Essay on Man
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.
Line 1.
Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield.
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.
Line 13.
Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?
Line 17.
'T is but a part we see, and not a whole.
Line 60.
Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescrib'd, their present state.
Line 77.
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,
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 hurled,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Line 87.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest.
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Line 95.
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored 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;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler
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.
Line 1.
Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield.
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.
Line 13.
Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?
Line 17.
'T is but a part we see, and not a whole.
Line 60.
Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescrib'd, their present state.
Line 77.
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,
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 hurled,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Line 87.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest.
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Line 95.
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored 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;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler