The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems Part 9

This I might have done in prose, but I chose verse, and even rhyme, for two reasons. The one will appear obvious; that principles, maxims, or precepts so written, both strike the reader more strongly at first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards: The other may seem odd, but is true, I found I could express them more _shortly_ this way than in prose itself; and nothing is more certain, than that much of the _force_ as well as _grace_ of arguments or instructions, depends on their _conciseness_. I was unable to treat this part of my subject more in _detail_, without becoming dry and tedious; or more _poetically_, without sacrificing perspicuity to ornament, without wandring from the precision, or breaking the chain of reasoning: If any man can unite all these without diminution of any of them, I freely confess he will compa.s.s a thing above my capacity.

What is now published, is only to be considered as a _general Map_ of MAN, marking out no more than the _greater parts_, their _extent_, their _limits_, and their _connection_, and leaving the particular to be more fully delineated in the charts which are to follow. Consequently, these Epistles in their progress (if I have health and leisure to make any progress) will be less dry, and more susceptible of poetical ornament. I am here only opening the _fountains_, and clearing the pa.s.sage. To deduce the _rivers_, to follow them in their course, and to observe their effects, may be a task more agreeable.

P.

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE I

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to the UNIVERSE.

_Of_ Man _in the abstract_.

I. v. 17 &c. _That we can judge only with regard to our_ own system, _being ignorant of the_ relations _of systems and things_.

II. v. 35, &c. _That Man is not to be deemed_ imperfect, _but a Being suited to his_ place _and_ rank _in the creation, agreeable to the_ general Order _of things, and conformable to_ Ends _and_ Relations _to him unknown_.

III. v. 77, &c. _That it is partly upon his_ ignorance _of_ future _events, and partly upon the_ hope _of a_ future _state, that all his happiness in the present depends_.

IV. v. 109, &c. _The_ pride _of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more Perfections, the cause of Man's error and misery. The_ impiety _of putting himself in the place of_ G.o.d, _and judging of the fitness or unfitness, perfection or imperfection, justice or injustice of his dispensations_.

V. v. 131, &c. _The_ absurdity _of conceiting himself the _final cause _of the creation, or expecting that perfection in the_ moral _world, which is not in the_ natural.

VI. v. 173, &c. _The_ unreasonableness _of his complaints against_ Providence, _while on the one hand he demands the Perfections of the Angels, and on the other the bodily qualifications of the Brutes; though, to possess any of the_ sensitive faculties _in a higher degree, would render him miserable_.

VII. v. 207. _That throughout the whole visible world, an universal_ order _and_ gradation _in the sensual and mental faculties is observed, which causes a_ subordination _of creature to creature, and of all creatures to Man.

The gradations of_ sense, instinct, thought, reflection, reason; _that Reason alone countervails fill the other faculties_.

VIII. v. 233. _How much further this_ order _and_ subordination _of living creatures may extend, above and below us; were any part of which broken, not that part only, but the whole connected_ creation _must be destroyed_.

IX. v. 250. _The_ extravagance, madness, _and_ pride _of such a desire_.

X. v. 281, &c. _The consequence of all, the_ absolute submission _to the end_. _due to Providence, both as to our_ present _and_ future state,

EPISTLE I

Awake, my ST. JOHN! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of Kings.

Let us (since Life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man; 5 A mighty maze! but not without a plan; A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot; Or Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.

Together let us beat this ample field, Try what the open, what the covert yield; 10 The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar; Eye Nature's walks, shoot Folly as it flies, And catch the Manners living as they rise; Laugh where we must, be candid where we can; 15 But vindicate the ways of G.o.d to Man.

I. Say first, of G.o.d above, or Man below, What can we reason, but from what we know?

Of Man, what see we but his station here, From which to reason, or to which refer? 20 Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the G.o.d be known, 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own.

He, who thro' vast immensity can pierce, See worlds on worlds compose one universe, Observe how system into system runs, 25 What other planets circle other suns, What vary'd Being peoples ev'ry star, May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are.

But of this frame the bearings, and the ties, The strong connexions, nice dependencies, 30 Gradations just, has thy pervading soul Look'd thro'? or can a part contain the whole?

Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn supports, upheld by G.o.d, or thee?

II. Presumptuous Man! the reason wouldst thou find, 35 Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind?

First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less?

Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade? 40 Or ask of yonder argent fields above, Why JOVE'S satellites are less than JOVE?

Of Systems possible, if 'tis confest That Wisdom infinite must form the best, Where all must full or not coherent be, 45 And all that rises, rise in due degree; Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain, There must be, somewhere, such a rank as Man: And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) Is only this, if G.o.d has plac'd him wrong? 50

Respecting Man, whatever wrong we call, May, must be right, as relative to all.

In human works, tho' labour'd on with pain, A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; In G.o.d's, one single can its end produce; 55 Yet serves to second too some other use.

So Man, who here seems princ.i.p.al 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: When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod, Is now a victim, and now aegypt's G.o.d: Then shall Man's pride and dulness comprehend 65 His actions', pa.s.sions', being's, use and end; Why doing, suff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why This hour a slave, the next a deity.

Then say not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought: 70 His knowledge measur'd to his state and place; His time a moment, and a point his s.p.a.ce.

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 prescrib'd, 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?

Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food, And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.

Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n, 85 That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n: Who sees with equal eye, as G.o.d of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 90

Hope humbly then: with trembling pinions soar; Wait the great teacher Death; and G.o.d adore.

What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, But gives that Hope to be thy blessing now.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast: 95 Man never Is, but always To be blest: The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind Sees G.o.d in clouds, or hears him in the wind: 100 His soul, proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk, or milky way; Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n, Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n; Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, 105 Some happier island in the watry waste, Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.

To Be, contents his natural desire, He asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire; 110 But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company.

IV. Go, wiser thou! and, in thy scale of sense, Weight thy Opinion against Providence; Call imperfection what thou fancy'st such, 115 Say, here he gives too little, there too much: Destroy all Creatures for thy sport or gust, Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, G.o.d's unjust; If Man alone engross not Heav'n's high care, Alone made perfect here, immortal there: 120 s.n.a.t.c.h from his hand the balance and the rod, Re-judge his justice, be the G.o.d of G.o.d.

In Pride, in reas'ning 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 G.o.ds.

Aspiring to be G.o.ds, if Angels fell, 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, Earth for whose use? Pride answers, "'Tis for mine: For me kind Nature wakes her genial Pow'r, Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev'ry flow'r; Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew 135 The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings; For me, health gushes from a thousand springs; Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My foot-stool earth, my canopy the skies." 140

But errs not Nature from his 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 reply'd) 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?

If the great end be human Happiness, Then Nature deviates; and can Man do less? 150 As much that end a constant course requires Of show'rs and sun-shine, as of Man's desires; As much eternal springs and cloudless skies, As Men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise.

If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's design, 155 Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?

Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms, Who heaves old Ocean, and who wings the storms; Pours fierce Ambition in a Caesar's mind, Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind? 160 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.