That VIRTUE only makes our Bliss below;

And all our Knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 397. That Virtue only, &c.] in the MS. thus,
That just to find a God is all we can,
And all the Study of Mankind is Man.

COMMENTARY.

"another on the Original of Society, and feveral fragments "besides on Self-love and the Paffions) he tacked thefe toge"ther as he could, and divided them into four epiftles; as, it is "faid, was the fortune of Homer's Rhapsodies." I suppose this will be believed as foon of one as of the other. But his French Poetical Translator is not behind hand with his Critic, in this judgment on their Author's work. "The only reafon (fays this tranflator) for which this poem can be properly "termed an Essay, is, that the author has not formed his plan "with all the regularity of method which it might have ad "mitted”—and again" I was, by the unanimous opinion of "all those whom I have confulted on this occafion, and amongst thefe, of feveral Englishmen completely skilled in both languages, obliged to foliow a different method. The French are not Jatisfied with fentiments, however beautiful, unless they be methodically difpofed: Method being the Characteristic that diflinguishes our performances from those of our Neighbours,” &c. It is enough juft to have quoted thefe wonderful Men of method, and to leave them to the laughter of the public

..

THE

UNIVERSAL

PRAYE R.

DEO OPT. MAX.

THE

Univerfal Prayer.

DEO OPT. MAX.

ATHER of All! in ev'ry Age,

F1

In ev'ry Clime ador'd,

By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou Great First Cause, least understood:
Who all my Sense confin'd

To know but this, that Thou art Good,
And that myself am blind;

COMMENTARY.

Univerfal Prayer.] It may be proper to obferve, that some paffages, in the preceding Essay, having been unjuftly suspected of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalism, the author compofed this Prayer as the fum of all, to fhew that his fyftem was founded in free-will, and terminated in piety: That the first cause was as well the Lord and Governor of the Universe as the Creator of it; and that, by fubmiffion to his will (the great principle inforced throughout the Essay) was not meant the fuffering ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination; but the refting in a religious acquiefcence, and cofidence full