"It would have been no more an inftance of God's "wisdom to have created no beings but of the highest " and moft perfect order, than it would be of a

painter's art to cover his whole piece with one "fingle colour, the most beautiful he could compofe. "Had he confined himself to fuch, nothing could "have exifted but demi-gods, or arch-angels, and "then all inferior orders must have been void and "uninhabited: but as it is furely more agreeable to "infinite Benevolence, that all these should be filled

up with beings capable of enjoying happiness them"felves, and contributing to that of others, they must "neceffarily be filled with inferior beings, that is, "with fuch as are lefs perfect, but from whose "existence, notwithstanding that lefs perfection, "more felicity upon the whole accrues to the univerfe, than if no fuch had been created. It is

moreover highly probable, that there is fuch a "connection between all ranks and orders by fubor"dinate degrees, that they mutually fupport each "other's existence, and every one in its place is abfolutely neceffary towards fuftaining the whole vaft "and magnificent fabrick.

"Our pretences for complaint could be of this "only, that we are not fo high in the fcale of ex"iftence as our ignorant ambition may defire; a

pretence which muft eternally fubfift; because, "were we ever fo much higher, there would be still "room for infinite power to exalt us; and fince no

link in the chain can be broke, the fame reason "for difquiet muft remain to those who fucceed to "that chafm, which must be occafioned by our pre" ferment.

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ferment. A man can have no reason to repine that "he is not an angel; nor a horfe that he is not a man; much lefs, that in their several stations they "poffefs not the faculties of another; for this would "be an infufferable misfortune."

This doctrine of the regular fubordination of beings, the scale of existence, and the chain of nature, I have often confidered, but always left the enquiry in doubt and uncertainty.

That every being not infinite, compared with infinity, must be imperfect, is evident to intuition; that whatever is imperfect muft have a certain line which it cannot país, is equally certain. But the reafon which determined this limit, and for which fuch being was fuffered to advance thus far and no farther, we shall never be able to discern. Our discoverers tell us, the Creator has made beings of all orders, and that therefore one of them must be fuch as man. But this fystem seems to be established on a conceffion, which, if it be refused, cannot be extorted.

Every reafon which can be brought to prove, that there are beings of every poffible fort, will prove that there is the greatest number poffible of every fort of beings; but this with respect to man we know, if we know any thing, not to be true.

It does not appear even to the imagination, that of three orders of being, the firft and the third receive any advantage from the imperfection of the fecond, or that indeed they may not equally exift, though the fecond had never been, or fhould ceafe to be, and why should that be concluded neceffary, which cannot be proved even to be useful?

The

The fcale of exiftence from infinity to nothing, cannot poffibly have being. The higheft being not infinite muft be, as has been often obferved, at an infinite distance below infinity. Cheyne, who, with the defire inherent in mathematicians to reduce every thing to mathematical images, confiders all exiftence as a cone, allows that the bafis is at an infinite diftance from the body. And in this distance between finite and infinite, there will be room for ever for an infinite feries of indefinable exiftence.

Between the lowest pofitive exiftence and nothing, wherever we fuppofe pofitive existence to cease, is another chasm infinitely deep; where there is room again for endless orders of fubordinate nature, continued for ever and for ever, and yet infinitely fuperior to non-existence.

To these meditations humanity is unequal. But yet we may afk, not of our Maker, but of each other, fince on the one fide creation, wherever it ftops, muft ftop infinitely below infinity, and on the other infinitely above nothing, what neceffity there is that it fhould proceed fo far either way that beings fo high or fo low fhould ever have exifted? We may afk; but I believe no created wisdom can give an adequate answer.

Nor is this all. In the fcale, wherever it begins or ends, are infinite vacuities. At whatever distance we fuppofe the next order of beings to be above man, there is room for an intermediate order of beings between them; and if for one order, then for infinite orders; fince every thing that admits of more or lefs, and confequently all the parts of that which admits them, may be infinitely divided. So

8

that,

that, as far as we can judge, there may be room in the vacuity between any two fteps of the fcale, or between any two points of the cone of being, for infinite exertion of infinite power.

Thus it appears how little reason those who repofe their reafon upon the fcale of being have to triumph over them who recur to any other expedient of solution, and what difficulties arise on every fide to reprefs the rebellions of prefumptuous decifion. Qui pauca confiderat, facile pronunciat. In our paffage through the boundless ocean of difquifition we often take fogs for land, and after having long toiled to approach them, find, instead of repose and harbours, new ftorms of objection, and fluctuations of uncertainty.

We are next entertained with Pope's alleviations of thofe evils which we are doomed to fuffer.

Poverty, or the want of riches, is generally com"penfated by having more hopes, and fewer fears,

by a greater fhare of health, and a more exqui"fite relish of the smallest enjoyments, than those "who poffefs them are ufually bleffed with. The "want of taste and genius, with all the pleasures that "arife from them, are commonly recompenfed by a "more useful kind of common sense, together with a "wonderful delight, as well as fuccefs, in the busy

purfuits of a scrambling world. The fufferings of "the fick are greatly relieved by many trifling gra"tifications imperceptible to others, and fometimes "almoft repaid by the inconceivable transports occa "fioned by the return of health and vigour. Folly "cannot be very grievous, because imperceptible; " and I doubt not but there is fome truth in that rant

" of

"of a mad poet, that there is a pleasure in being "mad, which none but madmen know. Ignorance, or the want of knowledge and literature, the appointed lot of all born to poverty, and the drudgeries of life, is the only opiate capable of infusing that infenfibility which can enable them to endure the miferies of the one and the fatigues of "the other. It is a cordial administered by the gra"cious hand of Providence; of which they ought

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never to be deprived by an ill-judged and improper education. It is the bafis of all fubordination, "the fupport of fociety, and the privilege of indi"viduals and I have ever thought it a most re"markable inftance of the divine wisdom, that "whereas in all animals, whofe individuals rife little "above the reft of their species, knowledge is in"ftinctive; in man, whofe individuals are fo widely

different, it is acquired by education; by which means the prince and the labourer, the philofopher "and the peafant, are in fome measure fitted for their refpective fituations."

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Much of these pofitions is perhaps true, and the whole paragraph might well pass without cenfure, were not objections neceffary to the establishment of knowledge. Poverty is very gently paraphrafed by want of riches. In that fenfe almost every man in his own opinion be poor. But there is another poverty, which is want of competence, of all that can foften the miferies of life, of all that can diverfify attention, or delight imagination. There is yet another poverty, which is want of neceffaries, a species of poverty which no care of the publick, no

may

charity