Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 9.

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,
But vindicate the ways of God to man.1

Line 13.

Say first, of God above or man below,

What can we reason but from what we know?
'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescrib'd, their present state.

Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,

Line 17.

Line 60.

Line 77..

And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood. Line 83.

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,

A hero perish or a sparrow fall,

Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,

And

Man

now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
never is, but always to be blest.2
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Lo, the poor Indian whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way.

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.

;

Line 87.

Line 95.

Epistle i. Line 99.

In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.

1 See Milton, page 242.

Line 111.

2 Thus we never live, but we hope to live; and always disposing our selves to be happy. - PASCAL: Thoughts, chap. v. 2.

Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes:
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,

Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 123

Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;
My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.1
Why has not man a microscopic eye?

Line 139.

For this plain reason,

man is not a fly.

Line 193.

Die of a rose in aromatic pain.

Line 200.

The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!

Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.'

Line 217.

Remembrance and reflection how allied!

What thin partitions sense from thought divide !3

Line 225

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees.

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!

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
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."

Line 267

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Line 277.

Line 289

1 All the parts of the universe I have an interest in the earth serves me to walk upon; the sun to light me; the stars have their influence upon ine.- MONTAIGNE: Apology for Raimond Sebond.

2 See Sir John Davies, page 176.

8 See Dryden, page 267. 4 There is no great and no small. - EMERSON: Epigraph to History 5 See Dryden, page 276.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.1

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 1.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.2
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot.
In lazy apathy let stoics boast

Line 13.

Line 63.

Line 101.

Line 107.

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.
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but passion is the gale.
And hence one master-passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.
The young disease, that must subdue at length,
Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength,

Extremes in nature equal ends produce;

In man

they join to some mysterious use. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; 8

Yet

seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

1 La

vray

Line 131.

Line 135.

Line 205.

Line 217.

science et le vray étude de l'homme c'est l'homme (The true science and the true study of man is man). — CHARRON: De la Sagesse, lib. i. chap. 1.

Trees and fields tell me nothing: men are my teachers. - PLATO:

Phædrus.

2 What a chimera, then, is man! what a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the truth, cloaca of uncer tainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe.

Thoughts, chap. x.

3 See Dryden, page 269.

PASCAL:

Ask where's the North? At York 't is on the Tweed; In Scotland at the Orcades; and there,

At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.

Essay on Man.

Epistle ii. Line 222.

Line 231.

Virtuous and vicious every man must be,
Few in the extreme, but all in the degree.
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw;
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age.
Pleased with this bauble still, as that before,
Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.
While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!"
"See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose.1

Line 274

Epistle iii. Line 45

Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. Line 177.

The enormous faith of many made for one.

For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best.

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.

Line 242.

Line 303.

O happiness! our being's end and aim!
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name :
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die. Epistle iv. Line 1.

1 Why may not a goose say thus? . . . there is nothing that yon heav enly roof looks upon so favourably as me; I am the darling of Nature. Is it not man that keeps and serves me? - MONTAIGNE: Apology for Raimond Lebond.

2 See Cowley, page 260.

Order is Heaven's first law.

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 49. Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,

Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.

The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy.

Line 79.

Line 168.

Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Line 193.

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunello.

Line 203

What can ennoble sots or slaves or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.

Line 215.

A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;

An honest man's the noblest work of God.1

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.
In parts superior what advantage lies?
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise?
'Tis but to know how little can be known;
To see all others' faults, and feel our own.
Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.

If

8

parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind! Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,2 See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!' Know then this truth (enough for man to know), "Virtue alone is happiness below."

1 See Fletcher, page 183.

See Cowley, page 262.

May see thee now, though late, redeem thy name,
And glorify what else is damn'd to fame.

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-

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SAVAGE: Character of Foster