Say, what th' Advantage of so fine an Eye?
T' inspect a Mote, not comprehend the Sky?
Or Touch, fo tremblingly alive all o'er,
To fmart, and agonize at ev'ry Pore?
Or quick Effluvia darting thro' the Brain,
To fink oppreft with aromatick Pain?
If Nature thunder'd in his opening Ears,
And stunn'd him with the Mufick of the Spheres.
How would he wifh, that Heav'n had left him ftill
The whifp'ring Zephyr, and the purling Rill?

As in the foregoing Quotations, Mr. Pope difcourages Men from ftriving to know or act beyond Mankind, or defire other Powers than fuch as he is already bleft with, just so does Mr. Dryden :

Thus Man with his own Strength to Heaven would And would not be oblig❜d to God for more. [foar, And as to any Thing farther, which is exprefs'd by the Defire of Thinking and acting beyond Mankind, Mr. Pope fays:

Hope humbly then, &c.

And Mr. Dryden in almoft the fame Terms, for I dare fay his Thoughts were exactly the fame, fays: Look humbly upward, &c.

But Mr. Pope's Commentator understands, that the Defign of the Effay on Man was to establish the Christian Faith in the World, aud not to treat of Philofophy merely as fuch; it has an Analogy with the Scriptures, and defeats all the Opinions of Philofophers, without any Manner of Diftinction; for the zealous Expounder fays: 'Tis now no Time to ftand upon Ceremony, when THE WHOLE HEAD IS SICK, AND THE WHOLE HEART FAINT.

The

The general Scope of these Ethick Eflays is as Mr. Pope exprefly declares, to vindicate the Ways of God to Man, which to do he afferts, that whatever is, is right:

All are but Parts of one stupendous Whole:
Whole Body Nature is, and God the Soul.
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame,
Great in the Earth as in the ethereal Frame,
Warms in the Sun, refreshes in the Breeze,
Glows in the Stars, and bloffoms in the Trees,
Lives thro' all Life, extends thro' 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 Seraphim, that fings and burns ;
To him no high, no low, no great, no fmall;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all,

Ceafe then, nor ORDER Imperfection name:
Our proper Bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own Point. This juft, this kind Degree
Of Blindness, Weakness, Heav'n beftows on thee.
Submit-in this, or any other Sphere,
Secure to be as bleft as thou canst bear.
Safe in the Hand of one difpofing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal Hour:
All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;
All Chance, Direction which thou canst not fee;
All Difcord, Harmony not understood;
All partial Evil, univerfal Good:

And fpight of Pride, in erring Reafon's Spight,
One Truth is clear; "Whatever is, is right.'

""

And tho' it does not appear fo to us, the Reafon he

gives for that is, that we only fee Parts, but not the Whole:

Refpecting Man whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to all.

And thus Mr. Warburton fays: Partial Evil is univerfal Good, and Providence fairly acquitted.

But foon after, he fuppofes an Objector to put in and fay : "You tell us indeed, that all Things "will turn out for Good; but we see ourselves fur"rounded with prefent Evil; and yet you forbid us

all Inquiry into the Manner how we are to be extricated; and in a Word, leave us in a very dif"confolate Condition." Not fo, replies the Poet [from 1. 86 to 95.] you may reasonably, if you please, receive much Comfort from the HOPE of a happy Futurity; a Hope given us by God himself for this very Purpose, as an Earneft of that Bliss, which here indeed perpetually flies us, but is reserved for the good Man hereafter.

What future Bliss he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy Bleffing now,
Hope fprings eternal in the human Breaft,
Man never is, but always to be bleft.
The Soul uneafy, and confin'd from home
Refts and expatiates in a Life to come.

Now the Reason why the Poet chufes to infift on this Proof of a future State in Preference to others, I conceive is in order to give his Syftem (which is founded in a fublime and improv'd Platonism) the utmoft Grace of Uniformity. For we know this HOPE was Plato's peculiar Argument for a future State; and the Words here employ'd, The Soul uneafy, &c. his peculiar Expreffion: We have seen the Argument illuftrated with great Force of Reasoning

by

by our most eminent modern Divines: But no where ftronger urged than by our Poet, in this Efay. He fays here, in exprefs Terms, that God gave us Hope to fupply that future Blifs which he at prefent keeps hid from us. In his 2d Ep. 1. 264. he goes ftill farther, and fays, this Hope quits us not even at Death, when every Thing mortal drops from us.

Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die.

And, in the 4th Ep. he fhews how the fame Hope is a certain Proof of a future State, from the Confideration of God's giving Man no Appetite in vain, or what he did not intend fhould be fatisfied; (which is Plato's great Argument for a future State.) For, defcribing the Condition of the good Man, he breaks out into these rapturous Strains.

For him alone Hope leads from Gole to Gole, And opens ftill, and opens on his Soul; "Till, lengthen'd on to Faith, and unconfin'd, It pours the Blifs, that fills up all the Mind. He fees why Nature plants in Man alone Hope of known Blifs, and Faith in Blifs unknown: Nature, whofe Dictates to no other Kind Are giv❜n in vain, but what they seek they find. 1. 331, & feq.

It is only for the good Man, he tells us, that Hope leads from Gole to Gole, &c. It would be ftrange indeed then, if it should be a Delufion.

But it hath been objected, that the System of the beft, weakens the other natural Arguments for a future State, because if the Evils, which good Men fuffer, promote the Benefit of the Whole, then every Thing is here in order; and nothing amiss that wants to be fet right: Nor has the good Man any Reason to expect a Reparation, when the Evils he fuffer'd

suffer'd had fuch a Tendency. To this we reply, that the Syftem of the beft is fo far from weakening thofe naturrl Arguments, that it ftrengthens and fupports them. To confider it a little, if thofe Evils to which good Men are fubject be mere Disorders, without any Tendency to the greater Good of the Whole, then, tho' we muft indeed conclude that they will hereafter be fet right, yet this View of Things, representing God as fuffering Disorders for no other Purpose than to fet them right, gives us a very low Idea of the divine Wifdom. But if those Evils (according to the Syftem of the best) contribute to the greater Perfection of the Whole, a Reafon may be then given for their Permiffion, and fuch a one as fupports our Idea of divine Wifdom to the higheft religious Purposes. Then, as to the good Man's Hopes of a Retribution, thofe ftill remain in their original Force. For our Idea of God's Juftice, and how far that Juftice is engag'd to a Retribution, is exactly and invariably the fame on either Hypothefis. For tho' the Syftem of the best fuppofes that the Evils themselves will be fully compenfated by the Good they produce to the Whole, yet this is fo far from fuppofing that Particulars fhall fuffer for a general Good, that it is effential to this Syftem, to conclude that, at the Completion of Things, when the whole is arriv'd to the State of utmoft Perfection, particular and univerfal Good fhall coincide.

Snch is the WORLD's great Harmony, that springs From Union, Order, full Confent of Things; Where fmall and great, where weak and mighty made To Jerve not fuffer, ftrengthen not invade.

Ep. iii. 1. 296, & feq. Which Coincidence can never be without a Retribu tion to good Men for the Evils fuffer'd here below.

And