a name fcandalous to a nation, and a grave, fs which the meaneft of Mankind would never envy ”
lio6
ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. IV.
What greater blifs attends their dofe of life ? Some greedy minion, or imperious wife,
The trophy’d arches, ftory’d halls invade,
And haunt their flumbers in the pompous fhade. Alas ! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray, 305 Compute the morn and ev’ning to the day ;
The whole amount of that enormous fame,
A Tale, that blends their glory with their ihame 1 Know then this truth (enough for man to know) Ci Virtue alone is Happinefs below.”	310
The only point where human blifs ftands ftill, And taftes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only Merit conftant pay receives,
Is bleft in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequall’d, if its end it gain,	315
And if it lofe, attended with no pain :
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 316. in the MS.
Ev’n while it feems unequal to difpofe,
And chequers all the good Man’s joys with woes, 'Tis but to teach him to fupport each ftate,
With patience this, with moderation that:
NOTES.
Ve r . 311. The only point nvhere human blifs ftands ft ill, C5c.] Hitherto the Poet had proved Negatively, that Happinefs coniiits inVirtue, byfhewing it confiiled not in any other thing. He now proves the fame Positively,
2Ep. IV.
Without fatiety, tho’ e’er ib blefs’d,
And but more relifh’d as the more diftrefs’d :
The broadeft mirth unfeeling folly wears,
Lefs pleafing far than Virtue’s very tears :
Good, from each obje&, from each place acquir’d.. For ever exercis’d, yer never tir’d ;
Never elated, while one man’s opprefs’d ;
Never deje&ed, while another’s blefs’d ;
And where no wants, no wiihes can remain, 325 Since but to wiih more Virtue, is to gain.
See the fo!e blifs Heav’n could on all beftow ! \\: hich whobut feels cantaile, but thinks can know: Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind, The bad muft mifs3 the good, untaught, will find*	330
VARIATIONS.
And raife his bafe on that one folid joy,
Which confcience gives, and nothing can deilroy. Ihefe lines are extremely finifhed. In which there is fuch a foothing fweetnefs in the melancholy harmony of the verification, as if the Poet was then in that tender office in which he was moil officious, and in which all his foul came out, the condoling with fome good mania affiidion.
NOTES.
by an enumeration of its Qualities, all naturally adapted to give and to increafe human Happinefs; as its Conftancy, Capacity, Vigour, Efficacy, Adivity, Moderation, and Self fufficiency.
Ver. 329. Tetpoor <withfortune, £5Y] The Poet here obferveth, with fome indignation, that as obvious and
I m
I
'!lioS ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. IV.'
Slave to no feel, who takes no private road,
But looks thro’ Nature up to Nature’s God ; Purfues that Chain which links th’ immenfe deiign. Joins heav’n and earth, and mortal and divine; Sees, that no Being any blifs can know, 335 But touches fome above, and fome below ;
Learns, from this union of the riling Whole, The firft, laft purpofe of the human foul;
And knows where Faith, Law, Morals, all began2 All end, in Love of God, and Love of Man. 340 For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal.
And opens ft ill, and opens on his foul ;
notes.
as evident as this truth was, yet Riches and falfe Philofo-fby had fo blinded the difeernment even of improved minds, that the poileiTors of the firft placed Happinefs in Externals, unfuitable to Man’s Nature; and the followers of the latter, in refined Vifions, unfuitable to his Situation; while the fimple-minded man, with Nature only for his guide, found plainly in what it fhould be placed.
Ver. 341. For him alone, Hope leadsfrom gaol to gaol,] But this is not all; when the fimple-minded man, on his firft fettingout in the purfuit of Truth, in order to Happinefs, hath had the wifdom,
To look thro’ Nature up to Nature’s God ;
(inftead of adhering to any fe£t or party where there was fo great odds of his chufing wrong) that then the benefit of gaining the knowledge of God’s will, written in the mind, is not confined there; for Handing on this fure foundation, he is now no longer in danger of chufing wrong, amidftfuch diverfities of Religions; but by pur*Ep. IV. ESSAY ON MAN. I0^
Till lengthen’d on to Faith, and unconfin’d,
It pours the blifs that fills up all the mind.
NOTES.
faing this grand fchemeof Universal Benevolence m praftice as well as theory, he arrives at length to the knowledge of the revealed will of God, which is the confumination of the fyftem of benevolence:
For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens ftill, and opens on his foul,
Till lengthen’d on to Faith, and unconfin’d,
It pours the blifs that fills up all the mind.
Ver. 3 41 .For him alone Hope leadsfrom goal to goal. &c 1
uiATCVn hlS firft book of a Republic, hath a remarkable paflage to this purpofe / “ He whofe confidence
*	does n0.t reproach him, has chearful Hope for his <( companion^ and the fupport and comfort of his old
‘ aSe’ according to Pindar: For this great Poet, O So**
*	crates, very elegantly fays, That he who leads a juft and holy life has always amiable Hope for his com-
“ panion, which fills his heart with joy, and is the fup-„ Port and comfort of his old age. Hope, the moft s powerful of the Divinities, in governing the ever-changing and inconftant temper of mortal men.” Ti
6i {AY,0iv savIw ad'.xo# £vvsi$ote y&ibc. sArol? as) zsagtrt, d dyaOti ?vpolS6<p&,' Js ni,$*pQ. Ttfyeu Xa^flas yd? to., Z ^ Tifaiic, TUT eke)V©- »Vejy oTi oj «v huaias x} oo-tas Tit (3ior Oiayayri, y'AvKstd o) Kxpht»» xTaAXaaa yvtgoTpiQ®* owocnfa
a ¡¿aXi-ra Svalcov '¡zohvrpocpov yvwfAxv xvbepva. In the lame manner Euripides fpeaks in his Hercules furens.
Ovr© $ otvvig «£ir©, arts i?\7rlcnv
nE'aoiBsv «»£.* to o a'ceo^iVny avfyog kxkS. ver. lOtj#
*s is the good man in whofe breajl Hope fprings eter~
*	npHy • But to be without Hope in the world is the por-tion of the wicked.”tl0 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep.IV.
He fees, why Nature plants in Man alone 345
Hope of known blifs, and Faith in blifs unknown;
(Nature, whole dilates to no other kind
Are giv’n in vain, but what they feek they find)
Wife is her prefent; file conne&s in this
His greateft Virtue with his greateft Blifs;	350
At once his own bright profped to be bleft,
And ftrongeft motive to aifift the reft.
Self-love thus pufh’d to focial, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy neighbour’s blefling thine.
NOTES.
Ver. 353. Self love thus pujb'd to focial, &c.] The Poet here marks out the Progrefs of his good man’s Benevolence, puihed through natural religion to revealed, ’till it arrives to that height which the facred writers de-feribe as the very fummit of Chriitian perfedion; and thews how the progrefs of human differs from the proofs of divine benevolence. That the divine defeends from whole to parts; but that the human mull rife from individual to univerfal. His argument for this extended benevolence is, that, as God has made a Whole, whofe parts have a perfed relation to, and an entire dependency on each other, Man, by extending his benevolence throughout that Whole, ads in conformity to the will of his Creator; and therefore this enlargement of his affedion becomes a duty. But the Poet hath not only Ihewn his piety in this obfervation, but the utmoft art and addrefs like wife in the difpofitionofit. The EJfay on Man opens with expofing the murmurs and impious conclufions of fooliih men againft the prefent conftitution of things; as it proceeds, it occasionally deteds all thofe falfe principles and opinions which led them to conclude thus perverfely. HavingEp. IV. ESSAY ON MAN.
Is this too little for the boundlefs heart ?
Extend it, let thy enemies have part:
Grafp the whole worlds of Reafon, Life, and Senfe, In one clofe fyftem of Benevolence:
NOTES.
now done all that was neceifary in Speculation, the author turns to Practice; and ends his EiTay with the recommendation of an acknowledged virtue, Charity; which, if exercifed in the Extent that conformity to the will of God requireth, would effeflually prevent all complaints againft the prefent order of things; fuch complaints being made with a total difregard to every thing but their onvn private fyfiem, and feeking remedy in the diforder, and at the expence of all the reft. This obfervation,
Self love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake,
is important; Rochefaucault, Efprit, and their wordy difciple Mandeville, had obferved that Self-love was the Origin of all thofe virtues Mankind molt admire ; and therefore fooliihly fuppofeditwas the Endlikewife; and fo taught, that the higheft pretences to diiintereilednefs were only the more artful difguifes of Self-love. But our author, who fays fomewhere or other,
Of human Nature, Wit its woril may write,
We all revere it in our own defpite,	MS.
favv, as well as they and every body elfe, that the Paffions began in Self-love; yet he underftood human Nature better than to imagine they terminated there. He knew, that Reafon and Religion could convert Selfiihnefs into its very oppofite; and therefore teacheth, that
Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake :
And thus hath vindicated the dignity of human Nature, a*d the philofophic truth of the Chriftian doctrine.
Ins ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. IV.
Happier as kinder, in whate’er degree,
And height of Blifs but height of Charity. 360 God loves from Whole to Parts : but human foul Muft rife from Individual to the Whole.
Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the fmall pebble ftirs the peaceful lake;
The center mov’d, a circle ftraight fucceeds, 365 Another {fill, and ftill another fpreads ;
Friend, parent, neighbour, firft it will embrace; His country next; and next all human race; Wide and more wide, td’ o’erflowings of the mind Take ev’ry creature in, of ev’ry kind ;	370
Earth fmiles around, with boundlefs bounty bled, And Heav’n beholds its image in his bread.
Come then, my Friend ! my Genius! come along; Oh mailer of the poet, and the fong !
VARIATIONS.
Ver. 373. Come then, my Friend! Coc.] In the MS. thus,
And now tranfported o’er fo vail a plain,
While the wing’d courfer flies with all her rein, While heav’n-ward now her mounting wing ihe feels, Now fcatter’d fools fly trembling from her heels, Wilt thou, my St. John ! keep her courfe in fight, Confine her fury, and affift her flight ?
NOTES.
Ver. 573* Come then, my Friend! ¿5c.] This noble Apoftrophe, by which the Poet concludes the f flay in an addrefs to his friend, will furniih a Critic with ex-mmm

Ep. IV. ESSAY ON MAN. jjj
And while the Mufe nowftoops, or nowafcends,375 To Man’s low paffions, or their glorious ends,
NOTES.
amples of every one of thofefive Species of Elocution, from which, as from its Sources, Longinus deduceth the
Sublime a.
1.	The fir ft and chief is a Grandeur and Sublimity of
Conception.	J
Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come alonj O mafter of the poet, and the fong!
And while the Mufe now ftoops, or now afcends, To Man’s lowpaflions, or their glorious ends.
2.	The fecond, that pathetic Enthujiafm, which, at the fame time, melts and inflames:
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wife,
To fall with dignity, with temper rife ;
Form’d by thy converfe, happily to fleer From grave to gay, from lively to fevere;
Correft with fpirit, eloquent with eafe,
Intent to reafon, or polite to pleafe.
3.	A certain elegant Formation and Ordonance of Figures:
Oh! while along the ftream of Time thy Name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame,
Say, ihall my little bark attendant fail,
Purfue the triumph, and partake the gale ?
4.	A fplendid Diftion :
When ftatefmen, heroes, kings, in duft repofe, Whofe fons Ihall bluih their fathers were thy foes,
a---—igreyTs rnyya'i rivet; eleriv ry; v^/yyofioi<;. I. Tlpcercv ¡¿h
d) xgot'nrov ro njefl rd; voycrin; HfyiTrySotov. 2. Azvrsgcv h tq crtpofrsov hQao'iotrixov iaTOgsK 3* Hoia tuv	•m'hda-ic.
4*'H yevvotix (pracri;. 5. Us^Trly Je [a,eyi9ii; xlriu, crvyxheisjj-t Tji rodo hxvlyq dnxvxi'.-y y h aitufAxn d he* (¡era ¡rotSsen;.
1 2114 ESSAY ON MAN. Ep. IV Teach me, like thee, in various nature wife,
To fall with dignity, with temper rife;
Form’d by thy converfe, happily to fleer From grave to gay, from lively to fevere ;	380
Corre<A with fpirit, eloquent with eafe,
Intent to reafon, or polite to pleafe.
Oh ! while along the ftream of Time thy Name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;
Say, ill all my little bark attendant fail, 385 Purfue the triumph, and partake the gale ?
When ftatefmen, heroes, kings, in duft repofe, Whofe fons fhall blufh their fathers were thy foes, Shall then this verfe to future age pretend Thou wert myfguide, philofopher, and friend? 390 That, urg’d by thee, I turn’d the tuneful art From founds to things, from fancy to the hearts
NOTES.
Shall then this verfe to future age pretend Thou wert my guide, philofopher, and friend ? That, urg’d by thee, 1 turn’d the tuneful art From founds to things, from fancy to the heart; For Wit’s falfe mirror held up Nature’s light; q. And, fifthly, which includes in itfelf all the reft, a Weight and i ignity in the Compofition :
Shew d erring Pride, whatever is, is right ;
I hat Reason, P»ssjont, anfwer one great Asm ; 1 hat true Self-love and Social are the Same j 1 hat Virtue only makes our Bliss below ;
And all our Knowledge is, Ou k selves to know.
7Ep. IV.
For Wit’s falfe mirror held up Nature’s light; Shew’d erring Pride, whatever is, is right ; That Reason,Passion, anfweronegreataim;39<; That true Self-love and Social are the fame ; That Virtue only makes our Blifs below;
And all our Knowledge is, ourselves to know.
variations.
Ver. 397. That Virtue only, f2V.] In the MS. thus, That juft to find a God is all we can,
And all the ftudy of Mankind is Man.
11 $
NOTES.
VER.394. Shewed erring Pride, Whatever is, is Right;] The Poet’s addrefs to his Friend, which concludeth this Epiftle fo nobly, and endeth with a recapitulation of the general argument, affords me the following obfer-vation, with which I fhall conclude thefe remarks. There is one great beauty that ihines through the whole EJfay : The Poet, whether he fpeaks of Man as an Individual, a Member of Society, or the Subjed of Hap-pinefs, never miffeth an opportunity, white he is explaining his ftate under any of thefe capacities, to il-luftrate it in the moil artful manner by the inforcement of his grand Principle : that every thing tend-
ETH TO THE GOOD OF THE W HOLE ; from WiienCS
his fyftem receives the reciprocal adyantage of having that" grand Theorem realized by fads, and his fads juftified on a principle of Right or Nature.
13Univerfal Prayer.
DEO OPT. MAX.
FATHER of All! in ev’ry Age,
In ev’ry Clime ador’d,
By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord !
Thou Great Firft Caufe, leaft underitood :
Who all my Senfe confin’d To know but this, that Thou art Good,
And that myfelf am blind ;
Commentary.
Univerfal Prayer.] It may be proper to obferve, that fome paffages, in the preceding Effay, having been un-luftly fafpefted of a tendency towards Fate and Natu-ralifm, the Author compofed this Prayer, asthe fum o all, to ihew that this fyftem was founded in free-will, and terminated in piety: That the firft Caufe was as well the Lord and Governor of the Univerfe, as th Creator of it; and that, by fubmiflion to his wdi (the great principle inforced throughout the Effay) was¡no meant the fuifering ourfelves to be carried along; by a blind determination; but the refting in a religious ac-£20 UNIVERSAL PRAYER,
Yet gave me, in this dark Eftate,
To fee the Good from III;
And binding Nature fail in Fate,
Left free the human Will,
W hat Confidence dilates to be done. Or warns me not to do,
This, teach me more than hell to fhun* Tnat, more than heav’n purfue.
hat BleiHngs thy free Bounty gives. Let me not caft awayj For God is paid when Man receives;
V enjoy is to obey.
Yet not to Earth’s comraded Span Thy Goodnefs let me bound,
Or think Thee Lord alone of Man, When thoufand Worlds are round :
Let not this weak, unknowing hand Prefume thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land,
On each I judge thy Foe.
Ity	fdl °f ^-and
’	ves the prefixed to his Paraplmmss—sas
UNIVERSAL PRAYER.
If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to ftay;
If I am wrong, oh teach my heart To find that better way.
Save me alike from fooUfh Pride,
Or impious Difcontent,
At aught thy Wifdom has deny’d,
Or aught thy Goodnefs lent.
Teach me to feel another’s Woe,
To hide the Fault I fee j
That Mercy I to others ihow,
That Mercy ihow to me.
Mean tho’ I am, not wholly fo,
Since quick’ned by thy breath.
Qh lead me wlierefoe’er I go,
Thro’ this day’s Life or Death.
notes.
If I am right, thy grace impart,—
If I am wrong, Oh teach my heart\
Astixeimparting grace,on theChriftian fyftem,isaftrpnger exertion of the divine power, than the natural rllunnna-to of the heart, one would «pea that Ihould change places; more aid being required to ««ore men to the right, than to keep them in it. But as t was the Poet’s purpofe to iniinuate, that Revelati was the right, nothing could better exprefs his purpofe, £han the making the right fecured by the guards o g) a+e.

12 2
UNIVERSAL PRAYER
This day, be Bread and Peace my Lot: All elfe beneath the Sun,
Thou know’ll if bell bellow’d or not
And let Thy Will be done. ’ ./
To Thee, whole Temple is all Space, Whole Altar, Earth, Sea, Skies!
Une Chorus let all Being rails;
All Nature’s Incenfe rife!C 123 ]
The DYING CHRISTIAN
TO HIS SOUL
I.
XT1 T A L fpark of heav’nly flame,
* Quit, oh quit this mortal frame : iVembling, hoping, ling’ring, flyings Oh the pain, the blifs of dying !
Ceafe, fond Nature, ceafe thy ftrife,
And let me languiih into life.
II.
Hark! they whifper; Angels fay, Sifler Spirit, come away.
What is this abforbs me quite ? Steals my fenfes, ihuts my fight, Drowns my ipirits, draws my breath ? Tell me, my Soul, can this be Death?
b This Ode was written in imitation of the famoi net of Hadrian to his departing foul; but as much to his original, in fenfe and lublinuty, as the C
Religion is to the Pagan,s