Weigh thy opinion against Providence;
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such,
Say, "Here he gives too little, there too
much";

Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,
Yet cry, "If man's unhappy, God's unjust";
If man alone engross not Heaven's high
care,

Alone made perfect here, immortal there, 120 Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,

Re-judge his justice, be the god of God.
In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, 125
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel:
And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of order, sins against the Eternal Cause. 130

V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine,

Earth for whose use? Pride answers, ""Tis for mine:

For me kind nature wakes her genial power, Suckles each herb, and spreads out every

flower;

135

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 gu springs;

from a thousand

Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My footstool earth, my canopy the skies." 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 ('tis replied), the first Almighty Cause

200

Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,
To smart and agonize at every pore?
Or, quick effluvia darting through the brain,
Die of a rose in aromatic pain?
If nature thundered in his opening ears,
And stunned him with the music of the
spheres,

How would he wish that Heaven had left him still

The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill?

Who finds not Providence all good and wise, Alike in what it gives, and what denies? 206

VII. Far as creation's ample range extends,

The scale of sensual, mental power ascends. Mark how it mounts, to man's imperial race, From the green myriads in the peopled

grass:

210

The powers of all subdued by thee alone,
Is not thy reason all these powers in one?
VIII. See, through this air, this ocean,

and this earth

All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high, progressive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing.-On superior powers
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one step broken, the great scale's
destroyed:

240

Heaven's whole foundations to their center nod,

255

And nature tremble to the throne of God. All this dread order break-for whom? for thee?

Vile worm!—Oh, madness! pride! impiety!

IX. What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread,

Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head? 260
What if the head, the eye, or ear repined
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this general frame;
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing Mind of all ordains. 266
All are but parts of one stupendous
whole,

Whose body nature is, and God the soul;
That, changed through all, and yet in all the

Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one disposing Power,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not

see;

290

Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires: Sedate and quiet the comparing lies, Form'd but to check, delib'rate, and advise. Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh; Reason's at distance and in prospect lie: That sees immediate good by present sense; Reason, the future and the consequence. Thicker than arguments, temptations

throng;

20

Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust;

Such as the souls of cowards might conceive,

And, formed like tyrants, tyrants would believe.

Zeal then, not Charity, became the guide, And Hell was built on spite, and Heav'n on pride:

Then sacred seem'd th' ethereal vault no

more;

Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with

gore:

Then first the flamen tasted living food, Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;

With Heav'n's own thunders shook the world below,

And play'd the God an engine on his foe. So drives Self-love thro' just and thro' unjust,

To one man's power, ambition, lucre, lust: The same Self-love in all becomes the cause Of what restrains him, government and laws.

For, what one likes if others like as well, What serves one well, when many wills rebel?

How shall he keep what, sleeping or awake,
A weaker may surprise, a stronger take?
His safety must his liberty restrain:
All join to guard what each desires to
gain.

Fore'd into virtue thus by self-defence, Ev'n kings learn'd justice and benevolence: Self-love forsook the path it first pursued, And found the private in the public good. 'Twas then the studious head, or gen'rous mind,

Follower of God, or friend of human kind, Poet or patriot, rose but to restore

The faith and moral Nature gave before; Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new; If not God's image, yet his shadow drew; Taught power's due use to people and to kings,

Taught nor to slack nor strain its tender strings,

The less or greater set so justly true,

That touching one must strike the other

too;

Till jarring int'rest of themselves create
Th' according music of a well-mix'd state.
Such is the world's great harmony, that
springs

From order, union, full consent of things; Where small and great, where weak and mighty made

To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade; More powerful each as needful to the rest,

And, in proportion as it blesses, blest; Draw to one point, and to one center bring Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king.

For forms of government let fools contest; Whate'er is best administer'd is best:

For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;

His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.
In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is Charity:
All must be false that thwart this one great
end,

And all of God that bless mankind or mend. Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives;

The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.

On their own axis as the planets run,

Yet made at once their circle round the sun;
So two consistent motions act the soul,
And one regards itself, and one the Whole.
Thus God and Nature linked the gen'ral
frame,

And bade Self-love and Social be the same.

EQUALITY

ALEXANDER POPE

[From An Essay on Man, 1733-4]

Order is Heav'n's first law; and, this confessed,

Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence

That such are happier, shocks all common

sense.

Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their happiness increase;
All Nature's diff'rence keeps all Nature's
peace.

Condition, circumstance, is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend:
Heav'n breathes thro' every member of the
whole

One common blessing, as one common soul.

But Fortune's gifts, if each alike possessed, And each were equal, must not all contest? If then to all men happiness was meant, God in externals could not place content.

VIRTUE

ALEXANDER POPE

[From An Essay on Man, 1733-4] Know then this truth (enough for man to know),

"Virtue alone is happiness below;"

The only point where human bliss stands still,

And tastes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is bless'd in what it takes and what it gives;
The joy unequal'd if its end it gain,
And, if it lose, attended with no pain;
Without satiety, tho' e'er so bless'd,
And but more relish'd as the more distress'd:
The broadest mirth unfeeling Folly wears,
Less pleasing far than Virtue's very tears:
Good from each object, from each place
acquired,

For ever exercised, yet never tired;
Never elated while one man's oppress'd;
Never dejected while another's bless'd:
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wish more virtue is to gain.
See the sole bliss Heav'n could on all bestow;
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks
can know:

Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,

The bad must miss, the good untaught will find:

Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks thro' Nature up to Nature's God; Pursues that chain which links th' immense

design,

Joins Heav'n and earth, and mortal, and divine;

Sees that no being any bliss can know,
But touches some above and some below;
Learns from this union of the rising whole
The first, last purpose of the human soul;
And knows where faith, law, morals, all
began,

All end, in love of God and love of Man.

MEN OF FIRE

RICHARD STEELE

[The Tatler, No. 61:1. Tuesday, August 30,

1709]

Quicquid agunt homines

nostri est farrago libelli.1

-Juvenal.

Among many phrases which have crept into conversation, especially of such com1 "Whate'er men do, or say, or think, or dream, Our motley paper seizes for its theme."