Yet not to Earth's contracted Span,

Thy Goodness let me bound, Or think Thee Lord alone of Man,

When thousand Worlds are round:

Let not this weak, unknowing hand

Presume thy bolts to throw, And deal damnation round the land,

On each I judge thy Foe.

If I am right, thy grace impart,

Still in the right to stay ;
If am wrong, oh teach my heart

To find that better way.

NOTES

if I am right, thy grace impart,

If I am wrong, O teach my heart] As the imparting grace on store men to the right than the christian system is a to keep them in it. But as stronger exertion of the di- it was the poet's purpose to vine power, than the na- infinuate that Revelation tural illumination of the was the right, nothing could heart, one would expect that better express his purpose the request should have been than the making the right expressed reversely; more secured by the guards of aid being required to re, grace.

Save me alike from foolish Pride,

Or impious Discontent,
At ought thy Wisdom has deny’d.

Or ought thy Goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's Woe,

To hide the Fault I fee; That Mercy I to others show,

That Mercy show to me.

Mean tho' I am, not wholly so

Since quick’ned by thy Breath ; Oh lead me wherefoe'er I go,

* Thro' this day's Life or Death.

This day, be Bread and Peace my Lot:

All elfe beneath the Sun, Thou know'ff if best bestow'd or not,

And let Thy Will be done.

To thee, whose Temple is all Space,

Whose Altar, Earth, Sea, Skies ! One Chorus let all Being raise !

All Nature's Incense rise !

Eft brevitate opus, ut currat sententia, neu se
Impediat verbis lassis onerantibus aures :
Et sermone opus est modo tristi, fæpe jocoso,
Defendente vicem modo Rhetoris atque Poetæ,
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque
Extenuantis eas consulto.

Hor.

MORAL ESSAY S.

E PI S T L E I.

TO

Sir Richard Temple, Lord Cobham.

A R G U M E N T. Of the Knowledge and Characters of MEN. THAT it is not sufficient for this knowledge to con

sider Man in the Abstract: Books will not serve the purpose, nor yet our own Experience singly, x 1. General maxims, unless they be formed upon both, will be but notional, ý 10. Some Peculiarity in every man, characteristic to himself, yet varying from himself, x 15. Difficulties arising from our own Pasions, Fancies, Faculties, &c. Ý 31. The Mortness of Life, to observe in, and the uncertainty of the Principles of action in men, to observe by, $ 37, &c. Our own Principle of action often hid from ourselves, x 41. Some few Characters plain, but in general confounded, disembled, or inconsistent, * 51. The same man utterly different in different places and seasons, *71. Unimaginable weaknesses