364 POPE. 



mention this variation in his notes. The poem is every 

 where as remarkable for confusion of logic as it often is 

 for ease of verse and grace of expression. An instance of 

 both occurs in a passage frequently quoted : 



&quot; Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate ; 

 All but the page prescribed, their present state ; 

 From brutes what men, from men what spirits know, 

 Or who would suffer being here below ? 

 The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, 

 Had he thy reason, would he skip and play ? 

 Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food, 

 And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood. 

 0, blindness to the future kindly given 

 That each may fill the circle meant by heaven ! 

 &quot;Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 

 A hero perish or a sparrow fall, . 

 Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, 

 And now a bubble burst, and now a world ! &quot; 



Now, if &quot;heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate,&quot; 

 why should not the lamb &quot; skip and play,&quot; if he had the 

 reason of man 1 Why, because he would then be able to 

 read the book of fate. But if man himself cannot, why, 

 then, could the lamb with the reason of man 1 For, if the 

 lamb had the reason of man, the book of fate would still be 

 hidden, so far as himself was concerned. If the inferences 

 we can draw from appearances are equivalent to a know 

 ledge of destiny, the knowing enough to take an umbrella 

 in cloudy weather might be called so. There is a manifest 

 confusion between what we know about ourselves and 

 about other people ; the whole point of the passage being 

 that we are always mercifully blinded to our oivn future, 

 however much reason we may possess. There is also 

 inaccuracy as well as inelegance in saying, 



&quot; Heaven, 



Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 

 A hero perish or a sparrow fall.&quot; 



To the last verse &quot;Warburton, desirous of reconciling his 

 author with Scripture, appends a note referring to Matthew 

 x. 29 : &quot; Are not two sparrows sold for one farthing 1 and 

 one of them shall not fall to the ground without your 



