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Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,

To that which warbles through the vernal wood?
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!

Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:

In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true

215

From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew? 220
How instinct varies in the grov'ling swine,
Compar'd, half-reas'ning elephant, with thine!
"Twixt that, and reason, what a nice barrier?
For ever sep❜rate, yet for ever near!

Remembrance and reflection, how ally'd;

What thin partitions sense from thought divide?
And middle uatures, how they long to join,

Yet never pass th' insuperable line!

Without this just gradation, could they be
Subjected, these to those, or all to thee?

225

230

The pow'rs of all subdu'd by thee alone,

Is not thy reason all these pow'rs in one?

VIII. See, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,

All matter quick, and bursting into birth.

Above, how high, progressive life may go!

235

Around, how wide, how deep extend below!

Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,

Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,

240

No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing.-On superior pow'rs
Were we to press, inferior might on ours:

VER. 238. Ed. Ist.

Ethereal essence, spirit, substance, man.

Or

Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd:
From nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.

245

250

And, if each system in gradation roll Alike essential to th' amazing whole, The least confusion but in one, not all That system only, but the whole must fall. Let earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly, Planets and stars run lawless through the sky; Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl❜d, Being on being wreck'd, and world on world; Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod, 255 And nature trembles to the throne of God.

All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for thee? Vile worm!-oh madness! pride! impiety!

IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread,

Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the head?

What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this genʼral frame :

260

Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains.

265

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;

270

Warms

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.

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, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,

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Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

275

280

285

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; 290 All discord, harmony not understood;

All partial evil, universal good:

And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

After ver. 282. in the MS.

Reason, to think of God when she pretends,
Begins a censor, an adorer ends.

EPISTLE II.

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE II.

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to Himself, as an Individual.

I. THE business of Man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His Middle Nature; bis Powers and Frailties, ver. I to 19. The Limits of his Capacity, ver. 19, &c. II. The two principles of Man, Self-love and Reason, both necessary, ver. 53, &c. Self-love the stronger, and why, ver. 67, &c. Their End the same, ver. 81, &c. III. The PASSIONS, and their use, ver. 93 to 130. The predominant Passion, and its force, ver. 132 to 160. Its necessity, in directing men to different purposes, ver. 165, &c. Its providential use, in fixing our Principle, and ascertaining our Virtue, ver. 177. IV. Virtue and Vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate and evident. What is the office of Reason, ver. 202 to 216. V. How odious Vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves in it, ver. 217. VI. That, however, the ends of Providence and general good are answered in our Passions and Imperfections, ver. 238, &c. How usefully these are distributed to all orders of men, ver. 241. How usefu! they are to Society, ver. 251. And to Individuals, ver. 263. In every state, and every age of life, ver. 273,&c.

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