Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man (1732-1734)

Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?
Of man what see we but his station here
From which to reason, or to which refer?
Though which to reason, or to which refer?
Through worlds unnumbered through the God be known,
‘Tis ours to trace him only in our own.

(Nothing is revealed to us outside that of which we experience.)

He who through vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns,
What varied being peoples ev’ry star,
May tell why heav’n has made us as we are.
The strong connections, nice dependencies,
Gradations just, has thy pervading soul
Looked through? or can a part contain a whole?

(Either 1) all knowledge comes from experience and we, not being infinite, cannot know the system as a whole, or (2) some knowledge comes from another source – for example, from innate ideas built into us or from revelation from the outside.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
all partial evil, universalgood;
And, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.