The leaft confufion but in one, not all 250 That fyftem only, but the Whole must fall. All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for thee? IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread, Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the head? NOTES. verb alludes to the motion of the planetary bodies of each fyftem; and to the figures described by that motion. VER. 251. Let Earth unbalanc'd i. e. Being no longer kept within it's orbit by the different directions of it's progreffive and attractive motions; which, like equal weights in a balance, keep it in an equi libre. VER. 253. Let ruling Angels, &c.] The poet, throughout this poem, with great art uses an advantage, which his employing a Pla 260 tonic principle for the foundation of his Effay had afforded him; and that is the expreffing himself (as here) in Platonic notions; which, luckily for his purpose, are highly poetical, at the fame time that they add a grace to the uniformity of his reafoning. VER. 259. What if the foot, &c.] This fine illuftration in defence of the Syftem of Nature, is taken from St Paul, who employed it to defend the Syftem of Grace. What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd All are but parts of one ftupendous whole, NOTES. VER. 265. Just as abfurd, &c.] See the Profecution and application of this in Ep. iv. P. VER. 266. The great directing MIND, &c.] Veneramur autem & colimus ob dominium. Deus enim fine dominio, providentia, & caufis finalibus, nihil aliud eft quam FATUM & NATURA. Newtoni Princip. Schol. gener fub finem. VER. 268. Whofe body Nature is, &c] A certain examiner remarks, on this line, that "A Spinozift "would exprefs himself in "this Manner." I believe he would, and fo, we know, would St Paul too, when 265 writing on the fame fubject, The workman from the work diftin&t was known, That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame; Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame; NOTES. 270 a line that overturns all Spi- | of St Paul; but, if that nozism from it's very foun- will not fatisfy the men he dations. writes againft, the philofo But this fublime defcrip.phy likewife of Sir Ifaac tion of the Godhead con- Newton. tains not only the divinity | The poet says, All are but parts of one ftupendous whole, The Philofopher :-In ipfo | deftituitur-Omnia regit & Mr Pope : omnia cognofcit.-Cum unaquæque Spatii particula_fit femper, & unumquodque Durationis indivifibile momentum, ubique, certe rerum omnium Fabricator ac Dominus non erit nunquam, nusquam. Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part, Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees, NOTES. Sir Ifaac Newton:-Annon ex phænomenis conftat effe entem incorporeum, viventem, intelligentem, omnipræfentem, qui in fpatio infinito, tanquam fenforio fuo, res ipfas intime cernat, penitufque perfpiciat, totafque intra fe præfens præfentes completa tur. But now admitting, for argument's fake, there was an ambiguity in these expreffions, fo great, as that a Spinozift might employ them to exprefs his own particular principles; and fuch a thing might well be, because the Spinozists, in order to hide the impiety of their principle, are used to exprefs the Omniprefence of God in terms that any reli gious Theift might employ. In this cafe, I fay, how are we to judge of the poet's meaning? Surely by the whole tenor of his argument. Now take the words in the fense of the Spinozists, and he is made, in the conclusion of his epistle, to overthrow all he has been advancing throughout the body of it: For Spinozism is the deftruction of an Universe, where every thing tends, by a foreseen contrivance in all it's parts, to the perfection of the whole. But allow him to employ the paffage in the fenfe of St Paul, That we and all creatures live, and move, and have our being in God; and then it will be feen to be the most logical support of all that had preceded. For the poet having, as we say, laboured through his epistle to prove, that every thing in the Universe tends, by a foreseen contrivance, and a prefent direction of all it's parts, to the perfection of the whole; it might be objected, that such a difpofition of things implying in God a painful, operofe, and inconceivable extent of Providence, it could not be fuppofed that fuch care extended to all, but was confined to the more noble parts of Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unfpent ; Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part, 275 As full, as perfect, in vile Man that mourns, Secure to be as bleft as thou canst bear : VARIATIONS. After 282. in the MS. Reafon, to think of God when she pretends, NOTES. 285 the creation. This grofs | fort of Subftance, and in e conception of the First Cause the poet exposes, by fhewing that God is equally and intimately present to every particle of Matter, to every very inftant of Being. VER. 278. As the rapt Seraph, &c.] Alluding to the name Seraphim, fignifying burners. |