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Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn fupports, upheld by God, or thee? II. Prefumptuous Man! the reafon wouldst thou find, Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind? First, if thou canft, the harder reason guess, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less? Afk of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade? Or afk of yonder argent fields above, Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove? Of Systems poffible, if 'tis confest That Wisdom infinite must form the best,

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Where all must full or not coherent be,

And all that rifes, rife in due degree;

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Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain,
There must be, fomewhere, fuch a rank as Man:
And all the queftion (wrangle e'er fo long)
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?

NOTES.

greater good in the natural | world, he supposes they may tend likewise to some greater

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good in the moral, as appears
from these fublime images in
the following lines,

If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's defign,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?

Who knows, but he, whofe hand the lightning forms,
Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the forms;
Pours fierce Ambition in a Cæfar's mind,

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Or turns young Ammon loofe to fcourge mankind?

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

In human works, tho' labour'd on with pain,
A thousand movements fcarce one purpose gain;
In God's, one fingle can it's end produce;
Yet ferves to fecond too some other use.
So Man, who here seems principal alone,
Perhaps acts fecond to some sphere unknown,
Touches fome wheel, or verges to fome goal;
'Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole.

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When the proud steed shall know whyMan restrains
His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains;
When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod,
Is now a victim, and now Ægypt's God:

Then fhall Man's pride and dulnefs comprehend 65
His actions', paffions', being's, use and end;
Why doing, fuff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why
This hour a flave, the next a deity.

VARIATIONS.

In the former Editions ✯ 64.

Now wears a garland an Ægyptian God.
After 68. the following lines in first Ed.
If to be perfect in a certain sphere,
What matters foon or late, or here or there?
The bleft to-day is as completely fo
As who began ten thousand years ago.

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Then fay not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault;

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Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur❜d to his state and place;
His time a moment, and a point his fpace.

If to be perfect in a certain fphere,

What matter, foon or late, or here or there?
The bleft to-day is as completely fo,

As who began a thousand years ago.

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III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prefcrib'd, their prefent ftate: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could fuffer Being here below?

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The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,

Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play?

Pleas'd to the laft, he crops the flow'ry food,

And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly given,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n:
Who fees with equal eye, as God of all,

A hero perish, or a fparrow fall,

VARIATIONS.

After 88. in the MS.

No great, no little; 'tis as much decreed
That Virgil's Gnat should die as Cæfar bleed.
NOTES.

VER. 87. Who fees with equal eye, &c.] Mat. x. 29.

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Atoms or fyftems into ruin hurl'd,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

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Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar; Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore. What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, But gives that Hope to be thy bleffing now. Hope fprings eternal in the human breast: Man never Is, but always To be bleft: The foul, uneafy and confin'd from home, Refts and expatiates in a life to come.

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Lo, the poor Indian! whofe untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; 100
His foul, proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the folar walk, or milky way;

Yet fimple Nature to his hope has giv❜n,
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n;

VARIATIONS.

In the firft Fol. and Quarto, y 93.

What blifs above he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy blifs below.

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Some fafer world in depth of woods embrac❜d,
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste,

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Where flaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
To Be, contents his natural defire,

He asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog fhall bear him company.

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IV. Go, wifer thou! and, in thy scale of fenfe, Weigh thy Opinion against Providence ; Call imperfection what thou fancy'ft fuch, Say, here he gives too little, there too much : Destroy all creatures for thy fport or guft, Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust; If Man alone ingrofs not Heav'n's high care, Alone made perfect here, immortal there: Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, Re-judge his juftice, be the GOD of GOD.

VARIATIONS.

After 108. in the first Ed.

But does he fay the maker is not good,
Till he's exalted to what state he wou'd:
Himself alone high Heav'n's peculiar care,
Alone made happy when he will, and where ?

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