should in the quieteft retirement, be lofs able to sleep or meditate, than in the middle of a fea-fight."

13. From the green myriads in the peopled grafsThe mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam ;

Of smell the beadlong Jionefs between,

And hound fagacious on the tainted green:
The fpider's touch how exquifitely fine,

Feels at each thread. and lives along the line.

THESE lines are felected as admirable patterns of forcible diction. The peculiar and difcriminating expreffiveness of the epithets diftinguished above by italics will be particularly regarded. Perhaps we have no image in the language, more lively than that of the last verse. "To live along the line" is equally bold and beautiful. In this part of this Epiftle the poet seems to have remarkably laboured his ftyle, which abounds in various figures, and is much elerated. POPE has practifed the great fecret of Virgil's art, which was to discover the very fingle epithet that precisely fuited each occafion.

Without this juft gradation, could they be
Subjected,, these to thofe, or all to thee?
The pow'rs of all subdu'd by thee alone,
Is not thy reason all these pow'rs in one * ?

"Such then is the admirable diftribution of nature, her adapting and adjusting not only the stuff or matter to the shape and form, and even the shape itself and form, to the circumftance, place, element, or region; but also the affections, appetites, fenfations, mutually to each other, as well as the matter, form, action, and all befides; all managed for the best, with perfect frugality and juft referve: profuse to none, but bountiful to all: never employing in one thing more than enough; but with exact œconomy retrenching the superfluous, and adding force to what is principal in every thing. And is not thought and reafon principal in man? Would we have no reserve for these? No faving for this part of his engine +?"

Ver. 229.

The Moralifts, vol. ii. pag. 199.

15. Above,

Above, how high, progreffivallifeimay go !
Around, how wide! how deep foxtend below !
Vaft chain of being! which from God began.
Natures ætherial, human, angel, man,

Beaft, bird, fifh, infect, what no eye can fee,
No glafs can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing.

"THAT there fhould be more fpecies of intelligent creatures above us, than there are of fenfible and material below us, is probable to me from hence; that in all the vifible corporeal world, we fee no chaẩms, or gaps. All quite down from us, the descent is by easy steps, and a continued feries of things, that in each remove differ very little from one another.-And when we confider the infinite power and wisdom of the maker, we have reason to think, that it is fuitable to the magnificent harmony of the universe, and the great defign and infinite goodness of the architect, that the fpecies of creatures fhould alfo, by gentle degrees, defcend to us downwards: which if it be probable, we have reafon then to

• Ver. 235.

be

be perfuaded that there are far more fpecies of creatures above us, than there are beneath; we being in degrees of perfection, much more remote from the infinite being of God, than we are from the lowest state of being, and that which approaches nearest to nothing

916 From nature's chain whatever link you strike, 2 Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike †

THIS doctrine is precisely the fame with that of the philofophical emperor ‡.

17. Juft as abfurd, to mourn the tafks or pains, 79111 The great directing MIND of ALL ordains §. asdz

Here again we muft infert another noble fentiment of the same lofty writer.

BnLocke's Effay on Human Understanding, vol. ii. pag. 49. gris Ver. 245.

Slip:Amputee yap: Ta öλoxλnfor, ræv xas its uv Sianofins της συνάφειας και συνέχειας, ώσπερ των μερίων, έτω δε doif και των αιτιών · διακόπτεις δε ὅσον ἐπὶ σοι ὅταν δυσά peris και προπον τις αναιρής. M. Antoninus, Lib.r.

6.8.

§ Ver. 265.

As; when it is faid, that, Æfculapius hath prescribed to one a course of riding, or the cold bath, or walking bare-footed; fo it may be faid, that the nature prefiding in the whole, hath prescribed to one a disease, a maim, a lofs of a child, or fuch like. The word prescribed, in the former cafe, imports that he enjoined it as conducing to health; and in the latter too, whatever befals any one, is appointed as conducive to the purposes of fate or providence Now there is one grand harmonious compofition of all things. M. Antoninus, B. 5.

18. 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' ætherial 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 unspent ;
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 feraph that adores and burns:
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all ❤.