For me kind nature wakes her genial power;
Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower;
Annual for me, the grape, the rose, renew
The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew,
For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings;
For me, health gushes from a thousand springs;
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;
My foot-stool earth, my canopy the skies.'

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?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of showers and sun-shine, as of man's desires?
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temperate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?

150

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;
That never air or ocean felt the wind,
That never passion discomposed the mind.
But all subsists by elemental strife;

And passions are the elements of life.

170

236 POPE'S POETICAL WORKS.

The general order since the whole began,

Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.

VI. What would this man? Now upward will he soar,

Mark how it mounts to man's impe

ESSAY ON MAN

And, little less than angel, would be more;
Now looking downwards, just as grieved 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;

180

All in exact proportion to the state;

Nothing to add, and nothing to abate.

Each beast, each insect, happy in its own:
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;

190

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 ?

Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,

To smart and agonize at every pore?

Or quick effluvia darting through the brain,

Die of a rose in aromatic pain?

200

If Nature thunder'd in his opening ears,

From the green myriads in the pec
What modes of sight betwixt each
The mole's dim curtain, and the ly
Of smell, the headlong lioness bet
And hound sagacious on the tainte
Of hearing, from the life that fills
To that which warbles through th
The spider's touch how exquisitely
Feels at each thread, and lives alo
In the nice bee, what sense so sub
From poisonous herbs extracts the
How instinct varies in the grove
Compared, half-reasoning elepha
Twixt that and reason what a ni
Forever separate, yet for ever ne
Remembrance and reflection hov
What thin partitions sense from
And middle natures, how they lo
Tet never pass the insuperable l
Without this just gradation, cou
Subjected, these to those, or al
The power of all subdued by t
Is not thy reason all these pow
VIII. See, through this air, this
All matter quick, and bursting
Above, how high progressive li
Around, how wide! how deep
Vast chain of being! which fr
Natures ethereal, human, ang
Beast, bird, fish, insect, which
No glass can reach; from in
From thee to nothing. On s
Were we to press, inferior m
Or in the full creation leave =
Where, one step broken, the
From nature's chain whate
Tenth, or ten thousandth,

And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,
How would he wish that Heaven had left him still
The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill!
Who finds not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?

VII. Far as creation's ample range extends,
The scale of sensual, mental, powers ascends :

mounts to man's imperial race, en myriads in the peopled grass: 210 of sight betwixt each wide extreme, m curtain, and the lynx's beam; headlong lioness between, gacious on the tainted green; om the life that fills the flood, warbles through the vernal wood! ouch how exquisitely fine! thread, and lives along the line; e, what sense so subtly true, us herbs extracts the healing dew? 220 varies in the grovelling swine, lf-reasoning elephant, with thine? ad reason what a nice barrier; rate, yet for ever near ! e and reflection how allied; rtitions sense from thought divide! atures, how they long to join, ss the insuperable line ! just gradation, could they be ese to those, or all to thee? f all subdued by thee alone, son all these powers in one? rough this air, this ocean, and this earth, ick, and bursting into birth. aigh progressive life may go! wide! how deep extend below! being! which from God began, roal, human, angel, man, ish, insect, which no eye can see, reach; from infinite to thee; nothing. On superior powers ress, inferior might on ours: creation leave a void,

step broken, the great scale's destroy'd 's chain whatever link you strike, thousandth, breaks the chain alike.

238

POPE'S POETICAL WORKS.

250

And, if each system in gradation roll
Alike essential to the amazing whole,
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole must fall.
Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature trembles to the throne of God.
All'this dread order break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm!-oh madness! pride! impiety!

260

IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread,
Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear, repined
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another in this general frame;
Just as absurd, to mourn the task or pains
The great directing Mind of all ordains.

ESSAY ON MAN.

Ebmit.-In this, or any other sphere.
Secure to be as bless'd as thou canst
Safe in the hand of one disposing Po
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
Al nature is but art, unknown to the
A chance, direction which thou cans
Al discord, harmony not understood
partial evil, universal good.
sad, spite of pride, in erring reason's
Dat truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS

ARGUMENT OF EPIST

On the Nature and State of Man himself, as an Individ The business of man not to pry into himself. His middle nature; his po ver. I to 19. The limits of his capacity The two principles of man, self-love a Ossary, ver. 53, &c. Self-love the stro N, &c. Their end the same, ver. 81 mons, and their use, ver. 93 to 130. passion, and its force, ver. 132 to le directing men to different purposes, vidential use, in fixing our princip our virtue, ver. 177. IV. Virtue an mixed nature; the limits near, yet th evident: what is the office of rea V. How odious vice in itself, and selves into it, ver. 217. VI. That, Providence and general good are an and imperfections, ver. 231, &c. distributed to all orders of men, they are to society, ver. 251. And In every state, and every age of 1

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul;
That, changed through all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in the 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;

270

280

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.
X. 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.

EPISTLE

I. Know then thyself, presu
The proper study of mankind

ESSAY ON MAN.

s, or any other sphere, bless'd as thou canst bear: 1 of one disposing Power, or the mortal hour.

t art, unknown to thee

etion which thou canst not see: 290

mony not understood;

universal good.

ide, in erring reason's spite,

ar, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

MENT OF EPISTLE II.

and State of Man with respect to nself, as an Individual.

of man not to pry into God, but to stud middle nature; his powers and frailties, The limits of his capacity, ver. 19, &c. II. Oles of man, self-love and reason, both ne,&c. Self-love the stronger, and why, ver. end the same, ver. 81, &c. III. The pasuse, ver. 93 to 130. The predominant s force, ver. 132 to 160. Its necessity, in o different purposes, ver. 165, &c. Its proin fixing our principle, and ascertaining .177. IV. Virtue and vice joined in our the limits near, yet the things separate and is the office of reason, ver. 202 to 216. vice in itself, and how we deceive ourver. 217. VI. That, however, the ends of - general good are answered in our passions ons, ver. 231, &c. How usefully these are all orders of men, ver. 241. How useful Lety, ver. 251. And to individuals, ver. 263. and every age of life, ver. 273, &c.

en thyself, presume not God to scan. dy of mankind is man.