#rab fall or not coherent be,

s rite in due degree; "aan te kcale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain, zefomewhere fuch a rank as Man: e quetion (wrangle e'er fo long) if God has plac'd him wrong? eng Min, whatever wrong we call, theht, as relative to all. aws, tho` labour'd on with pain, ments icarce one purpofe gain, *.... igle can its end produce,

trand too fome other ufe; -4ere feems principal alone,

cond to fore fphere unknown, wheel, or verges to fome goal; twe fee, and nota whole [itrains, tandsteed hal, know whyman rere, or drives him o'er the plains, Ox, why now he breaks the clod, in, and now Egypt's God; Men's pride and dulnefcomprehend mons', bein's, ule and end; ang.check'd,impell'd; andwhy Live, the next a deity.

Go, wifer thou! and in thy scale of fenfe
Weigh thy, Opinion againit Providence;
Call imperfection what thou fanciest fuch;
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 Heaven's high care,
Alone made perfect here, immortal there:
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Ke-judge his justice, be the God of God.
In Pride, in reas'ning Pride our error lies ;
All quit their fphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride is still aining at the beft abodes;
Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.
Afpiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,
Airing to be Angels, Men rebel :
And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of Order, fins against th' Eternal Caufe.
Alk for what end the heavenly bodies fhine,
Earth for whofe ue? Pride anfwers, " 'Tis for
66 mine:

"For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow'r, "Suckles each herb,and fpreads our ev'ryflow'r, "Annual for me the gape, the role, renew net Man's imperfect, Heaven in “The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; -Mia's as perfect as he ought: [fault; " For me the mine a thousand treatures brings, sele measured to his state and place," For me health gushes from a thousand springs; amorent, and a point his (pace. "Seas roll to waft me, funs to light me rife; Icreatureshidesthebook of Fate," My footitool earth, my canopy the skies." Syste pre.crib'd, their proient fate; But errs not Nature from this gracious end, what men, from men what fpirits From burning funs when livid deaths defcend, uld fuffer Being here below?[know; When earthquakes fwallow or when tempelts not d. oms to bleed to-day; n, would he skip and play?

alt, he crops the Row'ry food,

the circle mark'd by Heaven; equal eye, as God of all, yor a iparrow fall; res into rain hurl'd; Moble burit,and nowa world.[foar; y then, with trembling pinions at teacher Death, and God adore. cbits he gives not thee to know; that Hope to be thy bleifing now; g eternal in the human breaft: at always, To be bleft.

fweep

Towns to one grave, whole Nations to the deep?
"No ('tis replied), the firit Almighty Caufe

just rais'd to thed his blood." Acts not by partial but by gen'ral laws; [gin:
to the future' kindly given, "Th' exceptions few; fome change fince ali be-
"And what created perfect "Why then man?
If the great end be human. Hapinefs,
Then Nature deviates; and can Man do lefs?
As much that end a confent course requires
Of fhow rs and funfhine, as of Man's defires;
As much eternal springs and cloud'cfs kies,
As men for ever temp rate, calin, and wife.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's
Why then a Borgia or a Cataline? [defign,
Whoknowsbuthewhofehandthelightning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and whowingstheftorms,
Pours fierce Ambition in a Cæfar's mind, [kind!
Or turns young Ammon loote to fcom ge man-
¦ From pride,from pride,ourvery reas'ningprings;
Account for moral as for natʼral things;
Why charge we Heaven in thofe, in the acquit,
In both, to reafon right, is to fubmit.
Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;

, and confin'd from home, a. te, in a life to come.

or Indiën, whofe untutor'd mind in dents, or hears him in the wind; !Sence never taught to stray elar walk, or milky way;

Nature to his hope has given, dud-topthill, an humbier beaven; word in depth of woods embrac'd, er it and in the wat`ry waite; Vtionce moretheir native land behold, Moment, no Chriftians thirst for gold. 5 tents his natural defire,

Arg I's wing, no Seraph's fire; kad matted to that equal iky, Maithal dog shall bear him company.

That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never paffion difcompos'd the mind.
But all fubiifts by eic.nental ftrife;
And pailions are the elemen of Life.
The gen'ral Order, fince the whole began,
Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man.

What would this Mau? Now upward will he
And,little less than Angel,would be more: foar,
R2
Now,

Lean-The Limits of bis Capacity.-The Deduct but what is Vanity or Dress, taples of Man, Self-love and Reafon, Or Learning's Luxury, or Idlenefs; fary-Self-love the ftronger, and Or tricks to fhew the itretch of human brain, -Iter end the fame.-The Paffions, and Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;

The Predominant Pallion, and its Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrefcent parts its neceffity in directing Men to different Of all our Vices have created Arts; Papas-Its providential Ŭfe, in fixing our Then fee how little the remaining fum, Pract, and ascertaining our Virtue-Virtue Which ferv'd the paft,and must the time to comet ained in our mixed Nature; the limits Two Principles in human nature reign;

things feparate and evident: What of Reaton. How odious Vice in and tow we deceive nurselves in it. Twever, the Ends of Providence and Good are anfvered in our Paffions and das-How ujefully thefe are diftributed Orders of Men.-How useful they are to ty, and to Individuals, in every state and yage of life.

sew then thy felf, prefume not God to fcan;
per tudy of Mankind is Man.
ea this ifthmus of a middle state,
darkly wife, and rudely great;
ruch knowledge for the Sceptic fide,
much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
between; in doubt to act or rest,
at to deen himself a God or Beast;

his Mind or Body to prefer;
but to die, and reafoning but to err;
gnorance, his reason fuch,
Wer be thinks too little, or too much:
Thought and Paffion, all confus'd,
mfelf abus'd or difabus'd;
half to rife, and half to fall;

of all things, yet a prey to all: of Truth, in endless Error burl'd: Texet, and riddle of the world! Crous creature! mount where Science

Self-love to urge, and Reafon to refrain:
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call;
Each works its end, to move or govern all
And to their proper operation ftill
Afcribe all Good; to their improper, Ill.
Self-love, the fpring of motion, acts the foul;
Reafon's comparing balance rules the whole,
Man, but for that, no action could attend;
And, but for this, were active to no end;
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot:
Or, meteor-like, flame lawlefs thro' the void,
Deftroying others, by himself deftroy'd.
Moft ftrength the moving principle requires;
Active its tafk, it prompts, impels, infpires.
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies,
Form'd but to check, deliberate, and advise.
Self-love, ftill ftronger, as its objects nigh;
Reafon's at distance and in profpect lie:
That fees immediate good by prefent fenfe;
Reason, the future and the confequence.
Thicker than arguments temptations throng;
At best more watchful this, but that more ftrong.
The action of the ftronger to fufpend
Reason ftill ufe, to Reafon ftill attend.
Attention, habit and experience gains;
Each ftrengthens Reafon, and Self-love restrains.
Let fubtle schoolmen teach thefe friends to fight,
More ftudious to divide than to unite;
And Grace and Virtue, Senfe and Reason split,
With all the rafh dexterity of wit.
Wits, just like Fools, at war about a name,
Have full as oft no meaning, or the fame.
Self-love and Reafon to one end afpire;
Pain their avertion, Pleafure their defire;
But greedy that, its object would devour;
This tafle the honey, and not wound the flow'r:
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,
Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

earth, weigh air, and ftate the tides;
planets in what orbs to run,

4 line, and regulate the Sun;
th Plato to th' empyreal fphere,
good, firit perfect, and first fair;
mazy round his followers trud,
Sing fente call imitating God;
Eten priests in giddy circles run,

their heads to imitate the Sun. Eternal Wildom how to rule; Cop into thyfelf, and be a fool! er beings, when of late they faw A Man unfold all Nature's law,

dfuch wisdom in an earthly fhape, ew'da Newton as we fhew an Ape. The or fix one movement of his Mind? aid he, whofe rules the rapid comet bind, wis fires here rife, and there defcend,

own beginning or his end? what wonder! Man's fuperior part 'd may rife, and climb from art to art; when his own great work is but begun, w: Reafon weaves, by Paffion is undone.

Modes of Self-love the Paffions we may call;
'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all:
But fince not ev'ry good we can divide,
And Reafon bids us for our own provide;
Paffions, tho' felfifh, if their means be fair,
Lift under Reason, and deferve her care;
Thofe that imparted court a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take fome Virtue's name.
In lazy Apathy let Stoics boaft
Their Virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a froft;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast:
But ftrength of mind is Exercise, not Rest.
The rifing tempeft puts in act the foul;
Parts it may ravage, but preferves the whole..

Trace Science then, with Modesty thy guide; On life's vaft ocean diverfely we fail,
Reafon the card, but Paffion is the gale.
R 3

femp off all her equipage of Pride;

Nor

Nor God alone in the still calm we find,
He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind.
Paltions, like elements, tho' born to fight,
Yet mix'd and foften'd in his work unite:
Thele 'tis enough to temper and employ;
But what compofes Man, can Man deftroy?
Suffice that Realon keep to Nature's road,
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.
Love, Hope,and Joy, fair Pleafure's imiling train;|
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain:
Thefe mix'dwithart, and to due bouds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind;
The lights and fhades, whole well-accorded ftrife
Gives all the strength and colour of our life.

Pleafures are ever in our hands and eyes;
And, when in act they ceafe, in profpect rife:
Prefent to grafp, and future ftill to find,
The whole employ of body and of mind.
All fpread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On different fenfes din rent objects (trike:
Hence diff'rent Palions more or less infame,
As strong or weak the organs of the frame;
And hence one mafter Pallion in the breast,
Like Aaron's ferpent, fwallows up the reit.
As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,
Receives the lurking principle of death;
The young difcafe, that muit fubdue at length,
Grows with his growth, and itrengthens with his
So,caft and mingiedwith his very frame. [itrength,
The mind's dileale, its ruling paffion came,
Each vital humour which fhould feed the whole,
Soon flows to this, th body and in foul:
Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mine opens, and its functions fpread,
Imagination plies her dang`rous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.

Nature its mother, habit is its nurie;
Wit, fpirit, faculties, but make it worfe
Reafon itself but gives it edge and pow'r;
As heaven's bleft beam turns vinegar more four.
We, wretched fubjects tho' to lawful way,
In this weak queen, fome fav'rite thil obey:
Ah! if the lend not arms as well as rules,
What can the more than tell us we are fools?
Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend;
A fhrup accufer, but a helpless friend!
Or from a judge turn pleader, to perinade
The choice we make, or juftify it made;
Proud of an eaty conqueft all long,
She but removes werk pallions for the ftrong:
So, when find humours gather to a gout,
The doctor fancies he has driven them out.
Yes, nature's road mult ever be prefer'd;
Reafon is here no guide, but Rill a guard;
Tis here to rectify, not overthrow,

The monk's humility, the hero's pr de;
All, all alike find Reaton of the de.
Th' Eternal Art, educm good f
mill,
Grafts on this Panion our beic principle:
'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is x'd,
Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix
The drofs cements what che we too reinde

And in one increit body acts with mind

As fruits, ungrateful to the plane.'s care
On favage ftocks inserted lean to ber;
The fureit Virtues thus from Pa.lions fhoot,
Wild Nature's vigour working at the rest.
Wat crops of wit and honey appear
From fpleen, from obamacy, hic, or fear!
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply:
Ev'n av'rice, prudence, fioth, p. Hosophy;
Luft, thro' fomc certon trainers well rean'd
Is gentle love, and chirms ait womankiau,
Envy, to which th` ignoble mind 's a flave,
Is emulation in the len'd or have;
Nor Virtue, male or female, can we name.
But what will grow on Pride, or crow on sham
Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pad
The virtue neart it to our vice lied:
Reason the bias turns to goed from ill,
And Ncio reigns a Titus if he will.
The fiery foul ablo r'd in Catarine,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:
The fame ambition can deltroy or lave,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knive.

This light and darknets in our chaos join`1.
What thall divide? The God within the min:

Extremes in Nature equal ends produce;
In man they join to fome myfterious ufe:
Tho' each by turns the other's bounds invade,
As, in fome well wrought picture,light andin.a
And oft fo mix, the diff'rence is too nice
Where ends the Virtue, or begins the Vice.

Fools! who from hence into the notion i
That Vice or Virtue there is none at all.
If white and black biend, foften, and unite
A thouland ways, is there no black or white!
Afk your own heart, and nothing is to plain;
'Tis to mit ke tacm coits the time and pain.

Vice is a monfter of to frightful mien,
As, to be hated, ne ds but to be feen;
Yet, feen too ert, familiar with her face,
We ficft endure, then pity, then embrace.
But where th' Extreme of Vice, was ne'er agreed
Aik where's the North? at York, 'tis on the
In Scotland, at the Orc. des; and there, [Tweed;
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour further gone than he:
Ev'n thole who del beneath its very zone,

And treat this pallon more as friend then foe;O: never feel the rage, or never own;

A mightier Pow'r the long direction fends,
And iev'ral men impels to lev'ial ends:
Like vary ing winds, by other pations toft,
This drives them conftant to a certain coast.

let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory pleafe,
O" (ft mo.eft.ong dan ail) the love of cafe,
Thro' life 'tis show'd, even at life's expence;
The merchant & toil, the fage's indolence,

What happier natures farink at with affright,
The had inhabitant con.ends is right.

Vistuces and vicious ev'ry man mult be;
Few in th`ext eme, but all in the degree:
I he rogue and fool, by fits, is fair and wife;.
And even the beft, by has, what they defpifc.
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill!
For, Vice of Virtue, Seif directs it itiil;

Each

Eidual feeks a fev'ral goal; [Whole: Ba's great view is One, and that the Trouworks each folly and caprice; Teppoints th' effect of ev'ry vice; Tay any frailties to all ranks appliedto the virgin, to the matron pride, ttle fatefiman, rafhnefs to the chief, 14 slags presumption, and to crowds belief: Vine's ends from vanity can raife, Wcakeko int'reft, no reward but praife; A wants, and on defects of mind, , peace, the glory of Mankind. aring each on other to depend,' or a fervant, or a friend, on other for affiftance call, ae Man's weakness grows the ftrength of frailties, paffions, clofer ftill ally common int'reft, or endear the tie.

[all.

we owe true friendship, love fincere, loze-felt joy that life inherits here;

the fime we learn, in its decline, rs, thofe loves, thofe int'refts to refign; half by Reafon, half by mere decay, me death, and calmly pafs away. er the Paffion, knowledge, fame, or pelf. change his neighbour with himself. dis happy nature to explore, happy that he knows no more; happy in the plenty given, contents him with the care of Heaven. the band beggar dance, the cripple fing, Tot a hero, Tunatic a king;

ving chemift in his golden views let; the poet in his Mufe. range comfort ev'ry state attend, beltow'd on all, a common friend: pallon ev'ry age supply; through, nor quits us when we die. the child, by nature's kindly law, a rattle, tickled with a ftraw; er plaything gives his youth delight, Alouder, but as empty quite;

ther. The happiness of Animals mutual.Reafon or Instinct operates alike to the good of each Individual.-Reafon or Inftinct operates alfo to Society in all animals.-How far Society is carried by Inftinet.-How much farther by Reafon. Of that which is called the State of Nature.-Reafon inftructed by Inftinct in the Invention of Arts, and in the Forms of Society. -Origin of Political Societies.-Origin of Monarchy-Patriarchal Government.-Origin of true Religion and Government, from the fame principle of Love.-Origin of Superflition and Tyranny, from the fame principle of Fear.The influence of Self-love operating to the focial and public Good.-Refioration of true Religion and Government on their first Principle-Mixed Government.-Various Forms of each, and the true End of all.

HERE then we reft: The Univerfal Caufe
Acts to one end, but acts by various laws.'
In all the madnefs of fuperfluous health,
The train of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be prefent night and day;
But molt be prefent, if we preach, or pray.

parters, gold, amufe his riper stage, ads and pray r-books are the toys of age: Yad with this bauble ftill, as that before; dhe fleeps, and Life's poor play is o'er. Mile Opinion gilds with varying rays painted clouds that beautify our days; Lawant of happiness by Hope fupplied, A tach vacuity of tenfe by Pride: build as fait as knowledge can deftroy; y's cup fill laughs the bubble, Joy: profpect lot, another ftill we gain; vanity is given in vain. Aman Self-love becomes, by force divine, kale to meature others' wants by thine. and confels, one comfort still must rife; Ta tais-tho' Man's a fool, yet God is wife.

Look round our World; behold the chain of
Combining all below and all above. [Love
See plaftic Nature working to this end;
The fingle atoms each to other tend;
Attract, attracted to the next in place,
Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace.
See Matter next, with various life endued,
Prefs to one centre ftill, the gen'ral Good.
See dying Vegetables life fuftain,
See life diffolving vegetate again:
All forms that perith other forms fupply
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die);
Like bubbies on the fea of Matter borne,
They rife, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign; Parts relate to Whole;
One all-extending, all-preferving Soul
Connects each being, greateft with the leaft;
Made Beaft in aid of Man, and Man of Beaft;
All ferv'd, all ferving: nothing ftands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends unknown.

Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy
good,

Thy joy, thy paftime, thy attire, thy food? Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, For him as kindly fpreads the flow'ry lawn. Is it for thee the lark afcends and fings? Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings. Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat? Loves of his own and raptures swell the note. The boundling feed you pompously beftride Shares with his lord the pleafure and the pride. Is thine alone the feed that ftrews the plain? The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain, Thine the full harveft of the golden year? Part pays, and justly, the deferving fteer. The hog that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call, Lives on the labours of this lord of all. Now, Nature's children fhall divide her care, thade wholly for itself, nor wholly for ano-The fur that warms a monarch warm'd a bear. R 4

EPISTLE III.

ARGUMENT.

the Nature and State of Man with respect to Society.

The bale Universe one Syftem of Society.-Nothing

While