The first two epistles of the Essay on Man were written in 1732, the third in the year fol

THE DESIGN

Having proposed to write some pieces on Human Life and Manners, such as, to use my Lord Bacon's expression, come home to men's business and bosoms,' I thought it more satisfactory to begin with considering Man in the abstract, his nature and his state: since to prove any moral duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its being.

The science of Human Nature is, like all other sciences, reduced to a few clear points: there are not many certain truths in this world. It is therefore in the anatomy of the mind, as in that of the body; more good will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible parts, than by studying too much such finer nerves and vessels, the conformations and uses of which will for ever escape our observation. The disputes are all upon these last; and, I will venture to say, they have less sharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other, and have diminished the practice more than advanced the theory of morality. If I could flatter myself that this Essay has any merit, it is in steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite, in passing over terms utterly unintelligible and in forming a temperate, yet not inconsistent, and a short, yet not imperfect, system of ethics.

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 it 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 wandering from the precision, or breaking the chain

lowing, and the fourth in 1734, when the complete Essay was published as we have it.

of reasoning. If any man can unite all these without diminution of any of them, I freely confess he will compass 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 connexion, but 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 passage: to deduce the rivers, to follow them in their course, and to observe their effects, may be a task more agreeable.

EPISTLE I

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN, WITH RESPECT TO THE UNIVERSE

ARGUMENT

Of Man in the abstract. I. That we can judge only with regard to our own system, being ignorant of the relations of systems and things, verse 17, etc. II. 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, verse 35, etc. III. 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, verse 77. etc. IV. The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, the cause of Man's error and misery. The impiety of putting himself in the place of God, and judging of the fitness or unfitness, perfection or imperfection, justice or injustice, of his dispensations, verse 113, etc. V. 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, verse 131, etc. VI. 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, verse 173, etc. VII. That throughout the whole visible world a 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 all the other faculties, verse 207, etc. VIII. 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, verse 213, etc. IX. The extravagance, madness, and pride of such a desire, verse 209, etc. X. The consequence of all, the absolute submission due to Providence, both as to our present and future state, verse 281, etc., to the end.

can,

But vindicate the ways of God to man.

I. Say first, of God 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 God 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,
What other planets circle other suns,

Of systems possible, if 't is confest That wisdom infinite must form the best, Where all must fall or not coherent be, And all that rises rise in due degree; Then in the scale of reas'ning life 't is plain There must be, somewhere, such a rank as Man:

And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) Is only this, - if God has placed 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 God's, one single can its end produce,
Yet serve to second too some other use:
So man, who here seems principal alone,
Perhaps acts second to some sphere un-
known,

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

Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend

His actions', passions', 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 measured to his state and place,

His time a moment, and a point his space.
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
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? Pleas'd to the last he crops the flowery

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

Rejudge his justice, be the god of God.
In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the
skies!

Pride still is aiming at the bless'd abodes,
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 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

Made for his use all creatures if he call, Say what their use, had he the powers of all?

Nature to these without profusion kind, 179
The proper organs, proper powers assign'd;
Each seeming want compensated of course,
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:
Is Heav'n unkind to man, and man alone?
Shall he alone, whom rational we call,
Be pleas'd with nothing if not bless'd with
all?

The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find)

Is not to act or think beyond mankind; 190
No powers 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,
T'inspect a mite, not comprehend the
Heav'n?

Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,
To smart and agonize at every pore?
Or quick effluvia darting thro' the brain,
Die of a rose in aromatic pain?

200

If Nature thunder'd in his opening ears, And stunn'd him with the music of the

spheres,

How instinct varies in the grovelling swine, Compared, half-reas'ning elephant, with thine!

"Twixt that and reason what a nice barrier! For ever separate, yet for ever near! Remembrance and reflection how allied! What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide!

And middle natures how they long to join, Yet never pass th' insuperable line!

Without this just gradation could they be Subjected these to those, or all to thee! 230 The powers of all subdued by thee alone, Is not thy Reason all these powers in one? VIII. See thro' 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 be