pope. 417 



Let us (since life can little more supply 

 Than just to look about us and to die) 

 Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man, 

 A mighty maze, — but not without a plan "; 



To expatiate o'er a mighty maze is rather loose writing 

 but the last verse, as it stood in the original editions, 

 was, 



" A mighty maze of walks without a plan " ; 



and perhaps this came nearer Pope's real opinion than 

 the verse he substituted for it. Warburton is careful 

 not to mention this variation in his notes. The poem is 

 everywhere as remarkable for its 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 : — 



" 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. 

 O, blindness to the future kindly given 

 That each may fill the circle meant by heaven! 

 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! " 



Now, if " heaven from all creatures hides the book of 

 fate," why should not the lamb " skip and play," 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? 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 appear- 

 ances are equivalent to a knowledge of destiny, the 

 knowing enough to take an umbrella in cloudy weather 



18* *A 



