10. 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, Heaven bestows on thee. Submit-In this or any other sphere, Secure to be as bless'd as thou canst bear; All nature is but art unknown to thee; All chance direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good: And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, AN ESSAY ON MAN. EPISTLE II. OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HIMSELF AS AN INDIVIDUAL. ARGUMENT. 1. THE business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His middle nature; his powers and frailties. The limits of his capacity. 2. The two principles of man, self-love and reason, both necessary. Self-love the stronger, and why. Their end the same. 3. The passions, and their use. The predominant passion, and its force. Its necessity, in directing men to different purposes. Its providential use, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue. Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate and evident: what is the office of reason. 5. How odious vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it. 6. That, however, the ends of Providence and general good are answered in our passions and imperfections. How usefully these are distributed to all orders of men: how useful they are to society; and to the individuals, in every state, and every age of life. 1. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides ; Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; Superior beings, when of late they saw Could He, whose rules the rapid comet bind, Describe or fix one movement of his mind? Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend, Explain his own beginning or his end? Alas! what wonder! man's superior part Uncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to art: But when his own great work is but begun, What reason weaves by passion is undone. Trace science then, with modesty thy guide: First strip off all her equipage of pride; Deduct what is but vanity or dress, Or learning's luxury, or idleness; Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain, Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain; Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts Of all our vices have created arts; Then see how little the remaining sum, Which serv'd the past, and must the times to come! Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; Or, meteorlike, flame lawless through the void, Destroying others, by himself destroy'd. Most strength the moving principle requires ; Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires. Sedate and quiet the comparing lies, Form'd but to check, deliberate, and advise. Reason still use, to reason still attend. Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains. Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, Our greatest evil or our greatest good. 3. Modes of self-love the passions we may call ; 'Tis real good or seeming moves them all: |