Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent;
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns :
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all !

10. Cease then, nor order imperfection name;
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy owo point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit-in this or any other sphere,
Secure to be as bless'd as thou canst bear;
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Or in the natal or the mortal hour.
All nature is but art unknown to thee;
All chance direction, which thou canst not see ;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good :
And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is is right.

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect

to Himself as an Individual.

ARGUMENT. 1. The business of man not to pry into God, but to study

himself. His middle nature ; his powers and frailties.The limits of his capacity.--2. The two principles of man, self-love, and reason, both necessary.--Self love the stronger, and why.---Their end the same.-3. The passions, and their use.---The predominant passion, and its force.--Its necessity, in directing men to different purposes.-Its providential use, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining ou virtue.--4. Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate and evident . what is the office of Reason.-5. How odious vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it.--6. That, however, the ends of Providence and general good are answered in our passions and imperfections.---How usefully these are distributed to all orders of men: how useful they are to society; and to the

individuals, in every state, and every age, of life. 1. - K NOW then thyself, presume not God to scan;

The proper study of mankind is man.
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great ;
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem bimself a god or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much :
Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd ;
Still by himself abus'd or disabus'd;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides;
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correet old time, and regulate the sun;
Go, soar with Plato to the empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair ;
Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,
And, quitting sense, call imitating God;
As eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the sun,
Go, teach Eternal Wisdon how to rule
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool !

Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal man unfold all Nature's law,
Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And sbow'd a Newton as we show an ape.

Could He, whose rules the rapid comet bind,
Describe or fix one movement of his mind?
Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,
Explain his own beginning or his end?
Alas! what wonder! man's superior part
Uncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to art;
But when his own great work is but begun,
What reasou weaves by passion is undone.

Trace science then, with modesty thy guide:
First strip off all her equipage of pride ;
Deduct what is but vanity or dress,
Or learning's luxury, or idleness ;
Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain,
Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;
Expunge the whole, or lop the excrescent parts
Of all our vices have created arts;
Then see how little the remaining sum,
Which serv'd the past, and must the times to come!

2. Two principles in human nature reign, Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain ;

Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,
Each works its end, to move or govern all ;
And to their proper operation still
Ascribe all good, to their improper-ill.

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul;
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.
Man but for that no action could attend,
And but for this were active to no end;
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot;
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void,
Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.

Most strength the moving principle requires ; Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires. Sedate and quiet the comparing lies, Form'd but to check, deliberate, and advise. Self-love, still stronger, as its object's nigh, Reasons at distance, and in prospect lie: That sees immediate good by present sense ; Reason the future and the consequence. Thicker than arguments temptations throng; At best more watchful this, but that more strong. The action of the stronger to suspend, Reason still use, to reason still attend. Attention habit and experience gains ; Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains. Let suhtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight, More studious to divide than to unite ; And grace and virtue, sense and reason split, With all the rash dexterity of wit. Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, Have full as oft no meaning, or the same. Self-love and reason to one end aspire, Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire; But greedy that, its object would devour; This taste the honey, and uot wound the flow'r : Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood, Our greatest evil or our greatest good.

3. Modes of self-love the passions we may call; Tis real good or seeming moves them all : But since not every good we can divide, And reason bids us for our own provide, Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair, List under reason, and deserve her care; Those that imparted court a nobler aim, Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name.

In lazy apathy let stoics boast Their virtue fix'd ; 'tis fix'd as in a frost; Contracted all, retiring to the breast; But strength of mind is exercise, not rest; The rising tempest puts in act the soul, Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole. On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale; Nor God alone in the still calm we find, He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. Passions, like elements, though born to fight, Yet, mix'd and soften'd, in his work unite : These 'tis enough to temper and employ ; But what composes man can man destroy ? Suffice that reason keep to nature's road; Subject, compound them, follow her and God. Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain. These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd, Make and maintain the balance of the mind; The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife Gives all the strength and colour of our life.

Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes, And when in act they cease, in prospect rise; Present to grasp, and future still to find, The whole employ of body and of mind. All spread their charms, but charm not all alike; On different senses different objects strike : Hence different passions more or less inflame, As strong or weak the organs of the frame; And hence one master-passion in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.

As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath Receives the lurking principle of death,