Yet not to earth's contracted span
Thy goodness let me bound,

Or think thee lord alone of man,

When thousand worlds are round:

Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Prefume thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land,
On each I judge thy foe.

If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to stay :
If I am wrong, oh teach my heart
To find that better way.

Save me alike from foolish pride,
Or impious difcontent,
At aught thy wisdom has deny'd,
Or aught thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I fee;

That mercy I to others show,
That mercy fhow to me.

Mean tho' I am, not wholly fo,

Since quicken'd by thy breath;

O lead me wherefoe'er I go,

Thro' this day's life or death.

This day, be bread and peace my lot:
All elfe beneath the fun,
Thou know'ft if beft beftow'd or not,
And let thy will be done.

To thee, whofe temple is all space,
Whofe altar, earth, fea, fkies!
One chorus let all being raise !
All nature's incenfe rife!

MORAL

MORAL ESSAYS,

IN

FOUR EPISTLES,

то

SEVERAL PERSONS.

Eft brevitate opus, ut currat fententia, neu se
Impediat verbis laffas onerantibus aures :
Et fermone opus eft modo trifti, fæpe jocoso,
Defendente vicem modo Rhetoris atque Poetæ,
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque,
Extenuantis eas confulto

4

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE ESSAY ON MAN was intended to have been comprised in Four Books.

The Firft of which, the author has given us under that title, in four epiftles.

The Second was to have confifted of the fame number: 1. Of the extent and limits of human reafon. 2. Of thofe arts and sciences, and of the parts of them, which are useful, and therefore attainable, together with those which are unufeful, and therefore unattainable. 3. Of the nature, ends, ufe, and application of the different capacities of men. 4. Of the ufe of learning, of the science of the world, and of wit; concluding with a fatire against a mifapplication of them, illuftrated by pictures, characters, and examples.

The Third Book regarded civil regimen, or the fcience of politics, in which the feveral forms of a republic were to be examined and explained; together with the feveral modes of religious worship, as far forth as they affect fociety; between which the author always fuppofed there was the moft interefting relation and closest connection; fo that this part would have treated of civil and religious fociety in their full extent.

The Fourth and last Book concerned private ethics, or practical morality, confidered in all the circumftances, orders, profeffions, and stations of human life.

The scheme of all this had been maturely digefted, and communicated to L. Bolingbroke, Dr. Swift, and one or two more, and was intended for the only work of his riper years: but was, partly through ill health, partly through discouragements from the depravity of the times, and partly on prudential and other confiderations, interrupted, poftponed, and, laftly, in a manner laid afide.

But as this was the author's favourite work, which more exactly reflected the image of his ftrong capacious mind, and as we can have but a very imperfect idea of it from the disjecta membra Poeta that now remain, it may

Q ૧

not

not be amifs to be a little more particular concerning each of these projected books.

The First, as it treats of man in the abstract, and confiders him in general under every of his relations, becomes the foundation, and furnishes out the fubjects of the three following; fo that

The Second Book was to take up again the Firft and Second epiftles of the First Book, and treats of man in his intellectual capacity at large, as has been explained above. Of this only a small part of the conclufion (which, as we faid, was to have contained a fatire againft the mifapplication of wit and learning) may be found in the Fourth Book of the Dunciad, and up and down, occafionally, in the other Three.

The Third Book, in like manner, was to reaffume the subject of the Third epistle of the Firft, which treats of man in his focial, political, and religious capacity. But this part the poet afterwards conceived might be beft exe-. outed in an Epic Poem; as the action would make it more animated, and the fable lefs invidious; in which all the great principles of true and falfe governments and religions fhould be chiefly delivered in feigned examples.

The Fourth and laft Book was to purfue the subject of the Fourth Epiftle of the Firft, and treats of Ethics, or practical morality; and would have confifted of many members; of which the four following epiftles were detached portions: the two firft, on the Characters of Men and Women, being the introductory part of this concluding book.

MORAL