Ан, hapless mortal man! ah, rigid fate!
What cares attend our short, uncertain state!
How wide a front, how deep and black a rear,
What fad varieties of grief and fear,
Drawn in array, exert their fatal rage,
And gall obnoxious life through every stage,
From infancy to youth, from youth to age!
Who can compile a roll of all our woes?
Our friends are faithlefs, and fincere our foes;
The poifon'd arrows of an envious tongue
Improve our errors, and our virtues wrong;
Th' oppreffor now with arbitrary might
Tramples on law, and robs us of our right;
Dangers unfeen on every fide invade,
And fnares o'er all th' unfaithful ground are laid.
Oft wounds from foreign violence we feel,
Now from the ruffian's, now the warrior's, fteel;
By bruifes or by labour we are pain'd;
A bone disjointed, or a finew ftrain'd;
Now feftering fores afflict our tortur'd limbs;
Now to the yielding heart the gangrene climbs.
Acute diftempers fierce our veins affail,
Bush on with fury, and by ftorm prevail,
Others with thrift dispense their stores of grief;
And by the fap prolong the fiege of life;
While to the grave we for deliverance cry,
And, promis'd still, are still denied to die.

See colic, gout, and stone, a cruel train,
Oppos'd by all the healing race in vain ;
Their various racks and lingering plagues em-

ploy,

Relieve each other, and by turns annoy,
And, tyrant like, torment, but not destroy.
We noxious infects in our bowels feed,
Engender deaths, and dark deftruction breed.
The spleen with fullen vapours cloud's the brain,
And binds the fpirits in its heavy chain :

Howe'er the cause fantastic may appear,
Th' effect is real, and the pain fincere.
Hydropic wretches by degrees decay,
Growing the more, the more they waste away;
By their own ruins they augmented lie,
With thirst and heat amidst a deluge fry:
And while in floods of water these expire,
More fcorching perifh by the fever's fire;
Stretch'd on our downy, yet uneafy beds,
We change our pillows, and we raise our heads;
From fide to fide in vain for reft we turn,
With cold we hiver, or with heat we burn;
Of night impatient, we demand the day:
The day arrives, and for the night we pray;
The night and day fucceffive come and go,
Our lasting pains no interruption know.

Since man is born to fo much woe and care,
Muft ftill new terrors dread, new forrows bear;
Does it not fuit the ftate of human kind,
There fhould prefide a good Almighty Mind;
A Caufe Supreme, that might all nature steer,
Avert our danger, and prevent our fear;
Who, when implor'd, might timely fuccour
give,

Solace our anguifh, and our wants relieve;
Father of comfort, might our fouls fuftain,
When preft with grief, and mitigate our pain?
'Tis certain fomething from all ages past
Without beginning was, and ftill will laft;
For if of time one period e'er had been,
When nothing was, then nothing could begin.
That things fhould to themselves a being give,
Reluctant reafon never can conceive.
If you affirm, effects themselves produce,
You fhock the mind, and contradiction choofe;
For they, 'tis clear, muft act and move, before,
They were in being, or had motive power;

As active caufes must of right at once Existence claim, and as effects renounce.

Then fomething is, which no beginning had,
A caufélefs caufe, or nothing could be made,
Which muft by pure neceffity exist,
And whofe duration nothing can resist.

Let us inquire, and fearch by due degrees,
What, who, this felf-exiftent being is.

Should this material world's capacious frame
Uncaus'd and independent being claim;

It would, thus form'd and fashion'd as we fee;
Derive existence from neceffity,

And then to ages unconfin'd must last,
Without the least diversity or waste.
Neceffity, view'd with attentive thought,
Does plain impoffibility denote,

That things fhould not exift, which actual are,
Orin another shape or different modes appear.
But fee in all corporeal nature's scene,
What changes, what diverfities, have been!
Matter not long the fame appearance makes,
But shifts her old, and a new figure takes:
If now the lies in winter's rigid arms,
Dishonour'd and defpoil'd of all her charms,
Soft vernal airs will loofe th' unkind embrace,
And genial dews renew her wither'd face;
Like fabled nymphs transform'd, the's now a tree,
Now weeps into a flood, and ftreaming feeks the
She's now a gaudy fly, before a worm, [fea.
Below a vapour, and above a storm;
This ooze was late a monter of the main,
That turf a lowing grazer of the plain,
A lion this did o'er the forest reign.
Regard that fair, that branching laurel plant,
Behold that lovely blufhing amarant;
One might have William's broken frame affum'd,
And one from bright Maria's duft have bloom'd.
Thefe shifting feenes, these quick rotations, show
Things from neceffity could never flow,
But muft to mind and choice precarious being

owe.

Let us fuppofe, that Nature ever was
Without beginning, and without a cause ;
As her first order, difpofition, trame,
Muft then fubfift unchangeably the fame;
So muft our mind pronounce, it would not be
Within the reach of poffibility,

That e'er the world a being could have had
Different from what it is, or could be made
Of more or less, or other parts than those
Which the corporeal univerfe compofe.
Now, Fatalift, we afk, if these fubvert
Reason's establish'd maxims, who affert
That we the world's existence may conceive,
Though we one atom out of Nature leave;
Though fome one wandering orb, or twinkling ftar,
Were abfent from the heavens, which now is there;
Though fome one kind of plant, or fly, or worm,
No being had, or had another's form?

And might not other animals arife,
Of different figure, and of different fize?
In the wide womb of poffibility

Lie many things, which ne'er may actual be;
And more productions of a various kind
Will caufe no contradiction in the mind.
VOL. VII.

'Tis poffible the things in Nature found, Might different forms and different parts have own'd:

The boar might wear a trunk, the wolf a horn, The peacock's train the bittern might adorn; Strong tuks might in the horle's mouth have

grown,

And lions might have fpots, and leopards none. But, if the world knows no fuperior caufe, Obeys no fovereign's arbitrary laws;

If abfolute neceffity maintains

Of causes and effects the fatal chains;

What could one motion ftop, change one event?
It would tranfcend the wide, the vast extent,
The utmost ftretch of poffibility,

That things, from what they are, should disagree.
If, to elude this reafoning, you reply,
Things what they are, are by neceffity;
Which never elle fo aptly could confpire
To ferve the whole, and Nature's ends acquire;
To form the beauty, order, harmony,
Which we through all the works of Nature fee:
Ready we this affertion will allow,
For what can more exalted wifdom show?
With zeal we this neceflity defend,

Of means directed to their ufeful end:
But 'tis not that which fatalifts intend,
Nor that which we oppofe in this debate,
An uncontrol'd neceffity of fate,
Which all things blindly does and must produce,
Unconscious of their goodness and their use,

Which cannot ends defign, nor means conve

nient choofe.

If you perfift, and fondly will maintain
Of caufes and effects an endless train; .
That this fucceffive feries ftill has been,
Will never ceafe, and never did begin ;
That things did always, as they do, proceed,
And no first cause, no wife director, need:
Say, if no links of all your fatal chain
Free from corruption, and unchang'd remain ;
If of the whole each part in time arofe,
And to a caufe its borrow'd being owes;
How then the whole can independent be?
How have a being from neceffity?

Is not the whole, ye learned heads, the fame
With all the parts, and different but in name?
Could e'er that whole the leaft perfection fhow,'
Which from the parts, that form it, did not flow,
Then, tell us, can it from its parts derive,
What in themfelves thofe parts had not to give?
Farther to clear the fubject in debate,
Inform us, what you understand by fate.
Have you a juft idea in the mind

Of this great cause of things by you affign'd ?
If you the order and dependence mean,
By which effects upon their caufes lean,
The long fucceflion of th' efficient train,
And firm coherence of th' extended chain;
Then fate is nothing but a mode of things,
Which from continued revolution fprings;
A pure relation and a mere refpec
Between the caule effective and th' effect.
If caufes and effects themselves are that
Which your clear-fighted fchools intend by fate ;

Rr

Then fate by no idea can be known,
'Tis one thing only, as a heap is one :
You no diftinguish'd being by it mean,

But all th' effects and caules that have been.
If you affert, that each fufficient caufe
Must act by fix'd inevitable laws;
If you affirm this neceffary ftate,
And tell us this neceffity is fate;

When will you blefs the world with light to fee
The spring and fource of this neceffity?
Say, what did fo difpofe, fo things ordain,
To form the links of all the cafual chain,
That nature by inevitable force

Should run one ring, and keep one fteady courfe?
That things must needs in one fet order flow,
And all events must happen as they do?
Can you no proof of your affertion find?
Produce no reafon to convince the mind,
That nature this determin'd way muft ?
go
Are all things thus, because they must be so?
We grant with eafe, there is neceflity,
The fource of things fhould felf-existent be.
But then he's not a neceffary caufe;
He freely acts by arbitrary laws:
He gave to beings motive energy,
And active things to paffive did apply;
In fuch wife order all things did dispose,
That of events neceffity arofe:
Without his aid, fay, how will you maintain
Your fatal link of caufes? Hence 'tis plain,
While the word fate you thus affect to use,
You coin a fenfelefs term, th' unwary to amuse.

You, who affert the world did ne'er commence,
Frepare against this reasoning your defence.
If folar beams, which through th' expanfion dart,
Corporeal are, as learned fchools affert ;
Since ftill they flow, and no fupply repays
The lavish fun his diffipated rays;
Grant, that his radiant orb did ne'er begin,
And that his motions have eternal been;
Then, by eternal, infinite expence,

By unrecruited wafte, and spoils immenfe,
By certain fate to flow deftruction doom'd,
His glorious stock long fince had been confum'd;
Of light unthrifty, and profufe of day,
The ruin'd globe had spent his latest ray,
Difpers'd in beams eternally display'd,

Had loft in ether roam'd, and loofe in atoms ftray'd.
Grant, that a grain of matter would outweight
The light the fun difpenfes in a day
Through all the ftages of his heavenly way;
That in a year the golden torrents, fent
From the bright fource, its loffes fcarce augment :
Yet without end if you the wafte repeat,
Th' eternal lofs grows infinitely great.
Then, fhould the fun of finite bulk fuftain
In every age the lofs but of a grain;
If we fuppofe.thofe agcs infinite,
Could there remain one particle of light?

Reflect, that motion must abate its force,
As more or lefs obftructed in its courfe;
That all the heavenly orbs, while turning round,
Have fome refiftance from the medium found:
Be that refiftance ne'er fo faint and weak,
If 'tia eternal, 'twill all motion break;

If in each age you grant the leaft decreafe,
By infinite fucceflion it must cease.
Hence, if the orbs have ftill refifted been
By air, or light, or æther, ne'er so thin;
Long fince their motion must have been supprest,
The stars had flood, the fun had lain at reft;
So vain, fo wild a fcheme, you fatalifts have
drefs'd.

Let us the wife pofitions now furvey
Of Aristotle's school, who's pleas'd to say
Nothing can move itself, no inward power
To any being motion can procure.
Whate'er is mov'd, its motion must derive
From fomething else, which muft an impulse give :
And yet no being motion could begin;
Elfe motion might not have eternal been.
That matter never did begin to move,
But in th' immenfe from endless ages ftrove,
The Stagyrite thus undertakes to prove.
He fays, of motion time the measure is;
Then that's eternal too, as well as this.
Motion through ages without limit flows,
Since time, its measure, no beginning knows,
This feeble base upholds our author's hopes,
And all his mighty fuperftructure props.
On this he all his towering fabric rears,
Sequel on fequel heaps to reach the spheres.
But if this definition you deny

Of time, on which his building does rely,
You bring his lofty Babel from the fky:
A thousand fine deductions you confound,
Scatter his walte philofophy around,
And level all his ftructure with the ground.
We then this definition thus defeat:
Time is no meafure, which can motion meet;
For men of reafoning faculties will fee,
That time can nothing but duration be
Of beings; and duration can fuggeft
Nothing or of their motion, or their reft;
Only prolong'd exiftence it implies,
Whether the thing is mov'd, or quiet lies.
This fingle blow will all the pile fubvert,
So proudly rais'd, but with fo little art.

But, fince the Author has fuch fame acquir'd, And as a God of science been admir'd, A ricter view we'll of his fyftem' take, And of the parts a fhort examen make. Let us obferve, what light his fcheme affords, His undigested heap of doubtful words. Great Stagyrite, the loft inquirer fhow The fpring whence motion did for ever flow; Since nothing of itfelf e'er moves or strives, Tell what begins, what the first impulse gives.

Hear how the man, who all in fame furmounts, For motion's fpring and principle accounts. To his fupremie, unmov'd, unactive God, He the firft fphere appoints, a blest abode; Who fits fupinely on his azure throne, In contemplation of himself alone; Is wholly mindlefs of the world, and void Of providential care, and unemploy'd. To all the spheres inferior are affign'd Gods fubaltern, and of inferior kind : On thefe he felf-cxiftence does confer, Who, as the God fupreme, eternal are;

With admiration mov'd, and ardent love,
They all their spheres around in order move;
And from these heavenly revolutions flow
All motions, which are found in things below.
If demand by what impulfive force
you
The under-gods begin their circling course :
He fays, as things defirable excite

Defire, and objects move the appetite;
So his first God, by kindling ardent love,
Does all the gods in feats inferior move:
Thus mov'd, they move around their mighty
fpheres,

With their refulgent equipage of flars;
From fphere to fphere communicate the dance,
Whence all in heavenly harmony advance;
And from this motion propagated rife
All motions in the earth, and air, and skies.
And thus by learned Ariftotle's mind

All things were form'd, yet nothing was defign'd.
He owns no choice, no arbitrary will,

No artift's hand, and no exerted skill ;
All motion flows from neceffary fate,
Which nothing does refift, or can abate;
Things fink and rife, a being lose or gain
In a coherent, undiffolving chain

[tain.

Of caufes and effects, which Nature's course fuf-
Th' unmoveable Supreme the reft does move,
As proper objects raise defire and love;
They, mov'd without their choice, without confent
Move all their spheres around without intent;
Whate'er he calls his moving cause, to choose
He gives that caufe no power, or to refuse.
And thus from fate all artful order springs,
This rear'd the world, this is the rise of things.
Now give us leave to ask, great Stagyrite,
How the first God th' inferior does excite?
Of his own substance does he parts convey,
Whofe motive force the under-gods obey?
If fo, he may be chang'd, he may decay.
But if by fteadfast gazing they are mov'd,
And admiration of the object lov'd;
If those below their motive force acquire
From the strong impulfe of divine defire;
'Tell us, what good your God Supreme can grant,
Which thofe beneath, to make them happy, want.
If admiration of the God Supreme,

Of liberty of choice, of reason void,
Still wifely acts, wherever fhe's employ'd?
Can actions be denominated wife,
Which from a brute neceffity arise,
Which the blind agent never did intend,
The means unchofen, and unknown the end?
On this be laid the stress of this debate;
What wifely acts can never act by fate.
The means and end mut first be understood;
The means, as proper; and the end, as good;
The act must be exerted with intent

By using means to gain the wish'd event.
But can a fenfeless and unconscious caufe,
By foreign impulse mov'd, and fatal laws,
This thing as good, and that as fit, respect,
Defign the end, and then the means elect?
Nature, you grant, can no event intend,
Yet that the acts with prudence you pretend:
So nature wifely acts, yet acts without an end!
Yet while this prince of fcience does declare
That means or ends were never nature's care;
That things which feem with perfect art contriv'd,
By the refiftless force of fate arriv'd;

This cautious master, to fecure his fame,
And 'scape the atheift's ignominious name,

Did to his gods of all degrees allow

Counfel, defign, and power to choose and know,
Yet, fince he's pleas'd fo plainly to affert,
His gods no act of reasoning power exert,
No mark of choice, or arbitrary will,
Employ'd no prudence, and express'd no skill,
In making or directing Nature's frame,
Which from his fate inevitable came;
Thefe gods muft, as to us, be brute and blind,
And as unuseful, as if void of mind :
Acting without intent, or care, or aim,
Can they our prayer regard, or praises claim?
Of all the irreligious in debate,

This fhameful error is the common fate;
That though they cannot but diftin&ly see
In Nature's works, and whole œconomy,
Defign and judgment in a high degree;
This judgment, this defign, they ne'er allow
Do from a caufe endued with reafon flow.
The art they grant, th' artificer reject,
The structure own, and not the archite&;

Is that of motion a resistless cause,
Of motion conftant to eternal laws?
Might not each fecond god inactive lie
On his blue fphere, and fix his ravish'd eye
On the Supreme Unmoveable, and ne'er
Be forc'd to roll around his folid sphere?
Say, how could wonder drive them from their
place?

How in a circle make them run their race?
How keep them steady in one certain pace?
He this a fundamental maxim lays,
That Nature wifely acts in all her ways;
That the pursues the things which moft conduce
To order, beauty, decency, and use.
Who can to reafon this affront endure?
Should it derifion caufe, or anger more,
To hear a deep philofopher affert

That nature, not endu'd with fkill or art,

And prudent meafures without prudence takes. Grant that their admiration and their love

}

Of the first God may all th' inferior move;
Grant, too, though no neceffity appears, [fpheres:
That, with their rapture mov'd, they move their
These questions let the Stagyrite resolve,
Why they at all, why in this way revolve?
Declare by what neceffity control'd,
In one determin'd manner they are roll'd?
Why is their fwift rotation west and east,
Rather than north and south, or east and weft
Why do not all th' inferior spheres obey
The highest sphere's inevitable sway?
Tell us, if all celestial motions rife
From revolutions of the starry fkies,

Whence of the orbs the various motions come
Why fome the general road purfue; and fome
In ether tray, and difobedient roam ?

If yours the fource of motion is, declare,

Why this is fix'd, and that a wandering star?
Tell by what fate, by what refiftlefs force,
This orb has onc, and that another courfe?
How does the learned Greek the caufe unfold
With equal swiftness why the fun is roll'd
Still caft and weft, to mark the night and day?
To form the year, why through th' ecliptic way?
What magic, what neceffity, confines
The folar orb between the tropic lines?
What charms in those enchanted circles dwell,
That with controlling power the fun repel?
The Stagyrite to this no answer makes;
Of the vaft globe fo little thought he takes,
That he to folve these questions never strives,
No cause or of its place or motion gives.

But farther yet, applauded Greek, fuppofe
Celeftial motions from your fpring arofe;
That motion down to all the worlds below
From the first sphere may propagated flow :
Since you of things to fhow th' efficient fource
Have always to neceffity recourfe;
From what neceffity do fpheres proceed
With fuch a measur'd, fuch a certain fpeed?
We fain would this myftericus cause explore,
Why motion was not either lefs or more,
But in this juft proportion and degree,
As fuits with nature's juft economy.
This is a cause, a right one too, we grant,
But 'tis the final, we th' efficient want;
With greater fwiftnefs if the fpheres were whirl'd,
The motion given to this inferior world
Too violent had been for nature's use,
Of too great force mix'd bodies to produce;
The elements, air, water, earth, and fire,
Which now to make compounded things con-
fpire,

By their rude shocks could never have combin'd, Or had been difengag'd as soon as join'd :

But then had motion in a lefs degree

Been given, than that which we in nature fee;

Of greater vigour we had stood in need,

To mix and blend the elemental feed, To témper, work, incorporate, and bind Thofe principles, that thence of every kind The various compound beings might arile, Which fill the earth and fea, and ftore the fkies. Say, what neceffity, what fatal laws, Did in fuch due proportion motion caufe, Nor more or less, but just so much as tends To frame the world, and ferve all nature's ends? Afk why the highest of the rolling spheres, Deck'd to profufion with refulgent stars, And all with bright excrefcences embost, Has the whole beauty of the heavens engroft; When of the others, to difpel the night, Each owns a fingle, folitary light; Only one planet in a fphere is found, Marching in air his melancholy round: Nature, he tells us, took this prudent care, That the fublimett and the nobleft fphere Should be with nobler decoration bleft, And in magnificence outfhine the reft; That to its greater ornament and flate Should bear proportion with its greater height.

It seems then nature does not only find
Means to be good, beneficent, and kind,
But has for beauty and for order car'd,
Does rank, and ftate, and decency, regard.

Now, fhould he not confidering men forgive,
If, fway'd by this affertion, they believe
That nature, which does decency refpect,
Is fomething which can reafon, choose, reflect ?
Or that fome wife director must prefide
O'er nature's works, and all her motions guide?
You here fhould that neceffity declare,
Why all the flars adorn the highest sphere;
Say, how is this th' effect of fatal laws,
Without reflecting on a final cause?
One fphere has all the fears; we afk you, why
When you to beauty and to order fly,
You plain affert the truth which you deny;
That is, that Nature has wife ends in view,
With forefight works, and does defigns purfue.

Thus all the mighty wits that have effay'd To explicate the means how things are made By nature's power, without the Hand Divine, The final caufes of effects affign.

They fay, that this or that is fo or fo,
That fuch events in fuch fucceffion flow;
Because convenience, decency, and use,
Require that nature things fhould thus produce.
They in their demonftrations always vaunt
Efficient causes, which they always want.
But thus they yield the question in debate,
And grant the impotence of chance and fate;
For, till they show by what neceffity
Things have the difpofition which we fee,
Whether it be deriv'd from fate or chance,
Not the least step in fcience they advance,

Grant Nature furnish'd, at her vaft expence,
One room of state with fuch magnificence,
That it might fine above the others bright,
Adorn'd with numerous burnifh'd balls of light;
Does the on one by decent rules difpenfe
Of conftellations fuch a wealth immenfe,
While the next fphere in amplitude and height
Rolls on with one erratic lonely light?
But be it fo, the question's ftill the fame,
Tell us, from what neceffity it came?

Let us the great philofopher attend,

While to the worlds below his thoughts defcend:
His elements, earth, water, air, and fire,
He fays, to make all compound things confpire;
He in the midst leaves the dull earth at rest,
In the foft bofom of the air carefs'd;
The red-wing'd fire muft to the moon arife,
Hover in air, and lick contiguous skies;

No charms, no force, can make the fire defcend,
Nor can the earth to feats fuperior tend;
Both unmolested peace for ever own,
This in the middle, that beneath the moon:
Water and air not fo; for they, by fate
Affign'd to conftant duty, always wait ;
Ready by turns to rife or to descend,
Nature against a vacant to defend ;
For fhould a void her monarchy invade,
Should in her works the fmallest breach be made,
That breach the mighty fabric would diffolve,

And in immediate ruin all involve.