Some fafer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the watry waste,

Where flaves once more their native land behold,

No fiends torment, no Chriftians thirst for gold.
To Be, contents his natural defire,

He afks no angel's wing, no feraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal fky,

His faithful dog shall bear him company.

IV. Go wiser thou; and in thy fcale of sense, Weigh thy opinion against Providence.;

Call imperfection what thou fancy'ft fuch,
Say, here he gives too little, there too much;
Destroy all creatures for thy fport or guft,
Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjuft;
If Man alone ingrofs not Heav'n's high care,
Alone made perfect here, immortal there:
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Re-judge his juftice, be the god of God.
In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies;
All quit their fphere, and rush into the fkies.

Pride ftill is aiming at the blest abodes,

Men would be angels, angels would be Gods.
Afpiring to be Gods, if angels fell,

Afpiring to be angels, Men rebel :

And who but wishes to invert the laws

Of ORDER, fins against th' Eternal Cause.

V. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, Earth for whofe ufe? Pride answers, ""Tis for

mine :

"For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow'r, "Suckles each herb, and fpreads out ev'ry flow'r; "Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew "The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; "For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings; "For me, health gufhes from a thousand springs; "Seas roll to waft me, funs to light me rise;

My footftool earth, my canopy the skies."

But errs not Nature from this gracious end, From burning funs when livid deaths defcend,

When earthquakes fwallow, or when tempefts

sweep

Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep; "No, ('tis replied) the first Almighty Cause

"Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;
"Th' exceptions few; fome change fince all began:
"And what created perfect ?"-Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,

Then nature deyiates; and can man do lefs?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of fhow'rs and funshine, as of Man's defires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As Men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wife,
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's defign,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?

Who knows but he, whofe hand the lightning forms,

Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the ftorms; Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar's mind,

Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?

From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs; Account for moral, as for nat'ral things:

Why charge we Heav'n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right is to submit.

Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never paffion difcompos'd the mind,
But ALL fubfifts by elemental ftrife;
And paffions are the elements of life.

The gen'ral ORDER, fince the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in Man.

VI. What would this Man! Now upward will

he foar,

And little less than angel, would be more ?
Now looking downwards, just as griev'd appears
To want the ftrength of bulls, the fur of bears.
Made for his ufe, all creatures if he call,

Say what their ufe, had he the powr's of all?