The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
His country next, and next all human race:
Wide and more wide th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take ev'ry creature in of ev'ry kind:

Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest,
And Heav'n beholds its image in his breast.

365

370

Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along; Oh, master of the poet and the song!

And while the Muse now stoops, or now ascends, 375
To Man's low passions, or their glorious ends,
Teach me, like thee, in various Nature wise,
To fall with dignity, with temper rise;
Form'd by thy converse happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe;
Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reason, or polite to please.

Oh! while along the stream of Time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame,

Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,

Pursue the triumph, aud partake the gale?

380

385

When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,
Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this Verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philosopher and friend!

390

That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light,
Shew'd erring Pride whatever is is right;
That reason, passion, answer one great aim;
That true self-love and social are the same;
That virtue only makes our bliss below,
And all our knowledge is ourselves to know.

395

398

[AS some passages in the Essay on Man have been

suspected of favouring the schemes of Leibnitz and Spinoza, or of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalism, it is thought proper here to insert the two following Letters, to show how ill-grounded such a suspicion is.]

Mr. Pope to the Younger Racine, a celebrated French writer, occasioned by his animadversions on his Essay on Man, in a Poem called Religion.

SIR,

London, Sept. 1, 1742.

THE expectation in which I have been for some time past of receiving the present you have honoured me with, was the occasion of my delaying so long to answer your letter. I am at length favoured with your Poem upon Religion, and should have received, from the perusal of it, a pleasure unmixed with pain, had I not the mortification to find that you impute several principles to me which I abhor and detest, My uneasiness met some alleviation from a passage in your preface, where you declare your inability, from a want of knowledge of the English language, to give your own judgment on The Essay on Man. You add,

that you do not controvert my tenets, but the evil consequences deducible from them, and the maxims which some persons of notable sagacity have imagined that they have discovered in my Poem. This declaration is a shining proof of your candour, your discretion, and your charity. I must take leave to assure you, Sir, that your unaquaintance with the original has not proved more fatal to me than the imperfect conceptions of my translators, who have not sufficiently informed themselves of my real sentiments. The many additional embellishments which my Piece has received from the versions of M. D. R---, have not done an honour to The Essay on Man equal to the prejudice it has suffered from his frequent misapprehension of the principles it inculcates. These mistakes, you will preceive, are totally refuted in the English piece which I have transmited to you. It is a critical and philosophic commentary, written by the learned author of the Divine Legation of Moses. I flatter myself that the Chevalier Ramsay will, from his zeal for truth, take the trouble to explain the contents of it. I shall then persuade myself that your suspicions will be effaced, and I shall have no appeal from your candour and justice.

In the mean time, I shall not hesitate to declare myself very cordially in regard to some particulars about which you have desired an answer.