How would he wish that Heaven had left him still
The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill!1
Who finds not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?

205

VII. Far as creation's ample range extends,
The scale of sensual, mental powers ascends: 2
Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race,3
From the green myriads in the peopled grass:
What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme,
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam:
Of smell, the headlong lioness between,1
And hound sagacious on the tainted green:
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,

210

215

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
From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew?
How instinct varies in the groveling swine,
Compared, half-reasoning elephant, with thine!
'Twixt that and reason, what a nice 5 barrier!
Forever separate, yet forever near!

220

planets, in their revolutions, sounded a note, high or low, according to their nearness to the sun, thus making a complete octave. Cf. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, v. i.

1 Observe the beauty of expression.

2 Cf. lines 47, 48.

3 "Observe the exquisite choice of expression in lines 209–222, which will bear comparison with the most subtle passages of Vergil. The harmony of the whole is interrupted, to our ear, in line 223, by the foreign accent on 'barrier,' a word which is now thoroughly naturalized, and accented on the first syllable" (PATTISON).

4 "The manner of the lions hunting their prey in the deserts of Africa is this: At their first going out in the nighttime they set up a loud roar, and then listen to the noise made by the beasts in their flight, pursuing them by the ear, and not by the nostril. It is probable that the story of the jackal's hunting for the lion was occasioned by observation of this defect of scent in that terrible animal" (POPE). 5 Hardly distinguishable.

Remembrance and reflection, how allied;
What thin partitions sense from thought1 divide;
And middle natures, how they long to join,2
Yet never pass the insuperable line!3
Without this just gradation could they be
Subjected, these to those, or all to thee?
The powers of all subdued by thee alone,
Is not thy reason all these powers in one? 4

225

230

VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth,

All matter quick,5 and bursting into birth.

Above, how high, progressive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!

235

Vast chain of Being! which from God began,6
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,

Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing. On superior powers
Were we to press, inferior might on ours:

240

Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroyed:

From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,

245

Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.

And, if each system in gradation roll

Alike essential to the amazing whole,

The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole must fall.

1 "Sense from thought," i.e., sensation from reason.

250

2 "There is a gradation from man through various forms of sense, intelligence, and reason, up to beings whose rank in the intellectual system is even above our conceptions" (Bolingbroke).

3 What is "the insuperable line "?

4 "Is not thy reason," etc., false psychology. Reason is not a union of all these powers, but is a power far different from any of them, and superior to them all together.

5 " Quick" is used in its nearly obsolete sense of "alive."

6 Cf. lines 33, 34.

7 Microscope.

Let 1 earth, unbalanced, from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled,
Being on being wrecked, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their center nod,
And Nature tremble to the throne of God.

255

All this dread Order break-for whom? for thee?2
Vile worm! -O madness! pride! impiety!

IX. What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread,

260

Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear repined
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this general frame;
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains
The great directing Mind of All ordains.3

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul;

265

That,5 changed through all, and yet in all the same;

Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame;

270

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,

275

As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;

1 In this, and line 253, the word seems to be concessive, and each succeeding line is resultant.

2 In lines 257, 258 Pope tries to be indignant, and succeeds only in being bombastic.

3 "Just as absurd," etc. If the vices and frantic passions of " a Borgia, or a Catiline," are necessary to the harmony of the universe, why should the milder passions, pity, grief, etc., be absurd?

4 The doctrine of lines 267-280 is an expression of pure pantheism. It is marred only by the antithesis "hair as heart."

5 What is the antecedent of "that"?

As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns:1
To Him, no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, He bounds, connects and equals all.2

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, Heaven bestows on thee.
Submit in this, or any other sphere,

:

Secure 3 to be as blessed as thou canst bear:

Safe in the hand of one disposing Power,

Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

280

285

All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;4

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not see;

290

All Discord, Harmony not understood;

All partial Evil, universal Good:5

And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

3" Secure," sure; certain; confident.

4 Lines 289-292 are excellent examples of antithesis. 5 See p. 63, line 146.

6 See Epistle I. line 52; Epistle IV. lines 141, 384. right," rather silences than satisfies.

"Whatever is, is

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 (verses 1-19). The limits of his capacity (verse 19, etc.). II. The two principles of man, self-love and reason, both necessary (verse 53, etc.). Self-love the stronger, and why (verse 67, etc.). Their end the same (verse 81, etc.). III. The Passions, and their use (verses 93-130). The predominant passion, and its force (verses 132-160). Its necessity in directing men to different purposes (verse 165, etc.). Its providential use in fixing our principle and ascertaining our virtue (verse 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 (verses 202-216). V. How odious vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it (verse 217). VI. That, however, the ends of Providence and general good are answered in our passions and imperfections (verse 231, etc.). How usefully these are distributed to all orders of men (verse 241). How useful they are to society (verse 251), and to individuals (verse 263), in every state and every age of life (verse 273, etc.).