E P I S T L E I.

A

WAKE, my St. John! leave all meaner things

To low ambition, and the pride of Kings.
Let us (since Life can little more supply
Than just to look about us, and to die)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man ;

5
A mighty maze! but not without a plan ;
A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot;
Or Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.
Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield !
The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore
Of all who blindly creep, or fightless soar ;
Eye Nature's walks, fhoot Folly as it flies,
And catch the Manners living as they rise :

IO

A

The exordium of this poem relates to the whole work, of which the Elay on Man was only the first book. The 6tb, 7th, and gih lines allude to the subjects of this Elay, viz. the general Order and Design of Providence; the Constitution of the human Mind ; the origin, use, and end of the Passions and Affections, both selfish and social; and the wrong pursuits of Power, Pleasure, and Happiness. The roth, 19th, 12th, etc. 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 transgressed, ignorance begins, and error follows. The 1 zih and 14th, to the Knowlege of Mankind, and the various Manners of the age. Vol. III.

C

20

Laugh where we must, be candid where we can ; 15 But vindicate the ways of God to Man.

I. Say first, of God above, or Man below, What can we reason, but from what we know ! Of Man, what fee we but his station here, From which to reason, or to which refer? Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho’ the God be known, "Tis ours to trace him only in our own. He, who thro' vast immensity can pierce, See worlds on worlds compose one universe, Observe how fyftem into system runs,

25 What other planets circle other suns, What vary'd Being peoples ev'ry star, May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are. But of this frame the bearings and the ties, The trong connections, nice dependencies, 30 Gradations just, has thy pervading soul -Look'd thro’? or can a part contain the whole ?

Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee? II. Presumptuous Man ! the reason wouldīt thou find,

35 Why form’d so weak, fo little, and so blind ? First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, Why form’d no weaker, blinder, and no less ?

VER.

2. 21. Thro' worlds unnumber'd, etc.] Hunc cognoscimus folummodo per Proprietates suas et Attributa, et per sapien tiflimas et optimas rerum structuras et causas finales, Newtoni Princ. Scbol. gen. sub fin.

Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made
Taller and stronger than the weeds they shade ? 49
Or ask of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove’s Satellites are less than Jove ?

Of Systems poslible, if 'tis confeft
That Wisdom infinite must form the best,
Where all must full or not coherent be,

45
And all that rises, rise in due degree;
Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain,
There must bc, somewhere, such a rank as Man:
And all the question (wrangle c'er so long)
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong? 50

Respecting Man, whatever wrong we call, May, must be right, as relative to all. In human works, tho’ labour'd on with pain, A thoufand movements scarce one purpose gain; In God's, one single can its end produce; 55 Yet serves to second tco some other use. So Man, who here fecms principal alone, Perhaps acts second to fome sphere unknown, Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal ; 'Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole.

When the proud iteed shall know why man restrains His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains; When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod, Is now a victim, and now Ægypt's God:

60

VARIATIONS. In the former Editions ver. 64.

Now wears a garland an Ægyptian God.

Then shall Man's pride and dulness coniprehend 65
His actions', passions', being's, use and end;
Why doing, fuff 'ring, check’d, impelld ; and why
This hour a slave, the next a deity.

Then fay not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault;
Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought: 70
His knowledge measur'd to his state and place ;
His time a moment, and a point his space.
If to be perfect in a certain sphere,
What matter, soon or late, or here, or there?
The blest to-day is as completely so,

75 As who began a thousand years ago. III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of

Fate, All but the page prescrib'd, their present state : From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer Being here below?

80 The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play ? Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food, And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. Oh blindness to the future ! kindly giv’n, 85 That each my fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n :

VARIATIONS.
After ver. 68. the following lines in the first Edition.

If to be perfect in a certain sphere,
What matter foon or late, or here or there?
The bleft to-day is as completely so
As who began ten thousand years ago,

Who fees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or fyftems into ruin hurl'd.
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

90 Hope humbly then ; with trembling pinions foar; Wait the

great

teacher Death ; and God adore. What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, But gives that Hope to be thy blessing now. Hope springs eternal in the human breast :

95 Man never Is, but always To be blest : The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come. Lo, the

poor

Indian ! whose untutor'd inind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; 100 His foul, proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk, or milky way; Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n, Behind the cloud-topt-hill, an humbler heav'n ; Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, 105 Some happier island in the watry waste,

VARIATION S.

After ver 88. in the MS.

No great, no little ; 'tis as much decreed

That Virgil's Gnat should die as Cæsar bleed,
In the first Folio and Quarto,

What bliss above he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy bliss below.