The gen❜ral ORDER Since the whole began, Is kept in nature, and is kept in man. 175 VI. What would this man? now upward will he soar, And little less than angel, would be more; Now looking downward, just as griev'd appears To want the strength of bulls the fur of bears. Made for his use all creatures if he call, Say what their use, had he the powers of all? Nature to these, without profusion, kind, The proper organs, proper powers assign'd : Each seeming want compensated of course, Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force; All in exact proportion to the state; Nothing to add, and nothing to abate. 180 Each beast, each insect, happy in its own : 185 Be pleas'd with nothing, if not blest with all? The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find) Is not to act or think beyond mankind; 190 No pow'rs 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, 195 T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n? Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, To smart and agonize at every pore? Or quick effluvia darting through the brain, If Nature thunder'd in his opening ears, And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres, 200 How would he wish that heav'n had left him still 205 The whisp❜ring zephyr and the purling rill? VII. Far as creation's ample range extends, 210 215 To that which warbles through the vernal wood? The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line: What thin partitions sense from thought divide? B 220 225 And middle natures, how they long to join, VIII. See thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth, 230 235 240 Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd: From nature's chain, whatever link you strike, 245 Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. And, if each system in gradation roll, 250 Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread, Or hand to toil, aspir'd to be the head? 255 260 Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains, 265 That, chang'd through all, and yet in all the same; Great in the earth, as in th' etherial frame; 270 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees, Lives through all life, extends through all extent, Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 275 As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, Cease, then, nor ORDER Imperfection name: 280 Know thy own point-This kind, this due degree Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear : 285 All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; 290 All discord, harmony, not understood; All partial evil, universal good: And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, |