gives for that is, that we only fee Parts, but not the Whole:

Refpecting Man whatever wrong we call,
May, muft be right, as relative to all.

And thus Mr. Warburton fays: Partial Evil is.univerfal Good, and Providence fairly acquitted.

But foon after, he fuppofes an Objector to put in and fay: "You tell us indeed, that all Things "will turn out for Good; but we see ourselves furrounded with prefent Evil; and yet you forbid us all Inquiry into the Manner how we are to be extricated; and in a Word, leave us in a very difconfolate Condition." Not fo, replies the Poet [from 1. 86 to 95.] you may reasonably, if you please, receive much Comfort from the HOPE of a happy Futurity; a Hope given us by God himself for this very Purpose, as an Earneft of that Blifs, which here indeed perpetually flies us, but is referved for the good Man hereafter.

What future Blifs he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy Bleffing now.
Hope fprings eternal in the human Breaft,
Man never is, but always to be bleft.
The Soul uneafy, and confin'd from home
Refts and expatiates in a Life to come.

Now the Reason why the Poet chufes to infift on this Proof of a future State in Preference to others, I conceive is in order to give his System (which is founded in a fublime and improv'd Platonifm) the utmoft Grace of Uniformity. For we know this HOPE was Plato's peculiar Argument for a future State; and the Words here employ'd, The Soul uneafy, &c. his peculiar Expreffion: We have seen the Argument illuftrated with great Force of Reasoning,

by

by our most eminent modern Divines: But no where ftronger urged than by our Poet, in this Eay. He fays here, in exprefs Terms, that God gave us Hope to fupply that future Blifs which he at present keeps hid from us. In his 2d Ep. 1. 264. he goes ftill farther, and fays, this Hope quits us not even at Death, when every Thing mortal drops from us.

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

And, in the 4th Ep. he fhews how the fame Hope is a certain Proof of a future State, from the Confideration of God's giving Man no Appetite in vain, or what he did not intend fhould be fatisfied; (which is Plato's great Argument for a future State.) For, defcribing the Condition of the good Man, he breaks out into these rapturous Strains.

For him alone Hope leads from Gole to Gole, And opens ftill, and opens on his Soul; "Till, lengthen'd on to Faith, and unconfin'd, It pours the Blifs, that fills up all the Mind. He fees why Nature plants in Man alone. Hope of known Blifs, and Faith in Blifs unknown Nature, whofe Dictates to no other Kind

Are giv❜n in vain, but what they feek they find. 1. 331, & feq.

It is only for the good Man, he tells us, that Hope leads from Gole to Gole, &c. It would be ftrange indeed then, if it fhould be a Delufion.

But it hath been objected, that the Syftem of the beft, weakens the other natural Arguments for a future State, because if the Evils, which good Men fuffer, promote the Benefit of the Whole, then every Thing is here in order; and nothing amifs that. wants to be fet right: Nor has the good Man any Reason to expect a Reparation, when the Evils he

fuffer'd

fuffer'd had fuch a Tendency. To this we reply that the System of the best is fo far from weakening thofe naturrl Arguments, that it ftrengthens and fupports them. To confider it a little, if thofe Evils to which good Men are fubject be mere Disorders, without any Tendency to the greater Good of the Whole, then, tho' we muft indeed conclude that they will hereafter be fet right, yet this View of Things, reprefenting God as fuffering Disorders for no other Purpofe than to fet them right, gives us a very low Idea of the divine Wisdom. But if those Evils: (according to the System of the befty contribute to the greater Perfection of the Whole, a Reafon may be then given for their Permiffion, and fuch as one as fupports our Idea of divine Wisdom to the highest religious Purposes. Then, as to the good Man's Hopes of a Retribution, thofe ftill remain in their original Force. For our Idea of God's Juftice, and how far that Juftice is engag'd to a Retribution, is exactly and invariably the fame on either Hypothefis For tho' the Syftem of the best fuppofes that the Evils themfelves will be fully compenfated by the Good they produce to the Whole, yet this is fo far from fuppofing that Particulars fhall fuffer for a general Good, that it is effential to this Syftem, to conclude that, at the Completion of Things, when the whole is arriv'd to the State of utmoft Perfection, particular and univerfal Good fhall coincide.

Snch is the WORLD's great Harmony, that springs From Union, Order, full Confent of Things, Where fmall and great, where weak and mighty made To ferve not fuffer, ftrengthen not invade. Ep. iii. 1. 296, & feq.

Which Coincidence can never be without a Retribu tion to good Men for the Evils fuffer'd here below.

And

And this is the Commentator's Support of this Argument in his own Words; for, that I may not make any the leaft Shew of Partiality, I fhall my felf take no Part in the Argument.

So that all being Order as it is, no Perfon ought to repine at fuffering for the Good of the Whole: All this dread Order break? For whom? For thee? Vile Worm! O Madness! Pride? Impiery!

Mr. Dryden fays, who gives into the fame Way of Argumentation, only his is confefs'd a religious System:

Darft thou poor Worm! offend Infinity ?' And mult the Terms of Peace be given by thee? Then thou art Juftice in the laft Appeal.

As to final Retribution to compenfate for what they call partial Evil, he makes a Deift acknowledge his Belief of it; but how far that proves that it is right that there fhould be Bad to meet with lafting Punishment for the Good of the Whole; I with Mr. Dryden had made his Deift fay:

God is that Spring of Good; Supreme and Beft;
We, made to ferve, and in that Service bleft;
If fo, fome Rules of Worfhip muft be given,
Diftributed alike to all by Heaven:

Elle God were partial, and to fame deny❜d.
The Means his Juftice fhould for all provide.
This general Worship is to Praife and Pray:
One Part to borrow Bleffings, one to pay:
And when frail Nature flides into Offence,
The Sacrifice for Crimes is Penitence.
Yet, fince th' Effects of Providence, we find
Are variously difpens'd to human Kind;

That

That Vice triumphs, and Virtue fuffers here,
(A Brand that fovereign Juftice cannot bear;)
Our Reason prompts us to a future State:
The last Appeal from Fortune, and from Fate:
Where God's all-righteous Ways will be declar'd
The Bad meet Punishment, the Good, Reward.

Mr. Pope endeavours to confirm his Thefes of par tial Evil being univerfal Good, which would undeniably prove, that whatever is, is right, by the fol lowing Lines:

But errs not Nature from this gracious Erid, From burning Suns when livid Deaths defcend, When Earthquakes fwallow, or when Tempests Towns to one Grave, a Nation to the Deep? [fweep; "No, 'tis reply'd, the firft almighty Caufe "Acts not by partial, but by general Laws: "The Exceptions few; fome change fince all began, "And what created perfect? Why then Man ?" If the great End be human Happiness,

And Nature deviates, how can Man do lefs?

3

On this Mr. Warburton, whofe Commentary I have chofe to quote, only because it was approv'd of by Mr. Pope, and therefore not liable to the Exception that it does not agree with his original Thoughts, fays: If Nature, or the inanimate System (on which God hath impofed his Laws, which it obeys as a Machine obeys the Hand of the Workman) may in Courfe of Time deviate from its first Direction, as the best Philofophy fhews it may; where is the Wonder that Man, who was created a free Agent, and hath it in his Power every Moment to tranfgrefs the Rule of Right, fhould fometimes go out of Order?

But