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Plate X.

Vol. III. facing p.49·

N.Blakey inv. et del.

Ravenet sculp

See some fit Passion every Age supply. Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die

Essay on Man, Ep

EPISTLE III.

H

ERE then we reft: "The Univerfal Caufe

"Acts to one end, but acts by various laws." In all the madness of fuperfluous health,

The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 1. in feveral Edit. in 4to.

Learn, Dulness, learn! "The Universal Caufe, &c.

WE are now come to the third epiftle of the Effay on Man. It having been fhewn, in explaining the origin, ufe, and end of the Paffions, in the fecond epiftle, that Man hath focial as well as felfifh paffions, that doctrine naturally introduceth the third, which treats of Man as a SOCIAL animal; and connects it with the fecond, which confidered him as an INDIVIDUAL. And as the conclufion from the fubject of the first epiftle made the introduction to the fecond, fo here again, the conclufion of the fecond

(Ev'n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine, The fcale to measure others wants by thine.) maketh the introduction to the third.

NOTES

VER. 3. fuperfluous health,] Immoderate labour and study are the great im

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pairers of health: Those, whofe ftation fets them above both, must needs

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Let this great truth be present night and day;

But most be present, if we preach or pray.

Look round our World; behold the chain of Love Combining all below and all above.

See plaftic Nature working to this end,
The fingle atoms each to other tend,
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace.
See Matter next, with various life endu❜d,
Prefs to one centre ftill, the gen'ral Good.
See dying vegetables life sustain,
See life diffolving vegetate again :

All forms that perish other forms supply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)

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ter so cohere as to fit it for the ufes intended by its Creator, a proper configu ration of its infenfible parts is as necessary as that quality fo equally and univerfally conferred upon it, called Attraction. To exprefs the first part of this thought, our Author fays, form'd; and to express the latter, impell'd.

Like bubbles on the fea of Matter born,

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They rife, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign: Parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preferving Soul
Connects each being, greatest with the leaft;
Made Beast in aid of Man, and Man of Beaft;
All ferv'd, all serving: nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.
Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,

For him as kindly spread the flow'ry lawn :
Is it for thee the lark afcends and fings?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own and raptures fwell the note.

NOTES.

VER. 22. One all-extending, all preferving Soul] Which, in the language of Sir Ifaac Newton, is, Deus omnipræfens eft, non per virtutem folam, fed etiam per fubftantiam: nam virtus fine fubftantia fubfiftere non poteft. Newt. Princ fchol. gen. fub fin.

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