An essay on man. Enlarged and improved by the author. With notes, critical and explanatory

DESIGN.

HAY

1

EAVING proposed to write some pieces on Human

Life and Manners, such as (to use my Lord Bab con's 'exprefsion) come home to Men's Business and Bofors, I thought it more satisfactory: to begin with conlidering Man in the abstract, his Nature and his State : fince, to prove any moral duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper

end and purpose of its being.

The science of Human Nature isi like all other feiences, reduced to a- fero clear points there are not many certain truths in this world. It is therefore in the anatomy of the Mind as in that of the Body: more good will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible parts, than by studying too much finer nerves and vessels, the confirmations and uses of which will for ever escape our observation. The disputes are all upon these last, and I will venture to say, they have less sharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other, and have diminished the practice more than advanced the theory of morality. If I could Hatter myself that this Essay has any merit, it is in steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly, opposite; in passing over terms utterly unintelligible; and in forming a temperate, yet not inconfiftent; and a short, yet not imperfet system of Ethics.

This I might have done in prose ; but I chofe verse, and even rhyme, for two reasons: the one will appear obvious'; that principles, maxims, or precepts so written, both Itrike the reader more strongly at first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards. The other may feen odd, but it is true; I found I could express them more

floort!

Mortly this way than in prose itself, and nothing is truer than that much of the force, as well as grace,

of

arguments or instructions depend upon their conciseness. I was unable to treat this part of my subject more in detail, without becoming dry and tedious; or more poetically, without facrificing perfpicuity to ornament, without wandering from the precision, or breaking the chain of reasoning. If any man can unite all these, without di. minution of any of them, I freely confess he will compass a thing above my capacity.

What is now published, is only to be considered as a general map of Man, marking ont no more than the greater parts, their extent, their limits, and their connexion, but leaving the particular to be more fully delineated in the charts which are to follow. Consequently these Epistles in their progress (if I make any progress) will be less dry, and more susceptible of poetical ornament. I ain here only opening the fountains, and clearing the passage: to deduce the rivers, to follow them in their course, and to observe their effects, would be a talk more agreeable.

THE

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E PIST LE I.

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to

the UNIVERSE.

OF Man in the abstract. That

we can judge only with
regard to our own system, being ignorant of the re-

lation of systems and things,

ver. 17, &c.

That Man is not to be deemed imperfelt, but a Being

suited to his place and rank in the creation, agreeable

to the general Order of things, and conformable to

Ends and Relations to him unknown,

ver: 33, &e.

That it is partly upon his Ignorance of future events, and

partly upon the Hope of a future ítate, that all his

Happiness in the present depends, ver: 77, &c.

The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending

to Perfection, the cause of Man's error and misery.

The impiety of putting himself in the place of God, and,

judging of the fitness or unfitness, perfection, justice

or injuftice of his dispensations, ver. 113,.&c,

The absurdity of conceiting himself the final cause of the

creation, or expecting that perfection in the moral

world, which is not in the natural, ver. 137, &c,

The unreasonableness of his complaints against Providence,

while, on the one hand, he demands the Perfections

of the Angels; and, on the other, the bodily qualifi-

cations of the Brutes ; though to possess any of the

fenfitive faculties in a higher degree, would render him

miferable,

ver. 173, &c.

That throughout the whole visible world, and universal

order and gradation in the sensual and mental faculties

is observed, which causes a subordination of creature to

creature

E

creature, and of all creatures to Man. The gradation
of sense, instinct, thought, reflection, reafon; that Rea-

son alone countervails all the other faculties, ver. 207.
How much farther this order and subordination of living
creatures may extend' above and below us ; were any
part of which broken, not that part only, but the

whole connected creation must be destroyed, ver. 233
The extravagance, madnefs and pride of such a desire,

ver. 259,
The consequence of all; the absolutefishmision due to Pid-
vidence, both as to our present and future state,

vér. 281, &c. to the end

E P I S T L E II.

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to

Himself, as an Individual.

TH

*HE business of Man not to pry into God, but to study
himself. His Middle Nature; his Powers and Frailties,

ver: 1, &c.

The Limits of his Capacity,

ver. 19, &C

The two Principles of Man, Self-love and Reafon, both
necessary,