Page:The Universe, a poem - Baker (1727).djvu/9

 

TO THE

 

READER.

 

t has, too long, been a general, though an absurd Opinion, that all the Works of Providence we see around Us, were created only for the Use of Man. Ignorance and Pride, which first began, have since continued this Mistake; and, being imbibed in Childhood, the early Prejudice of Education has given it such Authority, that to doubt its Truth, will, by many, be accounted high Impiety; tho' the quite contrary, to any one who dares reflect, is so exceeding plain, that little more is necessary than to look about Us and be convinced.

I am not for displacing Man from his proper Degree in the eternal Scale of Beings. He is, without dispute, the first upon this Globe: superior Reason making him superior to every other Creature here. But this Globe itself is so inconsiderable, so near to Nothing compared with the Grand Universe, that to be swelled with this small Preeminence, and fancy himself therefore the Lord of the whole Creation, is asridi-