EPISTLE I. 5 AWAKE, my I. Say VER. I. Awake, my ST. JOHN !] Henry St. John, son of Sir Henry St. John, Baronet, of Lydiard Tregose in Wiltshire, by Mary, second daughter and heiress of Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, was born in 1678. VER. 6. A mighty maze! but NOT without a plan ;] In the first edition, it was "a mighty maze, without a plan." 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? Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known, 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. 20 May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are. Look'd through? or can a part contain the whole? 30 II. Presumptuous man! the reason would'st thou find, 35 Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind? Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less? 40. Of systems possible, if 'tis confest That wisdom infinite must form the best, Where Where all must full or not coherent be, Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain, In human works, tho' labour'd on with pain, So man, who here seems principal alone, 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. 45 50 55 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 Egypt's god: Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend 65 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. VER. 64.] In the former editions, Now wears a garland an Egyptian God: altered as above for the reason given in the note. Then VER. 64. Egypt's god:] Called so, because the god Apis was worshipped universally over the whole land of Egypt. Then say not man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; If to be perfect in a certain sphere, 70 What matter, soon or late, or here or there? 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? And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. 85 A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms After ver. 68. the following lines in the first edition: If to be perfect in a certain sphere, What matters soon or late, or here or there? As who began ten thousand years ago. After ver. 88, in the MS. No great, no little; 'tis as much decreed, That Virgil's gnat should die, as Cæsar bleed. VER. 87. Who sees with equal eye, &.] Matth. x. 29. |