132 Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, I. Say first, of God above or man below From which to reason or to which refer? Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known, Observe how system into system runs, 25 May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are. But of this frame the bearings and the ties, 30 Looked through? or can a part contain the whole? Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn supports, upheld by God or thee? II. Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find 35 Of systems possible if 't is confessed In human works, though laboured on with pain, 40 45 45 50 A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; 55 So man, who here seems principal alone, Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown, Touches some 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; 65 Then say not man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; If to be perfect in a certain sphere, What matter soon or late, or here or there? The blest to-day is as completely so 75 As who began a thousand years ago. III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate; All but the page prescribed, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know; Or who could suffer being here below? 80 The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? A hero perish or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, And now a bubble burst and now a world. Hope humbly, then; with trembling pinions soar; Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind 95 100 Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n, Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler Heav'n; 105 Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire, I10 But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company. IV. Go, wiser thou! and, in thy scale of sense, Weigh thy opinion against Providence. Call imperfection what thou fanci'st such; 115 Say, "Here He gives too little, there too much"; 120 125 Aspiring to be angels men rebel; And who but wishes to invert the laws Of order sins against th' Eternal Cause. 130 V. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, Annual for me the grape, the rose, renew 135 140 But errs not Nature from this gracious end, From burning suns when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow or when tempests sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? "No," 't is replied, "the first Almighty Cause 145 Acts not by partial but by gen'ral laws; Th' exceptions few; some change, since all began, And what created perfect?" Why then man? 150 If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's design, 155 Who knows but He Whose hand the lightning forms, Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind? 160 From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs. 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, 165 Were there all harmony, all virtue, here; That never passion discomposed the mind. But all subsists by elemental strife, And passions are the elements of life. 170 The gen'ral order, since the whole began, Is kept in Nature and is kept in man. VI. What would this man? Now upward will he soar, And, little less than angel, would be more; Now, looking downwards, just as grieved appears 175 The proper organs, proper pow'rs assigned; 180 Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force; All in exact proportion to the state; Nothing to add, and nothing to abate. Each beast, each insect, happy in its own, 185 Is Heav'n unkind to man, and man alone? Shall he alone whom rational we call Be pleased with nothing if not blest with all? The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find) Is not to act or think beyond mankind; 190 No pow'rs of body or of soul to share But what his nature and his state can bear. Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason, man is not a fly. Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, 195 T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n? Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore? Die of a rose in aromatic pain? Or, quick effluvia darting through the brain, 200 If Nature thundered in his op'ning ears, 205 VII. Far as Creation's ample range extends, 210 |