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The leaft confufion but in one, not all

250

That fyftem only, but the Whole must fall.
Let Earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and Suns run lawless thro' the sky;
Let ruling Angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on Being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod, 255
And Nature trembles to the throne of God.

All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm! oh Madness! Pride! Impiety!

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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
To ferve mere engines to the ruling Mind?
Juft as abfurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame:
Juft as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND of ALL ordains.,

All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the foul;

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

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265

writing on the fame fubject,
namely the omniprefence of
God in his Providence, and
in his Substance. In him we
live, and move, and have
our being; i. e. we are parts
of him, his offspring, as
the Greek poet, a pantheist
quoted by the Apostle, ob-
ferves: And the reafon is,
because a religious theift,
and an impious pantheist,
both profess to believe the
omniprefence of God. But
would Spinoza, as Mr Pope
does, call God the great di
recting Mind of all, who
hath intentionally created a
perfect Universe? Or would
a Spinozist have told us,

The workman from the work diftin&t was known,

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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,
Whofe body Nature is, and God the foul,
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame,
Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame,
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent.

The Philofopher :-In ipfo | deftituitur-Omnia regit &
continentur & moventur uni-
verfa, fed abfque mutua paf-
fione. Deus nihil patitur ex
corporum motibus; illa nul-
lam fentiunt refiftentiam ex
omnipræfentia Dei.-Corpo-
re omni & figura corporea

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,
As full, as perfect, in a hair, as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile Man that mourns,
As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns:
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

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 a hair as heart;

As full, as perfect, in vile Man that mourns,
As the rapt Seraph that adores and burns:
To him no high, no low, no great, no fmall;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. 280
X. Cease then, nor ORDER Imperfection name:
Our proper blifs depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n beftows on thee.
Submit.In this, or any other sphere,

Secure to be as bleft as thou canst bear :
Safe in the hand of one difpofing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

VARIATIONS.

After 282. in the MS.

Reafon, to think of God when she pretends,
Begins a Cenfor, an Adorer ends.

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.

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