That never passion discomposed the mind:
But all subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life. 170
The gen’ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man.
VI. What would this Man? Now upward will he soar,
And little less than Angel, would be more;
Now looking downwards, just as griev’d appears 175
To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears.
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,
The proper organs, proper powers assign’d; 180
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: 185
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, 195
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 would he wish that Heav’n had left him still
The whisp’ring zephyr and the purling rill?
Who finds not Providence all good and wise, 205
Alike in what it gives and what denies?
VII. Far as creation’s ample range extends,
The scale of sensual, mental powers ascends.
Mark how it mounts to man’s imperial race
From the green myriads in the peopled grass: 210
What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme,
The mole’s dim curtain and the lynx’s beam:
Of smell, the headlong lioness between
And hound sagacious on the tainted green:
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood 215
To that which warbles thro’ the vernal wood.
The spider’s touch, how exquisitely fine,
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:
In the nice bee what sense so subtly true,
From pois’nous herbs extracts the healing dew! 220
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! 225
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! 235
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being! which from God began;
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, insect, who no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee; 240
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 destroy’d:
From Nature’s chain whatever link you like, 245
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And if each system in gradation roll,
Alike essential to th’ amazing Whole,
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the Whole must fall. 250
Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly,
Planets and stars run 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, 255
And Nature tremble to the throne of God!
All this dread order break — for whom? for thee?
Vile worm! — O madness! pride! impiety!
IX. What if the foot, ordain’d the dust to tread,
Or hand to toil, aspired to be the head? 260
What if the head, the eye, or ear repin’d
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another in this gen’ral frame;
Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains 265
The great directing Mind of All ordains.
All are but parts of one stupendous Whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul;
That changed thro’ all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth as in th’ ethereal frame, 270
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;
Lives thro’ all life, extends thro’ all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent;
Breathes in our soul, 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.
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all! 280
X. Cease, then, nor Order imperfection name;
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav’n bestows on thee.
Submit: in this or any other sphere, 285
Secure to be as bless’d 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
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good:
And spite of Pride, in erring Reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.
Essay on Man: Epistle II.
Of the Nature and State of Man with Respect to Himself As an Individual
ARGUMENT
I. The business of Man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His middle nature; his powers and frailties, verses 1 to 19. The limits of his capacity, verse 19, etc. II. The two principles of Man, Self-love and Reason, both necessary. Self-love the stronger, and why. Their end the same, verse 81, etc. III. The passions, and their use. The predominant passion, and its force. Its necessity, in directing men to different purposes. Its providential use, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue, verse 93, etc. IV. Virtue and Vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate and evident: what is the office of Reason, verse 203, etc. V. How odious Vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it, verse 217,
etc. VI. That, however, the ends of Providence, and general goods, are answered in our passions and imperfections. How usefully these are distributed to all orders of men: how useful they are to Society; and to individuals; in every state, and every age of life, verse 238, etc., to the end.
I. KNOW then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side, 5
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err; 10
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall; 15
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl’d;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Go, wondrous creature! mount where Science guides;
Go measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; 20
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
Or tread the mazy round his followers trod, 25
And quitting sense call imitating God;
As eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule —
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool! 30
Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal man unfold all Nature’s law,
Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And show’d a NEWTON as we show an ape.
Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind, 35
Describe or fix one movement of his mind?
Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,
Explain his own beginning or his end?
Alas! what wonder! Man’s superior part
Uncheck’d may rise, and climb from art to art; 40
But when his own great work is but begun,
What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.
Trace Science then, with modesty thy guide;
First strip off all her equipage of pride;
Deduct what is but vanity or dress, 45
Or learning’s luxury, or idleness,
Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain,
Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;
Expunge the whole, or lop th’ excrescent parts;
Of all our vices have created arts; 50
Then see how little the remaining sum,
Which serv’d the past, and must the times to come!
II. Two principles in Human Nature reign,
Self-love to urge, and Reason to restrain;
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call; 55
Each works its end, to move or govern all:
And to their proper operation still
Ascribe all good, to their improper, ill.
Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul;
Reason’s comparing balance rules the whole. 60
Man but for that no action could attend,
And but for this were active to no end:
Fix’d like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot;
Or meteor-like, flame lawless thro’ the void, 65
Destroying others, by himself destroy’d.
Most strength the moving principle requires;
Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires:
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies,
Form’d but to check, delib’rate, and advise. 70
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; 75
At best more watchful this, but that more strong.
The action of the stronger to suspend,
Reason still use, to Reason still attend.
Attention habit and experience gains;
Each strengthens Reason, and Self-love restrains. 80
Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight,
More studious to divide than to unite;
And Grace and Virtue, Sense and Reason split,
With all the rash dexterity of Wit.
Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, 85
Have full as oft no meaning, or the same.
Self-love and Reason to one end aspire,
Pain their aversion, Pleasure their desire;
But greedy that, its object would devour;
This taste the honey, and not wound the flower: 90
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,
Our greatest evil or our greatest good.
III. Modes of Self-love the passions we may call;
‘T is real good or seeming moves them all:
But since not every good we can divide, 95
And Reason bids us for our own provide,
Passions, tho’ selfish, if their means be fair,
List under Reason, and deserve her care;
Those that imparted court a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take some virtue’s name. 100
In lazy apathy let Stoics boast
Their virtue fix’d; ‘t is fix’d as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is Exercise, not Rest:
The rising tempest puts in act the soul, 105
Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.
On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but Passion is the gale;
Nor God alone in the still calm we find,
He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. 110
Passions, like elements, tho’ born to fight,
Yet, mix’d and soften’d, in his work unite:
These ‘t is enough to temper and employ;
But what composes man can man destroy?
Suffice that Reason keep to Nature’s road; 115
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure’s smiling train,
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain,
These mix’d with art, and to due bounds confin’d,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind; 120
The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife
Gives all the strength and colour of our life.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes,
And when in act they cease, in prospect rise:
Present to grasp, and future still to find, 125
The whole employ of body and of mind.
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff’rent senses diff’rent objects strike;
Hence diff’rent passions more or less inflame,
As strong or weak the organs of the frame; 130
And hence one Master-passion in the breast,
Like Aaron’s serpent, swallows up the rest.
As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,
Receives the lurking principle of death,
The young disease, that must subdue at length, 135
Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength:
So, cast and mingled with his very frame,
The mind’s disease, its Ruling Pass
ion, came;
Each vital humour, which should feed the whole,
Soon flows to this in body and in soul; 140
Whatever warms the heart or fills the head,
As the mind opens and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dangerous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.
Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse; 145
Wit, spirit, faculties, but make it worse;
Reason itself but gives it edge and power,
As Heav’n’s bless’d beam turns vinegar more sour.
We, wretched subjects, tho’ to lawful sway,
In this weak queen some fav’rite still obey: 150
Ah! if she lend not arms as well as rules,
What can she more than tell us we are fools?
Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend,
A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend!
Or from a judge turn pleader, to persuade 155
The choice we make, or justify it made;
Proud of an easy conquest all along,
She but removes weak passions for the strong:
So when small humours gather to a gout,
The doctor fancies he has driv’n them out. 160
Yes, Nature’s road must ever be preferr’d;
Reason is here no guide, but still a guard;
‘T is hers to rectify, not overthrow,
And treat this passion more as friend than foe:
A mightier Power the strong direction sends, 165
And sev’ral men impels to sev’ral ends:
Like varying winds, by other passions toss’d,
This drives them constant to a certain coast.
Let Power or Knowledge, Gold or Glory, please,
Or (oft more strong than all) the love of ease; 170
Thro’ life ‘t is follow’d, ev’n at life’s expense;
The merchant’s toil, the sage’s indolence,
The monk’s humility, the hero’s pride,
All, all alike, find Reason on their side.
Th’ Eternal Art educing good from ill, 175
Grafts on this passion our best principle:
‘T is thus the mercury of man is fix’d,
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix’d;
The dross cements what else were too refin’d,
And in one int’rest body acts with mind. 180
As fruits ungrateful to the planter’s care,
On savage stocks inserted, learn to bear,
The surest Virtues thus from Passions shoot,
Wild Nature’s vigour working at the root.
What crops of wit and honesty appear 185
From spleen, from obstinacy, hate, or fear!
See anger, zeal, and fortitude supply;
Ev’n av’rice prudence, sloth philosophy;
Lust, thro’ some certain strainers well refin’d,
Alexander Pope - Delphi Poets Series Page 31
