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Beast, bird, fish, infect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,

From thee to Nothing. On fuperior pow'rs

Were we to press, inferior might on ours:
Or in the full creation leave a void,

240

Where, one ftep broken, the great scale's destroy'd:
From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, 245
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each system in gradation roll
Alike effential to th' amazing Whole,

The leaft confufion but in one, not all

That fyftem only, but the Whole must fall. 250
Let Earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and funs run lawless thro' the sky;

NOTES.

knowledge, therefore, that fo harmonious a connexion in the difpofition of things as is here defcribed, is tranfcendently beautiful? But the Fatalifts suppose fuch an one What then? Is the Firft Free Agent, is the great Caufe of all things, debarred from a contrivance fo exquifite, because fome Men, to fet up their idol, Fate, abfurdly reprefent it as prefiding over fuch a fyftem.

VER. 243. Or in the full creation leave a void, &c.] This is only an illuftration, alluding to the Peripatetic plenum and vacuum; the full and void here meant, relating not to Matter, but to Life.

VER. 247. And if each fyftem in gradation roll.] The verb alludes to the motion of the planetary bodies of each fyftem; and to the figures defcribed by that motion.

VER. 251. Let Earth unbalanc'd] i. e. Being no longer kept within its orbit by the different directions of its pro

Let ruling Angels from their spheres be hurl'd, Being on Being wreck'd, and world on world; Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod, 255 And Nature trembles 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, ordain'd the duft to tread, Or hand, to toil, afpir'd to be the head? What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd

260

To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Juft as abfurd for any part to claim

To be another, in this gen'ral frame:

Juft as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains

265

The great directing MIND of ALL ordains.

NOTES.

greffive and attractive motions; which, like equal Weights in a balance, keep it in an equilibre.

VER. 253. Let ruling Angels, &c.] The poet, throughout this poem, with great art, ufes an advantage, which his employing a Platonic principle for the foundation of his Effay had afforded him; and that is, the expreffing himfelf (as here) in Platonic notions; which, luckily for his purpose, are highly poetical, at the fame time that they add a grace to the uniformity of his reasoning.

VER. 259. What if the foot, &c.] This fine illuftration in defence of the Syftem of Nature, is taken from St. Paal, who employed it to defend the Syftem of Grace.

VER. 265. Just as abfurd, &c.]See the profecution and application of this in Ep. iv. P.

VER. 266. The great directing mind &c.] "Veneramur 66 autem et colimus ob dominium. Deus enim fine do

All are but parts of one ftupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the foul;

NOTES.

"minio, providentia, et caufis finalibus, nihil aliud eft 66 quam FATUM & NATURA." Newtoni Princip. Schol. gener.fub finem.

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VER. 268. Whose body Nature is, &c.] A certain examiner remarks, on this line, that " A Spinozift would ex"prefs himself in this manner. I believe he would, and fo, we know, would St. Paul too, when writing on the same subject, namely, the omniprefence of God in his Providence, and in his Substance. In him we live, and move, and have our being; i. e. we are parts of him, his offspring, as the Greek poet, a pantheift quoted by the Apoftle, obferves: And the reafon is, because a religious theift, and an impious pantheift, both profefs to believe the omniprefence of God. But would Spinoza, as Mr. Pope does, call God the great directing Mind of all, who hath intentionally created a perfect Univerfe? Or would a Spinozist have told us,

The workman from the work diftin&t was known, a line that overturns all Spinozism from its very founda

tions.

But this fublime defcription of the Godhead contains not only the divinity of St. Paul; but, if that will not fatisfy the men he writes againft, the philofophy likewife of Sir Ifaac Newton :

The poet fays,

All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the foul,
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame;
Great in the earth, as in th' ætherial frame;
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,

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Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees,

That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame;

Great in the earth, as in th' ætherial frame; 270

26

NOTES.

Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent.

The philofopher: "In ipfo continentur et moventur "univerfa, fed abfque mutua paffione. Deus nihil patitur ex corporum motibus; illa nullam fentiunt refiftentiam "ex omnipræfentia Dei-Corpore omni et figura corporea "deftituitur. Omnia regit et omnia cognofcit. - Cum unaquæque Spatii particula fit femper, et unumquodque Durationis indivifibile momentum, ubique certe re86 rum omnium Fabricator ac Dominus non erit nunquam, nufquam.

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Mr. Pope :

Breathes in our foul, 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.

Sir Ifaac Newton:- Annon ex phænomenis conftat "effe entem incorporeum, viventem, intelligentem, omnipræfentem, qui in fpatio infinito, tanquam fenforio fuo, res ipfas intime cernat, penitufque perfpiciat, totafque "intra fe præfens præfentes complectatur.

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But now admitting, there was an ambiguity in these expreffions fo great, that a Spinozist might employ them to exprefs his own particular principles; and fuch a thing might well be, because the Spinozists, in order to hide the impiety of their principle, are wont to exprefs the Omniprefence of God in terms that any religious Theift might employ: In this cafe, I fay, how are we to judge of the

Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,

Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees,
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent;

Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part, 275

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:

NOTES.

poet's meaning? Surely by the whole tenor of his argument. Now take the words in the Sense of the Spinozifts, and he is made in the conclusion of his epistle, to overthrow all he has been advancing throughout the body of it: For Spinozifm is the deftruction of an Universe, where every thing tends, by a foreseen contrivance in all its parts, to the perfection of the whole. But allow him to employ the paffage in the fenfe of St. Paul, That we and all creatures live, and move, and have our being in God; and then it will be feen to be the moft logical fupport of all that had preceded. For the poet having, as we fay, Jaboured through his epiftle to prove, that every thing in the Universe tends, by a forefeen contrivance, and a prefent direction of all its parts, to the perfection of the whole; it might be objected, that fuch a difpofition of things implying in God a painful, operofe and inconceivable extent of Providence, it could not be fuppofed that fuch care extended to all, but was confined to the more noble parts of the creation. This grofs conception of the First Cause the poet expofes, by fhewing that God is equally and intimately present to every particle of Matter, to every sort of Subftance, and in every inftant of Being.

VER. 278. As the rapt Seraph, &c.] Alluding to the Name Seraphim, fignifying burners.

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