This I might have done in prose, but I chose verse, and even rhyme, for two reasons. The one will appear obvious; that principles, maxims, or precepts so written, both strike the reader more strongly at first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards: The other may seem odd, but is true, I found I could express them more _shortly_ this way than in prose itself; and nothing is more certain, than that much of the _force_ as well as _grace_ of arguments or instructions, depends on their _conciseness_. I was unable to treat this part of my subject more in _detail_, without becoming dry and tedious; or more _poetically_, without sacrificing perspicuity to ornament, without wandring from the precision, or breaking the chain of reasoning: If any man can unite all these without diminution of any of them, I freely confess he will compass a thing above my capacity. What is now published, is only to be considered as a _general Map_ of MAN, marking out no more than the _greater parts_, their _extent_, their _limits_, and their _connection_, and leaving the particular to be more fully delineated in the charts which are to follow. Consequently, these Epistles in their progress (if I have health and leisure to make any progress) will be less dry, and more susceptible of poetical ornament. I am here only opening the _fountains_, and clearing the passage. To deduce the _rivers_, to follow them in their course, and to observe their effects, may be a task more agreeable. P. ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE I Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to the UNIVERSE. _Of_ Man _in the abstract_. I. v. 17 &c. _That we can judge only with regard to our_ own system, _being ignorant of the_ relations _of systems and things_. II. v. 35, &c. _That Man is not to be deemed_ imperfect, _but a Being suited to his_ place _and_ rank _in the creation, agreeable to the_ general Order _of things, and conformable to_ Ends _and_ Relations _to him unknown_. III. v. 77, &c. _That it is partly upon his_ ignorance _of_ future _events, and partly upon the_ hope _of a_ future _state, that all his happiness in the present depends_. IV. v. 109, &c. _The_ pride _of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more Perfections, the cause of Man's error and misery. The_ impiety _of putting himself in the place of_ God, _and judging of the fitness or unfitness, perfection or imperfection, justice or injustice of his dispensations_. V. v. 131, &c. _The_ absurdity _of conceiting himself the _final cause _of the creation, or expecting that perfection in the_ moral _world, which is not in the_ natural.