Through worlds unnumber'd, though the God be known, Tis ours to trace him only in our own.

He, who through vast immensity can pierce,

See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
Observe how system into system runs,

What other planets circle other suns,

What varied being peoples every star,

25

May tell, why Heaven has made us as we are.
But of this frame, the bearings and the ties,

The strong connexions, nice dependencies,
Gradations just, has thy pervading soul

Look'd through? Or, can a part contain the whole?
Is the great chain, that draws all to agree,

And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee?

30

II. Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find, 35 Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind? First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less! Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade? Or ask of yonder argent fields above, Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove?

Of systems possible, if 'tis confest

That wisdom infinite must form the best,
Where all must full or not coherent be,

And all that rises, rise in due degree; X

40

45

Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis p'ain,

There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man;

And all the question (wrangle e'er so long)

Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?

50

Respecting man, whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to all.

In human works, though labour'd on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;

In God's, one single can its end produce,
Yet serves to second too some other use.

So man, who here seems principal alone,
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown,
Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal;
Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

5

6

When the proud steed shall know why man 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 Egypt's god;

Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend
His actions', passions', being's use and end;
Why doing, suff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why
This hour a slave, the next a deity.

65

Then say not, man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought;

70

His knowledge measur'd to his state and place,
His time a moment, and a point his space.

If to be perfect in a certain sphere,

What matter soon or late, or here or there?
The blest to-day, is as completely so,

As who began a thousand years ago.

75

III. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate,

All but the page prescrib'd, their present state:

From brutes what men, from men what spirits know;

Or who could suffer being here below?

80

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,

he thy reason would he skip and play? as'd to the last, he crops the flowery food, 1 licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. lindness to the future! kindly giv'n,

at each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n;

10 sees with equal eye, as God of all, iero perish, or a sparrow fall,

ms or systems into ruin hurl'd

d now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar:
ait the great teacher, death, and God adore!
hat future bliss, he gives not thee to know,
It gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
ope springs eternal in the human breast:
an never is, but always to be blest.

85

90

95

ie soul uneasy, and confin'd from home, ests and expatiates in a life to come.

Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor❜d mind
es God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
is soul proud science never taught to stray
ar as the solar walk, or milky way;
et simple nature to his hope has giv'n,
ehind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n;
ome safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
ome happier island in the wat'ry waste,

100

105

Where slaves once more their native land behold,
Jo fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold!
o be, contents his natural desire,

le asks no angel's wings, no seraph's fire;

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.

110

IV. Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence ;
Call imperfection what thou fancy'st such,
Say, here he gives too little, there too much;
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust;
Yet cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust;
If man alone engross not Heaven's high care,
Alone made perfect here, immortal there;
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Re-judge his justice, be the god of God!

In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,

1

1

1

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,

Aspiring to be angels, men rebel;

And who but wishes to invert the laws

Of order, sins against th' Eternal Cause.

13

V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine, Earth for whose use ? Pride answers, "Tis for mine: "For me kind Nature wakes her genial power,

"Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower;
"Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew
"The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew;
"For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings;
66 For me, health gushes from a thousand springs;
"Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;
"My footstool earth, my canopy the skies."

13

14

But errs not nature from this gracious end,

From burning suns when livid deaths descend,

When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep

Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
No ('tis reply'd) the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial, but by general laws;
"Th' exceptions few; some change since all began:
«And what created perfect?" Why then man?

If the great end be human happiness,
Then nature deviates: and can man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of showers and sunshine, as of man's desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's design,
Why then a Borgia or a Catiline?

145

150

156

Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce ambition in a Cesar's mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?
From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs ;
Account for moral, as for natʼral things:

160

Why charge we Heav'n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right, is to submit.

165

Better for us, perhaps it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never passion discompos'd the mind;
But all subsists by elemental strife; •
And passions are the elements of life.

The gen❜ral order, since the whole began,

Ís kept in nature, and is kept in man.

170

VI. What would this man? now upward will he soar,

And little less than angel, would be more;

1