See! and confess, one comfort still must rise,
'Tis this, Though Man's a fool, yet God is wise.
* * * * *
VARIATIONS.
VER. 2, first edition--
The only science of mankind is Man.
After VER. 18, in the MS.--
For more perfection than this state can bear,
In vain we sigh, 'Heaven made us as we are.'
As wisely, sure, a modest ape might aim
To be like Man, whose faculties and frame
He sees, he feels, as you or I to be
An angel thing we neither know nor see.
Observe how near he edges on our race;
What human tricks! how risible of face!
'It must be so--why else have I the sense
Of more than monkey charms and excellence?
Why else to walk on two so oft essay'd?
And why this ardent longing for a maid?'
So pug might plead, and call his gods unkind,
Till set on end and married to his mind.
Go, reasoning thing! assume the doctor's chair,
As Plato deep, as Seneca severe:
Fix moral fitness, and to God give rule,
Then drop into thyself, &c.
VER. 21, edition fourth and fifth--
Show by what rules the wandering planets stray,
Correct old Time, and teach the sun his way.
VER. 35, first edition--
Could He, who taught each planet where to roll,
Describe or fix one movement of the soul?
Who mark'd their points to rise or to descend,
Explain his own beginning or his end?
After VER.
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