5

Let Us (fince Life can little more fupply
Than just to look about us, and to die)
Expatiate free, o'er all this Scene of Man,
A mighty Maze! but not without a Plan;
A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promifcuous fhoor,
Or Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.
B

Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield;
The latent tracts, the giddy heights explore,
Of all who blindly creep, or fightless foar;
Eye Nature's walks, fhoot Folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rife;
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, 15
But vindicate the Ways of GOD to Man.

20

Say firft, of God above, or Man below, What can we reafon, but from what we know? Of Man, what fee we but his Station here, From which to reafon, or to which refer? Thro' Worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known, 'Tis ours to trace him, only in our own. He who thro' vaft Immenfity can pierce, See worlds on worlds compofe one Univerfe, Obferve how Syftem into Syftem runs, What other Planets, and what other Suns? What vary'd Being peoples ev'ry Star?

May tell, why Heav'n has made us as we are.

25

6

But of this frame the bearings, and the Ties,
The ftrong connections, nice dependencies,
Gradations juft, has thy pervading foul

39

Look'd thro'? or can a Part contain the Whole?
Is the great Chain that draws all to agree,
And drawn fupports, upheld by God, or thee?
Prefumptuous Man! the Reafon would'st thou find

Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and so blind?
First, if thou can'ft, the harder reafon guess
Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less?
Ask of thy mother Earth, why oaks are made
Taller or ftronger than the weeds they shade?
Or ask of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove?

Of Systems poffible, if 'tis confest

That Wisdom infinite muft form the best,
Where all must full, or not coherent be,
And all that rifes, rife in due degree;

36

40

45

Then, in the scale of life and fense, 'tis plain
There must be, fome where, fuch a rank as Man;

And all the question (wrangle 'ere fo long)
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?

Refpecting 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 fcarce one purpose gain;
In God's, one single can its End produce,
Yet ferves to fecond too fome other Ufe.
So Man, who here feems principal alone,
Perhaps acts fecond to a Sphere unknown,
Touches fome wheel, or verges to fome gole;
'Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole.

50

55

60

When the proud Steed shall know,why Man restrains His fiery courfe, or drives him o'er the plains; When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod, Now wears a garland, an Ægyptian God; Then fhall Man's pride and dulnefs comprehend 65 His action's, paffion's, being's, use and end; Why doing, fuff'ring, check'd, impell'd, and why This hour a Slave, the next a Deity?

Theri fay not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault?

Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought;

70

His being meafur'd to his ftate, and place,

His time a moment, and a point his space.

Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prefcrib'd, their present state, From Brutes what Men, from Men what Spirits know, Or who could fuffer Being here below?

The Lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to day,
Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food,

ነ

76

And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. 80
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n,

That each may fill the Circle mark'd by Heav'n,
Who fees with equal eye, as God of All,
A Hero perifh, or a Sparrow fall,
Atoms, or Systems, into ruin hurl'd,

85

And now a Bubble burst, and now a World! Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar; Wait the great teacher, Death, and God adore!