An 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."

"Together let us beat this ample field, Try what the open, what the covert yield."

"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."

"Say first, of God above or man below, What can we reason but from what we know?"

"Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find, Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind? First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less!"

"'T is but a part we see, and not a whole."

"Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescrib'd, their present state."

"Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food, And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood."

"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."

"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."

"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 heav'n."

"But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company."

"In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; All quit their spere, and rush into the skies! Pride still is aiming at the blessed abodes, Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods. Aspiring to be Gods if Angels fell, Aspiring to be Angels men rebel."

"Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My footstool earth, my canopy the skies."

"Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason,—man is not a fly."

"Die of a rose in aromatic pain."

"The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line."

"Remembrance and reflection how allied! What thin partitions sense from thought divide!"

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul."

"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees."

"As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns As the rapt seraph that adores and burns. To Him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all!"

"Our proper bliss depends on what we blame."

"All nature is but art unknown to thee, All chance, direction which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good; And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right."

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man."

"Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the skeptic side, With too much weakness for the stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest; In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born but to die, and reasn'ing but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reason such, Whether he thinks too little or too much."

"Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused, or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled; The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!"

"Trace science then, with modesty thy guide."

"Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot."

"In lazy apathy let stoics boast Their virtue fix'd: 'tis fix'd as in a frost; Contracted all, retiring to the breast; But strength of mind is exercise, not rest."

"On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale."

"And hence one master passion in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."

"The young disease, that must subdue at length, Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength."

"Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use."

"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

"Ask where's the North? At York 'tis on the Tweed; In Scotland at the Orcades; and there, At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where."

"Virtuous and vicious every man must be,— Few in the extreme, but all in the degree."

"The learned is happy Nature to explore, The fool is happy that he knows no more; The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n, The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n."

"Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die."

"Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw: Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite: Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, And beads and prayer books are the toys of age! Pleased with this bauble still, as that before; Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er."

"While man exclaims, “See all things for my use!” “See man for mine!” replies a pamper'd goose."

"Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale."

"In vain thy Reason finer webs shall draw, Entangle justice in her net of law, And right, too rigid, harden into wrong, Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong."

"The enormous faith of many made for one."

"Force first made Conquest, and that conquest, Law."

"For forms of government let fools contest; Whate'er is best administered is best: For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity."

"Thus God and Nature linked the general frame, And bade self-love and social be the same."

"Oh, happiness! Our being’s end and aim! Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate’er thy name: That something still which prompts the eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die, Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, O’erlooked, seen double, by the fool, and wise. Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below, Say, in what mortal soil thou deign’st to grow? Fair opening to some Court’s propitious shine, Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, Or reaped in iron harvests of the field? Where grows? — where grows it not? If vain our toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the soil: Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere, ’Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere; ’Tis never to be bought, but always free, And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee."

"Order is Heaven's first law."

"Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense, Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence. But Health consists with Temperance alone, And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own."

"The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy."