the Imputation of certain fuppofed NATURAL EVILS. For now he fhews, that tho' the Complaint of his Adverfaries against Providence be on Pretence of real moral Evils, yet, at bottom, it all proceeds from their Impatience under imaginary natural ones, the Iffue of a depraved Appetite for visionary Advantages, which if Man had, they would be either ufelefs or pernicious to him, as unfutable to his State, or repugnant to his Condition. [from 1. 164 to 199.] "Tho' God (fays he) hath fo bounti"fully bestowed on Man, Faculties little less than "Angelic, yet he ungratefully grafps at higher; ❝ and then, extravagant in another Extreme, with "a Paffion as ridiculous as that is impious, envies " even the peculiar Accommodations of Brutes. "But here his own Principles fhew his Folly." He supposes them all made for his Ufe: Now what Ufe could he have of them, when he had robbed them of all their Qualities. Qualities, as they are at present divided, diftributed with the highest Wisdom: But which, if bestowed according to the froward Humour of these childish Complainers, would be found to be every where either wanting or fuperfluous. But even with these brutal Qualities Man would not only be no Gainer, but a confiderable Lofer, as the Poet fhews, in explaining the Confequences that would follow from his having his Senfations in that exquifite Degree in which this or that Animal is obferved to poffefs them.

He tells us next [from 1. 198 to 225] that the complying with fuch extravagant Defires would

not only be useless and pernicious to Man, but would be breaking the Order, and deforming the Beauty, of God's Creation. In which this Animal is fubject to that, and all to Man; who by his Reason enjoys the Benefit of all their Powers: Far as Creation's ample Range extends, The Scale of fenfual, mental Pow'rs ascends: Mark how it mounts, to Man's imperial Race, From the green Myriads in the peopled Grass! Without this juft Gradation, could they be Subjected these to thofe, or all to thee? The Pow'rs of all fubdu'd by thee alone, Is not thy Reason all those Pow'rs in one?

And farther [from 1. 224 to 259] that this breaking the Order of Things, which as a Link or Chain connects all Beings from the highest to the lowest, would unavoidably be attended with the Deftruction of the Universe:

For if each System in Gradation roll,
Alike effential to th' amazing Whole;
The least Confufion but in one, not all
That Syftem only, but the Whole must fall.
Let Earth unbalanc'd from her Orbit fly,
Planets and Suns rufh lawless thro' the Sky:
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,
And Nature tremble to the Throne of God.

For that the feveral Parts of the Universe must at leaft compofe as entire and harmonious a

Whole

Whole as the Parts of an human Body do, cannot be doubted: Yet we fee what Confufion it would make in our Frame, if the Members were set upon invading each other's Office:

What if the Foot, ordain'd the Duft to tread, Or Hand to toil, afpir'd to be the Head? &c. Just as abfurd, for any Part to claim

To be another in this gen'ral Frame:

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Juft as abfurd, to mourn the Task and Pains The great directing MIND of ALL ordains. Who will not acknowledge that so harmonious a Connection in the Difpofition of Things, as is here described, is transcendently beautiful? But the Fatalifts fuppofe fuch a one.-What then? Is the first great free Agent debarred from a Contrivance fo exquifite, because some Men, to set up their Idol, Fate, abfurdly reprefent it as prefiding over fuch a System?

Having thus given a Representation of God's Creation, as one entire Whole, where all the Parts have a neceffary Dependance on and Relation to each other, and where every Particular works and concurs to the Perfection of the Whole; as fuch a System would be thought above the reach of vulgar Ideas; to reconcile it to their Conceptions, he fhews [from 1. 258 to 273] that God is equally

a Veneramur autem et colimus ob Dominium. Deus enim fine Dominio, Providentia, et caufis Finalibus, nihil aliud eft quam FATUM et NATURA. Newtoni Princip. Schol. gener. fub finem.

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and

and intimately present to every Sort of Substance, to every Particle of Matter, and in every Instant of Being; which eases the labouring Imagination, and makes it expect no lefs, from fuch a Prefence, than fuch a Difpenfation.

And now, the Poet, as he had promised, having vindicated the Ways of God to Man, concludes [from 1. 272 to the End] that from what had been faid it appears, that the very Things we blame contribute to our Happiness, either as Particulars, or as Parts of the Univerfal Syftem; that our Ignorance, in accounting for the Ways of Providence, was allotted to us out of Compaffion; that yet we have as much Knowledge as is fufficient to fhew us, that we are, and always fhall be, as bleft as we can bear; for that NATURE is neither a Stratonic Chain of blind Causes and Effects,

(All Nature is but Art unknown to thee;) nor yet the fortuitous Refult of Epicurean Atoms, (All Chance, Direction which thou can'ft not fee,) as those two Species of Atheism supposed it; but the wonderful Art and Direction (unknown indeed to Man) of an all-powerful, all-wife, all-good, and free Being. And therefore we may be affured, that the Arguments brought above, to prove partial moral Evil productive of univerfal Good, may be fafely relied on; from whence one certain Truth refults, in fpite of all the Pride and Cavils of vain Reason, That WHATEVER IS, is RIGHT, WITH REGARD TO THE DISPOSITION OF GOD, AND

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TO ITS ULTIMATE TENDENCY. And this Truth once owned, all Complaints against Providence are fecluded.

But that the Reader may fee in one View, the Exactness of the Method, as well as Force of the Argument, I fhall here draw up a fhort Synopfis of this Epiftle. The Poet begins in telling us his Subject is An Essay on Man.-His End of Writing is to vindicate Providence.-Tells us against whom he wrote, the Atheists.-From whence he intends to fetch his Arguments, from the visible Things of God feen in this Syftem.-Lays down this Propofition as the Foundation of his Thefis, that of all poffible Systems, infinite Wisdom has formed the beft.-Draws from thence two Confequences; 1. That there muft needs be fomewhere fuch a Creature as Man; 2. That the moral Evil which He is the Author of, is productive of the Good of the Whole. This is his general Thefis; from whence he draws this Conclufion, That Man fhould reft fubmiffive and content, and make the Hopes of Futurity his Comfort,— but not fuffer this to be the Occafion of PRIDE, which is the Cause of all his impious Complaints.

He proceeds to confirm his Thefis.- Previously endeavours to abate our Wonder at the Phænomenon of moral Evil.—Shews first its Use to the Perfection of the Universe, by Analogy, from the Ufe of Phyfical Evil in this particular System. Secondly, its Ufe in this Syftem, where it is turned, providentially, from its natural Biafs, to promote C 4

Virtue.