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 is true, Ifound 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 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 connection, and 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. P.
ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE I.
OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN, WITH RESPECT TO THE UNIVERSE.
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, v.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, v.35, etc.
III. That it is partly upon his ignorance of future events, and partly upon the hope of future state, that all his happiness in the present depends, v.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, v.109, 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, v.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, v.173, etc.
VII. That throughout the whole visible world, an universal order and gradation in the sensual and mental faculties is observed, which cause is 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, v.207.
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, v.233.
IX. The extravagance, madness, and pride of such a desire, v.250.
X.The consequence of all, the absolute submission due to Providence, both as to our present and future state, v.281, etc., to the end.
EPISTLE I.
Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of kings.
Let us (since life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die)Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;A mighty maze! but not without a plan;
A wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot;Or garden tempting with forbidden fruit.
Together let us beat this ample field, Try what the open, what the covert yield;The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;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.
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?
Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known, 'Tis ours to trace Him only in our own.
He, who through vast immensity can pierce, See worlds on worlds compose one universe, Observe how system into system runs, What other planets circle other suns, What varied being peoples every star, May tell why Heaven has made us as we are.
But of this frame, the bearings, and the ties, The strong connections, nice dependencies, Gradations just, has thy pervading soul Looked through? or can a part contain the whole?
Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee?
II. Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find, Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind?
