or whether there be any other Happiness than Virtue, or whether we know any Thing but ourselves; if WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT, (which is Mr. Pope's first and last and main Argument) it is of no Importance; becaufe, if we were capable of other Science befides that of Man, or could find out fomë Happiness that was not in Virtue, or find a fociál Paffion in our Minds not felfish, or diftinguifh our Reason to have different Aims from our Paffions, we are still just where we were; for there yet remains unconquer'd the undeniable Sentence, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

Such was Mr. Pope's Philofophy, and fuch his fine Poetry; which, as it never had, perhaps never will have any Equal in our Language. When the first of thefe Ethick Epiftles was publish'd, as foon as it was known who wrote it, it was not only univerfally read, but in a Manner the whole Difcourfe of the Town; among many other Things advanc'd or objected, it was faid, that as he was speaking of Man with Refpect to the Deity, he feem'd to have mifs'd the best Opportunity that it was ever poffible for him to have, of making Invocation, Address, and Supplication to the great Creator of Beings, and to have fhewn how far he thought Man might urge his Petitions, without feeming to ftand in the Way of, or alter the Difpenfations of Providence; because it appear'd to fome, that to ask for Things to be alter'd from what they are, was the fame as to fay that they were not right, or might be alter'd for the better; which, if obtain❜d by thofe Prayers, was actually caus'd by the Supplicator.

To hinder fuch Reflections, Mr. Pope did, after a confiderable Paufe publifh, what he calls THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER, being, I fuppofe, unwilling to call it a COMMON PRAYER, left he might feem

to

to fet it in Competition with those which are read in our Proteftant Churches under that Name, tho' it be impoffible that any fet Form of Words fhould deferve the Name of univerfal, feeing it cannot be fuited to all States, the Mind requires different Expreffions under different Influences and Habits, nor can be tied down to one Set of Thoughts and Words, even under the fame Habits and Influence: But let us proceed to fee how Mr. Pope himself ftands, or imagines himself to stand with relation to the Deity. He infcribes it:

DEO OPT. MAX.

FATHER of all in every Age,

In every

By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,
Jehovah! Jove! or Lord!

In thefe first four Lines he first acknowledges him to be the Creator of all, who has always fomehow or nanother, either with or without the publick Forms, been worshipped by all the habitable Earth in all Ages, that thofe we have called Pagan, or even barbarous, have agreed in paying Adoration to a fupreme Being, it making little Difference what Name they have called him by, for Jove is Jehovah and the Lord.

Thou first great Caufe, leaft understood,
Who all my Senfe confin'd,

To know but this, that thou art good,
And that myself am blind:
Yet gave me, in this dark Estate,
To fee the Good from Ill,
And binding Nature faft in Fate,
Left free the human Will,

Bb 4

Thou

Thou first great Caufe! is here only a Repetition of Father of all! and is fpoke in Admiration, not from any conceiv'd Idea, because, though he knows that the infinite Creator of all Things must be good, yet he does not pretend to fay that he fees it, but confeffes himself to be blind, yet not with fuch a total Blindness as to prevent his feeing his own Good from Ill; as to what he fays of Nature being bound faft in Fate and yet the human Will free, it wants a little Explanation, infinuating, that the human Will was not included when Nature was spoke of; but to proceed,

What Confcience dictates to be done,
Or wants me not to do ;

This teach me more than Hell to fhun,
That more than Heav'n pursue.

This Refolution of being govern'd by the Confcience, is the best can be made, for that is what Mr. Pope in his Effay on Man, has called the God within the Mind; the Approbation or Condemnation of Men alter not the Good and Evil here, 'tis within I stand acquitted or condemn'd to myself, this well confider'd makes it appear the ftranger, that any Man (for all feel they have their Accufer and Judge within their Mind) fhould want to force the Confcience of another, or strive to do it, knowing how vain an Attempt it is, and that thofe Things are only right which Confience dictates to be done, and those Things (tho' others appearing to be good Men do them) carefully to be avoided which the warns me not to do:

What Bleffings thy free Bounty gives,
Let me not caft away;

For God is paid when Man receives,
To enjoy is to obey.

This is good Doctrine against all the unnatural Abftinencies of affected People, who pretend to mortify themselves, by not fatisfying the Calls of Nature in a temperate Manner, which is Wickedness, for the great Abundance given, is doubtlefs with Defign that the Creatures fhould be refresh'd and fuftain'd, that fo the Animal Spirits may be kept up, and the Chearfulness of the Heart, and then, as Milton fays, the great Giver would be better thanked, not in fuch long Fafts as fome Monks and Myfticks ufe, that fo frequently bring on Faintings, which have too often been mistaken by the poor Creatures for Extafy, and when after another fhort Faft, a little Food has lull'd them to fleep, then they dream that they fee Vifions. This Mr. Pope wholly oppofes, when he fays, that when Man receives, God's Defign is anfwer'd in giving, and to enjoy it is not only beft for us as to our Pleasure, but it is our Duty and a Proof of our Obedience :

Yet not to Earth's contracted Span,
Thy Goodness let me bound,

Or think thee Lord alone of Man

When thousand Worlds are round.

?

That is, at the fame Time that we confider the Deity difpenfing of Good to us, we fhould contemplate further, and look on him as ruling the whole Univerfe; thousands of Worlds, and perhaps thousands of thousands, by this Means filling our Minds as much as we poffibly may, with an Idea of his Greatnefs, and the Greatness of his Power:

Let not this weak unknowing Hand
Prefume thy Bolts to throw,
And deal Damnation round the Land
On each I judge thy Foe.

Here

Here he reproaches thofe wicked Zealots who are for anathematizing all those who move not in their narrow Circles, and thundering Curfes fhocking to the Ears of human Charity, on Men moft Times remarkable for their Goodness and Purity of Life,. whereas thefe folemn and affuming Interdictors, are generally Perfons of most tainted Conversation and lewd Practices, proud, cruel, felfifh, Profaners of Vows, full of Voluptuoufnefs, Gluttony, and its beastly Attendants, yet thefe are they who pretend to direct the Aim of the Almighty, and impudently pronounce in his Name, Sentences which are fo far from being his Dictate or Command, that they fhew themfelves to be the Effects of meer Malice of iniquitous Men, fupported by a Power unjustly affum'd:

If I am right, oh teach my Heart
Still in the Right to ftay;

124

If I am wrong, thy Grace impart
to find that beetter Way!

This is Humiliation; firft, a Fear left he fhould not be in the Right, and then a Supplication for Knowledge to find a better Way, if he is indeed in the Wrong; this Knowledge he has been pleas'd to call Grace, whereas all the Favours we receive, our very Being, our rational Faculties and Powers, may all be called by the fame Name, it being thro' the Grace of the infinite Deity that we have receiv'd them but Mr. Pope has not here diftinguith'd whether he fupplicates for a fupernatural Grace, or only that he may fo use the Grace receiv'd by Nature, as to find a better Path, if there might be a better for him to walk in, neither can I fee why Grace is not as much requir'd to preferve a Man in the Continua. tion of good Works, as to begin them, more ef pecially, if it be fo that we of ourfelves do nothing good,