From thee to nothing.—­On superior powers
  Were we to pass, Inferior might on ours;
  Or in the full creation leave a void,
  Where, one step broken, the great scale’s destroyed: 
  From nature’s chain whatever link you strike,
  Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. 
  And, if each system in gradation roll
  Alike essential to th’ amazing whole,
  The least confusion but in one, not all
  That system only, but the whole must fall. 
  Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly,
  Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;
  Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled,
  Being on being wrecked, and world on world;
  Heaven’s whole foundations to their centre nod,
  And nature tremble to the throne of God. 
  All this dread order break—­for whom? for thee? 
  Vile worm!—­Oh, madness! pride! impiety!

  IX. 
  What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread,
  Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head? 
  What if the head, the eye, or ear repined
  To serve mere engines to the ruling mind? 
  Just as absurd for any part to claim
  To be another, in this general frame;
  Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
  The great directing Mind of all ordains. 
  All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
  Whose body nature is, and God the soul;
  That, changed through all, and yet in all the same;
  Great in the earth, as in th’ ethereal frame;
  Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
  Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
  Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
  Spreads undivided, operates unspent;
  Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
  As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
  As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
  As the rapt seraph that adores and burns: 
  To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
  He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

  X.
  Cease then, nor order imperfection name: 
  Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. 
  Know thy own point:  this kind, this due degree
  Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee. 
  Submit.—­In this, or any other sphere,
  Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear: 
  Safe in the hand of one disposing Power,
  Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. 
  All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
  All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
  All discord, harmony not understood;
  All partial evil, universal good: 
  And, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
  One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

  [MAN’S POWERS AND FRAILTIES]