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AN ESSAY ON

ON MAN.

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EPISTLE I

WAKE, my St. JOHN leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of Kings

Let us (fince Life can little more fupply
Than juft to look about us and to die)
Expatiate free o'er all this fcene of Man;

A mighty maze! but not without a plan;

A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promifcuous fhoot,
Or Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.
Together let us beat this ample field,

Try what the open, what the covert yield;
The latent tracts, the giddy heights explore
Of all who blindly creep, or fightlefs foar;
Eye Nature's walks, fhoot Folly as it flies,
C And catch the Manners living as they rife;
Laugh where we muft, be candid where we can;
And vindicate the ways of God to Man.

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I. Say firft, of God above, or Man below,
What can we reafon, but from what we know?
Of Man what fee we, but his station here,
From which to reason, or to which refer?
Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known,
"Tis ours to trace him only in our own.
He, who thro' vaft immenfity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compofe one univerfe,
Obferve how fyftem into fyftem runs,

I What other planets circle other funs,

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ESSAY ON MAN.

EP. I.

What vary'd Being peoples ev'ry star,
May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are.
But of this frame, the bearings, and the ties,
The ftrong connections, nice dependencies,
Gradations juft, has thy pervading foul
Look'd thro? or can a part contain the whole?
Is the great chain, that draws all to agree,
And drawn fupports, upheld by God, or thee?

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II. Prefumptuous Man! the reason woulft thou find,
Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind?
Firft, if thou canft, the harder reafon guefs,
Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no lefs.
Afk of thy mother Earth, why oaks are made
Taller or ftronger than the weeds they shade?
Or afk of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove's Satellites are lefs than Jove?

Of Syftems poffible, if 'tis confeft
That Wifdom infinite muft form the best,

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Where all muft full or not coherent be,

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And all that rifes, rife in due degree;

Then, in the fcale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain,

There must be, fomewhere, such a rank as Man:

And all the queftion (wrangle e'er fo long)

Is only this, If God has plac'd him wrong?
Refpecting Man, whatever wrong we call,

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May, must be right, as relative to all.

In human works, though labour'd on with pain,

A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;

In God's, one fingle can its end produce;

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Yet ferves to fecond too fome other ufe.

So Man, who here feems principal alone

Perhaps acts fecond to fome fpere unknown,

Touches fome wheel, or verges to fome gaol; 'Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole.

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When the proud fteed fhall know why man reftrains His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains; When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod, Is now a victim, and now Egypt's God: Then shall Man's pride and dulnefs comprehend His actions', paffions', being's, use and end;

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Why doing, fuff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why
This hour a flave, the next a deity.

Then fay not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault;
Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge meafur'd to his state and place;
His time a moment, and a point his space.
If to be perfect in a certain fphere,

What matter, foon or late, or here or there?
The bleft to-day is as completely fo,

As who began a thousand years ago.

Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prefcrib'd, their present state:

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From brutes what men, from men what fpirits know:
Or who could fuffer Being here below?

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The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reafon, would he skip and play?

Pleas'd to the laft, he crops the the flow'ry food,

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And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n,

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That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n :
Who fees with equal eye, as God of all,

A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,

Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,

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And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

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Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar;
Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What future blifs, he gives not thec to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy bleffing now.
Hope fprings eternal in the human breaft:
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The foul, uneafy and confin'd from home, t
Refts and expatiates in a life to come.

Lo, the poor Indian whofe untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His Soul, proud fcience never taught to ftray
Far as the folar walk, or milky way;
Yet fimple Nature to his hope has givin

Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n;
Some fafer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the watry wafte,

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ESSAY ON MAN.

Where flaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Chriftians thirst for gold.
To Be, contents his natural defire,

He afks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog fhall bear him company.

IV. Go, wifer thou! and, in thy feale of fenfe,
Weigh thy Opinion against Providence;
Call imperfection what thou fancy'st such,
Say, Here he gives too little, there too much;.
Deftroy all creatures for thy fport or guft,
Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust;
If Man alone engrofs not Heav'n's high care,
Alone made perfect here, immortal there :
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Re-judge his juftice, be the God of God.
In Pride, in reas'ning Pride, our error lies;
All quit their fphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride ftill is aiming at the bleft abodes,

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Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.
Afpiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,

Afpiring to be Angels, Men rebel;

And who but wishes to invert the laws

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Of ORDER, fins against th' Eternal Caufe.

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V Alk for what end the heav'nly bodies fhine,

Earth for whofe ufe? Pride anfwers," "Tis for mine.

"For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow'r,,

"Suckles each herb, and fpreads out ev'ry flow'r;
"Annual for me, the grape, the rofe renew
"The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew;
"For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings;
"For me, health gushes from a thoufand springs;
"Seas roll to waft me, funs to light me rife;
"My footstool earth, my canopy the skies."

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But errs not Nature from this gracious end,

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From burning funs when livid deaths defcend,
When earthquakes fwallow, or when tempefts sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
"No, ('tis reply'd) the firft Almighty Caufe
"Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;

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