Vast chain of Being! which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man1,
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from Infinite to thee,
From thee to Nothing.-On superior pow'rs2
Were we to press, inferior might on ours:
Or in the full creation leave a void,

240

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd:

From Nature's chain whatever link you strike 3,

245

Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
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 Suns run lawless thro' 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,
And Nature tremble to the throne of God.

250

255

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 5,

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

260

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 gen'ral frame:
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains",
The great directing MIND of ALL ordains.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul7;
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same;
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame;
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent ;

2 Warton compares:

'Has any seen The mighty chain of beings, lessening down From infinite Perfection, to the brink Of dreary Nothing, desolate abyss! From which astonished Thought recoiling turns?" Thomson [Seasons, Summer]. [The whole of this passage was added by Thomson in the second edition of his poem.]

3 Almost the words of Marcus Aurelius, 1. v. c. 8; as also v. 265 from the same. Warton.

Let ruling angels &c.] The poet, throughout this poem, with great art uses an advantage, which his employing a Platonic principle for the

265

270

foundation of his Essay had afforded him; and that is the expressing himself (as here) in Platonic notions; which, luckily for his purpose, are highly poetical, at the same time that they add a grace to the uniformity of his reasoning. Warburton.

5 What if the foot, &c.] This fine illustration in defence of the System of Nature, is taken from St. Paul, who employed it to defend the System of Grace [1 Cor. xii. 15-21].

6 Just as absurd, &c.] See the Prosecution and application of this in Ep. iv. P.

7 [Warburton has a long and ingenious note on this passage, intended to vindicate Pope from the charge of having given vent to a pantheistical and 'Spinozist' conception, by adducing other passages from the Essay in which a personal God is acknowledged.]

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 burns1:
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 2.
Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
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 hour3.

275

280

285

All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not see;
All Discord, Harmony not understood;
All partial Evil, universal Good:

290

And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT 4.

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; his Powers and Frailties, v. I to 19. The Limits of his Capacity, v. 19, &c. II. The two Principles of Man, Self-love and Reason, both necessary, v. 53, &c. Self-love the stronger, and why, v. 67, &c. Their end the same, v. 81, &c. III. The PASSIONS, and their use, v. 93 to 130. The predominant Passion, and its force, v. 132 to 160. Its Necessity, in directing Men to different purposes, v. 165, &c. Its providential Use, in fixing our Principle, and ascertaining our Virtue, v. 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, v. 202 to 216. V. How odious Vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it, v. 217. VI. That, however, the Ends of Providence and general Good are answered in our Passions and Imperfections, v. 238, &c. How usefully these are distributed to all Orders of Men, v. 241. How useful they are to Society, v. 251. And to the Individuals, v. 263. In every state, and every age of life, v. 273, &c.

As the rapt Seraph, &c.] Alluding to the name Seraphim, signifying burners. Warbur

ton.

After v. 282, in the MS. 'Reason, to think of God when she pretends, Begins a Censor, an Adorer ends.' Warburton. 3 [What Bolingbroke says in the fine passage quoted by Warton (with the pious wish 'Si sic omnia dixisset') was more briefly, but as finely expressed by the child Goethe (v. ante): 'God knows very well that an immortal soul can receive

no injury from a mortal accident.']

4 [Warburton thus explains the conclusion deduced from the argument of the Epistle: That Nature being neither a blind chain of Causes and Effects, nor yet the fortuitous result of wandering atoms, but the wonderful Art and Direction of an all-wise, all-good, and free Being; WHATever is, is RigHT, with regard to the Disposition of God, and its ultimate Tendency; which once granted, all complaints against Providence are at an end.j

1.

K

EPISTLE II.

NOW then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man1.
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowlege for the Sceptic side2,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
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 Passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd3:

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

5

ΤΟ

15

Go, wond'rous creature! mount where Science guides,

Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun 4;
Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
Or tread the mazy round his follow'rs trod,
And quitting sense call imitating God;
As Eastern priests in giddy circles run 5,
And turn their heads to imitate the Sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!

Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal Man unfold all Nature's law,
Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And shew'd a NEWTON as we shew an Ape7.

1 Ver. 2, Ed. 1.

'The only science of Mankind is Man.' Warburton. 2 [Sceptics was one of the names assumed by the followers of Pyrrhon, who always considered and never discovered;' whose philosophy therefore was negative; while the Stoics proclaimed the doctrine that the true end of life and the real happiness of man consist in the performance of duty and the pursuit of virtue.]

game

3 in endless Error hurld.] To hurl signifies, not simply to cast, but to cast backward and forward, and is taken from the rural called hurling. Warburton. [Scoticè: curling.] A Correct old Time,] This alludes to Sir Isaac Newton's Grecian Chronology, which he reformed on those two sublime conceptions, the difference between the reigns of kings, and the generations of men; and the position of the colures of the equinoxes and solstices at the time of the Argonautic expedition. Warburton.

5 [Eastern priests, as e.g. the priests of the Sun-God Baal.]

6 Go, teach Eternal Wisdom &c.] These two lines are a conclusion from all that had been said from v. 18. Warburton.

7 as we shew an Ape.] Evidently borrowed from the following passage in the Zodiac of Palingenius, and not, as hath been suggested by Dr Hurd, from Plato. Pope was a reader and publisher [he published a selection in 1740, founded on an earlier anthology of 1684] of the modern poets of Italy who wrote in Latin. The words are— Simia Coelicolum risusque jocusque Deorum est Tunc Homo, cum temere ingenio confidit, et audet

Abdita Naturæ scrutari arcanaque Divum.' Warton. This is however an entirely different sense from that in which Pope has used the similitude: in the one case the superior beings admire the wisdom, in the other, they laugh at the folly. Roscoe.

Could he, whose rules the rapid Comet bind,
Describe or fix one movement of his Mind?
Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,
Explain his own beginning, or his end?
Alas what wonder! Man's superior part
Uncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to art;
But when his own great work is but begun,
What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.

Trace Science then, with Modesty thy guide;
First strip off all her equipage of Pride;
Deduct what is but Vanity, or Dress,
Or Learning's Luxury, or Idleness1;

35

40

43

Or tricks to shew the stretch of human brain2,
Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;

Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts

Of all our Vices have created Arts 3;

50

Then see how little the remaining sum,

Which serv'd the past, and must the times to come!

II. Two Principles in human nature reign;

Self-love, to urge, and Reason, to restrain;

Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,
Each works its end, to move or govern all:
And to their proper operation still,
Ascribe all Good; to their improper, Ill.

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul;
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.
Man, but for that, no action could attend,
And but for this, were active to no end:
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot;
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless thro' the void,
Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.

Most strength the moving principle requires;
Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires.
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies,
Form'd but to check, delib'rate, and advise.
Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh;
Reason's at distance, and in prospect lie3:
That sees immediate good by present sense;
Reason, the future and the consequence".
Thicker than arguments, temptations throng,
At best more watchful this, but that more strong.

The action of the stronger to suspend,
Reason still use, to Reason still attend.
Attention, habit and experience gains;

Each strengthens Reason, and Self-love restrains.

Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight',

More studious to divide than to unite ;

And Grace and Virtue, Sense and Reason split,

With all the rash dexterity of wit.

Wits, just like Fools, at war about a name,
Have full as oft no meaning, or the same2.
Self-love and Reason to one end aspire,
Pain their aversion, Pleasure their desire;
But greedy That, its object would devour,

This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r:
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,

Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

III. Modes of Self-love the Passions we may call;

'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all:
But since not ev'ry good we can divide,
And Reason bids us for our own provide;
Passions, tho' selfish, if their means be fair,
List under Reason, and deserve her care;
Those, that imparted, court a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take some Virtue's name.
In lazy Apathy let Stoics boast
Their Virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a frost *;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is Exercise, not Rest:
The rising tempest puts in act the soul,
Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card5, but Passion is the gale";
Nor God alone in the still calm we find,
He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind.

Let subtle schoolmen &c.] From this description of Self-love and Reason it follows, as the poet observes (from v. 80 to 93), that both conspire to one end, namely, human happiness, though they be not equally expert in the choice of the means; the difference being this, that the first hastily seizes every thing which hath the appearance of good; the other weighs and examines whether it be indeed what it appears.

This shews, as he next observes, the folly of the schoolmen, who consider them as two opposite principles, the one good and the other evil. The observation is seasonable and judicious; for this dangerous school-opinion gives great support to the Manichean or Zoroastrian error, the confutation of which was one of the author's chief ends in writing. For if there be two principles in Man, a good and bad, it is natural to think him the joint product of the two Manichean deities (the first of which contributed to his Reason, the other to his Passions) rather than the creature of one Individual Cause. This was Plu

tarch's notion, and, as we may see in him, of the more ancient Manicheans. Warburton.

2 After v. 86, in the MS.

'Of good and evil Gods what frighted Fools, Of good and evil Reason puzzled Schools, Deceiv'd, deceiving, taught -.' Warburton.

3 [List, i.e. enlist or range themselves.] [Warton, in an admirable note, points out the injustice of 'the universal censure that has been passed upon the Stoics, as if they constantly and strenuously inculcated a total insensibility with respect to passion, to which these lines of Pope allude; when it is certain the Stoics meant only a freedom from strong perturbation, from irrational and excessive agitations of the soul; and no more.']

5 [The card, i.e. the compass.] This passage is exactly copied from Fontenelle, tom. 1. p. 109. Warton.

6 After ver. 108, in the MS.

'A tedious Voyage! where how useless lies The compass, if no pow'rful gusts arise?' Warburton.