Let earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly, 9. What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread, All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul; That chang'd through all, and yet in all the same, Great in the earth as in th' ethereal frame, 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, Spreads undivided, operates unspent ; Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns As the rapt seraph that adores and burns: To him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all! 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; Or in the natal or the mortal hour. 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, 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. 4.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; |