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Pride ftill is aiming at the bleft abodes,

POPE

Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.

Afpiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,
Afpiring to be Angels, Men rebel;
And who but wishes to invert the laws,
Of ORDER, fins against th' Eternal Cause.

CHA P. XIII.

ON THE ORDER OF NATURE.

SEE,

EE, tho' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth,
Above, how high progreffive life may go !

Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vaft chain of Being! which from God began,
Nature ethereal, human; angel, man;
Beaft, bird, fish, infect, what no eye can fee,
No gla's can reach ; from Infinite to thee,
From thee to Nothing.-On fuperior pow'ra
Were we to press, inferior might on ours:
Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroyed s
From Nature's chain whatever link you ftrike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike,
And, if each system in gradation roll
Alike effential to th' amazing Whole,
The least confufion but in one, not all
That fyftem only, but the whole must fall.
Let earth, unblanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and Suns run lawless thro' the sky;

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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.

All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm. !-Oh Madness! Pride! Impiety!
While 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
To ferve more 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,
The great directing MIND of ALL ordains.
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' ethereal frame,
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,
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.

Ceafe then, nor ORDER Imperfection name:
Our proper blifs depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point This kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.

Submit.

Submit.—In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as bleft as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one difpofing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.

All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not fee
All Difcord, Harmony not understood;

All partial Evil, univerfal Good::

And, fpite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,

One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

CHA P. XIV.

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THE ORIGIN OF SUPERSTITION AND TYRANNY,

HO firft taught fouls enflav'd, and realms undone,

WHO

Th' enormous faith of many made for one;

That proud exception to all Nature's laws,

T' invert the world, and counter-work its Cause?
Force first made Conqueft, and that conqueft, Law;
Till Superftition taught the tryant awe,

Then fhar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid,

And Gods of Conqu❜rors, Slaves of Subjects made:: She 'midft the lightning's blaze, and thunder's found, -When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground, She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, To Pow'r unfeen, and mightier far than they : She, from the rending earth and bursting skies, Saw Gods defcend, and fiends infernal rife: Here fix'd the dreadful, there the bleft abodes:; Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods;

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Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Luft;
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;
And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride.
Then facred feem'd th' ethereal vault no more ;
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore;
Then firft the Flamen tafted living food;

Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;
With Heav'n's own thunders fhook the world below,
And play'd the God an engine on his foe.

So drives Self-love, thro' just and thro' unjust,
To one Man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, luft:
The fame Self-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what restrains him, Government and Laws,
For, what one likes if others like as well,
What ferves one will, when many wills rebel?
How fhall he keep, what, fleeping or awake,
A weaker may furprise, a stronger take?
His fafety muft his liberty restrain:
All join to guard what each defires to gain.
Fore'd into virtue thus by Self-defence,
Ev'n kings learn'd juftice and benevolence :
Self-love forfook the path it first purfu'd,
And found the private in the public good.

'Twas then, the ftudious head or gen'rous mind,
Follow'r of God, or friend of human kind,
Poet or patriot, rose but to restore

The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before:
Re-lum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God's image, yet his shadow drew :

Taught

Taught Pow'r's due ufe to People and to Kings,
Taught nor to flack, nor ftrain its tender ftrings,
The lefs, or greater, fet fo juft y true,

That touching one must strike the other too;
'Till jarring int'refts of themselves create
Th' according mufic of a well-mix'd State.
Such is the world's great harmony, that springs
From Order, Union, full Confent of things
Where fmall and great, where weak and mighty, made,
To ferve, not fuffer, ftrengthen, not invade :
More pow'rful each as needful to the reft,
And, in proportion as it bleffes, bleft;
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King.
For Forms of Government let fools conteft ;
Whate'er is beft adminifter'd is beft:
For Modes of Faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right :
In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all Mankind's concern is Charity:
All must be false that thwart this One great
And all of God that blefs Mankind or mend.

End;

Man, like the gen'rous vine, suported lives ;
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.
On their own axis as the Planets run,

Yet make at once their circle round the Sun;
So two confiftent motions at the Soul;
And one regards Itfelf," and one the Whole.

Thus God and Nature link'd the genʼral frame,
And bade Self-love and Social be the fame.

POPE.

CHAP.

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