VI. The unreasonableness of his complaints againfi 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 miferable, V. 173. &c.
VII. That throughout the whole vifible world, an univerfal order and gradation in the fenfual and mental faculties is obferved, which caufes a fubordination of creature to creature, and of all creatures to Man. The gradations of fenfe, inftinct, thought, reflection, reafon; that Reafon alone countervails all the other faculties: . 207.
VIII. How much farther this order and fubordination of living creatures may extend, above and below us; were any part of which broken, not that part only, but the whole connected creation must be deftroyed, . 233. V.
IX. The extravagance, madness, and pride of fuch a defire, V. 259.
X. The confequence of all, the abfolute fubmiffion due to Providerce, both as to our prefent and future ftate, V. 281. &c. to the end.
Perfius Satyr. III. v. 66. fqq.
Difcite o miferi, & caufas cognofcite rerum,
Quid fumus, & quidnam victuri gignimur; ordo
Quis datus; aut metæ quà mollis flexus, & unde:
quid fas optare:
patria, charifque propinquis Quantum elargiri deceat: quem te Deus effe Juffit, & humana qua parte locatus es in re,
EPISTLE I.
A 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 just to look about us, and to die)
Expatiate free o'er all this fcene of Man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan;
A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promifcuous 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 foar;
Eye Nature's walks, shoot Folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise;
Laugh where we muft, be candid where we can,
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 reafon, 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' vaft immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compofe one univerfe,
Obferve how fyftem into fyftem runs,
What oer planets circle other funs,
What vary'd Being peoples every star,
May tell, why Heav'n has made us as we are.
But of this frame the bearings, and the ties,
The strong connections, 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?
II. Prefumptuous man! the reafon wouldst thou find, 35 Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind? First, if thou canft, the harder reafon guefs, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no lefs? Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or ftronger than the weeds they shade? Or ask of yonder argent fields above, Why Jove's Satellites are less than JOVE?
Of Systems poffible, if 'tis confeft,
That Wifdom infinite muft form the beft,
Where all muft full, or not coherent, be,
And all that rises, rife in due degree;
Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain,
There must be, fomewhere, fuch a rank as Man;
And all the question (wrangle e'er fo long)
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?
Respecting man, whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to all.
In human works, though labour'd on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;
In God's, one fingle can its end produce;
Yet ferves to fecond too fome other use.
So Man, who here feems principal alone,
Perhaps acts fecond to fome fphere unknown,
Touches fome wheel, or verges to fome goal;
'Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole.
When the proud steed shall know, why Man reftrains
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:
Then shall Man's pride and dulnefs comprehend
His actions', paffions', being's, use and end;
Why doing, fuff'ring, check'd, impell'd; 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:
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 fphere,
What matter, foon or late, or here or there?
The bleft to-day is as completely fo,
As who began a thousand years ago.
III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prefcrib'd, their present state:→
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could fuffer Being here below?
The lamb, thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy Reafon, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the laft, 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,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n:
Who fees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a fparrow fall,
Atoms or fyftems into ruin hurl'd,
And now a bubble burft, and now a world.
Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar;
Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What future blifs, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy ble ling now.
Hope fprings eternal in the human breast:
Man never Is, but always To be, bleft:
The foul, uneafy and confin'd from home,
Refts and expatiates in a life to come.
Lo, the poor Indian! whofe untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His foul, proud Science never taught to ftray
Far as the folar walk, or milky way;
Yet fimple 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,
Some happier island in the watry wafte,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Chriftians thirft for gold.
To Be, contents his natural defire,
He asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
IV. Go, wifer thou! and, in the fcale of fense, Weigh thy Opinion against Providence ;
Say, here he gives too little, there too much :
Destroy 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:
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 rush into the skies.
Pride ftill is aiming at the bleft abodes,
Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.
Afpiring to be Gods, if Angels fell;
Afpiring to be Angels, Men rebel :
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