Page:An Essay on Man - Pope (1751).pdf/24

 All in exact proportion to the state; Nothing to add, and nothing to abate. Each beast, each insect, happy in its own; Is heav'n unkind to man, and man alone? Shall he alone, whom rational we call, Be pleas'd with nothing, if not bless'd with all? bliss of man, (could pride that blessing find) Is not to act or think beyond mankind; No pow'rs of body or of souls to share, But what his nature and his state can bear. Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason, man is not a fly. Say what the use, were finer opticks giv'n, T'inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n? Or touch, if, tremblingly alive all o'er, To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore? Or quick effluvia darting thro' the brain, Die of a rose in aromatick pain? If nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears, And stunn'd him with the musick of the spheres, How would he wish that heav'n had left him still The whisp'ring zephyr, and the purling rill? Who finds not providence all good and wise, Alike in what it gives, and what denies? as creation's ample range extends, The scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends: Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race, From the green myriads in the peopled grass: