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As it is neceffary for Order, and the peace and svellfare of Society, that external goods should be unequal, Happiness is not made to confift in these, ver. 49.

But notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of Happiness among Mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two Paffions of Hope and Fear, ver. 67: What the Happiness of Individuals is, as far as is confiftent with the conftitution of this world; and that the good man has here the Advantage, ver. 77. The error of imputing to Virtue what are only the

calamities of Nature, or of Fortune, ver. 93. The folly of expecting that God fhould alter his general Laws in favour of particulars, That we are not judges who are good; but that, who

ver. 121.

ever they are, they must be happiest, ver. 133, &c. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconfiftent with or deftructive of Virtue, ver. 169. That even thefe can make no Man happy without Virtue:

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With pictures of human Infelicity in Men poffeft of

them all, ver. 277, &c. That Virtue only conflitutes a Happiness, whose ob

ject is univerfal, and whose prospect eternal,

ver. 329, &c. That the perfection of Virtue and Happiness confifts in a conformity to the ORDER of PROVIDENCE here, and a Refignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 327, &c.

A N

ESSAY on MAN:

A

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 supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man; A mighty maze! but not without a plan;

NOTES

VER. 1. Awake, my ST. JOHN !] The opening of this poem, in fifteen lines, is taken up in giving an account of the Subject; which, agreeable to the title, is an ESSAY on MAN, or a Philofophical Enquiry into his Nature and End, his Paffions and Pursuits.

The Exordium relates to the whole work, of which the Effay on Man was only the first book. The 6th, 7th, and 8th lines allude to the fubject of this Essay, viz. the general Order and Defign of Providence; the Conftitution of the human Mind; the origin, use, and end of the

A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promifcuous fhoot; Or Garden, tempting with forbidden Fruit.

NOTES.

Paffions and Affection, both selfish and focial; and the wrong pursuits of Power, Pleasure, and Hapiness. The 10th, 11th, 12th, &c. have relation to the subjects of the books intended to follow, viz. the Characters and Capacities of Men, and the Limits of Science, which once tranfgreffed, ignorance begins, and error follows. The 13th and 24th, to the Knowledge of Mankind, and the various Manners of the age. Next, in line 16, he tells us with what design he wrote, viz.

To vindicate the ways of God to Man.

The Men he writes against, he frequently informs us, are fuch as weigh their opinion against Providence (ver. 114.) fuch as cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjuft (ver. 118.) or fuch as fall into the notion, that Vice and Virtue there is none at all, (Ep. ii. ver. 212.) This occafions the poet to divide his vindication of the ways of God into two parts. In the first of which he gives direct answers to those objections which libertine Men, on a view of the disorders arifing from the perverfity of the human will, have intended against Providence. And in the fecond, he obviates all those objections, by a true delineation of human Nature; or a general, but exact, map of Man. The first epiftle is employed in the management of the first part of this difpute and the three following in the difcuffion of the fecond! So that this whole book constitutes a complete Essay on Man, written for the best purpose, to vindicate the ways of God.

VER. 7, 8. A Wild,-or Garden,] The Wild relates to the human paffions, productive (as he explains in the fecond epistle) 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 fruitless enquiries.

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