The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the Whole must fall. 250
Let Earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and Suns run lawless thro' the sky;
Let ruling Angels from their spheres be hurld,
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!

IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread,
Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the head ? 260

NOTES. verb alludes to the motion of tonic principle for the foun. the planetary bodies of each dation of his Essay had af. system ; and to the figures forded him ; and that is the described by that motion. expressing himself (as here)

VER. 251. Let Earth un in Platonic notions ; which, balanc'd ) i.e. Being no luckily for his purpose, are longer kept within it's orbit highly poetical, at the same by the different directions time that they add a grace of it's progressive and at to the uniformity of his reatractive motions ; which, foning. like equal weights in a ba VER. 259. What if the lance, keep it in an equi- foot, &c.) This fine illulibre.

stration in defence of the VER. 253. Let ruling System of Nature, is taken Angels, &c.] The poet, from St Paul, who employthroughout this poem, with ed it to defend the System of great art uses an advantage, Grace. which his employing a Pla.

What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd
To serve mere engines to the ruling Mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame:
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains, 265
The great directing Mind of All ordains.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whofe body Nature is, and God the soul ;

NOTES.

Ver. 265. Just as ab- , writing on the same subject, furd, &c.] See the Prosecu- namely the omnipresence of tion and application of this God in his Providence, and in Ep. iv. P.

in his Substance. In him we VER. 266. The great di- live, and move, and have recting Mind, &c.] Vene- our being ; i. e. we are parts ramur autem & colimus ob of him, his offspring, as dominium. Deus enim fine the Greek poet, a pantheist dominio, providentia, & cau- quoted by the Apostle, obfis finalibus, nihil aliud eft ferves : And the reason is, quam FATUM & NATURA. because a religious theist, Newtoni Princip. Schol. ge. and an impious pantheist, ner. fub finem.

both profess to believe the Ver. 268. Whofe body omnipresence of God. But Nature is, &C) A certain would Spinoza, as Mr Pope examiner remarks, on this does, call God the great di. line, that “ A Spinozist refting Mind of all, who

would express himself in hath intentionally created a « this Manner.” I believe perfect Universe ? Or would he would, and so, we know, a Spinozist have told us, would St Paul too, when

The workman from the work diftin&t was known,

That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same; Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame; 270

NOTES. a line that overturns all Spi- of St Paul ; but, if that nozism from it's very foun- will not satisfy the men he dations.

writes against, the philofo-
But this sublime defcrip.phy likewise of Sir Isaac
tion of the Godhead con Newton.
tains not only the divinity The poet says,

All are but parts of one fupendous whole,
W bole body Nature is, and God the foul,
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame,
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and bloloms in the trees,
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,

Spreads undivided, operates unspent,
The Philosopher :- In ipfo deftituitur-Omnia regit &
continentur & moventur uni- omnia cognoscit.-Cum una-
verfa, fed abfque mutua pas quæque Spatii particula fit
fione. Deus nihil patitur ex semper, & unumquodque Duo
corporum motibus ; illa nul- rationis indivisibile momen-
lam fentiunt resistentiam ex tum, ubique, certe rerum om.
omnipræfentia Dei.- Carpe- nium. Fabricator ac Dominus
re omni & figura corporea I non erit nunquam, nusquam.
Mr Pope :

Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfett, 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 alla

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,

NOTES. Sir Isaac Newton :--- Annonoverthrow all he has been ex phenomenis conftat effe advancing throughout the entem incorporeum, viven- body of it: For Spinozism tem, intelligentem, omnipre- is the destruction of an UniJentem, qui in spatio infinito, verse, where every thing

tanquam fenforio suo, res ip-tends, by a foreseen contrifas intime cernat, penitusque vance in all it's parts, to the perspiciat, totafque intra fe perfe&tion of the whole. But præfens præfentes compleeta- allow him to employ the $ur.

passage in the sense of St But now admitting, for Paul, That we and all creaargument's fake, there was tures live, and move, and an ambiguity in these ex. have our being in God; and pressions, so great, as that then it will be seen to be a Spinozist might employ the most logical support of them to express his own par- all that had preceded. For ticular principles ; and such the poet having, as we say, a thing might well be, be laboured through his epistle cause the Spinozists, in or to prove, that every thing der to hide the impiety of in the Universe tends, by a their principle, are used to foreseen contrivance, and a express the Omnipresence of present direction of all it's God in terms that any reli parts, to the perfection of gious Theift might employ. the whole; it might be obIn this case, I say, how are jefted, that such a dispofiwe to judge of the poet's tion of things implying in meaning ? Surely by the God a painful, operose, and whole tenor of his argu- inconceivable extent of Proment. Now take the words vidence, it could not be supin the sense of the Spino- posed that such care extendzists, and he is made, in the ed to all, but was confined conclusion of his epistle, to ! to the inore noble parts of

Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent ;
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 small ;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. 280

X. Cease then, nor ORDER Imperfection name:
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit.-In this, or any other sphere, 285
Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear :
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

VARIATIONS.
After y 282. in the MS.

Reason, to think of God when she pretends,
Begins a Censor, an Adorer ends.

NOTES. the creation. This gross sort of Substance, and in econception of the First Cause very instant of Being. the poet exposes, by shew Ver. 278. As the rapt ing that God is equally and Seraph, &c.] Alluding to intimately present to every the name Seraphim, signifyparticle of Matter, to every | ing burners.