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And this is the Commentator's Support of this Argument in his own Words; for, that I may not make any the leaft Shew of Partiality, I fhall myfelf take no Part in the Argument.

So that all being Order as it is, no Perfon ought to repine at fuffering for the Good of the Whole: All this dread Order break? For whom? For thee? Vile Worm! O Madness! Pride? Impiety!

Mr. Dryden fays, who gives into the fame Way of Argumentation, only his is confefs'd a religious System:

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Darft thou poor Worm offend Infinity? And muft the Terms of Peace be given by thee? Then thou art Juftice in the laft Appeal.

As to final Retribution to compensate for what they call partial Evil, he makes a Deift acknowledge his Belief of it; but how far that proves that it is right that there fhould be Bad to meet with lafting Punishment for the Good of the Whole; I with Mr. Dryden had made his Deift say:

God is that Spring of Good; Supreme and Beft; We, made to ferve, and in that Service bleft; If fo, fome Rules of Worship must be given, Distributed alike to all by Heaven: Elle God were partial, and to fome deny d. The Means his Juftice fhould for all provide. This general Worship is to Praife and Pray: One Part to borrow Bleffings, one to pay: And when frail Nature flides into Offence, The Sacrifice for Crimes is Penitence. Yet, fince th' Effects of Providence, we find Are variously difpens'd to human Kind;

That Vice triumphs, and Virtue fuffers here,
(A Brand that fovereign Justice cannot bear ;)
Our Reafon prompts us to a future State:
The last Appeal from Fortune, and from Fate:
Where God's all-righteous Ways will be declar'd
The Bad meet Punishment, the Good, Reward.

Mr. Pope endeavours to confirm his Thefes of partial Evil being univerfal Good, which would undeniably prove, that whatever is, is right, by the following Lines:

But errs not Nature from this gracious End, From burning Suns when livid Deaths defcend, When Earthquakes fwallow, or when Tempefts Towns to one Grave, a Nation to the Deep? [fweep, "No, 'tis reply'd, the firft almighty Caufe "Acts not by partial, but by general Laws: "The Exceptions few; fome change fince all begari, "And what created perfect? Why then Man ?" If the great End be human Happiness, And Nature deviates, how can Man do lefs?

On this Mr. Warburton, whofe Commentary I have chofe to quote, only because it was approv'd of by Mr. Pope, and therefore not liable to the Exception that it does not agree with his original Thoughts, fays: If Nature, or the inanimate Syftem (on which God hath impofed his Laws, which it obeys as a Machine obeys the Hand of the Workman) may in Courfe of Time deviate from its first Direction, as the best Philofophy fhews it may; where is the Wonder that Man, who was created a free Agent, and hath it in his Power every Moment to tranfgrefs the Rule of Right, fhould fometimes go out of Order?

But

But, continucs he, that the Reader may fee in one View, the Exactness of the Method, as well as Force of the Argument, I fhall here draw up a short Synopfis of this Epiftle. The Poet begins in telling us his Subject is An Effay on Man.-His End of Writing is to vindicate Providence.-Tells us against whom he wrote, the Atheifts. From whence he intends to fetch his Arguments, From the visible Things of God feen in this Syftem.-Lays down this Propofition as the Foundation of his Thefis, that of all poffible Systems infinite Wifdom has form'd the beft.-Draws from thence two Confequences; 1. That there must needs be fomewhere fuch a Creature as Man; 2. That the moral Evil which He is the Author of, is productive of the Good of the Whole. This is his general Thefis; from whence he draws this Conclufion, That Man fhould reft fubmiffive and content, and make the Hopes of Futurity his Comfort, but not fuffer this to be the Occafion of Pride, which is the Cause of all his impious Complaints.

He proceeds to confirm his Thefis.-Previoufly enIdeavours to abate our Wonder at the Phænomenon of moral Evil.-Shews first its Ufe to the Perfection of the Univerfe, by Analogy, from the Ufe of Phyfical Evil in this particular Syftem.-Secondly, its Ufe in this Syftem, where it is turned, providentially, from its natural Biafs, to promote Virtue.-Then goes on to vindicate Providence from the Imputation of certain fuppofed natural Evils, as he had before juftified it for the Permiffion of real moral Evil, in fhewing that tho' the Atheist's Complaint against Providence be on Pretence of real moral Evil, yet the true Caufe is his Impatience under imaginary natural Evil; the Iffue of a depraved Appetite for fantastical Advantages, which he fhews, if obtain'd, would be ufelefs, or hurtful to Man,-and deforming and deVOL. II. ftructive

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ftructive to the Uniser fe; as breaking into that Order by which it is fupported.-He defcribes that Order, Harmony, and clofe Connection of the Parts. And by fhewing the intimate Prefence of God to his whole Creation, gives a Reason for an Universe so amazingly beautiful, and perfect. From all this he deduces his general Conclufion, that Nature being neither a blind Chain of Caufes and Effects, nor yet the fortuitous Refult of wandering Atoms, but the wonderful Art and Direction of an all-wife, all-good, and free Being; Whatever is, is right, with regard to the Difpofition of God and its ultimate Tendency; which once granted, all Complaints against Providence are at an End.

The Confequence and Refult of all this, Mr. Pope fays in a Note to Verse 273, is the abfolute Submiffion due to Providence, both as to a present and future State.

As to the Objections made against these Epistles by M. de Croufaz, many of them are caus'd by reading a bad Tranflation, and as he does not underftand English, he is therefore in fome Measure excufeable; but as the pointing out the Errors in the French Translation, can with an English Reader neither do Good nor Harm to the original Poem, I fhall take no Notice of them, but proceed to the Confideration and Illuftration of the fecond Epiftle Of the Nature and State of Man with Refpect to himfelf, as an Individual. Mr. Pope having taken it for prov'd and granted, from the Arguments in the first Epiftle, that all Things being under the wife Dispofition of Providence, must be and are now RIGHT, defires Man to make no Enquiry at all, or fuffer himself to ask Questions concernning the Deity:

Know then thyfelf, prefume not God to fcan,
The only Science of Mankind is Man.

In this laft Line he recommends, instead of prying into God, the Study of ourselves, which Study he now confefles to be his own, and on looking into himself, makes the following Difcovery:

A Being darkly wife and rudely great,
With too much Knowledge for the Sceptick Side,
With too much Weakness for a Stoick's Pride,
He hangs between; in douht to act, or reft,
To deem himself a Part of God, or Beaft;
In doubt, his Mind or Body to prefer,
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err,
Alike in Ignorance his Reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much.
Chaos of Thought and Paffion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd, or difabus'd;
Created half to rife, and half to fall;
Great Lord of all Things, yet a Prey to all;
Sole Judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd:
The Glory, Jeft, and Riddle, of the World!

Here defcribing the State of the human Underftanding to be a dark and feeble State, with regard to the Knowledge of ourselves, and to give still more Strength to this Argument, he shows, to prove the Difficulty of rightly knowing ourselves, that after the higheft Acquirement of the Knowledge of the Nature of Things Man is capable of, he ftill may remain in Ignorauce of himself:

Go wondrous Creature! mount where Science guides,

Go measure Earth, weigh Air, and state the Tides,
Inftruct the Planets in what Orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun.