Note 1065 — AN ESSAY ON MAN, IN FOUR EPISTLES (continued 3)
Reading edition
First edition:
What the advantage if his finer eyes Study a mite, not comprehend the skies.
The second edition has some further variations:
Why has not man a microscopic sight? For this plain reason, man is not a mite: Say what th' advantage of so fine an eye? T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the sky.
Pope owed the thought, and the expression "microscopic eye" to Locke, Essay on the Human Understanding, bk. ii. chap. 23, sect. 12: "If by the help of microscopical eyes, a man could penetrate into the secret composition of bodies, he would not make any great advantage by the change if he could not see things he was to avoid at a convenient distance."