Where all must full or not coherent be,

And all that rises, rife in due degree;

Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain,
There must be, fomewhere, fuch a rank as Man:
And all the question (wrangle e'er fo long)
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?

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

45

50

In

COMMENTARY.

infinite wifdom bath formed the beft. Ver. 43, 44. From whence he draws two confequences:

1. The first (from ver. 44 to 51.) is, that as the best system cannot but be such a one as hath no inconnected void; fuch a one in which there is a perfect coherence and gradual subordination in all its parts; there must needs be, in fome part or other of the scale of reasoning life, fuch a creature as MAN: which reduces the dispute to this abfurd queftion, Whether God has placed him wrong? WARBURTON.

VER. 51. Refpecting Man, &c.] It being fhewn that MAN, the fubject of this inquiry, has a neceffary place in fuch a system as this is confeffed to be; and it being evident, that the abuse of Freewill, from whence proceeds all moral evil, is the certain effect of fuch a creature's exiftence; the next question will be, How these evils can be accounted for, confiftently with the idea we have of God's moral attributes? Therefore,

2. The fecond confequence he draws from his principle, That of all poffible fyftems infinite Wifdom has formed the best, is, that whatever is wrong in our private fyftem, is right as relative to the whole :

66

Refpecting Man, whatever wrong we call,

May, must be right, as relative to ALL.”

That it may, he proves (from ver. 52 to 61.) by fhewing in what confifts the difference between the fyftematic works of God, and thofe of Man; viz. that, in the latter, a thousand movements fcarce

In human works, tho' labour'd on with pain,

A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;
In God's, one fingle can its end produce;

55

Yet ferves to second too fome other use.

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

60

When the proud Steed shall know why Man restrains His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains;

COMMENTARY.

When

gain one purpofe; in the former, one movement gains many purposes. So that

66

Man, who here feems principal alone,

Perhaps acts fecond to fome sphere unknown."

And acting thus, the appearance of wrong in the partial system may be right in the univerfal: For

""Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.”/

That it must, the whole body of this epiftle is employed to illuftrate and enforce. Thus partial Evil is univerfal Good, and thus Providence is fairly acquitted. WARBURTON.

VER. 61. When the proud Steed, &c.] From all this the Poet draws a general conclufion (from ver. 60 to 91.), that, as what has been faid is fufficient to vindicate the ways of Providence, Man should reft fubmiffive and content, and own every thing to be disposed for the best; that to think of discovering the manner how God conducts this wonderful fcheme to its completion, is as abfurd as to imagine

NOTES.

VER. 53. In human works,] Verbatim from Bolingbroke; Fragments 43 and 63. WARTON.

VER. 53. In human works, &c.] How clearly and closely is this fentiment expreffed, and yet how difficult to render inte verfe with precifion and effect!

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 dulnefs comprehend 65
His actions', paffions', being's, use and end;
Why doing, fuff'ring; check'd, impell'd; and why
This hour a flave, the next a deity.

Then fay not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault
Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur'd to his ftate and place;

His time a moment, and a point his space.

70

If

VARIATIONS.

VER. 64. In the former Editions,

Now wears a garland an Egyptian God:

altered as above for the reafon given in the note.

After ver. 68. the following lines in the first Edition:
If to be perfect in a certain sphere,

What matters foon or late, or here or there?
The bleft to-day is as completely fo,

As who began ten thousand years ago.

COMMENTARY.

imagine that the horfe and ox fhall ever be able to comprehend why they undergo fuch different treatment in the hand of Man ; nay, that such knowledge, if communicated, would be even pernicious, and make us neglect or defert our duty here. This he illuftrates by the cafe of the lamb, which is happy in not knowing the fate that attends it from the butcher; and from thence takes occafion to observe, that God is the equal mafter of all his creatures, and provides for the proper happiness of each and every of them. WARBURTON.

NOTES.

VER. 64. Egypt's God:] Called fo, because the God Apis was worshipped univerfally over the whole land of Egypt.

WARBURTON.

If to be perfect in a certain sphere,

What matter, foon or late, or here or there?
The bleft to-day is as completely fo,

As who began a thousand years ago.

75

III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of

Fate,

All but the page prefcrib'd, their prefent state:

From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could fuffer Being here below?

80

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,

Had he thy Reafon, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the laft, he crops the flow'ry food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n,

That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n :

85

Who

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 88, in the MS.

No great, no little; 'tis as much decreed,

That Virgil's Gnat should die, as Cæfar bleed.

NOTES.

VER. 77. The book of Fate,] It would obviate the heavy difficulties in which we are involved, when we argue on the Divine Prescience, and confequent Predeftination, if we were to adopt Archbishop King's opinion, and fay, "that the knowledge of God is very different from the knowledge of Man, which implies fucceffion, and fecing objects one after another; but the existence and the attributes of the Deity can have no relation to time; for that all things, past, prefent, and to come, are all at once prefent to the Divine Mind." WARTON.

VER. 81. The lamb thy riot dooms] The tenderness of this ftriking image, and particularly the circumftance in the laft line, has an artful effect in alleviating the drynefs of the argumentative parts of the Effay, and interesting the reader. WARTON.

Who fees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a fparrow fall,

Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.

COMMENTARY.

90

What

VER. 91. Hope humbly then ; &c.] But now an Objector is fuppofed to put in, and fay, "You tell us, indeed, that all things shall terminate in good; but we see ourselves furrounded with prefent evil; yet you forbid us all inquiry into the manner how we are to be extricated from it, and, in a word, leave us in a very difconfolate condition." Not fo, replies the Poet; you may reafonably, if you please, receive much comfort from the HOPE of a happy futurity; a hope implanted in the human breast by God himself for this very purpose, as an earnest of that blifs, which, always flying from us here, is reserved for the good Man hereafter. The reason why the Poet chooses to infift on this proof of a future state, in preference to others, is in order to give his system (which is founded in a fublime and improved Platonifm) the greater grace of uniformity. For HOPE was Plato's peculiar argument for a future ftate; and the words here employed-The foul uncafy, Sc. his peculiar expreffion. The Poet in this place, therefore, says in exprefs terms, that GOD GAVE US HOPE TO SUPPLY THAT

FUTURE BLISS, WHICH HE AT PRESENT KEEPS HID FROM US.

In his fecond epistle, ver. 274, he goes still further, and says, this HOPE quits us not even at Death, when every thing mortal drops from us:

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die." And, in the fourth epistle, he fhews, how the fame HOPE is a proof of a future ftate, from the confideration of God's giving his creatures no appetite in vain, or what he did not intend fhould be fatisfied:

NOTES.

VER. 87. Who fees with equal eye, &c.] Matth. x. 29.

"He