20 Of man, what see we but his station here, 30 II. Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou Why form'd so weak, so little and so blind? [find, First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less? Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade? Or ask of yonder argent fields above, Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove. Of systems possible, if 'tis confess'd, That wisdom infinite must form the best, Where all must fai! or not coherent be, And all that rises, rise in due degree; Then, in the scale of reasoning life, 'tis plain, There must be somewhere, such a rank as man: 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 single can its end produce; Yet serve to second too some other use: 40 50 So man who here seems principal alone, 60 When the proud steed shall knowwhyman restrains 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 dulness comprehend His actions', passions', being's use and end; Why doing, suffering, check'd, impell'd; and why This hour a slave, the next a deity. Then say not man's imperfect, Heaven in fault: Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought: His knowledge measured to his state and place, His time a moment, and a point his space. If to be perfect in a certain sphere, What matter, soon or late, or here or there? As who began a thousand years ago. 70 80 III. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescribed, their present state; From brutes what men, from men what spirits know' Or who could suffer being here below? The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food, And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood. Oh blindness to the future! kindly given, That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heaven; Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, 90 Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar And now a bubble burst, and now a world. Wait the great teacher, Death; and God adore. But gives that hope to be thy blessing now. Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor❜d mind Yet simple nature to his hope has given, He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire; IV. Go wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense, Re-judge his justice, be the god of God. In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. 110 120 Of order, sins against the Eternal Cause 130 V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine, Earth for whose use? Pride answers, ''Tis for mine: For me kind nature wakes her genial power; 140 But errs not nature from this gracious end, From burning suns when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? 'No,' 'tis replied, 'the first Almighty Cause Acts not by partial, but by general laws;' The exceptions few; some change since all began; And what created perfect ?-Why then man? If the great end be human happiness, Then nature deviates; and can man do less? 150 Of showers and sun-shine, as of man's desires? If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's design, Who knows, but he whose hand the lightning forms, Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the storms, Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar's mind, Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind? 160 From pride, from pride, our very reasoning springs; Account for moral as for natural things: Why charge we Heaven in those, in these acquit ? In both, to reason right, is to submit. Better for us, perhaps, it might appear, Were there all harmony, all virtue here; 170 The general order since the whole began, VI. What would this man? Now upward will he soar Is Heaven unkind to man, and man alone? Shall he alone, whom rational we call, Be pleased with nothing, if not bless'd with all? The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find) Is not to act or think beyond mankind; No powers of body or of soul to share, But what his nature and his state can bear. Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason, man is not a fly. Say what the use, were finer optics given, To inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven? 180 190 Or quick effluvia darting through the brain, Die of a rose in aromatic pain? 200 If Nature thunder'd in his opening ears, VII. Far as creation's ample range extends, |