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diff --git a/43271-0.txt b/43271-0.txt index f1d60fb..e363d4c 100644 --- a/43271-0.txt +++ b/43271-0.txt @@ -1,36 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of -10), by Alexander Pope - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of 10) - Poetry - Volume 2 - -Author: Alexander Pope - -Contributor: Whitwell Elwin - -Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43271] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE *** - - - - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Colin M. Kendall and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43271 *** TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: @@ -26857,359 +26825,4 @@ elements' had 'intractibility' in the original. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of 10), by Alexander Pope -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE *** - -***** This file should be named 43271-0.txt or 43271-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/7/43271/ - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Colin M. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of 10) - Poetry - Volume 2 - -Author: Alexander Pope - -Contributor: Whitwell Elwin - -Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43271] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE *** - - - - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Colin M. Kendall and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - -TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: - -A. In the discussion of metricality on p. 27, in the text starting -"Several lines are not metrical...", there are a few letters with macrons -in the original; these are rendered as "[=e]", "[=n]", and "[=o]". - - - - - FRONTISPIECE TO POPE'S WORKS, VOL. II. - -[Illustration: Frontispiece to the Essay on Man, designed by Pope - to represent the vanity of human glory.] - - - - - THE WORKS - OF - ALEXANDER POPE. - - NEW EDITION. - - INCLUDING - - SEVERAL HUNDRED UNPUBLISHED LETTERS, AND OTHER - NEW MATERIALS. - - - COLLECTED IN PART BY THE LATE - - RT. HON. JOHN WILSON CROKER. - - - WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES. - - BY REV. WHITWELL ELWIN. - - VOL. II. - POETRY.--VOL. II. - - WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS. - - LONDON: - JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. - 1871. - - [_The right of Translation is reserved._] - - LONDON: - BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. - - * * * * * - - - - - AN - - ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1709. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM, - - 4to. - - - ----Si quid novisti rectius istis, - Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum.--HORAT. - -London: Printed for W. LEWIS, in Russel-Street, Covent Garden; and - sold by W. TAYLOR, at the Ship, in Pater-Noster-Row, T. OSBORN, in - Gray's-Inn, near the Walks, and J. GRAVES, in St. James's Street. - 1711. - -Warton says that the poem was "first advertised in the Spectator, No. -65, May 15th, 1711." Pope informed Caryll that a thousand copies were -printed. Lewis, the publisher, was a Roman Catholic, and an old -schoolfellow of the poet. - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - Written by Mr. POPE. - - The second edition, 8vo. - -London: Printed for W. LEWIS, in Russel-Street, Covent Garden, 1713. - -Though the date on the title page is 1713, Isaac Reed states that the -second edition was advertised in the Spectator on November 22, 1712. It -was a common practice to substitute the date of the coming, for that of -the expiring, year. A third and fourth edition in a smaller type and -size came out in 1713. In 1714, the poem was appended to the second -edition of Lintot's Miscellanies, by some arrangement with Lewis, whose -name appears upon the title page of that particular edition of the -Miscellanies as joint publisher. On July 17, 1716, Lintot purchased the -remainder of the copyright for £15, preparatory to inserting the piece -in the quarto of 1717. He brought out a sixth octavo edition of the -essay in 1719, and a seventh in 1722, and reprinted the poem in each of -the four editions of his Miscellanies which were published between 1720 -and 1732. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - Written in the year 1709. With the Commentary and Notes of - W. WARBURTON, A.M. 4to. - -The Essay on Criticism has no date, but on the title page of the "Essay -on Man," which appeared in the same volume is, "London: Printed by W. -BOWYER for M. COOPER, at the Globe in Pater-Noster Row. 1743." Pope, -writing to Warburton on October 7, 1743, says, "I have given Bowyer your -comment on the Essay on Criticism this week, and he shall lose no time -with the rest." On Jan. 12, 1744, he tells his commentator that the -publication had been delayed by the advice of Bowyer, and on Feb. 21, he -writes word that he shall keep it back till Warburton goes to town. -There is no doubt that the edition was printed in 1743, and published in -1744. - - - * * * * * - - - - -In the year 1709 was written the Essay on Criticism, a work which -displays such extent of comprehension, such nicety of distinction, such -acquaintance with mankind, and such knowledge both of ancient and modern -learning, as are not often attained by the maturest age and longest -experience. It was published about two years afterwards, and being -praised by Addison in the Spectator, with sufficient liberality, met -with so much favour as enraged Dennis, "who," he says, "found himself -attacked without any manner of provocation on his side, and attacked in -his person, instead of his writings, by one who was wholly a stranger to -him, at a time when all the world knew he was persecuted by fortune; and -not only saw that this was attempted in a clandestine manner, with the -utmost falsehood and calumny, but found that all this was done by a -little affected hypocrite, who had nothing in his mouth at the same time -but truth, candour, friendship, goodnature, humanity, and magnanimity." -How the attack was clandestine is not easily perceived, nor how his -person is depreciated; but he seems to have known something of Pope's -character, in whom may be discovered an appetite to talk too frequently -of his own virtues. Thus began the hostility between Pope and Dennis, -which, though it was suspended for a short time, never was appeased. -Pope seems, at first, to have attacked him wantonly; but though he -always professed to despise him, he discovers, by mentioning him very -often, that he felt his force or his venom. - -Of this Essay Pope declared that he did not expect the sale to be quick, -because "not one gentleman in sixty, even of liberal education, could -understand it." The gentlemen and the education of that time seem to -have been of a lower character than they are of this. He mentioned a -thousand copies as a numerous impression. Dennis was not his only -censurer. The zealous papists thought the monks treated with too much -contempt, and Erasmus too studiously praised; but to these objections he -had not much regard. The Essay has been translated into French by -Hamilton, author of the Comte de Grammont, whose version was never -printed; by Robotham, secretary to the king for Hanover, and by Resnel; -and commented by Dr. Warburton, who has discovered in it such order and -connection as was not perceived by Addison, nor, as is said, intended by -the author. Almost every poem consisting of precepts is so far arbitrary -and immethodical, that many of the paragraphs may change places with no -apparent inconvenience; for of two or more positions, depending upon -some remote and general principle, there is seldom any cogent reason why -one should precede the other. But for the order in which they stand, -whatever it be, a little ingenuity may easily give a reason. "It is -possible," says Hooker, "that, by long circumduction from any one truth, -all truth may be inferred." Of all homogeneous truths, at least of all -truths respecting the same general end, in whatever series they may be -produced, a concatenation by intermediate ideas may be formed such as, -when it is once shown, shall appear natural; but if this order be -reversed, another mode of connection equally specious may be found or -made. Aristotle is praised for naming fortitude first of the cardinal -virtues, as that without which no other virtue can steadily be -practised; but he might with equal propriety have placed prudence and -justice before it, since without prudence fortitude is mad, without -justice it is mischievous. As the end of method is perspicuity, that -series is sufficiently regular that avoids obscurity, and where there is -no obscurity, it will not be difficult to discover method. - -The Essay on Criticism is one of Pope's greatest works, and if he had -written nothing else, would have placed him among the first critics and -the first poets, as it exhibits every mode of excellence that can -embellish or dignify didactic composition--selection of matter, novelty -of arrangement, justness of precept, splendour of illustration, and -propriety of digression. I know not whether it be pleasing to consider -that he produced this piece at twenty, and never afterwards excelled it. -He that delights himself with observing that such powers may be soon -attained, cannot but grieve to think that life was ever after at a -stand. To mention the particular beauties of the essay, would be -unprofitably tedious; but I cannot forbear to observe that the -comparison of a student's progress in the sciences with the journey of a -traveller in the Alps, is perhaps the best that English poetry can show. -A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject; -must show it to the understanding in a clearer view, and display it to -the fancy with greater dignity; but either of these qualities may be -sufficient to recommend it. In didactic poetry, of which the great -purpose is instruction, a simile may be praised which illustrates though -it does not ennoble; in heroics that may be admitted which ennobles, -though it does not illustrate. That it may be complete, it is required -to exhibit, independently of its references, a pleasing image; for a -simile is said to be a short episode. To this antiquity was so -attentive, that circumstances were sometimes added which, having no -parallels, served only to fill the imagination, and produced what -Perrault ludicrously called "comparisons with a long tail." In their -similes the greatest writers have sometimes failed. The ship race -compared with the chariot race, is neither illustrated nor aggrandised; -land and water make all the difference. When Apollo, running after -Daphne, is likened to a greyhound chasing a hare, there is nothing -gained; the ideas of pursuit and flight are too plain to be made -plainer, and a god and the daughter of a god, are not represented much -to their advantage by a hare and a dog. The simile of the Alps has no -useless parts, yet affords a striking picture by itself; it makes the -foregoing position better understood, and enables it to take faster hold -on the attention; it assists the apprehension, and elevates the fancy. - -Let me likewise dwell a little on the celebrated paragraph in which it -is directed that the sound should seem an echo to the sense,--a precept -which Pope is allowed to have observed beyond any other English poet. -This notion of representative metre, and the desire of discovering -frequent adaptations of the sound to the sense, have produced, in my -opinion, many wild conceits and imaginary beauties. All that can furnish -this representation are the sounds of the words considered singly, and -the time in which they are pronounced. Every language has some words -framed to exhibit the noises which they express, as _thump_, _rattle_, -_growl_, _hiss_. These, however, are but few, and the poet cannot make -them more, nor can they be of any use but when sound is to be mentioned. -The time of pronunciation was in the dactylic measures of the learned -languages capable of considerable variety; but that variety could be -accommodated only to motion or duration, and different degrees of motion -were perhaps expressed by verses rapid or slow, without much attention -of the writer, when the image had full possession of his fancy; but our -language having little flexibility, our verses can differ very little in -their cadence. The fancied resemblances, I fear, arise sometimes merely -from the ambiguity of words; there is supposed to be some relation -between a _soft_ line and a _soft_ couch, or between _hard_ syllables -and _hard_ fortune. Motion, however, may be in some sort exemplified, -and yet it may be suspected that in such resemblances the mind often -governs the idea, and the sounds are estimated by their meaning. One of -their most successful attempts has been to describe the labour of -Sisyphus: - - With many a weary step, and many a groan, - Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone; - The huge round stone, resulting with a bound, - Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground. - -Who does not perceive the stone to move slowly upward, and roll -violently back? But set the same numbers to another sense: - - While many a merry tale, and many a song, - Cheered the rough road, we wished the rough road long; - The rough road then, returning in a round, - Mocked our impatient steps, for all was fairy ground. - -We have surely now lost much of the delay, and much of the rapidity. But -to show how little the greatest master of numbers can fix the principles -of representative harmony, it will be sufficient to remark that the poet -who tells us that - - When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, - The line too labours, and the words move slow; - Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, - Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main; - -when he had enjoyed for about thirty years the praise of Camilla's -lightness of foot, he tried another experiment upon _sound_ and _time_, -and produced this memorable triplet: - - Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join - The varying verse, the full resounding line, - The long majestic march, and energy divine. - -Here are the swiftness of the rapid race, and the march of slow-paced -majesty, exhibited by the same poet in the same sequence of syllables, -except that the exact prosodist will find the line of swiftness by one -time longer than that of tardiness. Beauties of this kind are commonly -fancied, and when real are technical and nugatory, not to be rejected, -and not to be solicited.--JOHNSON. - -The Essay on Criticism is a poem of that species for which our author's -genius was particularly turned,--the didactic and moral. It is -therefore, as might be expected, a master-piece in its kind. I have been -sometimes inclined to think that the praises Addison has bestowed on it -were a little partial and invidious. "The observations," says he, -"follow one another like those in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that -methodical regularity which would have been requisite in a prose -writer." It is, however, certain that the poem before us is by no means -destitute of a just integrity, and a lucid order.[1] Each of the -precepts and remarks naturally introduce the succeeding ones, so as to -form an entire whole. The Spectator adds, "The observations in this -Essay are _some_ of them _uncommon_." There is, I fear, a small mixture -of ill-nature in these words; for this Essay, though on a beaten -subject, abounds in many new remarks and original rules, as well as in -many happy and beautiful illustrations and applications of the old ones. -We are, indeed, amazed to find such a knowledge of the world, such a -maturity of judgment, and such a penetration into human nature, as are -here displayed, in so very young a writer as was Pope when he produced -this Essay, for he was not twenty years old. Correctness and a just -taste are usually not attained but by long practice and experience in -any art; but a clear head and strong sense were the characteristical -qualities of our author, and every man soonest displays his radical -excellences. If his predominant talent be warmth and vigour of -imagination it will break out in fanciful and luxuriant descriptions, -the colouring of which will perhaps be too rich and glowing. If his -chief force lies in the understanding rather than in the imagination, it -will soon appear by solid and manly observations on life or learning, -expressed in a more chaste and subdued style. The former will frequently -be hurried into obscurity or turgidity, and a false grandeur of diction; -the latter will seldom hazard a figure whose usage is not already -established, or an image beyond common life; will always be perspicuous -if not elevated; will never disgust if not transport his readers; will -avoid the grosser faults if not arrive at the greater beauties of -composition. When we consider the just taste, the strong sense, the -knowledge of men, books, and opinions that are so predominant in the -Essay on Criticism, we must readily agree to place the author among the -first critics, though not, as Dr. Johnson says, "among the first poets," -on this account alone. As a poet he must rank much higher for his Eloïsa -and Rape of the Lock. The Essay, it is said, was first written in prose, -according to the precept of Vida, and the practice of Racine, who was -accustomed to draw out in plain prose, not only the subject of each of -the five acts, but of every scene, and every speech, that he might see -the conduct and coherence of the whole at one view, and would then say, -"My tragedy is finished."--WARTON. - -Most of the observations in this Essay are just, and certainly evince -good sense, an extent of reading, and powers of comparison, considering -the age of the author, extraordinary. Johnson's praise however is -exaggerated.--BOWLES. - -"Essay" in Pope's day was used in its now obsolete sense of an attempt. -Stephens in 1648 entitled his translation of the five first books of the -Thebais "an Essay upon Statius:" and Denham's "Essay on the second book -of Virgil's Æneis" is a version and not a dissertation. "I have -undertaken," Dryden wrote to Walsh, "to translate all Virgil; and as an -essay have already paraphrased the third Georgic as an example." Two -quotations in Johnson's Dictionary,--one from Dryden, the other from -Glanville,--show that the word was usually understood to imply -diffidence. Dryden, in his Epistle to Roscommon, says, - - Yet modestly he does his work survey, - And calls a finished poem an essay; - -and Glanville says, "This treatise prides itself in no higher a title -than that of an essay, or imperfect attempt at a subject." Locke named -his great and elaborate work an "Essay on the Human Understanding," from -the consciousness that it was an "imperfect attempt," and when hostile -critics refused him the benefit of his modest title, he answered that -they did his book an honour "in not suffering it to be an essay." Pope -borrowed both the word, and the plan of his poem, from some works which -enjoyed in his youth a credit far beyond their worth,--the Essay on -Translated Verse by the Earl of Roscommon, and the Essay on Satire, and -the Essay on Poetry by the Earl of Mulgrave, afterwards Duke of -Buckingham. These small productions had been suggested in their turn by -Horace's Art of Poetry, and its modern imitations. Roscommon and -Mulgrave, men of common-place minds, were incapable of originality, and -Pope, with the latent genius of a leader, was a follower in early years. - -"The things that I have written fastest," said Pope to Spence, "have -always pleased the most. I wrote the Essay on Criticism fast; for I had -digested all the matter in prose before I began upon it in verse."[2] -This last circumstance was mentioned by Warton in his Essay on the -Writings and Genius of Pope, long before the Anecdotes of Spence were -published, and Johnson commented upon the statement in his review of -Warton's work. "There is nothing," he said, "improbable in the report, -nothing indeed but what is more likely than the contrary; yet I cannot -forbear to hint the danger and weakness of trusting too readily to -information. Nothing but experience could evince the frequency of false -information, or enable any man to conceive that so many groundless -reports should be propagated as every man of eminence may hear of -himself. Some men relate what they think as what they know; some men of -confused memories and habitual inaccuracy ascribe to one man what -belongs to another; and some talk on without thought or care. A few men -are sufficient to broach falsehoods, which are afterwards innocently -diffused by successive relators."[3] The caution was not intended to -discredit the evidence of Spence. Warton had suppressed his authority, -and Johnson had a proper mistrust of common hearsay. - -On the title-page of the poem in the quarto of 1717, it is said, that it -was "written in the year 1709," to which Richardson has attached the -note, "Mr. Pope told me himself that the Essay on Criticism was, indeed, -written 1707, though said 1709 by mistake." The poet continued the -alleged mistake through all succeeding revisions. The quarto of 1743 was -the last edition he superintended, and 1709 appears as usual upon the -title-page, but Warburton announced in the final sentence of the -commentary, that the Essay was "the work of an author who had not -attained the twentieth year of his age," and as the author was born in -May, 1688, he must, according to this testimony, have completed his task -before May, 1708, which confirms the account of Richardson. Pope had -thus assigned one date to his piece on the first page of the quarto of -1743, and sanctioned the promulgation of a different date on the -concluding page. There is the same contradiction in his conversations -with Spence. "My Essay on Criticism," he said on one occasion, "was -written in 1709, and published in 1711, which is as little time as ever -I let anything of mine lay by me."[4] This agrees with the printed -title-page. "I showed Walsh," he said to Spence on another occasion, "my -Essay on Criticism in 1706. He died the year after."[5] This falls in -with the evidence of Richardson and Warburton; for Walsh died on March -15, 1708, and 1706 was an error for 1707. The double date reappears in a -note to the Pope Letters of 1735, solely through a change in the -punctuation. "Mr. Walsh," it was said in some copies, "died at 49 years -old, in the year 1708, the year after Mr. Pope writ the Essay on -Criticism." "Mr. Walsh," it was said in other copies, "died at 49 years -old in the year 1708, the year after Mr. Pope writ the Essay on -Criticism." In the first version it is asserted that the poem was -written in 1709, or the year after Mr. Walsh died; in the second version -it is asserted that it was written in 1707, and that Mr. Walsh died the -year after. Such a series of conflicting statements could not all be -accidental. When Pope published the quarto edition of his Letters in -1737, he again altered the note. "Mr. Walsh," he then said, "died at 49 -years old, in the year 1708, the year before the Essay on Criticism was -printed," which informs us of the new fact that it was printed a couple -of years before it was published, and since the poet assured Spence that -it was written two or three years before it was printed,[6] we have the -date of its composition once more thrown back to 1707. Pope forgot the -confession in the poem, ver. 735-740, that in consequence of having -"lost his guide" by the death of Walsh, he was afraid to attempt -ambitious themes, and selected the Essay on Criticism as a topic suited -to "low numbers." However fictitious may have been the reason he -assigned for the choice of his subject, he there admits that he did not -form the design till after the death of his friend in March 1708. In his -later statements he oscillated between the truth, and the desire to -magnify the precocity of his genius. He was always ambitious of the kind -of praise which Johnson bestows upon the Essay, when he calls it "the -stupendous performance of a youth not yet twenty." But at whatever -period the poem was first written, it did not appear till May, 1711, and -represents the capacity of Pope at twenty-three. He avowedly kept his -pieces long in manuscript for the purpose of maturing and polishing -them, and they were as good as he could make them at the period when -they finally left his hands. - -The Essay on Criticism was published anonymously. Warton was informed by -Lewis the bookseller, that "it laid many days in his shop unnoticed and -unread." Pope wrote word to Caryll, July 19, 1711, that he did not -expect it would ever arrive at a second edition. Piqued, said Lewis, at -the neglect, the poet one day directed copies to several great men, and -among others to Lord Lansdowne, and the Duke of Buckingham. These -presents caused the work to be talked about.[7] The name of the author, -which soon transpired, assisted the sale, and the paper of Addison in -the Spectator on December 20, 1711, brought the Essay under the notice -of the entire reading world, though it was still another twelvemonth -before the thousand copies were exhausted. - -The notoriety, if not the sale, of the Essay on Criticism must have been -promoted by the angry pamphlet put forth by Dennis six months before the -laudatory paper of Addison appeared in the Spectator.[8] Dennis was the -only living writer who was openly abused in the poem, and there was an -asperity in the language which savoured of personal hostility. He and -Pope were slightly acquainted. "At his first coming to town," says -Dennis, "he was very importunate with the late Mr. Henry Cromwell to -introduce him to me. The recommendation of Mr. Cromwell engaged me to be -about thrice in company with him; after which I went into the country, -and neither saw him, nor thought of him, till I found myself insolently -attacked by him in his very superficial Essay on Criticism."[9] A -passage quoted by Bowles from Pope's Prologue to the Satires reveals the -cause of the enmity: - - Soft were my numbers; who could take offence - While pure description held the place of sense? - Like gentle Fanny's was my flow'ry theme, - A painted mistress, or a purling stream. - Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret; - I never answered,--I was not in debt.[10] - -Here we learn that Dennis thought meanly of Pope's Pastorals. The -critic had enough taste for true poetry to despise the conventional -puerilities which, more than "pure description, held the place of sense" -in these juvenile effusions. He frequented the coffee-houses where -authors congregated, he indulged in professional talk, and his -unfavourable judgment was sure to get round to Pope. The irritation at -the time must have been great, since the censure continued to rankle in -the mind of the poet at the distance of five-and-twenty years. His -memory was less faithful when he claimed credit for not replying. He -found it convenient to forget that he had seized an early opportunity -for retaliating in the Essay on Criticism. - -Dennis complained that "he was attacked in a clandestine manner in his -person instead of his writings." "How the attack," says Johnson, "was -clandestine is not easily perceived, nor how his person is depreciated." -Evidently Dennis termed the attack clandestine, because the Essay was -anonymous, and his assailant concealed. Pope, however, had not been -studious of secrecy among his acquaintances, and Dennis showed in his -pamphlet that he knew perfectly well with whom he had to deal. His -assertion, denied by Johnson, that he was attacked "in his person -instead of his writings" is clearly correct, unless, contrary to usage, -the word is restricted to what is indelible in a man's bodily make. To -say that he reddened at every word of objection, and stared tremendous -with a threatening eye, like the fierce tyrants depicted in old -tapestry, was to represent his personal bearing and appearance in an -offensive light. Pope himself disclaimed the personality. "I cannot -conceive," he wrote to Caryll, June 25, 1711, "what ground he has for so -excessive a resentment, nor imagine how those three lines can be called -a reflection on his person which only describe him subject to a little -colour and stare on some occasions, which are revolutions that happen -sometimes in the best and most regular faces in Christendom." The -description, in other words, was not a reflection upon the person of -Dennis, because some persons with handsome faces were liable to the same -infirmity, and no satire was personal which did not declare a man to be -radically ugly. That the resentment might seem the more unreasonable, -the stare tremendous and threatening eye, were softened down to a -"little stare." This was characteristic of Pope. He was not afraid to -strike, but when the blow was resented, he frequently made a hasty and -ignominious retreat. Either he pretended that the satire was not aimed -at the individuals who called him to account, or he gave a mitigated and -erroneous version of his lampoons. - -Pope lashed Dennis for an intemperance of manner which could be -controlled at will. Dennis upbraided Pope with a deformity which he had -not caused and could not cure. "If you have a mind," said the infuriated -critic, "to enquire between Sunninghill and Oakingham, for a young, -squab, short gentleman, an eternal writer of amorous pastoral -madrigals, and the very bow of the god of Love, you will be soon -directed to him. And pray, as soon as you have taken a survey of him, -tell me whether he is a proper author to make personal reflections on -others. This little author may extol the ancients as much, and as long -as he pleases, but he has reason to thank the good gods that he was born -a modern, for had he been born of Grecian parents, and his father by -consequence had by law the absolute disposal of him, his life had been -no longer than that of one of his poems,--the life of half a day."[11] -There was a wide difference between ridiculing the distortions of -countenance which grew out of irascible vanity, and mocking at defects -which were a misfortune, and not a fault. But Pope's lines were -insulting, and a man of the world would have foreseen that Dennis would -repel insult by scurrility. The poet was as yet a novice in the coarse -personalities of that abusive age, and he had not anticipated such -brutal raillery. "The latter part of Mr. Dennis's book," he wrote to -Caryll, "is no way to be properly answered, but by a wooden weapon, and -I should perhaps have sent him a present from Windsor Forest of one of -the best and toughest oaken plants between Sunninghill and Oakingham if -he had not informed me in his preface that he is at this time persecuted -by fortune. This, I protest, I knew not the least of before; if I had, -his name had been spared in the Essay for that only reason."[12] Pope -could no more compete with Dennis in personal prowess, than Dennis could -compete in satire with Pope. His assigned reason for not executing his -empty vaunt was equally hollow. He was not wont to spare his enemies out -of consideration for their necessities, but taunted them with their -forlorn condition, and, true to his custom, the persecution of fortune, -which he said would have induced him to suppress his satire upon Dennis, -was made the ingredient of a fresh satire at a future day: - - I never answered; I was not in debt. - -The insinuation was unjust. Violent, and often wrong-headed, Dennis -spoke his genuine sentiments, and was not more a hireling than Pope, or -any other author who earns money by his pen. The poor debtor could not -have bartered his honour for a sorrier bribe. The pamphlet on the Essay -on Criticism consisted of thirty-two octavo pages of small print, with a -preface of five pages, and he received for it 2_l._ 12_s._ 6_d._ - -Dennis urged as an aggravation of the "falsehood and calumny" in the -Essay, that they proceeded from a "little affected hypocrite, who had -nothing in his mouth at the same time but truth, candour, friendship, -goodnature, humanity, and magnanimity." These are the qualities enforced -in the poem, and whether the description of Dennis, under the name of -Appius, was a faithful likeness or a caricature, the attack was at -variance with the precepts which accompanied it. Pope insisted that the -specification of faults, to be useful, must be delicate and courteous. -He laid down the proposition at ver. 573, that "blunt truths do more -mischief than nice falsehoods," and at ver. 576, that "without good -breeding truth is disapproved." At the interval of six lines he -exemplified the urbanity he enjoined by a derisive sketch which could -only be intended to injure and exasperate. The inconsistency did not -stop here. He prefaced the obnoxious passage by the maxim, "those best -can bear reproof who merit praise," and the sketch of Dennis is an -illustration of the opposite character. Was Pope a man who bore reproof -with the fortitude which entitled him to scoff at others for their -irritability? He certainly sometimes drew a flattering picture of his -own equanimity and forbearance. He assures us at ver. 741, that he was -"careless of censure." He told Spence, that "he never much minded what -his angry critics published against him,--only one or two things at -first." "When," he added, "I heard for the first time that Dennis had -written against me, it gave me some pain; but it was quite over as soon -as I came to look into his book, and found he was in such a -passion."[13] In the Prologue to the Satires, he represents himself to -have been a perfect model of candour and amiability, and says of the -objections of his correctors, - - If wrong I smiled; if right I kissed the rod.[14] - -But he could seldom keep long to one version of any subject, and the -truth comes out in his first Imitation of Horace: - - Peace is my dear delight,--not Fleury's more, - But touch me, and no minister so sore.[15] - -His works bear overwhelming testimony to the fact. His mind was like -inflamed flesh; the touch which a healthy constitution would have -disregarded, tortured and enraged him; his smile was a vindictive jeer; -and he used with acrimony the rod he professed to kiss. His soreness at -censure was the very cause of his charging the weakness upon Dennis. He -was angry at the disparagement of his Pastorals, and because he himself -was testy, he ridiculed the testiness of his critic. The accusation, -according to Dennis, was a malicious invention. "If a man," he said, "is -remarkable for the extraordinary deference which he pays to the opinions -and remonstrances of his friends, him he libels for his impatience -under reproof."[16] Though docility was not the virtue of Dennis, his -failing was probably overcharged in the Essay on Criticism, for -unmeasured exaggeration was a usual fault in the satire of Pope. - -In retaining a grudge against those who wounded his self-esteem, Pope -did not disdain to profit by their spiteful censorship. "I will make my -enemy," he said to Caryll, "do me a kindness where he meant an injury, -and so serve instead of a friend," and he requested Trumbull to tell him -"where Dennis had hit any blots."[17] He cared too much for his works to -be influenced by the stubborn pride which cannot stoop to confess an -error. Where the criticism has not been inspired by malice, authors in -general have not been intolerant of their critics. Coleridge relates -that his thankfulness to the reviewers of his juvenile poems was -sincere, when they concurred in condemning his obscurity, turgid -language, and profusion of double epithets. Of the obscurity he was -unconscious, "and my mind," he says, "was not then sufficiently -disciplined to receive the authority of others as a substitute for my -own conviction." "The glitter both of thought and diction" he pruned -with an unsparing hand, "though, in truth," he adds, "these parasite -plants of youthful poetry had insinuated themselves into my longer poems -with such intricacy of union that I was often obliged to omit -disentangling the weed from the fear of snapping the flower."[18] The -candour and manliness are charming, but it must not be overlooked that -the magnanimity diminishes as the mental capacity increases. Wakefield -well remarks that one reason why those who merit praise can best bear -reproof is, that the reproof is either counterbalanced by praise, or by -the inward consciousness that the merit is great and will prevail.[19] -Inferior writers have not the same consolation. The chief advantage -after all which authors derive from the enumeration of their defects is, -that it teaches them modesty, and the true limits of their powers. They -are seldom able to mend. The qualities they lack are not within their -reach; for the mind cannot rise above itself, and has little pliancy -when once it has taken its bent. - -The notice in the Spectator must have been doubly welcome to Pope after -the invective and cavils of Dennis. "In our own country," says Addison, -"a man seldom sets up for a poet without attacking the reputation of all -his brothers in the art. The ignorance of the moderns, the scribblers of -the age, the decay of poetry, are the topics of detraction with which he -makes his entrance into the world. I am sorry to find that an author, -who is very justly esteemed among the best judges, has admitted some -strokes of this nature into a very fine poem,--I mean the Art of -Criticism, which was published some months since, and is a master-piece -of its kind. The observations follow one another like those in Horace's -Art of Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would have been -requisite in a prose author. They are some of them uncommon, but such as -the reader must assent to, when he sees them explained with that -elegance and perspicuity in which they are delivered. As for those which -are the most known, and the most received, they are placed in so -beautiful a light, and illustrated with such apt allusions, that they -have in them all the graces of novelty, and make the reader, who was -before acquainted with them, still more convinced of their truth and -solidity. And here give me leave to mention what Monsieur Boileau has so -very well enlarged upon in the preface to his works, that wit and fine -writing do not consist so much in advancing things that are new, as in -giving things that are known an agreeable turn. It is impossible for us, -who live in the later ages of the world, to make observations in -criticism, morality, or in any art or science, which have not been -touched upon by others. We have little else left us but to represent the -common sense of mankind in more strong, more beautiful, or more uncommon -lights. If a reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but -very few precepts in it which he may not meet with in Aristotle, and -which were not commonly known by all the poets of the Augustan age. His -way of expressing and applying them, not his invention of them, is what -we chiefly admire."[20] Pope was delighted. "Moderate praise," he said -to Steele, whom he erroneously supposed to have held the pen, -"encourages a young writer, but a great deal may injure him; and you -have been so lavish in this point that I almost hope,--not to call in -question your judgment in the piece--that it was some particular -inclination to the author which carried you so far." He accepted in good -part the admonition for disparaging his "brother moderns," and expressed -his willingness to omit the "strokes" in another edition.[21] He -detected none of the "ill-nature" which Warton saw lurking in the phrase -"that _some_ of the observations were _uncommon_." Addison was familiar -with the sources from which the Essay was compiled, and could hardly -have been ignorant that even the "some" was a generous license. He -pleaded more plausibly for the work when he contended that wit consisted -in presenting old thoughts in a better dress, and that the "known -truths" in the poem were "placed in so beautiful a light, that they had -all the graces of novelty." The charge brought later by Pope against -Addison, of viewing him with jealous eyes, suggested to Warton his -strained imputation, which is not warranted by the expression he quotes, -and is contradicted by the genial tone of the praise. Addison at the -time had no acquaintance with Pope. The eulogy on the Essay was -spontaneous, and an envious rival would never have adopted the suicidal -device of voluntarily publishing a strong panegyric in a periodical -which every one read, and of which the decisions were accepted for law. - -The truth is, that Addison, by his encomiums and authority, brought into -vogue the exaggerated estimate entertained of the Essay. The authors of -the next generation read it in their boyhood, and were taught that it -was a model of its kind. Juvenile impressions retain their hold, and -upon no other supposition could we understand the preposterous opinion -of Johnson, that the work set Pope "among the first critics and the -first poets," and that he "never afterwards excelled it." Warton -disputed the rank assigned to the poet, and assented to the claim put -forth for the critic, which was equally untenable. He was misled by his -relish for platitudes. "I propose," he said, "to make some observations -on such passages and precepts in this Essay as, on account of their -utility, novelty, or elegance, deserve particular attention," and his -opening specimen of these merits is the line, - - In poets as true genius is but rare.[22] - -He selected for distinction several other remarks which were not more -exquisite in their form, or recondite in their substance. Hazlitt took -up the strain of Johnson and Warton. "The Rape of the Lock," he says, -"is a double-refined essence of wit and fancy, as the Essay on Criticism -is of wit and sense. The quantity of thought and observation in this -work, for so young a man as Pope was when he wrote it, is wonderful; -unless we adopt the supposition that most men of genius spend the rest -of their lives in teaching others what they themselves have learned -under twenty. The conciseness and felicity of the expression are equally -remarkable. Thus, in reasoning on the variety of men's opinions, he -says, - - 'Tis with our judgments, as our watches; none - Go just alike, yet each believes his own. - -Nothing can be more original and happy than the general remarks and -illustrations in the Essay: the critical rules laid down are too much -those of a school, and of a confined one."[23] De Quincey, a subtler and -sounder critic than Hazlitt, boldly challenged decisions which had -passed, but little questioned, from mouth to mouth. "The Essay on -Criticism," he says, "is the feeblest and least interesting of Pope's -writings, being substantially a mere versification, like a metrical -multiplication table, of common-places the most mouldy with which -criticism has baited its rat-traps. The maxims have no natural order or -logical dependency, are generally so vague as to mean nothing, and what -is remarkable, many of the rules are violated by no man as often as by -Pope, and by Pope nowhere so often as in this very poem."[24] The matter -of the Essay is not rated, in this passage, below its value. - -"I admired," said Lady Mary W. Montagu, "Mr. Pope's Essay on Criticism -at first very much, because I had not then read any of the ancient -critics, and did not know that it was all stolen."[25] Pope had found -the bulk of his materials nearer home. He told Spence that in his youth -"he went through all the best critics," and specified Quintilian, Rapin, -and Bossu.[26] He states in his Essay, ver. 712, that "critic-learning," -in modern times, "flourished most in France," and in fact the Rapins and -Bossus were his principal masters. They had been brought into credit -with our countrymen by Dryden. "Impartially speaking," he said, in his -Dedication to the Æneis, "the French are as much better critics than the -English as they are worse poets." He had a wonderful faith in the virtue -of their precepts. "Spenser," he said, "wanted only to have read the -rules of Bossu; for no man was ever born with a greater genius, or had -more knowledge to support it." He compared the French critics to -generals, and our celebrated poets to common soldiers; the poet executed -what the commanding mind of the critic planned.[27] The treatises which -would have perfected the genius of Spenser were shallow drowsy -productions, compounded of truisms, pedantic fallacies, and doctrines -borrowed from antiquity. Pope culled most of his maxims from these, and -other modern works. Many of his remarks were the common property of the -civilised world. A slight acquaintance with books and men is sufficient -to teach us that people are partial to their own judgment, that some -authors are not qualified to be poets, wits, or critics, and that -critics should not launch beyond their depth. Such profound reflections, -kept up throughout the Essay, owed their credit to the disguising -properties of verse. Along with the singular nicety of distinction, and -knowledge of mankind, Johnson detected a no less surprising range of -ancient and modern learning. Pope mentions Homer, Virgil, and half a -dozen Greek and Latin critics. He has characterised some of these -critics in a manner which betrays that he had never looked into their -works, and what he says of the rest only required that he should know -their writings by repute. All, and more than all, the classical -information embodied in the Essay, might have been picked up from his -French manuals in a single morning. - -A didactic poet who draws his precepts from the truisms and current -publications of his day, could not at twenty-three deserve credit for -precocity of learning or thought. He might still manifest an early -maturity of judgment in sifting the insignificant from the important, -the true from the false. Pope did not avoid the trite, but he is said to -have evinced a rare capacity for discriminating the true. Bowles agrees -with Johnson and Warton that "the good sense in the Essay is -extraordinary considering the age of the author," and it is pronounced -"an uncommon effort of critical good sense" by Hallam, conspicuous -himself for sense and sobriety.[28] Whoever looks through the -speciousness of rhyme, and views the ideas in their naked meaning, will -be much more struck by the want of good sense in the principal critical -canons. They are not even "extraordinary for the age of the author;" -versed as he was in English literature they are below his years. They -are the narrow, erroneous dogmas of a youth fresh from school-boy -studies, who imagined that the Greeks and Romans had ransacked the -illimitable realms of genius and taste, and swept off the whole of the -spoils. He broadly asserted this doctrine in the poetical creed which he -prefixed to his works.[29] He was at least old enough then to know -better, from whence it is clear that the common statements respecting -him are the opposite of the truth. He did not display the ripe judgment -of manhood in his juvenile criticism; he remained a boy in criticism -when he was a man. - -Follow nature, said Pope, in his Essay, but beware of taking nature at -first hand. Homer and nature are the same, and to copy nature is to copy -the rules deduced from his works. The ancients sometimes deviated into -excellence by throwing off their self-imposed shackles. The moderns must -not presume to be irregularly great. They must keep to the precepts, and -if they ever break a rule they must at least be able to quote a case -precisely parallel from a classical author.[30] The English had not -submitted to the wholesome restraint. They had been "fierce for the -liberties of wit," and Pope avows his conviction that the entire race of -English writers were therefore "uncivilised," with the exception of a -few who had "restored among us wit's fundamental laws." He names the -most illustrious of these reformers. They were three in number,--the -Duke of Buckingham, Lord Roscommon, and Walsh.[31] The absurdity could -not be exceeded. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton were -"uncivilised" writers; they not only fell into minor errors, but set at -nought the "_fundamental_ laws" of poetry, while the persons who taught -how English poetry was to be raised from its rude condition were a trio -of prosy mediocrities, whose works might have been annihilated without -leaving the smallest vacuum in literature. "The Duke of Buckingham," -said Pope later, "was superficial in everything; even in poetry, which -was his forte."[32] - -Pope seems to have been unconscious of the vast metamorphose which the -world had undergone since the close of the Greek and Roman eras. -Religion, institutions, usages, opinions, all had changed. Society was -in a ferment with new ideas; nations had been gathered out of new -elements; characters were moulded under new influences, and the play of -passions, interests, convictions, and policy had assumed new forms. This -altered order of things was reflected in our poetry. The mighty men of -genius who led the way could not have put aside their genuine thoughts -to mimic works which, noble in themselves, were musty and obsolete in -modern imitations. The vigorous races which had sprung up drew living -pictures from their own minds; they were inspired by national and -present sentiments; they stamped upon their verse the feelings, humours, -and beliefs of their age. They borrowed from the classics, and sometimes -with bad taste; but the extrinsic details they appropriated were not -permitted to cramp the masculine elasticity of their native fancy and -experience. The materials of the edifice, in the main, were no longer -the same, and neither was the shape they assumed. The difference was as -great as between a Grecian temple and a Gothic cathedral. The principles -which governed the ancients in their compositions were confined, and did -not give verge enough for that variety and picturesqueness among -ourselves which demanded to be embodied in written words. The -originality, which was our glory, appeared a vice to Pope. The -adaptation of the structure to its complex purposes he believed to be a -declension towards barbarism. He would have preferred that our -magnificent English literature, instinct with the freshness of nature, -and gathering into its huge circumference the growth of centuries, -should have been reduced to a stale and meagre counterfeit. The ancients -had the prerogative to make and break critical laws; the moderns must -not dare to think for themselves. Genius had been free in Greece, and -was to be altogether a slave in England. It cannot be urged in excuse -for this protest against the independence of our literature that Pope -had imbibed the prejudices of his generation. His doctrine was -hacknied, but not allowed. He admits that it had few disciples,[33] and -one of the three adherents he claimed did not belong to him. "Not only -all present poets," wrote Dryden to Walsh, in 1693, "but all who are to -come in England will thank you for freeing them from the too servile -imitation of the ancients."[34] The rules of Pope could never have -prevailed, for they were intrinsically false, and would have emasculated -every national literature. The thoughts, words, and deeds of the actual -world would not have been impressed upon its books; a gulf would have -separated the sympathies of the reader from the feeble, monotonous -unrealities of the author, and both author and reader would soon have -grown sick of this unnatural effort to be artificial and dull. - -An exclusive partisan of classical poetry, Pope did not the less -denounce sectarians in wit, the contracted spirits "who the ancients -only or the moderns prize," and he exhorted critics "to regard not if -wit be old or new."[35] The contradiction in his principles was not -accompanied by a corresponding contradiction in his practice, for in no -part of his Essay did he rectify his injustice towards his countrymen. -He had not one word of commendation for any great English poet, with the -exception of Dryden, and him he chiefly extolled, in company with Denham -and Waller, for his metrical euphony. Nay, Pope limited the fame of our -most illustrious writers to barely threescore years, on the pretence -that their language became partially obsolete, which would yet leave -them an enormous advantage over dead tongues. Because "length of fame -(our second life) is lost," he exhorted the public in common fairness to -recognise merit betimes.[36] There was not a semblance of truth in his -premise, nor was the plea which he grounded upon it admissible in his -mouth. "How vain," he exclaimed, "that second life in other's -breath,"[37] and if posthumous fame was worthless there was no claim for -compensation. In reality the value is not in the posthumous fame, but in -the anticipation which converts it into an immediate possession, the -mind feasting in imagination upon plaudits to come. The successful -author adds them to the chorus of present praise, and the unsuccessful -creates for himself the fame he lacks. The parental partiality which -appeals from contemporaries to posterity may deceive, but it soothes and -sustains. "A reputation after death," said Jortin, "is like a favourable -wind after a shipwreck."[38] Rather the faith in a future reputation is -the preservative against shipwreck, unless when men are indifferent to -literary immortality. - -The ancients, according to Pope, had a moral as well as an intellectual -superiority. Of old the poets "who but endeavoured well," were praised -by their brethren. Now those who reached the heights of Parnassus -"employed their pains in spurning down others." Of old again the -professional critic was "generous and fanned the poet's fire." Now -critics hated the poet, and all the more that they had learned from him -the art of criticism.[39] A freedom from jealousy, a liberality of -eulogy were universal with pagans; malice and envy reigned supreme in -Christendom. Upon this false pretext Pope had the luxury of indulging in -the vice he reprobated. He preached up "good-nature," he would suffer no -leaven of "spleen and sour disdain,"[40] and his Essay throughout is a -diatribe against English critics. The entire crew were spiteful -blockheads without sense or principle. The excessive rancour points to -some personal offence, and it is probable that his estimate of critics -was regulated by their low opinion of his Pastorals, which was the chief -work he had hitherto published. When he speaks of poets he keeps no -better to the leniency he advocates. He would "sometimes have censure -restrained, and would charitably let the dull be vain," upon the -uncharitable allegation that the more they were corrected the worse they -grew. He engrafts upon his recommendation of a "charitable silence," an -invective against the inferior versifiers who, in their old age, have -not discovered that they are superannuated. For this inability to detect -the decay of their faculties he calls them "shameless bards, -impenitently bold."[41] No error of judgment had a stronger claim to be -treated with tenderness, and the bitterness of the passage was the less -excusable that it was certainly directed against his former friend -Wycherley. - -There are other contradictions in the Essay, and several of the minor -positions are glaringly erroneous. Dennis was within the truth when he -said of the whole that it was "very superficial." There remains the -question whether the poem is remarkable for the beauty of expression -signalised by Addison and Hazlitt. Pope intended his work to be a -combination of highly wrought passages, and of that more easy style -described by Dryden, when he says-- - - And this unpolished, rugged verse I chose, - As fittest for discourse, and nearest prose.[42] - -The parts of the Essay which are pitched in the highest key, are far the -best, and where Pope borrowed the imagery, as in the simile of the -traveller ascending the Alps, the lines owe their splendour to his -improvements. The similes designed to be witty are less happy. One or -two only are good; the rest have little point or appropriateness. -Anxious to string together as many smart comparisons as possible, Pope -was careless of consistency. Speaking of the futility of abusing paltry -versifiers, he says, - - Still humming on, their drowsy course they keep, - And lashed so long, like tops, are lashed asleep. - False steps but help them to renew the race, - As, after stumbling, jades will mend their pace.[43] - -The meaning of the first couplet seems to be that bad poets become -callous by castigation, and indifferent to censure; the meaning of the -second that failure stimulated them to improvement. In the first couplet -they proceed from drowsiness to slumber; in the second their false steps -stir them up to mend their pace. They are first represented as -proceeding from bad to worse, and then from bad to better. The attempt -in the Essay to turn common prose into rhyme is only partially -successful. Dryden and Byron, the greatest masters in different ways of -the familiar style, pour out words in their natural order with a -marvellous vigour and facility. The merit is in this unforced idiomatic -flow of the language, unimpeded by the shackles of rhymes. Almost -anybody may convert ordinary prose into defective verse, and much of the -verse in the Essay on Criticism is of a low order. The phraseology is -frequently mean and slovenly, the construction inverted and -ungrammatical, the ellipses harsh, the expletives feeble, the metre -inharmonious, the rhymes imperfect. Striving to be poetical, Pope fell -below bald and slip-shod prose. Examples lie thick, and a couple of -specimens will be enough: - - But when t'examine ev'ry part he came. - Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do. - -The transposition of the verb for the sake of the rhyme was the rule -with Pope. He habitually succumbed to the difficulty of preserving the -legitimate arrangement of words; yet it is an anomaly in literature that -with his powers and patient industry he could tolerate such despicable -examples of the licence, and this in enunciating hacknied precepts, only -to be raised above insipidity by the perfection with which they were -moulded into verse. Where the plain portions of the poem are not -positively bad, they are seldom of any peculiar excellence. Mediocrity, -relieved by occasional well-wrought passages, forms the staple of the -work, and Hazlitt must surely have given loose to one of his wilful -paradoxes when he contended that the general characteristics of the -Essay were originality, thought, strength, terseness, wit, felicitous -expression, and brilliant illustration. - -In its metrical qualities the Essay on Criticism is the worst of Pope's -poems. One blemish is a want of variety in his final words. "There are," -says Hazlitt, "no less than half a score couplets rhyming to _sense_. -This appears almost incredible without giving the instances, and no less -so when they are given." - - But of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence - To tire our patience, than mislead our sense.--lines 3, 4. - - In search of wit, these lose their common sense, - And then turn critics in their own defence.--l. 28, 29. - - Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, - And fills up all the mighty void of sense.--l. 209, 10. - - Some by old words to fame have made pretence, - Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense.--l. 324, 5. - - 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, - The sound must seem an echo to the sense.--l. 364, 5. - - At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence, - That always shows great pride, or little sense.--l. 386, 7. - - Be silent always when you doubt your sense; - And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence.--l. 566, 7. - - Be niggards of advice on no pretence: - For the worst avarice is that of sense.--l. 578, 9. - - Strain out the last dull droppings of their sense, - And rhyme with all the rage of impotence.--l. 608, 9. - - Horace still charms with graceful negligence, - And without method talks us into sense.--l. 653, 4. - -The corresponding word which forms the rhyme is not always varied. -"Offence" is used three times, and "defence" and "pretence" are each -employed twice. - -Hazlitt might have remarked, that _wit_ was even more favoured than -_sense_, and was used with greater laxity. A wit, in the reign of Queen -Anne was not only a jester, but any author of distinction; and wit, -besides its special signification, was still sometimes employed as -synonymous with mind. The ordinary generic and specific meanings, -already confusing and fruitful in ambiguities, were not sufficient for -Pope. A wit with him was now a jester, now an author, now a poet, and -now, again, was contradistinguished from poets. Wit was the intellect, -the judgment, the antithesis to judgment, a joke, and poetry. The word -does duty, with a perplexing want of precision, throughout the essay, -and furnishes a dozen rhymes alone: - - Nature to all things fixed the limits fit, - And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit.--lines 52, 3. - - One science only will one genius fit; - So vast is art, so narrow human wit.--l. 60, 1. - - A perfect judge will read each work of wit - With the same spirit that its author writ.--l. 233, 4. - - Nor lose for that malignant dull delight, - The gen'rous pleasure to be charmed with wit.--l. 237, 8. - - As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit, - T'avoid great errors, must the less commit.--l. 259, 60. - - Pleased with a work where nothing's just or fit; - One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit.--l. 291, 2. - - As shades more sweetly recommend the light, - So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit.--l. 301, 2. - - So schismatics the plain believers quit, - And are but damned for having too much wit.--l. 428, 9. - - Oft, leaving what is natural and fit, - The current folly proves the ready wit.--l. 448, 9. - - Jilts ruled the state, and statesmen farces writ: - Nay, wits had pensions, and young lords had wit.--l. 538, 9. - - Received his laws; and stood convinced 'twas fit, - Who conquered nature, should preside o'er wit.--l. 651, 2. - - He, who supreme in judgment, as in wit, - Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ.--l. 657, 8. - -In these twelve instances "wit" rhymes five times to "fit," and three -times to "writ." The monotony extends much farther. "Art," in the -singular or plural, terminates eight lines, and in every case rhymes to -"part," "parts," or "imparts." - -Imperfect rhymes abound. The examples which follow occur in the order in -which they are set down. "None, own--showed, trod--proved, -beloved--steer, character--esteem, them--full, rule--take, track--rise, -precipice--thoughts, faults--joined, mankind--delight, wit--appear, -regular--caprice, nice--light, wit--good, blood--glass, place--sun, -upon--still, suitable--ear, repair--join, line--line, join--Jove, -love--own, town--fault, thought--worn, turn--safe, laugh--lost, -boast--boast, lost (_bis_)--join, divine--prove, love--ease, -increase--care, war--join, shine--disapproved, beloved--take, -speak--fool, dull--satires, dedicators--read, head--speaks, -makes--extreme, phlegm--find, joined--joined, mind--revive, -live--chased, passed--good, blood--desert, heart--receive, give." In -numerous instances, "the weight of the rhyme," as Johnson expresses it, -when speaking of Denham, "is laid upon a word too feeble to sustain it." - - Some positive, persisting fops we know, - Who, if once wrong, will needs be always _so_; - - We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow, - Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us _so_. - -Several lines are not metrical unless pronounced with a wrong emphasis, -as - - False eloqu[=e]nce like th[=e] prismatic glass, - -which only ceases to be prose when "the," and the last syllable of -"eloquence," are accentuated, and it is then no longer English. Examples -like - - Atones not f[=o]r that envy which it brings; - That i[=n] proud dullness joins with quality; - That not alone what t[=o] your sense is due; - -are not much better. Many of the verses, and this last is a specimen, -offend the ear by the succession of "low" and "creeping words." Pope -belonged to the class of kings he mentions in his poem, who freely -dispensed with the laws they had made. - -Johnson, commenting on Pope's attempt to adapt the sound to the sense, -thinks it a contradiction, that he employed an Alexandrine to describe -the swiftness of Camilla, and thirty years afterwards used the same -measure to denote "the march of slow-paced majesty." There was no need -to look for an instance at the interval of thirty years. It would have -been found at an interval of half thirty lines in the Essay on -Criticism, where an Alexandrine is introduced to portray the dragging -progress of the wounded snake. The juxtaposition was doubtless -deliberate for the purpose of illustrating the opposite movements of -sluggishness and celerity. Johnson misunderstood the theory. The -Alexandrine was not supposed to represent speed, but space. Thus when -Pope describes the wound of Menelaus, in his translation of the Iliad, -he says in a note, "Homer is very particular here in giving the picture -of the blood running in a long trace, lower and lower. The author's -design being only to image the streaming of the blood, it seemed -equivalent to make it trickle through the length of an Alexandrine -line." - - As down thy snowy thigh distilled the streaming flood. - -A long line being presumed to suggest the motion of a long distance, the -retarded or accelerated motion was intended to be expressed by the slow -or rapid syllables of which the line was composed. The end was not -answered, because, as Johnson remarks, the break in the middle of the -Alexandrine is antagonistic to haste, and he has equally shown that Pope -was not happy in the application of his mistaken rule. The slow march -outstrips the swift Camilla, who is even left behind by the wounded -snake in the first half of the line. Had the examples been a complete -illustration of the theory, the gain would have been nothing. -Representative metre, in the strict sense of the term, though sanctioned -by eminent names, would degrade poetry. There cannot be a paltrier -poetic effect than to mimic the roll of stones, the trickling of blood, -and the dragging motion of wounded snakes. - -"Mr. Walsh used to tell me," says Pope, "that there was one way left of -excelling; for though we had several great poets, we never had any one -great poet that was correct, and he desired me to make that my study and -aim."[44] Warton calls this "very important advice,"[45] and both he and -Pope seem to assume that it had been effectual. The notion has been -generally accepted. "To distinguish this triumvirate from each other," -says Young, "Swift is a singular wit, Pope a correct poet, Addison a -great author."[46] "He is the most perfect of our poets," said Byron; -"the only poet whose faultlessness has been made his reproach."[47] -Hazlitt took the opposite side. "Those critics who are bigoted idolisers -of our author, chiefly on the score of his correctness, seem to be of -opinion that there is but one perfect writer, even Pope. This is, -however, a mistake; his excellence is by no means faultlessness. If he -had no great faults, he is full of little errors. His grammatical -construction is often lame and imperfect. His rhymes are constantly -defective, being rhymes to the eye instead of the ear; and this to a -greater degree, not only than in later, but than in preceding, writers. -The praise of his versification must be confined to its uniform -smoothness and harmony. In the translation of the Iliad, which has been -considered as his masterpiece in style and execution, he continually -changes the tenses in the same sentence for the purposes of the rhyme, -which shows either a want of technical resources, or great inattention -to punctilious exactness."[48] De Quincey confirms Hazlitt; but, with -his profounder knowledge of the characteristics of Pope's poetry, he saw -that the incorrectness was spread wider, and went deeper. "Let us ask," -he says, "what is meant by correctness? Correctness in developing the -thought? In connecting it, or effecting the transitions? In the use of -words? In the grammar? In the metre?" In all these points he maintains -that Pope, "by comparison with other great poets, was conspicuously -deficient."[49] For an example of incorrectness in developing the -thought De Quincey refers to the character of Addison: - - Who would not laugh, if such a man there be? - Who but must weep if Atticus were he? - -"Why must we laugh? Because we find a grotesque assembly of noble and -ignoble qualities. Very well; but why, then, must we weep? Because this -assemblage is found actually existing in an eminent man of genius. Well, -that is a good reason for weeping; we weep for the degradation of human -nature. But then revolves the question, Why must we laugh? Because, if -the belonging to a man of genius were a sufficient reason for weeping, -so much we know from the very first. The very first line says, - - Peace to all such: but were there one whose fires - _True genius kindles_, and fair fame aspires. - -Thus falls to the ground the whole antithesis of this famous character. -We are to change our mood from laughter to tears upon a sudden discovery -that the character belonged to a man of genius; and this we had already -known from the beginning. Match us this prodigious oversight in -Shakspeare."[50] Pope was still more deficient in logical correctness, -in the power of preserving consistency, and coherency between -congregated ideas. "Of all poets," says De Quincey, "that have practised -reasoning in verse he is the one most inconsequential in the deduction -of his thoughts, and the most severely distressed in any effort to -effect or to explain the dependency of their parts. There are not ten -consecutive lines in Pope unaffected by this infirmity. All his thinking -proceeded by insulated and discontinuous jets, and the only resource for -him, or chance of even seeming correctness, lay in the liberty of -stringing his aphoristic thoughts, like pearls, having no relation to -each other but that of contiguity."[51] Many of his arguments are -capable of a double construction; absolute contradictions are not -uncommon; and when we try to get a connected view of his principles we -are irritated by their discordance, indefiniteness, and obscurity. As -little will his grammar bear the test of correctness. "His syntax," says -De Quincey, "is so bad as to darken his meaning at times, and at other -times to defeat it. Preterites and participles he constantly confounds, -and registers this class of blunders for ever by the cast-iron index of -rhymes that never _can_ mend." Another defect of language was, in De -Quincey's opinion, "almost peculiar to Pope." "The language does not -realise the idea: it simply suggests or hints it. Thus, to give a single -illustration: - - Know God and Nature only are the same; - In man the judgment shoots at flying game. - -The first line one would naturally construe into this: that God and -Nature were in harmony, whilst all other objects were scattered into -incoherency by difference and disunion. Not at all; it means nothing of -the kind; but that God and Nature only are exempted from the infirmities -of change. This _might_ mislead many readers; but the second line _must_ -do so: for who would not understand the syntax to be, that the judgment, -as it exists in man, shoots at flying game? But, in fact, the meaning -is, that the judgment in aiming its calculations at man, aims at an -object that is still on the wing, and never for a moment -stationary."[52] This, De Quincey contends, is the worst of all possible -faults in diction, since perspicuity, ungrammatical and inelegant, is -preferable to conundrums of which the solution is difficult, and often -doubtful. He says that there are endless varieties of the vice in Pope, -and that "he sought relief for himself from half an hour's labour at the -price of utter darkness to his reader." De Quincey was in error when he -imputed the imperfections to indolence. There never was a more -painstaking poet than Pope. His works were slowly elaborated, and -diligently revised. "I corrected," he says, "because it was as pleasant -to me to correct as to write,"[53] and his manuscripts attest his -untiring efforts to mend his composition. Language and not industry -failed him. Happy in a multitude of phrases, lines, couplets, and -passages, his vocabulary and turns of expression were often unequal to -the exactions of verse. Not even rhymes, dearly purchased by violations -of grammar and a false order of words, nor the imperfection of the -rhymes themselves, could always enable him to satisfy the double -requirement of metre and clearness. Most of his usual deviations from -correctness are especially prominent in the Essay on Criticism, and any -one who reads it with common attention might be tempted to think that -the claim which Warton and others set up for Pope, was an insidious -device to injure his reputation by diverting attention from his merits, -and basing his fame upon a foundation too unstable to support it. The -advice of Walsh was foolish. A poet who believed originality to be -exhausted, and who merely aspired to echo his predecessors, with no -distinguishing quality of his own beyond some additional correctness, -might have spared his pains. The correct imitator would be intolerable -by the side of the fresh and vigorous genius he copied. The assumption -that the domain of poetic thought had been traversed in every direction, -and that no untrodden paths were left for future explorers, was itself a -delusion, soon to be refuted by Pope's own Rape of the Lock. Many -immortal works have since belied the shallow doctrine of Walsh, who made -his dim perceptions the measure of intellectual possibilities. The -aspects under which the world, animate and inanimate, may be regarded by -the poet are practically endless. The latent truths of science do not -offer to the philosopher a more unbounded field of novelty. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - PART I. - -INTRODUCTION: That it is as great a fault to judge ill, as to write ill, - and a more dangerous one to the public, ver. 1--That a true taste is - as rare to be found as a true genius, ver. 9 to 18--That most men - are born with some taste, but spoiled by false education, ver. 19 to - 25--The multitude of critics, and causes of them, ver. 26 to - 45--That we are to study our own taste, and know the limits of it, - ver. 46 to 67--Nature the best guide of judgment, ver. 68 to - 87--Improved by art and rules, which are but methodised nature, ver. - 88--Rules derived from the practice of the ancient poets, ver. 88 to - 110--That therefore the ancients are necessary to be studied by a - critic, particularly Homer and Virgil, ver. 120 to 138--Of licenses, - and the use of them by the ancients, ver. 142 to 180--Reverence due - to the ancients, and praise of them, ver. 181, &c. - - - PART II. VER. 201, &C. - -Causes hindering a true judgment--1. Pride, ver. 208--2. Imperfect - learning, ver. 215--3. Judging by parts, and not by the whole, ver. - 233 to 288--Critics in wit, language, versification, only, ver. 288, - 305, 339, &c.--4. Being too hard to please, or too apt to admire, - ver. 384--5. Partiality, too much love to a sect, to the ancients or - moderns, ver. 394--6. Prejudice or prevention, ver. 408--7. - Singularity, ver. 424--8. Inconstancy, ver. 430--9. Party spirit, - ver. 452, &c.--10. Envy, ver. 466--Against envy and in praise of - good nature, ver. 508, &c.--When severity is chiefly to be used by - critics, ver. 526, &c. - - - PART III. VER. 560, &C. - -Rules for the conduct of manners in a critic--1. Candour, ver. - 563--Modesty, ver. 566--Good breeding, ver. 572--Sincerity and - freedom of advice, ver. 578--2. When one's counsel is to be - restrained, ver. 584--Character of an incorrigible poet, ver. - 600--And of an impertinent critic, ver. 610--Character of a good - critic, ver. 629--The history of criticism, and characters of the - best critics, Aristotle, ver. 645--Horace, ver. 653--Dionysius, ver. - 665--Petronius, ver. 667--Quintilian, ver. 670--Longinus, ver. - 675--Of the decay of criticism, and its revival. Erasmus, ver. - 693--Vida, ver. 705--Boileau, ver. 714--Lord Roscommon, &c. ver. - 725--Conclusion. - - - - - AN - - ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - 'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill - Appear in writing or in judging ill; - But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence - To tire our patience, than mislead our sense. - Some few in that, but numbers err in this, 5 - Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss; - A fool might once himself alone expose, - Now one in verse makes many more in prose.[54] - 'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none - Go just alike, yet each believes his own. 10 - In poets as true genius is but rare, - True taste as seldom is the critic's share;[55] - Both must alike from heav'n derive their light, - These born to judge, as well as those to write. - Let such teach others who themselves excel, 15 - And censure freely, who have written well.[56] - Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, - But are not critics to their judgment too? - Yet, if we look more closely, we shall find - Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind:[57] 20 - Nature affords at least a glimm'ring light, - The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn right; - But as the slightest sketch, if justly traced, } - Is by ill-colouring but the more disgraced,[58] } - So by false learning is good sense defaced:[59] } 25 - Some are bewildered in the maze of schools,[60] - And some made coxcombs nature meant but fools.[61] - In search of wit, these lose their common sense, - And then turn critics in their own defence:[62] - Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write, 30 - Or with a rival's, or an eunuch's spite.[63] - All fools have still an itching to deride, - And fain would be upon the laughing side.[64] - If Mævius scribble in Apollo's spite,[65] - There are who judge still worse than he can write. 35 - Some have at first for wits, then poets passed, - Turned critics next, and proved plain fools at last. - Some neither can for wits nor critics pass, - As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass.[66] - Those half-learned witlings, num'rous in our isle, 40 - As half-formed insects on the banks of Nile;[67] - Unfinished things, one knows not what to call,[68] - Their generation's so equivocal:[69] - To tell 'em would a hundred tongues require, - Or one vain wit's, that might a hundred tire.[70] 45 - But you who seek to give and merit fame, - And justly bear a critic's noble name, - Be sure yourself and your own reach to know, - How far your genius, taste, and learning go;[71] - Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet, 50 - And mark that point where sense and dulness meet. - Nature to all things fixed the limits fit, - And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit. - As on the land while here the ocean gains, - In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; 55 - Thus in the soul while memory prevails, - The solid pow'r of understanding fails;[72] - Where beams of warm imagination play,[73] - The memory's soft figures melt away.[74] - One science only will one genius fit; 60 - So vast is art, so narrow human wit:[75] - Not only bounded to peculiar arts, - But oft in those confined to single parts. - Like kings we lose the conquests gained before, - By vain ambition still to make them more 65 - Each might his sev'ral province well command, - Would all but stoop to what they understand. - First follow nature, and your judgment frame - By her just standard,[76] which is still the same: - Unerring nature, still divinely bright, 70 - One clear, unchanged, and universal light,[77] - Life, force, and beauty, must to all impart,[78] - At once the source, and end, and test of art. - Art from that fund each just supply provides; - Works without show, and without pomp presides:[79] 75 - In some fair body thus th' informing soul - With spirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole,[80] - Each motion guides, and ev'ry nerve sustains; - Itself unseen, but in th' effects remains.[81] - Some, to whom heav'n in wit has been profuse, 80 - Want as much more, to turn it to its use;[82] - For wit and judgment often are at strife,[83] - Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. - 'Tis more to guide, than spur the muse's steed; - Restrain his fury, than provoke his speed; 85 - The winged courser, like a gen'rous horse,[84] - Shows most true mettle when you check his course. - Those rules of old discovered, not devised, - Are nature still, but nature methodised;[85] - Nature, like liberty,[86] is but restrained 90 - By the same laws which first herself ordained. - Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites, - When to repress, and when indulge our flights: - High on Parnassus' top her sons she showed, - And pointed out those arduous paths they trod; 95 - Held from afar, aloft, th' immortal prize,[87] - And urged the rest by equal steps to rise. - Just precepts thus from great examples giv'n,[88] - She drew from them what they derived from heav'n,[89] - The gen'rous critic fanned the poet's fire, 100 - And taught the world with reason to admire. - Then criticism the muse's handmaid proved, - To dress her charms, and make her more beloved: - But following wits from that intention strayed, - Who could not win the mistress, wooed the maid;[90] 105 - Against the poets their own arms they turned, - Sure to hate most the men from whom they learned.[91] - So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art - By doctors' bills[92] to play the doctor's part, - Bold in the practice of mistaken rules, 110 - Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools. - Some on the leaves of ancient authors prey, - Nor time nor moths e'er spoiled[93] so much as they; - Some dryly plain, without invention's aid, - Write dull receipts how poems may be made; 115 - These leave the sense, their learning to display, - And those explain the meaning quite away. - You then whose judgment the right course would steer, - Know well each ancient's proper character; - His fable, subject, scope in ev'ry page; 120 - Religion, country, genius of his age:[94] - Without all these at once before your eyes, - Cavil you may,[95] but never criticise.[96] - Be Homer's works your study and delight, - Read them by day, and meditate by night;[97] 125 - Thence form your judgment, thence your maxims bring, - And trace the muses upward to their spring.[98] - Still with itself compared, his text peruse;[99] - And let your comment be the Mantuan muse. - When first young Maro in his boundless mind 130 - A work t' outlast[100] immortal Rome designed,[101] - Perhaps he seemed above the critic's law, - And but from nature's fountain scorned to draw: - But when t' examine ev'ry part he came, - Nature and Homer were, he found, the same. 135 - Convinced, amazed, he checks the bold design: } - And rules as strict his laboured work confine,[102] } - As if the Stagyrite[103] o'erlooked each line.[104] } - Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem; - To copy nature is to copy them.[105] 140 - Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, - For there's a happiness as well as care. - Music resembles poetry; in each } - Are nameless graces which no methods teach,[106] } - And which a master hand alone can reach. } 145 - If, where the rules not far enough extend,[107] - (Since rules were made but to promote their end,) - Some lucky licence answer to the full - Th' intent proposed, that licence is a rule. - Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take, 150 - May boldly deviate from the common track. - Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend,[108] - And rise to faults true critics dare not mend;[109] - From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part, - And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,[110] 155 - Which, without passing through the judgment, gains - The heart, and all its end at once attains. - In prospects, thus, some objects please our eyes, } - Which out of nature's common order rise,[111] } - The shapeless rock, or hanging precipice.[112] } 160 - But though the ancients thus their[113] rules invade, - (As kings dispense with laws themselves have made,[114]) - Moderns, beware! or if you must offend - Against the precept, ne'er transgress its end; - Let it be seldom, and compelled by need; 165 - And have, at least, their precedent to plead. - The critic else proceeds without remorse, - Seizes your fame, and puts his laws in force. - I know there are, to whose presumptuous thoughts - Those freer beauties, ev'n in them, seem faults.[115] 170 - Some figures monstrous and mis-shaped[116] appear, - Considered singly, or beheld too near, - Which, but proportioned to their light, or place, - Due distance reconciles to form and grace.[117] - A prudent chief not always must display[118] 175 - His pow'rs in equal rank, and fair array, - But with th' occasion and the place comply, - Conceal his force, nay, seem sometimes to fly. - Those oft are stratagems which errors seem,[119] - Nor is it Homer nods but we that dream.[120] 180 - Still green with bays each ancient altar stands, - Above the reach of sacrilegious hands;[121] - Secure from flames, from envy's fiercer rage, - Destructive war, and all-involving age.[122] - See, from each clime, the learn'd their incense bring; 185 - Hear, in all tongues consenting Pæans ring! - In praise so just let ev'ry voice be joined, - And fill the gen'ral chorus of mankind.[123] - Hail, bards triumphant! born in happier days;[124] - Immortal heirs of universal praise! 190 - Whose honours with increase of ages grow, - As streams roll down, enlarging as they flow; - Nations unborn your mighty names shall sound, - And worlds applaud, that must not yet be found![125] - O may some spark of your celestial fire, 195 - The last, the meanest of your sons inspire, - (That on weak wings, from far, pursues your flights; - Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes,) - To teach vain wits a science little known, - T' admire superior sense, and doubt their own! 200 - - - II. - - Of all the causes which conspire to blind - Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind, - What the weak head with strongest bias rules, - Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. - Whatever nature has in worth denied,[126] 205 - She gives in large recruits of needful pride; - For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find - What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind:[127] - Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, - And fills up all the mighty void of sense. 210 - If once right reason drives that cloud away, - Truth breaks upon us with resistless day. - Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, - Make use of ev'ry friend and ev'ry foe. - A little learning is a dang'rous thing; 215 - Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:[128] - There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, - And drinking largely sobers us again. - Fired at first sight with what the muse imparts,[129] - In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,[130] 220 - While from the bounded level of our mind, - Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;[131] - But more advanced, behold with strange surprise, - New distant scenes of endless science rise! - So pleased at first the tow'ring Alps we try,[132] 225 - Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky, - Th' eternal snows appear already past, - And the first clouds and mountains seem the last: - But those attained, we tremble to survey - The growing labours of the lengthened way, 230 - Th' increasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes, - Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise![133] - A perfect judge will read each work of wit[134] - With the same spirit that its author writ:[135] - Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find 235 - Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind; - Nor lose for that malignant dull delight, - The gen'rous pleasure to be charmed with wit. - But in such lays as neither ebb nor flow,[136] - Correctly cold,[137] and regularly low, 240 - That, shunning faults, one quiet tenour keep, - We cannot blame indeed, but we may sleep. - In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts - Is not th' exactness of peculiar parts; - 'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call, 245 - But the joint force and full result of all.[138] - Thus when we view some well-proportioned dome, - (The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome![139]) - No single parts unequally surprise, - All comes united to th' admiring eyes; 250 - No monstrous height, or breadth, or length, appear;[140] - The whole at once is bold, and regular. - Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, - Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.[141] - In ev'ry work regard the writer's end, 255 - Since none can compass more than they intend; - And if the means be just, the conduct true, - Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due.[142] - As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit, - T' avoid great errors, must the less commit: 260 - Neglect the rules each verbal critic lays,[143] - For not to know some trifles is a praise.[144] - Most critics, fond of some subservient art, - Still make the whole depend upon a part: - They talk of principles, but notions prize, 265 - And all to one loved folly sacrifice. - Once on a time, La Mancha's knight, they say,[145] - A certain bard encount'ring on the way, - Discoursed in terms as just, with looks as sage, - As e'er could Dennis, of the Grecian stage;[146] 270 - Concluding all were desp'rate sots and fools, - Who durst depart from Aristotle's rules. - Our author, happy in a judge so nice, - Produced his play, and begged the knight's advice; - Made him observe the subject, and the plot, 275 - The manners, passions, unities, what not, - All which, exact to rule, were brought about, - Were but a combat in the lists left out. - "What! leave the combat out!" exclaims the knight; - Yes, or we must renounce the Stagyrite. 280 - "Not so, by heav'n!" he answers in a rage, - "Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage." - So vast a throng the stage can ne'er contain. - "Then build a new, or act it in a plain."[147] - Thus critics of less judgment than caprice, 285 - Curious not knowing,[148] not exact but nice, - Form short ideas; and offend in arts, - As most in manners, by a love to parts.[149] - Some to conceit alone their taste confine, - And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at ev'ry line; 290 - Pleased with a work where nothing's just or fit; - One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit. - Poets, like painters, thus unskilled to trace - The naked nature, and the living grace, - With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part, 295 - And hide with ornaments their want of art.[150] - True wit is nature[151] to advantage dressed; - What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed;[152] - Something, whose truth convinced at sight we find, - That gives us back the image of our mind. 300 - As shades more sweetly recommend the light,[153] - So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit;[154] - For works may have more wit than does 'em good,[155] - As bodies perish through excess of blood. - Others for language all their care express, 305 - And value books, as women men, for dress: - Their praise is still,--the style is excellent; - The sense, they humbly take upon content.[156] - Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, - Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found: 310 - False eloquence, like the prismatic glass, - Its gaudy colours spreads on ev'ry place; - The face of nature we no more survey, - All glares alike, without distinction gay; - But true expression, like th' unchanging sun, } 315 - Clears and improves whate'er it shines upon, } - It gilds all objects, but it alters none.[157] } - Expression is the dress of thought, and still - Appears more decent,[158] as more suitable:[159] - A vile conceit in pompous words expressed 320 - Is like a clown in regal purple dressed: - For diff'rent styles with diff'rent subjects sort, - As sev'ral garbs with country, town, and court. - Some by old words to fame have made pretence,[160] - Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense; 325 - Such laboured nothings, in so strange a style, - Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile. - Unlucky, as Fungoso in the play,[161] } - These sparks with awkward vanity display } - What the fine gentleman wore yesterday; } 330 - And but so mimic ancient wits at best, - As apes our grandsires, in their doublets drest. - In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; - Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: - Be not the first by whom the new are tried,[162] 335 - Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. - But most by numbers judge a poet's song, - And smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong:[163] - In the bright muse, though thousand charms conspire, - Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire; 340 - Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, } - Not mend their minds; as some to church repair, } - Not for the doctrine, but the music there.[164] } - These equal syllables alone require, - Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire;[165] 345 - While expletives their feeble aid do join;[166] - And ten low words[167] oft creep in one dull line:[168] - While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, - With sure returns of still expected rhymes;[169] - Where'er you find "the cooling western breeze," 350 - In the next line, it "whispers through the trees:" - If crystal streams "with pleasing murmurs creep," - The reader's threatened, not in vain, with "sleep:"[170] - Then, at the last and only couplet fraught - With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, 355 - A needless Alexandrine ends the song, - That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.[171] - Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes,[172] and know - What's roundly smooth, or languishingly slow; - And praise[173] the easy vigour of a line, 360 - Where Denham's strength, and Waller's sweetness join.[174] - True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,[175] - As those move easiest who have learned to dance. - 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, - The sound must seem an echo to the sense.[176] 365 - Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,[177] - And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; - But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,[178] - The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar: - When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,[179] 370 - The line too labours, and the words move slow:[180] - Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, - Flies o'er th' unbending corn,[181] and skims along the main.[182] - Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise,[183] - And bid alternate passions fall and rise![184] 375 - While at each change, the son of Libyan Jove - Now burns with glory, and then melts with love; - Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow, - Now sighs steal out, and tears begin to flow:[185] - Persians and Greeks like turns of nature found, 380 - And the world's victor stood subdued by sound! - The pow'r of music all our hearts allow, - And what Timotheus was, is Dryden now.[186] - Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such, - Who still are pleased too little or too much. 385 - At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence, - That always shows great pride, or little sense: - Those heads, as stomachs, are not sure the best, - Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest. - Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move; 390 - For fools admire, but men of sense approve:[187] - As things seem large which we through mists descry, - Dulness is ever apt to magnify. - Some foreign writers,[188] some our own despise; - The ancients only, or the moderns prize. 395 - Thus wit, like faith, by each man is applied - To one small sect, and all are damned beside.[189] - Meanly they seek the blessing to confine, - And force that sun but on a part to shine, - Which not alone the southern wit sublimes, 400 - But ripens spirits in cold northern climes; - Which, from the first has shone on ages past, - Enlights[190] the present, and shall warm the last; - Though each may feel increases and decays,[191] - And see now clearer and now darker days: 405 - Regard not then if wit be old or new, - But blame the false, and value still the true. - Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own,[192] - But catch the spreading notion of the town: - They reason and conclude by precedent, 410 - And own stale nonsense which they ne'er invent. - Some judge of authors' names, not works, and then - Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men. - Of all this servile herd, the worst is he - That in proud dulness joins with quality,[193] 415 - A constant critic at the great man's board, - To fetch and carry nonsense for my lord. - What woeful stuff this madrigal would be, - In some starved hackney sonneteer, or me![194] - But let a lord once own the happy lines, 420 - How the wit brightens! how the style refines! - Before his sacred name flies ev'ry fault, - And each exalted stanza teems with thought! - The vulgar thus through imitation err; - As oft the learn'd by being singular; 425 - So much they scorn the crowd, that if the throng - By chance go right, they purposely go wrong: - So schismatics the plain believers quit,[196] - And are but damned for having too much wit. - Some praise at morning what they blame at night; 430 - But always think the last opinion right. - A muse by these is like a mistress used, - This hour she's idolised, the next abused; - While their weak heads, like towns unfortified, - 'Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their side.[197] 435 - Ask them the cause; they're wiser still they say; - And still to-morrow's wiser than to-day. - We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow; - Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so. - Once school divines this zealous isle o'erspread; 440 - Who knew most Sentences,[198] was deepest read; - Faith, gospel, all, seemed made to be disputed, - And none had sense enough to be confuted: - Scotists and Thomists,[199] now, in peace remain, - Amidst their kindred cobwebs[200] in Duck-lane.[201] 445 - If faith itself has diff'rent dresses worn, - What wonder modes in wit should take their turn?[202] - Oft, leaving what is natural and fit, - The current folly proves the ready wit; - And authors think their reputation safe, 450 - Which lives as long as fools are pleased to laugh. - Some valuing those of their own side or mind, - Still make themselves the measure of mankind: - Fondly we think we honour merit then, - When we but praise ourselves in other men. 455 - Parties in wit attend on those of state, - And public faction doubles private hate.[203] - Pride, malice, folly, against Dryden rose, - In various shapes of parsons, critics, beaus;[204] - But sense survived when merry jests were past; 460 - For rising merit will buoy up at last. - Might he return, and bless once more our eyes,[205] - New Blackmores and new Milbournes must arise:[206] - Nay, should great Homer lift his awful head, - Zoilus[207] again would start up from the dead. 465 - Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue; - But like a shadow, proves the substance true: - For envied wit, like Sol eclipsed, makes known - Th' opposing body's grossness, not its own. - When first that sun too pow'rful beams displays, 470 - It draws up vapours which obscure its rays; - But ev'n those clouds at last adorn its way, - Reflect new glories, and augment the day.[208] - Be thou the first true merit to befriend; - His praise is lost, who stays till all commend. 475 - Short is the date, alas! of modern rhymes, - And 'tis but just to let them live betimes. - No longer now that golden age appears, - When patriarch wits survived a thousand years: - Now length of fame (our second life) is lost, 480 - And bare threescore is all ev'n that can boast;[209] - Our sons their fathers' failing language see, - And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be. - So when the faithful pencil has designed - Some bright idea of the master's mind, 485 - Where a new world leaps out at his command, - And ready nature waits upon his hand; - When the ripe colours soften and unite, - And sweetly melt into just shade and light; - When mellowing years their full perfection give, 490 - And each bold figure just begins to live, - The treach'rous colours the fair art betray,[210] - And all the bright creation fades away! - Unhappy wit, like most mistaken things,[211] - Atones not for that envy which it brings. 495 - In youth alone its empty praise we boast,[212] - But soon the short-lived vanity is lost: - Like some fair flow'r the early spring supplies,[213] - That gaily blooms, but ev'n in blooming dies. - What is this wit, which must our cares employ?[214] 500 - The owner's wife,[215] that other men enjoy; - Then most our trouble still when most admired, - And still the more we give, the more required;[216] - Whose fame with pains we guard, but lose with ease,[217] - Sure some to vex, but never all to please; 505 - 'Tis what the vicious fear, the virtuous shun, - By fools 'tis hated, and by knaves undone! - If wit so much from ign'rance undergo, - Ah let not learning too commence its foe![218] - Of old, those met rewards who could excel, 510 - And such were praised who but endeavour'd well:[219] - Though, triumphs were to gen'rals only due, - Crowns were reserved to grace the soldiers too. - Now, they who reach Parnassus' lofty crown,[220] - Employ their pains to spurn some others down; 515 - And while self-love each jealous writer rules, - Contending wits become the sport of fools:[221] - But still the worst with most regret commend, - For each ill author is as bad a friend.[222] - To what base ends, and by what abject ways, 520 - Are mortals urged through sacred lust of praise![223] - Ah ne'er so dire a thirst of glory boast,[224] - Nor in the critic let the man be lost. - Good-nature and good sense must ever join; - To err is human, to forgive, divine. 525 - But if in noble minds some dregs remain - Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain; - Discharge that rage on more provoking crimes, - Nor fear a dearth in these flagitious times. - No pardon vile obscenity should find,[225] 530 - Though wit and art conspire to move your mind;[226] - But dulness with obscenity must prove - As shameful sure as impotence in love. - In the fat age of pleasure, wealth, and ease, - Sprung the rank weed,[227] and thrived with large increase: 535 - When love was all an easy monarch's care; - Seldom at council, never in a war: - Jilts ruled the state, and statesmen farces writ: - Nay, wits had pensions,[228] and young lords had wit;[229] - The fair sat panting at a courtier's play, 540 - And not a mask[230] went unimproved away: - The modest fan was lifted up no more,[231] - And virgins smiled at what they blushed before. - The following licence of a foreign reign - Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain;[232] 545 - Then unbelieving priests reformed the nation,[233] - And taught more pleasant methods of salvation;[234] - Where heaven's free subjects might their rights dispute, - Lest God himself should seem too absolute: - Pulpits their sacred satire learned to spare, 550 - And vice admired to find a flatt'rer there![235] - Encouraged thus, wit's Titans braved the skies, - And the press groaned with licensed blasphemies. - These monsters, critics! with your darts engage, - Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage! 555 - Yet shun their fault, who, scandalously nice, - Will needs mistake an author into vice; - All seems infected that th' infected spy, - As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.[236] - - - III. - - Learn then what morals critics ought to show, 560 - For 'tis but half a judge's task, to know. - 'Tis not enough, taste, judgment, learning, join; - In all you speak, let truth and candour shine, - That not alone what to your sense is due - All may allow, but seek your friendship too. 565 - Be silent always when you doubt your sense; - And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence:[237] - Some positive, persisting fops we know, - Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so; - But you with pleasure own your errors past, 570 - And make each day a critique on the last. - 'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; - Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do; - Men must be taught as if you taught them not, - And things unknown proposed as things forgot. 575 - Without good-breeding truth is disapproved; - That only makes superior sense beloved. - Be niggards of advice on no pretence: - For the worst avarice is that of sense. - With mean complaisance ne'er betray your trust, 580 - Nor be so civil as to prove unjust.[238] - Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; - Those best can bear reproof, who merit praise. - 'Twere well might critics still this freedom take, - But Appius reddens[239] at each word you speak, 585 - And stares, tremendous, with a threat'ning eye, - Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry.[240] - Fear most to tax an Honourable fool, - Whose right it is, uncensured, to be dull; - Such, without wit, are poets when they please, 590 - As without learning they can take degrees.[241] - Leave dang'rous truths to unsuccessful satires, - And flattery to fulsome dedicators, - Whom, when they praise, the world believes no more, - Than when they promise to give scribbling o'er. 595 - 'Tis best sometimes your censure to restrain, - And charitably let the dull be vain:[242] - Your silence there is better than your spite, - For who can rail so long as they can write?[243] - Still humming on, their drowsy course they keep, 600 - And lashed so long, like tops, are lashed asleep.[244] - False steps but help them to renew the race, - As, after stumbling, jades will mend their pace. - What crowds of these, impenitently bold, - In sounds and jingling syllables grown old, 605 - Still run on poets in a raging vein, - Ev'n to the dregs and squeezing of the brain, - Strain out the last dull droppings[245] of their sense, - And rhyme with all the rage of impotence. - Such shameless bards we have; and yet, 'tis true, 610 - There are as mad, abandoned critics too. - The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, - With loads of learned lumber in his head,[246] - With his own tongue still edifies his ears, - And always list'ning to himself appears. 615 - All books he reads, and all he reads assails, - From Dryden's Fables down to Durfey's Tales. - With him most authors steal their works, or buy; - Garth did not write his own Dispensary.[247] - Name a new play, and he's the poet's friend, 620 - Nay, showed his faults--but when would poets mend? - No place so sacred from such fops is barred,[248] - Nor is Paul's church[249] more safe than Paul's churchyard:[250] - Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead; - For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.[251] 625 - Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks, } - It still looks home, and short excursions makes;[252] } - But rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks, } - And never shocked, and never turned aside, - Bursts out, resistless, with a thund'ring tide. 630 - But where's the man, who counsel can bestow, - Still pleased to teach, and yet not proud to know? - Unbiassed, or by favour, or by spite; - Not dully prepossessed, nor blindly right; - Though learn'd, well-bred; and though well-bred, sincere; - Modestly bold, and humanly[253] severe; 636 - Who to a friend his faults can freely show, - And gladly praise the merit of a foe? - Blest with a taste exact, yet unconfined; - A knowledge both of books and human kind; 640 - Gen'rous converse; a soul exempt from pride; - And love to praise,[254] with reason on his side? - Such once were critics; such the happy few, - Athens and Rome in better ages knew.[255] - The mighty Stagyrite first left the shore, 645 - Spread all his sails, and durst the deeps explore;[256] - He steered securely, and discovered far,[257] - Led by the light of the Mæonian star.[258] - Poets, a race long unconfined, and free, - Still fond and proud of savage liberty, 650 - Received his laws;[259] and stood convinced 'twas fit, - Who conquered nature, should preside o'er wit.[260] - Horace still charms with graceful negligence,[261] - And without method talks us into sense; - Will, like a friend, familiarly convey 655 - The truest notions in the easiest way. - He, who supreme in judgment, as in wit, - Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ, - Yet judged with coolness,[262] though he sung with fire; - His precepts teach but what his works inspire. 660 - Our critics take a contrary extreme, - They judge with fury, but they write with phlegm:[263] - Nor suffers Horace more in wrong translations - By wits, than critics in as wrong quotations.[264] - See Dionysius[265] Homer's thoughts refine, 665 - And call new beauties forth from ev'ry line! - Fancy and art in gay Petronius please, - The scholar's learning, with the courtier's ease.[266] - In grave Quintilian's[267] copious work, we find - The justest rules, and clearest method joined: 670 - Thus useful arms in magazines we place, - All ranged in order, and disposed with grace, - But less to please the eye, than arm the hand, - Still fit for use, and ready at command.[268] - Thee, bold Longinus! all the Nine inspire,[269] 675 - And bless their critic with a poet's fire. - An ardent judge, who, zealous in his trust, - With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just: - Whose own example strengthens all his laws; - And is himself that great sublime he draws.[270] 680 - Thus long succeeding critics justly reigned, - Licence repressed, and useful laws ordained. - Learning and Rome alike in empire grew; - And arts still followed where her eagles flew; - From the same foes, at last, both felt[271] their doom, 685 - And the same age saw learning fall and Rome.[272] - With tyranny, then superstition joined, - As that the body, this enslaved the mind;[273] - Much was believed, but little understood,[274] - And to be dull was construed to be good;[275] 690 - A second deluge learning thus o'er-run, - And the monks finished what the Goths begun.[276] - At length Erasmus, that great injured name, - (The glory of the priesthood and the shame!)[277] - Stemmed the wild torrent of a barb'rous age,[278] 695 - And drove those holy Vandals off the stage. - But see! each muse, in Leo's golden days, - Starts from her trance, and trims her withered bays, - Rome's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread,[279] - Shakes off the dust, and rears his rev'rend head. 700 - Then sculpture and her sister-arts revive; - Stones leaped to form, and rocks began to live;[280] - With sweeter notes each rising temple rung;[281] - A Raphael painted, and a Vida sung.[282] - Immortal Vida: on whose honoured brow 705 - The poet's bays and critic's ivy grow:[283] - Cremona now shall ever boast thy name, - As next in place to Mantua, next in fame![284] - But soon by impious arms from Latium chased, - Their ancient bounds the banished Muses passed.[285] 710 - Thence arts o'er all the northern world advance, - But critic-learning flourished most in France; - The rules a nation, born to serve,[286] obeys; - And Boileau still in right of Horace sways.[287] - But we, brave Britons, foreign laws despised, 715 - And kept unconquered, and uncivilized; - Fierce for the liberties of wit, and bold, - We still defied the Romans, as of old.[288] - Yet some there were, among the sounder few - Of those who less presumed, and better knew, 720 - Who durst assert the juster ancient cause, - And here restored wit's fundamental laws. - Such was the Muse, whose rules and practice tell - "Nature's chief master-piece is writing well."[289] - Such was Roscommon, not more learn'd than good,[290] 725 - With manners gen'rous as his noble blood; - To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, - And ev'ry author's merit, but his own.[291] - Such late was Walsh,[292] the muse's judge and friend, - Who justly knew to blame or to commend: 730 - To failings mild, but zealous for desert; - The clearest head, and the sincerest heart. - This humble praise, lamented shade! receive, - This praise at least a grateful muse may give: - The muse, whose early voice you taught to sing, 735 - Prescribed her heights, and pruned her tender wing, - (Her guide now lost) no more attempts to rise, - But in low numbers short excursions tries;[293] - Content, if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view, - The learn'd reflect on what before they knew: 740 - Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame; - Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame;[294] - Averse alike to flatter, or offend; - Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.[295] - - - - - APPENDIX. - - -Dr. Warburton, endeavouring to demonstrate, what Addison could not -discover, nor what Pope himself, according to the testimony of his -intimate friend, Richardson, ever thought of or intended, that this -Essay was written with a methodical and systematical regularity, has -accompanied the whole with a long and laboured commentary, in which he -has tortured many passages to support this groundless opinion. Warburton -had certainly wit, genius, and much miscellaneous learning; but was -perpetually dazzled and misled, by the eager desire of seeing everything -in a new light unobserved before, into perverse interpretations and -forced comments. It is painful to see such abilities wasted on such -unsubstantial objects. Accordingly his notes on Shakspeare have been -totally demolished by Edwards and Malone; and Gibbon has torn up by the -roots his fanciful and visionary interpretation of the sixth book of -Virgil. And but few readers, I believe, will be found that will -cordially subscribe to an opinion lately delivered,[296] that his notes -on Pope's Works are the very best ever given on any classic whatever. -For, to instance no other, surely the attempt to reconcile the doctrines -of the Essay on Man to the doctrines of revelation, is the rashest -adventure in which ever critic yet engaged. This is, in truth, to -divine, rather than to explain an author's meaning.--WARTON. - -If this Commentary were only a perverse and forced interpretation, as -Warton insinuates, it is scarcely likely that Pope would have approved -of it so highly, as not only to speak of it in the warmest terms of -admiration, but to allow it to accompany his own edition of the poem. To -assert that Pope was not the best judge of his own meaning, is an insult -not only to his understanding, but to common sense; and to discard the -commentary of Warburton, as Warton has done in his edition, in order to -replace it by a series of notes, intended to impress the reader with his -own opinions, is a kind of infringement on those rights, which had -already been decided on by the only person who was entitled to judge on -the subject. For these reasons I have thought it advisable, in this -edition, to restore the commentary of Warburton entire, which has only -been partially done by Mr. Bowles; conceiving that it is as injurious, -if not more so, to the commentator, whose object it is to demonstrate -the order and consistency of the poem, to deprive him of a portion of -his remarks, as it is to deprive him of them altogether.--ROSCOE. - -Warburton's commentary proceeded upon two assumptions, which are not -complimentary to Pope. The first was that a poem which had contracted no -obscurity from age, and which consisted of a series of simple precepts, -was written in a manner so confused that it would not be intelligible to -ordinary readers, unless the whole was retold in cumbrous prose. The -second assumption was that Pope was so deficient in power of expression -that his ideas were constantly at variance with his words. One of the -sarcastic canons of criticism which Edwards deduced from Warburton's -Shakspeare was that an editor "may interpret his author so as to make -him mean directly contrary to what he says," and certain it is that if -Warburton's explanations are correct, Pope's language was often sadly -inaccurate. Roscoe, in effect, adopts the last solution, for he urges -that Pope, who was the best judge of his own meaning, acknowledged his -meaning to be that which Warburton ascribed to him. There is another, -and more probable alternative. Though Pope undeniably knew his own -meaning best, his vanity may have been gratified by the subtle views -which were imputed to him, and he may have had the weakness, in -consequence, to adopt interpretations which never crossed his mind when -he composed his poem. Since, however, he desired that his works should -be read by the light of Warburton's paraphrase, an editor is not -warranted in overruling the decision of the author, and on this account -the commentary and notes of Warburton are printed in their integrity, -though in themselves they are tedious, verbose, and barren. - - - - - THE COMMENTARY AND NOTES OF - - W. WARBURTON - - ON THE - - ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - - COMMENTARY. - -_An Essay._] The poem is in one book, but divided into three principal -parts or members. The first, to ver. 201, gives rules for the study of -the art of criticism: the second, from thence to ver. 560, exposes the -causes of wrong judgment: and the third, from thence to the end, marks -out the morals of the critic. - -In order to a right conception of this poem, it will be necessary to -observe, that though it be entitled simply An Essay on Criticism, yet -several of the precepts relate equally to the good writing as well as to -the true judging of a poem. This is so far from violating the unity of -the subject, that it preserves and completes it: or from disordering the -regularity of the form, that it adds beauty to it, as will appear by the -following considerations: 1. It was impossible to give a full and exact -idea of the art of poetical criticism, without considering at the same -time the art of poetry; so far as poetry is an art. These therefore -being closely connected in nature, the author has, with much judgment, -interwoven the precepts of each reciprocally through his whole poem. 2. -As the rules of the ancient critics were taken from poets who copied -nature, this is another reason why every poet should be a critic: -therefore as the subject is poetical criticism, it is frequently -addressed to the critical poet. And 3dly, the art of criticism is as -properly, and much more usefully exercised in writing than in judging. - -But readers have been misled by the modesty of the title, which only -promises an art of criticism, to expect little, where they will find a -great deal,--a treatise, and that no incomplete one, of the art both of -criticism and poetry. This, and the not attending to the considerations -offered above, was what, perhaps misled a very candid writer, after -having given the Essay on Criticism all the praises on the side of -genius and poetry which his true taste could not refuse it, to say, that -"the observations follow one another like those in Horace's Art of -Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would have been -requisite in a prose writer." Spect. No. 235. I do not see how method -can hurt any one grace of poetry: or what prerogative there is in verse -to dispense with regularity. The remark is false in every part of it. -Mr. Pope's Essay on Criticism, the reader will soon see, is a regular -piece, and a very learned critic has lately shown that Horace had the -same attention to method in his Art of Poetry. See Mr. Hurd's Comment on -the Epistle to the Pisos.[297] - -Ver. 1. _'Tis hard to say, &c._] The poem opens, from ver. 1 to 9, with -showing the use and seasonableness of the subject. Its use, from the -greater mischief in wrong criticism than in ill poetry--this only -tiring, that misleading the reader. Its seasonableness, from the growing -number of bad critics, which now vastly exceeds that of bad poets. - -Ver. 9. _'Tis with our judgments, &c._] The author having shown us the -expediency of his subject, the art of criticism, inquires next, from -ver. 8 to 15, into the proper qualities of a true critic, and observes -first, that judgment alone is not sufficient to constitute this -character, because judgment, like the artificial measures of time, goes -different, and yet each man relies upon his own. The reasoning is -conclusive, and the similitude extremely just. For judgment, when it is -alone, is generally regulated, or at least much influenced, by custom, -fashion, and habit; and never certain and constant but when founded upon -and accompanied by taste, which is in the critic, what in the poet we -call genius. Both are derived from heaven, and like the sun, the natural -measure of time, always constant and equable. - -Judgment alone, it is allowed, will not make a poet; where is the wonder -then, that it will not make a critic in poetry? For on examination we -shall find, that genius and taste are but one and the same faculty, -differently exerting itself under different names, in the two -professions of poetry and criticism. The art of poetry consists in -selecting, out of all those images which present themselves to the -fancy, such of them as are truly beautiful; and the art of criticism in -discerning, and fully relishing what it finds so selected. The main -difference is, that in the poet, this faculty is eminently joined to a -bright imagination, and extensive comprehension, which provide stores -for the selection, and can form that selection, by proportioned parts, -into a regular whole: in the critic, it is joined to a solid judgment -and accurate discernment, which can penetrate into the causes of an -excellence, and display that excellence in all its variety of lights. -Longinus had taste in an eminent degree; therefore, this quality, which -all true critics have in common, our author makes his distinguishing -character: - - Thee, bold Longinus! all the Nine inspire, - And bless their critic with a poet's fire. - -_i. e._ with taste, or genius. - -Ver. 15. _Let such teach others, &c._] But it is not enough that the -critic hath these natural endowments of judgment and taste, to entitle -him to exercise his art; he should, as our author shows us, from ver. 14 -to 19, in order to give a further test of his qualification, have put -them successfully into use. And this on two accounts: 1. Because the -office of a critic is an exercise of authority. 2. Because he being -naturally as partial to his judgment as the poet is to his wit, his -partiality would have nothing to correct it, as that of the person -judged hath by the very terms. Therefore some test is necessary; and the -best and most unexceptionable, is his having written well himself--an -approved remedy against critical partiality, and the surest means of so -maturing the judgment as to reap with glory what Longinus calls "the -last and most perfect fruits of much study and experience." [Greek: Ê -gar tôn logôn krisis pollês esti peiras teleutaion epigennêma.] - -Ver. 19. _Yet, if we look, &c._] But the author having been thus free -with the fundamental quality of criticism, judgment, so as to charge it -with inconstancy and partiality, and to be often warped by custom and -affection, that he may not be misunderstood, he next explains, from ver. -18 to 36, the nature of judgment, and the accidents occasioning those -miscarriages before objected to it. He owns, that the seeds of judgment -are indeed sown in the minds of most men, but by ill culture, as it -springs up, it generally runs wild, either on the one hand, by false -learning, which pedants call philology, and by false reasoning, which -philosophers call school-learning, or, on the other, by false wit, which -is not regulated by sense, and by false politeness, which is solely -regulated by the fashion. Both these sorts, who have their judgment thus -doubly depraved, the poet observes, are naturally turned to censure and -abuse, only with this difference, that the learned dunce always affects -to be on the reasoning, and the unlearned fool on the laughing side. And -thus, at the same time, our author proves the truth of his introductory -observation, that the number of bad critics is vastly superior to that -of bad poets. - -Ver. 36. _Some have at first for wits, &c._] The poet having enumerated, -in this account of the nature of judgment and its various depravations, -the several sorts of bad critics, and ranked them into two general -classes, as the first sort,--namely, the men spoiled by false -learning--are but few in comparison of the other, and likewise come less -within his main view (which is poetical criticism) but keep grovelling -at the bottom amongst words and syllables, he thought it enough for his -purpose here, just to have mentioned them, proposing to do them right -hereafter. But the men spoiled by false taste are innumerable, and these -are his proper concern. He therefore, from ver. 35 to 46, subdivides -them again into the two classes of the volatile and heavy. He describes, -in few words, the quick progression of the one through criticism, from -false wit to plain folly, where they end; and the fixed station of the -other, between the confines of both; who under the name of witlings, -have neither end nor measure. A kind of half-formed creature from the -equivocal generation of vivacity and dulness, like those on the banks of -Nile, from heat and mud. - -Ver. 46. _But you who seek, &c._] Our author having thus far, by way of -introduction, explained the nature, use, and abuse of criticism, in a -figurative description of the qualities and characters of critics, -proceeds now to deliver the precepts of the art. The first of which, -from ver. 45 to 68, is, that he who sets up for a critic should -previously examine his own strength, and see how far he is qualified for -the exercise of his profession. He puts him in a way to make this -discovery, in that admirable direction given ver. 51. - - And mark that point where sense and dulness meet. - -He had shown above, that judgment, without taste or genius, is equally -incapable of making a critic or a poet. In whatsoever subject then the -critic's taste no longer accompanies his judgment, there he may be -assured he is going out of his depth. This our author finely calls, - - that point where sense and dulness meet. - -and immediately adds the reason of his precept, the author of nature -having so constituted the mental faculties, that one of them can never -greatly excel, but at the expense of another. From this state of -co-ordination in the mental faculties, and the influence and effects -they have upon one another, the poet draws this consequence, that no one -genius can excel in more than one art or science. The consequence shows -the necessity of the precept, just as the premises, from which the -consequence is drawn, show the reasonableness of it. - -Ver. 68. _First follow nature, &c._] The critic observing the directions -before given, and now finding himself qualified for his office, is shown -next how to exercise it. And as he was to attend to nature for a call, -so he is first and principally to follow nature when called. And here -again in this, as in the foregoing precept, our poet, from ver. 67 to -88, shows both the fitness and necessity of it. I. Its fitness. 1. -Because nature is the source of poetic art, this art being only a -representation of nature, who is its great exemplar and original. 2. -Because nature is the end of art, the design of poetry being to convey -the knowledge of nature in the most agreeable manner. 3. Because nature -is the test of art, as she is unerring, constant, and still the same. -Hence the poet observes, that as nature is the source, she conveys life -to art; as she is the end, she conveys force to it, for the force of any -thing arises from its being directed to its end; and as she is the test, -she conveys beauty to it, for everything acquires beauty by its being -reduced to its true standard. Such is the sense of these two important -lines, - - Life, force, and beauty must to all impart, - At once the source, and end, and test of art. - -II. The necessity of the precept is seen from hence. The two constituent -qualities of a composition, as such, are art and wit; but neither of -these attains perfection, till the first be hid, and the other -judiciously restrained. This only happens when nature is exactly -followed; for then art never makes a parade; nor can wit commit an -extravagance. Art, while it adheres to nature, and has so large a fund -in the resources which nature supplies, disposes every thing with so -much ease and simplicity, that we see nothing but those natural images -it works with, while itself stands unobserved behind; but when art -leaves nature, misled either by the bold sallies of fancy, or the quaint -oddness of fashion, she is then obliged at every step to come forward, -in a painful or pompous ostentation, in order to cover, to soften, or to -regulate the shocking disproportion of unnatural images. In the first -case, our poet compares art to the soul within, informing a beauteous -body; but in the last, we are bid to consider it but as a mere outward -garb, fitted only to hide the defects of a misshapen one. As to wit, it -might perhaps be imagined that this needed only judgment to govern it; -but, as he well observes, - - wit and judgment often are at strife, - Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. - -They want therefore some friendly mediator; and this mediator is nature: -and in attending to nature, judgment will learn where he should comply -with the charms of wit; and wit how she ought to obey the sage -directions of judgment. - -Ver. 88. _Those rules of old, &c._] Having thus, in his first precept, -to follow nature, settled criticism on its true foundation; he proceeds -to show, what assistance may be had from art. But lest this should be -thought to draw the critic from the ground where our poet had before -fixed him, he previously observes, from ver. 87 to 92, that these rules -of art, which he is now about to recommend to the critic's observance, -were not invented by abstract speculation; but discovered in the book of -nature; and that therefore, though they may seem to restrain nature by -laws, yet as they are laws of her own making, the critic is still -properly in the very liberty of nature. These rules the ancient critics -borrowed from the poets, who received them immediately from nature. - - Just precepts thus from great examples giv'n, - These drew from them what they derived from heav'n, - -so that both are to be well studied. - -Ver. 92. _Hear how learn'd Greece, &c._] He speaks of the ancient -critics first, and with great judgment, as the previous knowledge of -them is necessary for reading the poets, with that fruit which the end -here proposed requires. But having, in the foregoing observation, -sufficiently explained the nature of ancient criticism, he enters on the -subject treated of from ver. 91 to 118, with a sublime description of -its end; which was to illustrate the beauties of the best writers, in -order to excite others to an emulation of their excellence. From the -raptures which these ideas inspire, the poet is brought back, by the -follies of modern criticism, now before his eyes, to reflect on its base -degeneracy. And as the restoring the art to its original purity and -splendour is the great purpose of this poem, he first takes notice of -those, who seem not to understand that nature is exhaustless; that new -models of good writing may be produced in every age; and consequently, -that new rules may be formed from these models, in the same manner as -the old critics formed theirs, which was, from the writings of the -ancient poets: but men wanting art and ability to form these new rules, -were content to receive and file up for use, the old ones of Aristotle, -Quintilian, Longinus, Horace, &c. with the same vanity and boldness that -apothecaries practise, with their doctors' bills: and then rashly -applying them to new originals (cases which they did not hit) it was no -more in their power, than in their inclination, to imitate the candid -practice of the ancients when - - The gen'rous critic fanned the poet's fire, - And taught the world with reason to admire. - -For, as ignorance, when joined with humility, produces stupid -admiration, on which account it is commonly observed to be the mother of -devotion and blind homage, so when joined with vanity (as it always is -in bad critics) it gives birth to every iniquity of impudent abuse and -slander. See an example (for want of a better) in a late ridiculous and -now forgotten thing, called the Life of Socrates;[298] where the head of -the author (as a man of wit observed) has just made a shift to do the -office of a _camera obscura_, and represent things in an inverted order, -himself above, and Sprat, Rollin, Voltaire, and every other writer of -reputation, below. - -Ver. 118. _You then whose judgment, &c._] He comes next to the ancient -poets, the other and more intimate commentators of nature, and shows, -from ver. 117 to 141, that the study of these must indispensably follow -that of the ancient critics, as they furnish us with what the critics, -who only give us general rules, cannot supply, while the study of a -great original poet, in - - His fable, subject, scope in ev'ry page: - Religion, country, genius of his age; - -will help us to those particular rules which only can conduct us safely -through every considerable work we undertake to examine; and without -which, we may cavil indeed, as the poet truly observes, but can never -criticise. We might as well suppose that Vitruvius's book alone would -make a perfect judge of architecture, without the knowledge of some -great master-piece of science, such as the rotunda at Rome, or the -temple of Minerva at Athens, as that Aristotle's should make a perfect -judge of wit, without the study of Homer and Virgil. These therefore he -principally recommends to complete the critic in his art. But as the -latter of these poets has, by superficial judges, been considered rather -as a copier of Homer, than an original from nature, our author obviates -that common error, and shows it to have arisen (as often error does) -from a truth, _viz._, that Homer and nature were the same; that the -ambitious young poet, though he scorned to stoop at anything short of -nature, when he came to understand this great truth, had the prudence to -contemplate nature in the place where she was seen to most advantage, -collected in all her charms in the clear mirror of Homer. Hence it would -follow, that though Virgil studied nature, yet the vulgar reader would -believe him to be a copier of Homer; and though he copied Homer, yet the -judicious reader would see him to be an imitator of nature, the finest -praise which any one, who came after Homer, could receive. - -Ver. 141. _Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, &c._] Our author, -in these two general directions for studying nature and her -commentators, having considered poetry as it is, or may be reduced to -rule, lest this should be mistaken as sufficient to attain perfection -either in writing or judging, he proceeds from ver. 140 to 201, to point -up to those sublimer beauties which rules will never reach, nor enable -us either to execute or taste,--beauties, which rise so high above all -precept as not even to be described by it; but being entirely the gift -of heaven, art and reason have no further share in them than just to -regulate their operations. These sublimities of poetry (like the -mysteries of religion, some of which are above reason, and some contrary -to it) may be divided into two sorts, such as are above rules, and such -as are contrary to them. - -Ver. 146. _If, where the rules, &c._] The first sort our author -describes from ver. 145 to 152, and shows that where a great beauty is -in the poet's view, which no stated rules will authorise him how to -reach, there, as the purpose of rules is only to attain an end like -this, a lucky licence will supply the place of them: nor can the critic -fairly object, since this licence, for the reason given above, has the -proper force and authority of a rule. - -Ver. 152. _Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend, &c._] He -describes next the second sort, the beauties against rule. And even -here, as he observes, from ver. 151 to 161, the offence is so glorious, -and the fault so sublime, that the true critic will not dare either to -censure or reform them. Yet still the poet is never to abandon himself -to his imagination. The rules laid down for his conduct in this respect -are these: 1. That though he transgress the letter of some one -particular precept, yet that he be still careful to adhere to the end or -spirit of them all, which end is the creation of one uniform perfect -whole. And 2. That he have, in each instance, the authority of the -dispensing power of the ancients to plead for him. These rules observed, -this licence will be seldom used, and only when he is compelled by need, -which will disarm the critic, and screen the offender from his laws. - -Ver. 169. _I know there are, &c._] But as some modern critics have -pretended to say, that this last reason is only justifying one fault by -another, our author goes on, from ver. 168 to 181, to vindicate the -ancients; and to show that this presumptuous thought, as he calls it, -proceeds from mere ignorance,--as where their partiality will not let -them see that this licence is sometimes necessary for the symmetry and -proportion of a perfect whole, in the light, and from the point, wherein -it must be viewed; or where their haste will not give them time to -observe, that a deviation from rule is for the sake of attaining some -great and admirable purpose. These observations are further useful, as -they tend to give modern critics an humbler opinion of their own -abilities, and a higher of the authors they undertake to criticise. On -which account he concludes with a fine reproof of their use of that -common proverb perpetually in the mouths of the critics, "quandoque -bonus dormitat Homerus;" misunderstanding the sense of Horace, and -taking quandoque for aliquando: - - Those oft are stratagems which errors seem, - Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream. - -Ver. 181. _Still green with bays, &c._] But now fired with the name of -Homer, and transported with the contemplation of those beauties which a -cold critic can neither see nor conceive, the poet, from ver. 180 to -201, breaks out into a rapturous salutation of the rare felicity of -those few ancients who have risen superior over time and accidents; and -disdaining, as it were, any longer to reason with his critics, offers -this as the surest confutation of their censures. Then with the humility -of a suppliant at the shrine of immortals, and the sublimity of a poet -participating of their fire, he turns again to these ancient worthies, -and apostrophises their Manes: - - Hail, bards triumphant! &c. - -Ver. 200. _T' admire superior sense, and doubt their own!_] This line -concludes the first division of the poem; in which we see the subject of -the first and second part, and likewise the connexion they have with one -another. It serves likewise to introduce the second. The effect of -studying the ancients, as here recommended, would be the admiration of -their superior sense, which, if it will not of itself dispose moderns to -a diffidence of their own (one of the great uses, as well as natural -fruits of that study), our author, to help forward their modesty, in his -second part shows them (in a regular deduction of the causes and -effects of wrong judgment) their own bright image and amiable turn of -mind. - -Ver. 201. _Of all the causes, &c._] Having, in the first part, delivered -rules for perfecting the art of criticism, the second is employed in -explaining the impediments to it. The order of the two parts was well -adjusted. For the causes of wrong judgment being pride, superficial -learning, a bounded capacity, and partiality, they to whom this part is -principally addressed, would not readily be brought either to see the -malignity of the causes, or to own themselves concerned in the effects, -had not the author previously both enlightened and convinced them, by -the foregoing observations, on the vastness of art, and narrowness of -wit; the extensive study of human nature and antiquity; and the -characters of ancient poetry and criticism; the natural remedies to the -four epidemic disorders he is now endeavouring to redress. - -Ver. 201. _Of all the causes, &c._] The first cause of wrong judgment is -pride. He judiciously begins with this, from ver. 200 to 215, as on -other accounts, so on this, that it is the very thing which gives modern -criticism its character, whose complexion is abuse and censure. He calls -it the vice of fools, by which term is not meant those to whom nature -has given no judgment (for he is here speaking of what misleads the -judgment), but those to whom learning and study have given more -erudition than taste, as appears from the happy similitude of an -ill-nourished body, where the same words which express the cause, -express likewise the nature of pride: - - For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find, - What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind. - -It is the business of reason, he tells us, to dispel the cloud in which -pride involves the mind: but the mischief is, that the rays of reason, -diverted by self-love, sometime gild this cloud, instead of dispelling -it. So that the judgment, by false lights reflected back upon itself, is -still apt to be a little dazzled, and to mistake its object. He -therefore advises to call in still more helps: - - Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, - Make use of ev'ry friend and ev'ry foe. - -Both the beginning and conclusion of this precept are remarkable. The -question is of the means to subdue pride. He directs the critic to begin -with a distrust of himself; and this is modesty, the first mortification -of pride: and then to seek the assistance of others, and make use even -of an enemy; and this is humility, the last mortification of pride: for -when a man can once bring himself to submit to profit by an enemy, he -has either already subdued his vanity, or is in a fair way of so doing. - -Ver. 215. _A little learning, &c._] We must here remark the poet's skill -in his disposition of the causes obstructing true judgment. Each general -cause which is laid down first, has its own particular cause in that -which follows. Thus, the second cause of wrong judgment, superficial -learning, is what occasions that critical pride, which he places first. - -Ver. 216. _Drink deep, &c._] Nature and learning are the pole-stars of -all true criticism: but pride obstructs the view of nature; and a -smattering of letters makes us insensible of our ignorance. To avoid -this ridiculous situation, the poet, from ver. 214 to 233, advises, -either to drink deep, or not to drink at all; for the least sip at this -fountain is enough to make a bad critic, while even a moderate draught -can never make a good one. And yet the labours and difficulties of -drinking deep are so great, that a young author, "fired with ideas of -fair Italy," and ambitious to snatch a palm from Rome, here engages in -an undertaking like that of Hannibal: finely illustrated by the -similitude of an inexperienced traveller penetrating through the Alps. - -Ver. 233. _A perfect judge, &c._] The third cause of wrong judgment is a -narrow capacity; the natural cause of the foregoing defect, acquiescence -in superficial learning. This bounded capacity our author shows, from -ver. 232 to 384, betrays itself two ways: in its judgment both of the -matter, and the manner of the work criticised. Of the matter, in judging -by parts, or in having one favourite part to a neglect of all the rest. -Of the manner, in confining men's regard only to conceit, or language, -or numbers. This is our poet's order, and we shall follow him as it -leads us, only just observing one general beauty which runs through this -part of the poem; it is,--that under each of these heads of wrong -judgment, he has intermixed excellent precepts for the right. We shall -take notice of them as they occur. - -He exposes the folly of judging by parts very artfully, not by a direct -description of that sort of critic, but of his opposite, a perfect -judge, &c. Nor is the elegance of this conversion less than the art; for -as, in poetical _style_, one word or figure is still put for another, in -order to catch new lights from distant images, and reflect them back -upon the subject in hand, so in poetical _matter_ one person or -description may be commodiously employed for another, with the same -advantage of representation. It is observable that our author makes it -almost the necessary consequence of judging by parts, to find fault: and -this not without much discernment: for the several parts of a complete -whole, when seen only singly, and known only independently, must always -have the appearance of irregularity,--often of deformity; because the -poet's design being to create a resultive beauty from the artful -assemblage of several various parts into one natural whole, those parts -must be fashioned with regard to their mutual relations in the stations -they occupy in that whole, from whence the beauty required is to arise; -but that regard will occasion so unreducible a form in each part, when -considered singly, as to present a very mis-shapen form. - -Ver. 253. _Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see_,] He shows next, -from ver. 252 to 263, that to fix our censure on single parts, though -they happen to want an exactness consistent enough with their relation -to the rest, is even then very unjust: and for these reasons:--1. -Because it implies an expectation of a faultless piece, which is a vain -fancy. 2. Because no more is to be expected of any work than that it -fairly attains its end. But the end may be attained, and yet these -trivial faults committed: therefore, in spite of such faults, the work -will merit that praise that is due to everything which attains its end. -3. Because sometimes a great beauty is not to be procured, nor a -notorious blemish to be avoided, but by suffering one of these minute -and trivial errors. 4. And lastly, because the general neglect of them -is a praise, as it is the indication of a genius, attentive to greater -matters. - -Ver 263. _Most critics, fond of some subservient art, &c._] II. The -second way in which a narrow capacity, as it relates to the matter, -shows itself, is judging by a favourite part. The author has placed -this, from ver. 262 to 285, after the other of judging by parts, with -great propriety, it being indeed a natural consequence of it. For when -men have once left the whole to turn their attention to the separate -parts, that regard and reverence due only to a whole is fondly -transferred to one or other of its parts. And thus we see, that heroes -themselves, as well as hero-makers, even kings, as well as poets and -critics, when they chance never to have had, or long to have lost the -idea of that which is the only legitimate object of their office, the -care and conservation of the whole, are wont to devote themselves to the -service of some favourite part, whether it be love of money, military -glory, despotic power, &c. And all, as our author says on this occasion, - - to one loved folly sacrifice. - -This general misconduct much recommends that maxim in good poetry and -politics, to give a principal attention to the whole,--a maxim which our -author has elsewhere shown to be equally true likewise in morals and -religion, as being founded in the order of things; for if we examine we -shall find the misconduct here complained of to arise from this -imbecility of our nature, that the mind must always have something to -rest upon, to which the passions and affections may be interestingly -directed. Nature prompts us to seek it in the most worthy objects; and -reason points us to a whole, or system: but the false lights which the -passions hold out confound and dazzle us: we stop short; and, before we -get to a whole, take up with some part, which thenceforth becomes our -favourite. - -Ver. 285. _Thus critics of less judgment than caprice, - Curious not knowing, not exact but nice, - Form short ideas, &c._] - -2. He concludes his observations on those two sorts of judges by parts, -with this general reflection:--The curious not knowing are the first -sort, who judge by parts, and with a microscopic sight (as he says -elsewhere) examine bit by bit. The not exact but nice, are the second, -who judge by a favourite part, and talk of a whole to cover their -fondness for a part, as philosophers do of principles, in order to -obtrude notions and opinions in their stead. But the fate common to both -is, to be governed by caprice and not by judgment, and consequently to -form short ideas, or to have ideas short of truth; though the latter -sort, through a fondness to their favourite part, imagine that it -comprehends the whole in epitome, as the famous hero of La Mancha, -mentioned just before, used to maintain, that knight errantry comprised -within itself the quintessence of all science, civil, military, and -religious. - -Ver. 289. _Some to conceit alone, &c._] We come now to that second sort -of bounded capacity, which betrays itself in its judgment on the manner -of the work criticised. And this our author prosecutes from ver. 288 to -384. These are again subdivided into divers classes. - -Ver. 289. _Some to conceit alone, &c._] The first, from ver. 288 to 305, -are those who confine their attention solely to conceit or wit. And here -again the critic by parts, offends doubly in the manner, just as he did -in the matter; for he not only confines his attention to a part, when it -should be extended to the whole, but he likewise judges falsely of that -part. And this, as the other, is unavoidable, the parts in the manner -bearing the same close relation to the whole, that the parts in the -matter do; to which whole, the ideas of this critic have never yet -extended. Hence it is, that our author, speaking here of those who -confine their attention solely to conceit or wit, describes the distinct -species of true and false wit, because they not only mistake a wrong -disposition of true wit for a right, but likewise false wit for true. He -describes false wit first, from ver. 288 to 297, - - Some to conceit alone, &c., - -where the reader may observe our author's address in representing, in a -description of false wit, the false disposition of the true; as the -critic by parts is apt to fall into both these errors. - -He next describes true wit, from ver. 296 to 305, - - True wit is nature to advantage dressed, &c. - -And here again the reader may observe the same beauty; not only an -explanation of true wit, but likewise of the right disposition of it, -which the poet illustrates, as he did the wrong, by ideas taken from the -art of painting, in the theory of which he was exquisitely skilled. - -Ver. 305. _Others for language, &c._] He proceeds secondly to those -contracted critics, whose whole concern turns upon language, and shows, -from ver. 304 to 337, that this quality, where it holds the principal -place in a work, deserves no commendation:--1. Because it excludes -qualities more essential. And when the abounding verbiage has choked and -suffocated the sense, the writer will be obliged to varnish over the -mischief with all the false colouring of eloquence. 2. Secondly, because -the critic who busies himself with this quality alone, is unable to make -a right judgment of it; because true expression is only the dress of -thought, and so must be perpetually varied according to the subject, and -manner of treating it. But those who never concern themselves with the -sense, can form no judgment of the correspondence between that and the -language. - - Expression is the dress of thought, and still - Appears more decent, as more suitable, &c. - -Now as these critics are ignorant of this correspondence, their whole -judgment in language is reduced to verbal criticism, or the examination -of single words; and generally those which are most to his taste, are -(for an obvious reason) such as smack most of antiquity, on which -account our author has bestowed a little raillery upon it; concluding -with a short and proper direction concerning the use of words, so far as -regards their novelty and ancientry. - -Ver. 337. _But most by numbers judge, &c._] The last sort are those, -from ver. 336 to 384, whose ears are attached only to the harmony of a -poem. Of which they judge as ignorantly and as perversely as the other -sort did of the eloquence, and for the same reason. Our author first -describes that false harmony with which they are so much captivated; and -shows that it is wretchedly flat and unvaried: for - - Smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong. - -He then describes the true: 1. As it is in itself, constant; with a -happy mixture of strength and sweetness, in contradiction to the -roughness and flatness of false harmony: and 2. As it is varied in -compliance to the subject, where the sound becomes an echo to the sense, -so far as is consistent with the preservation of numbers, in -contradiction to the monotony of false harmony. Of this he gives us, in -the delivery of his precepts, four beautiful examples of smoothness, -roughness, slowness, and rapidity. The first use of this correspondence -of the sound to the sense, is to aid the fancy in acquiring a perfecter -and more lively image of the thing represented. A second and nobler, is -to calm and subdue the turbulent and selfish passions, and to raise and -warm the beneficent, which he illustrates in the famous adventure of -Timotheus and Alexander, where, in referring to Mr. Dryden's Ode on that -subject, he turns it to a high compliment on his favourite poet. - -Ver. 384. _Avoid extremes, &c._] Our author is now come to the last -cause of wrong judgment, partiality,--the parent of the immediately -preceding cause, a bounded capacity, nothing so much narrowing and -contracting the mind as prejudices entertained for or against things or -persons. This, therefore, as the main root of all the foregoing, he -prosecutes at large, from ver. 383 to 474. First, to ver. 394, he -previously exposes that capricious turn of mind, which, by running into -extremes, either of praise or dispraise, lays the foundation of an -habitual partiality. He cautions, therefore, both against one and the -other; and with reason; for excess of praise is the mark of a bad taste; -and excess of censure, of a bad digestion. - -Ver. 394. _Some foreign writers, &c._] Having explained the disposition -of mind which produces an habitual partiality, he proceeds to expose -this partiality in all the shapes in which it appears both amongst the -unlearned and the learned. - -I. In the unlearned it is seen, first, in an unreasonable fondness for, -or aversion to, our own or foreign, to ancient or modern writers. And as -it is the mob of unlearned readers he is here speaking of, he exposes -their folly in a very apposite similitude: - - Thus wit, like faith, by each man is applied - To one small sect, and all are damned beside. - -But he shows, from ver. 396 to 408, that these critics have as wrong -notions of reason as those bigots have of God; for that genius is not -confined to times or climates; but, as the common gift of nature, is -extended throughout all ages and countries; that indeed this -intellectual light, like the material light of the sun, may not shine at -all times, and in every place with equal splendour, but be sometimes -clouded with popular ignorance, and sometimes again eclipsed by the -discountenance of the great; yet it shall still recover itself, and, by -breaking through the strongest of these impediments, manifest the -eternity of its nature. - -Ver. 408. _Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own_,] A second -instance of unlearned partiality is (as he shows from ver. 407 to 424) -men's going always along with the cry, as having no fixed nor -well-grounded principles whereon to raise any judgment of their own. A -third is reverence for names, of which sort, as he well observes, the -worst and vilest are the idolizers of names of quality; whom therefore -he stigmatises as they deserve. Our author's temper as well as his -judgment is here seen, in throwing this species of partiality amongst -the unlearned critics. His affection for letters would not suffer him to -conceive, that any learned critic could ever fall into so low a -prostitution. - -Ver. 424. _The vulgar thus--As oft the learned_--] II. He comes in the -second place, from ver. 423 to 452, to consider the instances of -partiality in the learned. 1. The first is singularity. For, as want of -principles, in the unlearned, necessitates them to rest on the common -judgment as always right, so adherence to false principles (that is, to -notions of their own) mislead the learned into the other extreme of -supposing the common judgment always wrong. And as, before, our author -compared those to bigots, who made true faith to consist in believing -after others, so he compares these to schismatics, who make it to -consist in believing as no one ever believed before, which folly he -marks with a lively stroke of humour in the turn of the thought: - - So schismatics the plain believers quit, - And are but damned for having too much wit. - -2. The second is novelty. And as this proceeds sometimes from fondness, -sometimes from vanity, he compares the one to the passion for a -mistress, and the other to the pride of being in fashion; but the excuse -common to both is, the daily improvement of their judgment: - - Ask them the cause; they're wiser still they say; - And still to-morrow's wiser than to-day. - -Now as this is a plausible pretence for their inconstancy, and our -author has himself afterwards approved of it, as a remedy against -obstinacy and pride, where he says, ver. 570, - - But you with pleasure own your errors past, - And make each day a critique on the last, - -he has been careful, by the turn of the expression in this place, to -show the difference between the pretence and the remedy. For time, -considered only as duration, vitiates as frequently as it improves. -Therefore to expect wisdom as the necessary attendant of length of days, -unrelated to long experience, is vain and delusive. This he illustrates -by a remarkable example, where we see time, instead of becoming wiser, -destroying good letters, to substitute school divinity in their place; -the genius of which kind of learning, the character of its professors, -and the fate, which, sooner or later, always attends whatsoever is wrong -or false, the poet sums up in those four lines: - - Faith, gospel, all, seemed made to be disputed, &c. - -And in conclusion he observes, that perhaps this mischief, from love of -novelty, might not be so great, did it not, along with the critic, -infect the writer likewise, who, when he finds his readers disposed to -take ready wit on the standard of current folly, never troubles himself -to think of better payment. - -Ver. 452. _Some valuing those of their own side or mind, &c._] 3. The -third and last instance of partiality in the learned, is party and -faction, which is considered from ver. 451 to 474, where he shows how -men of this turn deceive themselves, when they load a writer of their -own side with commendation. They fancy they are paying tribute to merit, -when they are only sacrificing to self-love. But this is not the worst. -He further shows, that this party spirit has often very ill effects on -science itself, while, in support of faction, it labours to depress some -rising genius, that was, perhaps, raised by nature to enlighten his age -and country. By which he would insinuate, that all the baser and viler -passions seek refuge, and find support in party madness. - -Ver. 474. _Be thou the first, &c._] The poet having now gone through the -last cause of wrong judgment, and the root of all the rest, partiality, -and ended his remarks upon it with a detection of the two rankest kinds, -those which arise out of party rage and envy, takes the occasion, which -this affords him, of closing his second division in the most graceful -manner, from ver. 473 to 560, by concluding from the premises, and -calling upon the true critic to be careful of his charge, which is the -protection and support of wit; for, the defence of it from malevolent -censure is its true protection, and the illustration of its beauties, is -its true support. - -He first shows, the critic ought to do this service without loss of -time, and on these motives:--1. Out of regard to himself, for there is -some merit in giving the world notice of an excellence, but little or -none, in pointing, like an index, to the beaten road of admiration. 2. -Out of regard to the poem, for the short duration of modern works -requires that they should begin to live betimes. He compares the life of -modern wit (which in a changeable dialect, must soon pass away), and -that of the ancient (which survives in an universal language), to the -difference between the patriarchal age and our own, and observes, that -while the ancient writings live for ever, as it were, in brass and -marble, the modern are but like paintings, which, of how masterly a hand -soever, have no sooner gained their requisite perfection by the -softening and ripening of their tints, which they do in a very few -years, but they begin to fade and die away. 3. Lastly, our author shows -that the critic ought in justice to do this service out of regard to the -poet, when he considers the slender dowry the muse brings along with -her. In youth it is only a vain and short-lived pleasure; and in maturer -years, an accession of care and labour, in proportion to the weight of -reputation to be sustained, and of the increase of envy to be opposed: -and therefore, concludes his reasoning on this head with that pathetic -and insinuating address to the critic, from ver. 508 to 526. - - Ah! let not learning, &c. - -Ver. 526. _But if in noble minds some dregs remain, &c._] So far as to -what ought to be the true critic's principal study and employment. But -if the sour critical humour abounds, and must therefore needs have vent, -he directs to its proper object, and shows, from ver. 525 to 556, how it -may be innocently and usefully pointed. This is very observable; our -author had made spleen and disdain the characteristic of the false -critic, and yet here supposes them inherent in the true. But it is done -with judgment, and a knowledge of nature. For as bitterness and -astringency in unripe fruits of the best kind are the foundation and -capacity of that high spirit, race, and flavour which we find in them, -when perfectly concocted by the warmth and influence of the sun, and -which, without those qualities, would gain no more by that influence -than only a mellow insipidity, so spleen and disdain in the true critic, -when improved by long study and experience, ripen into an exactness of -judgment and an elegance of taste, although, in the false critic, lying -remote from the influence of good letters, they remain in all their -first offensive harshness and acerbity. The poet therefore shows how, -after the exaltation of these qualities into their state of perfection, -the very dregs (which, though precipitated, may possibly, on some -occasions, rise and ferment even in a noble mind) may be usefully -employed, that is to say, in branding obscenity and impiety. Of these, -he explains the rise and progress, in a beautiful picture of the -different geniuses of the two reigns of Charles II. and William III. The -former of which gave course to the most profligate luxury; the latter to -a licentious impiety. These are the crimes our author assigns over to -the caustic hand of the critic; but concludes however, from ver. 555 to -560, with this necessary admonition, to take care not to be misled into -unjust censure, either on the one hand, by a pharisaical niceness, or on -the other by a self-consciousness of guilt. And thus the second division -of his Essay ends: the judicious conduct of which is worthy our -observation. The subjects of it are the causes of wrong judgment. These -he derives upwards from cause to cause, till he brings them to their -source, an immoral partiality: for as he had, in the first part, - - traced the Muses upward to their spring, - -and shown them to be derived from heaven, and the offspring of virtue, -so hath he here pursued this enemy of the muses, the bad critic, to his -low original, in the arms of his nursing mother immorality. This order -naturally introduces, and at the same time shows the necessity of, the -subject of the third and last division, which is, on the morals of the -critic. - -Ver. 560. _Learn then, &c._] We enter now on the third part, the morals -of the critic. There seemed a peculiar necessity of inculcating precepts -of this sort to the critic, by reason of that native acerbity so often -found in the profession; of which, a short memorial will soon convince -the reader, and at the same time inform him why our author has here -included all critical morals in candour, modesty, and good breeding. -When, in these latter ages, human learning reared its head in the West, -and its tail, verbal criticism, was of course to rise with it, the -madness of critics presently became so offensive, that the sober -stupidity of the monks might appear the more tolerable evil. J. -Argyropylus, a mercenary Greek, who came to teach school in Italy after -the sacking of Constantinople by the Turk, used to maintain that Cicero -understood neither philosophy nor Greek; while another of his -countrymen, J. Lascaris by name, threatened to demonstrate that Virgil -was no poet. However, these men raised in the west of Europe an appetite -for the Greek language. So that Hermolaus Barbarus, a noted critic and -most passionate admirer of it, used to boast that he had invoked and -raised the devil, about the meaning of the Aristotelian [Greek: -entelecheia]. As this man was famous for his enchantments, so one, whom -Balzac speaks of, was as useful to letters by his revelations, and was -wont to say, that the meaning of such a verse in Persius, no one knew -but God and himself. But they were not all so modest. The celebrated -Pomponius Lætus, in excess of veneration for antiquity, became a real -pagan, raised altars to Romulus, and sacrificed to the gods of Greece. -But if the Greeks cried down Cicero, the Italian critics knew how -to support his credit. Every one has heard of the childish excesses -into which the fondness for being thought Ciceronians carried the -most celebrated Italians of this time. They generally abstained from -reading the scripture for fear of spoiling their style, and Cardinal -Bembo used to call the epistles of St. Paul by the contemptuous name -of epistolaccias,--great overgrown epistles. But Erasmus cured this -frenzy in that masterpiece of good sense, entitled Ciceronianus, for -which, as lunatics treat their physicians, the elder Scaliger insulted -him with all the brutal fury peculiar to his family and profession. -His son Joseph and Salmasius had such endowments of art and nature as -might have made them public blessings; yet how did these savages tear -and worry one another. The choicest of Joseph's flowers of speech were -_stercus diaboli_, and _lutum stercore maceratum_. It is true these -were strewn upon his enemies. He treated his friends better; for in a -letter to Thuanus, speaking of two of them, Clavius and Lipsius, he -calls the first "a monster of ignorance," and the other "a slave to the -Jesuits" and an "idiot." But so great was his love of sacred amity, -that he says, at the same time, "I still keep up a correspondence with -him, notwithstanding his idiotry, for it is my principle to be constant -in my friendships.--Je ne reste de lui écrire nonobstant son idioterie, -d'autant que je suis constant en amitié." The character he gives of -his own work, in the same letter, is no less extraordinary: "Vous vous -pouvez assurer que nostre Eusebe sera un tresor des merveilles de la -doctrine chronologique." But this modest account of his chronology is a -trifle in comparison of the just esteem Salmasius conceived of himself, -as Mr. Colomies tells the story: This critic one day meeting two of -his brethren, Messrs. Gaulmin and Maussac, in the royal library at -Paris, Gaulmin, in a virtuous consciousness of their importance, told -the other two that he believed they three could make head against all -the learned in Europe. To which the great Salmasius fiercely replied, -"Do you and Mr. Maussac join yourselves to all that is learned in the -world, and you shall find that I alone am a match for you all." Vossius -tells us that, when Laur. Valla had snarled at every name of the first -order in antiquity, such as Aristotle, Cicero, and one whom I should -have thought this critic was likeliest to pass by, the redoubtable -Priscian, he impiously boasted that he had arms even against Christ -himself. But Codrus Urcæus went further, and actually used those arms -the other only threatened with. This man while he was preparing some -trifling piece of criticism for the press, had the misfortune to hear -his papers were burned, on which he is reported to have broke out, -"Quodnam ego tantum scelus concepi, O Christe; quem ego tuorum unquam -læsi, ut ita inexpiabili in me odio debaccheris? Audi ea, quæ tibi -mentis compos et ex animo dicam. Si forte, cum ad ultimam vitæ finem -pervenero, supplex accedam ad te oratum, neve audias, neve inter tuos -accipias oro; cum infernis Diis in æternum vitam agere decrevi." -Whereupon, says my author, he quitted the converse of men, threw -himself into the thickest of a forest, and there wore out the wretched -remains of life in all the agonies of despair. - -But to return to the poem. This third and last part is in two divisions. -In the first of which, from ver. 559 to 631, our author inculcates the -morals by precept. In the second, from ver. 630 to the end, by example. -His first precept, from ver. 561 to 566, recommends candour, for its use -to the critic, and to the writer criticised. - -2. The second, from ver. 565 to 572, recommends modesty, which manifests -itself in these four signs: 1. Silence where it doubts, - - Be silent always when you doubt your sense; - -2. A seeming diffidence where it knows, - - And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence; - -3. A free confession of error where wrong, - - But you with pleasure own your errors past; - -4. And a constant review and scrutiny even of those opinions which it -still thinks right. - - And make each day a critique on the last. - -3. The third, from ver. 571 to 584, recommends good-breeding, which will -not force truth dogmatically upon men, as ignorant of it, but gently -insinuates it to them, as not sufficiently attentive to it. But as men -of breeding are apt to fall into two extremes, he prudently cautions -against them. The one is a backwardness in communicating their -knowledge, out of a false delicacy, and for fear of being thought -pedants: the other, and much more common extreme, is a mean -complaisance, which those who are worthy of your advice do not need, to -make it acceptable; for such can best bear reproof in particular points, -who best deserve commendation in general. - -Ver. 584. _'Twere well might critics, &c._] The poet having thus -recommended in his general rules of conduct for the judgment, these -three critical virtues to the heart, shows next, from ver. 583 to 631, -upon what three sorts of writers these virtues, together with the advice -conveyed under them, would be thrown away; and which is worse, be repaid -with obloquy and scorn. These are the false critic, the dull man of -quality, and the bad poet, each of which species of incorrigible writers -he hath very exactly painted. But having drawn the last of them at full -length, and being always attentive to the two main branches of his -subject, which are, of writing and judging well, he re-assumes the -character of the bad critic (whom he had touched upon before), to -contrast him with the other; and makes the characteristic common to -both, to be a never-ceasing repetition of their own impertinence. - -_The poet_--still runs on in a raging vein, &c. ver. 606, &c. - -_The critic_--with his own tongue still edifies his ears, 614, &c. - -Than which there cannot be an observation more just, or more grounded on -experience. - -Ver. 631. _But where's the man, &c._] II. The second division of this -last part, which we now come to, is of the morals of critics, by -example. For, having in the first, drawn a picture of the false critic, -at large, he breaks out into an apostrophe, containing an exact and -finished character of the true, which, at the same time, serves for an -easy and proper introduction to this second division. For having asked, -from ver. 630 to 643, _Where's the man, &c._, he answers, from ver. 642 -to 681, that he was to be found in the happier ages of Greece and Rome; -in the characters of Aristotle and Horace, Dionysius and Petronius, -Quintilian and Longinus, whose several excellencies he has not only well -distinguished, but has contrasted them with a peculiar elegance. The -profound science and logical method of Aristotle is opposed to the plain -common sense of Horace, conveyed in a natural and familiar negligence; -the study and refinement of Dionysius, to the gay and courtly ease of -Petronius; and the gravity and minuteness of Quintilian, to the vivacity -and general topics of Longinus. Nor has the poet been less careful in -these examples, to point out their eminence in the several critical -virtues he so carefully inculcated in his precepts. Thus in Horace he -particularizes his candour; in Petronius, his good-breeding; in -Quintilian, his free and copious instruction; and in Longinus, his great -and noble spirit. - -Ver. 681. _Thus long succeeding critics, &c._] The next period in which -the true critic, he tells us, appeared, was at the revival and -restoration of letters in the West. This occasions his giving a short -history, from ver. 682 to 709, of the decline and re-establishment of -arts and sciences in Italy. He shows that they both fell under the same -enemy, despotic power; and that when both had made some little efforts -to recover themselves, they were soon again overwhelmed by a second -deluge of another kind, namely, superstition; and a calm of dulness -finished upon Rome and letters what the rage of barbarism had begun: - - A second deluge learning thus o'er-run, - And the monk finished what the Goth begun. - -When things had long remained in this condition, and all hopes of -recovery now seemed desperate, it was a critic, our author shows us, for -the honour of the art he here teaches, who at length broke the charm of -dulness, who dissipated the enchantment, and, like another Hercules, -drove those cowled and hooded serpents from the Hesperian tree of -knowledge, which they had so long guarded from human approach. - -Ver. 697. _But see! each Muse, in Leo's golden days_,] This presents us -with the second period in which the true critic appeared, of whom he has -given us a complete idea in the single example of Marcus Hieronymus -Vida; for his subject being poetical criticism, for the use principally -of a critical poet, his example is an eminent poetical critic, who had -written of the Art of Poetry in verse. - -Ver. 709. _But soon by impious arms, &c._] This brings us to the third -period, after learning had travelled still further West, when the arms -of the Emperor, in the sack of Rome by the Duke of Bourbon, had driven -it out of Italy, and forced it to pass the mountains. The examples he -gives in this period, are of Boileau in France, and of the Lord -Roscommon and the Duke of Buckingham in England: and these were all -poets, as well as critics in verse. It is true, the last instance is of -one who was no eminent poet, the late Mr. Walsh. This small deviation -might be well overlooked, were it only for its being a pious office to -the memory of his friend. But it may be further justified, as it was an -homage paid in particular to the morals of the critic, nothing being -more amiable than the character here drawn of this excellent person. He -being our author's judge and censor, as well as friend, it gives him a -graceful opportunity to add himself to the number of the later critics; -and with a character of his own genius and temper sustained by that -modesty and dignity which it is so difficult to make consistent, this -performance concludes. - -I have here given a short and plain account of the Essay on Criticism, -concerning which, I have but one thing more to say, that when the reader -considers the regularity of the plan, the masterly conduct of each part, -the penetration into nature, and the compass of learning so conspicuous -throughout, he should at the same time know, it was the work of an -author who had not attained the twentieth year of his age. - - - - - NOTES. - - -Ver. 28. _In search of wit, these lose their common sense_,] This -observation is extremely just. Search of wit is not only the occasion, -but the efficient cause of the loss of common sense; for wit consisting -in choosing out, and setting together such ideas from whose assemblage -pleasant pictures may be drawn on the fancy, the judgment, through an -habitual search of wit, loses, by degrees, its faculty of seeing the -true relation of things; in which consists the exercise of common sense. - -Ver. 32. _All fools have still an itching to deride, - And fain would lie upon the laughing side._] - -The sentiment is just, and if Hobbes's account of laughter be true, that -it arises from a silly pride, we see the reason of it. The expression -too is fine; it alludes to the condition of idiots and natural fools, -who are observed to be ever on the grin. - -Ver. 43. _Their generation's so equivocal._] It is sufficient that a -principle of philosophy has been generally received, whether it be true -or false, to justify a poet's use of it to set off his wit. But to -recommend his argument, he should be cautious how he uses any but the -true; for falsehood, when it is set too near the truth, will tarnish -what it should brighten up. Besides, the analogy between natural and -moral truth makes the principles of true philosophy the fittest for this -use. Our poet has been pretty careful in observing this rule. - -Ver. 51. _And mark that point where sense and dulness meet._] Besides -the peculiar sense explained in the comment, the words have still a more -general meaning, and caution us against going on, when our ideas begin -to grow obscure, as we are then most apt to do, though that obscurity be -an admonition that we should leave off, for it arises, either from our -small acquaintance with the subject, or the incomprehensibility of its -nature, in which circumstances a genius will always write as badly as a -dunce. An observation well worth the attention of all profound writers. - -Ver. 56. _Thus in the soul while memory prevails, - The solid pow'r of understanding fails; - Where beams of warm imagination play, - The memory's soft figures melt away._] - -These observations are collected from an intimate knowledge of human -nature. The cause of that languor and heaviness in the understanding, -which is almost inseparable from a very strong and tenacious memory, -seems to be a want of the proper exercise of that faculty, the -understanding being in a great measure unactive, while the memory is -cultivating. As to the other appearance, the decay of memory by the -vigorous exercise of fancy, the poet himself seems to have intimated the -cause of it in the epithet he has given to the imagination. For if, -according to the atomic philosophy, the memory of things be preserved in -a chain of ideas, produced by the animal spirits moving in continued -trains, the force and rapidity of the imagination, breaking and -dissipating the links of this chain by forming new associations, must -necessarily weaken, and disorder the recollective faculties. - -Ver. 67. _Would all but stoop to what they understand._] The expression -is delicate, and implies what is very true, that most men think it a -degradation of their genius to employ it in what lies level to their -comprehension, but had rather exercise their talents in the ambition of -subduing what is placed above it. - -Ver. 80. _Some, to whom heaven, &c._] Here the poet (in a sense he was -not, at first, aware of) has given an example of the truth of his -observation, in the observation itself. The two lines stood originally -thus: - - There are whom heav'n has blest with store of wit, - Yet want as much again to manage it. - -In the first line, wit is used, in the modern sense, for the effort of -fancy; in the second line it is used in the ancient sense, for the -result of judgment. This trick, played the reader, he endeavoured to -keep out of sight, by altering the lines as they now stand, - - Some, to whom heav'n in wit has been profuse, - Want as much more, to turn it to its use. - -For the words, "to manage it," as the lines were at first, too plainly -discovered the change put upon the reader, in the use of the word "wit." -This is now a little covered by the latter expression of "turn it to its -use." But then the alteration, in the preceding line, from "store of -wit," to "profuse," was an unlucky change. For though he who has "store -of wit" may want more, yet he to whom it was given in "profusion" could -hardly be said to want more. The truth is, the poet had said a lively -thing, and would, at all hazards, preserve the reputation of it, though -the very topic he is upon obliged him to detect the imposition, in the -very next lines, which show he meant two very different things, by the -very same term, in the two preceding: - - For wit and judgment often are at strife, - Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. - -Ver. 88. _Those rules of old, &c._] Cicero has, best of any one I know, -explained what that thing is which reduces the wild and scattered parts -of human knowledge into arts. "Nihil est quod ad artem redigi possit, -nisi ille prius, qui illa tenet, quorum artem instituere vult, habeat -illam scientiam, ut ex iis rebus, quarum ars nondum sit, artem efficere -possit.--Omnia fere, quæ sunt conclusa nunc artibus, dispersa et -dissipata quondam fuerunt, ut in musicis, &c. Adhibita est igitur ars -quædam extrinsecus ex alio genere quodam, quod sibi totum PHILOSOPHI -assumunt, quæ rem dissolutam divulsamque conglutinaret, et ratione -quadam constringeret." De Orat. l. i. c. 41, 42. - -Ver. 112, 114. _Some on the leaves--Some dryly plain._] The first are -the apes of those learned Italian critics who at the restoration of -letters, having found the classic writers miserably deformed by the -hands of monkish librarians, very commendably employed their pains and -talents in restoring them to their native purity. The second, the -plagiarists from the French critics, who had made some admirable -commentaries on the ancient critics. But that acumen and taste, which -separately constitute the distinct value of those two species of Italian -and French criticism, make no part of the character of these paltry -mimics at home described by our poet in the following lines, - - These leave the sense, their learning to display, - And those explain the meaning quite away. - -Which species is the least hurtful, the poet has enabled us to determine -in the lines with which he opens his poem, - - But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence - To tire our patience, than mislead our sense. - -From whence we conclude that the Reverend Mr. Upton was much more -innocently employed, when he quibbled upon Epictetus, than when he -commented upon Shakespeare.[299] - -Ver. 150. _Thus Pegasus, &c._] We have observed how the precepts for -writing and judging are interwoven throughout the whole poem. The -sublime flight of a poet is first described, soaring above all vulgar -bounds, to snatch a grace directly which lies beyond the reach of a -common adventurer; and afterwards, the effect of that grace upon the -true critic; whom it penetrates with an equal rapidity, going the -nearest way to his heart, without passing through his judgment. By which -is not meant that it could not stand the test of judgment; but that, as -it was a beauty uncommon, and above rule, and the judgment habituated to -determine only by rule, it makes its direct appeal to the heart, which, -when once gained, soon brings over the judgment, whose concurrence (it -being now enlarged and set above forms) is easily procured. That this is -the poet's sublime conception appears from the concluding words: - - And all its end at once attains. - -For poetry doth not attain all its end, till it hath gained the judgment -as well as heart. - -Ver. 209. _Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, - And fills up all the mighty void of sense._] - -A very sensible French writer makes the following remark on this species -of pride: "Un homme qui sçait plusieurs langues, qui entend les auteurs -grecs et latins, qui s'élève même jusqu'à la dignité de scholiaste; si -cet homme venoit à peser son véritable mérite, il trouveroit souvent -qu'il se réduit avoir eu des yeux et de la mémoire; il se garderoit bien -de donner le nom respectable de science à une érudition sans lumière. Il -y a une grande différence entre s'enrichir des mots ou des choses, entre -alléguer des autorités ou des raisons. Si un homme pouvoit se surprendre -à n'avoir que cette sorte de mérite, il en rougiroit plutôt que d'en -être vain." - -Ver. 235. _Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find - Where Nature moves, and rapture warms the mind_;] - -The second line, in apologizing for those faults which the first says -should be overlooked, gives the reason of the precept. For when a great -writer's attention is fixed on a general view of nature, and his -imagination becomes warmed with the contemplation of great ideas, it can -hardly be, but that there must be small irregularities in the -disposition both of matter and style, because the avoiding these -requires a coolness of recollection, which a writer so qualified and so -busied is not master of. - -Ver. 248. _The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome!_] The -Pantheon I would suppose; perhaps St. Peter's; no matter which; the -observation is true of both. There is something very Gothic in the taste -and judgment of a learned man, who despises the masterpiece of art, the -Pantheon, for those very qualities which deserve our admiration. "Nous -esmerveillons comme l'on fait si grand cas de ce Pantheon, veu que son -edifice n'est de si grande industrie comme l'on crie: car chaque petit -masson peut bien concevoir la maniere de sa façon tout en un instant: -car estant la base si massive, et les murailles si espaisses, ne nous a -semblé difficile d'y adjouster la vonte à claire voye."--Pierre Belon's -Observations, &c. The nature of the Gothic structures apparently led him -into this mistake of the architectonic art in general; that the -excellency of it consists in raising the greatest weight on the least -assignable support, so that the edifice should have strength without the -appearance of it, in order to excite admiration. But to a judicious eye -such a building would have a contrary effect, the appearance (as our -poet expresses it) of a monstrous height, or breadth, or length. Indeed, -did the just proportions in regular architecture take off from the -grandeur of a building, by all the single parts coming united to the -eye, as this learned traveller seems to insinuate, it would be a -reasonable objection to those rules on which this masterpiece of art was -constructed. But it is not so. The poet tells us truly, - - The whole at once is bold, and regular. - -Ver. 267. _Once on a time, &c._] This tale is so very apposite, that one -would naturally take it to be of the poet's own invention; and so much -in the spirit of Cervantes, that we might easily mistake it for one of -the chief beauties of that incomparable satire. Yet, in truth it is -neither; but a story taken by our author from the spurious Don Quixote, -which shows how proper an use may be made of general reading, when if -there be but one good thing in a book (as in that wretched performance -there scarce was more) it may be picked out, and employed to an -excellent purpose. - -Ver. 285. _Thus critics, &c._] In these two lines the poet finely -describes the way in which bad writers are wont to imitate the qualities -of good ones. As true judgment generally draws men out of popular -opinions, so he who cannot get from the crowd by the assistance of this -guide, willingly follows caprice, which will be sure to lead him into -singularities. Again, true knowledge is the art of treasuring up only -that which, from its use in life, is worthy of being lodged in the -memory, and this makes the philosopher; but curiosity consists in a vain -attention to every thing out of the way, and which for its inutility the -world least regards, and this makes the antiquarian. Lastly, exactness -is the just proportion of parts to one another, and their harmony in a -whole; but he who has not extent of capacity for the exercise of this -quality, contents himself with nicety, which is a busying oneself about -points and syllables, and this makes the grammarian. - -Ver. 297. _True wit is nature to advantage dressed, &c._] This -definition is very exact. Mr. Locke had defined wit to consist "in the -assemblage of ideas, and putting those together, with quickness and -variety, wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity, whereby to -make up pleasant pictures and agreeable visions in the fancy." But that -great philosopher, in separating wit from judgment, as he does in this -place, has given us (and he could therefore give us no other) only an -account of wit in general, in which false wit, though not every species -of it, is included. A striking image, therefore, of nature is, as Mr. -Locke observes, certainly wit; but this image may strike on several -other accounts, as well as for its truth and beauty, and the philosopher -has explained the manner how. But it never becomes that wit which is the -ornament of true poesy, whose end is to represent nature, but when it -dresses that nature to advantage, and presents her to us in the -brightest and most amiable light. And to know when the fancy has done -its office truly, the poet subjoins this admirable test, viz. When we -perceive that it gives us back the image of our mind. When it does that, -we may be sure it plays no tricks with us; for this image is the -creature of the judgment, and whenever wit corresponds with judgment, we -may safely pronounce it to be true. - -Ver. 311. _False eloquence, &c._] This simile is beautiful. For the -false colouring given to objects by the prismatic glass is owing to its -untwisting, by its obliquities, those threads of light which nature had -put together, in order to spread over its work an ingenious and simple -candour, that should not hide but only heighten the native complexion of -the objects. And false expression is nothing else but the straining and -divaricating the parts of true expression; and then daubing them over -with what the rhetoricians very properly term colours, in lieu of that -candid light, now lost, which was reflected from them in their natural -state, while sincere and entire. - -Ver. 364. _'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, - The sound must seem an echo to the sense._] - -The judicious introduction of this precept is remarkable. The poets, and -even some of the best of them, have been so fond of the beauty arising -from this trivial observance, that their practice has violated the very -end of the precept, which is the increase of harmony; and so they could -but raise an echo, did not care whose ears they offended by its -dissonance. To remedy this abuse therefore, our poet, by the -introductory line, would insinuate, that harmony is always to be -presupposed as observed, though it may and ought to be perpetually -varied, so as to produce the effect here recommended. - -Ver. 365. _The sound must seem an echo to the sense._] Lord Roscommon -says, - - The sound is still a comment to the sense. - -They are both well expressed, although so differently; for Lord -Roscommon is showing how the sense is assisted by the sound; Mr. Pope, -how the sound is assisted by the sense. - -Ver. 402. _Which, from the first, &c._] Genius is the same in all ages; -but its fruits are various, and more or less excellent as they are -checked or matured by the influence of government or religion upon them. -Hence in some parts of literature the ancients excel; in others, the -moderns, just as those accidental circumstances occurred. - -Ver. 444. _Scotists._] So denominated from Johannes Duns Scotus. Erasmus -tells us, an eminent Scotist assured him, that it was impossible to -understand one single proposition of this famous Duns, unless you had -his whole metaphysics by heart. This hero of incomprehensible fame -suffered a miserable reverse at Oxford in the time of Henry VIII. That -grave antiquary, Mr. Antony Wood (in the vindication of himself and his -writings from the reproaches of the Bishop of Salisbury), sadly laments -the deformation, as he calls it, of that university, by the King's -commissioners; and even records the blasphemous speeches of one of them, -in his own words: "We have set Duns in Boccardo, with all his blind -glossers, fast nailed up upon posts in all common houses of easement." -Upon which our venerable antiquary thus exclaims: "If so be, the -commissioners had such disrespect for that most famous author, J. Duns, -who was so much admired by our predecessors, and so difficult to be -understood, that the doctors of those times, namely, Dr. William Roper, -Dr. John Keynton, Dr. William Mowse, &c. professed that, in twenty-eight -years' study, they could not understand him rightly, what then had they -for others of inferior note?" What indeed! But if so be, that most -famous J. Duns was so difficult to be understood (for that this is a -most theologic proof of his great worth is past all doubt), I should -conceive our good old antiquary to be a little mistaken, and that the -nailing up this Proteus of the schools was done by the commissioners in -honour of the most famous Duns, there being no other way of catching the -sense of so slippery and dodging an author, who had eluded the pursuit -of three of their most renowned doctors in full cry after him, for eight -and twenty years together. And this Boccardo in which he was confined, -seemed very fit for the purpose, it being observed that men are never -more serious and thoughtful than in that place of retirement.--Scribl. - -Ver. 444. _Thomists_,] From Thomas Aquinas, a truly great genius, who, -in those blind ages, was the same in theology, that our Friar Bacon was -in natural philosophy; less happy than our countryman in this, that he -soon became surrounded with a number of dark glossers, who never left -him till they had extinguished the radiance of that light, which had -pierced through the thickest night of monkery, the thirteenth century, -when the Waldenses were suppressed, and Wickliffe not yet risen. - -Ver. 445. _Amidst their kindred cobwebs._] Were common sense disposed to -credit any of the monkish miracles of the dark and blind ages of the -church, it would certainly be one of the seventh century recorded by -honest Bale. "In the sixth general council," says he, "holden at -Constantinople, Anno Dom 680, contra Monothelitas, where the Latin mass -was first approved, and the Latin ministers deprived of their lawful -wives, spiders' webs, in wonderfull copye were seen falling down from -above, upon the heads of the people, to the marvelous astonishment of -many." The justest emblem and prototype of school metaphysics, the -divinity of Scotists and Thomists, which afterwards fell, in wonderfull -copye on the heads of the people, in support of transubstantiation, to -the marvelous astonishment of many, as it continues to do to this day. - -Ver. 450. _And authors think, &c._] This is an admirable satire on those -called authors in fashion, the men who get the laugh on their side. He -shows on how pitiful a basis their reputation stands,--the changeling -disposition of fools to laugh, who are always carried away with the last -joke. - -Ver. 463. _Milbourn_] The Rev. Mr. Luke Milbourn. Dennis served Mr. Pope -in the same office. But these men are of all times, and rise up on all -occasions. Sir Walter Raleigh had Alexander Ross; Chillingworth had -Cheynel; Milton a first Edwards; and Locke a second; neither of them -related to the third Edwards of Lincoln's Inn. They were divines of -parts and learning: this a critic without one or the other. Yet (as Mr. -Pope says of Luke Milbourn) the fairest of all critics; for having -written against the editor's remarks on Shakspear, he did him justice -in printing, at the same time, some of his own.[300] - -Ver. 468. _For envied wit, &c._] This similitude implies a fact too -often verified; and of which we need not seek abroad for examples. It is -this, that frequently those very authors, who have at first done all -they could to obscure and depress a rising genius, have at length been -reduced to borrow from him, imitate his manner, and reflect what they -could of his splendour, merely to keep themselves in some little credit. -Nor hath the poet been less artful, to insinuate what is sometimes the -cause. A youthful genius, like the sun rising towards the meridian, -displays too strong and powerful beams for the dirty temper of inferior -writers, which occasions their gathering, condensing, and blackening. -But as he descends from the meridian (the time when the sun gives its -gilding to the surrounding clouds) his rays grow milder, his heat more -benign, and then - - ev'n those clouds at last adorn its way, - Reflect new glories, and augment the day. - -484. _So when, &c._] This similitude from painting, in which our author -discovers (as he always does on that subject) real science, has still a -more peculiar beauty, as at the same time that it confesses the just -superiority of ancient writings, it insinuates one advantage the modern -have above them, which is this, that in these latter, our more intimate -acquaintance with the occasion of writing, and with the manners -described, lets us into those living and striking graces which may be -well compared to that perfection of imitation given only by the pencil, -while the ravages of time, amongst the monuments of former ages, have -left us but the gross substance of ancient wit,--so much only of the -form and fashion of bodies as may be expressed in brass or marble. - -Ver. 507.--_by knaves undone!_] By which the poet would insinuate a -common but shameful truth, that men in power, if they got into it by -illiberal arts, generally left wit and science to starve. - -Ver. 545. _Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain;_] The seeds of this -religious evil, as well as of the political good from whence it sprung -(for good and evil are incessantly arising out of one another) were sown -in the preceding fat age of pleasure. The mischiefs done during -Cromwell's usurpation, by fanaticism, inflamed by erroneous and absurd -notions of the doctrine of grace and satisfaction, made the loyal -latitudinarian divines (as they were called) at the restoration, go so -far into the other extreme of resolving all Christianity into morality, -as to afford an easy introduction to socinianism, which in that reign -(founded on the principles of liberty) men had full opportunity of -propagating. - -Ver. 561. _For 'tis but half a judge's task, to know._] The critic acts -in two capacities, of assessor and of judge: in the first, science alone -is sufficient; but the other requires morals likewise. - -Ver. 631. _But where's the man, &c._] The poet, by his manner of asking -after this character, and telling us, when he had described it, that -such once were critics, does not encourage us to search for it amongst -modern writers. And indeed the discovery of him, if it could be made, -would be but an invidious affair. However, I will venture to name the -piece of criticism in which all these marks may be found. It is -entitled, Q. Hor. Fl. Ars Poetica, et ejusd. Ep. ad Aug. with an English -Commentary and Notes.[301] - -Ver. 642. _with reason on his side?_] Not only on his side, but in -actual employment. The critic makes but a mean figure, who when he has -found out the beauties of his author, contents himself with showing them -to the world in only empty exclamations. His office is to explain their -nature, show from whence they arise, and what effects they produce, or -in the better and fuller expression of the poet, - - To teach the world with reason to admire. - -Ver. 652. _Who conquered nature, &c._] By this we must not understand -physical nature, but moral. The force of the observation consists in -giving it this sense. The poet not only uses the word nature, for human -nature, throughout this poem; but also, where in the beginning of it, he -lays down the principles of the arts he treats of, he makes the -knowledge of human nature the foundation of all criticism and poetry. -Nor is the observation less true than apposite. For Aristotle's natural -inquiries were superficial and ill made, though extensive; but his -logical and moral works are supremely excellent. In his moral, he has -unfolded the human mind, and laid open all the recesses of the heart and -understanding; and in his logical, he has not only conquered nature, but -by his categories, has kept her in tenfold chains; not as dulness kept -the muses in the Dunciad, to silence them; but as Aristæus held Proteus -in Virgil, to deliver oracles. - -Ver. 665. _See Dionysius, &c._] In the first of these lines, on which -the other depends, the peculiar excellence of this critic, and indeed -the most material and useful part of a critic's office, is touched upon, -who, like the refiner, purifies the rich ore of an original writer; for -such a one busied in creating, often neglects to separate and refine the -mass, pouring out his riches rather in bullion than in sterling. - -Ver. 667. _Fancy and art, &c._] "The chief merit of Petronius," says an -objector,[302] "is that of telling a story with grace and ease." But the -poet is not here speaking, nor was it his purpose to speak, of the chief -merit of Petronius, but of his merit as a critic, which consisted, he -tells us, in softening the art of a scholar with the ease of a courtier, -and whoever reads and understands the critical part of his abominable -story-telling will see that the poet has given his true character as a -critic, which was the only thing he had to do with. - -Ver. 693. _At length Erasmus, &c._] Nothing can be more artful than the -application of this example, or more happy than the turn of the -compliment. To throw glory quite round the character of this admirable -person, he makes it to be (as in fact it really was) by his assistance -chiefly, that Leo was enabled to restore letters and the fine arts in -his pontificate. - -Ver. 694. _The glory of the priesthood and the shame!_] Our author -elsewhere lets us know what he esteems to be the glory of the priesthood -as well as of a christian in general, where comparing himself to -Erasmus, he says, - - In moderation placing all my glory, - -and consequently what he regards as the shame of it. The whole of this -character belonged eminently and almost solely to Erasmus: for the other -reformers, such as Luther, Calvin, and their followers, understood so -little in what true christian liberty consisted, that they carried with -them, into the reformed churches, that very spirit of persecution, which -had driven them from the church of Rome. - -Ver. 696. _And drove those holy Vandals off the stage._] In this attack -on the established ignorance of the times, Erasmus succeeded so well as -to bring good letters into fashion, to which he gave new splendour, by -preparing for the press correct editions of many of the best ancient -writers, both ecclesiastical and profane. But having laughed and shamed -his age out of one folly, he had the mortification of seeing it run -headlong into another. The virtuosi of Italy, in a superstitious dread -of that monkish barbarity which he had so severely handled, would use no -term (for now almost every man was become a Latin writer), not even when -they treated of the highest mysteries of religion, which had not been -consecrated in the capitol, and dispensed unto them from the sacred hand -of Cicero. Erasmus observed the growth of this classical folly with the -greater concern, as he discovered under all their attention to the -language of old Rome, a certain fondness for its religion, in a growing -impiety which disposed them to think irreverently of the christian -faith. And he no sooner discovered it than he set upon reforming it; -which he did so effectually in the dialogue, entitled Ciceronianus, that -he brought the age back to that just temper, which he had been all his -life endeavouring to mark out to it,--purity, but not pedantry in -letters, and zeal, but not bigotry, in religion. In a word, by employing -his great talents of genius and literature on subjects of general -importance; and by opposing the extremes of all parties in their turns; -he completed the real character of a true critic and an honest man. - - - - - RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM. - - WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1712. - - * * * * * - - - - - THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM. - - - Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos, - Sed juvat hoc præcibus me tribuisse tuis. - MART. LIB. 12. Ep. 86. - - - Printed for BERNARD LINTOTT. 1712. 8vo. - -This is the title-page of the original Rape of the Lock, in two cantos, -which appeared anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany. The poem begins on p. -353 of the volume, and the previous piece ends at p. 320. What purported -to be a second edition of the Miscellany came out in 1714, but except -that the gap between p. 320 and p. 353 had been filled up, and that the -Essay on Criticism is inserted at the end of the book, the work is -merely a reissue, with a new title-page, of the first edition, and the -Rape of the Lock, like the rest, is the old impression of 1712. Even the -primitive "Table of Contents" was retained, though it omits the -additional pieces, which were chiefly poems by Pope. His contributions -to the Miscellany are, however, enumerated on the title-page of the -second edition. - - - * * * * * - - - - - THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM. IN FIVE CANTOS. - - Written by Mr. POPE. - - - ----A tonso est hoc nomen adepta capillo.--OVID. - - -London: Printed for BERNARD LINTOTT, at the Cross Keys in Fleet Street. - 1714. 8vo. - -The first enlarged edition. A second and third edition followed in the -same year. After the Rape of the Lock had been included in the quarto of -1717, it was still printed in a separate form, and a "fifth edition -corrected" was published by Lintot in 1718. He also inserted the work in -the four editions of his Miscellanies, which appeared in the twelve -years from 1720 to 1732. Lintot paid Pope £7 on March 21, 1712, for the -Rape of the Lock in its first form, and gave £15 for the enlarged poem -on February 20, 1714. - -The first sketch of this poem was written in less than a fortnight's -time in 1711, in two cantos, and so printed in a Miscellany, without the -name of the author. The machines were not inserted till a year after, -when he published it, and annexed the dedication.--POPE, 1736. - -The stealing of Miss Belle Fermor's hair was taken too seriously, and -caused an estrangement between the two families, though they had lived -so long in great friendship before. A common acquaintance, and -well-wisher to both, desired me to write a poem to make a jest of it, -and laugh them together again. It was with this view that I wrote the -Rape of the Lock, which was well received, and had its effect in the two -families. Nobody but Sir George Brown was angry, and he was a good deal -so, and for a long time. He could not bear that Sir Plume should talk -nothing but nonsense. Copies of the poem got about, and it was like to -be printed, on which I published the first draught of it (without the -machinery) in a Miscellany of Tonson's. The machinery was added -afterwards to make it look a little more considerable, and the scheme of -adding it was much liked and approved of by several of my friends, and -particularly by Dr. Garth, who, as he was one of the best natured men in -the world, was very fond of it. The making the machinery, and what was -published before, hit so well together is, I think, one of the greatest -proofs of judgment of anything I ever did.--POPE in SPENCE. - -It appears by the motto "Nolueram," etc., that the following poem was -written or published at the lady's request. But there are some further -circumstances not unworthy relating. Mr. Caryll (a gentleman who was -secretary to Queen Mary, wife of James II., whose fortunes he followed -into France, author of the comedy of Sir Solomon Single, and of several -translations in Dryden's Miscellanies) originally proposed the subject -to him, in a view of putting an end, by this piece of ridicule, to a -quarrel that was risen between two noble families, those of Lord Petre -and of Mrs. Fermor, on the trifling occasion of his having cut off a -lock of her hair. The author sent it to the lady, with whom he was -acquainted; and she took it so well as to give about copies of it. That -first sketch, we learn from one of his letters, was written in less than -a fortnight, in 1711, in two cantos only, and it was so printed; first, -in a Miscellany of Bern. Lintot's, without the name of the author. But -it was received so well, that he made it more considerable the next -year by the addition of the machinery of the sylphs, and extended it to -five cantos. We shall give the reader the pleasure of seeing in what -manner these additions were inserted, so as to seem not to be added, but -to grow out of the poem. See Notes, Cant. I. ver. 9, etc. This insertion -he always esteemed, and justly, the greatest effort of his skill and art -as a poet.--WARBURTON. - -I hope it will not be thought an exaggerated panegyric to say that the -Rape of the Lock is the best satire extant; that it contains the truest -and liveliest picture of modern life; and that the subject is of a more -elegant nature, as well as more artfully conducted than that of any -other heroi-comic poem. If some of the most candid among the French -critics begin to acknowledge that they have produced nothing, in point -of sublimity and majesty, equal to the Paradise Lost, we may also -venture to affirm that in point of delicacy, elegance, and fine-turned -raillery, on which they have so much valued themselves, they have -produced nothing equal to the Rape of the Lock. It is in this -composition Pope principally appears a poet, in which he has displayed -more imagination than in all his other works taken together. It should, -however, be remembered, that he was not the first former and creator of -those beautiful machines, the sylphs, on which his claim to imagination -is chiefly founded. He found them existing ready to his hand; but has, -indeed, employed them with singular judgment and artifice.--WARTON. - -The Rape of the Lock is the most airy, the most ingenious, and the most -delightful of all Pope's compositions. At its first appearance it was -termed by Addison "merum sal." Pope, however, saw that it was capable of -improvement; and having luckily contrived to borrow his machinery from -the Rosicrucians, imparted the scheme, with which his head was teeming, -to Addison, who told him that his work, as it stood, was "a delicious -little thing," and gave him no encouragement to retouch it. This has -been too hastily considered as an instance of Addison's jealousy; for as -he could not guess the conduct of the new design, or the possibilities -of pleasure comprised in a fiction of which there had been no examples, -he might very reasonably and kindly persuade the author to acquiesce in -his own prosperity, and forbear an attempt which he considered as an -unnecessary hazard. Addison's counsel was happily rejected. Pope foresaw -the future efflorescence of imagery then budding in his mind, and -resolved to spare no art or industry of cultivation. The soft luxuriance -of his fancy was already shooting, and all the gay varieties of diction -were ready at his hand to colour and embellish it. His attempt was -justified by its success. The Rape of the Lock stands forward, in the -classes of literature, as the most exquisite example of ludicrous -poetry. Berkeley congratulated him upon the display of powers more truly -poetical than he had shown before. With elegance of description and -justness of precepts he had now exhibited boundless fertility of -invention. He always considered the intermixture of the machinery with -the action as his most successful exertion of poetical art. He indeed -could never afterwards produce anything of such unexampled excellence. -Those performances which strike with wonder are combinations of skilful -genius with happy casualty; and it is not likely that any felicity, like -the discovery of a new race of preternatural agents, should happen twice -to the same man. - -Of this poem the author was, I think, allowed to enjoy the praise for a -long time without disturbance. Many years afterwards Dennis published -some remarks upon it with very little force and with no effect; for the -opinion of the public was already settled, and it was no longer at the -mercy of criticism.[303] - -To the praises which have been accumulated on the Rape of the Lock by -readers of every class, from the critic to the waiting-maid, it is -difficult to make any addition. Of that which is universally allowed to -be the most attractive of all ludicrous compositions, let it rather be -now inquired from what sources the power of pleasing is derived. Dr. -Warburton, who excelled in critical perspicacity, has remarked that the -preternatural agents are very happily adapted to the purposes of the -poem. The heathen deities can no longer gain attention: we should have -turned away from a contest between Venus and Diana. The employment of -allegorical persons always excites conviction of its own absurdity; they -may produce effects, but cannot conduct actions: when the phantom is put -in motion it dissolves. Thus Discord may raise a mutiny, but Discord -cannot conduct a march, nor besiege a town. Pope brought in view a new -race of beings, with powers and passions proportionate to their -operation. The sylphs and gnomes act at the toilet and the tea-table, -what more terrific and more powerful phantoms perform on the stormy -ocean or the field of battle; they give their proper help and do their -proper mischief. Pope is said by an objector,[304] not to have been the -inventor of this petty nation; a charge which might with more justice -have been brought against the author of the Iliad, who doubtless adopted -the religious system of his country; for what is there but the names of -his agents which Pope has not invented? Has he not assigned them -characters and operations never heard of before? Has he not, at least, -given them their first poetical existence? If this is not sufficient to -denominate his work original, nothing original ever can be written. - -In this work are exhibited, in a very high degree, the two most engaging -powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and familiar things -are made new. A race of aerial people, never heard of before, is -presented to us in a manner so clear and easy, that the reader seeks for -no further information, but immediately mingles with his new -acquaintance, adopts their interests, and attends their pursuits, loves -a sylph and detests a gnome. That familiar things are made new, every -paragraph will prove. The subject of the poem is an event below the -common incidents of common life; nothing real is introduced that is not -seen so often as to be no longer regarded; yet the whole detail of a -female day is here brought before us, invested with so much art of -decoration, that, though nothing is disguised, everything is striking, -and we feel all the appetite of curiosity for that from which we have a -thousand times turned fastidiously away. - -The purpose of the poet is, as he tells us, to laugh at "the little -unguarded follies of the female sex." It is therefore without justice -that Dennis charges the Rape of the Lock with the want of a moral, and -for that reason sets it below the Lutrin, which exposes the pride and -discord of the clergy. Perhaps neither Pope nor Boileau has made the -world much better than he found it, but, if they had both succeeded, it -were easy to tell who would have deserved most from public gratitude. -The freaks, and humours, and spleen, and vanity of women, as they -embroil families in discord, and fill houses with disquiet, do more to -obstruct the happiness of life in a year than the ambition of the clergy -in many centuries. It has been well observed, that the misery of man -proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small -vexations continually repeated. - -It is remarked by Dennis likewise that the machinery is superfluous; -that by all the bustle of preternatural operation the main event is -neither hastened nor retarded. To this charge an efficacious answer is -not easily made. The sylphs cannot be said to help or to oppose, and it -must be allowed to imply some want of art, that their power has not -been sufficiently intermingled with the action. Other parts may likewise -be charged with want of connection; the game at ombre might be spared; -but if the lady had lost her hair while she was intent upon her cards, -it might have been inferred that those who are too fond of play will be -in danger of neglecting more important interests. These perhaps are -faults, but what are such faults to so much excellence?--JOHNSON. - -The Rape of the Lock at once placed Pope higher than any modern writer, -and exceeded everything of the kind that had appeared in the republic of -letters. Dr. Johnson truly says that it is the most airy, the most -ingenious, and the most delightful of all Pope's compositions. Indeed, -upon this subject there cannot be two opinions. This poem is founded, -however, upon local manners. And of all poems of that kind it is -undoubtedly far the best, whether we consider the exquisite tone of -raillery, a certain musical sweetness and suitableness in the -versification, the management of the story, or the kind of fancy and -airiness given to the whole. But what entitles it to its high claim of -peculiar poetic excellences?--the powers of imagination, and the -felicity of invention displayed in adopting, and most artfully -conducting, a machinery so fanciful, so appropriate, so novel, and so -poetical. The introduction of Discord, &c., as machinery in the Lutrin, -&c., is not to be mentioned at the same time. Such a being as Discord -will suit a hundred subjects; but the elegant, the airy sylph, - - Loose to the wind, whose airy garments flew, - Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew, - Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies, - Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes: - -such a being as this, is suited alone to the identical and peculiar poem -in which it is employed. I will now go a step farther in appreciating -the elegance and beauty of this poem, and I would ask the question, Let -any other poet,--Dryden, Waller, Cowley, or Gray,--be assigned this -subject, and this machinery: could they have produced a work altogether -so correct and beautiful from the same given materials? Let us, however, -still remember, that this poem is founded on local manners, and the -employment of the sylphs is in artificial life. For this reason the poem -must have a secondary rank, when considered strictly and truly with -regard to its poetry. Whether Pope would have excelled as much in -loftier subjects of a general nature, in the "high mood" of Lycidas, the -rich colourings of Comus, and the magnificent descriptions and sublime -images of Paradise Lost; or in painting the characters and employments -of aerial beings, - - That tread the ooze of the salt deep, - Or run upon the sharp wind of the north, - -is another question. He has not attempted it: I have no doubt he would -have failed. But to have produced a poem, infinitely the highest of its -kind, and which no other poet could perhaps altogether have done so -well, is surely very high praise. The excellence is Pope's own, the -inferiority is in the subject. No one understood better that excellent -rule of Horace: - - Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, æquam - Viribus.[305]--BOWLES. - -From the statement of Pope in the edition of 1736, it would be inferred -that the Rape of the Lock in its second form was prepared and published -in 1712. As usual he ante-dated his work. The original sketch came out -in 1712; the machinery was added in 1713, and the enlarged poem was not -published till the spring of 1714. Warburton's narrative, which in some -editions had Pope's initial affixed by an error of the press,[306] is in -part derived from Pope, and the rest is erroneous. The person who -bespoke the Rape of the Lock was not Mr. Secretary Caryll, but his -nephew, the Sussex squire, and for years the correspondent of Pope. The -assertion of Warburton, that Pope, when he wrote the work, was -acquainted with his heroine, is discredited by his letter to Caryll on -May 28, 1712. "Mr. Bedingfield," he there says, "has done me the favour -to send some books of the Rape to my Lord Petre and Mrs. Fermor," and -unless the poet had been a total stranger to them he would have -presented the copies himself. The language of the motto can only bear -the interpretation of Warburton, that the Rape of the Lock "was written -or published at the lady's request," but Warburton ought to have seen -that the motto was a deception. The piece was not _written_ at Miss -Fermor's request, for it was absurd to imagine that she would ask any -one to compose a poem to allay her own resentment against Lord Petre, -and there is the direct statement of Pope in the body of the work, and -in his conversation with Spence, that the suggestion did not come from -her.[307] The piece was not _published_ at her request, for in the -Dedication of the second edition to Miss Fermor, Pope says of the first -edition, "An imperfect copy having been offered to a bookseller, you had -the good nature for my sake to consent to the publication of one more -correct. This I was forced to before I had executed half my design, for -the machinery was entirely wanting to complete it." Warburton reversed -the parts. The requester was Pope, and Miss Fermor gave a consent which -it was vain to refuse when the sole alternative presented to her was -whether the poem should be printed surreptitiously, or under the -supervision of its author. The miserable farce of circulating copies of -a work, and then alleging that the publication had become a necessary -measure of self-defence, was one of those transparent pretences which -deceived no one except the person who fancied that he was deceiving. -Pope never wrote a line of the smallest value which was not intended for -the printer. - -The motto from Martial was doubtless attached to the Rape of the Lock in -the belief that Miss Fermor would be proud to countenance the -misrepresentation. The poet was mistaken. "A few years ago," says Dr. -Johnson, "a niece of Mrs. Fermor, who presided in an English convent at -Paris, mentioned Pope's work with very little gratitude, rather as an -insult than an honour; and she may be supposed to have inherited the -opinion of her family."[308] Pope told Spence that "nobody but Sir -George Brown was angry," and Warburton says that Miss Fermor "took the -poem so well as to give about copies of it," but we now know that -Johnson was right in his inference. "Sir Plume blusters, I hear," wrote -Pope to the younger Caryll, Nov. 8, 1712, five months after the Rape of -the Lock appeared; "nay, the celebrated lady herself is offended, and, -which is stranger, not at herself, but me. Is not this enough to make a -writer never be tender of another's character or fame?" Respect for the -fame and feelings of his heroine was not an act of grace; it was an -imperious duty. At the request of a common friend he had composed a poem -for an amiable purpose upon an incident of private life, and it would -have been a hateful abuse of his commission, a slanderous violation of -domestic sanctities, if he had penned a word which could sully the -reputation of an innocent maiden. He is not free from reproach. Without -intending to transgress he offended from inherent want of delicacy. He -made Belinda the subject of some gross double meanings, which provoked -the ribald comments of the critics, and, unless a morbid love of -notoriety had extinguished feminine purity, she must have been deeply -outraged by being associated with these licentious allusions. Her -indignation may appear to have come too late, for though her consent to -the publication of the work, when there was no real choice, does not -involve approval, she might, through her friends, have effectually -demanded the suppression of degrading couplets. Her very resentment, -however, when she read the work in print, is a presumption that they -were not in the manuscript which was sent her, and indeed it is -incredible that she, or her family, could ever have sanctioned such -revolting personalities. They are a sad exhibition of the ingrained -coarseness of Pope's taste,--of his incapacity to conceive the idea of -womanly homage to outward decency, to say nothing of innate refinement -and modesty. - -In the interval between the first and second edition of the Rape of the -Lock, Pope was compelled to acknowledge that he had inflicted an injury -on Miss Fermor. "I have some thoughts," he wrote to Caryll, Dec. 15, -1713, "of dedicating the poem to her by name, as a piece of justice in -return to the wrong interpretations she has suffered under on the score -of that piece." He tried a preface "which salved the lady's honour -without affixing her name," but she preferred the dedication. She wished -to be dissociated from his heroine, and he propitiated her by saying, -all the incidents are "fabulous except the loss of your hair; and the -character of Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but -beauty." "I believe," he wrote to Caryll, January 9, 1714, "I have -managed the dedication so nicely that it can neither hurt the lady nor -the author. I writ it very lately, and upon great deliberation. The -young lady approves of it, and the best advice in the kingdom, of the -men of sense, has been made use of in it, even to the treasurer's." -Plainer understandings will be puzzled to discover what scope there -could be for the "great deliberation" of the poet, and the advice of all -the ablest men throughout the kingdom, including the prime minister, -Lord Oxford, in making a simple declaration of a simple fact. To -complete the absolution of Miss Fermor, Pope substituted another motto -for the lines from Martial, and when their temporary withdrawal had -answered his purpose he restored them in the quarto edition of his -works. - -A more celebrated feud, if we are to trust the account of Warburton, -took its rise from the Rape of the Lock. The success of the first -edition "encouraged the author to give it a more important air" by the -addition of the supernatural machinery. "Full," says Warburton, "of this -noble conception he communicated it to Mr. Addison, who he imagined -would have been equally delighted with the improvement. On the contrary, -he had the mortification to see his friend receive it coldly; and even -to advise him against any alteration, for that the poem in its original -state was a delicious little thing, and, as he expressed it, _merum -sal_. Mr. Pope was shocked for his friend, and then first began to open -his eyes to his character."[309] The charge has been exposed by Johnson, -Macaulay, and Croker. Mr. Croker denies that the machinery was a -plausible suggestion. "I believe Addison's advice," he says, "to have -been a sincere and just opinion, and such as I should have expected from -the purity of his taste. The original poem tells the actual story and -exhibits a picture of real manners with so much wit and poetry, but also -with so much simplicity and clearness, that I can well imagine that -Addison might be alarmed at the proposition of introducing sylphs and -gnomes into a scene of common life already so admirably described. Even -now, with the advantage of seeing all the brilliancy with which Pope has -worked out what Addison thought an unfortunate conception, I will not -deny that such is the charm of truth that I have lately read the first -sketch with more interest, though certainly with less admiration than -its more fanciful and more gorgeous successor, which really seems -something like a beauty oppressed with the weight and splendour of her -ornaments. The game at cards, the most ingenious and beautiful of all -the additions, is only reality splendidly embellished, and would have -been equally well placed in the first sketch." Macaulay vindicates the -counsel of Addison upon a general principle, irrespective of the -apparent want of fitness between supernatural agents and the frivolities -of fashion,--a principle "the result of wide and long experience," which -is, that a successful work of imagination is injured by being recast. -"We cannot at this moment," he says, "call to mind a single instance in -which this rule has been transgressed with happy effect, except the -instance of the Rape of the Lock. Tasso recast his Jerusalem. Akenside -recast his Pleasures of the Imagination, and his Epistle to Curio. Pope -himself, emboldened no doubt by the success with which he had expanded -and remodelled the Rape of the Lock, made the same experiment on the -Dunciad. All these attempts failed. Who was to foresee that Pope would -once in his life be able to do what he could not himself do twice, and -what nobody else has ever done? Addison's advice was good, but if it had -been bad, why should we pronounce it dishonest? Scott tells us that one -of his best friends predicted the failure of Waverley. Herder adjured -Goethe not to take so unpromising a subject as Faust. Hume tried to -dissuade Robertson from writing the History of Charles the Fifth. Nay -Pope himself was one of those who prophesied that Cato would never -succeed on the stage, and advised Addison to print it without risking a -representation.[310] But Scott, Goethe, Robertson, Addison, had the -good sense and generosity to give their advisers credit for the best -intentions. Pope's heart was not of the same kind with theirs."[311] Of -the examples, which Macaulay quotes, of poems marred in the attempt to -mend them, the Jerusalem of Tasso was the only one which existed in the -days of Addison; and the Jerusalem was not a parallel case, for the mind -of Tasso was diseased when he remodelled his work, and he yielded, -against his judgment, to the cavils of critics instead of obeying the -self-born calls of imagination. Most men nevertheless would -instinctively recommend that whatever was beautiful should be let alone, -lest it should be deteriorated in the effort to make it better. When -Pope boasted that the adaptation of the new parts to the old, in the -Rape of the Lock, was the greatest triumph of his skill, he himself -confessed the risk and difficulty of the process, and justified the -misgivings of Addison. But besides the general hazard, we should expect, -with Mr. Croker, that Addison would have thought the particular project -for improving the poem to be essentially bad. Pope had shown a -predilection for heathen mythology, and his management of it had been -clumsy and lifeless. His scheme would have called up to Addison's mind -the interposition of the gods and goddesses in Homer and Virgil. The -conjunction of these obsolete figments, under new names, with the -trivialities of modern society, would have seemed incongruous and -pedantic,[312] and the previous works of Pope would have compelled the -conclusion that he had not the skill to deal with ethereal fiction. -Addison could neither have divined from a conversational description how -perfectly the agents would be adapted to their office, nor from Pope's -existing poetry how delicious they would be rendered by the felicity of -the execution. Unless there was the strongest presumption that the -recommendation to leave the poem unaltered was made in good faith, we -should not be warranted in believing the story, for no reliance could be -placed on the unsupported testimony of Pope when he was safe from -contradiction, and his object was to damage the reputation of a rival. - -Pope is convicted on his own evidence. He admits that the incident -"_first_ opened his eyes to the character of Addison," and by -consequence that Addison's conduct had been hitherto blameless. He thus -bears witness against himself of his readiness to impute the basest -motives upon the most trumpery pretexts. Being "_shocked_" at the moral -turpitude of "his friend," he could never again have treated him with -cordiality and confidence, and the alienation which ensued, must, on -Pope's own showing, have had its origin in Pope's morbid suspicions. But -there was an earlier transaction, which turns the tables with fatal -force upon Pope. Anterior to the conversation on the Rape of the -Lock,[313] he urged Lintot the bookseller to persuade Dennis to -criticise Addison's Cato.[314] Dennis published his Remarks, and Pope -followed with his anonymous pamphlet, Dr. Norris's Narrative of the -Phrenzy of J.D.,--a coarse, dull production, consisting of nothing but -low, intemperate abuse. Pope's device pointed to three results. He would -damage the reputation of Addison's play; he would provoke him into -turning his wrath upon Dennis; and he would secure an opening for -venting his own spleen against the critic without seeming to be actuated -by personal spite. Addison was disgusted with the pamphlet; and, -ignorant probably of its parentage, he let Dennis know that he -repudiated and condemned it.[315] The worst was to come. More than -twenty years afterwards Pope dressed up a letter which he had written to -Caryll, on the occasion of an attack in the Flying Post, and pretended -that it had been written to Addison when his play was assailed by -Dennis. In this fraudulent document Pope congratulates him on his share -in "the envy and calumny, which is the portion of all good and great -men," and declares that "he felt more warmth" at the Remarks on Cato -than when he read the Reflections on the Essay on Criticism.[316] Having -prompted the abuse, he published a fictitious letter to persuade the -world that he had overflowed with generous indignation. He wanted -posterity to believe that he had poured out these magnanimous sentiments -to Addison, who returned him envy and malice. His object was to magnify -his own virtues, and transfer his meanness and jealousy to the amiable -genius he had formerly wronged. "Addison," he said, "was very kind to me -at first, but my bitter enemy afterwards,"[317] and with the -consciousness of guilt, he tried to conceal that he had forfeited the -kindness by misconduct. He was bold with his forgeries and falsehoods in -the confidence that a dead man could tell no tales. Happily there are -flaws in the best-laid dishonest plots, and the hour of retribution -comes at last. At what period or in what degree Addison himself detected -Pope's practices is not definitely known, but he discovered enough to -avoid him. "Leave him as soon as you can," he said to Lady Mary W. -Montagu; "he will certainly play you some devilish trick else. He has an -appetite to satire." - -Up to the Rape of the Lock, Pope had only put borrowed thoughts into -verse. He now broke out into originality, but not without some -obligation to his predecessors. In one place De Quincey maintains that -the Rape of the Lock was not suggested by the Lutrin, because Pope did -not read French with ease to himself, and in another place that Voltaire -must have been wrong in saying that "Pope could hardly read French," -inasmuch as there are "numerous proofs that he had read Boileau with so -much feeling of his peculiar merit that he has appropriated and -naturalised some of his best passages."[319] The second statement of De -Quincey was the latest and the truest. Pope refers to the Lutrin in his -manuscript notes on the Remarks of Dennis, and certainly had it in his -mind when he framed the scheme of his poem. "The treasurer," it is said, -in the summary prefixed to Boileau's work, "is the highest dignitary in -the chapter. The precentor is the second dignitary. In front of the seat -of the latter there was formerly an enormous reading-desk, which almost -concealed him. He had it removed, and the treasurer wanted to put it -back. Hence arose the dispute which is the subject of the present poem." -Boileau converted the squabble into a satire on the indolence, the -sensuality, and pride of the cathedral clergy in the licentious reign of -Louis XIV. Pope converted the quarrel between Miss Fermor and Lord Petre -into a satire on the frivolities of a young lady of fashion from her -morning toilet to the close of her giddy day. Boileau called the Lutrin -a new species of burlesque, "because," he said, "in other burlesques -Dido and Æneas speak like fishwomen and scavengers; here a barber and -his wife speak like Dido and Æneas." Pope adopted a similar vein, and -invested the trifles of a gay and frivolous life with an adventitious -importance. Boileau parodied some well-known passages of Virgil. Pope -parodied both Virgil and Homer. The Lutrin opens with Discord appearing -to the sleeping treasurer, and warning him against the encroachments of -the rebellious precentor. The enlarged Rape of the Lock opens with Ariel -appearing, in a dream, to Belinda, and beseeching her to beware of some -disastrous impending event. The raillery on the foibles of women, which -is the central idea in Pope's poem, was caught up from the exquisite -pleasantry of Addison, who, in the Tatlers and Spectators, had -endeavoured to laugh the fair sex out of their levities of behaviour, -and extravagances of dress. Through his delicate humour, it had become -the popular topic in the light literature of the day. - -Johnson says of the sylphs that they are "a new race of beings," and -that there is nothing "but the names of his agents which Pope has not -invented." This is an exaggeration. The names were a considerable part -of the novelty; for, in the fundamental conception, the sylphs in the -Rape of the Lock were the time-honoured fairies of English literature. -Their immediate prototypes are the elves of Shakespeare. The sprites of -Pope belong to the same family with the diminutive, joyous, ethereal -creatures which anciently crept into acorn cups, couched in the bells of -cowslips, or lived under blossoms; who sported in air, rode on the -curled clouds, and flitted with the swiftness of thought over land and -sea; who hung dew-drops on flowers, fetched jewels from the deep, shaded -sleeping eyes from moonbeams with wings plucked from painted -butterflies, and who mingled, benignly or maliciously, in all but the -graver varieties of human affairs. Pope acknowledges the ancestry of his -newly-named race when Ariel,--whose own name confesses his -parentage,--addressing his subjects, says, - - Ye sylphs and sylphids, to your chief give ear; - Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons hear. - -The benevolent and mischievous fairies of old days were, in their turn, -little more than the good and evil angels dwarfed to suit their lighter -functions. For the precise outward aspect which Pope assigned to the -sylphs, he was beholden to Spenser, with whose works he was well -acquainted: - - And all about her neck and shoulders flew - A flock of little loves, and sports, and joys, - With nimble wings of gold and purple hue, - Whose shapes seemed not like to terrestrial boys, - But like to angels playing heav'nly toys. - -These are just the beings who hover round Belinda. But though Johnson's -claim for Pope is over-stated, his supernatural agents are the product -of genius. The vividness with which they are described, the novel -offices they fulfil, the poetic beauty with which they are invested, -even when engaged in employments not in their nature poetic, constitute -them a distinct variety, and they rise up before our minds like a fresh -creation, and not as the reflection of antecedent familiar forms. The -remark is true of the work throughout. What Pope borrowed he varied, -embellished, and combined in a manner which leaves the poem unique. Some -of the parts may be traced to earlier sources, but few master-pieces -have more originality in the aggregate. - -"The Rape of the Lock," says De Quincey, "is the most exquisite monument -of playful fancy that universal literature offers."[320] "The Rape of -the Lock," says Hazlitt, "is the most exquisite specimen of filigree -work ever invented. It is made of gauze and silver spangles. The most -glittering appearance is given to everything--to paste, pomatum, -billets-doux, and patches. Airs, languid airs, breathe around; the -atmosphere is perfumed with affectation. A toilet is described with the -solemnity of an altar raised to the goddess of vanity, and the history -of a silver bodkin is given with all the pomp of heraldry. No pains are -spared, no profusion of ornament, no splendour of poetic diction to set -off the meanest things. The balance between the concealed irony and the -assumed gravity is as nicely trimmed as the balance of power in Europe. -The little is made great and the great little. You hardly know whether -to laugh or weep. It is the triumph of insignificance, the apotheosis of -foppery and folly. It is the perfection of the mock-heroic."[321] The -world of fashion is displayed in its most gorgeous and attractive hues, -and everywhere the emptiness is visible beneath the outward splendour. -The beauty of Belinda, the details of her toilet, her troops of -admirers, her progress up the Thames, the game at cards, the aerial -escort which attend upon her, are all set forth with unrivalled grace -and fascination, and all bear the impress of vanity and vexation. -Nothing can exceed the art with which the satire is blended with the -pomp, mocking without disturbing the unsubstantial gewgaw. The double -vein is kept up with sustained skill in the picture of the outward -charms and inward frivolity of women. Ariel, describing the influence of -the sylphs upon them, says, that - - With varying vanities from ev'ry part, - They shift the moving toy-shop of their heart. - -This is the tone throughout. Their hearts are toy-shops. They reverse -the relative importance of things, and, as Hazlitt says, the "little" -with them "is great, and the great little." The Bible is mixed up with -"files of pins, puffs, powders, patches, billets-doux." Chastity and -china, prayers and masquerades, love and jewellery are put upon a -nominal equality, but with a manifest preponderance in favour of the -china, masquerades, and jewellery. The female passion is for carriages, -dress, cards, rank, and it is an insoluble mystery that "a belle should -reject a lord." The "grave Clarissa," who rebukes the "airs and flights" -of Belinda, can offer no higher motive for intermixing solid with -trifling qualities than - - That _men_ may say, when we the front-box grace, - "Behold the first in virtue as in face!" - -The continuous raillery against female foibles is playful in its -poignancy. The whole wears a festive air, and has none of the ill-nature -and venom which marked Pope's later satire. - -In allotting their several functions to the sylphs, Ariel reserves -Belinda's lap-dog for his own especial charge: - - Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock. - -Dennis said it was "contrary to all manner of judgment and decorum" that -the chief of the aerial train should be "only the keeper of a vile -Iceland cur," instead of protecting "the lady's favourite lock."[322] -Ruffhead repeated the futile objection.[323] "Black omens" announced -that some misfortune would befall Belinda, but the precise calamity had -been "wrapped by the fates in night." For aught Ariel knew, the attack -might be directed against the favourite dog, which is neither "vile" nor -"a cur" in Pope's poem, and which we may do Belinda the justice to -believe was more precious in her eyes than even a favourite ringlet. She -would rather have sacrificed her lock than her dog. Dennis from -hostility, and Ruffhead from dullness, missed the meaning of the stroke. -The climax of the omens which prefigured the coming disaster was that -"Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind." The "shrieks" of the -heroine, when the catastrophe arrived, were such as "when husbands or -when lap-dogs breathe their last." A gnome bent upon mischief made -pampered lap-dogs ill, and bright eyes wept over them. The undue -fondness for dogs and parrots, to the depreciation of the higher claims -of humanity, was no uncommon failing, and Pope's design was to ridicule -it. Locks of hair did not usurp the same supreme dominion, and Ariel, -ignorant where the danger would light, is properly represented as -guarding the pet dog, which had the first place in the affections of -heartless women of fashion. - -To the distempered mind of Dennis the sylphs appeared an absurd -excrescence. "They neither promote," he says, "nor retard the danger of -Belinda."[324] Johnson admits the force of the observation, and thinks -it "implies some want of art that their power has not been sufficiently -intermingled with the action." The criticism seems hasty. The sylphs -have a large share in the fascination of Belinda. Their province is to -heighten and protect her charms,--to preside at her toilet, to imprison -essences, to save the powder from too rude a gale, to steal washes from -the rainbow, to assist her blushes, and inspire her airs. They perform -these offices up to the fatal moment, and are not an incumbrance to the -narrative merely because they cannot avert the final stroke. Nay, their -impotence to stay the crisis is in keeping with the general spirit of -the poem. Belinda leads a life of vanity, and the sylphs are the -ministers of vanity. They are lustrous with a butterfly beauty, the -patrons of ephemeral folly, and it would be inconsistent with the moral -if they could have ensured a perpetual triumph to weaknesses which -inevitably terminate in mortification. Pope accounts for the failure of -the watchful legion to turn aside the catastrophe. Ariel recognises that -his power is gone when he perceives "an earthly lover lurking at -Belinda's heart,"--an intimation, perhaps, that lovers are headstrong -and incapable of guidance. Johnson asserts, and with as little reason, -that the game of cards, like the machinery, has no connection with the -subject of the poem. That subject is the exaltation of a beautiful young -lady throughout a day of glittering fashion, till the hollow pomp ends -in humiliation, anger, and tears. Whatever amusements and pageantry -entered into a day of the kind belonged directly to the theme, provided -they could be made subservient to poetic effect. - -When Ariel, baffled and weeping, is compelled to resign his charge, the -gnomes rush upon the scene, and retain their ascendancy till near the -end. They are but slightly sketched, and all we hear of the appearance -they present is that they have "a dusky, melancholy" aspect, and "sooty -pinions." Their functions are the opposite to those of the sylphs,--they -give lap-dogs diseases, discompose head-dresses, raise pimples on -beauteous faces, engender pride, and spoil graces. Dennis detected a -flaw. Umbriel descends to the Cave of Spleen, and procures from the -goddess a bag filled with the impetuous, and a phial with the depressing -passions. The gnome empties the bag of "sighs, sobs, and the war of -tongues" on Belinda, who immediately "burns with more than mortal ire." -The gnome next breaks over her the phial of "fainting fears and soft -sorrows," when she exchanges her expression of rage for "eyes -half-languishing, half-drowned in tears." "Now," says Dennis, "what could -be more useless, whether we look upon the bag or the bottle?"[325] -Without any assistance from the contents of the bag the "livid -lightning had flashed from Belinda's eyes," and she had "rent the -affrighted skies with her screams of horror." Without any assistance -from the bottle she was found, on the gnome's return, sunk in the arms -of a friend, "her hair unbound, and her eyes dejected." Pope replied on -the margin of his copy of Dennis's pamphlet, that Juno in the Æneid -summons Alecto from the infernal regions to stir up Amata, who was -already burning with anger. This was no answer if the cases had been -parallel, which they were not, for Amata's anger was only a passive -irritation, and Alecto was sent to goad her into active fury. A few -words would have obviated the criticism of Dennis, but the Cave of -Spleen would still be out of place. The personifications of ill-nature, -affectation, and diseased fancies are literal descriptions of men and -women transferred from the surface of the globe to a pretended world at -its centre. Where no invention is displayed, where there is nothing to -gratify and beguile the imagination, the departure from fact is -distasteful to the mind. Instead of copying classic fables, unsuited to -modern times, Pope might have exhibited the inhabitants of his Cave of -Spleen in the midst of that society to which they belonged, and ascribed -their repulsive qualities to the instigation of the gnomes. These rather -nugatory beings would have gained in importance, and the pictures of the -peevish, the affected, and the splenetic would have gained in force and -truth. - -Dennis justly found fault with particular passages, which are equally -false to social usages, and the general conception of the poem. The -exultation of Belinda at winning a game of cards takes the form of -"shouts which fill the sky," and which are echoed back from "the woods -and long canals." The impertinence of the baron in cutting off her curl -required a strong expression of indignation, but not that "the -affrighted skies should be rent with screams of horror." At the -conclusion of the battle, which in some of its incidents is a mere -vulgar brawl, Belinda again manifests her stentorian propensities by -"roaring in a louder strain than fierce Othello." There is no affinity -between Belinda gentle, graceful, and captivating, and Belinda shouting, -screaming, and roaring. Pope called his poem "heroi-comical," and it is -evident that he attached different meanings to the word. It was -"heroi-comical" to bring supernatural machinery to bear upon -common-place life, and surround the toilet and card-table with a fairy -brilliancy. It was equally "heroi-comical" to give vent to the -ebullitions of tragic or jovial frenzy on trivial occasions. The first -species of the "heroi-comical" lent a borrowed splendour to its objects; -the second species was burlesque, and reduced the heroine in her angry -moods, to the level of a coarse, plebeian termagant, and in her joyous -moments to that of an unmannerly, low-bred romp. The two species of the -"heroi-comical" could not be applied to the same person without jarring -discordance, and fortunately the burlesque and disenchanting element is -only sparingly introduced. - -"The Rape of the Lock," said Dennis, "is an empty trifle, which cannot -have a moral." The Lutrin, he maintains, on the contrary, is "an -important satirical poem upon the luxury, pride, and animosities of the -_popish clergy_, and the moral is, that when christians, and especially -the _clergy_, run into great heats about _religious_ trifles, their -animosity proceeds from the want of that _religion_ which is the -pretence of their quarrel."[326] Pope erased the epithet "religious," -and substituting "female sex" for "popish clergy," "ladies" for -"clergy," and "sense" for "religion," claimed the description for the -Rape of the Lock. Dennis quotes some lines in which Boileau, he says, -gives "broad hints of his real meaning," and Pope writes on the margin -the words, "Clarissa's speech,"--a speech which is more definite than -any of the hints in the Lutrin. In delicious verse Clarissa dwells on -the transitory power of a handsome face, insists on the superior -influence of good humour, and concludes with the couplet,-- - - Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll! - Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul. - -The moral here summed up pervades the poem, which is a continuous satire -on a tinsel existence. The injunction to be sweet-tempered is -indignantly rejected by Belinda, for the piece was professedly founded -on a subsisting feud, but the common sense of the admonitions shames the -folly which rejects them. Dennis undertook an impossible task when he -laboured to demonstrate the superiority of Boileau. The Lutrin is -stilted, extravagant, and prosaic by the side of the Rape of the Lock. - -Dennis's pamphlet against the Rape of the Lock consisted of seven -letters and a preface. Of four of these letters, Pope has written, in -his copy, sarcastic summaries, which throw no light on his poem, but -which betray by their exaggeration, his soreness at the criticisms. -Letter 1. "Proving that Boileau did not call his Lutrin, Poeme -Héroi-Comique, that Bossu does not say [anything of] the machines, and -that Butler [wrote][327] the notes to his own Hudibras." Letter 2. "Mr. -Dennis's positive word that the Rape of the Lock _can_ be nothing but a -trifle, and that the Lutrin cannot be so, however it may appear." Letter -3. "Where it appears to demonstration that no handsome lady ought to -dress herself, and no modest one to cry out or be angry." Letter 5. -"Showeth that the Rosicrucian doctrine is not the christian, and that -Callimachus and Catullus were a couple of fools." Catullus and -Callimachus are not mentioned by Dennis. He had only condemned a -passage in Pope which was imitated from these poets. In the third letter -Dennis said nothing against handsome women dressing themselves, or -against modest women crying out, but maintained that simplicity of dress -was more becoming than lavish adornments, and that "well-bred ladies," -when joyful or angry, did not fill the skies and surrounding country -with their shoutings and roarings. In the first letter the note of some -commentator on Hudibras was ascribed by Dennis to Butler, and in the -second letter he asserted that Boileau showed more judgment in styling -the Lutrin an "heroic poem" than did Pope in terming the Rape of the -Lock "heroi-comical." Dennis was not aware that Boileau in 1709 had -replaced "héroique" by "héroi-comique," and that the English poet -borrowed the epithet from his French precursor. Pope's manuscript -annotations are not behind Dennis's text in petty cavils. The combatants -were both too angry to be candid; or if Dennis shows candour, it is in -his undisguised disregard of it. He fulminated against Pope for calling -the objects of his dislike "fool, dunce, blockhead, scoundrel." -"Nothing," he continues, "incapacitates a man so much for using foul -language as good sense, good-nature, and good-breeding; and nothing -qualifies a man more for it than his being a clown, a fool, and a -barbarian." Therefore, said he, "I shall call A. P----E neither fool nor -dunce, nor blockhead; but I shall prove that he is all these in a most -egregious manner."[328] For boasting a virtue in the act of violating it -Dennis had no competitor. - -Wordsworth, writing to Mr. Dyce says, "Pope, in that production of his -boyhood, the Ode to Solitude, and in his Essay on Criticism, has -furnished proofs that at one period of his life he felt the charm of a -sober and subdued style, which he afterwards abandoned for one that is, -to my taste at least, too pointed and ambitious, and for a versification -too timidly balanced."[329] Southey and Coleridge accused Pope of -debasing the public taste, but they agreed in laying the blame on his -"meretricious" Homer, and excepted from their condemnation works which -Wordsworth included in his censure. "The mischief," says Southey, "was -effected not by Pope's satirical and moral pieces, for these entitle him -to the highest place among poets of his class; it was by his Homer. No -other work in the language so greatly vitiated the diction of English -poetry."[330] "In the course of one of my lectures," says Coleridge, "I -had occasion to point out the almost faultless position and choice of -words in Pope's original compositions, particularly in his Satires, and -Moral Essays, for the purpose of comparing them with his translation of -Homer, which I do not stand alone in regarding as the main source of our -pseudo-poetic diction."[331] Wordsworth loved simplicity of composition, -and language not ornate. His preference for the Essay on Criticism would -be intelligible if the piece had been free from adorned passages, and -the strained attempt to be pointed in some of the similes; or if the -style, in the quieter passages, had been consummate of its kind. Cowper -has described the qualities which are essential to the highest -excellence in this species of poetry. "Every man," he says, "conversant -with verse-making, knows by painful experience that the familiar style -is of all styles the most difficult to succeed in. To make verse speak -the language of prose, without being prosaic, to marshal the words of it -in such an order as they might naturally take in falling from the lips -of an extemporary speaker, yet without meanness, harmoniously, -elegantly, and without seeming to displace a syllable for the sake of -rhyme, is one of the most arduous tasks a poet can undertake."[332] -Pope, in his Essay on Criticism, did not reach Cowper's standard, and -far happier specimens of the style will be found in some of his Satires. - -The Rape of the Lock greatly surpasses in execution the Essay on -Criticism; and austere, indeed, must be the taste which could condemn -it. The "position of the words" is not always "faultless," for Pope -admitted too many of his usual inversions, but the phraseology is -beautiful in itself, and exquisitely adapted to the subject. The -language, simple in its units, is rich in combination, without ever -being florid or profuse. The poet had to depict empty glories made up of -outward pageantry, and as rainbows cannot be painted with grey, so Pope -dipped his pen in the glowing colours which represented the things. He -could not have employed his radiant tints with greater delicacy and -power. Few as are the details, the scenic effect is complete. He -displayed his judgment in eschewing minuteness which would have been -tedious and prosaic; the frail, superficial show could only be imposing -in a general view. The pointed lines which offended Wordsworth, are not -more numerous than befit the theme. A certain sparkle of style accorded -best with the glitter of the world described. Dennis denounced the -"puns." He said, "they shocked the rules of true pleasantry, and bore -the same proportion to thought which bubbles held to bodies."[333] Two -or three of the double-meanings are offensive from that grossness which -is the single serious flaw in the brilliant gem. The few which remain -are legitimate in a lively poem, when thus sparingly introduced. Nor -are they common puns, but words used at once in their literal and -metaphorical sense: - - Or stain her honour or her new brocade. - Or lose her heart or necklace at a ball. - He first the snuff-box opened then the case. - -Johnson has pointed out that Denham's verses on the Thames, "O! could I -flow like thee," are marked by the same property, and no one would call -them punning lines.[334] - -The enlarged edition of the Rape of the Lock had a rapid popularity. "It -has in four days' time," wrote Pope to Caryll, March 12, 1714, "sold to -the number of three thousand, and is already reprinted." "The sylphs and -the gnomes," says Tyers, "were the deities of the day."[335] Much of the -relish, with the herd of readers, has passed away with the novelty. "Of -the Rape of the Lock," says Professor Reed, "I acknowledge my inability -of admiration,"[336] and numbers who admire would qualify the -superlative language of De Quincey, Hazlitt, and Bowles. The -conventional elegancies of a particular class do not appeal to universal -sympathy. Many persons can enter no better into the fanciful beauty -which is thrown around routine trivialities. The facts with them are too -strong to admit of fiction. To these inaptitudes it must be added that -the subtle delicacies of humour, satire, language, and invention, which -mingle largely with the obvious beauties of the Rape of the Lock, can -only be perceived when the taste has been quickened by the early culture -of letters. De Quincey remarks that, with all orders of men, the -elementary passions and principles are easiest understood, for the seeds -of them are sown in every mind, and Milton and Shakespeare speak to -understandings which are impervious to the refined and airy graces of -Pope's artificial world.[337] - -A few have gone into the opposite extreme, and placed Pope on a level -with Shakespeare and Milton themselves. His strongest claim to the -distinction is the Rape of the Lock, but wide is the interval, whether -the test is character, passions, manners, descriptions, or machinery. -The characters in Pope's poem are slight and superficial. There is a -miniature sketch of an empty-headed fop, and an outside view of a -beautiful young lady fond of dress, amusements, and admiration; the rest -of the human personages are shadows. Passions, says Bowles, are the soul -of poetry, and in poetry of the highest order they are grand, terrible, -pathetic, or lovely; the grovelling, ludicrous, and trivial passions -are of a less poetical species. The passions of Belinda belong to this -lower class. Her grief and anger at the loss of her curl are professedly -mock-heroic. They are disproportioned to the frivolous cause, and -neither kindle, nor are meant to kindle, sympathy. The manners are not -the index to inner depths,--the outward expression of the noble, the -awful, or the tender. They are an exterior varnish, the mere formalities -of fashion. The descriptions, apart from the sylphs, are chiefly of the -toilet, the card-table, and such-like things, which have no kin-ship -with the strong, abiding emotions. The very sylphs, by their -employments, are, poetically, of an inferior race to the fairies who met - - on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, - By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, - Or on the beached margin of the sea, - To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind.[338] - -The beings who luxuriate in the everlasting beauties of nature have a -deeper charm for us than creatures whose chief delight is in the little -artifices of a woman's toilet. The skill is exquisite by which the -ephemeral nothings of gay fashion are coloured with the hues of poetic -fancy, but in spite of the brilliancy they remain nothings still, and -cannot compete with strains which are struck from the profoundest chords -in the heart and mind of man. Lord Byron, to save the supremacy of Pope, -asserted that "the poet is always ranked according to his -execution."[339] Bowles maintained that the test of poetical excellence -was the subject and execution combined.[340] He admitted that the -loftiest theme in feeble hands would be eclipsed by insignificant topics -when treated by a master, but he said that no genius could render -subordinate topics equal in poetry to the highest where the execution, -as in Shakespeare and Milton, was worthy of the subject. Lord Byron -stultified himself. He had no sooner completed his proof that execution -was the sole criterion of poetry, than he went on to argue that "the -highest of all poetry is ethical poetry, as the highest of all earthly -objects must be moral truth."[341] His paradox did not deserve a reply, -even if he had not contradicted it the moment it was uttered. Hume -wisely recommended that words should not be wasted upon theories which -it is inconceivable that any human being could believe. - -In his Observations on the Poetry of Pope, Bowles put the modes and -incidents of artificial life, the secondary passions, and descriptions -of outward objects in a lower grade than the development of the -impressive passions.[342] What he said of manners and passions was -suppressed by Campbell, who based his reply upon his own misstatements, -and proceeded to protest against "trying Pope exclusively by his powers -of describing inanimate phenomena."[343] No one could be more emphatic -than Bowles in placing souls before things. Of "inanimate phenomena," he -had said that "all images drawn from what is beautiful or sublime in the -works of nature, are more beautiful and sublime than any images drawn -from art." Again, his antagonists misrepresented him, and arguing as -though he had asserted that all images drawn from nature were beautiful, -and that there was no beauty in any image drawn from art, they imagined -they refuted him by adducing natural objects which were unsightly, and -artificial objects which were the reverse. The canal at Venice, without -the buildings and gondolas "would be nothing," said Lord Byron, "but a -clay-coloured ditch."[344] The illustration did not touch the position -of Bowles, who had never pretended that the ugly in nature eclipsed the -beautiful in art. His principle was that, beauty for beauty, Solomon in -the richest products of the loom was not arrayed like the flowers of the -field. Campbell did not reason better than Byron. He selected the -launching of a ship of the line for an instance of the sublime. -Admitting, what nobody could deny, that his ship was poetical, it did -not follow that the wooden structure had the grandeur of the ocean. His -language was a virtual confession that it was inferior. He endowed his -"vast bulwark" with attributes borrowed from nature, human and -inanimate. He thought "of the stormy element on which the vessel was -soon to ride, of the days of battle and nights of danger she had to -encounter, of the ends of the earth which she had to visit, of all that -she had to do and suffer for her country." He found the sublimity, not -in the ship, but in the associations,--in the stormy waves of the mighty -deep which was to be her home; in the terrors of darkness when she was -tempest-driven; in the vast distances she had to traverse; in the perils -and patriotism of the crew; in the fierce heroic contention of the -battle. Campbell was self-refuted. He fell into the same error with -respect to some fragments he quoted from the poets. Images derived from -nature and art were mixed together, and he did not perceive that the -passages owed their principal beauty to the nature. The fallacies of -disputants who wrote without thinking were easily exposed, and Bowles -got a signal victory over the whole of his numerous opponents. - -Many a work of man, like the ship, impresses us less by its intrinsic -qualities than by the train of ideas it suggests. Until the errors of -controversialists called for fuller explanations Bowles did not draw the -distinction, and Lord Byron was misled by overlooking it. "The -Parthenon," he said, "is more poetical than the rock on which it -stands."[345] "Not," replied Hazlitt, "because it is a work of art, but -because it is a work of art o'erthrown."[346] Prostrate and broken -columns, rent walls, and mouldering stone, exercise a more potent sway -over the feelings than temples in the freshness of their artistic -beauty. Hazlitt tells the obvious cause. Relics of departed glory, -dilapidated monuments of intellectual splendour, are mementos of the -fate which awaits the proudest works of man. With the thoughts of mighty -reverses mingle the reflections which are always engendered by -antiquity. The imagination reverts to shadowy, remote generations, to a -people and power long ago laid in dust, and the ruins have a pathos -which is the result of the centuries that have swept over them,--of the -mysteries, vicissitudes, and havoc of time. When Lord Byron asked if -there was an image in Gray's Elegy more striking than his "shapeless -sculptures," his own question might have revealed the truth to him.[347] -Whatever poetry may be embodied in the matchless art of Greece, there -can be none in the "shapeless sculptures" of country tomb-stones; but -they are memorials set up by poor cottagers to protect the bones of -kindred from insult, and the whole force of the phrase in the Elegy -arises from the prominence given to the tenderness and affection of -which "the shapeless sculptures" are the symbols. The emotion is -extrinsic to the rude, prosaic, and often ludicrous art. The same image -becomes poetical or unpoetical according to the associations with which -it is linked. The rusting, disused needles of Cowper's Mary, stricken by -paralysis, are associated, Byron says, "with the darning of stockings, -the hemming of shirts, and the mending of breeches."[348] This is the -ordinary, mechanic association, and had it been the association called -up by Cowper's lines they would not have been, what Byron pronounced -them, "eminently poetical and pathetic." The associations are of another -kind. The thousands who have shed tears over the lines to Mary did not -pay a tribute to the needles, or the uses to which the needles were -applied. They were melted by the representation--true and strong as the -living facts--of love, of decay, of desolation, and of anguish. The -different aspect of the same incident through the influence of -association is exemplified in the description of the tea in the Rape of -the Lock, and in the Task. The passage of Pope is not united to any -sentiment, and only pleases from the elegance of the verse and -language. Cowper sets the heart in a glow with the delicious picture he -presents of "fire-side enjoyments, and home-born happiness." - -Out-door nature, and the imposing or beautiful passions, were not "the -haunt and main region of Pope's song," and Bowles, after saying that the -representation of nature demanded a susceptible heart, and an observing -eye, goes on to state that "the weak eyes and tottering strength" of -Pope were the reason that he seldom excelled in depicting natural -appearances. His legs would not serve him to walk nor his eyes to see, -and he was limited to the particulars which "could be gained by books, -or suggested by imagination." "From his infirmities," Bowles continues, -"he must have been chiefly conversant with artificial life, but if he -had been gifted with the same powers of observing outward nature, I have -no doubt he would have evinced as much accuracy in describing the -appropriate and peculiar beauties such as nature exhibits in the Forest -where he lived, as he was able to describe in a manner so novel, and -with colours so vivid, a game of cards."[349] The premises are -erroneous. Pope's vision was not bad; his eyes, says Warburton, were -"fine, sharp, and piercing;"[350] and though he was too feeble for long -walks, he could, and did, ramble through woods and meadows, and along -the banks of streams. Nine-tenths of the finest descriptions from nature -in the poets are of sights and sounds which were within the range of his -common experience. The decision of Bowles must be reversed, and we must -ascribe the little nature in Pope's works to his want of mental -"susceptibility," and not to physical infirmity. His love of the country -was the cursory admiration which is seldom wanting. He had none of the -exceptional enthusiasm which could lead him to revel in nature, to -scrutinise it, and enrich his mind with its memories. His strongest -sympathies and antipathies were directed to the society of his day,--to -the men who praised or abused, caressed or defied him. - -The object of Bowles in setting forth his critical principles, was not -to condemn descriptions of artificial life or images taken from art, but -to single out the circumstances which render one class of poetry more -exalted than another. The bulk of Pope's works were satirical and -didactic: and the affinity to the highest species of poetry in the Rape -of the Lock, and the Epistle of Eloisa, was not so complete as to place -him on a level with the mightiest masters. Warton and Bowles united in -ranking him before Dryden and next to Milton.[351] Johnson doubtfully, -and Cowper unhesitatingly, put Dryden before him.[352] Cowper states -that he had "known persons of taste and discernment who would not allow -that Pope was a poet at all," and the language of some writers implies -that his claim to be called a poet was a serious moot-point with -critics. Johnson gravely replied to the question "whether Pope was a -poet," and Hazlitt said in 1818, that it was "a question which had -hardly yet been settled."[353] Who the sceptics were does not appear, -and it is probable that the opinion was never maintained by a single -person of reputation. Pope was placed higher by Warton and Bowles, who -were accused of depreciating, than by Johnson who defended him. Southey, -Wordsworth, and Coleridge had "an antipathy to him," according to -Byron;[354] but this was a false charge, originating in his own -antipathy to Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. They all admitted that -Pope had a brilliant poetical genius, and that many of his poems were of -extraordinary excellence. Wordsworth, the one perhaps of the three who -held him the cheapest, said he was "a man most highly gifted, who -unluckily took to the plain when the heights were within his reach." -Yet, while thinking that his poetry was not of the most poetical kind -"he committed much of him to memory," acknowledged that "he succeeded as -far as he went," and in mentioning the persons, dramatists omitted, who -were the representatives of the "poetic genius of England," he specially -named "Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, and Pope."[355] The real Pope -controversy was with the zealots who maintained that he was of the same -flight with Shakespeare and Milton. Their lofty estimate of his -comparative excellence, did not arise from their keener appreciation of -his merits; they were simply men of cold, unimaginative minds, who were -insensible to merits which were greater still. - -"Pope," said Hazlitt, "had none of the enthusiasm of poetry; he was in -poetry what the sceptic is in religion."[356] This was a creed he -sometimes avowed. "Poetry and criticism," he said in the preface to his -works, "are only the affair of idle men who write in their closets, and -of idle men who read there."[357] He talked later of his "idle songs," -but in the same breath, with characteristic inconsistency, he set up to -be the moral reformer of his age, and had undertaken a little before "to -vindicate" in verse "the ways of God to man."[358] His views of his art -are contradictory and irreconcileable. His disparagement of it was an -affectation founded upon a common definition of poetry, that its end was -to please. The premise, false from its incompleteness, led to degrading -conclusions. Hurd, who studied poetry for the purpose of analysing its -ingredients, and who should have known its true properties, adopted the -usual pleasure theory, and at thirty-seven he was naturally ashamed of -his frivolous pursuit. "He must not," he said, "pass more of his life in -these flowery regions; the light food was not the proper nourishment of -age." Verse was the amusement of youth, and unless very sparingly used, -was unbecoming the gravity of mature minds.[359] Milton had another -conception of the office of poetry, and he avowed that his purpose was -"to inbreed and cherish in a great people whatsoever in religion is holy -and sublime, in virtue amiable or grave." Wordsworth was of Milton's -school. His aim was, "to make men wiser, better, and happier." "Every -great poet," he said, "is a teacher; I wish to be considered as a -teacher or as nothing."[360] The right doctrine was enforced by a critic -whom Pope despised. "Poetry," wrote Dennis, "has two ends,--a -subordinate and a final one: the subordinate one is pleasure, and the -final one is instruction."[361] He had the sanction of Lord Bacon, who -declared that "poesy" had three uses, of which two were to inculcate -morality and heroism; the third alone was for "delectation."[362] -Aristotle long before had contended that poetry was a more effective -school of virtue than philosophy, and Horace avowed his conviction that -right and wrong were taught better by Homer than by the sages. The least -reflection upon the range of the noblest poetry must satisfy anybody -that entertainment is its smallest function. The poet has the world of -external things from which to cull his pictures. He gives definiteness -to what was vague, fixes what was transitory, detects delightful -resemblances, and brings to view unnoticed beauties. He invests the -realities with the thoughts of his impassioned mind, creating in us -sentiments, and supplying us with associations which we should not have -derived from the actual objects. Nature, in itself enchanting, has -meanings for us which were never dreamt of till we saw it through the -medium of the poet's representations. He has the world of mankind for -his province. He can take us the circuit of the passions; he can summon -them from the inner recesses of the soul, and set them in open array; -he can assign to each its rightful force, stripping corruption of its -disguises, and displaying what is lovely in its unadulterated lustre. He -can soar at pleasure into loftier regions, and when his main theme lies -in a lower sphere can link it, openly or by implication, to the world of -spirits,--to the divinity and the divine. Verse abounds in the strains -which lift the soul to heaven, or bring down heaven to glorify earth, -and sustain its weakness and woes. In a word, the poet treats of nature, -man, the superhuman, and treats of them in a way which dilates our -faculties and feelings, till through the contemplation of the ideal we -attain to a grander real. "Poesy," says Lord Bacon, "was ever thought to -have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect -the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind, -whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind unto the nature of -things."[363] The domain of high poetry is the sublime, the solemn, the -terrible, the pathetic, the tender, the sweet, and the tranquil; the -office of poetry is to purify, to ennoble, to humanise, to soften, to -soothe, and to delight. Poetry is great, and participates of divineness -in proportion as it employs these means, and attains these ends. The dry -unprofitable seeds which lurk in the heart, are by poetry quickened into -a resplendent growth. Through poetry, obscure vestiges of truth start -into distinctness, and flash upon the inward eye. Through poetry, the -ethereal elements of the mind, incessantly dissipated and deadened by -common concerns, are renewed in their sanctity. In the reach and -importance of the lessons no hard prosaic facts can go beyond exalted -poetry. The lesser kinds have their lesser uses, and chiefly in this -that they are often more attractive in youth than healthier -inspirations, and prepare the way for them. Wordsworth, in his boyhood, -was entranced by the false glitter of famous poems which in his manhood -seemed to him "dead as a theatre fresh emptied of spectators."[364] -Thrown aside when they had served their purpose, they were the initial -sparks which kindled a spirit that took precedence even of Milton in the -depth and compass of thoughts and feelings almost deserving the name of -revelations. - - - - - TO MRS.[365] ARABELLA FERMOR. - - MADAM, - -It will be in vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece, since -I dedicate it to you. Yet you may bear me witness, it was intended only -to divert a few young ladies, who have good sense and good humour enough -to laugh not only at their sex's little unguarded follies, but at their -own. But as it was communicated with the air of a secret, it soon found -its way into the world. An imperfect copy having been offered to a -bookseller, you had the good-nature, for my sake, to consent to the -publication of one more correct. This I was forced to, before I had -executed half my design, for the machinery was entirely wanting to -complete it. - -The machinery, Madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that -part which the deities, angels, or demons, are made to act in a poem. -For the ancient poets are in one respect like many modern ladies, let an -action be never so trivial in itself, they always make it appear of the -utmost importance. These machines I determined to raise on a very new -and odd foundation, the Rosicrucian doctrine of spirits. - -I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a lady; -but it is so much the concern of a poet to have his works understood, -and particularly by your sex, that you must give me leave to explain two -or three difficult terms.[366] - -The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The -best account I know of them is in a French book, called Le Comte de -Gabalis, which both in its title and size is so like a novel, that many -of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these -gentlemen the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call -sylphs, gnomes, nymphs, and salamanders. The gnomes or demons of earth -delight in mischief; but the sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are -the best conditioned creatures imaginable. For they say, any mortals may -enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle spirits, upon a -condition very easy to all true adepts, an inviolate preservation of -chastity. - -As to the following cantos, all the passages of them are as fabulous, as -the vision at the beginning, or the transformation at the end, except -the loss of your hair, which I always mention with reverence. The human -persons are as fictitious as the airy ones; and the character of -Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but in beauty. - -If this poem had as many graces as there are in your person, or in your -mind, yet I could never hope it should pass through the world half so -uncensured as you have done. But let its fortune be what it will, mine -is happy enough, to have given me this occasion of assuring you that I -am, with the truest esteem, - - Madam, - Your most obedient, humble servant, - A. POPE. - - - - - THE - RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - - CANTO I. - - What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, - What mighty contests rise from trivial things, - I sing--This verse to Caryll,[367] Muse! is due: - This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:[368] - Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, 5 - If she inspire, and he approve my lays.[369] - Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel[370] - A well-bred lord[371] t' assault a gentle belle? - O say what stranger cause, yet unexplored, - Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? 10 - In tasks so bold, can little men engage, - And in soft bosoms, dwells such mighty rage?[372] - Sol through white curtains shot a tim'rous[373] ray,[374] - And ope'd those eyes that must eclipse the day: - Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake, 15 - And sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake: - Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knocked the ground,[375] - And the pressed watch returned a silver sound. - Belinda still her downy pillow pressed,[376] - Her guardian sylph prolonged the balmy rest: 20 - 'Twas he had summoned to her silent bed - The morning dream that hovered o'er her head, - A youth more glitt'ring than a birth-night beau,[377] - (That ev'n in slumber caused her cheek to glow) - Seemed to her ear his winning lips to lay, 25 - And thus in whispers said, or seemed to say. - "Fairest of mortals, thou distinguished care - Of thousand bright inhabitants of air! - If e'er one vision touched thy infant thought, - Of all the nurse and all the priest have taught; 30 - Of airy elves by moonlight shadows seen, - The silver token, and the circled green,[378] - Or virgins visited by angel-pow'rs - With golden crowns and wreaths of heav'nly flow'rs; - Hear and believe! thy own importance know, 35 - Nor bound thy narrow views to things below. - Some secret truths, from learned pride concealed, - To maids alone and children are revealed. - What though no credit doubting wits may give? - The fair and innocent shall still believe. 40 - Know then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly, - The light militia of the lower sky: - These, though unseen, are ever on the wing, - Hang o'er the box, and hover round the ring.[379] - Think what an equipage thou hast in air, 45 - And view with scorn two pages and a chair. - As now your own, our beings were of old, - And once inclosed in woman's beauteous mould; - Thence, by a soft transition, we repair - From earthly vehicles to these of air. 50 - Think not, when woman's transient breath is fled, - That all her vanities at once are dead;[380] - Succeeding vanities she still regards, - And though she plays no more, o'erlooks the cards. - Her joy in gilded chariots, when alive, 55 - And love of ombre, after death survive.[381] - For when the fair in all their pride expire, - To their first elements, their souls retire: - The sprites of fiery termagants in flame - Mount up, and take a salamander's name. 60 - Soft yielding minds to water glide away, - And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tea. - The graver prude sinks downward to a gnome, - In search of mischief still on earth to roam. - The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair, 65 - And sport and flutter in the fields of air.[382] - "Know further yet; whoever fair and chaste - Rejects mankind, is by some sylph embraced: - For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease - Assume what sexes and what shapes they please.[383] 70 - What guards the purity of melting maids, - In courtly balls, and midnight masquerades, - Safe from the treach'rous friend, the daring spark, - The glance by day, the whisper in the dark, - When kind occasion prompts their warm desires, 75 - When music softens, and when dancing fires? - 'Tis but their sylph, the wise celestials know, - Though honour is the word with men below.[384] - "Some nymphs there are, too conscious of their face,[385] - For life predestined to the gnomes' embrace. 80 - These[386] swell their prospects and exalt their pride, - When offers are disdained, and love denied: - Then gay ideas crowd the vacant brain, - While peers and dukes, and all their sweeping train, - And garters, stars, and coronets appear, 85 - And in soft sounds 'Your Grace' salutes their ear. - 'Tis these that early taint the female soul, - Instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll, - Teach infant-cheeks a bidden blush to know, - And little hearts to flutter at a beau. 90 - "Oft, when the world imagine women stray, - The sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way, - Through all the giddy circle they pursue, - And old impertinence expel by new. - What tender maid but must a victim fall 95 - To one man's treat, but for another's ball? - When Florio speaks, what virgin could withstand, - If gentle Damon did not squeeze her hand? - With varying vanities, from ev'ry part, - They shift the moving toyshop of their heart; 100 - Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword-knots strive, - Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive.[387] - This erring mortals levity may call; - Oh blind to truth! the sylphs contrive it all. - "Of these am I, who thy protection claim,[388] 105 - A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name. - Late, as I ranged the crystal wilds of air, - In the clear mirror of thy ruling star[389] - I saw, alas! some dread event impend, - Ere to the main this morning sun descend. 110 - But heaven reveals not what, or how, or where: - Warned by the sylph, oh pious maid, beware! - This to disclose is all thy guardian can: - Beware of all, but most beware of man!" - He said; when Shock, who thought she slept too long, 115 - Leaped up, and waked his mistress with his tongue; - 'Twas then, Belinda, if report say true, - Thy eyes first opened on a billet-doux;[390] - Wounds, charms, and ardours, were no sooner read, - But all the vision vanished from thy head. 120 - And now, unveiled, the toilet stands displayed, - Each silver vase in mystic order laid. - First, robed in white, the nymph intent adores, - With head uncovered, the cosmetic pow'rs. - A heav'nly image in the glass appears, 125 - To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears; - Th' inferior priestess, at her altar's side, - Trembling begins the sacred rites of pride. - Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and here - The various off'rings of the world appear;[391] 130 - From each she nicely culls with curious toil, - And decks the goddess with the glitt'ring spoil. - This casket India's glowing gems unlocks, - And all Arabia breathes from yonder box. - The tortoise here and elephant unite, 135 - Transformed to combs, the speckled, and the white. - Here files of pins extend their shining rows, - Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billets-doux. - Now awful beauty puts on all its arms; - The fair each moment rises in her charms, 140 - Repairs her smiles, awakens ev'ry grace, - And calls forth all the wonders of her face; - Sees by degrees a purer blush arise, - And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes - The busy sylphs surround their darling care, 145 - These set the head, and those divide the hair,[392] - Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the gown; - And Betty's praised for labours not her own. - - - CANTO II. - - Not with more glories, in th' ethereal plain, - The sun first rises o'er the purpled main, - Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams[393] - Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames.[394] - Fair nymphs, and well-dressed youths around her shone, 5 - But ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone. - On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, - Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore. - Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose, - Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those; 10 - Favours to none, to all she smiles extends; - Oft she rejects, but never once offends. - Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike, - And, like the sun, they shine on all alike. - Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, 15 - Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide; - If to her share some female errors fall, - Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.[395] - This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, - Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind 20 - In equal curls, and well conspired to deck, - With shining ringlets, the smooth iv'ry neck. - Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains, - And mighty hearts are held in slender chains. - With hairy springes we the birds betray, 25 - Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey, - Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare, - And beauty draws us with a single hair.[396] - Th' advent'rous baron the bright locks admired; - He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired. 30 - Resolved to win, he meditates the way, - By force to ravish, or by fraud betray; - For when success a lover's toil attends, - Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.[397] - For this, ere Phoebus rose, he had implored 35 - Propitious heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r adored, - But chiefly Love--to Love an altar built, - Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt. - There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves, - And all the trophies of his former loves; 40 - With tender billets-doux he lights the pyre, - And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire. - Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes - Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize: - The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r, 45 - The rest, the winds dispersed in empty air.[398] - But now secure the painted vessel glides, - The sun-beams trembling on the floating tides:[399] - While melting music steals upon the sky, - And softened sounds along the waters die;[400] 50 - Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play, - Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay. - All but the sylph--with careful thoughts oppressed, - Th' impending woe sat heavy on his breast.[401] - He summons straight his denizens of air; 55 - The lucid squadrons round the sails repair: - Soft o'er the shrouds aërial whispers breathe, - That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath. - Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold, - Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold; 60 - Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight, - Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light. - Loose to the wind their airy garments flew, - Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew,[402] - Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies,[403] 65 - Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes; - While ev'ry beam new transient colours flings, - Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings. - Amid the circle, on the gilded mast, - Superior by the head, was Ariel placed; 70 - His purple pinions opening to the sun, - He raised his azure wand, and thus begun. - "Ye sylphs and sylphids, to your chief give ear! - Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons, hear! - Ye know the spheres, and various tasks assigned 75 - By laws eternal to th' aërial kind. - Some in the fields of purest ether play, - And bask and whiten in the blaze of day. - Some guide the course of wand'ring orbs on high,[404] - Or roll the planets through the boundless sky.[405] 80 - Some less refined, beneath the moon's pale light - Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,[406] - Or suck the mists in grosser air below, - Or dip their pinions in the painted bow, - Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main, 85 - Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain. - Others on earth o'er human race preside, - Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide: - Of these the chief the care of nations own, - And guard with arms divine the British throne.[407] 90 - "Our humbler province is to tend the fair, - Not a less pleasing, though less glorious care; - To save the powder from too rude a gale, - Nor let th' imprisoned essences exhale; - To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs; 95 - To steal from rainbows ere they drop in show'rs - A brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs, - Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs; - Nay oft, in dreams, invention we bestow, - To change a flounce, or add a furbelow.[408] 100 - "This day, black omens threat the brightest fair - That e'er deserved a watchful spirit's care; - Some dire disaster, or by force, or slight; - But what, or where, the fates have wrapped in night. - Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law, 105 - Or some frail china jar receive a flaw; - Or stain her honour, or her new brocade; - Forget her pray'rs, or miss a masquerade; - Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball; - Or whether heav'n has doomed that Shock must fall. 110 - Haste then, ye spirits! to your charge repair: - The flutt'ring fan be Zephyretta's care; - The drops to thee, Brillante,[409] we consign; - And, Momentilla, let the watch be thine; - Do thou, Crispissa,[410] tend her fav'rite lock; 115 - Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock.[411] - "To fifty chosen Sylphs, of special note, - We trust th' important charge, the petticoat: - Oft have we known that seven-fold fence[412] to fail, - Though stiff with hoops and armed with ribs of whale; 120 - Form a strong line about the silver bound, - And guard the wide circumference around.[413] - "Whatever spirit, careless of his charge, - His post neglects, or leaves the fair at large, - Shall feel sharp vengeance soon o'ertake his sins, 125 - Be stopped in vials, or transfixed with pins; - Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie, - Or wedged, whole ages, in a bodkin's eye: - Gums and pomatums shall his flight restrain, - While clogged he beats his silken wings in vain; 130 - Or alum styptics with contracting pow'r - Shrink his thin essence like a rivelled flow'r:[414] - Or, as Ixion fixed, the wretch shall feel - The giddy motion of the whirling mill,[415] - In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow, 135 - And tremble at the sea that froths below!"[416] - He spoke; the spirits from the sails descend: - Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend; - Some thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair; - Some hang upon the pendants of her ear; 140 - With beating hearts the dire event they wait, - Anxious, and trembling for the birth of fate. - - - CANTO III. - - Close by those meads, for ever crowned with flow'rs,[417] - Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs, - There stands a structure of majestic frame, - Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name. - Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom 5 - Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home; - Here thou, great ANNA! whom three realms obey, - Dost sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea.[418] - Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort, - To taste awhile the pleasures of a court; 10 - In various talk th' instructive hours they passed, - Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;[419] - One speaks the glory of the British Queen, - And one describes a charming Indian screen;[420] - A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes; 15 - At ev'ry word a reputation dies. - Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,[421] - With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that. - Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day, - The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray;[422] 20 - The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, - And wretches hang that jury-men may dine;[423] - The merchant from th' Exchange returns in peace, - And the long labours of the toilet cease.[424] - Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites,[425] 25 - Burns to encounter two advent'rous knights, - At ombre singly to decide their doom;[426] - And swells her breast with conquests yet to come. - Straight the three bands prepare in arms to join, - Each band the number of the sacred nine.[427] 30 - Soon as she spreads her hand, th' aërial guard - Descend, and sit on each important card: - First Ariel perched upon a Matadore,[428] - Then each according to the rank they bore; - For sylphs, yet mindful of their ancient race, 35 - Are, as when women, wondrous fond of place. - Behold, four kings, in majesty revered, - With hoary whisky and a forky beard; - And four fair queens whose hands sustain a flow'r, - Th' expressive emblem of their softer pow'r; 40 - Four knaves in garbs succinct,[429] a trusty band; - Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand; - And parti-coloured troops, a shining train, - Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain. - The skilful nymph reviews her force with care: 45 - Let spades be trumps! she said, and trumps they were.[430] - Now move to war her sable Matadores,[431] - In show like leaders of the swarthy Moors. - Spadillio first, unconquerable lord![432] - Led off two captive trumps, and swept the board. 50 - As many more Manillio forced to yield, - And marched a victor from the verdant field. - Him Basto followed, but his fate more hard - Gained but one trump and one plebeian card. - With his broad sabre next, a chief in years, 55 - The hoary majesty of spades appears,[433] - Puts forth one manly leg, to sight revealed, - The rest, his many-coloured robe concealed. - The rebel knave, who dares his prince engage, - Proves the just victim of his royal rage. 60 - Ev'n mighty Pam, that kings and queens o'erthrew, - And mowed down armies in the fights of loo,[434] - Sad chance of war! now destitute of aid, - Falls undistinguished by the victor spade! - Thus far both armies to Belinda yield; 65 - Now to the baron fate inclines the field. - His warlike Amazon her host invades, - Th' imperial consort of the crown of spades. - The club's black tyrant first her victim died, - Spite of his haughty mien, and barb'rous pride: 70 - What boots the regal circle on his head,[435] - His giant limbs, in state unwieldy spread; - That long behind he trails his pompous robe, - And of all monarchs only grasps the globe? - The baron now his diamonds pours apace! 75 - Th' embroidered king who shows but half his face, - And his refulgent queen, with pow'rs combined, - Of broken troops, an easy conquest find. - Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen, - With throngs promiscuous strew the level green. 80 - Thus when dispersed a routed army runs, - Of Asia's troops, and Afric's sable sons, - With like confusion different nations fly, - Of various habit, and of various dye; - The pierced battalions disunited fall, 85 - In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all. - The knave of diamonds tries his wily arts, - And wins (oh shameful chance!) the queen of hearts. - At this, the blood the virgin's cheek forsook, - A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look; 90 - She sees, and trembles at th' approaching ill, - Just in the jaws of ruin, and codille.[436] - And now (as oft in some distempered state) - On one nice trick depends the gen'ral fate: - An ace of hearts steps forth: the king unseen 95 - Lurked in her hand, and mourned his captive queen: - He springs to vengeance with an eager pace, - And falls like thunder on the prostrate ace.[437] - The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky; - The walls, the woods, and long canals reply.[438] 100 - Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,[439] - Too soon dejected, and too soon elate. - Sudden these honours shall be snatched away, - And cursed for ever this victorious day. - For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned,[440] 105 - The berries crackle, and the mill turns round;[441] - On shining altars of japan they raise - The silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze: - From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide, - While China's earth receives the smoking tide: 110 - At once they gratify their scent and taste, - And frequent cups prolong the rich repast. - Straight hover round the fair her airy band; - Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned, - Some o'er her lap their careful plumes displayed, 115 - Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade. - Coffee (which makes the politician wise, - And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)[442] - Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain - New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain. 120 - Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late, - Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate! - Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air, - She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair![443] - But when to mischief mortals bend their will, 125 - How soon they find fit instruments of ill![444] - Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace - A two-edged weapon from her shining case: - So ladies in romance assist their knight, - Present the spear, and arm him for the fight. 130 - He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends - The little engine on his fingers' ends; - This just behind Belinda's neck he spread, - As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.[445] - Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair, 135 - A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair; - And thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear; - Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near.[446] - Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought - The close recesses of the virgin's thought: 140 - As on the nosegay in her breast reclined, - He watched th' ideas rising in her mind, - Sudden he viewed in spite of all her art, - An earthly lover lurking at her heart. - Amazed, confused, he found his pow'r expired, 145 - Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired. - The peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide, - T' inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide. - Ev'n then, before the fatal engine closed, - A wretched sylph too fondly interposed; 150 - Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain, - (But airy substance soon unites again,)[447] - The meeting points the sacred hair dissever - From the fair head, for ever, and for ever! - Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes, 155 - And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. - Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast, - When husbands, or when lap-dogs breathe their last; - Or when rich china vessels fall'n from high, - In glitt'ring dust, and painted fragments lie! 160 - "Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine," - (The victor cried,) "the glorious prize is mine! - While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,[448] - Or in a coach and six the British fair, - As long as Atalantis[449] shall be read, 165 - Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed,[450] - While visits shall be paid on solemn days, - When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze, - While nymphs take treats, or assignations give, - So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!"[451] 170 - What time would spare, from steel receives its date, - And monuments, like men, submit to fate![452] - Steel could the labour of the gods destroy,[453] - And strike to dust th' imperial tow'rs of Troy; - Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, 175 - And hew triumphal arches to the ground.[454] - What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel - The conqu'ring force of unresisted steel?[455] - - - CANTO IV. - - But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed,[456] - And secret passions laboured in her breast. - Not youthful kings in battle seized alive, - Not scornful virgins who their charms survive, - Not ardent lovers robbed of all their bliss, 5 - Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss, - Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,[457] - Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinned awry, - E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair, - As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravished hair. 10 - For, that sad moment, when the sylphs withdrew,[458] - And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew, - Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite, - As ever sullied the fair face of light, - Down to the central earth, his proper scene, 15 - Repaired to search the gloomy cave of Spleen. - Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome,[459] - And in a vapour reached the dismal dome. - No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows, - The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.[460] 20 - Here in a grotto, sheltered close from air, - And screened in shades from day's detested glare,[461] - She sighs for ever on her pensive bed, - Pain at her side, and Megrim[462] at her head. - Two handmaids wait[463] the throne: alike in place, 25 - But diff'ring far in figure and in face. - Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid, - Her wrinkled form in black and white arrayed; - With store of pray'rs, for mornings, nights, and noons, - Her hand is filled; her bosom with lampoons. 30 - There Affectation with a sickly mien, - Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen, - Practised to lisp, and hang the head aside, - Faints into airs, and languishes with pride, - On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe, 35 - Wrapped in a gown, for sickness, and for show. - The fair ones feel such maladies as these, - When each new night-dress gives a new disease.[464] - A constant vapour o'er the palace flies; - Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise; 40 - Dreadful, as hermits' dreams in haunted shades, - Or bright, as visions of expiring maids.[465] - Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires,[466] - Pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple fires: - Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes, 45 - And crystal domes, and angels in machines.[467] - Unnumbered throngs, on ev'ry side are seen, - Of bodies changed to various forms by Spleen.[468] - Here living tea-pots stand, one arm held out, - One bent; the handle this, and that the spout: 50 - A pipkin there, like Homer's tripod walks;[469] - Here sighs a jar, and there a goose-pye talks;[470] - Men prove with child, as pow'rful fancy works,[471] - And maids turned bottles, call aloud for corks.[472] - Safe past the gnome through this fantastic band, 55 - A branch of healing spleenwort in his hand.[473] - Then thus addressed the pow'r--"Hail, wayward queen! - Who rule[474] the sex to fifty from fifteen: - Parent of vapours[475] and of female wit, - Who give th' hysteric, or poetic fit, 60 - On various tempers act by various ways, - Make some take physic, others scribble plays; - Who cause the proud their visits to delay, - And send the godly in a pet to pray; - A nymph there is, that all thy pow'r disdains, 65 - And thousands more in equal mirth maintains. - But oh! if e'er thy gnome could spoil a grace, - Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face, - Like citron-waters[476] matrons' cheeks inflame, - Or change complexions at a losing game; 70 - If e'er with airy horns I planted heads, - Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds, - Or caused suspicion when no soul was rude, - Or discomposed the head-dress of a prude, - Or e'er to costive lap-dog gave disease, 75 - Which not the tears of brightest eyes could ease: - Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin, - That single act gives half the world the spleen." - The goddess with a discontented air - Seems to reject him, though she grants his pray'r. 80 - A wondrous bag with both her hands she binds, - Like that where once Ulysses held the winds; - There she collects the force of female lungs, - Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues. - A phial next she fills with fainting fears, 85 - Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears. - The gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away, - Spreads his black wings, and slowly mounts to day. - Sunk in Thalestris' arms the nymph he found, - Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound. 90 - Full o'er their heads the swelling bag he rent, - And all the furies issued at the vent. - Belinda burns with more than mortal ire, - And fierce Thalestris fans the rising fire. - "O wretched maid!" she spread her hands, and cried, 95 - (While Hampton's echoes, "Wretched maid!" replied) - "Was it for this you took such constant care - The bodkin, comb, and essence to prepare? - For this your locks in paper durance bound? - For this with tort'ring irons wreathed around? 100 - For this with fillets strained your tender head, - And bravely bore the double loads of lead?[477] - Gods! shall the ravisher display your hair, - While the fops envy, and the ladies stare! - Honour forbid! at whose unrivalled shrine 105 - Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our sex resign.[478] - Methinks already I your tears survey, - Already hear the horrid things they say, - Already see you a degraded toast, - And all your honour in a whisper lost! 110 - How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend? - 'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend! - And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize, - Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes, - And heightened by the diamond's circling rays, 115 - On that rapacious hand for ever blaze? - Sooner shall grass in Hyde-Park Circus grow,[479] - And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow; - Sooner let earth, air, sea, to chaos fall, - Men, monkeys, lap-dogs, parrots, perish all!" 120 - She said; then raging to Sir Plume[480] repairs, - And bids her beau demand the precious hairs: - (Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, - And the nice conduct of a clouded cane)[481] - With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face, 125 - He first the snuff-box opened, then the case, - And thus broke out--"My Lord, why, what the devil! - Zounds! damn the lock! 'fore Gad, you must be civil. - Plague on't! 'tis past a jest--nay prithee, pox! - Give her the hair"--he spoke, and rapped his box. 130 - "It grieves me much," replied the peer again, - "Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain, - But by this lock, this sacred lock I swear,[482] - (Which never more shall join its parted hair; - Which never more its honours shall renew, 135 - Clipped from the lovely head where late it grew) - That while my nostrils draw the vital air,[483] - This hand, which won it, shall for ever wear." - He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spread - The long-contended honours of her head.[484] 140 - But Umbriel, hateful gnome! forbears not so; - He breaks the phial whence the sorrows flow.[485] - Then see! the nymph in beauteous grief appears, - Her eyes half languishing, half drowned in tears; - On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head, 145 - Which, with a sigh, she raised; and thus she said. - "For ever cursed be this detested day, - Which snatched my best, my fav'rite curl away! - Happy! ah ten times happy had I been,[486] - If Hampton-Court these eyes had never seen! 150 - Yet am not I the first mistaken maid, - By love of courts to num'rous ills betrayed. - Oh had I rather unadmired remained - In some lone isle, or distant northern land; - Where the gilt chariot never marks the way, 155 - Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea! - There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye, - Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die. - What moved my mind with youthful lords to roam? - O had I stayed, and said my pray'rs at home! 160 - 'Twas this the morning omens seemed to tell,[487] - Thrice from my trembling hand the patch-box[488] fell; - The tott'ring china shook without a wind, - Nay, Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind! - A sylph too warned me of the threats of fate, 165 - In mystic visions, now believed too late! - See the poor remnants of these slighted hairs! - My hands shall rend what ev'n thy rapine spares: - These in two sable ringlets taught to break, - Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck;[489] 170 - The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone, - And in its fellow's fate foresees its own;[490] - Uncurled it hangs, the fatal shears demands, - And tempts, once more, thy sacrilegious hands. - Oh hadst thou, cruel! been content to seize 175 - Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!" - - - CANTO V. - - She said: the pitying audience melt in tears, - But Fate and Jove had stopped the baron's ears.[491] - In vain Thalestris with reproach assails, - For who can move when fair Belinda fails? - Not half so fixed the Trojan could remain, 5 - "While Anna begged and Dido raged in vain.[492] - Then grave Clarissa[493] graceful waved her fan; - Silence ensued, and thus the nymph began. - "Say, why are beauties praised and honoured most,[494] - The wise man's passion, and the vain man's toast?[495] 10 - Why decked with all that land and sea afford, - Why angels called, and angel-like adored?[496] - Why round our coaches crowd the white-gloved beaux,[497] - Why bows the side-box from its inmost rows?[498] - How vain are all these glories, all our pains, 15 - Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains: - That men may say, when we the front box grace, - Behold the first in virtue as in face! - Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day, - Charmed the small-pox, or chased old age away; 20 - Who would not scorn what housewifes' cares produce, - Or who would learn one earthly thing of use? - To patch, nay ogle, might become a saint, - Nor could it sure be such a sin to paint. - But since, alas! frail beauty must decay, 25 - Curled or uncurled, since locks will turn to grey; - Since painted, or not painted, all shall fade, - And she who scorns a man, must die a maid; - What then remains but well our pow'r to use, - And keep good humour still whate'er we lose? 30 - And trust me, dear! good humour can prevail, - When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail. - Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; - Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul. - So spoke the dame, but no applause ensued;[499] 35 - Belinda frowned, Thalestris called her prude. - To arms, to arms! the fierce virago cries,[500] - And swift as lightning to the combat flies. - All side in parties, and begin th' attack; - Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack; 40 - Heroes' and heroines' shouts confus'dly rise, - And base and treble voices strike the skies.[501] - No common weapons in their hands are found, - Like gods they fight, nor dread a mortal wound. - So when bold Homer makes the gods engage,[502] 45 - And heav'nly breasts with human passions rage; - 'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms; - And all Olympus rings with loud alarms: - Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around, - Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps resound: 50 - Earth shakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way, - And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day![503] - Triumphant Umbriel on a sconce's height[504] - Clapped his glad wings, and sate to view the fight.[505] - Propped on their bodkin spears,[506] the sprites survey 55 - The growing combat, or assist the fray. - While through the press enraged Thalestris flies, - And scatters death around from both her eyes, - A beau and witling perished in the throng, - One died in metaphor, and one in song.[507] 60 - "O cruel nymph! a living death I bear,"[508] - Cried Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair. - A mournful glance Sir Fopling upwards cast, - "Those eyes are made so killing"[509]--was his last. - Thus on Mæander's flow'ry margin lies[510] 65 - Th' expiring swan, and as he sings he dies. - When bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down, - Chloe stepped in, and killed him with a frown; - She smiled to see the doughty hero slain, - But, at her smile, the beau revived again. 70 - Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air,[511] - Weighs the men's wits against the lady's hair; - The doubtful beam long nods from side to side; - At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside. - See fierce Belinda on the baron flies, 75 - With more than usual lightning in her eyes: - Nor feared the chief th' unequal fight to try, - Who sought no more than on his foe to die. - But this bold lord with manly strength endued, - She with one finger and a thumb subdued; 80 - Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew, - A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw; - The gnomes direct, to ev'ry atom just, - The pungent grains of titillating dust.[512] - Sudden, with starting tears each eye o'erflows, 85 - And the high dome re-echoes to his nose. - "Now meet thy fate," incensed Belinda cried, - And drew a deadly bodkin from her side. - (The same, his ancient personage to deck,[513] - Her great great grandsire wore about his neck, 90 - In three seal-rings; which after, melted down, - Formed a vast buckle for his widow's gown: - Her infant grandame's whistle next it grew, - The bell she jingled, and the whistle blew; - Then in a bodkin[514] graced her mother's hairs, 95 - Which long she wore, and now Belinda wears.) - "Boast not my fall," he cried, "insulting foe! - Thou by some other shalt be laid as low: - Nor think, to die dejects my lofty mind; - All that I dread is leaving you behind! 100 - Rather than so, ah let me still survive, - And burn in Cupid's flames--but burn alive."[515] - "Restore the Lock!" she cries; and all around - "Restore the Lock!" the vaulted roofs rebound.[516] - Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain 105 - Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain. - But see how oft ambitious aims are crossed, - And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost! - The lock, obtained with guilt, and kept with pain, - In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain: 110 - With such a prize no mortal must be blessed, - So heav'n decrees! with heav'n who can contest? - Some thought it mounted to the lunar sphere, - Since all things lost on earth are treasured there.[517] - There heroes' wits are kept in pond'rous vases,[518] 115 - And beaus' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases. - There broken vows, and death-bed alms[519] are found, - And lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound, - The courtier's promises, and sick man's pray'rs, - The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs,[520] 120 - Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea, - Dried butterflies, and tomes of casuistry. - But trust the muse--she saw it upward rise, - Though marked by none but quick, poetic eyes:[521] - (So Rome's great founder to the heav'ns withdrew, 125 - To Proculus alone confessed in view) - A sudden star, it shot through liquid air, - And drew behind a radiant trail of hair.[522] - Not Berenice's locks first rose so bright, - The heav'ns bespangling with dishevelled light. 130 - The sylphs behold it kindling as it flies, - And pleased pursue its progress through the skies.[523] - This the beau monde shall from the Mall survey, - And hail with music its propitious ray;[524] - This the bless'd lover shall for Venus take, 135 - And send up vows from Rosamonda's lake;[525] - This Partridge[526] soon shall view in cloudless skies, - When next he looks through Galileo's eyes;[527] - And hence th' egregious wizard shall foredoom - The fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome. 140 - Then cease, bright nymph! to mourn thy ravished hair, - Which adds new glory to the shining sphere! - Not all the tresses that fair head can boast, - Shall draw such envy as the lock you lost. - For after all the murders of your eye,[528] 145 - When, after millions slain,[529] yourself shall die; - When those fair suns shall set, as set they must, - And all those tresses shall be laid in dust, - This lock the muse shall consecrate to fame, - And 'midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name.[530] 150 - - - THE - - RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos - Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.--MART. - - First Edition. - - * * * * * - - - - - THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - - CANTO I. - - What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, - What mighty quarrels rise from trivial things, - I sing--This verse to C----l, Muse! is due: - This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view: - Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, 5 - If she inspire, and he approve my lays. - Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel - A well-bred lord t'assault a gentle belle? - O say what stranger cause, yet unexplored, - Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? 10 - And dwells such rage in softest bosoms then, - And lodge such daring souls in little men? - Sol through white curtains did his beams display, - And ope'd those eyes which brighter shine than they, - Shock just had giv'n himself the rousing shake, 15 - And nymphs prepared their chocolate to take; - Thrice the wrought slipper knocked against the ground, - And striking watches the tenth hour resound. - Belinda rose, and midst attending dames, - Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames: 20 - A train of well-dressed youths around her shone, - And ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone: - On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore - Which Jews might kiss and infidels adore. - Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose, 25 - Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those: - Favours to none, to all she smiles extends; - Oft she rejects, but never once offends. - Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike, - And, like the sun, they shine on all alike. 30 - Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, - Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide: - If to her share some female errors fall, - Look on her face, and you'll forgive 'em all. - This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, 35 - Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind - In equal curls, and well conspired to deck - With shining ringlets her smooth iv'ry neck. - Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains, - And mighty hearts are held in slender chains. 40 - With hairy springes we the birds betray, - Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey, - Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare, - And beauty draws us with a single hair. - Th' adventurous baron the bright locks admired; 45 - He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired. - Resolved to win, he meditates the way, - By force to ravish, or by fraud betray; - For when success a lover's toil attends, - Few ask if fraud or force attained his ends. 50 - For this, ere Phoebus rose, he had implored - Propitious heav'n, and every pow'r adored, - But chiefly Love--to Love an altar built, - Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt. - There lay the sword-knot Sylvia's hands had sewn 55 - With Flavia's busk that oft had wrapped his own: - A fan, a garter, half a pair of gloves, - And all the trophies of his former loves. - With tender billets-doux he lights the pire, - And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire. 60 - Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes - Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize: - The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r, - The rest the winds dispersed in empty air. - Close by those meads, for ever crowned with flow'rs 65 - Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs, - There stands a structure of majestic frame, - Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name. - Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom - Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home; 70 - Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey, - Dost sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea. - Hither our nymphs and heroes did resort, - To taste awhile the pleasures of a court; - In various talk the cheerful hours they passed, 75 - Of who was bit, or who capotted last; - This speaks the glory of the British queen, - And that describes a charming Indian screen; - A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes; - At ev'ry word a reputation dies. 80 - Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat, - With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that. - Now when, declining from the noon of day, - The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray; - When hungry judges soon the sentence sign, 85 - And wretches hang that jurymen may dine; - When merchants from th' Exchange return in peace, - And the long labours of the toilet cease, - The board's with cups and spoons, alternate, crowned, - The berries crackle, and the mill turns round; 90 - On shining altars of japan they raise - The silver lamp, and fiery spirits blaze: - From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide, - While China's earth receives the smoking tide. - At once they gratify their smell and taste, 95 - While frequent cups prolong the rich repast. - Coffee (which makes the politician wise, - And see through all things with his half-shut eyes) - Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain - New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain. 100 - Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late, - Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate! - Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air, - She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair! - But when to mischief mortals bend their mind, 105 - How soon fit instruments of ill they find! - Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace - A two-edged weapon from her shining case: - So ladies, in romance, assist their knight, - Present the spear, and arm him for the fight; 110 - He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends - The little engine on his fingers' ends; - This just behind Belinda's neck he spread, - As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head. - He first expands the glitt'ring forfex wide 115 - T' enclose the lock; then joins it, to divide; - One fatal stroke the sacred hair does sever - From the fair head, for ever, and for ever! - The living fires come flashing from her eyes, - And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. 120 - Not louder shrieks by dames to heav'n are cast, - When husbands die, or lapdogs breathe their last; - Or when rich china vessels, fall'n from high, - In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie! - "Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine," 125 - The victor cried, "the glorious prize is mine! - While fish in streams, or birds delight in air, - Or in a coach and six the British fair, - As long as Atalantis shall be read, - Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed, 130 - While visits shall be paid on solemn days, - When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze, - While nymphs take treats, or assignations give, - So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!" - What time would spare, from steel receives its date, 135 - And monuments, like men, submit to fate! - Steel did the labour of the gods destroy, - And strike to dust th' aspiring tow'rs of Troy; - Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, - And hew triumphal arches to the ground. 140 - What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel - The conqu'ring force of unresisted steel? - - - CANTO II. - - But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed, - And secret passions laboured in her breast. - Not youthful kings in battle seized alive, - Not scornful virgins who their charms survive, - Not ardent lover robbed of all his bliss, 5 - Not ancient lady when refused a kiss, - Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die, - Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinned awry, - E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair, - As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravished hair. 10 - While her racked soul repose and peace requires, - The fierce Thalestris fans the rising fires. - "O wretched maid!" she spread her hands, and cried, - (And Hampton's echoes, "Wretched maid!" replied) - "Was it for this you took such constant care 15 - Combs, bodkins, leads, pomatums to prepare? - For this your locks in paper durance bound? - For this with tort'ring irons wreathed around? - Oh had the youth been but content to seize - Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these! 20 - Gods! shall the ravisher display this hair, - While the fops envy, and the ladies stare! - Honour forbid! at whose unrivalled shrine - Ease, pleasure, virtue, all, our sex resign. - Methinks already I your tears survey, 25 - Already hear the horrid things they say, - Already see you a degraded toast, - And all your honour in a whisper lost! - How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend? - 'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend! 30 - And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize, - Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes, - And heightened by the diamond's circling rays, - On that rapacious hand for ever blaze? - Sooner shall grass in Hyde Park Circus grow, 35 - And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow; - Sooner let earth, air, sea, to chaos fall, - Men, monkeys, lapdogs, parrots, perish all!" - She said; then raging to Sir Plume repairs, - And bids her beau demand the precious hairs: 40 - Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, - And the nice conduct of a clouded cane, - With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face, - He first the snuff-box opened, then the case, - And thus broke out--"My lord, why, what the devil! 45 - Zounds! damn the lock! 'fore Gad, you must be civil! - Plague on't! 'tis past a jest--nay, prithee, pox! - Give her the hair."--He spoke, and rapped his box. - "It grieves me much," replied the peer again, - "Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain: 50 - But by this lock, this sacred lock, I swear, - (Which never more shall join its parted hair; - Which never more its honours shall renew, - Clipped from the lovely head where once it grew) - That, while my nostrils draw the vital air, 55 - This hand, which won it, shall for ever wear." - He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spread - The long-contended honours of her head. - But see! the nymph in sorrow's pomp appears, - Her eyes half-languishing, half drowned in tears; 60 - Now livid pale her cheeks, now glowing red, } - On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head, } - Which with a sigh she raised, and thus she said: } - "For ever cursed be this detested day, - Which snatched my best, my fav'rite curl away; 65 - Happy! ah ten times happy had I been, - If Hampton Court these eyes had never seen! - Yet am not I the first mistaken maid, - By love of courts to num'rous ills betrayed. - O had I rather unadmired remained 70 - In some lone isle, or distant northern land, - Where the gilt chariot never marked the way, - Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea! - There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye, - Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die. 75 - What moved my mind with youthful lords to roam? - O had I stayed, and said my pray'rs at home! - 'Twas this the morning omens did foretell, - Thrice from my trembling hand the patchbox fell; - The tott'ring china shook without a wind, 80 - Nay, Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind! - See the poor remnants of this slighted hair! - My hands shall rend what ev'n thy own did spare: - This in two sable ringlets taught to break, - Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck; 85 - The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone, - And in its fellow's fate foresees its own; - Uncurled it hangs, the fatal shears demands, - And tempts once more thy sacrilegious hands." - She said: the pitying audience melt in tears; 90 - But fate and Jove had stopped the baron's ears. - In vain Thalestris with reproach assails, - For who can move when fair Belinda fails? - Not half so fixed the Trojan could remain, - While Anna begged and Dido raged in vain. 95 - "To arms, to arms!" the bold Thalestris cries, - And swift as lightning to the combat flies. - All side in parties, and begin th' attack; - Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack; - Heroes' and heroines' shouts confus'dly rise, 100 - And bass and treble voices strike the skies; - No common weapons in their hands are found, - Like gods they fight, nor dread a mortal wound. - So when bold Homer makes the gods engage, - And heav'nly breasts with human passions rage, 105 - 'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms, - And all Olympus rings with loud alarms; - Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around, - Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps resound: - Earth shakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way, 110 - And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day! - While through the press enraged Thalestris flies, - And scatters death around from both her eyes, - A beau and witling perished in the throng, - One died in metaphor, and one in song. 115 - "O cruel nymph; a living death I bear," - Cried Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair. - A mournful glance Sir Fopling upwards cast, - "Those eyes are made so killing"--was his last. - Thus on Mæander's flow'ry margin lies 120 - Th' expiring swan, and as he sings he dies. - As bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down, - Chloe stepped in, and killed him with a frown; - She smiled to see the doughty hero slain, - But at her smile the beau revived again. 125 - Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air, - Weighs the men's wits against the lady's hair; - The doubtful beam long nods from side to side; - At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside. - See fierce Belinda on the baron flies, 130 - With more than usual lightning in her eyes: - Nor feared the chief th' unequal fight to try, - Who sought no more than on his foe to die. - But this bold lord, with manly strength endued, - She with one finger and a thumb subdued: 135 - Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew, - A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw; - Sudden, with starting tears each eye o'erflows, - And the high dome re-echoes to his nose. - "Now meet thy fate," th' incensed virago cried, 140 - And drew a deadly bodkin from her side. - "Boast not my fall," he said, "insulting foe! - Thou by some other shalt be laid as low; - Nor think to die dejects my lofty mind; - All that I dread is leaving you behind! 145 - Rather than so, ah let me still survive, - And still burn on, in Cupid's flames, alive." - "Restore the lock!" she cries; and all around - "Restore the lock!" the vaulted roofs rebound. - Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain 150 - Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain. - But see how oft ambitious aims are crossed, - And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost! - The lock, obtained with guilt, and kept with pain, - In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain: 155 - With such a prize no mortal must be blessed, - So heav'n decrees! with heav'n who can contest? - Some thought it mounted to the lunar sphere, - Since all that man e'er lost is treasured there. - There heroes' wits are kept in pond'rous vases, 160 - And beaux' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases. - There broken vows, and death-bed alms are found, - And lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound, - The courtier's promises, and sick man's pray'rs, - The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs, 165 - Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea, - Dried butterflies, and tomes of casuistry. - But trust the muse--she saw it upward rise, - Though marked by none but quick poetic eyes: - (Thus Rome's great founder to the heav'ns withdrew, 170 - To Proculus alone confessed in view) - A sudden star, it shot through liquid air, - And drew behind a radiant trail of hair. - Not Berenice's locks first rose so bright, - The skies bespangling with dishevelled light. 175 - This the beau monde shall from the Mall survey, } - As through the moonlight shade they nightly stray, } - And hail with music its propitious ray; } - This Partridge soon shall view in cloudless skies, - When next he looks through Galileo's eyes; 180 - And hence th' egregious wizard shall foredoom - The fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome. - Then cease, bright nymph! to mourn thy ravished hair, - Which adds new glory to the shining sphere! - Not all the tresses that fair head can boast, 185 - Shall draw such envy as the lock you lost. - For after all the murders of your eye, - When, after millions slain, yourself shall die; - When those fair suns shall set, as set they must, - And all those tresses shall be laid in dust, 190 - This lock the muse shall consecrate to fame, - And 'midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name. - - * * * * * - - - - - ELEGY - - TO THE MEMORY OF - - AN UNFORTUNATE LADY. - - -See the Duke of Buckingham's verses to a Lady designing to retire into a -Monastery compared with Mr. Pope's Letters to several Ladies, p. 206 -[86], quarto edition. She seems to be the same person whose unfortunate -death is the subject of this poem.[531]--POPE. - -The unfortunate lady seems to have been a particular favourite of our -poet. Whether he himself was the person she was removed from I am not -able to say, but whoever reads his verses to her memory will find she -had a very great share in him. This young lady who was of quality, had a -very large fortune, and was in the eye of our discerning poet a great -beauty, was left under the guardianship of an uncle, who gave her an -education suitable to her title; for Mr. Pope declares she had titles, -and she was thought a fit match for the greatest peer. But very young -she contracted an acquaintance, and afterwards some degree of intimacy, -with a young gentleman, who is only imagined, and, having settled her -affections there, refused a match proposed to her by her uncle. Spies -being set upon her, it was not long before her correspondence with her -lover of lower degree was discovered, which, when taxed with by her -uncle, she had too much truth and honour to deny. The uncle finding that -she could not, nor would strive to withdraw her regard from him, after a -little time forced her abroad, where she was received with all due -respect to her quality, but kept up from the sight or speech of anybody -but the creatures of this severe guardian, so that it was impossible for -her lover even to deliver a letter that might ever come to her hand. -Several were received from him with promises to get them privately -delivered to her, but those were all sent to England, and only served to -make them more cautious who had her in care. She languished here a -considerable time, went through a great deal of sickness and sorrow, -wept and sighed continually. At last wearied out, and despairing quite, -the unfortunate lady, as Mr. Pope justly calls her, put an end to her -own life. Having bribed a woman servant to procure her a sword, she was -found dead upon the ground, but warm. The severity of the laws of the -place where she was in denied her Christian burial, and she was buried -without solemnity, or even any to wait on her to her grave except some -young people of the neighbourhood, who saw her put into common ground, -and strewed her grave with flowers, which gave some offence to the -priesthood, who would have buried her in the highway, but it seems their -power there did not extend so far.--AYRE. - -From this account, given with the evident intention to raise the lady's -character, it does not appear that she had any claim to praise, nor much -to compassion. She seems to have been impatient, violent and -ungovernable. Her uncle's power could not have lasted long; the hour of -liberty and choice would have come in time. But her desires were too hot -for delay, and she liked self-murder better than suspense. Nor is it -discovered that the uncle, whoever he was, is with much justice -delivered to posterity as "a false guardian." He seems to have done only -that for which a guardian is appointed; he endeavoured to direct his -niece till she should be able to direct herself. Poetry has not often -been worse employed than in dignifying the amorous fury of a raving -girl. The verses have drawn much attention by the illaudable singularity -of treating suicide with respect; and they must be allowed to be written -in some parts with vigorous animation, and in others with gentle -tenderness; nor has Pope produced any poem in which the sense -predominates more over the diction. But the tale is not skilfully told; -it is not easy to discover the character of either the lady or her -guardian. Pope praises her for the dignity of ambition, and yet condemns -the uncle to detestation for his pride. The ambitious love of a niece -may be opposed by the interest, malice, or envy of an uncle, but never -by his pride. On such an occasion a poet may be allowed to be obscure, -but inconsistency never can be right.--JOHNSON. - -I have in my possession a letter to Dr. Johnson, containing the name of -the lady, and a reference to a gentleman well known in the literary -world for her history. Him I have seen, and from a memorandum of some -particulars to the purpose, communicated to him by a lady of quality, he -informs me that the unfortunate lady's name was Withinbury, corruptly -pronounced Winbury; that she was in love with Pope, and would have -married him; that her guardian, though she was deformed in her person, -looking upon such a match as beneath her, sent her to a convent, and -that a noose, and not a sword, put an end to her life.--SIR JOHN -HAWKINS. - -The Elegy to the Memory of an unfortunate lady, as it came from the -heart, is very tender and pathetic--more so, I think, than any other -copy of verses of our author. The true cause of the excellence of this -elegy is, that the occasion of it was real,--so true is the maxim that -nature is more powerful than fancy, and that we can always feel more -than we can imagine; and that the most artful fiction must give way to -truth, for this lady was beloved by Pope. After many and wide enquiries -I have been informed that her name was Wainsbury, and that--which is a -singular circumstance--she was as ill-shaped and deformed as our author. -Her death was not by a sword, but, what would less bear to be told -poetically, she hanged herself. Johnson has too severely censured this -elegy when he says, "that it has drawn much attention by the illaudable -singularity of treating suicide with respect." She seems to have been -driven to this desperate act by the violence and cruelty of her uncle -and guardian, who forced her to a convent abroad, and to which -circumstance Pope alludes in one of his letters.--WARTON. - -The real history of the lady distinguished by the epithet "unfortunate" -in Pope's exquisite elegy, is still involved in mysterious uncertainty. -One thing is plain, that he wished little should be known. It is -remarkable that Caryll asks the question in two letters, but Pope -returns no answer. It is in vain, after the fruitless enquiry of Johnson -and Warton, perhaps, to attempt further elucidation; but I should think -it unpardonable not to mention what I have myself heard, though I cannot -vouch for its truth. The story which was told to Condorcet by Voltaire, -and by Condorcet to a gentleman of high birth and character, from whom I -received it, is this:--that her attachment was not to Pope, or to any -Englishman of inferior degree, but to a young French prince of the blood -royal, Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Berry, whom, in early youth, she had -met at the court of France. The verses certainly seem unintelligible, -unless they allude to some connection to which her highest hopes, though -nobly connected herself, could not aspire. What other sense can be given -to these words: - - Why bade ye else, ye pow'rs, her soul aspire - Above the vulgar flight of low desire? - Ambition first sprung from your bless'd abodes, - The glorious fault of angels and of gods! - -She was herself of a noble family, or there can be no meaning in the -line, - - That once had beauty, _titles_, wealth and fame. - -Under the idea here suggested, a greater propriety is given to the -verse, which otherwise appears so tame and common-place, - - 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be. - -It sufficiently appears from Pope's letter that she was of a wild and -romantic disposition. She left her friends and country, and commenced a -sentimental pursuit after the object in which her ambition and -enthusiastic caprice had centered. Having alienated her relations by -her wayward conduct, and being disappointed in the hopes she had formed, -she retired voluntarily to a convent. Warton asserts that she was -"forced" into a nunnery. This is expressly contrary to what Pope himself -says in a letter to her: "If you are resolved in revenge to rob the -world of so much example as you may afford it, I believe your design to -be in vain; for, in a monastery, your devotions cannot carry you so far -towards the next world, as to make this lose sight of you." It is most -probable that incipient lunacy was the cause of her perverted feelings, -and untimely end. Johnson says, "poetry has been seldom worse employed -than in dignifying the amorous fury of a raving girl." This seems -severe, contemptuous, and unfeeling. Johnson, however, chiefly adverted, -I imagine, to the false reasoning and absurd attempt in the lines "Is -there no bright," &c., to make suicide the natural consequence of more -elevated feelings. Johnson spoke as a severe moralist, and a rigid -philosopher, against such contemptible reasoning as Pope employs upon -this subject from the fifth to the twenty-second verse. Having been, as -might naturally be expected from his superior understanding, disgusted -with the reasoning part of the poem, the gentler touches of fancy and -tenderness were lost, if I may say so, on him. He would turn with -disdain from such images as-- - - There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow; - -or perhaps exclaim, as upon another occasion, _Incredulus odi_. -Notwithstanding, however, his severity, the animated passages of this -poem, "But thou, false guardian," &c., and the lines of tenderness and -poetic fancy interspersed, cannot be read without sympathy. The verses -"Yet shall thy grave," &c., are possibly too common-place, but they are -surely beautiful. If any expression might be objected to, perhaps it -would be "silver" for "white" wings of an angel.--BOWLES. - -The Elegy, although produced at an early age, is not exceeded in pathos -and true poetry by any production of its author. But whilst we admit the -extraordinary powers displayed by the poet, we cannot but perceive that -they are apparently employed to give a sanction to an act of -criminality, and to inculcate principles which cannot be too cautiously -guarded against. It must, however, be observed, that this piece is not -to be judged of by the common rules of criticism. It is, in fact, a -spontaneous burst of indignation against the authors of the calamity -which it records. Throughout the whole poem, the author speaks as if he -were under a delusion, and utters sentiments which would be wholly -unpardonable at other times. It is only in this light that we can excuse -the violence of many of the expressions, which border on the very verge -of impiety. The first line of the poem demonstrates that he is no -longer under the control of reason. He sees the ghost of the person whom -he so highly admired and loved. The "visionary sword" gleams before his -eyes, and in the excess of his grief he perceives nothing but what is -great and noble in the act that terminated her life. This impassioned -strain is continued till his anger is turned against the author of her -sufferings, when it is poured out in one of the most terrific passages -which poetry, either ancient or modern, can exhibit,--a passage in which -indignation and revenge seem to absorb every other feeling, and to -involve not only the offender, but all who are connected with him, in -indiscriminate destruction. Nor is this sufficient--their destruction -must be the cause of exultation to others, and they are to become the -objects of insult and abhorrence-- - - There passengers shall stand, and pointing say, &c. - -Compassion at length succeeds to resentment, and pity to terror. The -poet in some degree assumes his own character, and his feelings are -expressed in language of the deepest affection and tenderness, which -impresses itself indelibly on the memory of the reader. The concluding -lines, whilst they display the ardour of real passion, demonstrate how -greatly the author was attached to the art he professed; _that_, and his -affection for the object of his grief, could only expire together; - - The Muse forgot, and thou beloved no more.--ROSCOE. - -This poem first appeared in the quarto of 1717, where it bore the title -of "Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady." In the edition of -1736, "Elegy" was substituted for "Verses." The earliest historical -account of the heroine was given by William Ayre, Esq., in a miserable -compilation called Memoirs of Pope, which is full of extravagant -fictions and blunders.[532] This wretched book-maker has merely turned -the incidents of the poem into prose, and amplified them in the process. -His narrative would be unworthy of notice if it had not been adopted by -Ruffhead, who borrowed, without acknowledgment, the statements, and, in -the main, the very language of Ayre. The authority of Ruffhead's work is -entirely due to the fact, that it was in part drawn up from manuscripts -supplied by Warburton, and was subsequently revised by him. The copy -corrected by the bishop contains no note on the pages which record the -fate of the unfortunate lady. It does not follow that he knew the -particulars to be true because he has not declared them to be false. He -was probably ignorant on the subject, and unable either to confirm or -confute the story. Dr. Johnson was in the same position. "The lady's -name and adventures," he says, in his Life of Pope, "I have sought with -fruitless inquiry. I can, therefore, tell no more than I have learned -from Mr. Ruffhead, who writes with the confidence of one who could trust -his information." The trust was fallacious. Ruffhead, an uncritical -transcriber, a blind man led by the blind, was deceived by a transparent -impostor who, in default of facts, embellished the hints in Pope's -verse. His style of invention is emblazoned in the last sentence of his -narrative when he says, that "the priesthood would have buried the lady -in the highway, but it seems their power there did not extend so far." -The law of England till the reign of George IV. ordained that a suicide, -unless irresponsible from insanity, should be interred in the highway, -and a stake driven through the body. Pope, in his poem, only spoke of -"unpaid rites," whence Ayre, alias Curll, concluded that the law of the -place did not sanction road-burial. Familiar, however, with the English -notion he transfers it to the priests of a locality where the usage, by -his own confession, did not exist. - -Nearly half a century after the death of the poet, Hawkins and Warton, -who evidently derived their statements from a common source, produced a -legend, which instead of being drawn from the elegy is directly opposed -to it. Pope says that the unfortunate lady destroyed herself with a -sword, Warton that she put an end to her life with a rope; Pope says -that she had beauty, Warton that she was deformed: Pope says that she -had titles, Warton that she was simply one Wainsbury; Pope says that she -had fame, and Warton has quoted a name so obscure that nobody has been -able to discover her lineage, her connections, her residence, or that -she was ever known to a single human being of the time. The Warton form -of the romance has been jotted down by the Duchess of Portland in her -note book, from which it appears that the narrators did not agree among -themselves; for Warton declares that the lady was beloved by Pope; the -duchess that Pope was beloved by the lady, and that he did not return -her affection. In his Essay on the Genius of Pope, Warton states that -her first suitor was the Duke of Buckingham, that on his deserting her -she retired into a convent in France, and that her retreat into a -nunnery prompted the poet, "who had conceived a violent passion for -her," to express his feelings in the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard.[533] -The Duke of Buckingham, on March 16, 1705, married his third wife, who -survived him. The tone and details of the Elegy forbid the notion that -it could have been written on a cast-off mistress of the duke, and the -incidents must, therefore, have occurred before March 16, 1705, when -Pope was barely sixteen years and ten months old. The fable thus -requires us to suppose that the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard was the -production of a lad of seventeen, that it was composed several years -before the translation of the letters existed from which he has borrowed -a considerable part of the phraseology as well as the ideas, and that -his virulent denunciation of the "false guardian," was for not allowing -a ward "with beauty, titles, wealth, and fame," to wed the son of a -linen-draper,--a mere boy without money, reputation, or prospects, and -who was deformed and stunted in an extreme degree. - -In 1806, Bowles promulgated a tradition which contradicts the -representations both of Ayre and Warton. The hero of Warton is Pope -himself; the hero of Bowles is the Duke of Berry. The heroine of Warton -in one version, for he is not consistent, was forced into a convent; and -the heroine of Bowles withdrew there of her own accord. The unfortunate -lady of Ayre and Ruffhead is driven abroad by her uncle, that she may be -weaned from an English attachment; the unfortunate lady of Bowles falls -in love with a foreigner on the continent; the lady of Ayre and Ruffhead -is thwarted in her matrimonial schemes because she has fixed her heart -upon a person beneath her; and the lady of Bowles is reduced to despair -because she aspires to the hand of a person above her. Bowles maintains -that the latter view must be received or the Elegy is unintelligible. -Johnson has shown that the Elegy is contradictory, and if the verses -which represent the lady's fate to have been the consequence of her -ambition favours the theory that she was enamoured of some superior in -rank, the passage which represents the uncle as steeling his heart -against his niece out of pride equally favours the rival hypothesis that -she was devoted to an inferior. - -At variance in nearly every particular, the conflicting histories of the -unfortunate lady have the common quality, that they are unsupported by a -single circumstance which could warrant the smallest measure of belief. -Bowles heard his version, for which he declined to vouch, from an -unnamed gentleman, who heard it from Condorcet, who heard it from -Voltaire, who heard it nobody knows where. Ayre and the rest cite no -witnesses whatever, for the obvious reason that they had none of any -value to cite. The only accounts which give the lady's name report it -differently, and not one of the investigators of her story,--not even -Warton after his "many and wide enquiries,"--can tell us where she was -born or died, or where she lived, or to whom she was related or known. -The veriest phantom that ever flitted in darkness before the eye of -credulous superstition could not be more illusive and impalpable. - -The biographers and editors who went about enquiring after the -unfortunate lady had no suspicion that she might be altogether a -poetical invention, nor could they have shown that here was the solution -of the mystery unless they had been in possession of the Caryll -correspondence. Pope, in a posthumous note, which was published by -Warburton, directs us to the letters to several ladies at p. 206 of the -quarto edition, for the indications that the unfortunate lady of the -Elegy was also the heroine of the Duke of Buckingham's Verses to a Lady -designing to retire into a Monastery. There are no letters to ladies at -p. 206 of the quarto, but some are inserted from p. 86 to p. 95, and 206 -is a palpable misprint for 86, where, in conformity with the title of -the duke's poem, we have a letter to a lady who was meditating a retreat -to a convent. The preceding letter is addressed to Mr. Caryll, and, in -the table of contents, is said to be "Concerning an unfortunate lady." -The letter which relates to the monastic project is said, in the table -of contents, to be "To the same lady," and thence it appears that the -lady who thought of withdrawing to a nunnery was the same unfortunate -lady who was the subject of the letter to Caryll. From the Caryll -correspondence we discover that she was the wife of John Weston, Esq., -of Sutton, in the county of Surrey; but, instead of dying by her own -hand in a foreign country, she died a natural death in her native land -on the 18th of October, 1724, several years after the poet had -commemorated the suicide of the unfortunate lady.[534] It follows that -he has falsely represented the unfortunate lady of his letters to have -been the same individual with the unfortunate lady of the Elegy, and -since he was driven to conjure up a fictitious victim we may be sure -that there was no real victim in the case. This explains Pope's omission -to answer Caryll's inquiry who the unfortunate lady was;[535] this -explains why the tragical death of a woman "with beauty, titles, wealth, -and fame," was unknown to her contemporaries; this explains why the -histories of her differ from each other, and why in every one of them -she remains a shadowy being whose very existence cannot be traced; this -explains why, as Johnson observes, it is not easy to make out from the -poem the character of either the heroine or her guardian: and this -accounts for the contradictions which have crept into the Elegy. Pope -adopted the common incident of a miserable girl having recourse to -self-destruction, and he wished to have it believed that he had a -personal interest in her fate. His disposition to talk of himself in his -poetry has been noticed by Johnson. Windsor Forest, the Essay on -Criticism, the Temple of Fame, the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard, and the -Rape of the Lock, all ended egotistically. The Elegy was an inviting -occasion for the indulgence of his propensity. He had got, as he -thought, a romantic heroine, and yielding to the temptation to blend his -name with her story, he wound up his verses with the celebration of his -devoted attachment to her. He laid the scene of her death abroad to -account for English ignorance of the tragedy, and he endeavoured to -authenticate the fable for posterity by a posthumous note which involved -the assumption that the unfortunate lady of his letters was the same -lady commemorated in his poem. The note which was designed to accredit -the tale has answered the opposite purpose, and convicted him of a -puerile deception, not the mere impulse of youthful vanity, but renewed -on the brink of the grave, with a final sense of satisfaction in -propping up and perpetuating the petty fraud. - -The supposition that the story was true has seduced Warton, Wakefield, -and Roscoe into some weak critical fancies. Warton thinks the Elegy the -most pathetic of Pope's writings, and says "that the cause of its -excellence is that the occasion of it was real." Wakefield remarks that -the text of the latest edition does not differ from the earliest, and -conjectures that "the author's interest in the subject rendered the poem -too affecting for his own perusal." Roscoe, to excuse the principles -inculcated in the piece, alleges that it was "a spontaneous burst of -indignation," and that "the first line demonstrates that Pope was no -longer under the control of reason." Similar causes have dissimilar -effects. Unfortunate ladies who are "no longer under the control of -reason" are prone to stab or hang themselves. When Pope is "no longer -under the control of reason" he sits down and writes an elegy which -Roscoe says "is not exceeded in pathos and true poetry by any production -of its author." Had the grief been as genuine as it was imaginary the -apology is manifestly futile; for the man whose mind is sufficiently -calm to permit him to sing his woes in polished verse, must have passed -beyond the stage when he is incapable of distinguishing right from -wrong. The plea might have justified the sentiments in a drama where the -speaker was represented as pouring out his feelings while the calamity -was fresh, but in an elegy the poet embodies his own opinions at the -time of composition, and the bad morality becomes deliberate doctrine. - -Vague and sounding verse could not lend a momentary speciousness to the -sophistries of the Elegy. That the transgression of the angels was -ambition is a common, though an unauthorised idea. That their sin was -"glorious" is a notion peculiar to Pope. This "glorious fault" they -infused into the unfortunate lady and "bade her soul aspire." The -particular aspiration they suggested to her was to marry out of her -sphere; her lofty ambition was an inordinate desire to make a good -worldly match. Thwarted in the magnanimous purpose of her life, she had -the second great merit of an heroic death; for to commit suicide was, in -Pope's opinion, "to think greatly," "to die bravely," "to act a Roman's -part." The exalted representation will not stand before the annals of -suicide. They bear daily witness that self-destruction is the refuge of -diseased, weak, pusillanimous, conscience-stricken minds.[536] The want -of fortitude is proportioned to the slightness of the disaster which -prompts the deed. What is remediable may be more readily endured than -what cannot be cured, and there could be no stronger mark of a childish, -self-indulgent, unhealthy character, without force or dignity, the slave -of impulse, than that a woman should be guilty of suicide because her -guardian refused his consent to an unequal marriage. There might be much -room for pity; there could be none for admiration. The strength of -affection which could be the only redeeming element is eliminated by the -poet who, in this part of the Elegy, resolves the lady's love into the -ignoble craving to marry into a higher station than her own. Her worldly -disposition is the evidence to Pope that she had "a purer spirit" than -such "kindred dregs" as had not sufficient grandeur of mind to worship -rank. Out of compassion for her superiority "fate snatched her early -away," that she might not be doomed to associate with the "dull souls" -who love their equals, and bear their trials with resignation. - -The opening lines of the Elegy have some of the indefiniteness which -Johnson censured in the portrayal of the lady and her guardian. A female -ghost with a gored and bleeding bosom, and bearing a visionary sword, -beckons the poet to go with her into a glade. For what purpose does she -beckon him? The apparition may be supposed to be the creature of a -heated imagination, but there should be some significance in the act -ascribed to her. The ghost of the King of Denmark did not beckon Horatio -or the sentinels. It passed by them with "a slow and stately march," and -made no sign, till Hamlet was present at its fourth appearance, and then - - It beckoned him to go away with it - As if it some impartment did desire - To him alone. - -The ghost of the unfortunate lady imparted no information to Pope, for -he avows his ignorance of everything relating to her ghostly condition. -A passage in Milton's Comus, separated from the context, might seem to -countenance the indiscriminate use of the epithet "beckoning," as if it -were a general characteristic of spectres. - - A thousand fantasies - Begin to throng into my memory, - Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire, - And airy tongues that syllable men's names - On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.[537] - -A superstition attached to "desert wildernesses," where the wanderer who -lost sight of his associates could seldom strike into their track on the -pathless waste, was made known to Milton by the travels of Marco Polo. -"If," says the old Venetian, in his account of the great Asiatic desert, -Lop or Gobi, "any one at night stays behind, or diverges from his -company, he hears, when he wishes to rejoin it, spirits speaking in the -air, who seem to be his comrades, and sometimes call him by his name, -beguiling him out of the right road, so that many continue to go astray -and perish."[538] The lady in Comus was in a like situation. She was -benighted, she had lost her way, she heard "the tumult of loud mirth," -and when she reached the spot from whence the merriment proceeded she -found "nought but darkness." Then the "calling shapes, and beck'ning -shadows dire," that lure poor wanderers to destruction, rushed into her -thoughts, and she conceived she might be the dupe of malignant -phantoms.[539] Pope's beckoning ghost was not of this class of "dire" -counterfeit "shadows." She is represented as an honest, sympathising -spirit, who could never have designed to entice her lover or friend into -the glade with a murderous intent. Warton quotes the commencement of Ben -Jonson's Epitaph on Lady Winchester, which Pope must have had in his -mind when he wrote his Elegy. The ghost beckoned Jonson to pluck a -garland from the yew tree.[540] A spirit could not have revisited the -world, for a more frivolous purpose, but at least the poet felt that he -must assign a cause for the beckoning. The omission in Pope arose from a -frequent source of misapplied language. Isolated lines and phrases, -which had the sanction of classic authors, lingered in his memory, and -he forgot the accompaniments to which they owed their fitness. - -The spectacle of the bleeding ghost of the lady haunting the glade by -moonlight suggests to the poet that she may be doing penance for her -self-inflicted death. He reasons himself into the conviction that her -violence was meritorious, and he concludes that she has been "snatched -to the pitying sky." At ver. 47 comes a couplet in which the christian -idea of a spirit in heaven is superseded by the pagan notion of an ever -"injured shade" to whom nothing can compensate for the loss of the -customary funereal rites. Out of his ambition to imitate classic poets -Pope jumbled discordant creeds together, and introduced this remnant of -an extinct mythology, absurd in itself and offensive in a modern elegy. -The passage which follows, from ver. 51 to ver. 68, is the most pleasing -part of the poem, though the ten lines from ver. 59 have been severely -criticised by Lord Kames. Fictitious topics of consolation were not, he -said, "the language of the heart, but of imagination indulging its -flights at ease," and were incompatible with "the deeply serious and -pathetic."[541] Warburton criticised the criticism. He said it "smelled -furiously of old John Dennis," and Bowles allowed that it was "absurd." -The tone of Lord Kames is, perhaps, too contemptuous, for the lines have -a certain sweetness of sentiment. Yet he was right when he maintained -that they were not in harmony with the professions of grief and -indignation which follow or go before. All ages and nations have shared -the conviction that the omnipotence behind the phenomena of nature -deputes them on special occasions to speak in exceptional ways to the -affections, hopes, and fears of man. In the rear of these beliefs are -numerous cases in which appearances are accepted for a symbolical -language, not with an absolute faith, but with a fond acquiescence -because they are the just reflection of our thoughts. Wordsworth's -exquisite Hart-leap Well,--perfect in its descriptive power, its easy -flow of beautiful English, and its mingled strains of animation and -pathos--culminates in the creed that the bleakness of the once luxuriant -enclosure in which the stag fell dead, is the protest of nature against -the palace and bowers erected there by the knight in exultant -commemoration of his cruel chase. Wide is the range in this domain of -poetry, from sublimity down to prettinesses, from prettinesses to poor -conceits. What is legitimate in itself may be wrongly placed, and here -is the fault of Pope's lines. Amid the tempest of sorrow and anger he -derives consolation from the notion that the first roses of the year -will blow on the grave of the unfortunate lady, that the earliest -dew-drops of the morning will weep her loss, that the turf will lie -light on her insensate corpse, and that angels will overshadow in -perpetuity the spot of earth which conceals it. The reveries of fancy -may gratify the tranquil mind. They would be mockery to a man absorbed -by terrible realities, to a man distracted by the suicide of the woman -he adored. - -The paragraph, "So peaceful rests," was much admired by the -stone-cutters, and with tasteless ignorance they engraved it, slightly -modified, upon hundreds of tombstones. No one in a churchyard requires -to be reminded that its buried population is "a heap of dust." Amid the -visible signs of mortality monuments should soothe and lift up the mind -by speaking of that which is not corruptible--of that which was best in -the acts, disposition, endurance, and belief of the dead, or of the -contrast between the earthly life that was and the life that is, between -the transitory and the immortal. Improper for an epitaph, the lines were -not unsuited to an elegy, if the final paragraph had opened up a -brighter vista instead of dropping into the lowest style of heathenism. -The affection of the elegy-writer was to cease with the "idle business" -of life, and the dearest object of his heart would be "beloved by him no -more." He had talked of "pale ghosts," and "bright reversions in the -skies," but by the time he got to the conclusion of his poetical -exercise, skies, and ghosts had faded from his thoughts, and his -language would leave the impression that the "last gasp" was the end of -all things. In composition the Elegy is terse and powerful; the ideas -are erroneous, inconsistent, or inadequate. Pagan and christian notions -clash together; the story is represented under contradictory phases; the -dreary close of the poem sets aside the faith which consoles survivors; -the sentiments at the beginning are false and melodramatic; and the -middle, though not devoid of tenderness, chiefly consists of borrowed -fictions, which are too artificial for the occasion. - - - ELEGY - - TO THE MEMORY OF - - AN UNFORTUNATE LADY. - - What beck'ning ghost,[542] along the moon-light shade - Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade? - 'Tis she!--but why that bleeding bosom gored?[543] - Why dimly gleams the visionary sword? - Oh ever beauteous, ever friendly! tell, 5 - Is it, in heav'n, a crime to love too well?[544] - To bear too tender, or too firm a heart, - To act a lover's or a Roman's part? - Is there no bright reversion in the sky, - For those who greatly think, or bravely die? 10 - Why bade ye else, ye pow'rs! her soul aspire - Above the vulgar flight of low desire? - Ambition first sprung from your bless'd abodes; - The glorious fault of angels[545] and of gods: - Thence to their images on earth it flows, 15 - And in the breasts of kings and heroes glows. - Most souls, 'tis true, but peep out once an age, - Dull sullen pris'ners in the body's cage:[546] - Dim lights of life, that burn a length of years - Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres; 20 - Like Eastern kings a lazy state they keep, - And, close confined to their own palace, sleep.[547] - From these perhaps (ere nature bade her die) - Fate snatched her early to the pitying sky. - As into air the purer spirits flow, 25 - And sep'rate from their kindred dregs below; - So flew the soul to its congenial place, - Nor left one virtue to redeem her race.[548] - But thou, false guardian of a charge too good,[549] - Thou mean deserter of thy brother's blood! 30 - See on these ruby lips the trembling breath, - These cheeks now fading at the blast of death; - Cold is that breast which warmed the world before,[550] - And those love-darting eyes[551] must roll no more.[552] - Thus, if eternal justice rules the ball, 35 - Thus shall your wives, and thus your children fall: - On all the line a sudden vengeance waits, - And frequent hearses shall besiege your gates; - There passengers shall stand, and pointing say, - (While the long fun'rals blacken all the way) 40 - "Lo! these were they, whose souls the furies steeled, - "And cursed with hearts unknowing how to yield."[553] - Thus unlamented pass the proud away, - The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day! - So perish all, whose breast ne'er learned to glow 45 - For others' good, or melt at others' woe.[554] - What can atone, oh ever-injured shade! - Thy fate unpitied, and thy rites unpaid? - No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear - Pleased thy pale ghost, or graced thy mournful bier. 50 - By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,[555] - By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,[556] - By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned, - By strangers honoured, and by strangers mourned! - What though no friends in sable weeds appear, 55 - Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn[557] a year, - And bear about the mockery of woe - To midnight dances, and the public show? - What though no weeping loves thy ashes grace, - Nor polished marble emulate thy face? 60 - What though no sacred earth allow thee room, - Nor hallowed dirge be muttered o'er thy tomb? - Yet shall thy grave with rising flow'rs be dressed, - And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast:[558] - There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow, 65 - There the first roses of the year shall blow; - While angels with their silver wings[559] o'ershade - The ground, now sacred[560] by thy reliques made.[561] - So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name, - What once had beauty, titles, wealth, and fame. 70 - How loved, how honoured once, avails thee not, - To whom related, or by whom begot; - A heap of dust alone remains of thee; - 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be![562] - Poets themselves must fall like those they sung, 75 - Deaf the praised ear, and mute the tuneful tongue.[563] - Ev'n he, whose soul now melts in mournful lays, - Shall shortly want the gen'rous tear he pays; - Then from his closing eyes thy form shall part, - And the last pang shall tear thee from his heart, 80 - Life's idle business at one gasp be o'er, - The muse forgot, and thou beloved no more! - - - - - ELOISA TO ABELARD. - - * * * * * - - - - - ELOISA TO ABELARD. - - Written by Mr. POPE. - - The second edition, 8vo. - -London: Printed for BERNARD LINTOT, at the Cross-keys between the Temple - Gates in Fleet Street. 1720. - - -The Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard first appeared in the quarto of 1717. -The second edition was accompanied by other poems on kindred -subjects--"Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady; Florelio, a -Pastoral, lamenting the Death of the late Marquis of Blandford, by Mr. -Fenton; Upon the Death of her Husband, by Mrs. Elizabeth Singer; A -Ballad, by Mr. Gay,--''Twas when the Seas were roaring;' and Richy and -Sandy, a Pastoral on the Death of Mr. Joseph Addison, by Allan Ramsay." -The Epistle was reprinted in Lintot's Miscellany in 1720, 1722, 1727, -and 1732. In the Miscellany of 1727 there was added for the first time a -motto from Prior's Alma: - - O Abelard ill-fated youth! - Thy fate will justify this truth; - But well I weet, thy cruel wrong - Adorns a nobler poet's song: - Dan Pope, for thy misfortune grieved, - With kind concern and skill has weaved - A silken web, and ne'er shall fade - Its colours; gently has he laid - The mantle o'er thy sad distress, - And Venus shall the texture bless. - He o'er the weeping nun has drawn - Such artful folds of sacred lawn, - That Love, with equal grief and pride, - Shall see the crime he strives to hide, - And softly drawing back the veil, - The god shall to his vot'ries tell - Each conscious tear, each blushing grace - That decked dear Eloisa's face. - -Lord Bathurst told Warton that Pope was not pleased with these lines, in -which the poet is accused of palliating Eloisa's guilt, and complimented -for the skill with which he did it; but we learn from a letter of Pope -to Christopher Pitt that he himself corrected the sheets of his own -pieces in the Miscellany of 1727, and if the passage from Prior had been -distasteful to him, he would not have prefixed it to the Epistle. The -motto was repeated in the Miscellany of 1732, and was omitted by him in -the later editions of his works. - -Of the Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard I do not know the date. Pope's -first inclination to attempt a composition of that tender kind arose, as -Mr. Savage told me, from his perusal of Prior's Nut-brown Maid. How much -he has surpassed Prior's work it is not necessary to mention, when -perhaps it may be said with justice that he has excelled every -composition of the same kind. The mixture of religious hope and -resignation gives an elevation and dignity to disappointed love which -images merely natural cannot bestow. The gloom of a convent strikes the -imagination with far greater force than the solitude of a grove. This -piece was, however, not much his favourite in his latter years, though I -never heard upon what principle he slighted it. The Epistle is one of -the most happy productions of human wit. The subject is so judiciously -chosen that it would be difficult, in turning over the annals of the -world, to find another which so many circumstances concur to recommend. -We regularly interest ourselves most in the fortunes of those who most -deserve our notice; Abelard and Eloisa were conspicuous in their days -for eminence of merit. The heart naturally loves truth; the adventures -and misfortunes of this illustrious pair are known from undisputed -history. Their fate does not leave the mind in hopeless dejection, for -they both found quiet and consolation in retirement and piety. So new -and so affecting is their story that it supersedes invention, and -imagination ranges at full liberty without straggling into scenes of -fable. The story thus skilfully adopted, has been diligently improved. -Pope has left nothing behind him which seems more the effect of studious -perseverance and laborious revisal. Here is particularly observable the -_curiosa felicitas_, a fruitful soil and careful cultivation. Here is no -crudeness of sense, nor asperity of language.--JOHNSON. - -Of all stories, ancient or modern, there is not, perhaps, a more proper -one to furnish out an elegiac epistle than that of Eloisa and Abelard. -Their distresses were of a most singular and peculiar kind, and their -names sufficiently known, but not grown trite or common by too frequent -usage. Pope was a most excellent improver, if no great original -inventor, and we see how finely he has worked up the hints of distress -that are scattered up and down in Abelard and Eloisa's letters, and in a -little French history of their lives and misfortunes. Abelard was -reputed the most handsome, as well as the most learned man, of his time, -according to the kind of learning then in vogue. An old chronicle, -quoted by Andrew du Chesne, informs us, that scholars flocked to his -lectures from all quarters of the Latin world; and his contemporary, -St. Bernard, relates, that he numbered among his disciples many -principal ecclesiastics and cardinals at the court of Rome. Abelard -himself boasts, that when he retired into the country, he was followed -by such immense crowds of scholars that they could get neither lodgings -nor provisions sufficient for them. He met with the fate of many learned -men, to be embroiled in controversy, and accused of heresy; for St. -Bernard, whose influence and authority were very great, got his opinion -of the Trinity condemned at a council held at Sens, 1140. But the -talents of Abelard were not confined to theology, jurisprudence, -philosophy, and the thorny paths of scholasticism. He gave proofs of a -lively genius by many poetical performances, insomuch that he was -reputed to be the author of the famous Romance of the Rose, which, -however, was indisputably written by John of Meun, a little city on the -banks of the Loire, about four miles from Orleans. It was he who -continued and finished the Romance of the Rose, which William de Lorris -had left imperfect forty years before. There is undoubted evidence that -[the earliest portion] was written an hundred years after Abelard -flourished, and if chronology did not absolutely contradict the notion -of his being the author of this very celebrated piece, yet are there -internal arguments sufficient to confute it. There are many severe and -satirical strokes on the character of Eloisa which the pen of Abelard -never would have given. In one passage she is introduced speaking with -indecency and obscenity; in another all the vices and bad qualities of -women are represented as assembled together in her alone: - - Qui les moeurs féminins savoit - Car tres-tous en soi les avoit. - -In a very old epistle dedicatory, addressed to Philip IV. of France by -this same John of Meun, and prefixed to a French translation of Boetius, -it appears that he also translated the epistles of Abelard to Heloisa, -which were in high vogue at the court. It is to be regretted that we -have no exact picture of the person and beauty of Eloisa. Abelard -himself says that she was "facie non infima."[564] Her extraordinary -learning many circumstances concur to confirm; particularly one, which -is, that the nuns of the Paraclete are wont to have the office of -Whitsunday read to them in Greek, to perpetuate the memory of her -understanding that language. A lady learned as was Eloisa in that age, -who indisputably understood the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, was a -kind of prodigy.[565] Her literature, says Abelard, "in toto regno -nominatissimam fecerat," and we may be sure more thoroughly attached him -to her. Bussy Rabutin speaks in high terms of commendation of the purity -of Eloisa's latinity,--a judgment worthy a French count. There is a -force but not an elegance in her style, which is blemished, as might be -expected, by many phrases unknown to the pure ages of the Roman -language, and by many Hebraisms borrowed from the translation of the -Bible. - -However happy and judicious the subject of Pope's Epistle may be thought -to be, as displaying the various conflicts and tumults between duty and -pleasure, between penitence and passion, that agitated the mind of -Eloisa, yet we must candidly own that the principal circumstance of -distress is of so indelicate a nature, that it is with difficulty -disguised by the exquisite art and address of the poet. The capital and -unrivalled beauties of the poem arise from the striking images and -descriptions of the convent, and from the sentiments drawn from the -mystical books of devotion, particularly Madame Guion, and the -Archbishop of Cambray.[566] The Epistle is on the whole, one of the most -highly finished, and certainly the most interesting of the pieces of our -author; and, together with the Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate -Lady, is the only instance of the pathetic Pope has given us. I think -one may venture to remark that the reputation of Pope as a poet among -posterity will be principally owing to his Windsor Forest, his Rape of -the Lock, and his Eloisa to Abelard, whilst the facts and characters -alluded to and exposed in his later writings, will be forgotten and -unknown, and their poignancy and propriety little relished. For wit and -satire are transitory and perishable, but nature and passion are -eternal.--WARTON. - -Pope must be judged according to the rank in which he stands,--among -those of the French school, not the Italian; among those whose -delineations are taken more from manners than from nature. When I say -that this is his predominant character, I must be insensible to -everything exquisite in poetry if I did not except the Epistle to -Eloisa; but this can only be considered according to its class, and if I -say that it seems to me superior to any other of the kind to which it -might fairly be compared, such as the Epistles of Ovid, Propertius, -Tibullus (I will not mention Drayton, and Pope's numerous subsequent -Imitations)--but when this transcendent poem is compared with those -which will bear the comparison, I shall not be deemed as giving -reluctant praise, when I declare my conviction of its being infinitely -superior to everything of the kind, ancient or modern. In this poem, -therefore, Pope appears on the high ground of the poet of nature, but -this certainly is not his general character. In the particular instance -of this poem how distinguished and superior does he stand. It is -sufficient that nothing of the kind has ever been produced equal to it -for pathos, painting, and melody. The mellifluence and solemn cadence of -the verse, the dramatic transitions, the judicious contrasts, the -language of genuine passion, uttered in the sweetest flow of music, and -the pervading solemnity and grandeur of the picturesque scenery, give -the Epistle a wonderful charm, and exemplify Pope's observation in his -Essay on Criticism, "there is a _happiness_ as well as care." The -inherent indelicacy of the subject is one objection to it, and who but -must lament its immoral effect, for of its beauty there can be but one -sentiment. It may be said of it with truth in the language of its -author: - - It lives, it breathes, it speaks what love inspires, - Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires; - -and as long as the English language remains, it will - - Call down tears through every age. - -Pope I have no doubt wrote the Epistle to Sappho, and this of Eloisa, -under the impression of strong personal feelings. It is supposed the -subject was suggested by the unfortunate young lady going into a -convent, whose untimely death occasioned the beautiful Elegy, "What -beck'ning ghost;" but I cannot help thinking the real circumstance that -occasioned these touching effusions was his early attachment to Lady -Mary W. Montagu. The concluding lines allude to her, as I think is -evident from his letter. Speaking of a volume he had sent her when -abroad, he adds, "Among the rest you have all I am worth, that is, my -works. There are few things in them but what you have already seen, -except the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard, in which you will find one -passage that I cannot tell whether to wish you should understand or -not." The lines could not be meant for the unfortunate lady, for she was -dead and forgotten--could not relate to Martha Blount, for he was not -"condemned whole years in absence to deplore," and therefore they could -be addressed only to Lady Mary; and "he best shall paint them who shall -feel them most," was a direct allusion to his own ardent but hopeless -passion.--BOWLES. - -Mr. Bowles has represented the Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard as being -of an immoral tendency. It must however be observed, that if this -construction be put upon the poem, it is what the author never intended. -On the contrary, his object is to show the fatal consequences of an -ungovernable passion; and if he has done this in natural and even -glowing language, it must be remembered that such are not his own -sentiments, but those of the person he has undertaken to represent, and -are in general given in nearly her own words. That many expressions and -passages may be pointed out which are inconsistent with the established -order and regulations of society, may be fully admitted. Such, for -instance, as the lines - - How oft, when pressed to marriage, have I said, - Curse on all laws but those which love has made! - -But surely it is not likely that such sentiments can impose upon the -weakest and most inexperienced minds. It is indeed highly probable that -Pope has in some few instances intentionally exaggerated the sentiments -and expressions of Eloisa in order to render it impossible for any -person of common capacity to be misled by such statements.--ROSCOE. - -In 1693 there appeared at the Hague a French translation of the Latin -letters of Abelard and Heloisa. The work was several times reprinted, -and a later editor, M. Du Bois, informs the reader that the translator -had taken the liberty to omit, to add, and to transpose at his pleasure. -"Some of the thoughts and expressions which are ascribed to Heloisa," -continues M. Du Bois, "are so well imagined that if we are disappointed -at not finding them in the original, and at her not having said the -things she has been made to say, we are agreeably forced to acknowledge -that they might have been said by her, and it is impossible not to be -grateful to the paraphrast for his boldness." The original -correspondence contains some interesting facts, much spurious rhetoric, -and many dull pedantic quotations. The work in its integrity was not -adapted for popular reading, but as the whole value of the letters -depended on their genuineness, they were nearly worthless in their -altered form. In 1714 Hughes, the author of the Siege of Damascus, -translated the adulterate French concoction, and from the phraseology -and substance of Pope's Epistle, it is manifest that he followed the -English version of Hughes. Wakefield and Warton have only looked for -parallel passages in the Latin, where they will often be sought in vain. - -The authenticity of the Latin letters has usually been taken for -granted, but I have a strong belief that they are a forgery. The first -letter is addressed by Abelard to a friend in misfortune, for the -purpose of consoling him with a tale of greater woes. The sequel is not -in keeping with the ostensible object. The autobiographical epistle is -full of vain-glorious, irrelevant matter, which no one would have -recorded whose intention was merely to soothe a sorrow-stricken man. The -particulars relative to Abelard's intercourse with Heloisa are worse -than gratuitous; they are abominable. The intrigue might be public; he -might avow and deplore it; but some reserve was due to decency and his -paramour. She was not an anonymous phantom who could not be reached by -his revelations. He told her name, and her connections which, according -to his narrative, were notorious already, and he was, therefore, -forbidden by such honour as even exists among profligates to expose the -secret details of her shame. But honour was unknown to him. The veil -which rakes who gloated over past misdeeds would have scorned to draw -aside was torn away by this pious penitent with treacherous -baseness.[567] The disguise is thinly worn. The Abelard of the letter is -not the contrite, sorrowing philosopher who is speaking of a gifted -woman he had enthusiastically loved, and against whom he had deeply -sinned. He is an unimpassioned author who founds a fiction upon a true -story, and realising imperfectly the sentiments proper to the situation, -relates what he thinks was likely to have happened without perceiving -that the confessions would have been infamy in Abelard. - -His letter in some unexplained manner got round to Heloisa. She might be -expected to be filled with rage and humiliation, and she sends a glowing -response to the degrading recital. She outstripped Abelard in shameless -frankness. Madame Guizot asserts that "she expresses much more in saying -much less, that she recalls, but does not specify,"[568] the truth being -that some particulars in her second letter are grosser and more precise -than anything which proceeded from the pen of Abelard. The plea that her -confessions were made to a husband is no extenuation, since she left his -previous revelations unrebuked, and the approval of _his_ disclosures -was a licence to show about _hers_. What is more, her champions discover -ample evidence in her letters that they were intended for publication. -"Heloisa," says Madame Guizot, "supplies details with the exactness of a -dramatic personage obliged to give an account of certain facts to the -audience. There are few letters of the period which have not the stamp -of a literary composition destined to a public sufficiently large to -render it necessary to put them in possession of the circumstances. If -any persons are surprised that Heloisa could design the revelations in -her first and especially in her second letter, for any eye but that of -Abelard, let them read the incidents she could see recounted without -offence in the _Historia Calamitatum_, and they will be convinced of the -existence of a state of manners in which elevated and even delicate -sentiments in a distinguished and naturally modest woman might be allied -to the strangest forms of language."[569] The case is put inaccurately. -The "sentiments" are not "delicate;" they are coarser than the language. -The reasoning of Madame Guizot is equally defective. An immodest act is -declared to be modest because Heloisa had committed a previous act of -immodesty. Her toleration of Abelard's grossness is the evidence of her -purity in imitating his freedoms. The appeal should have been to -independent works of the time, and these are opposed to the theory of -Madame Guizot. Language was often plainer than at present, but only -creatures of the disgusting type of the Wife of Bath proclaimed the -hidden details of their _own_ sexual licentiousness. The reputable -classes had risen high above the point at which elemental decency and -self-respect become extinct. Heloisa must, indeed, have been a woman of -an "unbashful forehead," to use the expression of Shakespeare, if she -deliberately placed herself before the public as she appears in the -letters. It is far more likely that they are the fabrication of an -unconcerned romancer, who speaks in the name of others with a latitude -which people, not entirely degraded, would never adopt towards -themselves. The suspicion is strengthened when the second party to the -correspondence, the chief philosopher of his generation, exhibits the -same exceptional depravity of taste. The improbability is great that -both should have courted a disgraceful notoriety. The correspondence was -coined in one mint; the impress it bears is male, and not female; and we -may apply to Heloisa the words of Rosalind,-- - - I say she never did invent these letters, - This is a man's invention, and his hand.[570] - -No portion of them, if they are genuine, can do honour to her memory. -The coarse particulars she divulged to the public would prove that she -was debased, and any sentiments which might have been creditable in an -artless effusion addressed to Abelard lose their value when they are a -studied rhetorical manifesto, got up to produce an impression on the -world. - -According to the _Historia Calamitatum_ Abelard was the eldest son of a -soldier in Brittany. His father, who had a tincture of learning, imbued -him with a passion for study. He renounced the weapons of war for those -of logic, resigned his paternal inheritance to his brothers, and -traversed the kingdom that he might engage in scholastic tournaments at -the towns on his road. He arrived at Paris about the year 1100, when he -was twenty-one. There he frequented the lectures of William of -Champeaux, the most famous dialectician of the day. Soon the pupil -questioned the doctrines of his master, and was often victorious in -their public disputations. He established a rival school, and the credit -of all other teachers was lost in his renown. William of Champeaux, -devoured with envy, struggled for years to drive his antagonist from the -field. The invincible Abelard never failed to defeat him, and finally -reigned without a competitor. - -When his supremacy was recognised in the domain of metaphysical logic, -he turned his attention to theology, and proceeding to Laon he sat under -Anselm, who was esteemed the foremost divine in the church. The author -of the letter affirms that his instruction consisted of fine words -without matter, smoke without flame, leaves without fruit. Abelard soon -relaxed in his attendance, and expressed his surprise to his -fellow-students that any aid should be used beyond the text and the -gloss in interpreting the Bible. With a derisive laugh they enquired if -he would be bold enough, on these terms, to become the expositor. He -accepted the challenge, and they thought to baffle him by allotting him -the book of Ezekiel. He replied by inviting them to hear his commentary -the following morning. They recommended him to take time, and he -answered that his habit was to prevail by force of mind, and not by -labour. His audience was small the next day, for it was considered -ridiculous that a young man, who had hardly looked into the Bible, -should extemporise an explanation of its obscurest prophecies. The few -who went were fascinated, and their praises caused his lecture-room to -be thronged. The old story was re-enacted. The pupil who had vanquished -the most celebrated metaphysician of his generation, now at the first -onset eclipsed the greatest theologian in Europe. Anselm, like William -of Champeaux, was filled with jealousy, and forbade him to continue his -disquisitions at Laon. - -He returned to Paris, and taught dialectics and divinity with equal -distinction. He had money and glory, he says, in profusion; he imagined -that he was the only philosopher on earth; and in the words of the -letter which bears his name, he was consumed by the fever of pride and -luxury. In this state of worldly prosperity he reached his thirty-sixth -year, when he formed his connection with Heloisa, who was barely -eighteen. His qualifications for amorous intrigue are related by him -with just the same boastful assurance with which he describes his -dictatorship in the schools. He declares that his youth, his fame, and -his handsome person gave him such a superiority over all other men, that -no woman could resist him. Whoever she might be she would have thought -herself honoured by his love; and the context shows that the love he -meant was illicit. The learning of Heloisa obtained her the preference, -and he deliberately formed a plan to seduce her. She resided with her -uncle Fulbert, a canon of the cathedral at Paris, who doated on money -and his niece. Abelard appealed to the double passion. Professing to -desire a release from household cares, he offered to board and lodge -with the canon on any terms he chose to ask, and to devote his leisure -hours to the instruction of Heloisa. Fulbert was delighted. He confided, -to use the language of the letter, the tender lamb to the ravenous wolf, -and enjoined the tutor to administer corporal punishment when his pupil -neglected her studies. The comment of Abelard, or his representative, is -extraordinary. He marvels at the simplicity of the canon in entrusting -him with an authority which would enable him, if Heloisa resisted his -fondness, to subdue her by blows. He thinks Fulbert childishly credulous -for not divining that the grand luminary of philosophy and divinity was -a wretch of fiendish depravity--a demon who would adopt the brutal -expedient of beating an innocent girl into submission to his wicked -designs. In his third letter he acknowledges that he had put the method -in practice when the temporary scruples of his victim prevailed. - -During the frenzy of his passion Abelard was indifferent to literary -glory. His lectures were a burthen to him, and he only cared to compose -amatory songs, which he informs his friend are still popular in numerous -countries. Heloisa says in her reply that, as the greater part of these -poems celebrated their love, her name became famous, and the jealousy of -the women was roused. This is one of the many improbabilities of the -story. At the exact period that Abelard, by his own acknowledgment, was -anxious to conceal his passion from Fulbert, he published it in popular -ballads to the world. The inconsistency is too glaring. A second -statement is more consonant with human nature. The nerveless lectures, -and preoccupied air of Abelard betrayed his infatuation to his -disciples. They divined the truth; the intrigue was noised abroad, and -the rumour at last got round to Fulbert. Abelard asserts that he and his -concubine were overwhelmed with anguish and shame on their detection; -Heloisa that her amour was the envy of princesses and queens. The -apocryphal writer, after the manner of his tribe, overlooked these -discrepancies. - -When the first shock of disgrace was past, the lovers disregarded -appearances, and carried on their intercourse without disguise. The poor -canon was nearly mad between grief and rage, and Abelard to appease him -led Heloisa to the altar, on the understanding that their union should -be kept a secret; but the relations of the bride broke their promise, -and proclaimed that she was married. She protested it was false, and -Fulbert, exasperated by her denial, treated her harshly. Her husband -removed her to the abbey of Argenteuil, near Paris, that she might be -safe from persecution. Her friends conjectured that his object was to -get rid of her, and in revenge for his former treachery and present -heartlessness, Fulbert bribed some miscreants to mutilate him when he -was asleep. Overwhelmed with mortification, he resolved to hide his head -in a convent, and selected St. Denis. His jealousy would not suffer him -to leave Heloisa free, and before he bound himself by an irrevocable vow -he obliged her to take the veil. - -The monks in Abelard's new retreat led the dissolute life in which he -himself had indulged up to the moment of his disaster. He provoked their -hostility by his remonstrances, and to get rid of him they joined in the -entreaties of his disciples that he would leave his cell, and resume his -lectures. The concourse of hearers was so great that the district where -he set up his chair could not afford them food and lodging. The -popularity of his teaching is attested by independent evidence, although -his extant treatises are bald in style, prolix and cloudy in exposition, -abstruse and barren in substance. But manuscripts were scarce; the -multitude were chiefly dependent upon oral instruction; literature was -almost unknown, and the subtleties of a meagre metaphysical system -applied to theology, had a charm for active intellects when theology, -logic, and metaphysics had undivided possession of the schools. -Controversy lent its powerful aid, animating the dry bones with the -fiery life of human passion. The superiority of Abelard in the verbal -strife was due to the comparative feebleness of his adversaries, and not -to the absolute greatness of his acute, but narrow and unprolific mind. -"How is it," said a nobleman to Lely, "that you are so celebrated, when -you know, as well as I do, that you are no painter?" "True," replied -Lely, "but I am the best you have." - -The revival of Abelard's popularity was attended by the old results. -Rival schools were deserted, envy, malice, and hatred were inflamed. -Applying his metaphysical logic to the doctrines of the Bible he -produced a treatise on the Trinity, which he asserts solved every -difficulty; and the more transcendent was the mystery, the greater, he -says, was the admiration at the acuteness of his solution. But it was by -altering the dogma that he brought it down to the level of human reason, -and a council at Soissons accused him of heresy. If the letter is to be -credited, his antagonists paid him the compliment of refusing to hear -his defence, on the plea that his arguments would confound the united -world. The assembly voted him guilty, and the troubles which grew out of -his condemnation ended in his withdrawing to an uninhabited district on -the banks of the river Ardusson, where he constructed an oratory of -reeds and mud. Admiring crowds pursued him into his desolate retreat. -Sleeping in rude huts, and subsisting on bread and herbs, they abjured -the physical luxuries of existence for the mental feast of listening to -the arid speculations in vogue. His auditors replaced his oratory by a -larger building of wood and stone, which might serve for a lecture-room, -and he named it the Paraclete, or the Comforter, because Providence had -sent him consolation to the spot whither he had fled in despair. He, or -his personator on his behalf, cannot suppress the usual vaunts. His -body, he says, was concealed by his seclusion, but he filled the -universe by his word and his renown. His enemies were enraged, and -groaned inwardly, "Behold the world is gone after him, and our -persecution has increased his glory." He admits that the sentiment did -not fall from their lips, and it is merely the form in which his vanity -embodied their feelings. The celebrated St. Bernard entered the lists -against him, and Abelard began to be deserted by his adherents. He -completely lost heart, and when the monks of a remote abbey on the coast -of Brittany appointed him their head, he was glad to embrace a -banishment which removed him from the midst of his increasing foes. New -enmities awaited him. As at St. Denis, he soon became odious to his -brethren by reproving their laxity. Their vindictive rage knew no -bounds. They poisoned his food, but he forbore to taste it. They -poisoned the chalice at the altar, but he did not drink of it. They -suborned a servant to poison his victuals when he was on a visit to his -brother, and again he happened not to eat of the dish, while a monk who -partook of it died on the spot. Wherever he went they posted hired -assassins on the road, and for some untold reason he always escaped. He -procured the expulsion of the most desperate of his bloodthirsty -children, and when the remainder were about to stab him he eluded their -daggers. The sword, when he wrote, was still hanging over his head, and -he passed his days in almost breathless fear. The early novelist who -composed the apocryphal correspondence had the art to leave him in this -critical situation. But the Abelard of the autobiography is a repulsive -hero of romance, since even the penitent is boastful, coarse, and -callous. - -The abbey of Argenteuil, where Heloisa was prioress, was a dependency of -the abbey of St. Denis. The parent monastery reclaimed the building and -turned out Heloisa and the nuns. Abelard invited them to meet him at the -Paraclete, and he established them in the oratory and its appurtenances, -which had remained unoccupied since he settled in Brittany. He took -frequent journeys from his abbey to instruct and console them, till -finding that his visits gave rise to scandal, he went no more. Heloisa -had not seen him or heard from him for a considerable period, when his -letter to the unknown friend fell by accident into her hands, and she -immediately replied to it. Her character, whether drawn by herself or -some fabricator who wrote in her name, comes out clearly in the -correspondence. Abelard states that she laboured to dissuade him from -marriage when he informed her of his promise to Fulbert after the -detection of the intrigue. She said that it would be dishonourable for a -philosopher, whom nature had created for the world, to be enslaved to a -woman, and submitted to the ignominious yoke of matrimony. She said that -his renown would be diminished, that his future career would be checked, -that the church would be injured, and that she could have no pride in a -union which would degrade both of them by tarnishing his glory. In her -answer she confirms his representations; and adds, that if the name of -wife was holier, she held that of mistress, concubine, or harlot, to be -sweeter, not only for the reasons which Abelard had recapitulated, but -because she hoped that the less she made herself the more she would rise -in his favour. Dean Milman is in error when he asserts that she -"resisted the marriage in an absolute, unrivalled spirit of devotion, so -wonderful that we forget to reprove."[571] She did not overlook her -personal interests, but believed that the concubine would enjoy more -love and consideration than the wife. The theory of her willingness to -be sacrificed that her admirer might be elevated has arisen from the -inference, contradicted by her language, that she felt the disgrace of -her illicit connection. Nothing could be more remote from her thoughts. -She was proud of the distinction. - -At the date of her letters Heloisa had been leading for years a monastic -life, which she embraced against her will at the command of her husband. -She had not been refined by misfortune, time, and religion. She -continued to bewail her sensual deprivations, and the picture she draws -of her subjection to her voluptuous imagination, exceeds anything which -could have been expected from the most dissolute libertine. But none of -these things repel the partisans of historic romance, and the frail -unhappy woman seduced by Abelard is held up as a signal example of -feminine excellence. "This noble creature," says M. Cousin, "loved as -Saint Theresa, and sometimes wrote as Seneca."[572] "Her -contemporaries," says M. Rémusat, "placed her above all women, and I do -not know that posterity has belied her contemporaries"[573] "France," -says M. Henri Martin, "has always felt the grandeur of Heloisa, and the -just instinct of the public has numbered the mistress of Abelard among -our national glories."[574] Her admirers would be puzzled to explain in -what her pre-eminence consists. Her devotion to her lover is a quality -which she shares with myriads of women, bad as well as good, and her -distinctive moral traits are those in which she differs from the -majority of her sex by being vastly worse instead of better. A modern -Heloisa who pursued the same conduct and avowed the same principles and -passions would be branded with infamy. - -The Epistle of Pope purports to be Heloisa's reply to Abelard's letter -to his friend; but the poet has blended in his composition whatever -topics were suited to his purpose, and ascribed sentiments to the wife -which he had copied from the husband. There is nothing in the work to -indicate that the author had read the Latin text, since he always -adheres to the English rendering of the corrupted French version. Bishop -Horne held that the original prose was finer than Pope's verse.[575] I -cannot assent to this judgment. The poem has the superiority in every -particular--in the beauty of the language, in the picturesqueness of the -descriptions, in the fervour of the contrasted passions, in the -animation of the transitions, in the solemnity of the accompaniments, -and above all, in the pathos. The singularity of Horne's estimate may be -explained by his imperfect recollection of the productions he -criticised. To the allegation of Sir John Hawkins, that matrimony was -depreciated and concubinage justified in the poetical epistle, he -replies, that the censure "is founded on a false fact, because Abelard -was married." The observation is a proof that Horne had forgotten the -argument in favour of concubinage which occurs alike in the English -verse and the Latin prose. Hallam accuses Pope of having "done great -injustice to Eloisa by putting the sentiments of a coarse and abandoned -woman into her mouth." But the licentious doctrines which Pope utters in -her name are in the original Latin, except that when she asserts that -love is inconsistent with marriage, she speaks of her individual case, -and does not avowedly lay down a general maxim. Nor can Pope be charged -with misrepresentation because the language in which he expresses her -sensual cravings is not always borrowed from her pretended confessions. -As he has not exaggerated the dominion of her appetite, nor the -plainness with which she avows it, he cannot be said to have degraded -the copy below the model by an occasional variation in the forms of -speech. In fact the increased fervour he has imparted to her religious -aspirations renders his portrait the more elevated of the two. The -censure to which he lies open is not for deviating from his text but for -following it too faithfully. - -"The Epistle of Heloisa," says Wordsworth, "may be considered as a -species of monodrama," and he classes it under the head of dramatic -poetry. The painter of an ideal countenance omits the subordinate -details which do not contribute to the special expression he desires to -convey. By isolating he intensifies it. The holy calm of Raphael's -Madonnas would be marred by the introduction of all those minutiæ in the -living face which are not concerned in the dominant sentiment. A -monodramatic poem which turns upon a single conflict of feeling -possesses a kindred advantage. The one absorbing struggle has undivided -sway, and there is nothing to distract attention from the pervading -emotion. This unity of purpose was present to Pope's mind with absolute -distinctness, and he has executed his conception with wonderful force. -The combat between Heloisa's earthly inclinations and heavenly -convictions, the impetuosity with which she passes from one to the -other, the tempest in her soul whichever mood prevails, deep alternately -calling to deep, are depicted with concentrated energy, and continuous -pathos. Her glowing thoughts are vehement without exaggeration, and the -natural outbursts are untainted by spurious artifice. - -"Mr. Pope's Eloisa to Abelard is," says Mason, "such a _chef-d'oeuvre_ -that nothing of the kind can be relished after it. Yet it is not the -story itself, nor the sympathy it excites in us, as Dr. Johnson would -have us think, that constitutes the principal merit in that incomparable -poem. It is the happy use he has made of the monastic gloom of the -Paraclete, and of what I will call papistical machinery, which gives it -its capital charm, so that I am almost inclined to wonder (if I could -wonder at any of that writer's criticisms) that he did not take notice -of this beauty, as his own superstitious turn certainly must have given -him more than a sufficient relish for it."[577] The buildings and -scenery, solemn and sombre, undoubtedly heighten the effect. There is an -impressive harmony between the over-cast mind of Heloisa, and the -objects around her, which deepens the sadness. But the comment of Mason -is unfounded. Johnson _did_ "notice" the "beauty" derived from the gloom -of the convent, while the assertion that this is the "principal merit" -of the poem is an extravagant subordination of the human interest, which -is the main subject of the Epistle, to the comparatively brief though -exquisite description of the local accompaniments. Mason disliked and -dreaded Johnson, and avenged himself when Johnson was dead, by feeble -expressions of contempt. - -The Rape of the Lock and the Epistle to Eloisa stand alone in Pope's -works. He produced nothing else which resembled them. They have the -merit of being master-pieces in opposite styles. The first is -remarkable for its delicious fancy and sportive satire; the second for -its fervid passion and tender melancholy. Two poems of such rare and -such different excellence would alone entitle Pope to his fame. Like -most great authors he published not a little which is mediocre, but he -is to be estimated by the qualities in which he soared above the herd, -and not by the lower range of mind he possessed in common with inferior -men. The Rape of the Lock is a higher effort of genius than the Epistle. -Pope's adaptation of his aery, refulgent sylphs to the ephemeral -trivialities of fashionable life, the admirable art with which he fitted -his fairy machinery to the follies and common-places of a giddy London -day, the poetic grace which he threw around his sarcastic narrative, and -which unites with it as naturally as does the rose with its thorny stem, -are all unborrowed beauties, and consummate in their kind. The story and -sentiments of Heloisa were prepared to his hand, and the power is -limited to the strength and sweetness of his language and versification, -and to the vigour with which he appropriated and expanded a single -leading idea. His imagination was not prolific, and his thoughts seldom -sprung from within. Sir William Napier said to Moore, "You are a poet by -force of will; Byron by force of nature," which Moore acknowledged to be -true. Pope, like Moore, was a poet because from his childhood he had -assiduously cultivated poetry. The bulk of his works are either direct -translations, or freer renderings under the name of imitations, and -putting aside the Rape of the Lock, and parts of his satires, the -materials of his original pieces, such as the Essay on Criticism, and -Essay on Man, are mostly taken from other authors. The thoughts in the -Epistle of Eloisa are not more his own than his critical rules, and -ethical philosophy, but the passionate emotions are more poetical, and -the execution more finished. Of Pope's better qualities the chief -appears to have been a certain tenderness of heart, and this enabled him -to enter into the feelings of Heloisa. He employed all the resources of -his choicest verse to perfect the picture, and though the details he -transferred from the letters deprived him of the credit of invention, -the supposed historic truth of the representation increased the effect. -The difference between legitimate and worthless imitation could not be -more forcibly illustrated than by comparing the tame landscape, and -affected love-babble of his Pastorals with the local descriptions and -impassioned strains in his Epistle of Eloisa. - - - - - THE ARGUMENT. - - -Abelard and Eloisa flourished in the twelfth century. They were two of -the most distinguished persons of their age in learning and beauty, but -for nothing more famous than for their unfortunate passion. After a long -course of calamities, they retired each to a several convent, and -consecrated the remainder of their days to religion. It was many years -after this separation, that a letter of Abelard's to a friend, which -contained the history of his misfortune, fell into the hands of Eloisa. -This, awakening all her tenderness, occasioned those celebrated letters -(out of which the following is partly extracted) which give so lively a -picture of the struggles of grace and nature, virtue and passion. - - - ELOISA TO ABELARD. - - In these deep solitudes and awful cells, - Where heav'nly-pensive contemplation dwells, - And ever-musing melancholy reigns, - What means this tumult in a vestal's veins? - Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat? 5 - Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat? - Yet, yet I love!--From Abelard it came,[578] - And Eloisa yet must kiss the name.[579] - Dear fatal name! rest ever unrevealed, - Nor pass these lips in holy silence sealed: 10 - Hide it, my heart, within that close disguise, - Where, mixed with God's, his loved idea[580] lies: - O write it not, my hand--the name appears - Already written[581]--wash it out, my tears![582] - In vain lost Eloisa weeps and prays, 15 - Her heart still dictates, and her hand obeys. - Relentless walls! whose darksome round contains[583] - Repentant sighs, and voluntary pains: - Ye rugged rocks, which holy knees have worn; - Ye grots and caverns, shagged with horrid thorn![584] 20 - Shrines! where their vigils pale-eyed virgins keep,[585] - And pitying saints, whose statues learn to weep![586] - Though cold like you, unmoved and silent grown, - I have not yet forgot myself to stone.[587] - All is not heaven's while Abelard has part;[588] 25 - Still rebel nature holds out half my heart; - Nor pray'rs nor fasts its stubborn pulse restrain, - Nor tears, for ages taught to flow in vain. - Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose, - That well-known name awakens all my woes.[589] 30 - Oh name for ever sad! for ever dear![590] - Still breathed in sighs, still ushered with a tear.[591] - I tremble too, where'er my own I find, - Some dire misfortune follows close behind.[592] - Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow, 35 - Led through a sad variety of woe:[593] - Now warm in love, now with'ring in my bloom,[594] - Lost in a convent's solitary gloom! - There stern religion quenched th' unwilling flame, - There died the best of passions, love and fame.[595] 40 - Yet write, oh write me all, that I may join - Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine.[596] - Nor foes nor fortune take this pow'r away;[597] - And is my Abelard less kind than they? - Tears still are mine, and those I need not spare; 45 - Love but demands what else were shed in pray'r;[598] - No happier task these faded eyes pursue; - To read and weep is all they now can do.[599] - Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief; - Ah, more than share it, give me all thy grief.[600] 50 - Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid,[601] - Some banished lover, or some captive maid; - They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires, - Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires, - The virgin's wish without her fears impart, 55 - Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart,[602] - Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, - And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.[603] - Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame,[604] - When love approached me under friendship's name;[605] 60 - My fancy formed thee of angelic kind, - Some emanation of th' all-beauteous Mind,[606] - Those smiling eyes, attemp'ring ev'ry ray, - Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day;[607] - Guiltless I gazed; heav'n listened while you sung;[608] 65 - And truths divine came mended from that tongue.[609] - From lips like those, what precept failed to move? - Too soon they taught me 'twas no sin to love: - Back through the paths of pleasing sense I ran,[610] - Nor wished an angel whom I loved a man.[611] 70 - Dim and remote the joys of saints I see: - Nor envy them that heav'n I lose for thee. - How oft, when pressed to marriage, have I said, - Curse on all laws but those which love has made![612] - Love, free as air, at sight of human ties, 75 - Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.[613] - Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame, - August her deed, and sacred be her fame;[614] - Before true passion all those views remove; - Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to love? 80 - The jealous god, when we profane his fires, - Those restless passions in revenge inspires, - And bids them make mistaken mortals groan, - Who seek in love for aught but love alone.[615] - Should at my feet the world's great master fall, 85 - Himself, his throne, his world, I'd scorn them all; - Not Cæsar's empress would I deign to prove;[616] - No, make me mistress to the man I love; - If there be yet another name more free,[617] - More fond than mistress,[618] make me that to thee. 90 - Oh! happy state! when souls each other draw, - When love is liberty, and nature, law:[619] - All then is full, possessing and possessed, - No craving void left aching in the breast:[620] - Ev'n thought meets thought, ere from the lips it part, 95 - And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart. - This sure is bliss, if bliss on earth there be, - And once the lot of Abelard and me.[621] - Alas, how changed! what sudden horrors rise! - A naked lover bound and bleeding lies![622] 100 - Where, where was Eloise? her voice, her hand, - Her poniard, had opposed the dire command.[623] - Barbarian, stay! that bloody stroke[624] restrain; - The crime was common, common be the pain.[625] - I can no more; by shame, by rage suppressed,[626] 105 - Let tears, and burning blushes speak the rest.[627] - Canst thou forget that sad, that solemn day, - When victims at yon[628] altar's foot we lay? - Canst thou forget what tears that moment fell, - When, warm in youth, I bade the world farewell?[629] 110 - As with cold lips I kissed the sacred veil,[630] - The shrines all trembled, and the lamps grew pale:[631] - Heav'n scarce believed the conquest it surveyed, - And saints with wonder heard the vows I made. - Yet then, to those dread altars as I drew, 115 - Not on the cross my eyes were fixed, but you;[632] - Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call, - And if I lose thy love, I lose my all. - Come! with thy looks, thy words, relieve my woe;[633] - Those still at least are left thee to bestow.[634] 120 - Still on that breast enamoured let me lie, - Still drink delicious poison from thy eye,[635] - Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be pressed; - Give all thou canst--and let me dream the rest. - Ah no! instruct me other joys to prize, 125 - With other beauties charm my partial eyes, - Full in my view set all the bright abode, - And make my soul quit Abelard for God. - Ah, think at least thy flock deserves thy care,[636] - Plants of thy hand, and children of thy pray'r; 130 - From the false world in early youth they fled, - By thee to mountains, wilds, and deserts led.[637] - You raised these hallowed walls;[638] the desert smiled, - And Paradise was opened in the wild.[639] - No weeping orphan saw his father's stores 135 - Our shrines irradiate, or emblaze the floors:[640] - No silver saints, by dying misers giv'n, - Here bribed the rage of ill-requited heav'n: - But such plain roofs as piety could raise,[641] - And only vocal with the Maker's praise.[642] 140 - In these lone walls (their day's eternal bound), - These moss-grown domes with spiry turrets crowned, - Where awful arches make a noon-day night, - And the dim windows shed a solemn light,[643] - Thy eyes diffused a reconciling ray,[644] 145 - And gleams of glory brightened all the day.[645] - But now no face divine contentment wears, - 'Tis all blank sadness, or continual tears. - See how the force of others' pray'rs I try,[646] - O pious fraud of am'rous charity! 150 - But why should I on others' pray'rs depend?[647] - Come thou, my father, brother, husband, friend! - Ah, let thy handmaid, sister, daughter, move,[648] - And all those tender names in one, thy love![649] - The darksome pines that, o'er yon rocks reclined,[650] 155 - Wave high, and murmur to the hollow wind,[651] - The wand'ring streams that shine between the hills,[652] - The grots that echo to the tinkling rills,[653] - The dying gales that pant upon the trees,[654] - The lakes that quiver to the curling breeze;[655] 160 - No more these scenes my meditation aid, - Or lull to rest the visionary maid.[656] - But o'er the twilight groves[657] and dusky caves, - Long-sounding aisles, and intermingled graves, - Black Melancholy sits, and round her throws 165 - A death-like silence, and a dread repose:[658] - Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene, - Shades ev'ry flow'r, and darkens ev'ry green,[659] - Deepens the murmur of the falling floods, - And breathes a browner horror on the woods.[660] 170 - Yet here for ever, ever must I stay; - Sad proof how well a lover can obey![661] - Death, only death, can break the lasting chain; - And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain;[662] - Here all its frailties, all its flames resign, 175 - And wait till 'tis no sin to mix with thine.[663] - Ah wretch! believed the spouse of God in vain, - Confessed within the slave of love and man. - Assist me, heav'n! but whence arose that pray'r? - Sprung it from piety, or from despair?[664] 180 - Ev'n here, where frozen chastity retires, - Love finds an altar for forbidden fires.[665] - I ought to grieve, but cannot what I ought; - I mourn the lover, not lament the fault;[666] - I view my crime, but kindle at the view, 185 - Repent old pleasures, and solicit new;[667] - Now turned to heav'n, I weep my past offence, - Now think of thee, and curse my innocence. - Of all affliction taught a lover yet, - 'Tis sure the hardest science to forget![668] 190 - How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, - And love th' offender, yet detest th' offence?[669] - How the dear object from the crime remove, - Or how distinguish penitence from love?[670] - Unequal task! a passion to resign, 195 - For hearts so touched, so pierced, so lost as mine. - Ere such a soul regains its peaceful state, - How often must it love, how often hate![671] - How often hope, despair, resent, regret, - Conceal, disdain,--do all things but forget. 200 - But let heav'n seize it, all at once 'tis fired; - Not touched, but rapt; not wakened, but inspired![672] - Oh come! oh teach me nature to subdue, - Renounce my love, my life, myself--and you.[673] - Fill my fond heart with God alone, for he 205 - Alone can rival, can succeed to thee.[674] - How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! - The world forgetting, by the world forgot:[675] - Eternal sun-shine of the spotless mind! - Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resigned; 210 - Labour and rest, that equal periods keep; - "Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;"[676] - Desires composed, affections ever even; - Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heav'n. - Grace shines around her, with serenest beams, 215 - And whisp'ring angels prompt her golden dreams. - For her, th' unfading rose of Eden blooms, - And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes, - For her the spouse prepares the bridal ring, - For her white virgins hymeneals sing, 220 - To sounds of heav'nly harps she dies away,[677] - And melts in visions of eternal day.[678] - Far other dreams my erring soul employ, - Far other raptures, of unholy joy: - When at the close of each sad, sorrowing day, 225 - Fancy restores what vengeance snatched away, - Then conscience sleeps, and leaving nature free, - All my loose soul unbounded springs to thee. - Oh cursed, dear horrors of all-conscious night! - How glowing guilt exalts the keen delight![679] 230 - Provoking demons all restraint remove, - And stir within me ev'ry source of love. - I hear thee, view thee, gaze o'er all thy charms, - And round thy phantom glue my clasping arms. - I wake:--no more I hear, no more I view, 235 - The phantom flies me, as unkind as you. - I call aloud; it hears not what I say: - I stretch my empty arms; it glides away. - To dream once more I close my willing eyes; - Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise;[680] 240 - Alas, no more!--methinks we wand'ring go - Through dreary wastes, and weep each other's woe,[681] - Where round some mould'ring tow'r pale ivy creeps, - And low-browed rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps. - Sudden you mount, you beckon from the skies; 245 - Clouds interpose, waves roar, and winds arise. - I shriek, start up, the same sad prospect find, - And wake to all the griefs I left behind. - For thee the fates, severely kind,[682] ordain - A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain; 250 - Thy life a long dead calm of fixed repose; - No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows;[683] - Still as the sea, ere winds were taught to blow, - Or moving spirit bade the waters flow;[684] - Soft as the slumbers of a saint forgiv'n, 255 - And mild as op'ning gleams of promised heav'n.[685] - Come, Abelard! for what hast thou to dread? - The torch of Venus burns not for the dead.[686] - Nature stands checked; religion disapproves; - Ev'n thou art cold--yet Eloisa loves. 260 - Ah hopeless, lasting flames! like those that burn - To light the dead, and warm th' unfruitful urn.[687] - What scenes appear where'er I turn my view? - The dear ideas, where I fly, pursue, - Rise in the grove, before the altar rise,[688] 265 - Stain all my soul, and wanton in my eyes. - I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee, - Thy image steals between my God and me,[689] - Thy voice I seem in ev'ry hymn to hear, - With ev'ry bead I drop too soft a tear.[690] 270 - When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll, - And swelling organs lift the rising soul, - One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight, - Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight;[691] - In seas of flame my plunging soul is drowned, 275 - While altars blaze, and angels tremble round.[692] - While prostrate here in humble grief I lie, - Kind, virtuous drops just gath'ring in my eye, - While praying, trembling, in the dust I roll, - And dawning grace is op'ning on my soul: 280 - Come, if thou dar'st, all charming as thou art! - Oppose thyself to heav'n; dispute my heart: - Come, with one glance of those deluding eyes - Blot out each bright idea of the skies; - Take back that grace, those sorrows, and those tears; 285 - Take back my fruitless penitence and pray'rs; - Snatch me, just mounting, from the bless'd abode; - Assist the fiends, and tear me from my God![693] - No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole;[694] - Rise alps between us! and whole oceans roll![695] 290 - Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me, - Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee. - Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign;[696] - Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine. - Fair eyes, and tempting looks, (which yet I view!) 295 - Long loved, adored ideas, all adieu! - Oh grace serene! oh virtue heav'nly fair![697] - Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care![698] - Fresh-blooming hope, gay daughter of the sky! - And faith, our early immortality![699] 300 - Enter, each mild, each amicable guest: - Receive, and wrap me in eternal rest. - See in her cell sad Eloisa spread, - Propped on some tomb, a neighbour of the dead.[700] - In each low wind methinks a spirit calls, 305 - And more than echoes talk along the walls.[701] - Here, as I watched the dying lamps around, - From yonder shrine I heard a hollow sound. - "Come, sister, come! (it said, or seemed to say).[702] - "Thy place is here, sad sister, come away;[703] 310 - "Once like thyself, I trembled, wept, and prayed, - Love's victim then, though now a sainted maid:[704] - But all is calm in this eternal sleep;[705] - Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep, - Ev'n superstition loses every fear: 315 - For God, not man, absolves our frailties here." - I come, I come![706] prepare your roseate bow'rs, - Celestial palms, and ever-blooming flow'rs; - Thither, where sinners may have rest, I go, - Where flames refined in breasts seraphic glow: 320 - Thou, Abelard! the last sad office pay,[707] - And smooth my passage to the realms of day:[708] - See my lips tremble, and my eye-balls roll, - Suck my last breath, and catch my flying soul![709] - Ah no--in sacred vestments may'st thou stand, 325 - The hallowed taper trembling in thy hand, - Present the cross before my lifted eye, - Teach me at once, and learn of me to die.[710] - Ah then, thy once-loved Eloisa see! - It will be then no crime to gaze on me. 330 - See from my cheek the transient roses fly![711] - See the last sparkle languish in my eye! - 'Till ev'ry motion, pulse, and breath be o'er; - And ev'n my Abelard be loved no more. - Oh death all-eloquent! you only prove 335 - What dust we doat on, when 'tis man we love.[712] - Then too, when fate shall thy fair fame destroy, - (That cause of all my guilt, and all my joy)[713] - In trance ecstatic may thy pangs be drowned, - Bright clouds descend, and angels watch thee round, 340 - From op'ning skies may streaming glories shine, - And saints embrace thee with a love like mine. - May one kind grave unite each hapless name,[714] - And graft my love immortal on thy fame! - Then, ages hence, when all my woes are o'er, 345 - When this rebellious heart shall beat no more; - If ever chance two wand'ring lovers brings - To Paraclete's white walls and silver springs, - O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads, - And drink the falling tears each other sheds;[715] 350 - Then sadly say, with mutual pity moved, - "Oh may we never love as these have loved!" - From the full choir[716] when loud hosannas rise, - And swell the pomp of dreadful sacrifice,[717] - Amid that scene if some relenting eye 355 - Glance on the stone where our cold relics lie, - Devotion's self shall steal a thought from heav'n, - One human tear shall drop, and be forgiv'n. - And sure if fate some future bard shall join - In sad similitude of griefs to mine, 360 - Condemned whole years in absence to deplore, - And image charms he must behold no more; - Such if there be, who loves so long, so well; - Let him our sad, our tender story tell; - The well-sung woes will sooth my pensive ghost;[718] 365 - He best can paint them who shall feel them most.[719] - - - - - AN - - ESSAY ON MAN, - - IN FOUR EPISTLES - - TO - - HENRY ST. JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE. - - WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1732. - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN.--ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND. Part I. - -London: Printed for J. WILFORD, at the Three Flower-de-luces, behind - the Chapter-house, St. Paul's. Price one shilling. Folio. - -This is the first edition of Epistle I. of the Essay on Man, which was -published anonymously, and without any date on the title-page, Feb. -1733. It was also printed in quarto and octavo. The octavo has not the -prefatory address "To the Reader." The right to print each epistle of -the Essay on Man for one year was bought by Gilliver for 50_l_. an -Epistle. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN.--IN EPISTLES TO A FRIEND. Epistle I. - - Corrected by the Author. London, etc. Folio. - -The rest of the title-page is the same as in the first edition. This -second edition has a table of Contents to the first three Epistles, -which were originally published without the table. The fourth Epistle -had the table prefixed from the outset. With the exception of the first -Epistle, I am not aware that there was a second edition of any part of -the Essay on Man till the whole was incorporated in the works of the -poet. An octavo edition, published by WILFORD in 1736, is called the -seventh; but he may have counted in the three sizes of the first -edition, together with the editions which had appeared in Pope's works. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN.--IN EPISTLES TO A FRIEND. Epistle II. - -London: Printed for J. WILFORD, at the Three Flower-de-luces, behind - the Chapter-house, St. Paul's. Price one shilling. Folio. - -The second Epistle appeared about April, 1733. - -The title of the third and fourth Epistle is the same as that of the -second. At the end of the third Epistle is this notice: "N.B. The rest -of the work will be published the next winter," and the promise was kept -by the publication of the fourth Epistle about the middle of January, -1734. The last three Epistles were printed like their precursor, in -quarto and octavo, as well as folio. The octavo edition of all four -Epistles differs from the rest in having the year on the -title-page,--the first three, 1733, the fourth Epistle, 1734. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN: BEING THE FIRST BOOK OF ETHIC EPISTLES. - - To H. ST. JOHN L. BOLINGBROKE. With the Commentary and Notes of W. - WARBURTON, A.M. - -London: Printed by W. BOWYER for M. COOPER, at the Globe, in - Paternoster-Row, 1743. 4to. - -This is the first edition with Warburton's Commentary, and the last -which appeared during the life-time of Pope. The Essay on Criticism is -in the same volume, which was kept back for some months after it was -printed, and was not published till 1744. - -Warburton and Hurd have introduced a new kind of criticism, in which -they discover views and purposes the authors never had, and they -themselves never believed they had, but consider them as the refinements -of their own delicate conceptions, only taking hints from these authors, -to show how much higher they themselves would have carried the same -ideas. Warburton's discovering "the regularity" of Pope's Essay on -Criticism, and "the whole scheme" of his Essay on Man, I happen to know -to be mere absurd refinement in creating conformities, and that from -Pope himself, though he thought fit to adopt them afterwards. By this -method of overlooking the plain and simple meaning which presents itself -at first sight (as that of good authors always does, only that there is -no credit to be gained in discovering what any one else could discover) -it might clearly be shown that Pope's Art of Criticism, is, indeed, an -Essay on Man, and his Essay on Man was really designed by the deep -author for an Art of Criticism. I know that these would not be more -false than the assertion and sophistry in proving "the regularity" of -his Art of Criticism, since he, when often speaking of it, before he so -much as knew Warburton, spoke of it always, as an "irregular collection -of thoughts thrown together as they offered themselves, as Horace's Art -of Poetry was, and written in imitation of that irregularity," which he -even admired, and said was beautiful. As for his Essay on Man, as I was -witness to the whole conduct of it in writing, and actually have his -original MSS. for it from the first scratches of the four books, to the -several finished copies, all which, with the MS. of his Essay on -Criticism, and several of his other works, he gave me himself for the -pains I took in collating the whole with the printed editions, at his -request, on my having proposed to him the "making an edition of his -works in the manner of Boileau's,"--as to this noblest of his works, I -know that he never dreamed of the scheme he afterwards adopted, perhaps -for good reasons, for he had taken terror about the clergy, and -Warburton himself, at the general alarm of its fatalism, and deistical -tendency, of which however we talked with him (my father and I) -frequently at Twickenham, without his appearing to understand it -otherwise, or ever thinking to alter those passages, which we suggested -as what might seem the most exceptionable.[720]--RICHARDSON. - -The Essay on Man was at first given, as Mr. Pope told me, to Dr. Young, -to Dr. Desaguliers,[721] to Lord Bolingbroke, to Lord Paget,[722] and in -short to everybody but to him who was capable of writing it. While -several of his acquaintances read the Essay on Man as the work of an -unknown author, they fairly owned they did not understand it,[723] but -when the reputation of the poem became secured by the knowledge of the -writer, it soon grew so clear and intelligible, that, on the appearance -of the Comment on it, they told him they wondered the editor should -think a large and minute interpretation necessary.--WARBURTON. - -[In 1733] Pope published the first part of what he persuaded himself to -think a system of ethics, under the title of an Essay on Man, which, if -his letter to Swift of September 14, 1725, be rightly explained by the -commentator,[724] had been eight years under his consideration, and of -which he seems to have desired the success with great solicitude. He had -now many open and doubtless many secret enemies. The dunces were yet -smarting with the war; and the superiority which he publicly arrogated -disposed the world to wish his humiliation. All this he knew, and -against all this he provided. His own name, and that of his friend to -whom the work is inscribed,[725] were in the first editions carefully -suppressed, and the poem, being of a new kind, was ascribed to one or -another, as favour determined or conjecture wandered: it was given, says -Warburton, to every man except him only who could write it. Those who -like only when they like the author, and who are under the dominion of a -name, condemned it, and those admired it who are willing to scatter -praise at random, which while it is unappropriated excites no envy. -Those friends of Pope that were trusted with the secret went about -lavishing honours on the new-born poet, and hinting that Pope was never -so much in danger from any former rival. To those authors whom he had -personally offended, and to those whose opinion the world considered as -decisive, and whom he suspected of envy or malevolence, he sent his -Essay as a present before publication, that they might defeat their own -enmity by praises which they could not afterwards decently retract. With -these precautions, in 1732[3] was published the first part of the Essay -on Man. There had been for some time a report that Pope was busy upon a -system of morality; but this design was not discovered in the new poem, -which had a form and a title with which its readers were unacquainted. -Its reception was not uniform; some thought it a very imperfect piece, -though not without good lines. While the author was unknown, some, as -will always happen, favoured him as an adventurer, and some censured him -as an intruder, but all thought him above neglect: the sale increased, -and editions were multiplied. The second and third Epistles were -published, and Pope was, I believe, more and more suspected of writing -them. At last, in 1734, he avowed the fourth, and claimed the honour of -a moral poet. - -In the conclusion it is sufficiently acknowledged that the doctrine of -the Essay on Man was received from Bolingbroke, who is said to have -ridiculed Pope, among those who enjoyed his confidence, as having -adopted and advanced principles of which he did not perceive the -consequence, and as blindly propagating opinions contrary to his own. -That those communications had been consolidated into a scheme regularly -drawn, and delivered to Pope, from whom it returned only transformed -from prose to verse, has been reported, but hardly can be true.[726] The -Essay plainly appears the fabric of a poet: what Bolingbroke supplied -could be only the first principles; the order, illustration, and -embellishments must all be Pope's. These principles it is not my -business to clear from obscurity, dogmatism, or falsehood; but they were -not immediately examined: philosophy and poetry have not often the same -readers, and the Essay abounded in splendid amplifications and sparkling -sentences, which were read and admired with no great attention to their -ultimate purpose; its flowers caught the eye, which did not see what the -gay foliage concealed, and for a time flourished in the sunshine of -universal approbation. So little was any evil tendency discovered, that, -as innocence is unsuspicious, many read it for a manual of piety. - -Its reputation soon invited a translator. It was first turned into -French prose, and afterwards by Resnel into verse. Both translations -fell into the hands of Crousaz, who first, when he had the version in -prose, wrote a general censure, and afterwards reprinted Resnel's -version with particular remarks upon every paragraph.[727] Crousaz was a -professor of Switzerland, eminent for his treatise of Logic, and his -Examen de Pyrrhonisme, and, however little known or regarded here, was -no mean antagonist. His mind was one of those in which philosophy and -piety are happily united. He was accustomed to argument and -disquisition, and was perhaps grown too desirous of detecting faults; -but his intentions were always right, his opinions were solid, and his -religion pure. His incessant vigilance for the promotion of piety -disposed him to look with distrust upon all metaphysical systems of -theology, and all schemes of virtue and happiness purely rational; and -therefore it was not long before he was persuaded that the positions of -Pope, as they terminated for the most part in natural religion, were -intended to draw mankind away from revelation, and to represent the -whole course of things as a necessary concatenation of indissoluble -fatality; and it is undeniable that, in many passages, a religious eye -may easily discover expressions not very favourable to morals or -liberty. - -About this time Warburton began to make his appearance in the first -ranks of learning. He was a man of vigorous faculties, a mind fervid and -vehement, supplied, by incessant and unlimited inquiry, with wonderful -extent and variety of knowledge, which yet had not oppressed his -imagination nor clouded his perspicacity. To every work he brought a -memory full fraught, together with a fancy fertile of original -combinations, and at once exerted the powers of the scholar, the -reasoner, and the wit. But his knowledge was too multifarious to be -always exact, and his pursuits too eager to be always cautious. His -abilities gave him a haughty confidence, which he disdained to conceal -or mollify; and his impatience of opposition disposed him to treat his -adversaries with such contemptuous superiority as made his readers -commonly his enemies, and excited against the advocate the wishes of -some who favoured the cause. He seems to have adopted the Roman -emperor's determination, "oderint dum metuant;" he used no allurements -of gentle language, but wished to compel rather than persuade. His style -is copious without selection, and forcible without neatness; he took the -words that presented themselves; his diction is coarse and impure, and -his sentences are unmeasured. He had in the early part of his life -pleased himself with the notice of inferior wits, and corresponded with -the enemies of Pope. A letter was produced when he had perhaps himself -forgotten it, in which he tells Concanen, "Dryden, I observe, borrows -for want of leisure, and Pope for want of genius; Milton out of pride, -and Addison out of modesty." And when Theobald published Shakespeare, in -opposition to Pope, the best notes were supplied by Warburton.[728] But -the time was now come when Warburton was to change his opinion, and Pope -was to find a defender in him who had contributed so much to the -exaltation of his rival. The arrogance of Warburton excited against him -every artifice of offence, and therefore it may be supposed that his -union with Pope was censured as hypocritical inconstancy; but surely to -think differently at different times of poetical merit may be easily -allowed. Such opinions are often admitted and dismissed without nice -examination. Who is there that has not found reason for changing his -opinion about questions of greater importance? Warburton, whatever was -his motive, undertook, without solicitation, to rescue Pope from the -talons of Crousaz, by freeing him from the imputation of favouring -fatality or rejecting revelation; and from month to month continued a -vindication of the Essay on Man in the literary journal of that time, -called The Republic of Letters.[729] Pope, who probably began to doubt -the tendency of his own work, was glad that the positions, of which he -perceived himself not to know the full meaning, could by any mode of -interpretation be made to mean well. How much he was pleased with his -gratuitous defender the following letter evidently shows:-- - - - "APRIL 11, 1739. - - "SIR,--I have just received from Mr. R[obinson][730] two more of - your letters. It is in the greatest hurry imaginable that I write - this; but I cannot help thanking you in particular for your third - letter, which is so extremely clear, short, and full, that I think - Mr. Crousaz ought never to have another answer, and deserved not - so good an one. I can only say you do him too much honour, and me - too much right, so odd as the expression seems; for you have made - my system as clear as I ought to have done, and could not. It is - indeed the same system as mine, but illustrated with a ray of your - own, as they say our natural body is the same still when it is - glorified. I am sure I like it better than I did before, and so - will every man else. I know I meant just what you explain; but I - did not explain my own meaning so well as you. You understand me - as well as I do myself; but you express me better than I could - express myself. Pray accept the sincerest acknowledgments. I - cannot but wish these letters were put together in one book,[731] - and intend, with your leave, to procure a translation of part, at - least, or of all of them into French; but I shall not proceed a - step without your consent and opinion, etc." - -By this fond and eager acceptance of an exculpatory comment, Pope -testified that whatever might be the seeming or real import of the -principles which he had received from Bolingbroke, he had not -intentionally attacked religion; and Bolingbroke, if he meant to make -him, without his own consent, an instrument of mischief, found him now -engaged, with his eyes open, on the side of truth. It is known that -Bolingbroke concealed from Pope his real opinions. He once discovered -them to Mr. Hooke, who related them again to Pope, and was told by him -that he must have mistaken the meaning of what he heard; and -Bolingbroke, when Pope's uneasiness incited him to desire an -explanation, declared that Hooke had misunderstood him. Bolingbroke -hated Warburton, who had drawn his pupil from him; and a little before -Pope's death they had a dispute from which they parted with mutual -aversion.[732] From this time Pope lived in the closest intimacy with -his commentator, and amply rewarded his kindness and his zeal; for he -introduced him to Mr. Murray, by whose interest he became preacher at -Lincoln's Inn, and to Mr. Allen, who gave him his niece and his estate, -and by consequence a bishopric. When he died, he left him the property -of his works, a legacy which may be reasonably estimated at four -thousand pounds. - -Pope's fondness for the Essay on Man appeared by his desire of its -propagation. Dobson, who had gained reputation by his version of Prior's -Solomon, was employed by him to translate it into Latin verse, and was -for that purpose some time at Twickenham; but he left his work, whatever -was the reason, unfinished,[733] and, by Benson's invitation, undertook -the longer task of Paradise Lost. Pope then desired his friend[734] to -find a scholar who should turn his Essay into Latin prose, but no such -performance has ever appeared. - -The Essay on Man was a work of great labour and long consideration, but -certainly not the happiest of Pope's performances. The subject is -perhaps not very proper for poetry, and the poet was not sufficiently -master of his subject; metaphysical morality was to him a new study, he -was proud of his acquisitions, and, supposing himself master of great -secrets, was in haste to teach what he had not learned. Thus he tells -us, in the first epistle, that from the nature of the Supreme Being may -be deduced an order of beings such as mankind, because infinite -excellence can do only what is best. He finds out that these beings must -be "somewhere," and that "all the question is whether man be in a wrong -place." Surely if, according to the poet's Leibnitzian reasoning, we may -infer that man ought to be, only because he is, we may allow that his -place is the right place because he has it. Supreme Wisdom is not less -infallible in disposing than in creating. But what is meant by -"somewhere," and "place," and "wrong place," it had been vain to ask -Pope, who probably had never asked himself. - -Having exalted himself into the chair of wisdom, he tells us much that -every man knows, and much that he does not know himself: that we see -but little, and that the order of the universe is beyond our -comprehension--an opinion not very uncommon; and that there is a chain -of subordinate beings "from infinite to nothing," of which himself and -his readers are equally ignorant. But he gives us one comfort which, -without his help, he supposes unattainable, in the position "that though -we are fools, yet God is wise." - -This Essay affords an egregious instance of the predominance of genius, -the dazzling splendour of imagery, and the seductive powers of -eloquence. Never was penury of knowledge, and vulgarity of sentiment, so -happily disguised. The reader feels his mind full, though he learns -nothing, and when he meets it in its new array, no longer knows the talk -of his mother and his nurse. When these wonder-working sounds sink into -sense, and the doctrine of the Essay, disrobed of its ornaments, is left -to the powers of its naked excellence, what shall we discover? That we -are, in comparison with our Creator, very weak and ignorant,--that we do -not uphold the chain of existence--and that we could not make one -another with more skill than we are made. We may learn yet more,--that -the arts of human life were copied from the instinctive operations of -other animals,--that if the world be made for man, it may be said that -man was made for geese.[735] To these profound principles of natural -knowledge are added some moral instructions equally new,--that self -interest, well understood, will produce social concord--that men are -mutual gainers by mutual benefits--that evil is sometimes balanced by -good--that human advantages are unstable and fallacious, of uncertain -duration and doubtful effect--that our true honour is not to have a -great part, but to act it well--that virtue only is our own--and that -happiness is always in our power. Surely a man of no very comprehensive -search may venture to say that he has heard all this before; but it was -never till now recommended by such a blaze of embellishments, or such -sweetness of melody. The vigorous contraction of some thoughts, the -luxuriant amplification of others, the incidental illustrations, and -sometimes the dignity, sometimes the softness of the verse, enchain -philosophy, suspend criticism, and oppress judgment by overpowering -pleasure. This is true of many paragraphs, yet if I had undertaken to -exemplify Pope's felicity of composition before a rigid critic, I should -not select the Essay on Man; for it contains more lines unsuccessfully -laboured, more harshness of diction, more thoughts imperfectly -expressed, more levity without elegance, and more heaviness without -strength, than will easily be found in all his other works.--JOHNSON. - -Pope has not wandered into any useless digressions; has employed no -fictions, no tale or story, and has relied chiefly on the poetry of his -style for the purpose of interesting his readers. His style is concise -and figurative, forcible and elegant. He has many metaphors and images, -artfully interspersed in the driest passages, which stood most in need -of such ornaments. Nevertheless there are too many lines, in this -performance, plain and prosaic. If any beauty be uncommonly transcendent -and peculiar, it is brevity of diction, which, in a few instances, and -those perhaps pardonable, has occasioned obscurity. It is hardly to be -imagined how much sense, how much thinking, how much observation on -human life, is condensed together in a small compass. - -The late Lord Bathurst repeatedly assured me that he had read the whole -scheme of the Essay on Man, in the handwriting of Bolingbroke, and drawn -up in a series of propositions, which Pope was to amplify, versify, and -illustrate. It has been alleged that Pope did not fully comprehend the -drift of the system communicated to him by Bolingbroke, but the -remarkable words of his intimate friend, Mr. Jonathan Richardson, a man -of known integrity and honour, clearly evince that he did. To the -testimony of Richardson, which is decisive, I will now add that Lord -Lyttelton, with his usual frankness and ingenuity, assured me that he -had frequently talked with Pope on the subject, whose opinions were at -that time conformable to his own, when he and his friends were too much -inclined to deism. Mr. Harte more than once assured me, that he had seen -the pressing letter Dr. Young wrote to Pope, urging him to write -something on the side of revelation, to which he alluded in the first -Night Thought: - - O! had he pressed his theme, pursued the track - Which opens out of darkness into day! - O! had he mounted on his wing of fire, - Soared when I sink, and sung immortal man. - -And when Harte frequently made the same request, he used to answer, "No, -no! You have already done it," alluding to Harte's Essay on Reason, -which Harte thought a lame apology, and hardly serious.--WARTON. - -The ground of the Essay on Man is philosophy, not poetry. The poetry is -only the colouring, if I may say so, and to the colouring the eye is -chiefly attentive. We hardly think of the philosophy whether it is good -or bad; whether it is profound or specious; whether it evinces deep -thinking, or exhibits only in new and pompous array the "babble of the -nurse." Scarcely any one, till a controversy was raised, thought of the -doctrines, but a thousand must have been warmed by the pictures, the -addresses, the sublime interspersions of description, and the nice and -harmonious precision of every word, and of almost every line. Whether, -as a system of philosophy, it inculcated fate or not, no one paused to -inquire;[736] but every eye read a thousand times, and every lip, -perhaps, repeated, "Lo, the poor Indian," "The lamb thy riot," "Oh, -happiness," and many other passages. All these illustrative and -secondary images are painted from the source of genuine poetry; from -nature, not from art. They therefore, independent of powers displayed in -the versification, raise the Essay on Man, considered in the abstract, -into genuine poetry, although the poetical part is subservient to the -philosophical. - -It must be confessed, unfair as Johnson's criticism is, it is not -entirely destitute of truth. Many of Pope's conclusions in this Essay, -after a vast deal of fine verbiage and apparent argument, are such as -required very little proof,--"though man's a fool, yet God is -wise,"--and many other axioms equally true. But can we say the whole -exhibits only a train of tritenesses? "Materiam superabat opus," it is -acknowledged; and possibly, had it been more recondite, it could not -have been made the vehicle of so many acknowledged beauties of -expression, of imagery, and of poetic illustration. The more it is read -the more it will be relished, and the more will the nice precision of -every word, and the general beauty of its structure, be acknowledged. -Though the treasures of knowledge within be not, perhaps, either very -rich or rare, yet, to say it contains no striking sentiments, no truths -placed in a more advanced as well as a more pleasing light, would be a -manifest and palpable injustice. After all, poetry is not a good vehicle -for philosophy, but as a philosophical poem, take it altogether, it -would not be very easy, with the exception of Lucretius, to find its -equal.--BOWLES. - -Bolingbroke amused his unwelcome leisure during his exile in studying -the infidel philosophy which prevailed in France. The vices of his -nature are conspicuous in his metaphysical writings. He pretends to -abstruse learning, and it is apparent that he has done little more than -pick up fragments of systems at second-hand. He assumes a commanding -superiority over his illustrious predecessors, of whom he commonly -speaks with insane contempt, and he has not enunciated a single new -doctrine, or put one old doctrine in a novel light. He affects to soar -above sinister motives and prejudices, and writes with the rancour of a -bitter partisan who is the creature of passion. He denounces the -dishonesty of christian apologists, and perpetually misrepresents them; -he inveighs against their inconsistencies, and falls himself into -repeated contradictions. The characteristics of the old political -debater are preserved intact in the philosopher. He kept his -parliamentary style with the rest,--the diffuse rhetoric, the constant -repetitions, the lengthy preparation for ideas not worth the prelude. -The mind droops over the pretentious verbiage, and the magnificent -promise of results which never come. "Who," said Burke, "now reads -Bolingbroke? Who ever read him through?"[737] The cheat once detected, -no one wearies himself in the pursuit of a flying phantom. - -In 1723 Bolingbroke was permitted to return to England. After a short -visit he went back to France, and did not settle here till October, -1724. He soon contracted an intimacy with Pope, and imparted to him his -irreligious metaphysics. Bolingbroke's knowledge of philosophy, though -not profound, was respectable, and with the uninformed he could disguise -his want of depth by a flux of specious language. Pope, ignorant of -mental, moral, and theological science, mistook his oracular arrogance -for real supremacy, his discordant sophisms for demonstrations, his -hackneyed plagiarisms for originality. He thought him by much the -greatest man he had ever known, and of all his titles to fame the chief -he imagined was as a "writer and philosopher."[738] He ranked him among -the metaphysical luminaries of the world, and never suspected that the -moment his disquisitions were communicated to the public they would be -tossed aside with disdain, and consigned to lasting neglect. - -Bolingbroke persuaded Pope to versify portions of the philosophy he -admired so extravagantly.[739] A large scheme was drawn up, the outline -of which Pope repeated to Spence. "The first book, you know, of my ethic -work is on the Nature of Man. The second would have been on knowledge -and its limits. Here would have come in an essay on education, part of -which I have inserted in the Dunciad. The third was to have treated of -government, both ecclesiastical and civil. The fourth would have been on -morality in eight or nine of the most concerning branches of it, four of -which would have been the two extremes to each of the cardinal -virtues."[740] These four cardinal virtues,--justice, temperance, -prudence, and fortitude--would alone have required twelve epistles, -since every virtue was to be treated on the Aristotelian plan, and -divided into rational medium, deficiency, and excess. The cardinal -virtues were either to be again subdivided, or else supplemented by -subordinate virtues, and all were to be presented under the triple form. -"Each class," said Pope, speaking of the "eight or nine most concerning -branches" of morality, "may take up three epistles: one, for instance, -against Avarice; another against Prodigality: and the third on the -moderate use of Riches, and so of the rest."[741] A short trial -convinced Pope that the scheme was too vast for a slow composer. When -the first book, which forms the Essay on Man, was completed, he told -Spence that "he had drawn in the plan much narrower than it was at -first," and he attached to some copies of the Essay, which he circulated -among his particular friends, a table of this diminished frame-work. - - "INDEX TO THE ETHIC EPISTLES. - - BOOK I.--OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN. - - Epistle 1.--With respect to the Universe. - " 2.--As an Individual. - " 3.--With respect to Society. - " 4.--With respect to Happiness. - - BOOK II.--OF THE USE OF THINGS. - - Of the Limits of Human Reason. - Of the Use of Learning. - Of the Use of Wit. - Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men. - Of the Particular Characters of Women. - Of the Principles and Use of Civil and Ecclesiastical Polity. - Of the Use of Education. - A View of the Equality of Happiness in the several Conditions of Men. - Of the Use of Riches."[742] - -The cardinal virtues, with nearly all "the most concerning branches of -morality," were omitted from the abbreviated plan, which was still too -large for Pope's patience, and he left much of the work unexecuted. - -He commenced with some of the topics enumerated in the second book of -his "index." "Bid Pope talk to you of the work he is about," wrote -Bolingbroke to Swift, Nov. 19, 1729. "It is a fine one, and will be, in -his hands, an original. His sole complaint is that he finds it too easy -in the execution. This flatters his laziness. It flatters my judgment -who always thought that, universal as his talents are, this is -eminently and peculiarly his above all the writers I know, living or -dead. I do not except Horace." "The work," adds Pope, "which Lord -Bolingbroke speaks of with such abundant partiality is a system of -ethics in the Horatian way." Bolingbroke's comparison of the work to -Horace, and Pope's phrase "the Horatian way," show that they spoke of -the Moral Essays, which, with the Essay on Man, were at first included -under the general title of Ethic Epistles. The resemblance to Horace -would not apply to the Essay on Man in substance or style,--not in -style, for Pope says himself that the Essay was modelled on "the grave -march of Lucretius" in contradistinction to the familiar "gaieties of -Horace,"[743]; not in substance, for Horace did not write a -philosophical poem on natural religion, nor could he have been placed by -Bolingbroke at the head of a class of philosophical poets to which he in -no way belonged. Neither could Bolingbroke have said of Pope that "the -talent eminently and peculiarly his, above all writers living or dead," -was the power of sounding the depths of philosophy. The praise was -intended for the satiric sketches of men and manners which make up the -Moral Essays. These are truly in the "Horatian way," and in a vein -characteristic of the bent of Pope's mind. - -Bolingbroke furnished little or nothing to the Horatian epistles. His -services commenced with the Essay on Man. Pope was revolving this part -of the scheme in May, 1730, when he said to Spence, "The first epistle -is to be to the whole work what a scale is to a book of maps; and in -this, I reckon, lies my greatest difficulty: not only in settling and -ranging the parts of it aright, but in making them agreeable enough to -be read with pleasure."[744] A few months later Bolingbroke writes to -Lord Bathurst, Oct. 8, 1730, that he and Pope "are at present deep in -metaphysics." The matter intended for the first epistle was expanded -into four epistles as the work proceeded, and in August, 1731, -Bolingbroke announced to Swift that three of them were completed, and -that the fourth was in hand. Eighteen months more elapsed before any -portion of the poem was published; and Pope doubtless spent the interval -in repeated revisions. It was not his habit to go straight forward in -regular order, and leave no gaps or flaws as he went along. When he told -Caryll in December, 1730, that he was "writing on life and manners, not -exclusive of religious regards," he adds, "I have many fragments which I -am beginning to put together, but nothing perfect or finished, nor in -any condition to be shown, except to a friend at a fire-side." This -system of composing disjointed fragments, and methodising them -afterwards, was unfavourable to continuity and comprehension of thought, -and did not help to diminish the want of connection in his arguments, -and of consistency in his opinions. - -The project of the Essay on Man was kept a secret from all but a few of -Pope's friends. To others he only spoke of his ethic epistles in the -"Horatian way." Caryll, on hearing from him that he had taken to -religion and morals, recommended Pascal's Thoughts, and Pope answered, -Feb. 6, 1731, "I have been beforehand with you in it, but he will be of -little use to my design, which is rather to ridicule ill men than to -preach to them. I fear our age is past all other correction." The Essay -on Man was then in full progress, and Pope sent a false report that the -style and tenor of the work might not betray him when it was published. -The first epistle appeared anonymously in February, 1733, and to divert -suspicion, the poet put forth in January, with his name, his Epistle on -the Use of Riches, and a week or two afterwards one of his Imitations of -Horace. He had a subtler contrivance for misleading the public. He made -"lane" rhyme to "name" in his second epistle, and told Harte the bad -rhyme was a disguise to escape detection. "Harte remembered," says -Warton, "to have often heard it urged in enquiries about the author, -whilst he was unknown, that it was impossible it could be Pope's on -account of this very passage."[745] Along with "lane" and "name," the -first and second epistles contained the rhymes which follow: "here, -refer--pierce, universe,--above, Jove--plain, man--fault, ought--food, -blood--home, come--abodes, gods--appears, bears--alone, none--race, -grass--flood, wood--want, elephant--join, line--alone, one--mourns, -burns--sphere, bear--rest, beast--sphere, fair--boast, frost--road, -God--preferred, guard--tossed, coast--joined, mind--caprice, vice." -There must have been some strange peculiarity in the ears of a -generation which could be revolted by "lane" and "name," and welcome -such rhymes as these. The anecdote cannot be correct. A liberal -admixture of faulty rhymes is a common characteristic of Pope, and the -disguise would have been greater if all the rhymes had been good.[746] - -Johnson has told Pope's motive for publishing the Essay anonymously, -and the manoeuvres he practised to secure commendation. He had -previously, when speaking to Swift of the Essay, professed his usual -indifference to praise. "I agree with you," he said, Dec. 1, 1731, "in -my contempt of most popularity, fame, &c. Even as a writer I am cool in -it, and whenever you see what I am now writing, you will be convinced I -would please but a few, and, if I could, make mankind less admirers and -greater reasoners." After the little plot had been played out, he still -kept up the false pretence in a letter to Duncombe, Oct. 20, 1734. -"Truly, I had not the least thought of stealing applause by suppressing -my name to that Essay. I wanted only to hear truth, and was more afraid -of my partial friends than enemies."[747] He lifted up the mask with -Swift, and avowed that his object was to get his philosophy approved. -"The design of concealing myself was good," he said, Sept. 15, 1734, -"and had its full effect; I was thought a divine, a philosopher, and -what not, and my doctrine had a sanction I could not have given to it." -He knew that friend and foe were aware that philosophy and divinity were -not his strength, and he wished to obtain a fictitious authority for his -work. He said to Caryll, March 8, 1733, "It is attributed, I think with -reason, to a divine," and the poet had probably circulated the report he -affected to believe. "I perceive the divines have no objection to it," -he wrote again on March 20, "though now it is agreed not to be written -by one,--Dr. Croxall, Dr. Secker, and some others having solemnly denied -it." The first reports decided the popular judgment. The orthodoxy of -the poem was taken upon trust, and when Pope owned the work in 1734, no -one cared to commence a fresh inquisition. - -An infidel who hated divines and divinity with all his heart, had -dictated the doctrines of the Essay on Man. "He mentioned then, and at -several other times," says Spence, in his record of Pope's conversation -during the years 1734-36, "how much, or rather how wholly he was obliged -to Lord Bolingbroke for the thoughts and reasonings in his moral work; -and once in particular said, that beside their frequent talking over -that subject together, he had received, I think, seven or eight sheets -from Lord Bolingbroke in relation to it (as I apprehended by way of -letters), both to direct the plan in general, and to supply the matter -for the particular epistles."[748] Pope frankly informed the world, in -the Essay itself, that he echoed the lessons of Bolingbroke, who was his -"guide and philosopher,"--the "master of the poet and the song." The -prose sketch of the "master" was seen by Lord Bathurst at the time, and -he testified to Warton and Blair from personal knowledge, that Pope -versified the arguments set down for him by Bolingbroke. - -Warburton reversed the parts. The "seven or eight sheets," which -contained Bolingbroke's prose draught of the Essay on Man, have not been -preserved in their original form, and he did not reduce his published -philosophy to writing till after the poem was commenced. "If," said -Warburton, in allusion to the latter circumstance, "you will take his -lordship's word, or, indeed, attend to his argument, you will find that -Pope was so far from putting his prose into verse that he has put Pope's -verse into prose."[749] But when Bolingbroke mentioned that the Essay on -Man was begun before his published disquisitions were committed to -paper, he added that they were "nothing more than repetitions of -conversations" with Pope.[750] This statement Warburton was dishonest -enough to suppress, and deliberately turned a half truth into a -falsehood. The ungarbled expressions of Bolingbroke confirm the -assurances of Pope and Bathurst, that he was the principal author of the -philosophy in the Essay on Man. Warburton could not keep to his -misrepresentation. When it was convenient for his purpose he changed his -story, and Pope became "a pupil who had to be reasoned out of -Bolingbroke's hands,"--a dupe who adopted Bolingbroke's insidious -doctrines without perceiving the infidelity, and who had to thank his -deliverer that "the poem was put on the side of religion."[751] - -Mrs. Mallet told General Grimouard that Pope, Bolingbroke, and their -friends, who frequented her house, were "a society of pure deists."[752] -Bolingbroke was more of an infidel than Pope, for though he admitted -that a future state could not be disproved, he laboured passionately to -discredit the arguments in its favour. Pope held to the immortality of -the soul. "He was a deist," says Lord Chesterfield, "believing in a -future state; this he has often owned himself to me."[753] He frequently -avowed his deism to Lyttelton, and acquiesced in the deistical -interpretations which the Richardsons put on the Essay on Man. -Revelation he rejected entirely. Lord Chesterfield relates that he once -saw a bible on his table, and adds, "As I knew his way of thinking upon -that book, I asked him jocosely if he was going to write an answer to -it?" The evidence that he had renounced Christianity comes to us from -various independent sources, and some of the witnesses are above the -suspicion of misunderstanding or misrepresenting him. - -One of the articles of Bolingbroke's deistical creed is said by -Warburton to have been concealed from Pope. "A few days before his -death," says Warburton, in the statement he drew up for Ruffhead, "he -would be carried to London to dine with Mr. Murray in Lincoln's Inn -Fields, whom he loved with the fondness of a father. He was solicitous -that Lord Bolingbroke and Mr. Warburton should be of the party. Some -time before Mr. Warburton being with Mr. Pope at Twickenham, Mr. Hooke -came in, and told us he had supped the night before at Battersea with -Lord Bolingbroke, when his lordship in conversation advanced the -strangest notions concerning the moral attributes of the Deity, which -amounted to an express denial of them. This account gave Mr. Pope much -uneasiness, and he told Mr. Hooke with much peevish heat that he was -sure he was mistaken. The other replied as warmly that he thought he had -sense enough not to mistake a man who spoke plainly, and in a language -he understood. Here the matter dropped. But Mr. Pope was not easy till -he had seen Lord Bolingbroke, and told him what Mr. Hooke said of a late -conversation. Lord Bolingbroke assured him that Mr. Hooke misunderstood -him. This assurance Mr. Pope with great pleasure acquainted Mr. -Warburton with the next time he saw him. But Lord Bolingbroke and Mr. -Pope were both so full of this matter that at this dinner at Mr. -Murray's, the conversation, amongst other things, naturally turned on -this subject, when, from a very suspicious remark of his lordship, Mr. -Warburton took occasion to speak of the clearness of our notions -concerning the moral attributes. This occasioned some debate, which -ended in some warmth on his lordship's side. This anecdote is not -improper to be told in vindication of Mr. Pope's religious sentiments, -and the reflections on Mr. Warburton, as if he had not attacked his -lordship's impiety till after his death."[754] Warburton had previously -told the story in his View of Lord Bolingbroke's Philosophy, and there -he related that Bolingbroke "denied God's moral attributes as they are -commonly understood."[755] In the narrative he wrote for Ruffhead, -Warburton reports Hooke to have said, that Bolingbroke's "notions -concerning the moral attributes amounted to an express denial of -them."[756] The first statement Bolingbroke would have allowed to be -correct; the second he would have repudiated. The two versions are -treated by Warburton as one, and his charge against Bolingbroke, and his -"vindication of Mr. Pope's religious sentiments," are based upon this -presumed identity of propositions which were quite distinct to Pope and -Bolingbroke. - -Bolingbroke's views on the moral attributes of the Deity were the -result of his mania to get rid of the arguments for a future state. -Virtue is frequently oppressed and suffering in this world, and vice -prosperous; the wicked defraud, supplant, and persecute the upright; and -in manifold ways the felicities of life are not proportioned to the -behaviour of men. A righteous Deity, we may be sure, would not ordain a -constitution of things in which the good should repeatedly fare worse -than the bad, often in consequence of their persistence in goodness, and -then perish unrewarded in the midst of their self-denial. The inference -is plain that they will be finally compensated in a kingdom to come. The -struggle between sin and rectitude in good men continues all their days, -and when the battle has been fought out, and the victory won, they are -removed from the world. It is incredible that a benevolent ruler should -set us to maintain a painful conflict with evil, and when we are -disciplined to holiness should consign us to annihilation. The hope that -well-doing will not go unrewarded, the apprehension that wickedness will -not go unpunished, are sentiments engrained in the heart of man, and we -may be confident that the source of all truth would not direct us to -govern our conduct by false anticipations. The supposition that there is -no future life is therefore inconsistent with the moral attributes of -God, and to avoid this deduction Bolingbroke took up the theory of one -of the worst class of deists, and contended that the moral attributes of -the Creator were not the same as in our ideas, and could not be judged -by our notions. He said he "ascribed all conceivable perfections to -God," and that he was as "far from denying his justice and goodness as -his wisdom and power," but insisted that his justice and goodness -differed from ours in kind as well as in degree.[757] Wherever this -hypothesis was brought in, the epithets "just and good" either ceased to -have any meaning for us, or they meant exactly the reverse of "just and -good." The object of the theory was, indeed, to set up the maxim that -conduct which would be thought immoral among men might be the morality -of God. Bolingbroke's philosophic vision was limited to a single point -at a time. He abounds in astounding contradictions from his inability to -keep his most emphatic principles before his mind, and he might be -answered, without a word of comment, by ranging in parallel columns the -passages of his writings which are mutually destructive. His hypothesis -on the moral attributes of the Deity shared the usual fate of his -dogmas. He denounced the doctrine of predestination, and called it -"blasphemous," "impious," "devilish," because it was "scandalously -repugnant to our ideas of God's moral perfections," and supposed "a God -such as no one could acknowledge."[758] The moment he had to deal with -an opinion he disliked, he thought it impious to imagine that the -morality of God was not in conformity with our ideas, and he loudly -appealed to the immutability of those innate moral convictions which -alike defy the corrupt morality of libertines who labour to justify -evil, and the artificial morality of metaphysicians who strive to prop -up fanciful systems. - -Warburton might fairly argue, that the theory which maintained that the -morality of the Deity was radically different in kind from the moral -conceptions of men, "amounted to an express denial of God's moral -attributes." He was not entitled to charge upon Bolingbroke an inference -he had vehemently disclaimed in his writings, and which was so far from -seeming necessary to all pious thinkers that some distinguished -christian divines had held the obnoxious hypothesis. No two of them -might have been of a mind in the application of a principle the limits -of which they could none of them pretend to define, but they would all -have concurred with Bolingbroke that to deny the moral attributes of -God, and to assert that they were not the same as in our ideas, were -distinct propositions. The false turn which Warburton gave to his story -is clear from the sequel of his narrative. Pope brought him and -Bolingbroke together. The philosopher and his pupil, full of Hooke's -accusation, introduced the subject of their own accord. Bolingbroke -advanced opinions on the moral attributes which Warburton combated, and -the debate ended, as it began, in a total disagreement. The views which -Bolingbroke volunteered could not, for shame, be those which he had just -disclaimed to Pope, and they were notwithstanding quite unorthodox in -the estimation of Warburton. The case is simple. Bolingbroke protested -to Pope, what he had protested all along, that he did not deny the moral -attributes of God, and he maintained against Warburton in Pope's -presence, what he had all along avowed, that they were not the same as -in our ideas. - -There is more, and conclusive evidence, that Bolingbroke had not -concealed his hypothesis from Pope. The incidents narrated by Warburton -occurred a few days before the poet's death. The philosophical papers of -Bolingbroke were "all communicated to him in scraps as they were -occasionally written,"[759] and the whole must already have passed -through his hands. In these disquisitions Bolingbroke enforced his view -of the divine attributes with tedious diffuseness, incessant -reiteration, and unmeasured warmth. No opinion is brought out into -stronger relief. A glance at the manuscript must have revealed the -hypothesis to Pope, and the Essay on Man proves that he had actually -adopted it. All who believed that justice, goodness, and truth were -immutable, thought that our primary duty was to contemplate them in the -Deity, and endeavour to imitate his perfections. Pope followed -Bolingbroke in rejecting the idea. Man, he said, could "just find a -God" and nothing more; consequently man was to be the only study of -man.[760] Master and pupil agreed that every perfection was to be -ascribed to God, and that he was to be loved, worshipped, and obeyed. -But the pupil, like the master, held that "God did not show his own -nature in his laws, because though they proceed from the divine -intelligence they are adapted to the human,"[761] and the last line of -the Essay on Man, the emphatic summary of a leading article in Pope's -creed, is that "all our knowledge is ourselves to know." - -In a subsequent passage Warburton extended his assertion, and alleged -that Bolingbroke concealed the whole purpose of his theology from Pope. -"The poet," says Warburton, "directs his argument against atheists and -libertines in support of religion; the philosopher against divines in -support of naturalism. But his lordship thought fit to keep this a -secret from his friend as well as from the public."[762] The poet and -the philosopher were both deists. The philosopher, Warburton tells us, -communicated his principles to associates "who gave him to understand -how much they detested them."[763] The poet professed deism before -Chesterfield, Lyttelton, the Richardsons and the Mallets. Yet Warburton -would have us believe that Bolingbroke disclosed his infidelity to -unsympathising friends, and kept it a secret from his chief -philosophical intimate, who frankly avowed his own deism in the -Bolingbroke circle. The statement, incredible in itself, is opposed to -the positive testimony of Bolingbroke when he says that all his written -opinions were only the record of his conversations with Pope, and is -even contradicted by the unconscious testimony of Warburton. He tells us -that when Pope took refuge under his shield the circumstance which most -exasperated Bolingbroke was that "he saw a great number of lines appear -which, out of complaisance, had been struck out of the MS., and which, -at the commentator's request, being now restored to their places, no -longer left the religious sentiments of the poet equivocal."[764] The -restored lines which modified any "religious sentiment" were barely half -a dozen, and were confined to the single tenet of a future state. When -Pope allowed his belief in a future state to seem "equivocal, out of -complaisance" to his "guide," the infidelity of Bolingbroke could not -have been unknown to him. - -Still the plea of Warburton remains, that Bolingbroke was for deism and -Pope for Christianity. Bolingbroke, says Warburton, argued for natural -religion in opposition to revealed; Pope for revealed religion as a -necessary supplement to natural. Warburton refuted his own position in -the attempt to establish it. He appealed to three passages in the Essay -on Man. The first, which he calls the chief, is Epist. ii. ver. 149-160, -where Pope terms "reason a weak queen," which obeys the ruling passion. -"The poet," says Warburton, "leaves reason unrelieved. What is this but -an intimation that we ought to seek for a cure in that religion, which -only dares profess to give it?"[765] The poet, on the contrary, -immediately proceeds to show how reason can "rectify" the ruling -passion, and finally concludes, ver. 197, that "reason the bias turns to -good from ill." He insists that there is not a virtue under heaven which -"pride" or "shame," rectified by reason, will not produce, ver. 193, and -he informs us, ver. 183, that they are the "surest virtues" known to -man. The second passage is Epist. iii. ver. 287, where, "speaking," says -Warburton, "of the great restorers of the religion of nature, the poet -intimates that they could only draw God's shadow, not his image: - - Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new, - If not God's image, yet his shadow drew: - -as reverencing that truth which telleth us this discovery was reserved -for the 'glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.'"[766] Pope -was careful to show in his poem that his meaning was the reverse of what -Warburton pretends. He conceives that God's image was hidden from our -view, and that man, not God, was our proper study: - - Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, - The proper study of mankind is man. - -He did not believe that the religion of nature, in this particular, was -under any disadvantage, for he said, Epist. iii. ver. 148, that "the -state of nature was the reign of God," and to "relume the ancient light" -was, to his apprehension, the perfection of theology. The third passage -is Epist. iv. 341-344, where Pope says, that "hope lengthened on to -faith pours the bliss that fills up all the mind." "But natural -religion," says Warburton, "never lengthened hope on to faith, nor did -any religion, but the christian, ever conceive that faith could fill the -mind with happiness."[767] Pope was of a different opinion. Hope and -faith, according to his creed, and that of many deists, were part of the -religion of nature.[768] He could not think otherwise when he "was a -deist believing in a future state," and he was so far from supposing -that the christian's faith had any superiority over the deist's in -filling the mind with bliss, that all who "fought for modes of faith" -were, in his estimation, "graceless zealots."[769] The searching acumen -of Warburton, who never had his equal in forcing false meanings from his -text, could not discover another allusion to christianity. His -interpretations, strained at best, are directly opposed to the context, -and this failure to detect one word which could honestly support his -construction, leaves no doubt that the Essay on Man was intended for a -system of natural religion to the exclusion of revealed. - -The poet and his "guide" agreed in repudiating christianity. They -differed on the question of a future state, but Pope, while rejecting -Bolingbroke's conclusion, adopted his premises. "The fourth epistle he -is now intent upon," wrote Bolingbroke to Swift, Aug. 2, 1731. "It is a -noble subject. He pleads the cause of God, I use Seneca's expression, -against that famous charge which atheists in all ages have brought, the -supposed unequal dispensations of Providence,--a charge which I cannot -heartily forgive your divines for admitting. You admit it, indeed, for -an extreme good purpose, and you build on this admission the necessity -of a future state of rewards and punishments. But what if you should -find that this future state will not account, in opposition to the -atheist, for God's justice in the present state which you give up? Would -it not have been better to defend God's justice in this world, against -these daring men, by irrefragable reasons, and to have rested the proof -of the other point on revelation? You will not understand by what I have -said that Pope will go so deep into the argument, or carry it so far as -I have hinted." To rest the proof of a future state on revelation, was -in Bolingbroke's estimation to build upon a fable. To abandon the proof -from reason was therefore with him to relinquish the doctrine. Pope, who -had accepted the theory that the justice of God could not be judged by -our ideas, embraced the second and superfluous paradox, that the -dispensations of God in this world were never unequal. On either ground, -said Bolingbroke, the justice of God did not require a future state. The -poet had rejected the witness of revelation to the immortality of the -soul, and, under the pretext of "pleading the cause of God against -atheists," his "guide" had persuaded him to give up the popular proof -from reason. He stopped short of the inference that reason did not -countenance a future state, or, in Bolingbroke's phrase, "he did not go -so deep into the argument." His "guide" laughed at his inconsequence, -and "could not," says Warburton, "forbear making the poet, then alive -and at his devotion, the frequent topic of his ridicule amongst their -common acquaintance as a man who understood nothing of his own -principles, nor saw to what they naturally tended."[770] - -Bolingbroke was not entitled to ridicule Pope. The docile pupil was not -more blind to the reach of the principles instilled into him than was -the arrogant master who imposed them. He said the notion that a future -world could be essential to vindicate this world was not only needless, -but blasphemous. He was never weary of railing at the impiety of the -doctrine, and he pretended that the divines who held it "renounced God -as much as the rankest of the atheistical tribe."[771] He did not see -that the alleged impiety was the identical principle he adopted for the -foundation of his philosophy, when, admitting the evils on our globe, he -contended that they were linked to a larger scheme which would explain -and justify them. "The universe," he said, "is an immense aggregate of -systems. Atheists and divines cannot, or will not conceive, that the -seeming imperfection of the parts is necessary to the real perfection of -the whole."[772] He wronged the divines. They could, and did "conceive -that the fitness of the particular portions of a scheme must depend upon -their relation to the entire plan," and it was precisely because they -argued that the justice of God in this world would be incomprehensible -unless we extended our view to the world to come, that Bolingbroke -charged them with accusing the Deity of injustice, and ranked them with -atheists. The incapacity to understand his own principles could not be -carried further. - -Pope did not intend to proclaim openly to the world the deism he -disclosed to his sceptical companions. "I know," wrote Bolingbroke, -"your precaution enough to know that you will screen yourself against -any direct charge of heterodoxy."[773] His plan was to put forth a -scheme of natural religion without repudiating christianity in terms, -that he might be able to give his poem any interpretation he pleased. He -soon manifested his double design. Before he avowed himself the author -of the Essay on Man, he was anxious that Caryll should be convinced of -its orthodoxy. "Out of complaisance" to Bolingbroke, he had left -undecided the question of the immortality of the soul: - - _If_ to be perfect in a certain state, - What matter, here or there, or soon or late? - -He feared that this dubious language would be distasteful to Caryll, and -thus wrote to him on March 8, 1733. "The town is now very full of a new -poem, entitled an Essay on Man. It has merit, in my opinion, but not so -much as they give it. At least, it is incorrect, and has some -inaccuracies in the expressions,--one or two of an unhappy kind, for -they may cause the author's sense to be turned, contrary to what I think -his intention, a little unorthodoxically. Nothing is so plain, as that -he quits his proper subject, this present world, to assert his belief of -a future state, and, yet there is an _if_ instead of a _since_ that -would overthrow his meaning."[774] Pope several times reprinted the poem -with corrections, but never altered the word which misrepresented his -creed on the question whether death was annihilation or immortality. He -had a public version, which he adopted "out of complaisance to -Bolingbroke," overborne by his showy rhetoric and imperious dogmatism, -and a private version for his pious friend, to whom he professed that -his conditional language was an "inaccuracy of expression which -overthrew his meaning." - -Pope's private profession of his belief in a future state was his real -conviction. He proceeded to belie his true opinions, by standing up for -the christianity of the Essay on Man. "The author," he says, "uses the -words 'God the soul of the world,' which, at the first glance, may be -taken for heathenism, while his whole paragraph proves him quite -christian in his system, from man up to seraphim." Caryll was not -convinced, and on October 23 Pope wrote to reassure him. "I believe the -author of the Essay on Man will end his poem in such a manner as will -satisfy your scruple. I think it impossible for him, with any congruity -to his confined and strictly philosophical subject, to mention our -Saviour directly; but he may magnify the christian doctrine as the -perfection of all moral; nay, and even, I fancy, quote the very words of -the Gospel precept, that includes all the law and the precepts, _Thou -shalt love God above all things_, &c., and I conclude that will remove -all possible occasion of scandal." He wrote again to the same effect on -January 1, 1734:--"To the best of my judgment the author shows himself a -christian at last in the assertion, that all earthly happiness, as well -as future felicity, depends upon the doctrine of the Gospel,--love of -God and man,--and that the whole aim of our being is to attain happiness -here and hereafter by the practice of universal charity to man, and -entire resignation to God. More particular than this he could not be -with any regard to the subject, or manner in which he treated it." From -the next letter of the poet, on February 28, it would appear that the -"scruple" of Caryll was removed, influenced, perhaps, by the discovery -that the work was Pope's own production. "Your candid opinion," says -Pope, "not only on the Essay on Man, but its author, pleases me truly. I -think verily he is as honest, and as religious a man as myself, and one -that will never forfeit justly your kind character of him. It is not -directly owned, and I do assure you never was whilst you were kept in -ignorance of it."[775] The explanations which satisfied Caryll should -have increased his suspicions, for Pope's language was plainly evasive. -He rested the whole of his christianity on the doctrines which were held -by a large class of deists. He neither avowed his faith in Christ, nor -declared his belief that the Gospels were a revelation from God. He had -drawn upon Wollaston's admirable work, The Religion of Nature -Delineated, and there he had seen how inevitably a christian, who -presses the arguments for natural religion, must sometimes refer to the -fuller evidence of Scripture, and adopt a tone which would make it -impossible that he could be mistaken for a deist. With this model under -his eyes, and with the professed desire "to show himself a christian," -and "remove all possible occasion of scandal," the ingenuity of the poet -was insufficient to devise a single phrase which the majority of English -deists would not have subscribed. Even the bare term "christian," which -he flourished before Caryll, did not appear in the poem. He kept the -word for the ear of the simple country squire, and imposed upon him by -the transparent artifice of privately calling the doctrines of deism -christianity. The "address," which he told Spence he had "written to our -Saviour," would not have contributed to vindicate his orthodoxy, as we -may judge from his statement, that it was "imitated from Lucretius's -compliment to Epicurus, and omitted by the advice of Berkeley."[776] The -application to our Lord of the compliment to Epicurus must have been -shocking to Berkeley, and could never have entered into the mind of any -one who believed that Jesus Christ was "God manifest in the flesh." - -A few persons, not in the secret of Pope's deism, had the discernment to -share the first impressions of Caryll. The celebrated David Hartley is -said, by his son, to have "regarded the Essay on Man as tending to -insinuate that the Divine revelation of the christian religion was -superfluous," and to substitute for it "the plagiarisms of modern ethics -from christian doctrines." But readers in general were more attentive to -the poetry than the philosophy, and did not detect the lurking heresies -of the poem till Crousaz published his _Examen de l'Essai de Mr. Pope_ -in 1737, which he enforced by his more elaborate _Commentaire_ in the -following year. "Mr. Pope's name, and not his own, spread them," says -Dr. Middleton, "into everybody's hands."[777] Hitherto the poet had not -been far wrong in his calculation, that his deism would pass -unsuspected, because not directly professed, and the tenets he taught -explicitly he believed to be so unanswerable, that, in a suppressed -passage of the fourth Epistle, he raised a shout of triumph over the -"scattered fools who would fly trembling from the heels" of his Pegasus. -The comments of Crousaz, often founded upon mistranslations and -misconceptions, laid bare sufficient sophistries, inconsistencies, and -irreligion, to open the eyes of the public. Pope's confidence -immediately changed to fright. "He took terror," says Richardson, "about -the clergy, and Warburton himself, at the general alarm of its fatalism -and deistical tendency." The poet had a dread of incurring the obloquy -of any class or profession. "I know," Bolingbroke wrote to him, "how -desirous you are to keep fair with orders, whatever liberties you take -with particular men,"[778] and he confessed that this motive "was what -chiefly stopped his going on" with his ethical scheme. "I could not have -said what I would have said without provoking every church on the face -of the earth, and I did not care for living always in boiling -water."[779] He had never intended at any time to risk an attack from -the clergy, and when the danger came unexpectedly, it was he himself -that "fled trembling from the heels" of threatening foes. - -His special fear of Warburton was not without cause. Warburton was the -friend of Pope's enemies, Concannen and Theobald, and held Pope cheap -both as a man and a poet. Of the poet he wrote to Concannen, Jan. 2, -1727, that Pope "borrowed for want of genius."[780] Of the man he wrote -to Hurd, Jan. 2, 1757, "Till his letters were published, I had as -indifferent an opinion of his morals as the gentlemen of the Dunciad -pretended to have. Mr. Pope knew this, and had the justice to own to me -that I fairly followed appearances when I thought well of them, and ill -of him."[781] The Essay on Man was especially obnoxious to Warburton. He -said that it was collected "from the worst passages of the worst -authors,"[782] and that the doctrines were "rank atheism."[783] He did -not confine his denunciation of the poem to conversation, but refuted -its vicious principles in some formal dissertations which he read at a -literary club in Newark.[784] The Dunciad faction, we may be certain, -were careful to circulate his asperities, and Pope assisted the -malignity of the Dunces by keeping his ears open to all the ill they -reported. Warburton had now shown his quality by his treatise on the -Alliance between Church and State, and the first books of the Divine -Legation. The poet, who was quailing under the assaults of Crousaz, -might well be alarmed lest a more formidable enemy should speak to the -world the criticisms he propagated in conversation, and in his addresses -to the Newark Club. In theology and metaphysics he was far beyond -Pope's "philosopher and guide." He was even more dictatorial and -abusive, more over-bearing and contemptuous, more ingenious in his -sophistries, and not more scrupulous in the use of his weapons. His -moral obliquities, which have half-ruined his reputation with posterity, -were of a kind to increase the apprehensions of Pope, who must have -submitted in helpless silence to the sweeping, haughty, scornful -exposure of the Essay on Man. - -When the storm had begun to burst on the defenceless head of Pope, -Warburton saw reason to go over to his side, and in December, 1738, -commenced an anonymous reply to Crousaz in a monthly publication called -the Works of the Learned. An equitable judgment was not among the merits -of Warburton. His dogmatic violence could not brook the least concession -to an opposing view, and he was always in extremes. While he herded with -"the gentlemen of the Dunciad" he was uncompromising in his censure of -Pope. He suddenly transferred his advocacy to the enemy, and indulged, -with a daring defiance of consistency, in a wild exaggeration of Pope's -powers, and a hardy denial of his errors and defects. The man who -"borrowed for want of genius," became "the last of the poetic line -amongst us, on whom, the large patrimony of his whole race is -devolved."[785] He had not only inherited the entire gifts of all poets -of all times, "he was the maker of a new species of the sublime, so new -that we have yet no name for it, though of a nature distinct from every -other known beauty of poetry." "The two great perfections in works of -genius," Warburton goes on, "are wit and sublimity. Many writers have -been witty; some have been sublime; and a few have even possessed both -these qualities separately. But none, that I know of, besides our poet, -hath had the art to incorporate them. This seems to be the last effort -of the imagination to poetical perfection."[786] A single example of -Pope's witty sublime is specified by Warburton,--the comparison of -Newton to the ape. Unfortunately, this instance of the "new species of -the sublime,"--"so new that we have yet no name for it,"--was copied -from a Latin poet of the sixteenth century, and was a false conceit -without a spark of sublimity or wit. - -With the change in his view of Pope's genius, there was a complete -revolution in Warburton's estimate of the Essay on Man. The work ceased -to be made up "from the worst passages of the worst authors." A -superlative originality took the place of ignorant plagiarism, and "he -uttered heavy menaces," says Bishop Law, "against those who presumed to -insinuate that Pope borrowed anything from any man whatsoever."[787] The -"rank atheism," in like manner, was converted into the purest -orthodoxy, and every line breathed forth piety and sound philosophy. "He -follows truth," said his advocate, "uniformly throughout."[788] The -strain of sickening adulation in which Warburton conveyed his newly-born -admiration showed that arrogance was not more congenial to his nature -than servility, and both were rivalled by the effrontery with which he -spoke of those who shared his old opinions. He and the "gentlemen of the -Dunciad" had agreed in thinking ill of Pope's morals, but the conviction -was genuine with Warburton, and "pretence" in them.[789] He declaimed -against the "rank atheism" of the Essay on Man, but the freethinkers who -had believed that Pope was of "their party" had "affectedly embraced the -delusion."[790] - -Warburton's accusations of insincerity were the more unblushing that his -recantation was partly feigned. When he published his defence of three -epistles of the Essay on Man, he said that Pope's "strong and delicate -reasoning ran equally through all" the poem, but that "the turn of the -fourth epistle being more popular seemed to need no comment."[791] His -real motive for passing over the fourth epistle was very different, and -comes out in a letter to Dr. Birch, Oct. 25, 1739. "I have been looking -over, _inter nos_, the fourth epistle of the Essay on Man; for I have a -great inclination to make an analysis of that to complete the whole. I -find this part of my defence of Mr. Pope as difficult as a confutation -of Mr. Crousaz's nonsense, and a detection of the translator's blunders, -are easy. I do not know whether I can do it to my mind, or whether I -shall do it at all, so beg you would keep it secret."[792] He left the -fourth epistle undefended because it was almost beyond his powers of -sophistry to devise a defence, and professed to the world that "the -strong and delicate reasoning was too popular to need a comment." Having -undertaken the "difficult" task, he kept up the dissimulation, justified -every doctrine the epistle contained, and lauded it, in common with the -rest of the work, for its "exact reasoning," and for "a precision, -force, and closeness of connection rarely to be met with, even in the -most formal treatises of philosophy."[793] His want of sincerity would -be self-evident without the contradiction between his confidential -confessions, and his public praise. No one, with his knowledge of -philosophical divinity, could possibly have magnified Pope in good faith -for the qualities in which he was deplorably deficient. - -Dodsley, the bookseller, was present at the first interview between -Pope and Warburton, and was astonished at the compliments the poet paid -to his commentator.[794] There was no occasion for astonishment. Pope's -despiser had turned idolater, "the gentlemen of the Dunciad" had lost -their ablest ally, the thrust of Crousaz had been parried, and the -champion was the dreaded man who was expected to be a fatal foe. The -sensitive novice in philosophy, who was incompetent to fight, and could -not endure defeat, was relieved from future as well as present fears. He -would not henceforward be answerable to theological and metaphysical -assailants. Warburton had assumed the responsibility of the poem, and -his irascible, pugnacious vanity was a pledge that he would defend his -certificate of orthodoxy with his usual violence, disdain, and ability. -The relief to the mind of the anxious poet was immense, and fully -explains his headlong gratitude. He immediately renounced his deistical -interpretation of the Essay, and adopted all the views of his thundering -advocate. "I know I meant just what you explain," wrote the obsequious -poet, April 11, 1739, "but I did not explain my own meaning as well as -you." He was too eager to live under Warburton's protection to retain a -particle of independence. No matter how incredible might be the -interpretations which his commentator often fathered upon him, he -hastened to accept every one of them without reserve. The public were -not deluded, and a letter of Dr. Middleton to Warburton, Jan. 7, 1740, -is a fair specimen, expressed in friendly terms, of the common opinion. -"You have evinced the orthodoxy of Mr. Pope's principles, but, like the -old commentators on his Homer, will be thought, perhaps, in some places -to have provided a meaning for him that he himself never dreamed of. -However, if you did not find him a philosopher, you will make him one, -for he will be wise enough to take the benefit of your reading, and make -his future essays more clear and consistent." Pope's moral laxity was -not the only cause of the facility with which he changed his creed. The -shallowness of his convictions had a share in the event. He had no real -insight into theology, natural or revealed. He rejected christianity -because his associates sneered at it, and because the age was -irreligious. Ignorant of the right road, he was sometimes persuaded that -all roads led to a common goal, or he adopted the road which was pointed -out to him by his guides. The Essay on Man would never have been written -unless Bolingbroke had dictated the subject, and supplied the materials, -and Pope was subdued by his dogmatism rather than enlightened by his -arguments. The speculations the poet versified had not proceeded from -his own mind; he believed as he was prompted; and he had not any rooted -convictions to sacrifice when a second dogmatist provided him with more -convenient opinions. - -Pope would have been glad "to dwell in ambiguities for ever." In -accepting the advocacy of Warburton he was obliged to abandon his -equivocal attitude, and disavow the deistical creed. "The infidels and -libertines," Warburton wrote to Dr. Stukeley, January 1, 1740, "prided -themselves in thinking Mr. Pope of their party. I thought it of use to -religion to show so noble a genius was not; and I can have the pleasure -of telling you (and have Mr. Pope's own authority for it), that he is -not."[795] His chief difficulty must have been to cast off his -allegiance to his "philosopher and guide, the master of the poet and the -song." But his reputation was at stake, and he did not hesitate. His -anxiety to disclaim all sympathy with the theology of the teacher who -had furnished the arguments of his poem was shown by one of his habitual -frauds. He published, in 1741, his correspondence with Swift, and in the -printed letter of December, 1725, he says, "Lord B. is above trifling; -when he writes of anything in this world, he is more than mortal: if -ever he trifles it must be when he turns a divine." A copy of the letter -is among the Oxford papers at Longleat, and there we find that the words -he really used were, "Lord B. is above trifling; he is grown a great -divine." Pope reversed the language of the original passage that he -might seem to the world to have contemned the divinity of Bolingbroke -long before the Essay on Man appeared. The fraud had the intended effect -with Pope's friends. Lord Mansfield inferred from the fabricated version -that "Pope not only condemned but despised the futility of Bolingbroke's -reasoning against revelation;" and Warburton quoted the sentence for an -evidence of Pope's opinion "that no subject but religion could have sunk -his lordship so far below the class of reputable authors."[796] -Bolingbroke, ignorant of the trick, remained upon cordial terms with -Pope, and did not outwardly resent his defection. The discarded master -had a double motive for his forbearance. No man was more vulnerable, and -he would have feared to provoke the malignity of the satirist. He was -anxious in his life-time to conceal his infidelity from the outer world, -and he could not expose the inconsistencies of the poet without -revealing his own unbelief. "I have been a martyr of faction in -politics," he once wrote to Pope, "and have no vocation to be so in -philosophy."[797] Inwardly he was deeply mortified that "the song" he -had inspired should be wrested to a meaning he disowned, that his -admiring scholar should bow down no longer to his sceptical sophistries, -and that the idol who supplanted him should belong to that priestly -order of which he never spoke without scorn. His suppressed indignation, -inflamed by fresh offences, broke out after Pope was dead. - -When the orthodox meaning imposed on the Essay had once been accepted -by the poet, he was anxious to use the new interpretation to silence or -conciliate his opponents abroad. He immediately got Warburton's reply to -Crousaz translated into French,[798] and employed Ramsay, a Scotchman, -who had been Fénelon's secretary, to write to Louis Racine, April 28, -1742, and assure him that he was mistaken when he said in his poem _La -Religion_, - - Sans doute qu'à ces mots, des bords de la Tamise, - Quelque abstrait raisonneur, qui ne se plaint de rien, - Dans son flegme anglican répondra, "Tout est bien." - -Ramsay told the French poet that Pope did not think all was "right" in -mankind. He believed them fallen from their primitive condition, and his -life-long faith was evidence of his real convictions. "He is a very good -catholic," says his apologist, "and has always kept to the religion of -his forefathers in a country where he had many temptations to abandon -it." A letter addressed by Pope to Racine in the following September -upholds the statement that he was a "good catholic," for he declares -that his views are "conformable to those of Pascal and Fénelon, the -latter of whom," says he, "I would most readily imitate in submitting -all my opinions to the decision of the church."[799] His sincerity may -be doubted when he professed his readiness to accept the decisions of -the romish church for a law. The Essay on Man was already completed, or -far advanced, when Bolingbroke wrote to him, "I do not expect from you -the answer I should be sure to have from persons more orthodox than I -know you to be in the faith of the pretended catholic church. Such -persons would insist on the authority of the church."[800] Pope could -not, indeed, be a romanist when he had not yet emerged from deism, and -he was not a romanist some twelvemonth after his letter to Racine, when -he said to Warburton, "that he was convinced that the church of Rome had -all the marks of the anti-christian power predicted in the New -Testament." Warburton enquired why he did not publicly renounce a church -he allowed to be corrupt. "There were," he replied, "but two reasons -that kept him from it: one, that the doing so would make him a great -many enemies, and the other that it would do nobody else any good."[801] -Either his persuasion that an unconditional submission was due to the -decisions of the romish church, must have been a transitory belief which -commenced a short time before his letter to Racine, and ceased a short -time after, or else he used deceptive language in his letter that he -might convince Racine of his orthodoxy. His explanations did not alter -the French poet's opinion on the infidel tendency of the Essay on Man. -"After the letter he wrote me," says Racine, "I am far from suspecting -him of designing to preach deism, but I am obliged to confess that we -seem to detect it in the midst of all his abstract reasonings, and that -it even presents itself so naturally that we may attribute to it the -rapid spread of the poem in France."[802] - -Pope's letter was forwarded to Racine by Ramsay, who accompanied it with -a second letter of his own, in which he again dwelt on his friend's -continuous and disinterested adherence to romanism. "I am assured that a -princess who admired his works, wished, when she ruled over England, to -induce him not to abandon, but to dissimulate his religion. She was -desirous of procuring him considerable appointments, and promised that -the customary oaths should be dispensed with. He refused these offers -with immoveable firmness. Such a sacrifice was not the act of a sceptic -or a deist."[803] Ramsay does not say that he received the anecdote from -Pope, but he was writing in concert with him, and on his behalf, and -there is a strong presumption that the poet had sanctioned the fable. To -dispense with the customary oaths would have been a breach of the act of -settlement, and the assertion of the power would have cost Anne her -crown, and Pope his office. This immense and abortive sacrifice was to -have been made in the interests of a man whom the queen had never seen, -who was politically insignificant, and whose moderate wants she could -have supplied from her private purse. The ludicrous invention, which -could only pass current with a foreigner ignorant of the English -constitution, was a magnified version of Lord Oxford's hollow talk. "He -used often," said Pope, "to express his concern for my continuing -incapable of a place, which I could not make myself capable of without -giving a great deal of pain to my parents, such pain, indeed, as I would -not have given to either of them for all the places he could have -bestowed upon me."[804] Lord Oxford, who trusted chiefly to duplicity -and petty artifices for obtaining support, was accustomed to amuse every -one who came near him with hopes, and evade their fulfilment by paltry -excuses. His cheap lamentation that Pope was disqualified for an office -is a sad downfall from the magnanimous offer of the Queen to provide him -with a place in defiance of law, and at the risk of her throne. If the -anecdote had been true, Ramsay's inference that Pope was an orthodox -romanist would have been wrong. His reason for not "making himself -capable of a place" was the pain his abjuration of romanism would have -given his parents. He did not pretend to plead conscience. - -The system of philosophy set forth in the poem is now to be considered. -Few persons could have been less qualified than Bolingbroke and Pope to -write on natural religion. The desultory superficial investigations of -Bolingbroke were under the dominion of his passions, and Pope had barely -thought upon the subject at all. They both took for their motto a -sentence from Foster, a dissenting minister,--"Where mystery begins -religion ends,"[805]--and it did not occur to them that no mystery could -be greater than the first article of their own deistical creed,--the -necessary existence of God. Atheism magnifies the mystery, which is an -inherent ingredient in every system, religious or infidel. The least -reflection forces this fact upon the mind, and the blindness of Pope and -Bolingbroke to a truth which met them at the threshold of their -speculations, and recurred at every turn, is not an unjust measure of -their general incapacity for religious philosophy. - -The Essay on Man was framed on the old and obvious division of ethics, -which treated of man in his relation to God, his fellow-creatures, and -himself. Pope, who thought it presumption to study God,[806] passed over -the first of the three heads, and substituted an epistle on man in -relation to the universe. The leading arguments in this opening epistle -were taken from the Théodicée of Leibnitz, the Moralists of Shaftesbury, -and the Origin of Evil, by Archbishop King. The poet had read the essay -of Shaftesbury, and had possibly looked into King; but of Leibnitz he -was entirely ignorant. In reply to the charge of having adopted the -alleged fatalism of the illustrious German, he wrote to Warburton, Feb. -2, 1739, "It cannot be unpleasant to you to know that I never in my life -read a line of Leibnitz, nor understood there was such a term as -pre-established harmony till I found it in M. Crousaz's book." -Bolingbroke had instructed Pope that Leibnitz was "one of the vainest -and most chimerical men that ever got a name in philosophy, and that he -was so often unintelligible that no man ought to believe he understood -himself."[807] Naturally Pope had not the least suspicion that some of -the principal tenets instilled into him by his "guide" were filched -without acknowledgment from this vain, chimerical, unintelligible man. - -The optimism of Leibnitz has been a thousand times misrepresented, not -because his Théodicée is obscure, but because the scoffers had never -read the system they decried. He was supposed to have maintained that -our little globe, taken separately, was the best which could be -conceived, and that all the trials and crimes of men were in their own -independent nature a good. Voltaire was among the ignorant, and to -refute the doctrine that everything was good, he concocted a licentious -tale, in which everything is vice, injustice, and misery. His satire has -a double flaw. He gives a false representation of human life, and of the -optimism of Leibnitz. The world of Leibnitz is not our earth in its -present state, but the universe, unlimited in extent, and eternal in -duration. The final purpose of the Deity in his stupendous scheme is the -best that can be, and the means are the best for their end. The fitness -of the several parts can only be estimated in their relation to the -whole, and the whole is not creation at any moment of time, but the -evolution of the universe from everlasting to everlasting. It would be -folly to judge the evils of the hour in their isolation, when they are -incidents in an illimitable plan, and have reference to the greatest -ultimate good. To show in detail how all the evils we experience are -subservient to the best conceivable scheme of the universe, would -require that we should know the infinite design of God, that we should -be able to picture the infinity of other possible worlds, and to -institute a comparison between these infinite infinities. A morsel of -flesh, or a splinter of bone, bears an immeasurably larger proportion to -our frame than our existing globe to the existing universe, which is -itself but a link in the eternal chain, and yet a person ignorant of the -human structure would in vain attempt to explain the purpose and fitness -of some diminutive fragment of man.[808] - -Leibnitz took for granted, in their greatest latitude, the power, -wisdom, and goodness of God. Upon this supposition, Hume, personating -the character of a sceptic, allowed that there "might, perhaps, be a -plausible solution of the ill phenomena." But the sceptic objects that -"the Deity is known to us solely in his productions, that the universe -shows only a particular degree of wisdom and goodness, and that we can -never be authorised to infer a further degree of these attributes, which -would be adding something to the attributes of the cause beyond what -appears in the effects."[809] The objection would be sound if the whole -series of effects were unfolded to our view. They extend, on the -contrary, indefinitely beyond our capacity to follow them, and the -question is, whether the defects appertain to the attributes of God, or -whether the appearance of imperfection is the consequence of our -ignorance. The answer is not doubtful. There is superabundant proof that -our globe is framed upon a plan in which animals and things have a -mutual dependence. Our globe itself, again, is a portion of a larger -system, and we have an irresistible conviction that the boundless -universe is the work of one Author, and that a definite purpose pervades -the whole. With this first fact we couple a second, that the -appropriateness of the details in a complicated contrivance cannot be -understood, unless we comprehend the general principle of the -contrivance, and the relation of its parts. The optimism of Leibnitz is -the only just inference from these facts. A speck of creation is -submitted to our examination, and the evidences of power, wisdom, and -goodness are vast and overwhelming. Other parts seem defective, as -inevitably happens when our knowledge is miserably inadequate; and, in -accordance with experience, we conclude that our enormous ignorance is -at fault, and not that the superlative workman is inconsistent. The -explanation of the optimist is rational, while that of the sceptic -involves a gratuitous contradiction, and is wild, improbable, and -unsupported. - -Hume's spokesman enforces his view by an instance which was the -favourite argument of Bolingbroke. "A more impartial distribution of -rewards and punishments," says the sceptic, in allusion to a future -state, "must proceed from a greater regard to justice and equity."[810] -Admit that the justice of God's government on earth is, in a single -instance, imperfect, and it follows that the argument for the perfection -of His attributes is at an end. The fallacy is in the assumed fact, that -a greater regard would be shown to equity, if rewards in this life were -exactly proportioned to merits. The chief purpose of the present life is -clearly not happiness but excellence. The characters of good men are -disciplined and purified here to fit them for happiness hereafter, and -the trials which best prepare them for eternal felicity cannot be a -deviation from equity. "Every branch," says our Lord, "that beareth -fruit, my father purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit,"[811] -which is a stronger evidence of fatherly care than an injurious -distribution of rewards and punishments on the sceptical plan. Physical -evils become a blessing when they are the lasting corrective of sin. - -The moral evil itself can in part be explained. The mind and body of -human beings, and the world in which we live, have been fixed for us by -the Creator. The will alone is free, and it is the will which really -constitutes the man. Without freedom of will there could be no morality, -any more than a tree is moral when it flourishes, and immoral when it -withers. Freedom pre-supposes a power to do wrong, and without this -liberty there could be no individual worth. The frailty of man grows out -of his supremacy. Warburton denied that there was any force in the -explanation, since if "God had only brought those creatures into being -who would not have abused their freedom, evil had been prevented without -intrenching upon free will."[812] Two principles are here assumed to be -indisputable, neither of which are self-evident, or capable of proof. -Warburton supposes it to be intuitively certain that a picked race of -moral agents, who must be limited in their perfections because they are -inferior to God, may all be gifted with an infallible power of defying -sin, which for aught we know may be impossible. A christian divine must -admit that some of the angels fell, and for anything we can tell the -steadfast angels might have sinned without the warning example of their -apostate brethren. Warburton further supposes it to be intuitively -certain, that if perchance there may be a hierarchy too lofty to have -ever erred, the non-existence of the multitudinous lesser beings would -be preferable to their existence with an admixture of evil, which is not -the sentiment raised in human minds by the contemplation of the living -creatures of our globe. On the contrary, the deepest philosophers and -simplest peasants are alike lost in admiration at the spectacle, and -feel impotent to rise to a fitting height of love and praise. As the -latent premises of Warburton are not manifest facts, he has failed to -make good his position, that to all appearance God could have framed a -better world from which every semblance of evil might have been -excluded. The moral nature of man goes far to account for the evil of -man, and for his present probation. The comparative innocence of -children is lovely, but it is innocence which has not been tried, and -when it is tested it fails. The innocence of saints is the innocence -which has passed through the terrible experience of sin, which knows the -degradation of iniquity, which has fought against it and triumphed, and -hence it is the second and acquired innocence which endures. The -innocence of Adam in Paradise may have resembled the inexperience of the -child, and the only road to permanent victory may be through defeat. -Heaven itself may be a place of temptation unless an energy of -conquering will has been first developed, and we have grown strong by an -inherent homage to righteousness. In our world, at least, felicity is -not the securest situation for untried virtue. This is enough to justify -to our understandings the state of man upon earth, though much is -mysterious in the details from our imperfect knowledge of the ultimate -effect upon aggregate humanity of the discipline of life, and our -ignorance of the part which our race is to play in the eternal universe. - -Leibnitz divided evil into moral evil or sin, physical evil or -suffering, and metaphysical evil or the limitation of our endowments. He -addressed men who were satisfied from the evidence of their internal -nature and the external world that God was absolute in power, wisdom, -and goodness. Hence, whatever is, is right. "We judge," says Leibnitz, -"by the event; since God has so done it would not be possible to do -better."[813] Pope starts from the premise of Leibnitz. He assumes the -infinite wisdom of the Deity, and concludes that this wisdom must have -formed the best possible system. But to a great extent he differed from -Leibnitz with regard to the cause of the several kinds of evil, and his -optimism was of an adulterate, untenable kind. He did not allow that -moral evil was the pernicious abuse of a free will, with which we are -endowed because men are preferable to automatons, moral agents to -passive machines. He held that moral evil was in itself a good, and that -God was the author of it. He it is who "pours fierce ambition into -Cæsar's mind," and nature no more requires "men for ever temperate, -calm, and wise," than "eternal springs and cloudless skies."[814] Since -the sin of men is imposed upon them by God they must be machines after -all, and of a debased and often devilish species. An inexorable fatalism -becomes the law of humanity, and Borgias, Catilines, and Cæsars are -destructive wheels which simply obey the motion impressed upon them by -the omnipotent architect. God can do no wrong; man is the puppet of God; -and whatever is, is consequently right, the villanies of miscreants -included. The Essay swarms with contradictions, and in other passages -Pope treats man as an accountable being who departs from the commands of -his Maker. - -Of physical evil, or suffering, Pope notices only "plagues, earthquakes, -and tempests," which he justifies by the remark that God "acts not by -partial, but by general laws."[815] Bolingbroke gave the same -explanation. Either, he said, such visitations are "rational -chastisements," or they are "the mere effects, natural though -contingent, of matter and motion in a material system, put into motion -under certain general laws."[816] Individuals, that is, must suffer that -the laws of matter may not be infringed. Leibnitz rejected the -principle. "That which is an evil," he said, "for me would not cease to -be an evil because it would be good for some one else. The good which -pervades the universe consists, among other things, in this, that the -general good is the particular good of every one who loves the author of -all good." So, he says again, "we suffer often from the misdeeds of -others, but when we have no share in the crime we may hold it for -certain that the sufferings procure us a greater happiness."[817] The -system of Pope subordinates moral agents to physical, and he finds it a -sufficient vindication that the mechanical law is general, and the -injury to men only occasional. Whatever may be the worth of particular -persons, he believes that they are properly sacrificed to the regularity -of material laws, which roll on with undistinguishing, terrific might, -crushing any thinking, sentient, virtuous being who may happen to cross -their path. He supposes, nevertheless, that these unbending, -undiscerning laws have undergone a "change," and, what is singular, the -alteration has been from better to worse, whereby he accounts for a -portion of the prevalent physical evil.[818] Another portion he at one -time ascribed to "chance," which had intruded itself into the -arrangements of the Almighty, and overruled his designs.[819] The -optimism which represented man to be the sport of mechanical laws, of -deteriorating changes in the physical system, and of blind, ungovernable -chance, was not an optimism to clear away difficulties, and silence -objections. - -Metaphysical evil, or the limitation of endowments, is inevitable in -every being below the Godhead, and Pope contends that the best system -must manifestly consist in an infinite series of creatures, from the -greatest to the least. The notion is found in Locke and Leibnitz. There -are beings, said the latter, above and below us, or there would be a -void in the order of species.[820] The idea was more fully developed by -Archbishop King, and is simply an extension to the universe of the -terrestrial system, where a gradation of beings on a connected plan is -the law. Pope carried the principle to extravagance. He contends that -the omission of the smallest creature would break the chain, would throw -the universe into confusion, and involve all creation in a common -ruin.[821] To keep the universe from tumbling to pieces, "it is plain," -according to him, that "there must be somewhere such a rank as -man,"[822] and the rule holds equally of the minutest animalcule on the -globe. There is a flaw in his premises. It is not apparent that the -extinction of the flea would upset the universe, nor that the scale of -beings must necessarily be the same which at present prevails. The facts -are against the "must be" of Pope. There was a time when other creatures -were, and man was not, and when animated nature was able to dispense -with the human race. Infinite wisdom must form the best possible system -and a gradation of beings, which now includes man, is an actual part of -the scheme. Pope's argument breaks down when, to justify the creation -of man, he supposes that a chain of beings and an orderly universe could -not have existed unless man had been a link in the series. His argument -is equally weak when he maintains that the infinite wisdom of God is a -guarantee that there will not be a gap in the endless chain of -existences, but that it is a question whether infinite wisdom may not -have made a mistake with respect to man's proper place in the series, -and erred in the after sorting of the gradations which it had previously -conceived and created on an infallible plan.[823] The poet was -inconsistent to childishness. Johnson believed that when Pope talked of -man's place he did not attach any meaning to the term. The words would -seem to imply that it was a question whether man was placed in the -circumstances which were best adapted to his moral, mental, and physical -nature. But if Pope had thoroughly comprehended his borrowed phrases, he -would not have proposed the enquiry under a form which stultified his -premises. - -There were errors enough in Pope's doctrine without the -misinterpretations of Voltaire, who has falsified the views of the poet, -as he had previously misstated the profounder system of Leibnitz. -"Those," says Voltaire, "who exclaim that all is good are charlatans. -Shaftesbury, who brought the fable into fashion, was a very unhappy man. -I have seen Bolingbroke devoured with chagrin and rage, and Pope, whom -he induced to put the mockery into verse, was as much to be pitied as -any man I have ever known,--deformed in body, unequal in his temper, -always ill, a burthen to himself, and harassed by a hundred enemies to -his dying hour. Quote me at least some happy men who say that all is -good. Any one who had seen the beautiful Ann Boleyn, and the still more -beautiful Mary Stuart, in their youth, would have said that is good, but -would he have said it when he saw them perish by the hand of the -executioner? would he have said it when he saw the grandson of the -beautiful Mary die the same death in the midst of his capital? would he -have said it when he saw the great-grandson more unfortunate still, -since he lived longer?"[824] Pope, in his imperfect theory, did not deny -the existence of sorrow, but asserted, or implied, that the sorrow was -an advantage either to the sufferer or others. Voltaire looked singly at -the misery without heeding the gain. Mary Queen of Scots at the block -was superior to the radiant beauty who was starting on a profligate -career. Charles I., penitent for his murderous abandonment of Strafford, -and, perhaps, for his creed that duplicity is a virtue when employed by -kings to circumvent subjects, was a vastly better man on the scaffold -than on the throne. James II. was in a more advantageous position with -the inducement to repentance which his long exile supplied than if he -had succeeded in his fraudulent attempts to subvert the English church -and constitution. The rage of Bolingbroke, and Pope's fretful temper, -were certainly inexplicable on the pretence that they were poured into -the mind by the Deity. They did not militate against the truer optimism -which saw in them self-imposed vice and pain, rendered possible by the -free-will which is a privilege to mankind. - -Pope filled up the outline of his system with declamatory invectives -against objectors, and with reflections intended to prove that the -imperfections of man befitted his position in the universe. There is -little force in the poet's reasoning. He passes over difficulties, and -replies to cavils which no one worth answering ever urged. Some of his -remarks are obscure, some erroneous, some common-place. Such as they are -they have not been woven into a consecutive argument. M. Crousaz says he -knew persons who were persuaded that Pope had tacked together a number -of fragments he had composed at different times, before he had the idea -of an Essay on Man, which was a contrivance to work up his collection of -odds and ends. He understood, in fact, little beyond the separate -thoughts, and was insensible to the want of coherence, consistency and -purpose. It would be lost labour to search, like Warburton, for a -strength and closeness of reasoning which were not in the mind of the -author. - -The second epistle treats of man "with respect to himself as an -individual." The Bible is a revelation of God, and a perpetual summons -to mankind "to know and understand" him. "Thus saith the Lord, Let not -the wise man glory in his wisdom, but let him that glorieth glory in -this, that he understandeth and knoweth me."[825] The divinity at last -descended upon earth, and lived our life, acting and speaking under our -circumstances, that God might be clearly manifested to the world. "He -that hath seen me," says our Lord, "hath seen the Father."[826] The -divine light appeared darkness and imposture to Pope. He was even blind -to the light which his natural understanding would have furnished, and, -taught by Bolingbroke, he abjured all pretension to a knowledge of the -Almighty under the plea of reverencing his inscrutable grandeur. Man -must not venture to scan God; his only proper study is to learn to know -himself.[827] This second epistle exhibits the kind of self-knowledge to -which Pope attained, when, renouncing the knowledge of God, he -determined to limit his investigations to man. - -He draws a desolate picture. Man is in doubt whether he is a god or a -beast; whether he ought to prefer his body or his mind. He is a confused -chaos of thought and passion, he reasons only to err, and is only born -to die.[828] The general incapacity, we are told, extended to Newton, -and it might have occurred to the poet that it was a useless task to -study our nature when the deductions of reason in its highest estate are -uniformly wrong. He committed the oversight from his habit of borrowing -fragments he was not at the pains to understand. His caricature was a -partial and distorted copy from Pascal, who with wonderful energy of -language, amplified the helplessness of fallen man that he might insist -the more strongly on the necessity of his restoration through the -Gospel. He overcharged the evil to exalt the remedy. Pope had not any -remedy to suggest. He leaves the "confused chaos" in its primitive -impotence, and calls upon mankind to embark in a deceptive study, with -the warning that they will wander from error to error. - -Without tying Pope down to the rhetorical exaggerations in the opening -paragraph of his second epistle, we find from a passage in the first -epistle that he reduced to insignificance the self-knowledge attainable -by mankind. He said that when the proud horse and dull ox knew why man -put them to this use or that, then would proud and dull man comprehend -the end and use of his being, passions, sufferings, and actions.[829] -The amount of knowledge possessed by the horse and ox is not -discoverable by us. The only nature adequately known to man is his own, -and his nature reveals his end. The ideas which ought to govern him -proceed from his Maker. They are the voice of God speaking to him, and -telling him the purpose for which he lives. He learns, above all, that -he is the servant of the Almighty, that his passions are to be ruled by -his conscience, that duty is supreme, that his sufferings are the -discipline to perfect his character, that earth is the school for a -higher existence. He may be negligent and perverse; he may refuse to -look into his nature, and may, in part, defy it; may thence arrive at -false conclusions, and adopt a false course of conduct, which are the -abuses of a free-will that can sink or soar, but the grand outlines of -his nature are plain to every honest and earnest enquirer, and blank -ignorance on the end of his being, passions, sufferings, and actions is -not the inevitable condition of man. - -The conviction that we are ignorant of the use of our being and actions -did not keep Pope from acknowledging that "good" is the end to which we -aspire.[830] The nature of this good, and the means of obtaining it, is -the main subject of the second epistle, "which contains," says -Warburton, "the truest, clearest, shortest, and consequently the best -system of ethics that is anywhere to be met with."[831] The system which -Warburton thought "true and clear" appears to be eminently false and -contradictory. - -Man has certain implanted tendencies, physical, intellectual, and -sympathetic,--the craving for food, for knowledge, for society, etc. -None of our primitive endowments can be termed moral, since they are -bestowed upon us independently of our will, and it is not till will -interposes that morality begins, but in their purity they are all -advantageous, and many of them are directed to the identical end which -morality prescribes. They are part of the stock-in-trade with which man -starts in his career, and he is charged with the wise administration of -them. A brief experience teaches him that an instinctive tendency may be -carried to excess. His craving for food and drink may turn to gluttony -and drunkenness; his passion for knowledge may convert him into a -solitary student without any care for his kind; his love of society and -affection may unfit him for the business and drudgery of life. Or he may -yield to a propensity till satiety succeeds, and he is left listless and -jaded. Or he may indulge a lawful propensity by lawless methods. Or he -may be hurried away by successive impulses, and be too unstable to put -his gifts to a profitable use. In any of these ways his proper nature -becomes mutilated and degraded. His reason informs him that to enjoy the -full advantage of his tendencies he must not consent to be drifted along -by the current which is strongest for the moment. He must curb the lower -propensities, and foster the higher; he must regulate the several -unities in a manner to derive the greatest benefit from the whole; he -must substitute for the reign of impulse what moralists call his -interest well understood. He does not stop at self-interest. He rises -above his personal good into the impersonal sphere of good in itself. He -perceives that there is a law superior to his individual interests, a -law of universal obligation, and which is immutable and eternal. - -Of these three motives, the instinctive, the prudential, and the law of -independent morality, Pope rejects the last. He believes that self is -the single spring of action in men, and he seriously adopts the old -sarcastic saying, "Every man for himself, and God for us all."[832] He -divides this selfish nature into two parts,--self-love, which designates -the impulsive propensities, and reason, which governs them on the behalf -of interest well-understood.[833] Already there is an inconsistency in -his phraseology when he puts self-love in direct opposition to reason. -Reason in his theory is simply the selfishness of calculation; self-love -the selfishness of impulse. Self-love is absolute in both, and is not -the less self-love because we deliberate upon the means which are best -adapted to secure the selfish end. - -The erroneous phraseology signifies little. The important point is the -radical falsity of the system. The three grand duties of man,--his duty -to God, his neighbour, and himself,--are resolved by Pope into the -single duty of man to himself. In the first epistle the poet rebuked the -pride which supposed the heavens and the earth to be created for its -use.[834] In his second epistle he teaches us that they are totally -indifferent to us under any other aspect. He will tell us that the way -to promote our personal interest is to love God and our neighbour, but -the end and motive of the love must on his system be our individual -interest still. The gospel precepts must be set aside; for in place of -loving our neighbour equally with ourselves we are to love him simply -for the sake of ourselves; and in place of loving God with all our -hearts, and minds, and souls, we are to love him solely as a tributary -who ministers to our absorbing love of self. When we practically think -and act as though we were the centre of the universe; when, horrible to -say, we view the Deity merely as an instrument to promote our -selfishness; when we discover nothing in the Creator to adore, nothing -in his creation to admire, apart from their fitness to advance the -interests of one puny mortal, we invert the actual constitution of -things, we base our morality upon a lie, and we only cheat ourselves -with delusive terms when we talk of our duty to God and our neighbour. - -The test of the system is in the phenomena of consciousness which are -open to universal observation. When our moral principle is an unalloyed -selfishness we seek our private good alone, and there can be no -obligation to consult the interests of our neighbours. I pay a debt -because it is to my advantage, and not from any sense of what is due to -my debtor. I forbear to kill, and maim, and torture, not in the least -because I am bound to consider the rights and feelings of my -fellow-creatures, but because it would be present or future pain to -myself. Owning no law, except the law of selfishness, I should be -dishonest and cruel if I could believe that the balance of personal -pleasure was on the side of inhumanity and roguery. When I blame -murderers and thieves, I inconsiderately distinguish between the guilt -and folly of the crime, which is a vulgar mistake. The selfishness which -respects nothing beyond the requirements of self is the law of our race, -and the miscalled criminal has obeyed the governing principle of -mankind. He owed no duty to others, and his sole fault was not to have -judged wisely for his interests. I talk of patriotism and public spirit, -of sacrifice and disinterestedness, but they are words which convey a -false impression. Sacrifice and disinterestedness do not exist, and the -apparent devotion to country and public is at bottom a complete devotion -to self. - -Common experience is too powerful for bad philosophy, and it is plain -that this is not a true description of the moral man. Pope puts a part -for the whole. The Creator has endowed us with a desire for happiness, -which is inseparable from our being. The individual is a portion of the -universe, and though he is only an atom, his interests are cared for in -common with the rest. But he has a consciousness that the good of others -must be cared for likewise, that Providence has enjoined him to -contribute to the result, and that his refusal to recognise the duty he -owes to his neighbour would be guilt. He has a conviction that the great -source of all being and all good is to be adored for his infinite -perfections, and that to love him solely for the sake of the blessings -he communicates to ourselves is a maimed, derogatory, and impious idea. -Man has been constructed to perceive things as they are, and to act in -conformity with his knowledge. He is the creature of his Maker, a unit -in a multitude, and could not be permitted to consider Maker and -multitude subordinate to the creature and unit, without a complete -perversion of the facts. With the desire for our own good there has been -instilled into us that law of good in itself which embraces the -universe,--a law which, while it includes our individual concerns, -extends infinitely beyond them, and to which we do homage under its -aspect of good in itself, as well as under its aspect that it is good -for me. Our personal pleasure is not therefore, as Pope asserts, "the -whole employ of body and mind."[835] Happiness in the long run is -dependent upon well-doing, and we consult our interest when we adhere to -duty. But our rule of duty must not be bounded by our self-interest, -which, reducing our motives to a petty egotism, corrupts the nature of -man, and contaminates duty at its source. - -The prevalent habit of abandoning duty for personal pleasure begets the -mistaken idea that where there is pleasure there is absolute -selfishness. The degree of selfishness must be determined by our -motives, and not by the feelings which accompany our acts. Whatever is -done for self-gratification is selfish; and everything in which our end -is external to ourselves is disinterested, in so far as the accompanying -gratification is not the motive to the deed. Although the benevolent man -has a satisfaction in reflecting that the sufferings of the needy are -removed, his predominant motive to benevolence is the relief of the -wretched, and not his own personal pleasure. His intention terminates in -the objects of his charity, with little return upon himself, and unless -his sympathy with them was real the gratification would not be felt. -Happiness is the proper effect of pure goodness, and if the junction of -perfect happiness and perfect goodness was incompatible with -disinterestedness, the celestial spirits would be more selfish than men. -Men, in turn, would grow selfish in the same proportion that -perseverance in well-doing rendered duty delightful. "I find a pleasure -in serving my friends," said Schiller in refutation of the doctrine; "it -is agreeable to me to fulfil my duties. This troubles me, for then I am -no longer virtuous."[836] The love which is capable of the utmost -sacrifice is not less generous because no sacrifice may chance to be -required, any more than a man who is proof against all temptations to -steal, is less honest because he is not exposed to temptation. From our -proneness to self-deceit we are accustomed to estimate disinterestedness -by actual sacrifices, which both test our motives, and inure us to -self-denying love, but disinterestedness is the cause of self-denial and -must precede it, and the disposition remains when the call for -self-denial may have ceased. Qualities are what they are, whatever may -happen to be the surrounding circumstances. Grant that a man can love -his neighbour and himself with an equal love, and the same proportion -will be preserved whether his love procures him unadulterated pleasure, -or entails on him a vast amount of pain. Happiness and disinterestedness -are not in their essence mutually destructive; they co-exist and -coalesce. - -A close scrutiny into the motives of moral men will satisfy us that the -love of our neighbour is not wholly or chiefly a disguised love of self; -that we love God for what he is, transcendent in goodness and wisdom, as -well as for what he is to us; that we do not bow down to duty solely -because it is our interest well understood, but much more because it has -an illimitable authority independent of our individual interests, and -binds the conscience by its right to supreme dominion. God, man, duty -are external objects which, over and above the consideration of -self-interest, are served by morality as an end. Bishop Butler even -maintained that all our instinctive impulses "are particular movements -towards particular external objects," and cannot be ascribed to -self-love. He instances the desire produced by hunger, of which "the -object and end," he says, "is merely food."[837] But there is a further -object for which alone the food is desired,--the removal of painful -sensations, or the gratification of the palate, or the prolongation of -life. All these objects are often purely selfish, and always in their -ordinary unreflecting state.[838] The uneasy sensation of hunger begins -and ends with the individual; the single purpose for which he covets the -food is to allay his particular physical craving; outside self there is -no object left to attract the mind,--no over-plus to which our thoughts -can be directed. There is not, as in the case of God, man, and law, an -object which has a claim upon our hearts and understandings distinct -from the special benefit to ourselves. The desire for food is a -selfish, but not an evil instinct, for self-love is part of the duty and -constitution of man. Pope's error was in putting a fragment for the -whole, and merging duty in selfishness. - -There is a second part to Pope's system. He has told us that the -function of reason is to "advise and check" the instinctive impulses; -that she "mixes the passions with art, and confines them to due bounds;" -that she "compounds and subjects, tempers and employs them;" and that -her "well-accorded" combination of jarring elements "gives all the -strength and colour to our life."[839] The instant after he lays down a -directly opposite theory. He says that every man brings into the world a -"ruling passion," which is "cast and mingled with his very frame;" that -this master passion "grows with our growth," and "swallows up" all the -other passions; that whatever "warms the heart or fills the head" goes -to feed the one despotic desire. When we fancy we curb a passion we are -deceived; we have only resigned a lesser passion in favour of a -greater.[840] Reason, which lately mixed the passions in their proper -proportions, and confined them to due bounds, is suddenly stripped of -her prerogative, and becomes the slave of the master passion. - - The ruling passion, be it what it will, - The ruling passion conquers reason still. - -Reason in this new theory is worse than helpless; she deserts to the -side of her enemy, gives the monster propensity "edge and power," and -exerts herself to exasperate the "mind's disease."[841] Such -contradictions were the natural consequence of the perfunctory manner in -which Pope had picked up his scraps of philosophy. - -The slightest acquaintance with the world is fatal to the hypothesis -that an exclusive ruling passion is the universal characteristic of -mankind. Each person has various appetites, desires, and affections, and -it is rare to see a man in whom "one master passion has swallowed up the -rest." Propensities intermingle and take their turn. Characters are -notoriously complex, and every individual is not the incarnation of a -single unattended passion. A desire for power may be joined with -sensuality, a love of fame with covetousness, an eagerness for knowledge -with affection. In the play of passions one may preponderate, but all -the rest are not reduced to nullity. Allow the existence of the ruling -passion, and Pope's account of its origin could not be correct. A -passion which is cast in our frame from our birth, and continues -thenceforward to grow with our growth, must be permanent and -unalterable. The individual must be governed by the same passion in -childhood and age, in the season of thoughtlessness and of wisdom, in -dissoluteness and virtue, in all the possible changes of condition. This -is not the scene which life presents. "Every observer," says Johnson, -"has remarked, that in many men the love of pleasure is the ruling -passion of their youth, and the love of money that of their advanced -years."[842] - -With an inherited ruling passion, and reason helpless to restrain it, we -should be altogether the creatures of fate on Pope's hypothesis, if he -had not furnished reason with a last resource, which, as is evident from -several parallel passages, was chiefly suggested to him by the works of -his contemporary, Mandeville. This shallow thinker put forth a system of -morality and political economy in his Fable of the Bees, or Private -Vices, Public Benefits. The book, which was philosophically weak, -attracted much notice at the time from the liveliness of his coarse -illustrations, the vigorous ease of his inaccurate style, and the -cynical parade of his licentious doctrines. He had the folly to imagine -that commerce could only flourish when the wealth of a nation was -consumed by the idle, the sensual, the luxurious. Hence, he argued that -their wasteful vices were a national gain. This was his political -economy. His morality consisted in denying the reality of virtue. He -held that every apparent virtue was prompted by an underlying frailty, -and that all ostensible goodness was the false mask worn over inward -weaknesses. The indignation his system provoked induced him subsequently -to throw in some qualifying phrases, but his faint, and always equivocal -concessions, are forms of speech, and did not prevent his repeated -avowal that genuine virtue had no existence on earth. "I often," he -says, "compare the virtues of good men to your large China jars; they -make a fine show, but look into a thousand of them, and you will find -nothing in them but dust and cobwebs."[843] - -Pope, like Mandeville, founds virtue upon vice. The ruling passion is -evil, but reason gives it a bias towards good.[844] "Spleen, obstinacy, -hate, and fear," each produce "crops of wit and honesty;" "anger" is the -parent of "zeal and fortitude;" "avarice" of "prudence;" "sloth" of -"philosophy;" and every virtue under heaven may issue from "pride or -shame."[845] The ruling passion having engulphed the whole family of -affections and desires, this individual is a personification of anger, -that individual of hate; a third of fear; a fourth of sloth; a fifth of -pride. The sole moving principle of man is his giant passion.[846] The -function of reason is only to foster it,[847] and select the means for -its gratification. Whatever these means may be, the motive of the -incarnate monster lust, is to feed sensuality; of the monster sloth to -secure ease; of the monster pride to inflate self-importance. "The same -ambition," says Pope, "may make a patriot, as it makes a knave."[848] -But the incarnation of an all-pervading ambition can be only a patriot -in appearance, and uses patriotism to serve the ends of ambition. Let -the two diverge, and by the law of his nature he must fling the -patriotism to the winds. "Either," says our Lord, "make the tree good, -and his fruit good; or else, make the tree corrupt and his fruit -corrupt."[849] On Pope's theory, to make the tree good is impossible. -Man has no escape from the ruling passion he brings into the world. He -must be angry, avaricious, or slothful, according to the seed which was -sown in him at his birth, and the tree must remain corrupt to the last. - -The fruit would inevitably betray the taint of its origin, and Pope was -mistaken in supposing that a vitiated motive could keep steady to -outward virtue. "Hate," to which Pope ascribes the singular power of -producing "crops of wit and honesty," must repudiate love, or whatever -else did not subserve the one unamiable passion; and a man all hate,--a -frantic enemy to every kind and tender emotion,--would be hateful, -however honest and witty. "Anger" would renounce the meek and -charitable, "pride" the humble virtues, together with any other virtue -which did not minister to inordinate anger and pride. Neither passion -would assume a moral aspect. "I observe," says Baxter, "that almost all -men, good and bad, do loathe the proud, and love the humble." "Zeal" is -the prerogative ascribed to "anger," and the zealot who was urged on by -fierce unflagging anger would be a terror and a scourge. Pope himself -has drawn a horrible picture of the miseries inflicted upon humanity -when "zeal, not charity, became the guide" of the teachers of -religion.[850] "Sloth" supplies us with "philosophy," or the apathetic -submission to evils we are too lazy to correct, which is the virtue that -induces thousands to live in dirt and ignorance, because cleanliness and -knowledge are not to be had without industry. "Avarice" is credited with -the faculty of "supplying prudence," which is as true as to say that a -burning fever supplies a moderate, healthy temperature. The moral system -which confines man to the counterfeit "virtue nearest allied to his -vice," or ruling passion, is an extravagant libel upon the virtuous, and -outrageous flattery of the vicious.[851] - -Mandeville took his morality from La Rochefoucauld, and Pope took hints -from both. The principle common to the three is the motto which La -Rochefoucauld placed at the head of his Maxims, "Our virtues are usually -vices in disguise." The doctrine, when expressed in La Rochefoucauld's -language, was condemned by Pope. - -"As L'Esprit," he said, "La Rochefoucauld, and that sort of people, -prove that all virtues are disguised vices, I would engage to prove all -vices to be disguised virtues. Neither, indeed, is true: but this would -be a more agreeable subject; and would overturn their whole -scheme."[852] He repeated the criticism in a suppressed passage of the -Essay on Man,[853] with a complete unconsciousness that the "scheme" he -fancied he could "overturn," was the very soul of his system. "Heaven," -he said, "can raise virtue's ends from the vanity which seeks no reward -but praise,"[854] and for man to be virtuous solely out of vanity was -exactly the virtue which La Rochefoucauld called "vice in disguise." He -who feeds the hungry from vanity alone is not moved by sympathy for -suffering. Charity is merely the pretence which his vanity pleads. Each -of the other ruling passions acts according to its own exclusive nature, -and the virtue which is adopted to humour anger, hate, sloth, and -avarice, is by general consent called delusion or imposture. La -Rochefoucauld has the advantage over Pope. The succession of selfish -passions he discovered too uniformly in man is less odious than the -concentrated anger, hate, or sloth which never pauses or turns aside; -and the satirist who lashes the deceptive vices of mankind is to be -preferred to the moralist who teaches that vice in disguise is virtue. - -The contradictions are not at an end. Pride, folly, "even mean -self-love," have all, says Pope, some good in them.[855] He forgot that -self-love is, with him, the principle of every virtue and vice, their -essence and life, their origin and end, and to call self-love meaner -than pride and folly is either to assert that self-love is meaner than -itself, or to abandon the foundation of his moral systems. He goes on to -ascribe an influence to self-love which is incompatible with his second -system, or theory of the ruling passion. "Self-love," he says, "is the -scale to measure others' wants by thine," or, as he remarked to Spence, -"self-love would be a necessary principle in every one, if it were only -to serve each as a scale for his love to his neighbour."[856] On Pope's -second system this love of each for his neighbour must be extinct, -unless love chanced to be the ruling passion. Unmixed anger, hate, and -sloth retain no trace of affection. When we are reduced to a single -passion, and for selfish purposes "measure others' wants by our own," -anger can but have an intellectual, unsympathising perception of rival -passions, and will only assist them in the degree which will serve its -irritable instincts. Sloth, anger, hate, and the rest will act according -to their kind, and to call upon them to love their neighbours as -themselves is to enjoin the deaf to hear, and the blind to see. - -An evil fatalism, therefore, remains the leading principle of Pope's -second system. A man must be avaricious, slothful, or angry as nature -appoints. He cannot select his passion, or divert, or repress it. The -sole power reserved to his will is a certain latitude in choosing the -diet upon which the passion feeds. This meagre and polluted freedom -dwindles to nothing with such passions as sloth and avarice, and if -there was room for prayer, when our nature is fixed for us by an -irreversible decree, we ought to petition for the "pride and vainglory" -against which we pray in the Litany, since, if Pope is right, they -permit more variety of specious virtue than the griping prudence of -avarice, and the corrupting philosophy of sloth. - -The poet passes from his review of individual man to the designs of God, -and his degenerate morality sinks lower as he proceeds. "The ends of -Providence," he says, "and general good are answered in our passions and -imperfections," and he goes on to show "how usefully" the Deity, acting -in the interests of the "whole,"[857] has "distributed" imperfections to -"orders of men, to individuals, and to every state and age of -life."[858] Pope refuses to ascribe our evil passions to the abuse of -that freedom of will which is inseparable from the idea of a moral -being. He retains the doctrine laid down in his first epistle, and -involved in his ruling-passion hypothesis, that our evil passions are -the immediate gift of God. "Heaven applies" what Pope calls "happy -frailties to all ranks,--fear to statesmen, rashness to commanders, and -presumption to kings."[859] "Pride is bestowed on all, a common -friend,"[860] which overthrows his theory that the ruling is our only -passion, and pride incompatible with avarice, sloth, &c. The blessing he -imputes to pride is that it takes possession of the "vacuities of -sense," and prevents self-knowledge.[861] "The proper study of mankind -is man," but the desirable effect of the study is that man should be -self-deceived,--that he should be soothed into complacency by ignorance -of his individual defects, and by a conceited dream of imaginary -excellence. The "bubble joy" is ordained by Providence "to laugh in the -cup of folly," that folly may be cheered in its career, and fast as "one -prospect is lost" may be lured on by "another."[862] The poet had -already furnished an illustration of his doctrine, in the consolatory -fact that "the sot" fancies himself "a hero!"[863] "Pleasure," says -Pope, is "our greatest evil or our greatest good," and these were among -his good pleasures,--the contrivances of a beneficent Deity for the -comfort and encouragement of vice and folly. Bolingbroke was better -informed. "The man," he says, "who neglects the duties of natural -religion, and the obligations of morality, acts against his nature, and -lives in open defiance to the author of it. God declares for one order -of things, he for another. God blends together the duty and interest of -his creature; his creature separates them, despises the duty, and -proposes to himself another interest."[864] - -Pope is not satisfied with applauding moral imperfections. He degrades -and ridicules religious aspirations. Every period, he says, of life is -provided with "some fit passion,"[865] and as a "rattle, by nature's -kindly law," is the "plaything" of the "child," so "beads and -prayer-books are the toys of age." The new toy, like the old, is but a -"bauble," which "pleases," as the rattle had done before, till "tired" -of the game we "sleep, and life's poor play is over."[866] The whole is -an idle entertainment arranged by the Deity, who has "usefully -distributed" the "fit" and frivolous passions which amuse our hollow -existence. The worst writer has never given a more debased description -of the moral government of God, and of the nature and ends of rational -man. Ignorant of our Creator, presumptuous when we dare to study him, -involved in a whirl of endless error when we study ourselves, the -victims of a pre-ordained and irresistible passion, prayer is but a -beguiling "toy," and not the reasonable, elevated language of belief, -trust, and repentance. The goal of morality is the discovery that "life -is a poor play," a paltry mimic scene, which leaves us only this barren -consolation--that though we, the actors, are "fools," "God," who has -cast our empty part for us, "is wise."[867] The wisdom is not apparent -in Pope's deplorable travestie of man's moral nature. Happily, true -morality teaches that life is a grand school in which, knowing the -adorable perfections of God, we learn to imitate his goodness. The moral -man is occupied with noble realities, and not with mimic shows. He -fights against destroying passions, struggles to conform to immutable -verities, and finds, amid many bitter failures, that human weakness and -littleness can continuously approximate to the divine exemplar. The -life, which seemed to Pope a "poor play," is to the moral and religious -man a mighty privilege, an awful responsibility, a sublime -preparation,--the prelude to a holy and happy eternity. - -The third epistle treats "of the nature and state of man with respect to -society." The details of our duty to our neighbour were kept for the -portion of the Essay which was never written. In the present epistle -Pope discusses the general relation of man to man, or the foundation of -society and government. A third of his dissertation is a renewal of the -argument in the previous epistles that all things have a mutual -dependence, that every creature is made both for others and for itself. -This desultory introduction is succeeded by the remark that "self-love -and social love began with the state of nature,"[868] which is an -allusion to the argument of Hobbes, much canvassed in Pope's day, that -"the state of nature was a state of war." Pope and Hobbes agreed that -human motives were entirely selfish. They differed in their opinion of -the direction which the selfishness took. Hobbes contended that each -would desire all things for himself, and would endeavour to despoil his -neighbour; Pope, that self-love would seek its gratification in social -love. But the poet says and unsays, and is soon involved in a labyrinth -of inconsistencies. He tells us that in the patriarchal period, "before -the name of king was known,"[869] "man, like his Maker, saw that all was -right;" "trod to virtue in the paths of pleasure;" and recognised no -"allegiance" or "policy" except "love."[870] A few lines earlier he -asserted that in the same patriarchal period, before monarchy was known, -and when all was love and virtue, some states were compelled to join -others through "fear;" and "foes," tempted by trees laden with fruit, -went forth "to ravish" the orchards of their neighbours. And when the -robbers desisted from their intended spoliation, it was not out of love -or compassion, but only because they were persuaded by the proprietors -that "commerce" would prove as profitable as "war."[871] - -Both these clashing theories are espoused by Pope with equal confidence, -but the greatest prominence is given to the theory that social love was -perfect in the patriarchal times. The whole of the sentient world was -included in the happy brotherhood. The human race were the companions of -the beasts, and walked, fed, and slept with them. The disastrous -circumstance which broke up the reign of universal love was the craving -of man for animal food. He yielded to the temptation to eat flesh, and -from a meek, was changed into a pugnacious, sanguinary creature. The -inflammatory diet generated the "fury passions," till then unknown, and -"turned man on man."[872] "Force" was now employed to make "conquests," -and war and rapine were introduced.[873] Pope once more lapses into his -habitual contradictions. He represents the patriarchs as teaching their -families to "draw monsters from the abyss," and "fetch the eagle to the -ground" during the innocent era when the lives of beasts were held -sacred.[874] He has thus adopted two opposite versions of the -patriarchal treatment of the animal creation, and the later version, -which teaches that the slaughter of animals was prevalent under the -reign of love and virtue, is inconsistent with his genealogy of the -"fury passions." He has likewise two opposite opinions on the -destruction of brutes,--the one, that to take their lives was murder; -the other, that the art of killing them was among the laudable -discoveries which entitled the patriarchs to be esteemed "a second -Providence" by their children.[875] Pope has not done with his -contradictions. "It might, perhaps," he says in his first epistle, -"appear better for us that all were harmony and virtue, and that never -passion discomposed the mind." "But all," he replies, "subsists by -elemental strife, and passions are the elements of life," which, he -urges to show the necessity for the "fierce ambition" of Cæsar, and the -misdeeds of Borgia and Catiline.[876] In the third epistle we are told -that "the virtue and harmony" actually lasted for many generations, that -the strife of bad passions was not in the slightest degree requisite for -sustaining the system established on earth, and that the aggressive -vices of Cæsars, Catilines, and Borgias were only the pernicious -consequence of eating meat. - -The hypothesis is puerile, that force, conquest, and rapine originated -in a meat diet. Equally puerile is the theory that the arts of -government, navigation, agriculture, and manufactures were copied from -animals.[877] Man is specially distinguished by his inventive capacity. -Through this gift the arts and sciences are continuously progressive, -and there is no plausibility in the supposition that his characteristic -power was originally in abeyance. The gratuitous fancy that the arts of -human civilisation were acquired from the brutes, could not be supported -by less appropriate examples. Mankind are said by Pope to have been -pre-eminently social, and he would have us believe that neither -sociality nor convenience could teach them to construct their dwellings -in proximity, till "reason late" suggested to them the reflection, that -some birds, such as rooks, built their nests in clusters.[878] He -acknowledges that a community of families perceived it would be for -their interest to have a single ruler; but the principle that the -subjects under a monarchy should retain their right to their houses and -property, was discovered by observing that every bee in a hive had its -separate cell, and separate honey,[879] which was a fiction of some -unobservant naturalist, who credited bees with our usages. From the -silk-worm we learn to "weave," and from, the mole to "plough," -notwithstanding that the silk-worm only spins silk, and never weaves it, -and that the subterranean scratchings of the mole have no resemblance to -our contrivance, the plough. The remaining instances cited by Pope are -just as absurd. He strung together fragments of ancient fables, which, -in a modern copy, are neither poetry nor philosophy. - -When families spread, patriarchal government is said by Pope to have -been invariably merged in monarchical. He makes no mention of another -elementary system which prevailed among the ancient Germans, and which -was too natural to have been unfrequent. The tribe was composed of -contiguous families, or clans, each of which had its separate territory. -The head of every clan was ruler within his own domain, and the affairs -which concerned the entire tribe were managed by a general assembly of -the heads of clans. Under this arrangement the representative of the -clan preserved his patriarchal power, and had an equal voice with his -brother chiefs in regulating the common interests of the tribe. Pope -completed his single genealogical principle of government by a rapid -summary of the transitions through which monarchy passed. Conquest led -to tyranny. An ambitious priesthood first threatened the despot with -spiritual terrors, then went shares with him, and the double yoke of -secular and ecclesiastical tyranny was fastened on the necks of mankind. -The oppressed subjects at last rebelled against their rulers, kings were -"forced into virtue by self-defence," and the world returned to the -dominant principle of the state of nature, that "self-love and social -are the same." These meagre doctrines were derived from Bolingbroke, -whose political philosophy was hardly more profound than his moral and -metaphysical; but Pope shows, here and there, that he had read Locke's -treatise on Civil Government, and the passages from Hooker which Locke -quoted, and with such masters to guide him the flimsiness of his views -is without excuse. - -The investigations of Pope conducted him to the final conclusion that -"the true end of all government" is unity among mankind, and he -prescribes the methods by which harmony is to be preserved both in -politics and religion. The panacea which was to cure political divisions -is contained in the couplet, - - For forms of government let fools contest, - Whate'er is best administered is best.[880] - -Good government, that is, depends on good administration; the form of -government is immaterial, and those who battle for one form in -preference to another, are fools. The accusation of folly was thrown -back upon the poet, who grew ashamed of his maxim, and in 1740 he gave -an interpretation to his verses which they cannot be made to bear. "The -author of these lines," he said, "was far from meaning that no one form -of government is, in itself, better than another (as that mixed or -limited monarchy, for example, is not preferable to absolute), but that -no form of government, however excellent or preferable in itself, can be -sufficient to make a people happy unless it be administered with -integrity. On the contrary, the best sort of government, when the form -of it is preserved, and the administration corrupt, is most dangerous." -The concord which was to have been produced by indifference to forms of -government, vanishes with the admission that the form is important. The -qualifying remark, that forms are insufficient when their spirit is -violated, was a truism denied by no one. A corrupt legislature, a -corrupt executive, and corrupt tribunals, would neutralise the benefit -of any constitution with which they could subsist. - -Pope retracted his maxim under the pretence of explaining it. His new -version showed that he did not yet understand the value of forms of -government, or he would not have said that when the administration is -corrupt the best form of government is the most detrimental to the -public. A slight reflection on the History of England, and the nature of -man, must have convinced him that a chief virtue of good forms of -government is the security they afford for the prevention, limitation, -and cure of corruption,--for the subordination of private selfishness to -the common weal. His own epistle would have informed him that when -governors have absolute dominion they "drive through just and unjust" to -gratify their "ambition, lust, and lucre;" and when the power is with -the governed, they will not suffer their rights to be extensively -invaded, but will oblige kings and ministers to "learn justice."[881] -There was a stage of feudalism when the territorial, legislative, and -judicial functions were centered in the lord of the fief. He taxed and -punished his serfs and vassals at pleasure. His covetousness, his -cruelty, his passionate caprices, all developed by uncontrolled habit -and the spirit of the age, could only be resisted by rebellion, and -rebellions he quenched in blood. The sufferings of his people were -atrocious. Pope lived under a vastly superior constitution, which he -believed was corruptly administered, and the detriment to the public -should have been greater, on his principle, than the despotism of feudal -times. The fact was signally the other way. The mediæval enormities were -no longer possible; person and property were safe, and loyal citizens -lived in peace and security. Laws were not always just, religious and -civil liberty was incomplete, purity in ministers and legislators was -often defective. But there was a limit to corruption, or ministers and -legislators would have been indignantly discarded. They were compelled -in the main to consult the supposed interests of the country, that they -might preserve the power to gratify their private aims. Many of the -evils which existed kept their ground through remaining imperfections in -the constitution. The popular element was too restricted, and the abuses -were diminished when the form of government was improved. - -Pope's receipt for putting an end to political rancour was that the -public should accept his assurance that only fools troubled their heads -about forms of government. His remedy for religious discord was that the -world should receive his dictum that only bad men could attach -importance to religious beliefs: - - For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; - His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.[882] - -Since no one, he says, can have a wrong faith whose life is in the -right, all who fight for modes of faith must be graceless zealots. Two -conclusions are involved in his principle,--the first, that religious -belief and worship are not any necessary part of a life in the right; -the second, that the mode of faith has not the faintest influence upon -moral practice. Without stopping to consider the first point, we have -only to glance at the history of christianity for a decisive refutation -of the second. Thousands upon thousands of "graceless zealots" -contended, at the cost of their lives, for a mode of faith which changed -the face of the world. Pope must have argued that the effect would have -been equal, nay, superior, if christian ethics had been divorced from -christian theology. Apostles and martyrs, then martyrs no more, should -have said to pagans, "Accept our moral precepts, and it matters not -whether you believe that there is one god, or many gods, or no god. It -does not signify whether you believe that the divine nature, and divine -mission of Jesus Christ, was a truth or a pretence, his resurrection a -fact or a fable. It does not even signify whether you believe that there -is any resurrection at all, whether you are convinced that there is an -everlasting reward for the righteous, or are persuaded that wicked and -righteous will both be annihilated. These are only 'modes of faith' -which do not affect morality, and we should be 'graceless zealots' to -insist upon them." Pope produces an additional reason in support of his -principle. "The world," he says, "will disagree in their religious hopes -and faith, but charity is the concern of everybody. Everything which -thwarts this charity must be false, and all things must be of God which -bless or mend mankind."[883] Consequently, Pope's idea of charity was -never to struggle for a doctrine which would provoke disagreement; and -whoever roused opposition by warring against ignorance and error, -proclaimed himself a false teacher by his very zeal to disseminate the -truth. The christian who exposed polytheism could not be a minister of -God, nor could any doctrine "bless and mend" heathens which did not -leave their idolatrous superstitions undisturbed. The principle cannot -be limited to religion. The world disagree in their conceptions of a -"life in the right;" the charity which is "all mankind's concern," would -be violated by questioning the lax ideas which abound; and the -moralists who "fight" for a pure system of ethics, must be classed, in -turn, with "graceless zealots." The triumph of Pope's system would be -the destruction of morality, religion, and charity; for religion and -morality must be dead already when it is acknowledged that zeal for -their purity and propagation is a sin, and the check of religion and -morality being withdrawn, the charity which remained would be that of -the savage and felon. - -Pope set at nought his own maxims. In the name of charity he demanded -that men should not contend for their faith, and he declined to exercise -the charity he enjoined. Everyone with him was a "graceless zealot" who -ventured to dissent from his private decree. This decree, which was to -bind the rest of the world, was not to bind Bolingbroke and himself. -They were both privileged to "fight for modes of faith." Bolingbroke, a -scurrilous deist, whose writings are stuffed with frenzied invectives -against the religious "faith and hope" of the vast majority of the -English people, and who was the true type, in the worst sense, of a -"graceless zealot," is lauded by Pope to the skies for his philosophic -wisdom. Pope, on his own part, maintained in the Essay a controversial -discussion on the origin of evil, and other mysterious topics, which -most of the "zealots" he upbraided were content to leave undetermined. -He laid down the law with dictatorial self-sufficiency, treated the -difficulties of humbler inquirers with scorn, and denounced, in -taunting, contumelious language, the impugners of the government of God. -He offered no reason for excepting the deistical "mode of faith" from -his law, unless we suppose him to have tacitly relied on his assertion -that those who shared his deism were "slaves to no sect, took no private -road, but looked through Nature up to Nature's God."[884] The plea -avails nothing. All who are honest in their opinions believe that they -hold the truth, and that they are not bigoted slaves to private -delusions. Few men could urge the claim with less plausibility than -Pope. His tenets discredited his pretensions. If he looked up to -Nature's God, he, nevertheless, stigmatised those who presumed to study -the God they adored. He believed that God infused wicked passions into -men, that his physical laws were deteriorated by change, and overruled -by chance.[885] He held that the same wicked passions which God poured -into the human mind were originally generated by animal food; his theory -of morals was licentious and contradictory; his opinions in general -incoherent and irreconcileable. He had little cause to boast that he -"took no private road" when there probably did not live a second person -who would have subscribed to his creed. - -The fourth epistle treats of Happiness, and was a supplement imposed on -the poet by Bolingbroke. The professed object was to refute the atheist, -who maintained that the condition of mankind was not regulated by the -rules of justice, and thence inferred that there could be no -superintending Providence. The real intention of the "guide, -philosopher, and friend" was to deprive divines of the argument for the -immortality of the soul which they built upon the want of proportion -between men's conduct and happiness. Pope was partly the dupe of -Bolingbroke, and partly his accomplice. He may not have seen the full -scope of his instructor's lessons, but he knew that they favoured -annihilation, and, to please "the master of the poet and the song," the -poet forbore to assert the opposite belief. His orthodox friends -complained of the omission, and Pope was driven to deny that there was -any connection between the purpose of his Essay and the doctrine of a -future state. After mentioning to Spence that he had omitted the address -to our Saviour by the advice of Berkeley, he added, "One of our priests, -who are more narrow-minded than yours, made a less sensible objection to -the epistle on Happiness. He was very angry that there was nothing said -in it of our eternal happiness hereafter, though my subject was -expressly to treat only of the state of man here."[886] He subsequently -extended the remark to the entire poem. "Some wonder why I did not take -in the fall of man in my Essay, and others how the immortality of the -soul came to be omitted. The reason is plain: they both lay out of my -subject, which was only to consider man as he is in his present state, -not in his past or future."[887] When Pope told Spence that he could not -discuss the fall of man in his Essay, because the "past state" of man -was foreign to his subject, he had forgotten the contents of his third -epistle, which treats of primitive man, the age of innocence, and the -depravation of mankind through eating meat. When he said that a future -state "lay out of his subject," he did not perceive the true bearings of -his promise to "vindicate the ways of God to man,"[888] nor the force of -his own admission that to pronounce upon the fitness of man's nature, to -judge "the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is -necessary first to know what relation it is placed in, and what is the -proper end and purpose of its being."[889] This is the language of -common sense. Man's condition on earth is adapted to his destiny, which -can alone explain and justify his position in the world. The justice and -goodness of the Deity wear a totally different aspect according as we -discover evidence that life is a discipline for immortality, or a -sorrowful transit to annihilation. The first epistle, again, is on the -"nature and state of man with respect to the universe;" and in this -relation of man to the universe, the one inquiry which gives importance -to the rest, is whether we are to have a share in the eternal system of -things, or whether, as the poet says of vegetables, we are mere "bubbles -which rise from the sea of matter, break, and return to it."[890] The -destiny of man was at the root of Pope's subject, and he could not have -thought otherwise unless he had been bent upon accommodating his -philosophy to the infidelity of Bolingbroke. - -The weak attempt to use language which would fit both infidelity and -belief, led to sorry conclusions. Pope allowed that it was God who -instilled into man a hope of immortality, with the object of soothing -him during his earthly career; but the poet was careful to employ -expressions which implied that the hope might be a delusion.[891] He -thus vindicated the ways of God by acknowledging that the Creator of the -universe might be a deceiver. As the hope, which he confessed to be a -promise engraved on the heart of man by the finger of God, might be -false, the fears of future punishment imprinted on the conscience could -not be more trustworthy. The christian who died, exulting, at the stake, -in the flower of his age, a martyr to conscience, and the miscreant, who -went terrified to execution, oppressed by the sense of his crimes, might -both be mocked by the lying voice which spoke through the nature -bestowed on them by their Maker. The poet could see no objection to the -supposition that the Governor of the world might rule by promises he -never intended to keep, and by threats he never intended to enforce. - -The more we look into the nature which the Deity has conferred upon man, -the more untenable Pope's alternative appears. All our best aims,--the -efforts after holiness, love, knowledge, and rational happiness,--are a -progressive work in which the mind is increasingly fitted for the -enjoyment of its aspirations, without once attaining to a satisfactory -realisation of its desires. Especially the Deity is hidden from our -sight; and devout souls would be baulked of the primary purpose of their -existence unless they were to behold him at last. The legitimate -deduction is strengthened when we consider the afflictive methods by -which we advance towards the appointed ends of our being. The toils of -virtuous men, their pangs of body, their anguish of mind, their -sacrifices to duty, their heroic martyrdoms, are irreconcileable with -the wisdom and goodness of the Deity if total extinction is the meed of -victory to the suffering soldier. The painful education of the soul, -which is unintelligible as an abortive preliminary to annihilation, -becomes plain as a preparation to a higher state, in which the purified -spirit enters upon the enjoyment of its regenerated faculties. Pope -disregarded the fundamental principle of his Essay. The burthen of his -argument in his first epistle is that the evils of the world are -explained by the hypothesis that they have an ulterior end. The moral -life of man is the sphere in which we can best perceive the necessity -for the principle, and follow its wise operation; and it was just this -instance of a clear exemplification of his law which Pope was willing to -reject. He admitted that the life of the saint upon earth might require -no sequel, that his brief and self-denying history might properly begin -and end with his passage from the cradle to the grave, that his -implanted hopes and fears might be a deception, the objects proposed to -his faculties a vain enticement, his sufferings a fruitless discipline, -his conquest over sin a barren triumph, his growth in holiness the -signal for resolving him into dust. - -These considerations are not affected by the question of the -distribution of happiness. Rewards and punishments might be meted out -with an even hand, and this life singly would still be quite incompetent -to fulfil the conditions of man's nature. But the pretext of Bolingbroke -is itself unfounded, and he yielded to the exigencies of his infidelity -when he maintained that the world had never furnished examples of -unequal happiness which could call for future redress. Pope's efforts to -prove the paradox are a continuous series of contradictions, -sophistries, and misstatements. "Virtue alone," he says, "is happiness -below," and "God intends happiness to be equal."[892] It follows, from -these premises, that Pope did not mean that all the world were equally -happy. Happiness he holds to be proportioned to virtue; the best men are -the richest in earthly felicity. The supposition is repugnant to -innumerable appearances, and Pope endeavoured to evade them by -contending that happiness is not placed in "externals."[893] "Virtue's -prize," he says, "is the soul's calm sunshine which nothing can -destroy;" and he justly calls men "weak and foolish" who imagine that a -better reward would be "a crown, a coach-and-six, a conqueror's sword," -or the gown which is the badge of official dignity.[894] The fallacy is -upon the surface. "The soul's calm sunshine" may mean peace of -conscience or complete felicity. In the first sense it cannot be -"destroyed" by physical torture; in the second sense, physical torture -overclouds the "sunshine" and disturbs the "calm." It is vain to pretend -that a virtuous man upon the rack has the same amount of mental ease as -when he is in bodily comfort. "Externals" are one element in human -happiness, or the worst persecutions which have desolated the world -could not have occasioned the smallest exceptional sufferings to the -good. "If pain," says Mackintosh, "were not an evil, cruelty would not -be a vice."[895] Pope, in his luxurious retirement at Twickenham, might -exclaim, "Condition, circumstance, is not the thing."[896] He would have -thought differently if he had been the slave of a brutal master, or had -been immured in one of the dungeons called "little-ease," where a -prisoner of stout frame and sturdy principles was sometimes maimed in -the process of squeezing him into a space too small for his coffin. - -Pope's reason for his opinion is weaker than the opinion itself. -"Present ill," he says, "is not a curse, nor present joy a good," since -joy and misery depend on our "future views of better or worse," and "the -balance of happiness" is kept even while the seemingly fortunate are -"placed in fear," and the unfortunate in "hope."[897] "Pope's sylphs," -remarked Fox to Rogers, "are the prettiest invention in the world. He -failed most, I think, in sense; he seldom knew what he meant to -say."[898] Here we have an instance of the failing. His proposition is -that present happiness is independent of "externals," and his argument -asserts that it is not. If "fortune's gifts" invariably fill the -virtuous with "fear," and unfortunate circumstances buoy them up with -"hope," if happiness depends exclusively on "future views of better," -and misery on apprehensions of "worse," it follows that virtue -imprisoned and persecuted is "in joy," and when free and prosperous is -distressed. "Externals" are not, as Pope pretends, indifferent; he has -merely transferred the preponderating weight to the opposite scale. -Adversity is a more exhilarating state than prosperity; the inmate of -"little-ease" was happier than his brethren of kindred virtue who were -at large. Rewards and punishments should be interchanged. Criminals -should be condemned to a life of luxury, and public benefactors should -be sent to jail. The feelings Pope ascribed to the human mind are -fictitious. Fear of reverses which do not appear to be impending, has -little influence in marring enjoyment, and hope alleviates torments -without depriving them of their sting. - -The poet proceeds to unfold more particularly "what the happiness of -individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this -world."[899] All the good that God meant for mankind, "all the joys of -sense, all the pleasures of reason, lie in three words,--health, peace, -and competence."[900] The passage was versified from Bolingbroke, who -for "health" has "health of body," for "peace" has "tranquillity of -mind," and for "competence" has "competency of wealth."[901] Social -intercourse and liberty must be added to the list, or "all the joys of -sense," and all "the pleasures of reason" are compatible with solitary -confinement. Pope flings aside his previous doctrines. Four lines -earlier every individual who had the misfortune to possess "all the joys -of sense" was the slave of fear. Now these accompaniments are pronounced -essential to happiness. Lately happiness was independent of externals, -and now health of body and competency of wealth are declared to be -indispensable. Pope's change of front did not strengthen his position. -As health, peace, and competence are necessary to happiness they must be -constant attendants on worth, or his paradox that happiness is -proportioned to virtue falls to the ground. He accordingly affirmed, in -a suppressed couplet, that "the blessings were only denied to error, -pride, or vice," and the language in the text, to have any pertinency, -must bear the same construction. But will virtue secure health? Yes, -replies Pope, for "health consists with temperance alone," which, for -the purpose of his argument, must mean that all the temperate are -healthy. Safe from casualties, infection, and every other disorder, they -bear about with them a charmed life, and die at last in a good old age. -The poet passes over "competence," and in a subsequent part of his -epistle allows that "virtue sometimes starves."[902] - -He had no sooner resolved happiness into "health, peace, and -competence," and claimed them for virtue, than he admits that vice may -be "blessed" and virtue "cursed," or afflicted. A fresh assumption is -introduced to restore the balance. "Contempt," he says, dogs "vice;" -"compassion" attends upon "virtue."[903] The new powers are not more -competent to the task assigned them than the hope and fear he had -invoked before. Men who are not truly virtuous, and yet not infamous for -vice, have frequently troops of friends, and meet with none of the -contempt which is to bring down their happiness to the standard of their -worth. Virtue, on the other hand, instead of rousing the compassion of -those who could protect it, has, in numberless instances, provoked -persecution, bonds, and death. Where the virtue is not the cause of the -misery the sufferers are often not in contact with the compassion, or -the sympathy is far from being an equivalent for the sorrow. Heaping -fallacy upon fallacy Pope falls back upon the plea that "virtue disdains -the advantages of prosperous vice."[904] Disdains the vicious means but -constantly longs for the prosperous end. The martyr to conscience when -shut up in "little-ease" was not indifferent to liberty. His compressed -body, his cramped limbs, the deprivation of light, fresh air, books, and -friends were horrible torture. There could be no stronger proof that -happiness was not proportioned to virtue than that his "disdain of -vice" should have compelled him to accept the alternative of a dungeon. - -Hitherto Pope has argued that our virtue is the measure of our -happiness. He next descends to the subsidiary proposition that "no man -is unhappy through virtue," which means that the disasters of the -virtuous are never the consequences of their virtue; they are the "ills -and accidents that chance to all."[905] The proposition contains two -assertions,--the first that virtue never brings upon us "ills and -accidents," the second that it cannot protect us from them. Under the -first head Pope points to the heroes who perished fighting for their -country, and tells us that they did not meet their fate from "virtue," -but from "contempt of life."[906] The martyrs to conscience may be -reckoned by hundreds of thousands, and Pope would have us understand -that none of them braved death in obedience to duty; they were simply -weary of existence. He would deprive humanity of its noblest triumphs -that virtue may be absolved from its manifest effects. He glides lightly -over the absurd pretence that virtue has never entailed suffering, and -dwells upon the second half of his proposition,--his admission that -virtuous and wicked are equally exposed to "ills and accidents." Good -and bad men, he says, are alike subjected to the laws of nature, and God -will not "reverse these laws for his favourites." A falling wall crushes -passengers without regard to virtue or vice;[907] blind forces take no -cognisance of morality. The doctrine is inadmissible; the laws of nature -cannot supersede the providence of God. Man's welfare and very existence -are at the mercy of many human and material agencies which man is unable -to anticipate or control. The Almighty preserves a glorious order in his -physical laws, and it is incredible that he should permit a chaos in the -highest department of our globe. He would not guard against -irregularities in the action of insensate matter, and allow good men to -be the sport of the endless hazards of life. The conclusions of reason -are confirmed by revelation. "Are not two sparrows," says our Lord, -"sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground -without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. -Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."[908] He -who sees from the beginning the entire chain of causes and effects, can -devise laws which will provide for particular cases without any -subsequent interference. Or a man may be protected from a falling wall -by a sudden impulse to his mind whereby he may forget to go, or have a -motive to loiter, or to hasten forward, or to take another road.[909] Or -there may be a temporary interference with mechanical laws; or the -Almighty may use methods inconceivable by us. Not that his -superintendence implies that his servants are safe from any of the -ordinary operations of natural laws. Habitually to exempt the good would -be to abolish prudence in their dealings with physical forces, and to -engender presumption in the region of morals. The insecurity which keeps -virtue vigilant and faithful, the hardy discipline which draws out -ennobling energies, and corrects baser properties, would be turned to -carelessness and corruption. The interests of the virtuous will not -permit that they should be constant and conspicuous exceptions to the -common lot. But the "ills and accidents" never strike at random. The -human race is not with the Deity an abstract conception. He beholds -every creature in its individuality, and shields and chastens each by -the rules of a wisdom which can never be suspended. The idea we frame of -his attributes negatives the hypothesis of Pope. God cannot fail to -establish a harmony between physical laws, and the dispensation which -befits each particular man. - -In admitting that calamities befall mankind without reference to virtue -and vice, Pope was drawn into statements which completely upset his -principle that happiness is always proportioned to desert. He asks if -virtue "made Digby, the son, expire, why his father lives full of days -and honour?"[910] He might be asked in turn, why, if good men in this -life have an equal share of happiness, the father should have lived -fifty years longer than the son? For happiness to be equal there must be -an equality of duration as well as of degree. He grants that "virtue -sometimes starves," and thinks it enough to answer, in the face of -historical facts, that virtue does not occasion the destitution. -"Bread," he says, "is the price of toil, not of virtue, and the good man -may be weak, be indolent."[911] Indolence is a vice, and irrelevant to -the discussion. The weakness may be a misfortune, and Lazarus is not -less deserving because he is covered with sores. Or the "good man" may -be neither "indolent" nor "weak," and yet be starved, which happened to -thousands of protestants who were driven from their homes and -employments by the callous bigotry of Louis XIV. Whatever the cause of -the starvation, the balance of happiness is disturbed, and Pope, to mask -the flaw in his argument, added that the "claim" of starving virtue was -not "to plenty, but content."[912] Now contentment is of two kinds. -There is a contentment of happiness which is incompatible with excessive -suffering, and a contentment of resignation which acquiesces in the -severest dispensations of Providence. St. Paul said in the latter sense, -"I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,"[913] -which does not prevent his speaking repeatedly of the afflictions he -endured, or keep him from asserting that "no chastening for the present -seemeth to be joyous, but grievous."[914] Of this type is the -contentment of starving virtue,--a patient submission to trial, and not -the contentment which is required to produce equality of happiness. -Human nature has been denied the capacity for neutralising all degrees -of anguish. Pope straightway slides off into the subterfuge that the -craving for bread is "a demand for riches." He inveighs against the -rapacious desire, and insists that nothing will satisfy man.[915] He -undertook to prove that happiness is proportioned to virtue, and finding -his text too hard for him he substitutes an invective against insane -discontent. - -A few undoubted truths are appended to the main argument of Pope. He -says that only a fool will think a man with health, and a clear -conscience, hated by God because he lacks a thousand a year.[916] He -tells us that genuine honour and shame are dependent on conduct, and not -on high or low station,[917] and that titles, power, fame, etc., are -insufficient to make bad men happy.[918] He comes to the instance of -"superior parts," and the inconsistency recommences. He supposes the -great intellect to be combined with learning, wisdom, and patriotic -virtue.[919] Out of compliment to his "guide, philosopher, and friend," -Pope takes Bolingbroke for the typical example of this imposing union of -lofty qualities. In him we are to behold the universal fate of generous, -philanthropic wisdom. He "is condemned to drudge in business or in arts" -without any one to "second" him, or "judge" him rightly. He aspires "to -teach truths, and save a sinking land; few understand, all fear, and -none aid him." When he "drudged in arts" the world received coldly his -wordy rhetoric. When he "drudged in business" the country only saw in -him an intriguer for power. Novel ideas in politics, signal originality -in literature, often work their way slowly. Genius and patriotism have -faith in their conceptions, and are not daunted by opposition. The -public spirit which has to battle at all can seldom be placed under -softer conditions than Bolingbroke enjoyed. He had every luxury of a -civilised age; he had health and energy; he had unbroken leisure; he had -books at will; he had freedom to say and write what he pleased; he was -safe from every injury to person and property. Virtuous patriotism, -sitting at ease in a delightful library, and surrounded by blessings, -might be expected to exert itself with cheerful hope to enlighten a -tasteless and misguided nation. Quite the reverse. "Painful -pre-eminence!" exclaims Pope, and he declares that Bolingbroke by being -"above life's weakness" is above "its comforts too." The moral is that -wisdom is not to be desired; the pain exceeds the benefit. Happiness is -proportioned to virtue under the worst conditions of brutal persecution, -and yet wise and virtuous patriots, in the midst of the comforts of -life, are deprived of every comfort in life by the lamentable -circumstance that they are "above life's weakness." - -There are many more contradictions in Pope's epistle, which is a tissue -of inconsistency and incoherence. He might have maintained a less -absolute doctrine with complete success. He might have shown that the -inequalities are less than they appear on a superficial view. He might -have pointed out that ultimate happiness can only arise from the conduct -which puts us at peace with ourselves and with God. He might have dwelt -on the satisfaction which lifts up the mind when conscience asserts its -majesty, and refuses to make the least concession to suffering. The -remaining disproportion between happiness and virtue is vindicated by -the moral blessing of affliction, which by fitting man for happiness -prepares the way for perfect harmony between happiness and virtue in a -blessed immortality. Trials, in the magnificent phrase of Shakespeare, -are "our outward consciences."[920] The pains of the last sickness which -precedes death are the consistent termination to the scheme. Good men -die as they have lived, in more or less suffering, that the work of life -may be completed,--that their better qualities may be developed and -strengthened, the remains of evil laid bare and extinguished. And though -all men are not submitted to the same tests either in their lives or -their deaths, the endless variety in their dispositions accounts for the -diversity in their circumstances. The Almighty Being who alone knows the -secrets of the heart adapts the "outward conscience" to the inward. - -There is a weightier question than the distribution of happiness. Of the -innumerable discussions on the theory of morals by far the most -important is whether the end we propose to ourselves should be -self-interest or virtue. Pope adopted the selfish system without -reserve. The two principles, he says, which govern man, "self-love and -reason, aspire to one end, pleasure," and since their end is the same, -he accused the schoolmen of being "at war about a name" when they -refused to confound them.[921] He apparently had not a suspicion that -schoolmen, or any one else, had ever imagined that reason could reveal -another end to man than interest well understood. He reverts to his -selfish system in the epistle on Happiness, and proclaims in the first -line that "happiness is our being's end and aim." Virtue, the love of -God and man, are only means to promote our individual happiness, and -selfishness is, and ought to be, the supreme end of every creature. The -doctrine, as we have seen, when discussing Pope's second epistle, -contradicts the universal human conscience. The theoretical falsehood is -fruitful in disastrous results. The moral law, the law of good in -itself, is greater than the individual, and he bows down before its -inviolable sanctity, its absolute right to dominion. He is raised above -personal consequences. He knows that the universal law of good embraces -his good, and the reflection helps to sustain him in his trials, but his -main end is to fulfil a law which is superior to his individual -happiness, and which binds him by its intrinsic sacredness, and -independent authority. He dares not overrule it by his passing -inclinations, and endures all things rather than be guilty of a -sacrilegious encroachment on its integrity. The man, on the contrary, -whose one end is happiness, and who considers virtue to be simply the -means for compassing the end, has nothing outside himself which is of -the least importance to him, except in so far as it can be made -subservient to his personal felicity. Creator and creation are only -viewed as ministers to his unmitigated selfishness. Governed by this -single self-indulgent idea, and deriving no strength from the separate -supremacy of the moral law, he is ill prepared for a life of sacrifice. -He cannot forego in the present the happiness which he conceives to be -the sole end of his being, and he prefers immediate ease to interest -well-understood. The system of Pope was the doctrine of Epicurus. He, -too, taught that pleasure was "the end and aim" of man, and virtue the -only effectual means. His followers soon disregarded the means in their -impatience to reach the end, and epicureanism became synonymous with -grovelling sensuality. In vain we oppose the selfishness of a -long-sighted prudence to the selfishness of the hour. "Prudence," as -Kant says, only "counsels," and the steady ascendency over temptation is -reserved for the virtue which "commands." Common language proclaims the -intuitive principle of the mind. No man, not lost to shame, could -venture to say, "I must tell truth because it is prudent;" he says, "I -must be truthful because it is right." - -Pope had not the remotest idea that he was an epicurean. He believed -that his system of ethics, with happiness for an end and virtue for the -means, was new to philosophy, and he did not hesitate to state that all -"the learned" who preceded him had been "blind."[922] He exemplified his -assertion by the instance of the epicureans and stoics. The stoics -reversed the terms of the epicurean formula; virtue alone was their end, -and happiness, the spontaneous, unsought consequence. The real -characteristics of these great rival schools were unknown to Pope. He -described them by false contrasts, and ignorantly charged them with the -folly of defining "happiness to be happiness." Greatest wonder of all, -he alleged against the epicurean doctrine, which was his own, that it -"sunk men to beasts."[923] He would naturally expound the systems he -understood the best, and hence we may estimate the extent of his -qualifications for dismissing every previous ethical theory with -compendious contempt. A sentence from Bolingbroke bears witness to the -scanty knowledge of Pope, and discloses the source of his scorn. "I -think," writes Bolingbroke, "you are not extremely conversant in the -works of Plato, and you may suspect therefore that I aggravate the -impertinence of his doctrines."[924] The impertinent doctrines were a -portion of the divine platonic ethics, and Pope, uninstructed in the -most famous systems of the ancients, did but reiterate the superficial -contempt of his master. - -In place of the "mad opinions" of learned moralists, Pope enjoins us to -"take nature's path,"[925] little dreaming that he was repeating the -maxim of the sects he despised. "The perfection of man," says Diogenes -Laertius, quoting Zeno, the founder of the stoic school, "is to follow -nature, and that is to live virtuously, for nature leads us to that." -All the moralists accepted nature for their oracle; but the scholars -gave different versions of her responses. Pope in his second epistle -insisted that man was too weak to interpret them. A Newton, he said, who -could "climb from art to art" would inevitably be baffled in morals, for -whatever "reason wove, passion would undo."[926] In the fourth epistle -the difficulty has vanished; "all states can reach, all heads conceive" -happiness, and its parent morality; "there needs but thinking right, and -meaning well."[927] To think rightly and do rightly, which was before -impossible for even the lords of human kind, is declared to be within -easy reach of all the world. Nature spoke with two voices to Pope, and -what one voice affirmed the other denied. - -Able writers have sometimes ridiculed the precept, "Follow nature," -which means the laws of human nature, not perceiving that they were the -necessary foundation of morals. "The way to be happy," says the -philosopher in Rasselas, "is to live according to nature, in obedience -to that universal, and unalterable law, with which every heart is -originally impressed." "Sir," answers the prince, "I doubt not the truth -of a position which a man so learned has so confidently advanced. Let me -only know what it is to live according to nature." The philosopher -replies in unintelligible jargon, and Johnson adds, "The prince soon -found that this was one of the sages whom he should understand less as -he heard him longer."[928] The unreflecting disdain shows poorly by the -side of Butler's comment on the maxim. "The ancient moralists," he -said, "had some inward feeling or other, which they chose to express in -this manner, that man is born to virtue, that it consists in following -nature, and that vice is more contrary to this nature than tortures or -death. They had a perception that injustice was contrary to their -nature, and that pain was so also. They observed these two perceptions -totally different, not in degree, but in kind, and the reflecting upon -each of them, as they thus stood in their nature, wrought a full -intuitive conviction that more was due, and of right belonged to one of -these inward perceptions than to the other; that it demanded in all -cases to govern such a creature as man."[929] Apart from revelation we -can have no other knowledge of morality than nature affords. Honestly -interrogated nature does not put us off with unmeaning ambiguities. As -we learn through our appetites that we are intended to eat and drink, so -a higher faculty informs us that we are to govern our appetites, and the -whole of our being, by the supreme principles we call duty. Every time -we have a consciousness that our conduct is right or wrong, every time -we condemn or applaud the vice and virtue of our fellow men, every time -the law enforces justice and punishes injustice, we confess that duty is -in accordance with nature. The precept, "follow nature," is the rational -injunction to contemplate virtue in its inner source that we may see it -in its purity, and recognise its right to supremacy. If Pope had kept to -the precept, and remembered that for parents intentionally to train up -children in iniquity is the height of infamy, he would hardly have -imagined that "the Deity poured fierce ambition into Cæsar's mind." If -he had reflected that we condemn follies and vanities, he would not have -supposed that they were a provision of the Deity for our comfort. If he -had consulted conscience, and noticed that it instructs us to love good -in itself as well as our own good, to love God and our neighbour as an -end as well as a means, he would not have taught that the motive to -virtue was unmingled selfishness. If he had been at the trouble to -remark that duty takes in the whole circle of existence, and imposes -immutable laws, he would not have embraced the doctrine that moral -government was carried on by ruling passions which set up different -principles of action in different individuals, and in every instance -narrow life to an exclusive, and usually vicious propensity. The -observation of nature would have saved Pope from these, and many other -errors, which were the consequence of his piecing together bits of -theories from books without submitting them to the test he recommended -to his readers. - -The deepest ethical thinkers have seldom, in all things, been faithful -interpreters of nature. Their errors, often momentous, had a different -origin from those of Pope. Few persons trace back moral impressions to -the principles from which they flow. They act on the intuitive -conceptions which precede philosophy, and which, not being pared and -twisted to fit a theory, are as comprehensive as nature. The philosopher -classifies the implanted propensities and convictions, describes them -with precision, and brings them into stronger relief. But what he gains -in distinctness he is apt to lose in breadth; he curtails while he -elucidates. His ambition is to discover simplicity in complexity, unity -in variety, and he dismembers nature that he may reduce the phenomena -within the limits of a general law. Zeno and Epicurus are examples of -the tendency. They agreed that man had properly only a single end to -which his whole being should be directed. The epicureans said that this -end, or chief good, was pleasure, which depends on personal feeling; the -stoic said it was virtue, the submission to the universal rule of right, -which is above personal preferences. An ordinary mortal who does not -philosophise, and has no care to force nature into the mould of an -hypothesis, never questions that he is constituted for the double end of -happiness and virtue. The two often clash, and he is not perplexed by -the impossibility of satisfying both. When one must yield he knows that -virtue is paramount, and he usually believes that the present sacrifice -of happiness to virtue will be succeeded by a kingdom in which they will -be finally reconciled. The partial doctrine set up by the stoic kept -virtue on her high, heroic throne; the doctrine of the epicurean -degraded her into the slave of pleasure: the first school ennobled, the -second debased human nature, but both mutilated it. Each system came -into contact with facts which compelled its adherents to be inconsistent -or absurd, and enlightened disciples preferred inconsistency to -absurdity. This passion for general laws at the expense of truth is -conspicuous throughout the whole history of philosophy. The profoundest -investigators have been prone to select single aspects of many-sided -nature, and make the part the law for the whole. The false -generalisation impels the theorist to suppress and distort refractory -phenomena, or he endeavours to hide under transparent evasions his -deviations from his hypothesis, or he lapses into contradictions from -which he turns away his eyes, not wishing to perceive them. The spurious -unity, which is the infirmity of philosophers, was not the vice of Pope. -He adopted, on the contrary, a chaos of principles which were mutually -destructive. He accepted contributions from any school, because he -understood none. He was so unversed in philosophy that in the account -which he drew up of his "Design," he asserted that the science of human -nature was reduced to "a few clear points," and that the "disputes" were -all on the details. His "design" was to keep to the "few clear points" -which alone, in his opinion, were of much importance to mankind. They -were principally the origin of evil, the theory of morals, the origin of -government and society. The "clear points" had produced whole libraries -of controversy, the "disputes" had descended in full vigour to Pope's -day, and they have continued undiminished on to ours. His own solutions -of the problems were contradictory, and he was hopelessly at war with -himself on the very topics for which he claimed universal peace. He did -not depart in his "Design" from his habit of self-contradiction, and the -moment he had stated that there were no disputes on the general -principles, he took credit for "steering betwixt the extremes of -doctrines seemingly opposite." He at the same time arrogated for his -"system of ethics" the special "merit" that it was "not inconsistent." -He had just enough knowledge to seduce him into an unconscious exposure -of his ignorance. His delusions are intelligible when we learn the -nature of his philosophical training. "I write to you, and for you," -says Bolingbroke, "and you would think yourself little obliged to me if -I took the pains of explaining in prose what you would not think it -necessary to explain in verse, and in the character of a poetical -philosopher who may dwell in generalities."[930] Bolingbroke wrote to -instruct Pope, and Pope only cared to learn the "generalities" he was to -put into verse. He never acquired the elements of philosophy; he had -merely been furnished with materials for a philosophical poem. The few -ideas he gleaned at random from other sources served no better end than -to increase the confusion. He said "he chose verse" because it was more -concise and impressive than prose.[931] The alleged choice was -necessity. His meagre knowledge would have been ludicrous in a formal -treatise. The ceremonious robe of verse was essential to conceal the -deformed and diminutive body. - -De Quincey thought that the "formal exposure of Pope's -hollow-heartedness" would be most profitably accomplished by laying open -thoroughly the ethical argument of the Essay on Man. He declined the -task as too long and polemical for an article in a journal, but he -stated his views in general terms. He said that the poem "sinned chiefly -by want of central principle, and by want therefore of all coherency -amongst the separate thoughts." He objects that the sense will vary with -the nature of the connecting links we supply, and he ascribes the -opposite interpretations of Crousaz and Warburton to the ambiguity which -leaves readers the choice of "a loyal or treasonable meaning."[932] He -imputes the fault to the impossibility of completing the argument -without spoiling the poetry, and to the superficial nature of Pope's -studies, "if study we can call a style of reading so desultory as his." -This vagrant habit of mind he attributes to "luxurious indolence." "The -poet," he says, "fastidiously retreated from all that threatened labour. -He fluttered among the flower-beds of literature or philosophy far more -in the character of a libertine butterfly for casual enjoyment, than of -a hard-working bee pursuing a premeditated purpose."[933] Indolence -cannot justly be charged upon Pope. He plodded at his art with the -steadiness of a man who follows a regular calling.[934] His ignorance of -philosophy, his want of due preparation for his Essay, arose from -defects of understanding, and not from a moral infirmity of will. He was -self-educated, and had never penetrated in his youth by regular and -sustained approaches to the heart of any difficult science. He skimmed -literature to pick up sentiments which could be versified, and to learn -attractive forms of composition. His mind took the set of his early -habits, and he appears in manhood to have had no conception of -philosophical thought, no glimmer of the combination of philosophical -details into an integral design. His works abound in isolated ideas -which are marked by sound sense, and side by side with them are many -idle or extravagant notions, and glaring contradictions. The pieces were -not struck off at a heat. They were built up slowly, composed patiently, -and corrected repeatedly. He never spared pains, and the want of -reflection his works discover was the fault of an intellect unconscious -of its weaknesses. To him the disjointed bits of philosophy presented no -gaps. He says in his "Design" that the system "was short yet not -imperfect." He believed that the conciseness added to "the force as well -as grace of his arguments," and that he had nowhere "sacrificed -perspicuity to ornament, wandered from precision, or broken the chain of -the reasoning." His love of fame would have prevented his sending forth -knowingly a weak and fragmentary poem. His moral apathy did not -therefore consist in the self-indulgent negligence which refuses to put -itself to a strain. The moral offence was in another direction,--in the -ambiguities which were intended to pass off the Essay for anti-christian -with infidels, and for christian with believers, and which resulted in -Pope's adoption of the first interpretation under Bolingbroke, and of -the second under Warburton. The dereliction of principle was worse than -De Quincey supposed. He has equally underrated the blots in the -philosophy when he imagined that Pope erred only by omissions. The -"chasms" in his ethics are trifling compared to the radical vice of his -doctrines, and the repeated conflict of jarring systems. The "audacious -dogmatism and insolent quibbles"[935] of Warburton would not have been -needed in expanding an abbreviated argument. He had to distort the -obvious meaning of Pope in order to produce a semblance of consistency, -and he has still oftener left the language of the text without comment -because it was beyond the power of shameless misinterpretation to effect -an ostensible harmony. - -The judgments on the Essay on Man have been very various. "It appears to -me," says Voltaire, "the most beautiful, the most useful, the most -sublime didactic poem that has ever been written in any language." He -said on another occasion that Pope "carried the torch into the abyss of -being, and that the art of poetry, sometimes frivolous, and sometimes -divine, was in him useful to the human race."[936] Voltaire had a -twofold reason for his admiration. As a hater of christianity he hailed -in the Essay the championship of natural religion against revealed, and -as an author he delighted in the rhymed philosophy which was the staple -of his own prosaic verse. Marmontel joined in the praise of the poet, -but formed a juster estimate of the moralist. "Pope has shown," he said, -"how high poetry could soar on the wings of philosophy. But he had -adopted a system which presented terrible difficulties, and in reply to -the complaints of man on the misery of his condition he usually offers -images for proofs, and abuse for reasons."[937] The censure is just. -Pope loves to silence objections by vilifying mankind, and calling his -adversaries impious, proud, and fools. Dugald Stewart agreed with -Voltaire. "The Essay on Man," he says, "is the noblest specimen of -philosophical poetry which our language affords; and, with the exception -of a very few passages, contains a valuable summary of all that human -reason has been able hitherto to advance in justification of the moral -government of God."[938] The "few faulty passages" were subsequently -specified by Stewart, and such is the power of sound to withdraw the -mind from the sense that this able metaphysician overlooked the -fundamental errors of the poem, albeit they contradicted his own ethical -views. Hazlitt differs as much from Stewart as Marmontel did from -Voltaire. "The Essay on Man," he tells us, "is not Pope's best work. All -that he says, 'the very words and to the self-same tune,' would prove -just as well that whatever is is wrong, as that whatever is is -right."[939] The remark is but a slight exaggeration of the truth. The -logic of assertion, and often of vituperative assertion, in which Pope -abounded, is available for every system, and his admission that God is -the instigator of evil was a fit foundation for a pessimist philosophy. -De Quincey's opinion is the most unfavourable of all. "If the question," -he says, "were asked, What ought to have been the best among Pope's -poems? most people would answer, the Essay on Man. If the question were -asked, What is the worst? all people of judgment would say, the Essay on -Man. Whilst yet in its rudiments this poem claimed the first place by -the promise of its subject; when finished, by the utter failure of its -execution, it fell into the last."[940] "Execution" is used by De -Quincey in its widest sense, and includes the philosophy of the Essay. -This we have endeavoured to estimate, and have now to speak of the -poetry. - -"In my mind," says Lord Byron, writing of Pope, "the highest of all -poetry is ethical poetry, as the highest of all earthly objects must be -moral truth," and he adds that "ethical or didactic poetry requires more -mind, more wisdom, more power" than all the "descriptions" of natural -scenery that were ever penned, "and all the epics that ever were founded -upon fields of battle."[941] To the assertion that ethical poets -transcended all other poets in genius, Hazlitt answered, that the "mind, -wisdom, and power" is displayed in the "philosophic invention," and as -this "rests with the first author of a moral truth," or moral theory, a -copyist is not great because he gives a metrical form to an ethical -common-place. "The decalogue," he says, "as a practical prose -composition, or as a body of moral laws and precepts, is of sufficient -weight and authority, but we should not regard the putting of this into -heroic verse as an effort of the highest poetry."[942] To the assertion -that ethical poetry must take precedence of all other poetry, "because -moral truth and moral conduct are of such vast and paramount concernment -in human life," Hazlitt answered, that "it did not follow that they were -the better for being put into rhyme." "This reasoning," he continues, -"reminds us of the critic who said that the only poetry he knew of, good -for anything, was the four lines beginning 'Thirty days hath September,' -for that these were really of some use in finding out the number of days -in the different months of the year. The rules of arithmetic are -important in many respects, but we do not know that they are the fittest -subjects of poetry."[943] The reply of Hazlitt is conclusive. Lord Byron -had confounded the importance of facts with their fitness for poetry, -the repetition of a truth with the genius which discovers it. He was "in -a great passion," says De Quincey, "and wrote up Pope by way of writing -down others," the others being Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge.[944] -He had taken a false measure of his men. They were too strong in their -own poetical convictions to be mortified by the absurdities of an -intemperate rival. - -The error of Byron was akin to the misconception of the office of -didactic poems, which De Quincey exposed in his criticism on Pope's -Essay on Man. "As a term of convenience," he says, "didactic may serve -to discriminate one class of poetry, but didactic it cannot be in -philosophic rigour without ceasing to be poetry." If the object of -Armstrong had been to teach Medicine, of Dyer to produce a manual for -shepherds and cloth manufacturers, of Philips to write a treatise for -gardeners and makers of cider, he maintains that it would have been -idiotcy to begin by putting on the fetters of metre. He remarks that a -worse restriction is the necessity of omitting a vast variety of -details, and capital sections of the subject, and that in the constant -need to forego either poetry or instruction the poet never hesitates to -abandon the instruction. The true object, he conceives, of a didactic -poem is to bring out the "circumstances of beautiful form, feeling, -incident, or any other interest" which lurk in didactic topics. The -sentiment which the tutor neglects the poet evolves, and he introduces -utilitarian knowledge for the sole purpose of eliciting an element -distinct from its bare, prosaic utility.[945] This is the rational -theory. In Pope's generation, and for some years afterwards, a different -idea was widely prevalent. "The end of the didactic poem," says -Marmontel, "is to instruct. It were to be wished that the principles of -the most important arts should all be reduced to verse. It is thus that -at the birth of letters all useful truths were consigned to memory. To -bring back the didactic poem to its primitive utility ought to be the -object of emulation to the poets of an age of light."[946] The system -which Marmontel recommended for an age of light was only fitted for an -age of darkness. The utility of a didactic work depends on its lucidity, -its precision, and its fullness. The use is defeated if the instruction -is fragmentary, incoherent, circuitous, and cumbrous. When men emerge -from ignorance, and when knowledge begins to grow systematic and exact, -the employment of verse for expounding arts, sciences, philosophy, and -history becomes puerile and impotent. The moment they are brought under -the dominion of the enlightened understanding the freedom of prose is -essential to unfold them with clearness, completeness, and accuracy. The -suggestion of Marmontel for restoring didactic poetry to its primitive -use was the way to reduce it to imbecility. The events of English -history are of greater moment than the cutting off Miss Fermor's curl, -and an English history in verse would be "higher poetry" according to -Byron, more "useful poetry" according to Marmontel, than the Rape of the -Lock. In reality it would not be high or useful, poetry or history, but -simply a folly. The didactic poets who had a truer comprehension of the -nature of poetry, and who endeavoured to render the rules of an art or -science subservient to poetic effect, have seldom succeeded. The -inherent, prosaic element preponderated, and the Arts of Poetry, -Criticism, Translating Verse, etc. are for the most part dreary -compositions which afford as little delight as instruction. - -Bolingbroke had right conceptions of the characteristics of didactic -poetry, and he imparted his views to Pope. "Should the poet," he says, -"make syllogisms in verse, or pursue a long process of reasoning in the -didactic style, he would be sure to tire his reader on the whole, like -Lucretius, though he reasoned better than the Roman, and put into some -parts of his work the same poetical fire. He must contract, he may -shadow, he has a right to omit whatever will not be cast in the poetic -mould, and when he cannot instruct he may hope to please. In short, it -seems to me, that the business of the philosopher is to dilate, to -press, to prove, to convince, and that of the poet to hint, to touch his -subject with short and spirited strokes, to warm the affections, and to -speak to the heart."[947] Bolingbroke's theory of poetry was superior to -his practical taste. He said that all Pope's writings were pre-eminent -for "the happy association of great coolness of judgment with great heat -of imagination." "Pope's Essay on Criticism," he says again, "was the -work of his childhood almost; but is such a monument of good sense and -poetry as no other, that I know, has raised in his riper years."[948] -The man who could discover transcendent poetry in the Essay on -Criticism, and great heat of imagination in all Pope's writings, could -have had but a faint, diluted perception of the imaginative and poetic. -His belief that the ethical philosophy of the Essay on Man could be -brought under his law of didactic poetry was a fresh instance of his -want of insight into the demands both of poetry and philosophy. A system -of philosophy cannot be conveyed in elegant extracts. "Every part," says -de Quincey, "depends upon every other part: in such a nexus of truths, -to insulate is to annihilate. Severed from each other the parts lose -their support, their coherence, their very meaning; you have no liberty -to reject or choose." It was not enough for Pope to detail his system. -He had to vindicate, and establish it. "In his theme," continues De -Quincey, "everything is polemic; you move only through dispute, you -prosper only by argument and never-ending controversy. There is not -positively one capital proposition or doctrine about man, about his -origin, his nature, his relations to God, or his prospects, but must be -fought for with energy, watched at every turn with vigilance, and -followed into endless mazes, not under the choice of the writer, but -under the inexorable dictation of the argument. Here lay the -impracticable dilemma for Pope's Essay on Man. To satisfy the demands of -the subject was to defeat the objects of poetry. To evade the demands in -the way that Pope has done, is to offer us a ruin for a palace."[949] - -The poetry could not escape without injury. The philosophic pretensions -Pope advanced at the outset compelled him to embark in prosaic -arguments; the philosophy and the poetry were mutually destructive. Left -to himself he would have kept to his "ethics in the Horatian way," to -the sketches of character, and reflections upon human conduct, which -constitute his Moral Essays. His "guide" dictated to him a more -ambitious philosophy,--not the "divine philosophy which is musical as -Apollo's lute,"[950] which touches tender feelings, and appeals to the -intuitive moral emotions, but a hybrid philosophy too scholastic to move -the heart, and too meagre and perplexed to satisfy the understanding. - -The false scheme of embodying scientific philosophy in verse determined -in advance the failure of the Essay on its poetic side. There might be -passages of good poetry, but not a good poem. "The episodes in the Essay -on Man," says Hazlitt, "the description of the poor Indian, and the lamb -doomed to death, are all the unsophisticated reader ever remembers of -that much talked of production."[951] The remark which Hazlitt employed -to condemn the Essay, was used by Bowles in its favour. The ethics, in -his eyes, were only the groundwork for poetical embroidery. "We hardly," -he said, "think of the philosophy, whether it is good or bad," and he -represented the reader hurried away by the finished and touching -pictures of the Indian and the lamb, which are exceptions to the -didactic tenor of the poem, and speak to the sympathies of mankind. -Hazlitt's application of the criticism was correct, and the eulogy, or -apology, put forward by Bowles, was really censure. The happy episodes -are but a fragment of the four epistles. The rest is designed for -philosophical reasoning, and if we hardly think of the philosophy, there -is little left except sound. The philosophy is not dimmed by the blaze -of poetry. There is no splendour of imagery, no brilliancy of idea to -overshadow the argument, and the sole reason the philosophy fails to -take hold of the mind is because it is vague and disconnected, because -the whole, as De Quincey says, "is the realisation of anarchy."[952] The -want of philosophic unity might have been largely compensated by the -personal unity of strong conviction; the earnest faith and feelings of -the man might have stood in the place of the scientific completeness of -the subject. In nothing was Pope more deficient. For personal -convictions he substituted any discordant notion which he fancied would -look well in verse, and the Essay is no more bound together by the -pervading spirit of individual sentiment than by logical connection. The -languid inattention which the poem invites is seen in the statement of -Bowles that there is "a nice precision in every word." No one could -attempt to get at Pope's meaning without being frequently tormented by -the difficulty, and sometimes the impossibility, of interpreting his -lax, indeterminate language. "Hardly thinking of the philosophy," Bowles -did not observe that there was often a lamentable want of precision in -Pope's conceptions, and when these are misty and confused, the -expression of them cannot be rigorous and definite. Loose and ambiguous -phraseology was not the only fault of style. The use of inversions, and -of unlicensed, elliptical modes of speech, was a cardinal blemish in -Pope's poetry. The failing reached its height in the Essay on Man. Many -of the contortions are barbarous, and were enough of themselves to -dispel the delusion that Pope was distinguished by correctness of -composition. His grammatical faults, when not deliberate to force a -rhyme, are comparatively venial. Such oversights are found in all -authors, and proceed from inadvertence; they are little more than -clerical errors. The deformities of vicious construction are of a -different order. They arose from defect of literary power, from the -incapacity to reconcile the requirements of verse with the rules of -English. The maimed and distorted language obscures the sense, destroys -or debases the poetry, and lessens the general impression of his genius. -The Essay was altogether a mistake. A slip from a neighbour's tree was -planted in an uncongenial soil, and the cultivation bestowed upon it -produced little more than feeble rootlets, and sickly shoots. - -M. Taine asserts that from the Restoration to the French Revolution, -from Waller to Johnson, from Hobbes and Temple to Robertson and Hume, -all our literature, both prose and verse, bears the impress of classic -art. The mode, he says, culminated in the reign of Queen Anne, and Pope, -he considers, was the extreme example of it. The characteristics which -M. Taine ascribes to the classic era are, in the matter, common-place -truths, and, in the manner, a style finished and artificial,--noble -language, oratorical pomp, and studied correctness. Poetry ceased to be -inventive; the very composition is uniform, and the obvious or borrowed -thoughts are all cast in one mould. Verse is nothing more than cold, -rational prose, a species of superior conversation measured off into -lengths, and fringed with rhyme; the form predominates over the matter; -the ostentatious exterior is the mask to impoverished, colourless -ideas.[953] The habit of M. Taine is to generalise a partial truth into -extravagance. Many of the most eminent authors who flourished between -the English Restoration and the French Revolution wrote in a style far -removed from that which M. Taine calls classical,--in an inelegant, -uncondensed style as Locke, in a crude, clumsy style as Bishop Butler, -in a vigorous, colloquial style as Bentley, in a homely, straightforward -style as Swift, in an unpretentious, narrative style as De Foe, in a -loose, familiar style as Burnet. The verse differs like the prose, -though in a less degree, and is not "of a uniform make as if fabricated -by a machine."[954] The witty and grotesque Hudibras of Butler, the -tales, and many short poems of Prior, the humourous, satiric verses of -Swift, the Songs and Fables of Gay, the Seasons of Thomson, the heroics -of Pope, are all in dissimilar styles. Neither is the substance of the -prose and verse, from the Restoration to the French Revolution, an -invariable common-sense mediocrity. There is a great display of genius -in political philosophy and political economy, in moral, metaphysical, -and natural science, in manifold species of satire and fiction, and, -omitting Milton, who was formed under earlier influences, in various -kinds of poetry, short of the highest. M. Taine was partly conscious of -the facts, as may be seen in his individual criticisms, which are a -refutation of his general theory. There is this much truth in his view, -that there was a growing tendency to cultivate style, and in some -writers the art degenerated into the artificial. Among the numerous -varieties of the defect one is a monotonous structure of verse and -sentence, another the attempt to disguise the commonness of the thoughts -by the elaboration of the workmanship. These are frequent faults in the -poetry of Pope, and the mannerism remains when the execution is a -failure. His style is admirable in parts, but he falls far below Dryden -in the general elasticity of his composition, in the wealth of his -language, and in the subtle intricacies of metrical harmony. His -thoughts are often gems rendered lustrous by the skill of the cutter, -but intermingling with them are counterfeit stones which impose by their -glitter on the superficial observer, and when examined are found -worthless. - - * * * * * - - - - - TO THE READER.[955] - - -As the epistolary way of writing hath prevailed much of late, we have -ventured to publish this piece composed some time since, and whose[956] -author chose this manner, notwithstanding his subject was high and of -dignity, because of its being mixed with argument, which of its nature -approacheth to prose. This, which we first give the reader, treats of -the nature and state of man with respect to the universal system. The -rest will treat of him with respect to his own system, as an individual, -and as a member of society, under one or other of which heads all ethics -are included. - -As he imitates no man, so he would be thought to vie with no man in -these epistles, particularly with the noted author of two lately -published;[957] but this he may most surely say, that the matter of them -is such as is of importance to all in general, and of offence to none in -particular.[958] - - - - - THE DESIGN.[959] - - -Having proposed to write some pieces on human life and manners, such as, -to use my Lord Bacon's expression, come home to men's business and -bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to begin with considering man in -the abstract, his nature and his state; since to prove any moral duty, -to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or -imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know -what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end -and purpose of its being. - -The science of human nature is, like all other sciences, reduced to a -few clear points. There are not many certain truths in this world. It is -therefore in the anatomy of the mind as in that of the body, more good -will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible -parts, than by studying too much such finer nerves and vessels, the -conformations and uses of which will for ever escape our observation. -The disputes are all upon these last, and, I will venture to say, they -have less sharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other, -and have diminished the practice, more than advanced the theory of -morality. If I could flatter myself that this Essay has any merit, it is -in steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite, in -passing over terms utterly unintelligible, and in forming[960] a -temperate, yet not inconsistent, and a short, yet not imperfect, system -of ethics. - -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 wandering 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 connexion, but 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. - - - ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE I. - - OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO THE UNIVERSE. - -Of man in the abstract--I. That we can judge only with regard to our own -system, being ignorant of the relation of systems and things, ver. 17, -&c. II. 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, ver. 35, -&c. III. 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, ver. 77, &c. IV. The pride of aiming at more knowledge, -and pretending to more perfection, 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, ver. 113, &c. V. 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, ver. 131, &c. VI. The -unreasonableness of his complaints against Providence, while on the one -hand he demands the perfections of the angels, and on the other the -bodily qualifications of the brutes, though, to possess any of the -sensitive faculties in a higher degree, would render him miserable, ver. -173, &c. VII. That throughout the whole visible world, an universal -order and gradation in the sensual and mental faculties is observed, -which causes a subordination of creature to creature, and of all -creatures to man. The gradations of sense, instinct, thought, -reflection, reason; that reason alone countervails all the other -faculties, ver. 207. VIII. How much further this order and subordination -of living creatures may extend, above and below us; were any part of -which broken, not that part only, but the whole connected creation, must -be destroyed, ver. 233. IX. The extravagance, madness, and pride of such -a desire, ver. 259. X. The consequence of all, the absolute submission -due to Providence, both as to our present and future state, ver. 281, -&c., to the end. - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN. - - IN FOUR EPISTLES. - - - EPISTLE I. - - Awake, my St. John![961] leave all meaner things - To low ambition, and the pride of kings.[962] - Let us, since life can[963] little more supply - Than just to look about us and to die,[964] - Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;[965] 5 - A mighty maze![966] but not without a plan;[967] - A wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot;[968] - Or garden tempting with forbidden fruit.[969] - Together let us beat this ample field, - Try what the open, what the covert yield;[970] 10 - The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore,[971] - Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;[972] - Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,[973] - And catch the manners living as they rise;[974] - Laugh where we must, be candid[975] where we can; 15 - But vindicate the ways of God to man.[976] - -[Sidenote: Man can reason only from things known, and judge only with -regard to his own system.] - - I. 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?[977] 20 - Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known,[978] - 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. - He, who through vast immensity can pierce, - See worlds on worlds compose one universe,[979] - Observe how system into system runs, 25 - What other planets circle[980] other suns, - What varied being peoples ev'ry star,[981] - May tell why heav'n has made us as we are.[982] - But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, - The strong connections, nice dependencies, 30 - Gradations[983] just, has thy pervading soul - Looked through,[984] or can a part contain the whole?[985] - Is the great chain that draws all to agree,[986] - And drawn supports,[987] upheld by God or thee? - -[Sidenote: Man is not therefore a judge of his own perfection or -imperfection, but is certainly such a being as is suited to his place -and rank in creation.] - - II. Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find, 35 - Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind? - First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, - Why formed no weaker, blinder, and no less?[988] - Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made - Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade! 40 - Or ask of yonder argent fields[989] above - Why Jove's satellites[990] are less than Jove![991] - Of systems possible, if 'tis confessed - That wisdom infinite[992] must form the best,[993] - Where all must full or not coherent be,[994] 45 - And all that rises rise in due degree, - Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain, - There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man:[995] - And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) - Is only this, if God has placed him wrong.[996] 50 - Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, - May, must be right, as relative to all.[997] - In human works, though laboured on with pain, - A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; - In God's, one single can its end produce; 55 - Yet serves to second too some other use.[998] - So man, who here seems principal alone, - Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown, - Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal;[999] - 'Tis but a part we see,[1000] and not a whole.[1001] 60 - When the proud steed shall know why man restrains - His fiery course, or[1002] drives him o'er the plains; - When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod, - Is now a victim, and now Egypt's god;[1003] - Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend 65 - His actions', passions', being's, use and end; - Why doing, suff'ring, checked, impelled; and why - This hour a slave, the next a deity.[1004] - Then say not man's imperfect, heav'n in fault; - Say rather man's as perfect as he ought:[1005] 70 - His knowledge measured to his state and place,[1006] - His time a moment, and a point his space.[1007] - If to be perfect in a certain sphere, - What matter, soon or late, or here or there?[1008] - The bless'd to-day is as completely so, 75 - As who began a thousand years ago.[1009] - -[Sidenote: His happiness depends on his ignorance to a certain degree.] - - III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate, - All but the page prescribed, their present state; - From brutes what men, from men what spirits know; - Or who could suffer being here below?[1010] 80 - The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, - Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? - Pleased to the last he crops the flow'ry food, - And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.[1011] - O blindness to the future! kindly giv'n, 85 - That each may fill the circle marked by heav'n: - Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, - A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,[1012] - Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,[1013] - And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 90 - -[Sidenote: And on his hope of a relation to a future state.] - - Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; - Wait the great teacher death, and God adore. - What future bliss he gives not thee to know, - But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.[1014] - Hope springs eternal in the human breast; 95 - Man never is, but always to be blessed.[1015] - The soul, uneasy, and confined from[1016] home, - Rests and expatiates in a life to come. - Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind - Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;[1017] 100 - His soul proud science never taught to stray - Far as the solar walk[1018] or milky way;[1019] - Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n, - Behind the cloud-topped hill,[1020] an humbler heav'n; - Some safer world in depth of woods embraced, 105 - Some happier island in the wat'ry waste,[1021] - Where slaves once more their native land behold, - No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.[1022] - To be, contents his natural desire; - He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire; 110 - But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, - His faithful dog shall bear him company.[1023] - -[Sidenote: The pride of aiming at more knowledge and perfection, and the -impiety of pretending to judge of the dispensations of Providence, the -causes of man's error and misery.] - - IV. Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense,[1024] - Weigh thy opinion against Providence;[1025] - Call imperfection what thou fanci'st such, 115 - Say, Here he gives too little, there too much![1026] - Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,[1027] - Yet cry, If man's unhappy, God's unjust;[1028] - If man alone ingross not heav'n's high care, - Alone made perfect here, immortal there:[1029] 120 - Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,[1030] - Re-judge his justice, be the god of God.[1031] - In pride, in reas'ning pride,[1032] our error lies; - All quit their sphere and rush into the skies! - Pride still is aiming at the bless'd abodes, 125 - Men would be angels, angels would be gods.[1033] - Aspiring to be gods if angels fell, - Aspiring to be angels men rebel:[1034] - And who but wishes to invert the laws - Of order, sins against th' Eternal Cause. 130 - -[Sidenote: The absurdity of conceiting himself the final cause of -creation, or expecting that perfection in the moral world which is not -in the natural.] - - V. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, - Earth for whose use, Pride answers,[1035] "'Tis for mine! - For me kind nature wakes her genial pow'r, - Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flow'r;[1036] - Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew 135 - The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; - For me the mine a thousand treasures brings; - For me health gushes from a thousand springs; - Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; - My footstool earth, my canopy the skies!"[1037] 140 - But errs not nature from this gracious end, - From burning suns when livid deaths descend, - When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep[1038] - Towns to one grave, whole nations[1039] to the deep?[1040] - "No," 'tis replied, "the first Almighty Cause 145 - Acts not by partial but by gen'ral laws:[1041] - Th' exceptions few; some change since all began;[1042] - And what created perfect?"--Why then man? - If the great end be human happiness, - Then nature deviates;[1043] and can man do less?[1044] 150 - As much that end a constant course requires - Of show'rs and sunshine, as of man's desires: - As much eternal springs and cloudless skies, - As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise.[1045] - If plagues or earthquakes break not heaven's design, 155 - Why then a Borgia or a Catiline?[1046] - Who knows but He, whose hand the lightning forms, - Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms; - Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar's mind,[1047] - Or turns young Ammon[1048] loose to scourge mankind?[1049] 160 - From pride, from pride our very reas'ning springs; - Account for moral, as for nat'ral things:[1050] - Why charge we heav'n in those, in these acquit? - In both to reason right is to submit. - Better for us, perhaps, it might appear, 165 - Were there all harmony, all virtue here; - That never air or ocean felt the wind; - That never passion discomposed the mind. - But all subsists by elemental strife; - And passions are the elements of life.[1051] 170 - The gen'ral order,[1052] since the whole began, - Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.[1053] - -[Sidenote: The unreasonableness of the complaints against Providence, -and that to possess more faculties would make us miserable.] - - VI. What would this Man? now upward will he soar, - And little less than angel, would be more![1054] - Now looking downwards, just as grieved appears 175 - To want the strength[1055] of bulls, the fur of bears.[1056] - Made for his use, all creatures if he call,[1057] - Say what their use, had he the pow'rs of all: - Nature to these without profusion kind,[1058] - The proper organs, proper pow'rs assigned; 180 - Each seeming want compensated of course, - Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force:[1059] - All in exact proportion to the state;[1060] - Nothing to add, and nothing to abate.[1061] - Each beast, each insect, happy in its own:[1062] 185 - Is Heav'n unkind to man, and man alone? - Shall he alone, whom rational we call, - Be pleased with nothing, if not blessed with all?[1063] - The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find) - Is not to act or think beyond mankind; 190 - No pow'rs of body or of soul to share, - But what his nature and his state can bear.[1064] - Why has not man a microscopic eye? - For this plain reason, man is not a fly. - Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, 195 - T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n?[1065] - Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, - To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore? - Or quick effluvia darting through the brain, - Die of a rose in aromatic pain?[1066] 200 - If nature thundered in his op'ning ears, - And stunned him with the music of the spheres,[1067] - How would he wish that heav'n had left him still - The whisp'ring zephyr, and the purling rill? - Who finds not Providence all good and wise, 205 - Alike in what it gives, and what denies? - -[Sidenote: There is an universal order and gradation through the whole -visible world, of the sensible and mental faculties, which causes the -subordination of creature to creature, and of all creatures to man, -whose reason alone countervails all the other faculties.] - - VII. Far as creation's ample range extends, - The scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends: - Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race,[1068] - From the green myriads in the peopled grass; 210 - What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, - The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam: - Of smell, the headlong lioness between,[1069] - And hound sagacious on the tainted green: - Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,[1070] 215 - To that which warbles through the vernal wood! - The spider's touch how exquisitely fine![1071] - Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:[1072] - In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true - From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?[1073] 220 - How instinct varies in the grov'ling swine, - Compared, half-reas'ning elephant, with thine![1074] - 'Twixt that and reason, what a nice barrier! - For ever sep'rate, yet for ever near! - Remembrance and reflection how allied; 225 - What thin partitions sense from thought divide;[1075] - And middle natures, how they long to join, - Yet never pass th' insuperable line![1076] - Without this just gradation could they be - Subjected, these to those, or all to thee? 230 - The pow'rs of all subdued by thee alone, - Is not thy reason all these pow'rs in one? - -[Sidenote: How much further this gradation and subordination may extend, -were any part of which broken the whole connected creation must be -destroyed.] - - VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth, - All matter quick, and bursting into birth. - Above, how high progressive life may go! 235 - Around, how wide! how deep extend below![1077] - Vast chain of being! which from God began, - Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,[1078] - Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, - No glass can reach; from infinite to thee, 240 - From thee to nothing.[1079] On superior pow'rs - Were we to press, inferior might on ours:[1080] - Or in the full creation leave a void,[1081] - Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroyed:[1082] - From nature's chain whatever link you strike, 245 - Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.[1083] - And if each system in gradation roll[1084] - Alike essential to th' amazing whole,[1085] - The least confusion but in one, not all - That system only, but the whole must fall. 250 - Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly,[1086] - Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;[1087] - Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled, - Being on being wrecked, and world on world; - Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod, 255 - And nature tremble[1088] to the throne of God![1089] - All this dread order break--for whom? for thee? - Vile-worm!--O madness! pride! impiety![1090] - -[Sidenote: The extravagance, impiety, and pride of such a desire.] - - IX. What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread, - Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head? 260 - What if the head, the eye, or ear repined - To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?[1091] - Just as absurd for any part to claim - To be another, in this gen'ral frame:[1092] - Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains 265 - The great directing Mind of all ordains.[1093] - All are but parts of one stupendous whole, - Whose body nature is, and God the soul;[1094] - That, changed through all, and yet in all the same, - Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame, 270 - Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, - Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,[1095] - Lives thro' all life, extends through all extent, - Spreads undivided, operates unspent;[1096] - Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,[1097] 275 - As full, as perfect in a hair as heart;[1098] - As full, as perfect in vile man that mourns, - As the rapt seraph that adores and burns:[1099] - To him no high, no low, no great, no small; - He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.[1100] 280 - -[Sidenote: The consequence of all, the absolute submission due to -Providence, both as to our present and future state.] - - X. Cease then, nor order imperfection name: - Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.[1101] - Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree[1102] - Of blindness, weakness, heav'n bestows on thee. - Submit: in this, or any other sphere, 285 - Secure to be as blessed as thou canst bear;[1103] - Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,[1104] - Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. - All nature is but art[1105] unknown to thee,[1106] - All chance, direction which thou canst not see;[1107] 290 - All discord, harmony not understood;[1108] - All partial evil, universal good; - And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,[1109] - One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right. - - - - - ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE II. - - OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HIMSELF, AS AN - INDIVIDUAL. - - I. The business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself. - His middle nature: his powers and frailties, ver. 1 to 19. The - limits of his capacity, ver. 19, &c. II. The two principles of man, - self-love and reason, both necessary, ver. 53, &c. Self-love the - stronger, and why, ver. 67, &c. Their end the same, ver. 81, &c. - III. The passions, and their use, ver. 93 to 130. The predominant - passion, and its force, ver. 132 to 160. Its necessity, in - directing men to different purposes, ver. 165, &c. Its providential - use, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue, ver. - 177. IV. Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits - near, yet the things separate and evident: what is the office of - reason, ver. 202 to 216. V. How odious vice in itself, and how we - deceive ourselves into it, ver. 217. VI. That, however, the ends of - Providence and general good are answered in our passions and - imperfections, ver. 238, &c. How usefully these are distributed to - all orders of men, ver. 241. How useful they are to society, ver. - 251. And to individuals, ver. 263. In every state, and every age of - life, ver. 273, &c. - - - EPISTLE II. - - -[Sidenote: The business of man not to pry into God, but to study -himself. His middle nature, his power, frailties, and the limits of his -capacity.] - - I. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,[1110] - The proper study of mankind is man.[1111] - Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,[1112] - A being darkly wise, and rudely great: - With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,[1113] 5 - With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,[1114] - He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;[1115] - In doubt to deem himself a god or beast;[1116] - In doubt his mind or body to prefer; - Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;[1117] 10 - Alike in ignorance, his reason such,[1118] - Whether he thinks too little or too much;[1119] - Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;[1120] - Still by himself abused,[1121] or disabused; - Created half to rise, and half to fall;[1122] 15 - Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; - Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled; - The glory, jest, and riddle of the world![1123] - [1124]Go, wondrous creature! mount[1125] where science guides, - Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; 20 - Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,[1126] - Correct old Time,[1127] and regulate the sun;[1128] - Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere, - To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;[1129] - Or tread the mazy round his follow'rs trod; 25 - And quitting sense call imitating God;[1130] - As eastern priests in giddy circles run,[1131] - And turn their heads to imitate the sun.[1132] - Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule[1133]-- - Then drop into thyself, and be a fool! 30 - Superior beings, when of late they saw - A mortal man[1134] unfold all nature's law, - Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape,[1135] - And showed a Newton, as we show an ape.[1136] - Could he, whose rules the rapid comet[1137] bind,[1138] 35 - Describe or fix one movement of his mind?[1139] - Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,[1140] - Explain his own beginning or his end?[1141] - Alas! what wonder![1142] man's superior part[1143] - Unchecked may rise, and climb from art to art;[1144] 40 - But when his own great work is but begun, - What reason weaves, by passion is undone,[1145] - Trace science then, with modesty thy guide; - First strip off all her equipage of pride; - Deduct what is but vanity or dress, 45 - Or learning's luxury, or idleness; - Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain, - Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain; - Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts - Of all[1146] our vices have created arts; 50 - Then see how little the remaining sum, - Which served the past, and must the times to come![1147] - -[Sidenote: The two principles of man, self-love and reason, both -necessary.] - - II. Two principles in human nature reign; - Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain;[1148] - Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call, 55 - Each works its end to move or govern all:[1149] - And to their proper operation still[1150] - Ascribe all good; to their improper, ill. - -[Sidenote: Self-love the stronger, and why.] - - Self-love, the spring of motion, acts[1151] the soul; - Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.[1152] 60 - Man, but for that, no action could attend, - And, but for this, were active to no end: - Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, - To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot;[1153] - Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void,[1154] 65 - Destroying others, by himself destroyed. - Most strength the moving principle requires; - Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires; - Sedate and quiet, the comparing lies, - Formed but to check, delib'rate, and advise. 70 - Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh: - Reason's at distance, and in prospect lie:[1155] - That sees immediate good by present sense; - Reason, the future and the consequence.[1156] - -[Sidenote: Their end the same.] - - Thicker than arguments, temptations throng, 75 - At best more watchful this, but that more strong. - The action of the stronger to suspend, - Reason still use, to reason still attend. - Attention, habit and experience gains;[1157] - Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains. 80 - Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight, - More studious to divide than to unite; - And grace and virtue,[1158] sense[1159] and reason split,[1160] - With all the rash dexterity of wit. - Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, 85 - Have full as oft no meaning, or the same.[1161] - Self-love and reason to one end aspire, - Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire;[1162] - -[Sidenote: The passions and their use.] - - But greedy that, its object would devour, - This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r: 90 - Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood, - Our greatest evil, or our greatest good. - III. Modes of self-love the passions we may call; - 'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all:[1163] - But since not ev'ry good we can divide, 95 - And reason bids us for our own provide, - Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair,[1164] - List[1165] under reason, and deserve her care; - Those, that imparted, court[1166] a nobler aim, - Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name.[1167] 100 - In lazy apathy let stoics boast - Their virtue fixed;[1168] 'tis fixed as in a frost;[1169] - Contracted all, retiring to the breast;[1170] - But strength of mind is exercise, not rest:[1171] - The rising tempest puts in act the soul,[1172] 105 - Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.[1173] - On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,[1174] - Reason the card,[1175] but passion is the gale;[1176] - Nor God alone in the still calm we find, - He mounts the storms, and walks upon the wind.[1177] 110 - -[Sidenote: The predominant passion and its force.] - - Passions, like elements, though born to fight, - Yet, mixed and softened, in his work unite:[1178] - These, 'tis enough to temper and employ; - But what composes man, can man destroy?[1179] - Suffice that reason keep to nature's road, 115 - Subject, compound them, follow her and God.[1180] - Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, - Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain,[1181] - These mixed with art,[1182] and to due bounds confined, - Make and maintain the balance of the mind: 120 - The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife[1183] - Gives all the strength and colour of our life. - Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes; - And when in act they cease, in prospect rise: - Present to grasp, and future still to find,[1184] 125 - The whole employ of body and of mind.[1185] - All spread their charms, but charm not all alike; - On diff'rent senses diff'rent objects strike;[1186] - Hence diff'rent passions more or less inflame, - As strong or weak the organs of the frame;[1187] 130 - And hence one master passion in the breast, - Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.[1188] - As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, - Receives the lurking principle of death; - The young disease, that must subdue at length, 135 - Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength: - So, cast and mingled with his very frame,[1189] - The mind's disease, its ruling passion, came; - Each vital humour which should feed the whole, - Soon flows to this, in body and in soul: 140 - Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head, - As the mind opens, and its functions spread, - Imagination plies her dang'rous art, - And pours it all upon the peccant part.[1190] - Nature its mother, habit is its nurse; 145 - Wit, spirit, faculties,[1191] but make it worse; - Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r;[1192] - As heav'n's bless'd beam turns vinegar more sour.[1193] - We, wretched subjects, though to lawful sway,[1194] - In this weak queen some fav'rite still obey; 150 - Ah! if she lend not arms as well as rules, - What can she more[1195] than tell us we are fools? - Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend, - A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend! - Or from a judge turn pleader, to persuade 155 - The choice we make, or justify it made;[1196] - Proud of an easy conquest all along, - She but removes weak passions for the strong.[1197] - So when small humours gather to a gout, - The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out.[1198] 160 - Yes, nature's road must ever be preferred; - Reason is here no guide, but still a guard; - 'Tis hers to rectify, not overthrow, - And treat this passion more as friend than foe: - -[Sidenote: Its necessity in directing men to different purposes.] - - A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends,[1199] 165 - And sev'ral men impels to sev'ral ends:[1200] - Like varying winds, by other passions tossed, - This drives them constant to a certain coast.[1201] - Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please, - Or (oft more strong than all) the love of ease;[1202] 170 - Through life 'tis followed, ev'en at life's expense; - The merchant's toil, the sage's indolence, - The monk's humility, the hero's pride, - All, all alike find reason on their side. - -[Sidenote: Its providential use in fixing our principle, and -ascertaining our virtue.] - - Th' Eternal Art, educing good from ill,[1203] 175 - Grafts on this passion our best principle: - 'Tis thus the mercury of man is fixed,[1204] - Strong grows the virtue with his nature mixed; - The dross cements what else were too refined, - And in one int'rest body acts with mind. 180 - As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care, - On savage stocks inserted learn to bear,[1205] - The surest virtues thus from passions shoot,[1206] - Wild nature's vigour working at the root.[1207] - What crops of wit and honesty appear 185 - From spleen, from obstinacy, hate or fear![1208] - See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;[1209] - Ev'n av'rice, prudence; sloth, philosophy; - Lust, through some certain strainers well refined, - Is gentle love, and charms all womankind; 190 - Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, - Is emulation in the learn'd or brave;[1210] - Nor virtue, male or female, can we name, - But what will grow on pride,[1211] or grow on shame.[1212] - -[Sidenote: Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, -yet the things separate and evident. The office of reason.] - - [1213]Thus nature gives us (let it check our pride)[1214] 195 - The virtue nearest to our vice allied;[1215] - Reason the bias turns to good from ill,[1216] - And Nero reigns a Titus if he will.[1217] - The fiery soul abhorred in Catiline, - In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:[1218] 200 - The same ambition can destroy or save, - And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.[1219] - This light and darkness in our chaos joined, - What shall divide? The god within the mind.[1220] - Extremes in nature equal ends produce, 205 - In man they join to some mysterious use;[1221] - Though each by turns the other's bound invade, - As, in some well-wrought picture, light and shade,[1222] - And oft so mix, the diff'rence is too nice[1223] - Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. 210 - Fools! who from hence into the notion fall, - That vice or virtue there is none at all. - If white and black blend, soften, and unite - A thousand ways, is there no black or white?[1224] - Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; 215 - 'Tis to mistake them costs the time and pain.[1225] - -[Sidenote: Vice odious in itself and how we deceive ourselves into it.] - - Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, - As to be hated needs but to be seen;[1226] - Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, - We first endure, then pity,[1227] then embrace.[1228] 220 - But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed: - Ask where's the North? at York, 'tis on the Tweed; - In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there, - At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where. - No creature owns it in the first degree, 225 - But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he;[1229] - Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,[1230] - Or never feel the rage, or never own;[1231] - What happier natures shrink at with affright, - The hard inhabitant contends is right.[1232] 230 - -[Sidenote: The ends of Providence, and general good, answered in our -passions and imperfections. How usefully these are distributed to all -orders of men.] - - Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be, - Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree:[1233] - The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise; - And ev'n the best, by fits, what they despise.[1234] - 'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill; 235 - For, vice or virtue, self directs it still;[1235] - Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal; - But heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole. - That counterworks each folly and caprice; - That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;[1236] 240 - That, happy frailties to all ranks applied,[1237] - Shame to the virgin,[1238] to the matron pride, - Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief, - To kings presumption, and to crowds belief: - That virtue's ends from vanity can raise, 245 - Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise;[1239] - And build[1240] on wants, and on defects of mind, - The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind. - -[Sidenote: How useful these are to society in general:] - - Heav'n forming each on other to depend, - A master, or a servant, or a friend, 250 - Bids each on other for assistance call, - Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. - Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally - The common int'rest, or endear the tie. - To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 255 - Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;[1241] - Yet from the same we learn, in its decline, - Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign:[1242] - Taught half by reason, half by mere decay, - To welcome death, and calmly pass away. 260 - -[Sidenote: And to individuals in particular in every state:] - - Whate'er the passion,--knowledge, fame, or pelf,-- - Not one will change his neighbour with himself.[1243] - The learn'd is happy nature to explore,[1244] - The fool is happy that he knows no more; - The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n, 265 - The poor contents him with the care of heav'n. - See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing, - The sot a hero, lunatic a king; - The starving chemist in his golden views - Supremely blessed,[1245] the poet in his muse.[1246] 270 - -[Sidenote: And in every age of life.] - - See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend, - And pride bestowed on all, a common friend:[1247] - See some fit passion ev'ry age supply, - Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.[1248] - Behold the child, by nature's kindly law[1249] 275 - Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw: - Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, - A little louder,[1250] but as empty quite: - Scarfs, garters,[1251] gold, amuse his riper stage,[1252] - And beads[1253] and pray'r-books are the toys of age: 280 - Pleased with this bauble still, as that before; - Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.[1254] - Mean while[1255] opinion gilds with varying rays - Those painted clouds that beautify our days;[1256] - Each want of happiness by hope supplied, 285 - And each vacuity of sense by pride:[1257] - These build as fast as knowledge can destroy;[1258] - In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy; - One prospect lost, another still we gain;[1259] - And not a vanity is giv'n in vain;[1260] 290 - Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine, - The scale to measure others' wants by thine.[1261] - See, and confess, one comfort still must rise;[1262] - 'Tis this, though man's a fool, yet God is wise![1263] - - - - - ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE III. - - OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY. - -I. The whole universe one system of society, ver. 7, &c. Nothing made -wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, ver. 27. The happiness of -animals mutual, ver. 49. II. Reason or instinct operate alike to the -good of each individual, ver. 79. III. Reason or instinct operate also -to society in all animals, ver. 109. How far society carried by -instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by reason, ver. 131. IV. Of that -which is called the state of nature, ver. 144. Reason instructed by -instinct in the invention of arts, ver. 169, and in the forms of -society, ver. 179. V. Origin of political societies, ver. 199. Origin of -monarchy, ver. 207. VI. Patriarchal government, ver. 215. Origin of true -religion and government, from the same principle of love, 231, &c. -Origin of superstition and tyranny, from the same principle of fear, -ver. 241, &c. The influence of self-love operating to the social and -public good, ver. 269. Restoration of true religion and government on -their first principle, ver. 283. Mixed government, ver. 288. Various -forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 303, &c. EPISTLE III. - - -[Sidenote: The whole universe one system of society.] - - I. Here then we rest: "The Universal Cause[1264] - Acts to one end,[1265] but acts by various laws."[1266] - In all the madness of superfluous health, - The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth,[1267] - Let this great truth be present night and day: 5 - But most be present if we preach or pray. - Look round our world, behold the chain of love[1268] - Combining all below and all above. - See plastic nature working to this end,[1269] - The single atoms each to other tend, 10 - Attract, attracted to, the next in place - Formed and impelled its neighbour to embrace.[1270] - See matter next with various life endued, - Press to one centre still, the gen'ral good.[1271] - See dying vegetables life sustain, 15 - See life dissolving vegetate again:[1272] - All forms that perish other forms supply, - (By turns we catch the vital breath and die[1273]) - Like bubbles on the sea of matter born, - They rise, they break, and to that sea return. 20 - Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole; - One all-extending, all-preserving soul - Connects each being, greatest with the least;[1274] - Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;[1275] - All served, all serving: nothing stands alone; 25 - The chain holds on, and where it ends unknown. - -[Sidenote: Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, -but the happiness of all animals mutual.] - - Has God, thou fool! worked solely for thy good, - Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food? - Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, - For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry lawn:[1276] 30 - Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings? - Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings. - Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat? - Loves of his own and raptures[1277] swell the note. - The bounding steed you pompously[1278] bestride, 35 - Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride. - Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain? - The birds of heav'n shall vindicate their grain. - Thine the full harvest of the golden year? - Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer; 40 - The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call, - Lives on the labours of this lord of all.[1279] - Know, nature's children all divide her care; - The fur that warms a monarch[1280] warmed a bear.[1281] - While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!" 45 - "See man for mine!" replies a pampered goose:[1282] - And just as short of reason he must fall, - Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.[1283] - Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control; - Be man the wit,[1284] and tyrant of the whole: 50 - Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows,[1285] - And helps, another creature's wants and woes.[1286] - Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, - Smit with her varying[1287] plumage, spare the dove? - Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? 55 - Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?[1288] - Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods, - To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods. - For some his int'rest prompts him to provide, - For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride: 60 - All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy - Th' extensive blessing of his luxury.[1289] - That very life his learned hunger craves, - He saves from famine, from the savage saves; - Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast, 65 - And, till he ends the being, makes it blessed, - Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain, - Than favoured man by touch ethereal[1290] slain.[1291] - The creature had his feast of life before; - Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er! 70 - To each unthinking being, heav'n, a friend, - Gives not the useless knowledge of its end: - To man imparts it; but with such a view[1292] - As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too; - The hour concealed, and so remote the fear, 75 - Death still draws nearer, never seeming near. - Great standing miracle! that heav'n assigned - Its only thinking thing[1293] this turn of mind.[1294] - -[Sidenote: Reason or instinct alike operate to the good of each -individual.] - - II. Whether with reason, or with instinct blessed, - Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best:[1295] 80 - To bliss alike by that direction tend, - And find the means proportion'd to their end. - Say, where full instinct is th' unerring guide, - What pope or council[1296] can they need beside?[1297] - Reason, however able, cool at best, 85 - Cares not for service, or but serves when pressed, - Stays till we call, and then not often near;[1298] - But honest instinct comes a volunteer, - Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit, - While still too wide or short is human wit; 90 - Sure by quick nature happiness to gain, - Which heavier reason labours at in vain.[1299] - This too serves always, reason never long; - One must go right,[1300] the other may go wrong. - See then the acting and comparing pow'rs 95 - One in their nature, which are two in ours;[1301] - And reason raise o'er instinct as you can,[1302] - In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man.[1303] - Who taught the nations of the field and flood[1304] - To shun their poison,[1305] and to choose their food?[1306] 100 - Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand, - Build on the wave,[1307] or arch beneath the sand? - Who made the spider parallels design,[1308] - Sure as Demoivre,[1309] without rule or line?[1310] - Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore 105 - Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before?[1311] - Who calls the council, states the certain day,[1312] - Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?[1313] - - -[Sidenote: Reason or instinct operate also to society in all animals.] - - III. God, in the nature of each being, founds - Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds: 110 - But as he framed a whole, the whole to bless, - On mutual wants built mutual happiness:[1314] - So from the first, eternal order ran, - And creature linked to creature, man to man. - -[Sidenote: How far society carried by instinct.] - - Whate'er of life all-quick'ning ether[1315] keeps, 115 - Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps, - Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds - The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds. - Not man alone, but all that roam the wood, - Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood, 120 - Each loves itself, but not itself alone, - Each sex desires alike, till two are one. - Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace: - They love themselves a third time in their race.[1316] - Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 125 - The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend;[1317] - The young dismissed to wander earth or air, - There stops the instinct, and there ends the care:[1318] - The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace, - Another love succeeds, another race. 130 - -[Sidenote: How much farther society is carried by reason.] - - A longer care man's helpless kind demands; - That longer care contracts more lasting bands:[1319] - Reflection, reason, still the ties improve, - At once extend the int'rest, and the love;[1320] - With choice we fix,[1321] with sympathy we burn; 135 - Each virtue in each passion takes its turn;[1322] - And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise, - That graft benevolence on charities.[1323] - Still as one brood, and as another rose, - These nat'ral love maintained, habitual those:[1324] 140 - The last scarce ripened into perfect man, - Saw helpless him from whom their life began:[1325] - Mem'ry and forecast just returns engage, - That pointed back to youth, this on to age; - While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combined, 145 - Still spread the int'rest, and preserved the kind.[1326] - -[Sidenote: Of the state of nature that it was social.] - - IV. Nor think in nature's state they blindly trod; - The state of nature was the reign of God:[1327] - Self-love and social at her birth[1328] began, - Union[1329] the bond of all things, and of man. 150 - Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid; - Man walked with beast joint tenant of the shade;[1330] - The same his table, and the same his bed; - No murder clothed him,[1331] and no murder fed. - In the same temple, the resounding wood,[1332] 155 - All vocal beings hymned their equal God:[1333] - The shrine with gore unstained, with gold undressed, - Unbribed, unbloody, stood the blameless priest:[1334] - Heav'n's attribute was universal care, - And man's prerogative to rule, but spare. 160 - Ah! how unlike the man of times to come![1335] - Of half that live the butcher and the tomb;[1336] - Who, foe to nature, hears the gen'ral groan, - Murders their species, and betrays his own.[1337] - But just disease to luxury succeeds, 165 - And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds; - The fury-passions from that blood began, - And turned on man a fiercer savage,[1338] man.[1339] - -[Sidenote: Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of arts, and -in the forms of society.] - - See him from nature rising slow to art![1340] - To copy instinct then was reason's part; 170 - Thus then to man the voice of nature spake[1341]-- - "Go, from the creatures thy instructions take: - Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;[1342] - Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;[1343] - Thy arts of building from the bee receive;[1344] 175 - Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave;[1345] - Learn of the little nautilus to sail, - Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.[1346] - Here too all forms of social union find, - And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind:[1347] 180 - Here subterranean works and cities see; - There towns aërial on the waving tree. - Learn each small people's genius, policies, - The ants' republic, and the realm of bees: - How those in common all their wealth bestow,[1348] 185 - And anarchy without confusion know;[1349] - And these for ever, though a monarch reign, - Their sep'rate cells and properties maintain.[1350] - Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state, - Laws wise as nature, and as fixed as fate. 190 - In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw, - Entangle justice in her net of law, - And right, too rigid, harden into wrong;[1351] - Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.[1352] - Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 195 - Thus let the wiser make the rest obey; - And for those arts mere instinct could afford, - Be crowned as monarchs, or as gods adored."[1353] - -[Sidenote: Origin of political societies.] - - V. Great nature spoke; observant man obeyed; - Cities were built, societies were made:[1354] 200 - Here rose one little state; another near[1355] - Grew by like means, and joined through love or fear. - Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, - And there the streams in purer rills descend? - What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, 205 - And he returned a friend who came a foe. - Converse and love mankind might strongly draw,[1356] - When love was liberty, and nature law.[1357] - -[Sidenote: Origin of monarchy.] - - Thus states were formed: the name of king unknown, - Till common int'rest placed the sway in one.[1358] 210 - 'Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms, - Diffusing blessings, or averting harms), - The same which in a sire the sons obeyed,[1359] - A prince the father of a people made.[1360] - -[Sidenote: Origin of patriarchal government.] - - VI. Till then, by nature crowned, each patriarch sat, 215 - King, priest, and parent of his growing state;[1361] - On him, their second Providence, they hung, - Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. - He from the wond'ring furrow called the food,[1362] - Taught to command the fire, control the flood, 220 - Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound, - Or fetch th' aërial eagle to the ground,[1363] - Till drooping, sick'ning, dying they began[1364] - Whom they revered as god to mourn as man: - Then, looking up from sire to sire, explored 225 - One great first Father, and that first adored;[1365] - Or plain tradition, that this all begun,[1366] - Conveyed unbroken faith from sire to son; - The worker from the work distinct was known, - And simple reason never sought but one.[1367] 230 - Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light,[1368] - Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right;[1369] - To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, - And owned a father when he owned a God.[1370] - -[Sidenote: Origin of true religion and government from the principle of -love; and of superstition and tyranny from that of fear.] - - Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then, 235 - For nature knew no right divine in men,[1371] - No ill could fear in God; and understood - A sov'reign being but a sov'reign good. - True faith, true policy, united ran, - That was but love of God, and this of man. 240 - Who first taught souls enslaved, and realms undone, - Th' enormous[1372] faith of many made for one; - That proud exception to all nature's laws, - T' invert the world, and counterwork its cause?[1373] - Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law; 245 - Till superstition taught the tyrant awe,[1374] - Then shared the tyranny, then lent it aid, - And gods of conqu'rors, slaves of subjects made: - She, midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's sound, - When rocked the mountains, and when groaned the ground,[1375] - She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, 251 - To pow'r unseen, and mightier far than they: - She, from the rending earth and bursting skies, - Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise:[1376] - Here fixed the dreadful, there the bless'd abodes; 255 - Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods; - Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, - Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust;[1377] - Such as the souls of cowards might conceive, - And, formed like tyrants, tyrants would believe.[1378] 260 - Zeal then, not charity, became the guide; - And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride. - Then sacred seemed th' ethereal vault no more;[1379] - Altars grew marble then, and reeked with gore:[1380] - Then first the Flamen[1381] tasted living food;[1382] 265 - Next his grim idol smeared with human blood;[1383] - With heav'n's own thunders shook the world below, - And played the god an engine on his foe.[1384] - -[Sidenote: The influence of self-love operating to the social and public -good.] - - So drives self-love, through just, and through unjust, - To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust: 270 - The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause - Of what restrains him, government and laws.[1385] - For what one likes, if others like as well, - What serves one will, when many wills rebel? - How shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake, 275 - A weaker may surprise, a stronger take?[1386] - His safety must his liberty restrain: - All join to guard what each desires to gain. - Forced into virtue thus by self-defence, - Ev'n kings learned justice and benevolence: 280 - Self-love forsook the path it first pursued, - And found the private in the public good.[1387] - -[Sidenote: Restoration of true religion and government on their first -principle.] - - 'Twas then the studious head or gen'rous mind, - Foll'wer of God, or friend of human-kind, - Poet or patriot[1388], rose but to restore - The faith and moral nature gave before; 285 - Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new; - If not God's image, yet his shadow drew: - Taught pow'r's due use to people and to kings; - Taught not to slack, nor strain its tender strings, 290 - -[Sidenote: Mixed government.] - - The less, or greater, set so justly true, - That touching one must strike the other too;[1389] - Till jarring int'rests of themselves create - Th' according music[1390] of a well-mixed state.[1391] - Such is the world's great harmony, that springs 295 - From order, union, full consent[1392] of things;[1393] - Where small and great, where weak and mighty made - To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade;[1394] - More pow'rful each as needful to the rest, - And in proportion as it blesses, bless'd; 300 - Draw to one point, and to one centre bring - Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king. - -[Sidenote: Various forms of each, and the true use of all.] - - For forms of government let fools contest; - Whate'er is best administered is best;[1395] - For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; 305 - His can't be wrong whose life is in the right:[1396] - In faith and hope the world will disagree,[1397] - But all mankind's concern is charity:[1398] - All must be false that thwart this one great end; - And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend. 310 - Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives; - The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.[1399] - On their own axis as the planets run, - Yet make at once[1400] their circle round the sun,[1401] - So two consistent motions act the soul, 315 - And one regards itself, and one the whole. - Thus God and nature[1402] linked the gen'ral frame, - And bade self-love and social be the same.[1403] - - - ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV. - - OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HAPPINESS. - -I. False notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered from -ver. 19 to 26. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, ver. -29. God intends happiness to be equal; and, to be so, it must be social, -since all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs -by general, not particular laws, ver. 35. As it is necessary for order, -and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods should be -unequal, happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 49. But -notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind -is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, ver. -67. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent -with the constitution of this world; and that the good man has here the -advantage, ver. 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the -calamities of nature, or of fortune, ver. 93. IV. The folly of expecting -that God should alter his general laws in favour of particulars, ver. -121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that whoever they are, -they must be happiest, ver. 131, &c. VI. That external goods are not the -proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of virtue, -ver. 167. That even these can make no man happy without virtue: -instanced in riches, ver. 185. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205. -Greatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior talents, ver. 259, &c. -With pictures of human infelicity in men possessed of them all, ver. -269, &c. VII. That virtue only constitutes a happiness whose object is -universal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 309. That the perfection of -virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence -here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 327, &c. - - - EPISTLE IV. - - O Happiness! our being's end and aim,[1404] - Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name: - That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh, - For which we bear to live, or dare to die; - Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 5 - O'erlooked, seen double by the fool and wise:[1405] - Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below,[1406] - Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?[1407] - Fair op'ning to some court's propitious shine,[1408] - Or deep with diamonds in the flaming[1409] mine? 10 - Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, - Or reaped in iron harvests of the field?[1410] - Where grows!--where grows it not?[1411] If vain our toil, - We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:[1412] - Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere,[1413] 15 - 'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where: - 'Tis never to be bought, but always free; - And, fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.[1414] - Ask of the learn'd the way! The learn'd are blind; - This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; 20 - Some place the bliss in action,[1415] some in ease,[1416] - Those call it pleasure, and contentment these; - Some sunk to beasts find pleasure end in pain;[1417] - Some swelled to gods confess e'en virtue vain;[1418] - Or indolent, to each extreme they fall, 25 - To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.[1419] - Who thus define it, say they more or less - Than this, that happiness is happiness?[1420] - -[Sidenote: Happiness is the end of all men, and attainable by all.] - - Take nature's path,[1421] and mad opinion's leave; - All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; 30 - Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;[1422] - There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;[1423] - And mourn our various portions as we please, - Equal is common sense,[1424] and common ease.[1425] - -[Sidenote: God governs by general not particular laws; intends happiness -to be equal, and to be so it must be social, since all particular -happiness depends on general.] - - Remember, man, "the Universal Cause 35 - Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;" - And makes what happiness we justly call,[1426] - Subsist, not in the good of one, but all. - There's not a blessing individuals find, - But some way leans and hearkens[1427] to the kind;[1428] 40 - No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, - No caverned hermit rests self-satisfied: - Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, - Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend. - Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45 - All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink: - Each has his share; and who would more obtain, - Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain.[1429] - -[Sidenote: It is necessary for order, and the common peace, that -external goods be unequal, therefore happiness is not constituted in -these.] - - Order is heav'n's first law; and this confessed, - Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 50 - More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence - That such are happier, shocks all common sense.[1430] - Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess, - If all are equal in their happiness: - But mutual wants this happiness increase; 55 - All nature's diff'rence keeps all nature's peace. - Condition, circumstance is not the thing; - Bliss is the same in subject or in king, - In who obtain defence, or who defend, - In him who is, or him who finds a friend: 60 - Heav'n breathes through ev'ry member of the whole - One common blessing, as one common soul. - But fortune's gifts if each alike possessed, - And each were equal, must not all contest? - If then to all men happiness was meant, 65 - God in externals could not place content.[1431] - -[Sidenote: The balance of human happiness kept equal, notwithstanding -externals, by hope and fear.] - - Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, - And these be happy called, unhappy those; - But heav'n's just balance equal will appear, - While those are placed in hope, and these in fear:[1432] 70 - Not present good or ill, the joy or curse, - But future views of better, or of worse.[1433] - O sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise, - By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies?[1434] - Heav'n still[1435] with laughter the vain toil surveys,[1436] 75 - And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.[1437] - -[Sidenote: In what the happiness of individuals consists, and that the -good man has the advantage even in this world.] - - Know, all the good that individuals find, - Or God and nature[1438] meant to mere mankind,[1439] - Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, - Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.[1440] 80 - But health consists with temperance alone; - And peace! O virtue! peace is all thy own.[1441] - The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain; - But these less taste them, as they worse obtain.[1442] - Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, 85 - Who risk the most, that[1443] take wrong means or right? - Of vice or virtue, whether blessed or cursed, - Which meets contempt, or which compassion first?[1444] - Count all th' advantage prosp'rous vice attains, - 'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains: 90 - And grant the bad what happiness they would, - One they must want,[1445] which is to pass for good.[1446] - -[Sidenote: That no man is unhappy through virtue.] - - O blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below, - Who fancy bliss to vice,[1447] to virtue woe! - Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, 95 - Best knows the blessing, and will most be blessed. - But fools the good alone unhappy call, - For ills or accidents that chance to all. - See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just! - See god-like Turenne prostrate on the dust! 100 - See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife! - Was this their virtue, or contempt of life?[1448] - Say, was it virtue, more though heav'n ne'er gave, - Lamented Digby![1449] sunk thee to the grave?[1450] - Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, 105 - Why, full of days and honour, lives the sire?[1451] - Why drew Marseilles' good bishop[1452] purer breath, - When nature sickened, and each gale was death?[1453] - Or why so long (in life if long can be)[1454] - Lent heav'n a parent to the poor and me?[1455] 110 - What makes all physical or moral ill? - There deviates nature, and here wanders will. - God sends not ill, if rightly understood, - Or partial ill is universal good, - Or change admits, or nature lets it fall 115 - Short, and but rare, till man improved it all.[1456] - We just as wisely might of heav'n complain, - That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain, - As that the virtuous son is ill at ease - When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 120 - Think we, like some weak prince, th' Eternal Cause, - Prone for his fav'rites to reverse his laws?[1457] - Shall burning Ætna, if a sage requires,[1458] - Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?[1459] - On air or sea new motions be impressed,[1460] 125 - O blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast?[1461] - When the loose mountain trembles from on high, - Shall gravitation cease if you go by?[1462] - Or some old temple nodding to its fall, - For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall?[1463] 130 - But still this world, so fitted for the knave, - Contents us not. A better shall we have? - A kingdom of the just then let it be:[1464] - But first consider how those just agree. - The good must merit God's peculiar care; 135 - But who, but God, can tell us who they are? - One thinks on Calvin heav'n's own Spirit fell; - Another deems him instrument of hell; - If Calvin feel heav'n's blessing, or its rod, - This cries there is, and that, there is no God.[1465] 140 - What shocks one part will edify the rest,[1466] - Nor with one system can they all be blessed.[1467] - The very best will variously incline,[1468] - And what rewards your virtue, punish mine. - Whatever is, is right.[1469] This world, 'tis true, 145 - Was made for Cæsar, but for Titus too:[1470] - And which more bless'd? who chained his country, say, - Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day?[1471] - "But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed." - What then? Is the reward of virtue bread?[1472] 150 - That vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;[1473] - The knave deserves it when he tills the soil, - The knave deserves it when he tempts the main, - Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.[1474] - The good man may be weak, be indolent; 155 - Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. - But grant him riches, your demand is o'er? - "No--shall the good want health, the good want pow'r?" - Add health, and pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing: - "Why bounded pow'r? why private? why no king?[1475] 160 - Nay, why external for internal giv'n? - Why is not man a god, and earth a heav'n?"[1476] - Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive - God gives enough while he has more to give:[1477] - Immense the pow'r, immense were the demand; 165 - Say, at what part of nature will they stand? - -[Sidenote: That external goods are not the proper rewards of virtue, -often inconsistent with, or destructive of it; but that all these can -make no man happy without virtue. Instances in each of them.] - - What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, - The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy, - Is virtue's prize. A better would you fix? - Then give humility a coach and six,[1478] 170 - Justice a conqu'ror's sword, or truth a gown,[1479] - Or public spirit its great cure,[1480] a crown.[1481] - Weak, foolish man! will heav'n[1482] reward us there,[1483] - With the same trash mad mortals wish for here? - The boy and man an individual makes,[1484] 175 - Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes? - Go, like the Indian, in another life - Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife, - As well as dream such trifles are assigned, - As toys and empires, for a god-like mind: 180 - Rewards, that either would to virtue bring - No joy, or be destructive of the thing: - How oft by these at sixty are undone - The virtues of a saint at twenty-one! - -[Sidenote: 1. Riches.] - - To whom can riches give repute or trust,[1485] 185 - Content, or pleasure, but the good and just?[1486] - Judges and senates have been bought for gold, - Esteem and love were never to be sold.[1487] - O fool! to think God hates the worthy mind, - The lover and the love of human kind,[1488] 190 - Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, - Because he wants a thousand pounds a year.[1489] - -[Sidenote: 2. Honours.] - - Honour and shame from no condition rise; - Act well your part, there all the honour lies. - Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made, 195 - One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;[1490] - The cobbler aproned,[1491] and the parson gowned, - The friar hooded, and the monarch crowned. - "What differ more," you cry, "than crown and cowl?" - I'll tell you, friend; a wise man and a fool.[1492] 200 - You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,[1493] - Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk, - Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; - The rest is all but leather or prunella.[1494] - -[Sidenote: 3. Titles.] - - Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with strings,[1495] 205 - That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings.[1496] - -[Sidenote: 4. Birth.] - - Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,[1497] - In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece:[1498] - But by your fathers' worth if yours you rate, - Count me those only who were good and great. 210 - Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood - Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood,[1499] - Go! and pretend your family is young; - Nor own your fathers have been fools so long. - What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards? 215 - Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.[1500] - -[Sidenote: 5. Greatness.] - - Look next on greatness; say where greatness lies. - "Where but among the heroes and the wise!" - Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed, - From Macedonia's madman[1501] to the Swede; 220 - The whole strange purpose of their lives to find, - Or make, an enemy of all mankind![1502] - Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,[1503] - Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.[1504] - No less alike[1505] the politic and wise; 225 - All sly slow things,[1506] with circumspective eyes: - Men in their loose unguarded hours they take, - Not that themselves are wise, but others weak. - But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat, - 'Tis phrase absurd[1507] to call a villain great:[1508] 230 - Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, - Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. - Who noble ends by noble means obtains, - Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains, - Like good Aurelius let him reign,[1509] or bleed 235 - Like Socrates,[1510] that man is great indeed. - -[Sidenote: 6. Fame.] - - What's fame? a fancied life in others' breath,[1511] - A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.[1512] - Just what you hear, you have, and what's unknown - The same, my lord,[1513] if Tully's, or your own. 240 - All that we feel of it begins and ends - In the small circle of our foes or friends;[1514] - To all beside as much an empty shade[1515] - An Eugene living,[1516] as a Cæsar dead; - Alike, or when or where they shone or shine, 245 - Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine. - A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;[1517] - An honest man's[1518] the noblest work of God. - Fame but from death a villain's name can save,[1519] - As justice tears his body from the grave; 250 - When what t' oblivion better were resigned, - Is hung on high, to poison half mankind.[1520] - All fame is foreign, but of true desert; - Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart: - One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 255 - Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas; - And more true joy Marcellus[1521] exiled feels, - Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.[1522] - -[Sidenote: 7. Superior parts.] - - In parts superior[1523] what advantage lies? - Tell, for you can, what is it to be wise? 260 - 'Tis but to know how little can be known;[1524] - To see all others' faults, and feel our own;[1525] - Condemned in bus'ness or in arts to drudge, - Without a second or without a judge:[1526] - Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land? 265 - All fear, none aid you, and few understand.[1527] - Painful pre-eminence![1528] yourself to view - Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.[1529] - Bring then these blessings to a strict account; - Make fair deductions; see to what they 'mount: 270 - How much of other each is sure to cost; - How each for other oft is wholly lost; - How inconsistent greater goods with these; - How sometimes life is risked, and always ease. - Think, and if still the things thy envy call,[1530] 275 - Say would'st thou be the man to whom they fall? - To sigh for ribbons if thou art so silly, - Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.[1531] - Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life? - Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife.[1532] 280 - If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, - The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind:[1533] - Or ravished with the whistling of a name,[1534] - See Cromwell, damned to everlasting fame![1535] - If all, united, thy ambition call, 285 - From ancient story learn to scorn them all.[1536] - There, in the rich, the honoured, famed, and great, - See the false scale of happiness complete! - In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay, - How happy those to ruin,[1537] these betray! 290 - Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows,[1538] - From dirt and sea-weed as proud Venice rose; - In each how guilt and greatness equal ran,[1539] - And all that raised the hero sunk the man:[1540] - Now Europe's laurel on their brows behold, 295 - But stained with blood, or ill-exchanged for gold: - Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease, - Or infamous for plundered provinces.[1541] - O wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame[1542] - E'er taught to shine,[1543] or sanctified from shame![1544] 300 - What greater bliss attends their close of life? - Some greedy minion,[1545] or imperious wife, - The trophied arches, storied halls[1546] invade, - And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade.[1547] - Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray, 305 - Compute the morn and ev'ning to the day; - The whole amount of that enormous fame, - A tale, that blends their glory with their shame! - Know then this truth, enough for man to know, - -[Sidenote: That virtue only constitutes a happiness whose object is -universal, and whose prospect eternal.] - - "Virtue alone is happiness below."[1548] 310 - The only point where human bliss stands still,[1549] - And tastes the good without the fall to ill; - Where only merit constant pay receives, - Is blessed in what it takes,[1550] and what it gives;[1551] - The joy unequalled, if its end it gain,[1552] 315 - And if it lose, attended with no pain:[1553] - Without satiety, though e'er so blessed, - And but more relished as the more distressed: - The broadest mirth[1554] unfeeling folly wears, - Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears:[1555] 320 - Good, from each object, from each place acquired, - For ever exercised, yet never tired;[1556] - Never elated, while one man's oppressed; - Never dejected, while another's blessed; - And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325 - Since but to wish more virtue is to gain.[1557] - -[Sidenote: That the perfection of happiness consists in a conformity to -the order of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and -hereafter.] - - See the sole bliss heav'n could on all bestow! - Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know; - Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind, - The bad must miss; the good,[1558] untaught, will find; 330 - Slave to no sect,[1559] who takes no private road, - But looks through nature up to nature's God;[1560] - Pursues that chain which links th' immense design, - Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine; - Sees, that no being any bliss can know, 335 - But touches some above and some below; - Learns from this union of the rising whole, - The first, last purpose of the human soul; - And knows where faith, law, morals, all began, - All end, in love of God, and love of man.[1561] 340 - For him alone hope leads from goal to goal, - And opens still, and opens on his soul; - Till lengthened on to faith, and unconfined, - It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind.[1562] - He sees why nature plants in man alone 345 - Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown: - (Nature, whose dictates to no other kind - Are giv'n in vain,[1563] but what they seek they find;)[1564] - Wise is her present: she connects in this - His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss;[1565] 350 - At once his own bright prospect to be blessed, - And strongest motive to assist the rest. - Self-love thus pushed to social, to divine, - Gives thee to make thy neighbour's blessing thine. - Is this too little for the boundless heart? 355 - Extend it, let thy enemies have part: - Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense, - In one close system of benevolence:[1566] - Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree, - And height of bliss but height of charity. 360 - God loves from whole to parts: but human soul - Must rise from individual to the whole. - Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, - As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;[1567] - The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, 365 - Another still, and still another spreads; - Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace; - His country next; and next all human race;[1568] - Wide and more wide th' o'erflowings of the mind - Take ev'ry creature in, of ev'ry kind; 370 - Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blessed, - And heav'n beholds its image in his breast.[1569] - Come then, my friend![1570] my genius! come along, - O master of the poet and the song! - And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends, 375 - To man's low passions, or their glorious ends,[1571] - Teach me, like thee in various nature wise, - To fall with dignity, with temper rise;[1572] - Formed by thy converse, happily to steer - From grave to gay, from lively to severe;[1573] 380 - Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, - Intent to reason, or polite to please.[1574] - Oh! while along the stream of time thy name - Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame; - Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, 385 - Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?[1575] - When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose, - Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,[1576] - Shall then this verse to future age pretend[1577] - Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend? 390 - That, urged by thee, I turned the tuneful art - From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;[1578] - For wit's false mirror held up nature's light; - Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right; - That reason, passion, answer one great aim; 395 - That true self-love and social are the same; - That virtue only makes our bliss below; - And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know.[1579] - - - - - THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. - - DEO OPT. MAX. - - - THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. - - BY THE AUTHOR OF THE "ESSAY ON MAN." - - London: Printed for R. DODSLEY, at Tully's-Head, in Pall-Mall, 1738, - Price Sixpence. - -This pamphlet, which came out in folio, and octavo, and probably in -quarto, was the only separate edition of the Universal Prayer. - - -For closeness and comprehension of thought, and for brevity and energy -of expression, few pieces of poetry in our language can be compared with -this Prayer. I am surprised Johnson should not make any mention of it. -When it was first published many orthodox persons were, I remember, -offended at it, and called it the Deist's Prayer. It were to be wished -the deists would make use of so good a one.--WARTON. - -How extraordinary it is that Warton should be ever accused as if he -wished to decry Pope! No one has borne such willing and ample testimony -to his excellence as a poet, when he truly deserves it. In this place -Warton gives the poetry more praise than it appears entitled to, though -this composition is beautiful, and the two last stanzas sublime; but I -fear, if we were to examine the greater part by the Horatian rule, which -Warton recommends, that is, altering the rhyme and measure,[1580] we -should not find the "disjecti membra poetæ."--BOWLES. - -Warburton says that "some passages in the Essay on Man having been -unjustly suspected of a tendency towards fate and naturalism, the author -composed this prayer as the sum of all, to show that his system was -founded in free-will, and terminated in piety." The prayer was written -shortly before Warburton stretched out his helping hand to Pope, and -therefore before the poet had renounced the system and assistance of -Bolingbroke, in reliance on a more serviceable defender. He did not yet -venture, as Warburton pretends, to abjure "naturalism," but kept to it -in every line, and even in the title of his poem. A "universal" could -not be a christian prayer. He avowedly set aside the distinguishing -characteristics of the gospel, and professed to exclude all language -which could not be adopted by the votaries of "every age and clime," by -"savage" as well as "saint," by the idolaters of "Jupiter" as well as by -the worshippers of "Jehovah." No wonder that many persons in England -should have called the Universal, the Deist's Prayer, or that when -translated into French it should have gone by the title of _Prière du -Déiste_.[1581] Warton "wished the deists would make use of so good a -one." There was nothing in their creed which could require them to use a -worse. - -On the question of "free-will," Pope taught discordant doctrines. In -the Universal Prayer it is said that the "human will is left free," and -in the Essay on Man "moral ill" is ascribed to its "wanderings."[1582] -But in other parts of the Essay we are told that Cæsar's fierce ambition -is inspired by God, and that man is born with a single ruling passion -which, do all he can, engulfs every sentiment of his soul. Neither this, -nor any other discrepancy, is cleared up in the Universal Prayer. The -contradictions are only multiplied. According to the Prayer "nature is -bound fast in fate," and according to the Essay "nature deviates," which -is asserted to account for the "physical ill" that God does "not -send."[1583] The Essay teaches us that the moral law of mankind is -selfishness, and that we are to be virtuous solely because it promotes -our individual happiness. The fourth stanza of the Prayer reverses the -relation in which virtue stands to happiness, and bids us shun evil more -than hell or pain, pursue good more than heaven or felicity. Pope's view -of Providence in the Essay is that God will not interpose to protect his -servants.[1584] The Prayer contains a petition for "bread and peace," -which is either a delusive form or a confession that the Almighty adapts -events to the pious dispositions of particular men. Reason concurs with -revelation in this conclusion. The necessary inference from the -perfection of God's attributes is that his government takes in every -circumstance, and as mind is superior to matter, physical laws cannot be -framed without a special regard to the fervent prayers of faithful -hearts. - -The Universal Prayer failed to fulfil Pope's main design, and increased -the confusion it was meant to remove. His defective material is cast in -an unsuitable form, and, wanting to expound his opinions, he has -introduced comments which are misplaced or offensive in a prayer. No -worshipper of Jehovah would blasphemously address him as "Jehovah or -Jove," and no one, except the persons who preach while they pray, would -introduce such reflections as that "God is paid when man receives," and -that "binding nature fast in fate he had left free the human will." The -faulty conception is not redeemed by the exquisiteness of the poetry. -The composition is tame and prosaic, and never rises above the level of -a second rate hymn. - - - - - THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. - - DEO OPT. MAX. - - Father of all! in ev'ry age, - In ev'ry clime adored, - By saint, by savage, and by sage, - Jehovah, Jove, or Lord![1585] - - Thou Great First Cause, least understood! 5 - Who all my sense confined[1586] - To know but this, that thou art good,[1587] - And that myself am blind; - - Yet gave me in this dark estate, - To see the good from ill: 10 - And binding nature fast in fate, - Left free the human will.[1588] - - What conscience dictates to be done, - Or warns me not to do, - This teach me more than hell to shun, 15 - That, more than heav'n pursue. - - What blessings thy free bounty gives - Let me not cast away; - For God is paid when man receives: - T' enjoy is to obey.[1589] 20 - - Yet not to earth's contracted span - The goodness let me bound, - Or think Thee Lord alone of man, - When thousand worlds are round: - - Let not this weak, unknowing hand 25 - Presume thy bolts to throw, - And deal damnation round the land[1590] - On each I judge thy foe.[1591] - - If I am right, thy grace impart - Still in the right to stay: 30 - If I am wrong, oh teach my heart - To find that better way. - - Save me alike from foolish pride, - Or impious discontent, - At aught thy wisdom has denied, 35 - Or aught thy goodness lent. - - Teach me to feel another's woe, - To hide the fault I see; - That mercy I to others show, - That mercy show to me.[1592] 40 - Mean though I am, not wholly so, - Since quickened by thy breath: - Oh lead me wheresoe'er I go, - Through this day's life or death. - - This day be bread and peace my lot: 45 - All else beneath the sun, - Thou know'st if best bestowed or not, - And let thy will be done. - - To Thee, whose temple is all space, - Whose altar, earth, sea, skies,[1593] 50 - One chorus let all being raise; - All nature's incense rise! - - - - - APPENDIX. - - THE COMMENTARY AND NOTES OF - WILLIAM WARBURTON, D.D. - ON THE - ESSAY ON MAN.[1594] - - - COMMENTARY ON EPISTLE I. - -The opening of this Poem, in fifteen lines, is taken up in giving an -account of the subject; which, agreeably to the title, is an Essay on -Man, or a philosophical inquiry into his nature and end, his passions -and pursuits. The exordium relates to the whole work, of which the Essay -on Man was only the first book. The sixth, seventh, and eighth lines -allude to the subjects of this Essay, viz. the general order and design -of Providence; the constitution of the human mind; the origin, use, and -end of the passions and affections, both selfish and social; and the -wrong pursuits of happiness in power, pleasure, &c. The tenth, eleventh, -twelfth, &c. have relation to the subjects of the books intended to -follow, viz. the characters and capacities of men, and the limits of -science, which once transgressed, ignorance begins, and errors without -end succeed. The thirteenth and fourteenth, to the knowledge of mankind, -and the various manners of the age. - -The poet tells us next, line 16, with what design he wrote, viz. - - To vindicate the ways of God to man. - -The men he writes against, he frequently informs us, are such as weigh -their opinions against Providence, ver. 114, such as cry, if man's -unhappy, God's unjust, ver. 118, or such as fall into the notion, that -vice and virtue there is none at all, Epistle ii. ver. 212. This -occasions the poet to divide his vindication of the ways of God into two -parts; in the first of which he gives direct answers to those objections -which libertine men, on a view of the disorders arising from the -perversity of the human will, have intended against Providence; and in -the second, he obviates all those objections, by a true delineation of -human nature, or a general, but exact, map of man. The first Epistle is -employed in the management of the first part of this dispute; and the -three following, in the discussion of the second. So that this whole -book constitutes a complete Essay on Man, written for the best purpose, -to vindicate the ways of God. - -Ver. 17. _Say first, of God above, or man below, &c._] The poet having -declared his subject; his end of writing; and the quality of his -adversaries, proceeds, from ver. 16 to 23, to instruct us, from whence -he intends to draw his arguments; namely, from the visible things of God -in this system, to demonstrate the invisible things of God, his eternal -power and godhead. And why? Because we can reason only from what we -know; and as we know no more of man than what we see of his station -here, so we know no more of God than what we see of his dispensations in -this station; being able to trace him no further than to the limits of -our own system. This naturally leads the poet to exprobrate the -miserable folly and impiety of pretending to pry into, and call in -question, the profound dispensations of Providence: which reproof -contains, from ver. 22 to 43, a sublime description of the omniscience -of God, and the miserable blindness and presumption of man. - -Ver. 43. _Of systems possible, &c._] So far the poet's modest and sober -introduction: in which he truly observes, that no wisdom less than -omniscient - - Can tell why heav'n has made us as we are. - -Yet though we be unable to discover the particular reasons for this mode -of our existence, we may be assured in general that it is right. For -now, entering upon his argument, he lays down this evident proposition -as the foundation of his thesis, which he reasonably supposes will be -allowed him, That, of all possible systems, infinite wisdom hath formed -the best, ver. 43, 44. From whence he draws two consequences: - -1. The first, from ver. 44 to 51, is, that as the best system cannot but -be such a one as hath no unconnected void; such a one in which there is -a perfect coherence and gradual subordination in all its parts; there -must needs be, in some part or other of the scale of reasoning life, -such a creature as man, which reduces the dispute to this absurd -question, Whether God has placed him wrong? - -Ver. 51. _Respecting man, &c._] It being shown that man, the subject of -this inquiry, has a necessary place in such a system as this is -confessed to be; and it being evident, that the abuse of free-will, from -whence proceeds all moral evil, is the certain effect of such a -creature's existence; the next question will be, how these evils can be -accounted for, consistently with the idea we have of God's moral -attributes? Therefore, - -2. The second consequence he draws from his principle, That of all -possible systems, infinite wisdom has formed the best, is, that whatever -is wrong in our private system, is right as relative to the whole: - - Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, - May, must be right, as relative to all. - -That it may, he proves, from ver. 52 to 61, by showing in what consists -the difference between the systematic works of God, and those of man; -viz. that, in the latter, a thousand movements scarce gain one purpose; -in the former, one movement gains many purposes. So that - - Man, who here seems principal alone, - Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown. - -And acting thus, the appearance of wrong in the partial system may be -right in the universal; for - - 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. - -That it must, the whole body of this epistle is employed to illustrate -and enforce. Thus partial evil is universal good, and thus Providence is -fairly acquitted. - -Ver. 61. _When the proud steed, &c._] From all this the poet draws a -general conclusion, from ver. 60 to 91, that, as what has been said is -sufficient to vindicate the ways of Providence, man should rest -submissive and content, and own everything to be disposed for the best; -that to think of discovering the manner how God conducts this wonderful -scheme to its completion, is as absurd as to imagine that the horse and -ox shall ever be able to comprehend why they undergo such different -treatment in the hand of man: nay, that such knowledge, if communicated, -would be even pernicious, and make us neglect or desert our duty here. -This he illustrates by the case of the lamb, which is happy in not -knowing the fate that attends it from the butcher; and from thence takes -occasion to observe, that God is the equal master of all his creatures, -and provides for the proper happiness of each and every of them. - -Ver. 91. _Hope humbly then; &c._] But now an objector is supposed to put -in, and say, "You tell us, indeed, that all things shall terminate in -good; but we see ourselves surrounded with present evil; yet you forbid -us all inquiry into the manner how we are to be extricated from it, and, -in a word, leave us in a very disconsolate condition." Not so, replies -the poet; you may reasonably, if you please, receive much comfort from -the hope of a happy futurity; a hope implanted in the human breast by -God himself for this very purpose, as an earnest of that bliss, which, -always flying from us here, is reserved for the good man hereafter. The -reason why the poet chooses to insist on this proof of a future state, -in preference to others, is in order to give his system (which is -founded in a sublime and improved Platonism) the greater grace of -uniformity. For hope was Plato's peculiar argument for a future state; -and the words here employed, The soul uneasy, &c. his peculiar -expression. The poet in this place, therefore, says in express terms, -that God gave us hope to supply that future bliss, which he at present -keeps hid from us. In his second Epistle, ver. 274, he goes still -further, and says, this hope quits us not even at death, when every -thing mortal drops from us: - - Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. - -And in the fourth Epistle he shows how the same hope is a proof of a -future state, from the consideration of God's giving his creatures no -appetite in vain, or what he did not intend should be satisfied: - - He sees, why nature plants in man alone - Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown: - Nature, whose dictates to no other kind - Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find. - -It is only for the good man, he tells us, that hope leads from goal to -goal, &c. It would then be strange indeed, if it should prove an -illusion. - -Ver. 99. _Lo! the poor Indian, &c._] The poet, as we said, having bid -man comfort himself with expectation of future happiness; having shown -him that this hope is an earnest of it, and put in one very necessary -caution, - - Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; - -provoked at those miscreants whom he afterwards, Ep. iii. ver. 263, -describes as building hell on spite, and heaven on pride, he upbraids -them, from ver. 98 to 112, with the example of the poor Indian, to whom -also nature hath given this common hope of mankind: but though his -untutored mind had betrayed him into many childish fancies concerning -the nature of that future state, yet he is so far from excluding any -part of his own species (a vice which could proceed only from the pride -of false science), that he humanely, though simply, admits even his -faithful dog to bear him company. - -Ver. 113. _Go, wiser thou! &c._] He proceeds with these accusers of -Providence, from ver. 112 to 122, and shows them, that complaints -against the established order of things begin in the highest absurdity, -from misapplied reason and power; and end in the highest impiety, in an -attempt to degrade the God of heaven, and to assume his place: - - Alone made perfect here, immortal there: - -That is, be made God, who only is perfect, and hath immortality: to -which sense the lines immediately following confine us: - - Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, - Re-judge his justice, be the God of God. - -Ver. 123. _In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; &c._] From -these men, the poet now turns to his friend; and, from ver. 122 to 130, -remarks, that the ground of all this extravagance is pride; which, more -or less, infects the whole reasoning tribe; shows the ill effects of it, -in the case of the fallen angels; and observes, that even wishing to -invert the laws of order, is a lower species of their crime. He then -brings an instance of one of the effects of pride, which is the folly of -thinking everything made solely for the use of man, without the least -regard to any other of the creatures of God. - - Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, &c. - -The ridicule of imagining the greater portions of the material system to -be solely for the use of man, true philosophy has sufficiently exposed: -and common sense, as the poet observes, instructs us to conclude, that -our fellow-creatures, placed by Providence as the joint inhabitants of -this globe, are designed to be joint sharers with us of its blessings: - - Has God, thou fool! worked solely for thy good, - Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food? - Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, - For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry lawn. - -Ver. 141. _But errs not nature from this gracious end,_] The author -comes next to the confirmation of his thesis, That partial moral evil is -universal good; but introduceth it with an allowed instance in the -natural world, to abate our wonder at the phenomenon of moral evil; -which he forms into an argument on a concession of his adversaries. If -we ask you, says he, from ver. 140 to 150, whether nature doth not err -from the gracious purpose of its Creator, when plagues, earthquakes, -and tempests unpeople whole regions at a time; you readily answer, No: -for that God acts by general, and not by particular laws; and that the -course of matter and motion must be necessarily subject to some -irregularities, because nothing is created perfect. I then ask, why you -should expect this perfection in man? If you own that the great end of -God (notwithstanding all this deviation) be general happiness, then it -is nature and not God that deviates; do you expect greater constancy in -man? - - Then nature deviates; and can man do less? - -That is, if nature, or the inanimate system (on which God hath imposed -his laws, which it obeys, as a machine obeys the hand of the workman), -may in course of time deviate from its first direction, as the best -philosophy shows it may; where is the wonder that man, who was created a -free agent, and hath it in his power every moment to transgress the -eternal rule of right, should sometimes go out of order? - -Ver. 151. _As much that end, &c._] Having thus shown how moral evil came -into the world, namely, by man's abuse of his own free-will, our poet -comes to the point, the confirmation of his thesis, by showing how moral -evil promotes good; and employs the same concessions of his adversaries, -concerning natural evil, to illustrate it. - -1. He shows it tends to the good of the whole, or universe, from ver. -151 to 164, and this by analogy. You own, says he, that storms and -tempests, clouds, rain, heat, and variety of seasons, are necessary -(notwithstanding the accidental evil they bring with them) to the health -and plenty of this globe; why then should you suppose there is not the -same use, with regard to the universe, in a Borgia or a Catiline? But -you say you can see the one, and not the other. You say right: one -terminates in this system, the other refers to the whole: which whole -can be comprehended by none but the great Author himself. For, says the -poet in another place, - - Of this frame, the bearings and the ties, - The strong connexions, nice dependencies, - Gradations just, has thy pervading soul - Look'd through? or can a part contain the whole? - -Own therefore, says he, that - - From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs; - Account for moral, as for nat'ral things: - Why charge we heav'n in those, in these acquit? - In both, to reason right, is to submit. - -Ver. 165. _Better for us, &c._] But, secondly, to strengthen the -foregoing analogical argument, and to make the wisdom and goodness of -God still more apparent, he observes, from ver. 165 to 172, that moral -evil is not only productive of good to the whole, but is even productive -of good in our own system. It might, says he, perhaps appear better to -us, that there were nothing in this world but peace and virtue; - - That never air or ocean felt the wind; - That never passion discomposed the mind. - -But then consider, that as our material system is supported by the -strife of its elementary particles, so is our intellectual system, by -the conflict of our passions, which are the elements of human action. In -a word, as without the benefit of tempestuous winds, both air and ocean -would stagnate, corrupt, and spread universal contagion throughout all -the ranks of animals that inhabit, or are supported by, them; so, -without the benefit of the passions, such virtue as was merely the -effect of the absence of those passions, would be a lifeless calm, a -stoical apathy. - - Contracted all, retiring to the breast: - But health of mind is exercise, not rest. - -Therefore, instead of regarding the conflicts of the elements, and the -passions of the mind, as disorders, you ought to consider them as part -of the general order of Providence: and that they are so, appears from -their always preserving the same unvaried course, throughout all ages, -from the creation to the present time: - - The gen'ral order, since the whole began, - Is kept in nature, and is kept in man. - -We see, therefore, it would be doing great injustice to our author to -suspect that he intended by this to give any encouragement to vice. His -system, as all his Ethic Epistles show, is this: That the passions, for -the reasons given above, are necessary to the support of virtue: that, -indeed, the passions in excess produce vice, which is, in its own -nature, the greatest of all evils, and comes into the world from the -abuse of man's free-will; but that God, in his infinite wisdom and -goodness, deviously turns the natural bias of its malignity to the -advancement of human happiness, and makes it productive of general good: - - Th' eternal art educes good from all. - -This, set against what we have observed of the poet's doctrine of a -future state, will furnish us with an instance of his steering (as he -well expresses it in his preface) "between doctrines seemingly opposite: -if his Essay has any merit, he thinks it is in this." And doubtless it -is uncommon merit to reject the visions and absurdities of every system, -and take in only what is rational and real. The Characteristics and the -Fable of the Bees are two seemingly inconsistent systems; the folly of -the first is in giving a scheme of virtue without religion; and the -knavery of the latter, in giving a scheme of religion without virtue. -These our poet leaves to any that will take them up; but agrees, -however, so far with the first, that "virtue would be worth having, -though itself was its only reward;" and so far with the latter, that -"God makes evil, against its nature, productive of good." - -Ver. 173. _What would this man? &c._] Having thus justified Providence -in its permission of partial moral evil, our author employs the -remaining part of his Epistle in vindicating it from the imputation of -certain supposed natural evils. For now he shows, from ver. 172 to 207, -that though the complaint of his adversaries against Providence be on -pretence of real moral evils; yet, at bottom, it all proceeds from their -impatience under imaginary natural ones, the issue of a depraved -appetite for visionary advantages, which if man had, they would be -either useless or pernicious to him, as repugnant to his state, or -unsuitable to his condition. Though God, says he, hath so bountifully -bestowed on man faculties little less than angelic, yet he ungratefully -grasps at higher; and then, extravagant in another extreme, with a -passion as ridiculous as that is impious, envies, as what would be -advantages to himself, even the peculiar accommodations of brutes. But -here his own false principles expose the folly of his falser appetites. -He supposes them all made for his use: now what use could he have of -them, when he had robbed them of all their qualities? Qualities -distributed with the highest wisdom, as they are divided at present; but -which, if bestowed according to the froward humour of these childish -complainers, would be everywhere found to be either wanting or -superfluous. But even though endowed with these brutal qualities, man -would not only be no gainer, but a considerable loser; as the poet shows -in explaining the consequences which would follow from his having his -sensations in that exquisite degree in which this or the other animal is -observed to possess them. - -Ver. 207. _Far as creation's ample range extends,_] He tells us next, -from ver. 206 to 233, that the complying with such extravagant desires -would not only be useless and pernicious to man, but would be breaking -into the order, and deforming the beauty of God's creation, in which -this animal is subject to that, and every one to man, who, by his -reason, enjoys the sum of all their powers. - -Ver. 233. _See, through this air, &c._] And further, from ver. 232 to -267, that this breaking the order of things, which, as a link or chain, -connects all beings, from the highest to the lowest, would unavoidably -be attended with the destruction of the universe; for that the several -parts of it must at least compose as entire and harmonious a whole as -the parts of a human body, can be doubted of by no one. Yet we see what -confusion it would make upon our frame, if the members were set upon -invading each other's office: - - What if the foot, &c. - -Who will not acknowledge, therefore, that a connexion in the disposition -of things, so harmonious as here described, is transcendently beautiful? -But the fatalists suppose such an one. What then? Is the First Free -Agent, the great Cause of all things, debarred a contrivance infinitely -exquisite, because some men, to set up their idol, fate, absurdly -represent it as presiding over such a system? - -Ver. 267. _All are but parts of one stupendous whole,_] Our author -having thus given a representation of God's work, as one entire whole, -where all the parts have a necessary dependence on, and relation to each -other, and where each particular part works and concurs to the -perfection of the whole, as such a system transcends vulgar ideas, to -reconcile it to common conceptions he shows, from ver. 266 to 281, that -God is equally and intimately present to every sort of substance, to -every particle of matter, and in every instant of being; which eases the -labouring imagination, and makes us expect no less from such a presence, -than such a dispensation. - -Ver. 281. _Cease then, nor order imperfection name:_] And now the poet, -as he had promised, having vindicated the ways of God to man, concludes, -from ver. 280 to the end, that, from what had been said, it appears, -that the very things we blame contribute to our happiness, either as -unrelated particulars, or at least as parts of the universal system; -that our state of ignorance was allotted to us out of compassion; that -yet we have as much knowledge as is sufficient to show us, that we are, -and always shall be, as blessed as we can bear; for that nature is -neither a Stratonic chain of blind causes and effects, - - (All nature is but art, unknown to thee,) - -nor yet the fortuitous result of Epicurean atoms, - - (All chance, direction, which thou canst not see): - -as those two speeches of atheism supposed it; but the wonderful art and -contrivance, unknown indeed to man, of an all-powerful, all-wise, -all-good, and free Being. And therefore we may be assured, that the -arguments brought above, to prove partial moral evil productive of -universal good, are conclusive; from whence one certain truth results, -in spite of all the pride and cavils of vain reason, That whatever is, -is right. - -That the reader may see in one view the exactness of the method, as well -as force of the argument, I shall here draw up a short synopsis of this -Epistle. The poet begins by telling us, his subject is an Essay on Man: -that his end of writing is to vindicate Providence: that he intends to -derive his arguments from the visible things of God seen in his system: -lays down this proposition, that of all possible systems, infinite -wisdom has formed the best: draws from thence two consequences; 1. That -there must needs be somewhere such a creature as man; 2. That the moral -evil, which he is the author of, is productive of the good of the whole. -This is his general thesis; from whence he forms this conclusion, that -man should rest submissive and content, and make the hopes of futurity -his comfort; but not suffer this to be the occasion of pride, which is -the cause of all his impious complaints. He proceeds to confirm his -thesis. Previously endeavours to abate our wonder at the phenomenon of -moral evil; shows, first, its use to the perfection of the universe, by -analogy, from the use of physical evil in this particular system. -Secondly, its use in this system, where it is turned, providentially, -from its natural bias, to promote virtue. Then goes on to vindicate -Providence from the imputation of certain supposed natural evils, as he -had before justified it for the permission of real moral evil, in -showing that, though the atheist's complaint against Providence be on -pretence of real moral evil, yet the true cause is his impatience under -imaginary natural evil; the issue of a depraved appetite for fantastical -advantages, which, if obtained, would be useless or hurtful to man, and -deforming of, and destructive to, the universe, as breaking into that -order by which it is supported. He describes that order, harmony, and -close connexion of the parts; and by showing the intimate presence of -God to his whole creation, gives a reason for an universe so amazingly -beautiful and perfect. From all this he deduces his general conclusion, -That nature being neither a blind chain of causes and effects, nor yet -the fortuitous result of wandering atoms, but the wonderful art and -direction of an all-wise, all-good, and free Being, Whatever is, is -right, with regard to the disposition of God, and its ultimate tendency; -which, once granted, all complaints against Providence are at an end. - - - COMMENTARY ON EPISTLE II. - -Ver. 2. _The proper study, &c._] The poet having shown, in the first -Epistle, that the ways of God are too high for our comprehension, -rightly draws this conclusion, and methodically makes it the subject of -his introduction to the second, which treats of the nature of man. But -here presently the accusers of Providence would be apt to object, and -say, "Admit that we ran into an excess, when we pretended to censure or -penetrate the designs of Providence, a matter, perhaps, too high for us, -yet have not you gone as far into the opposite extreme, while you only -send us to the knowledge of ourselves? You must mock us when you talk of -this as a study; for who can doubt but we are intimately acquainted with -our own nature? The proper conclusion, therefore, from your proof of our -inability to comprehend the ways of God, is, that we should turn -ourselves to the study of the frame of general nature." Thus, I say, -would they be apt to object; for, of all men, those who call themselves -freethinkers are most given up to pride; especially to that kind which -consists in a boasted knowledge of man, the effects of which pride are -so well exposed in the first Epistle. The poet, therefore, to convince -them that this study is less easy than they imagine, replies, from ver. -2 to 19, to the first part of the objection, by describing the dark and -feeble state of the human understanding, with regard to the knowledge of -ourselves. And further to strengthen this argument, he shows, in answer -to the second part of the objection, from ver. 18 to 31, that the -highest advances in natural knowledge may be easily acquired, and yet -we, all the while, continue very ignorant of ourselves. For that neither -the clearest science, which results from the Newtonian philosophy, nor -the most sublime, which is taught by the Platonic, will at all assist us -in this self-study; nay, what is more, that religion itself, when grown -fanatical and enthusiastic, will be equally useless, though pure and -sober religion will best instruct us in man's nature; that knowledge -being necessary to religion, whose subject is man, considered in all his -relations, and consequently, whose object is God. - -Ver. 31. _Superior beings, &c._] To give this second argument its full -force, he illustrates it, from ver. 30 to 43, by the noblest example -that ever was in science, the incomparable Newton, who, although he -penetrated so far beyond others into the works of God, yet could go no -further in the knowledge of his own nature than the generality of his -fellows. Of which the poet assigns this very just and adequate -reason,--in all other sciences the understanding is unchecked and -uncontrolled by any opposite principle; but in the science of man, the -passions overturn as fast as reason can build up. - -Ver. 43. _Trace science then, &c._] The conclusion, therefore, from the -whole is, from ver. 42 to 53, that as on the one hand, we should persist -in the study of nature, so, on the other, in order to arrive at science, -we should proceed in the simplicity of truth; and then the produce, -though small, will yet be real. - -Ver. 53. _Two principles, &c._] The poet having shown the difficulty -which attends the study of man, proceeds to remove it, by laying before -us the elements or true principles of this science, in an account of the -origin, use, and end of the passions; which, in my opinion, contains the -truest, clearest, shortest, and consequently the best system of ethics -that is anywhere to be met with. He begins, from ver. 52 to 59, with -pointing out the two grand principles in human nature, self-love and -reason. Describes their general nature: the first sets man upon acting, -the other regulates his action. However, these principles are natural, -not moral; and, therefore, in themselves, neither good nor evil, but so -only as they are directed. This observation is made with great judgment, -in opposition to the desperate folly of those fanatics, who, as the -ascetic, vainly pretend to eradicate self-love; or, as the mystic, are -more successful in stifling reason; and both, on the absurd fancy of -their being moral, not natural, principles. - -Ver. 59. _Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul;_] The poet -proceeds, from ver. 58 to 67, more minutely to mark out the distinct -offices of these two principles, which offices he had before assigned -only in general; and here he shows their necessity; for without -self-love, as the spring, man would be unactive; and without reason as -the balance, active to no purpose. - -Ver. 67. _Most strength the moving principle requires:_] Having thus -explained the ends and offices of each principle, he goes on, from ver. -66 to 79, to speak of their qualities; and shows how they are fitted to -discharge those functions, and answer their respective intentions. The -business of self-love being to excite to action, it is quick and -impetuous; and moving instinctively, has, like attraction, its force -prodigiously increased as the object approaches, and proportionably -lessened as it recedes. On the contrary, reason, like the Author of -attraction, is always calm and sedate, and equally preserves itself -whether the object be near or far off. Hence the moving principle is -made more strong, though the restraining be more quick-sighted. The -consequence he draws from this is, that if we would not be carried away -to our destruction, we must always keep reason upon guard. - -Ver. 79. _Attention, &c._] But it would be objected, that if this -account be true, human life would be most miserable; and even in the -wisest, a perpetual conflict between reason and the passions. To this, -therefore, the poet replies, from ver. 78 to 81, first, that Providence -has so graciously contrived, that even in the voluntary exercise of -reason, as in the mechanic motion of a limb, habit makes what was at -first done with pain, easy and natural. And secondly, that the -experience gained by the long exercise of reason, goes a great way -towards eluding the force of self-love. Now the attending to reason, as -here recommended, will gain us this habit and experience. Hence it -appears, that our station, in which reason is to be kept constantly upon -guard, is not so uneasy a one as may be at first imagined. - -Ver. 81. _Let subtle schoolmen, &c._] From this description of self-love -and reason, it follows, as the poet observes, from ver. 80 to 93, that -both conspire to one end, namely, human happiness, though they be not -equally expert in the choice of the means; the difference being this, -that the first hastily seizes every thing which has the appearance of -good; the other weighs and examines whether it be indeed what it -appears. This shows, as he next observes, the folly of the schoolmen, -who consider them as two opposite principles, the one good and the other -evil. The observation is seasonable and judicious; for this dangerous -school-opinion gives great support to the Manichean or Zoroastrian -error, the confutation of which was one of the author's chief ends in -writing. For if there be two principles in man, a good and evil, it is -natural to think him the joint product of the two Manichean Deities (the -first of which contributed to his reason, the other to his passions), -rather than the creature of one Individual Cause. This was Plutarch's -opinion, and as we may see in him, of some of the more ancient -theistical philosophers. It was of importance, therefore, to reprobate -and subvert a notion that served to the support of so dangerous an -error; and this the poet hath done with more force and clearness than is -often to be found in whole volumes written against that heretical -opinion. - -Ver. 93. _Modes of self-love, &c._] Having given this account of the -nature of self-love in general, he comes now to anatomize it, in a -discourse on the passions, which he aptly names the modes of self-love. -The object of all these, he shows, from ver. 92 to 101, is good; and -when under the guidance of reason, real good, either of ourselves or of -another; for some goods, not being capable of division, or -communication, and reason at the same time directing us to provide for -ourselves, we therefore, in pursuit of these objects, sometimes aim at -our own good, sometimes at the good of others. When fairly aiming at -our own, the quality is called prudence; when at another's, virtue. -Hence as he shows, from ver. 100 to 105, appears the folly of the -stoics, who would eradicate the passions, things so necessary both to -the good of the individual and of the kind. Which preposterous method of -promoting virtue he therefore very reasonably reproves. - -Ver. 105. _The rising tempest puts in act the soul,_] But as it was from -observation of the evils occasioned by the passions, that the stoics -thus extravagantly projected their extirpation, the poet recurs, from -ver. 104 to 111, to his grand principle, so often before, and to so good -purpose, insisted on, that partial ill is universal good; and shows, -that though the tempest of the passions, like that of the air, may tear -and ravage some few parts of nature in its passage, yet the salutary -agitation produced by it preserves the whole in life and vigour. This is -his first argument against the stoics, which he illustrates by a very -beautiful similitude, on a hint taken from Scripture: - - Nor God alone in the still calm we find; - He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. - -Ver. 111. _Passions, like elements, &c._] His second argument against -the stoics, from ver. 110 to 133, is, that passions go to the -composition of a moral character, just as elementary particles go to the -composition of an organized body. Therefore, for man to project the -destruction of what composes his very being is the height of -extravagance. It is true, he tells us, that these passions, which, in -their natural state, like elements, are in perpetual jar, must be -tempered, softened, and united, in order to perfect the work of the -great plastic Artist; who, in this office, employs human reason; whose -business it is to follow the road of nature, and to observe the dictates -of the Deity; follow her and God. The use and importance of this precept -is evident: for in doing the first, she will discover the absurdity of -attempting to eradicate the passions; in doing the second, she will -learn how to make them subservient to the interests of virtue. - -Ver. 123. _Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;_] His third argument -against the stoics, from ver. 122 to 127, is, that the passions are a -continual spur to the pursuit of happiness; which, without these -powerful inciters, we should neglect, and sink into a senseless -indolence. Now happiness is the end of our creation; and this -excitement, the means to that end; therefore, these movers, the -passions, are the instruments of God, which he hath put into the hands -of reason to work withal. - -Ver. 127. _All spread their charms, &c._] The poet now proceeds in his -subject; and this last observation leads him naturally to the discussion -of his next principle. He shows then, that though all the passions have -their turn in swaying the determinations of the mind, yet every man hath -one master passion, that at length stifles or absorbs all the rest. The -fact he illustrates at large in his Epistle to Lord Cobham. Here, from -ver. 126 to 149, he giveth us the cause of it. Those pleasures or goods, -which are the objects of the passions, affect the mind by striking on -the senses; but as, through the formation of the organs of our frame, -every man hath some one sense stronger and more acute than others, the -object which strikes the stronger or acuter sense, whatever it be, will -be the object most desired; and consequently, the pursuit of that will -be the ruling passion: That the difference of force in this ruling -passion shall at first, perhaps, be very small, or even imperceptible; -but nature, habit, imagination, wit, nay, even reason itself, shall -assist its growth, till it hath at length drawn and converted every -other into itself. All which is delivered in a strain of poetry so -wonderfully sublime, as suspends, for a while, the ruling passion in -every reader, and engrosses his whole admiration. This naturally leads -the poet to lament the weakness and insufficiency of human reason, from -ver. 148 to 161, and the purpose he had in so doing, was plainly to -intimate the necessity of a more perfect dispensation to mankind. - -Ver. 161. _Yes, nature's road, &c._] Now as it appears from the account -here given of the ruling passion and its cause, which results from the -structure of the organs, that it is the road of nature, the poet shows, -from ver. 160 to 167, that this road is to be followed. So that the -office of reason is not to direct us what passion to exercise, but to -assist us in rectifying, and keeping within due bounds, that which -nature hath so strongly impressed; because - - A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends, - And sev'ral men impels to several ends. - -Ver. 167. _Like varying winds, &c._] The poet, having proved that the -ruling passion (since nature hath given it us) is not to be overthrown, -but rectified; the next inquiry will be, of what use the ruling passion -is; for an use it must have, if reason be to treat it thus mildly. This -use he shows us, from ver. 166 to 197, is twofold, natural and moral. - -1. Its natural use is to conduct men steadily to one certain end, who -would otherwise be eternally fluctuating between the equal violence of -various and discordant passions, driving them up and down at random; -and, by that means, to enable them to promote the good of society, by -making each a contributor to the common stock: - - Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please, &c. - -2. Its moral use is to ingraft our ruling virtue upon it; and by that -means to enable us to promote our own good, by turning the exorbitancy -of the ruling passion into its neighbouring virtue: - - See anger, zeal and fortitude supply, &c. - -The wisdom of the Divine Artist is, as the poet finely observes, very -illustrious in this contrivance; for the mind and body having now one -common interest, the efforts of virtue will have their force infinitely -augmented: - - 'Tis thus the mercury, &c. - -Ver. 197. _Reason the bias, &c._] But lest it should be objected that -this account favours the doctrine of necessity, and would insinuate that -men are only acted upon, in the production of good out of evil; the poet -teacheth, from ver. 196 to 203, that man is a free agent, and hath it in -his power to turn the natural passions into virtues or into vices, -properly so called: - - Reason the bias turns to good from ill, - And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will. - -Secondly, if it should be objected, that though he doth, indeed, tell us -some actions are beneficial and some hurtful, yet he could not call -those virtuous, nor these vicious, because, as he hath described things, -the motive appears to be only the gratification of some passion, give me -leave to answer for him, that this would be mistaking the argument, -which, to ver. 249 of this epistle, considers the passions only with -regard to society, that is, with regard to their effects rather than -their motives: That, however, it is his design to teach that actions are -properly virtuous and vicious; and though it be difficult to distinguish -genuine virtue from spurious, they having both the same appearance, and -both the same public effects, yet that they may be disentangled. If it -be asked, by what means? he replies, from ver. 202 to 205, by -conscience;--the God within the mind;--and this is to the purpose; for -it is a man's own concern, and no one's else, to know whether his virtue -be pure and solid; for what is it to others, whether this virtue (while, -as to them, the effect of it is the same) be real or imaginary? - -Ver. 205. _Extremes in nature equal ends produce, &c._] But still it -will be said, Why all this difficulty to distinguish true virtue from -false? The poet shows why, from ver. 204 to 211, that though indeed vice -and virtue so invade each other's bounds, that sometimes we can scarce -tell where one ends and the other begins, yet great purposes are served -thereby, no less than the perfecting the constitution of the whole, as -lights and shades, which run into one another insensibly in a -well-wrought picture, make the harmony and spirit of the composition. -But on this account to say there is neither vice nor virtue, the poet -shows, from ver. 211 to 217, would be just as wise as to say, there is -neither black nor white, because the shade of that, and the light of -this, often run into one another, and are mutually lost: - - Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; - 'Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain. - -This is an error of speculation, which leads men so foolishly to -conclude, that there is neither vice nor virtue. - -Ver. 217. _Vice is a monster, &c._] There is another error, an error of -practice, which hath more general and hurtful effects; and is next -considered, from ver. 216 to 221. It is this, that though, at the first -aspect, vice be so horrible as to fright the beholder, yet, when by -habit we are once grown familiar with her, we first suffer, and in time -begin to lose the memory of her nature, which necessarily implies an -equal ignorance in the nature of virtue. Hence men conclude that there -is neither one nor the other. - -Ver. 221. _But where th' extreme of vice, &c._] But it is not only that -extreme of vice which stands next to virtue, which betrays us into these -mistakes. We are deceived too, as he shows us, from ver. 220 to 231, by -our observations concerning the other extreme. For, from the extreme of -vice being unsettled, men conclude that vice itself is only nominal, at -least rather comparative than real. - -Ver. 231. _Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be,_] There is yet a -third cause of this error of no vice, no virtue, composed of the other -two, _i.e._ partly speculative, and partly practical. And this also the -poet considers, from ver. 230 to 239, showing it ariseth from the -imperfection of the best characters, and the inequality of all; whence -it happens that no man is extremely virtuous or vicious, nor extremely -constant in the pursuit of either. Why it so happens, the poet informs -us, who with admirable sagacity assigns the cause in this line: - - For, vice or virtue, self directs it still. - -An adherence or regard to what is, in the sense of the world, a man's -own interest, making an extreme, in either, almost impossible. Its -effect in keeping a good man from the extreme of virtue needs no -explanation; and, in an ill man, self-interest showing him the necessity -of some kind of reputation, the procuring and preserving that will -necessarily keep him from the extreme of vice. - -Ver. 239. _That counterworks each folly and caprice;_] The mention of -this principle, that self directs vice and virtue, and its consequence, -which is, that - - Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal, - -leads the author to observe, - - That heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole. - -And this brings him naturally round again to his main subject, namely, -God's producing good out of ill, which he prosecutes from ver. 238 to -249. - -Ver. 249. _Heav'n forming each on other to depend,_] I. Hitherto the -poet hath been employed in discoursing of the use of the passions, with -regard to society at large; and in freeing his doctrine from objections. -This is the first general division of the subject of this epistle. - -II. He comes now to show, from ver. 248 to 261, the use of these -passions, with regard to the more confined circle of our friends, -relations, and acquaintance; and this is the second general division. - -Ver. 261. _Whate'er the passion, &c._] III. The poet having thus shown -the use of the passions in society and in domestic life, comes, in the -last place, from ver. 260 to the end, to show their use to the -individual, even in their illusions; the imaginary happiness they -present, helping to make the real miseries of life less insupportable: -and this is his third general division: - - Opinion gilds with varying rays - Those painted clouds that beautify our days, &c. - One prospect lost, another still we gain; - And not a vanity is giv'n in vain. - -Which must needs vastly raise our idea of God's goodness; who hath not -only provided more than a counterbalance of real happiness to human -miseries, but hath even, in his infinite compassion, bestowed on those -who were so foolish as not to have made this provision, an imaginary -happiness, that they may not be quite overborne with the load of human -miseries. This is the poet's great and noble thought, as strong and -solid as it is new and ingenious. It teaches, that these illusions are -the faults and follies of men, which they wilfully fall into, and -thereby deprive themselves of much happiness, and expose themselves to -equal misery; but that still, God, according to his universal way of -working, graciously turns these faults and follies so far to the -advantage of his miserable creatures, as to become, for a time, the -solace and support of their distresses: - - Though man's a fool, yet God is wise. - - - COMMENTARY ON EPISTLE III. - -We are now come to the third Epistle of the Essay on Man. It having been -shown, in explaining the origin, use, and end of the passions, in the -second Epistle, that man hath social as well as selfish passions, that -doctrine naturally introduceth the third, which treats of man as a -social animal, and connects it with the second, which considered him as -an individual. And as the conclusion from the subject of the first -Epistle made the introduction to the second, so here again, the -conclusion of the second - - Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine, - The scale to measure others' wants by thine, - -maketh the introduction to the third: - - Here then we rest: 'The Universal Cause - Acts to one end, but acts by various laws.' - -The reason of variety in those laws, which tend to one and the same end, -the good of the whole generally, is, because the good of the individual -is likewise to be provided for; both which together make up the good of -the whole universally. And this is the cause, as the poet says -elsewhere, that - - Each individual seeks a several goal. - -But to prevent our resting there, God hath made each need the assistance -of another; and so - - On mutual wants built mutual happiness. - -It was necessary to explain the two first lines, the better to see the -pertinency and force of what followeth, from ver. 2 to 7, where the poet -warns such to take notice of this truth, whose circumstances placing -them in an imaginary station of independence, and inducing a real habit -of insensibility to mutual wants (from which wants general happiness -results), make them but too apt to overlook the true system of things; -viz. the men in full health and opulence. This caution was necessary -with respect to society; but still more necessary with respect to -religion. Therefore he especially recommends the memory of it as well to -the clergy as laity when they preach or pray; because the preacher who -doth not consider the First Cause under this view, as a Being consulting -the good of the whole, must needs give a very unworthy idea of him; and -the supplicant, who prayeth as one not related to a whole, or -indifferent to the happiness of it, will not only pray in vain, but -offend his Maker by neglecting the interest of his dispensation. - -Ver. 7. _Look round our world; &c._] He now introduceth his system of -human sociability, ver. 7, 8, by showing it to be the dictate of the -Creator; and that man, in this, did but follow the example of general -nature, which is united in one close system of benevolence. - -Ver. 9. _See plastic nature working to this end_,] This he proveth, -first, from ver. 8 to 13, on the noble theory of attraction, from the -economy of the material world, where there is a general conspiracy in -all the particles of matter to work for one end, the use, beauty, and -harmony of the whole mass. - -Ver. 13. _See matter next, &c._] The second argument, from ver. 12 to -27, is taken from the vegetable and animal world, whose parts serve -mutually for the production, support, and sustentation of each other. -But the observation, that God - - Connects each being, greatest with the least; - Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast; - All served, all serving, - -awaking again the pride of his impious adversaries, who cannot bear that -man should be thought to be serving as well as served, he takes this -occasion again to humble them, from ver. 26 to 49, by the same kind of -argument he had so successfully employed in the first Epistle, and which -the comment on that epistle hath considered at large. - -Ver. 49. _Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control;_] However, his -adversaries, loth to give up the question, will reason upon the matter; -and we are now to suppose them objecting against Providence in this -manner. "We grant," they say, "that in the irrational, as in the -inanimate creation, all is served, and all is serving: but with regard -to man, the case is different: he standeth single: for his reason hath -endowed him both with power and address sufficient to make all things -serve him; and his self-love, of which you have so largely provided for -him, will indispose him, in his turn, to serve any: therefore your -theory is imperfect." Not so, replies the poet, from ver. 48 to 79. I -grant that man, indeed, affects to be the wit and tyrant of the whole, -and would fain shake off - - that chain of love - Combining all below and all above: - -But nature, even by the very gift of reason, checks this tyrant. For -reason, endowing man with the ability of setting together the memory of -the past with his conjectures about the future, and past misfortunes -making him apprehensive of more to come, this disposeth him to pity and -relieve others in a state of suffering. And the passion growing -habitual, naturally extendeth its effects to all that have a sense of -suffering. Now as brutes have neither man's reason, nor his inordinate -self-love, to draw them from the system of beneficence, so they wanted -not, and therefore have not, this human sympathy of another's misery, by -which passion, we see, those qualities, in man, balance one another, and -so retain him in that orderly connexion, in which Providence hath placed -its whole creation. But this is not all: man's interest and amusement, -his vanity and luxury, tie him still closer to the system of -beneficence, by obliging him to provide for the support of other -animals, and though it be, for the most part, only to devour them with -the greater gust, yet this does not abate the proper happiness of the -animals so preserved, to whom Providence hath not imparted the useless -knowledge of their end. From all which it appears, that the theory is -yet uniform and perfect. - -Ver. 79. _Whether with reason, &c._] But even to this as a caviller -would still object, we must suppose he does so. "Admit," says he, "that -nature hath endowed all animals, whether human or brutal, with such -faculties as admirably fit them to promote the general good, yet, in its -care for this, hath not nature neglected to provide for the private good -of the individual? We have cause to think she hath; and we suppose, it -was on exclusive consideration, that she kept back from brutes the gift -of reason (so necessary a means of private happiness), because reason, -as we find in the case of man, where there is occasion for all the -complicated contrivance you have described above, to make the effects of -his passions counterwork the immediate powers of his reason, in order to -keep him subservient to the general system; reason, we say, naturally -tendeth to draw beings into a private independent system." This the poet -answers, by showing, from ver. 78 to 109, that the happiness of animal -and that of human life are widely different: the happiness of human life -consisting in the improvement of the mind, can be procured by reason -only; but the happiness of animal life consisting in the gratifications -of sense, is best promoted by instinct. And, with regard to the regular -and constant operation of each, in that, instinct hath plainly the -advantage; for here God directs immediately; there only mediately -through man. - -Ver. 109. _God, in the nature of each being, &c._] The author now cometh -to the main subject of his epistle, the proof of man's sociability, from -the two general societies composed by him; the natural, subject to -paternal authority; and the civil, subject to that of a magistrate. This -he hath the address to introduce, from what had preceded, in so easy and -natural a manner, as showeth him to have the art of giving all the grace -to the dryness and severity of method, as well as wit to the strength -and depth of reason. The philosophic nature of his work requiring he -should show by what reason those societies were introduced, this affords -him an opportunity of sliding gracefully and easily from the -preliminaries into the main subject; and so of giving his work that -perfection of method, which we find only in the compositions of great -writers. For having just before, though to a different purpose, -described the power of bestial instinct to attain the happiness of the -individual, he goeth on, in speaking of instinct as it is serviceable -both to that, and to the kind, from ver. 108 to 147, to illustrate the -original of society. He showeth, that though, as he had before observed, -God had founded the proper bliss of each creature in the nature of its -own existence, yet these not being independent individuals, but parts of -a whole, God, to bless that whole, built mutual happiness on mutual -wants. Now, for the supply of mutual wants, creatures must necessarily -come together, which is the first ground of society amongst men. He then -proceeds to that called natural, subject to paternal authority, and -arising from the union of the two sexes; describes the imperfect image -of it in brutes; then explains it at large in all its causes and -effects. And lastly shows, that, as in fact, like mere animal society, -it is founded and preserved by mutual wants, the supplial of which -causeth mutual happiness, so it is likewise in right, as a rational -society, by equity, gratitude, and the observance of the relation of -things in general. - -Ver. 147. _Nor think in nature's state they blindly trod;_] But the -atheist and Hobbist, against whom Mr. Pope argueth, deny the principle -of right, or of natural justice, before the invention of civil compact, -which, they say, gave being to it; and accordingly have had the -effrontery publicly to declare, that a state of nature was a state of -war. This quite subverteth the poet's natural society; therefore, after -this account of that state, he proceedeth to support the reality of it, -by overthrowing the opponent principle of no natural justice; which he -doth, from ver. 146 to 169, by showing in a fine description of the -state of innocence, as represented in Scripture, that a state of nature -was so far from being without natural justice, that it was, at first, -the reign of God, where right and truth universally prevailed. - -Ver. 169. _See him from nature rising slow to art!_] Strict method (in -which, by this time, the reader finds the poet to be more conversant, -than some were aware of) leads him next to speak of that society, which -succeeded the natural, namely, the civil. He first explains, from ver. -169 to 199, the intermediate means which led mankind from natural to -civil society. These were the invention and improvement of arts. For -while men lived in a mere state of nature, there was no need of any -other government than the paternal; but when arts were found out and -improved, then that more perfect form, under the direction of a -magistrate, became necessary. And for these reasons; first, to bring -those arts, already found, to perfection; and, secondly, to secure the -product of them to their rightful proprietors. The poet, therefore, -comes now, as we say, to the invention of arts; but being always intent -on the great end for which he wrote his Essay, namely, to mortify that -pride which occasions all the impious complaints against Providence, he -speaks of these inventions as only lessons learned of mere animals -guided by instinct, and thus, at the same time, gives a new instance of -the wonderful Providence of God, who hath continued to teach mankind in -a way, not only proper to humble human pride, but to raise our idea of -divine wisdom to the highest pitch. This he does in a prosopopoeia the -most sublime that ever entered into the human imagination: - - Thus then to man the voice of nature spake: - "Go, from the creatures thy instructions take, &c., - And for those arts mere instinct could afford, - Be crowned as monarchs, or as Gods adored." - -The delicacy of the poet's address in the first part of the last line is -very remarkable. In this paragraph he hath given an account of those -intermediate means which led men from natural to civil society, that is -to say, the invention and improvement of arts. Now here, on his -conclusion of this account, and on his entry upon the description of -civil society itself, he connects the two parts the most gracefully that -can be conceived, by this true historical circumstance, that it was the -invention of those arts which raised to the magistracy, in this new -society formed for the perfecting of them. - -Ver. 199. _Great nature spoke;_] After all this necessary preparation, -the poet shows, from ver. 198 to 209, how civil society followed, and -the advantages it produced. - -Ver. 209. _Thus states were formed;_] Having thus explained the original -of civil society, he shows us next, from ver. 208 to 215, that to this -society a civil magistrate, properly so called, did belong. And this in -confutation of that idle hypothesis, which pretends that God conferred -the regal title on the fathers of families; from whence men, when they -had instituted society, were to fetch their governors. On the contrary, -our author shows that a king was unknown till common interest, which led -men to institute civil government, led them at the same time to -institute a governor. However, that it is true that the same wisdom or -valour, which gained regal obedience from sons to the sire, procured -kings a paternal authority, and made them considered as fathers of their -people, which probably was the original (and, while mistaken, continues -to be the chief support) of that slavish error, antiquity representing -its earliest monarchs under the idea of a common father, [Greek: patêr -andrôn]. Afterwards, indeed, they became a kind of foster-fathers, -[Greek: poimena laôn], Homer calls one of them, till at length they -began to devour that flock they had been so long accustomed to shear; -and, as Plutarch says of Cecrops, [Greek: ek chrêstou basileôs agrion -kai drakontôdê genomenon turannon]. - -Ver. 215. _Till then, by nature crowned, &c._] The poet now returns, at -ver. 215 to 241, to what he had left unfinished in his description of -natural society. This, which appears irregular, is, indeed, a fine -instance of his thorough knowledge of method. I will explain it. This -third epistle, we see, considers man with respect to society; the -second, with respect to himself; and the fourth, with respect to -happiness. But in none of these relations does the poet ever lose sight -of him under that in which he stands to God. It will follow, therefore, -that speaking of him with respect to society, the account would be most -imperfect, were he not at the same time considered with respect to his -religion; for between these two there is a close, and, while things -continue in order, a most interesting connexion: - - True faith, true policy united ran; - That was but love of God, and this of man. - -Now religion suffering no change or depravation when man first entered -into civil society, but continuing the same as in the state of nature, -the author, to avoid repetition, and to bring the account of true and -false religion nearer to one another, in order to contrast them by the -advantage of that situation, deferred giving an account of his religion -till he had spoken of the origin of civil society. Thence it is, that he -here resumes the account of the state of nature, that is, so much of it -as he had left untouched, which was only the religion of it. This -consisting in the knowledge of the one God, the Creator of all things, -he shows how men came by that knowledge: that it was either found out by -reason, which giving to every effect a cause, instructed them to go from -cause to cause, till they came to the first, who, being causeless, would -necessarily be judged self-existent; or else that it was taught by -tradition, which preserved the memory of the creation. He then tells us -what these men, undebauched by false science, understood by God's nature -and attributes: first, of God's nature, that they easily distinguished -between the worker and the work; saw the substance of the Creator to be -distinct and different from that of the creature, and so were in no -danger of falling into the horrid opinion of the Greek philosophers, and -their follower, Spinoza. And simple reason teaching them that the -Creator was but one, they easily saw that all was right, and so were in -as little danger of falling into the Manichean error, which, when -oblique wit had broken the steady light of reason, imagined all was not -right, having before imagined that all was not the work of One. -Secondly, he shows, what they understood of God's attributes; that they -easily acknowledged a Father where they found a Deity, and could not -conceive a sovereign Being to be any other than a sovereign Good. - -Ver. 241. _Who first taught souls enslaved, &c._] Order leadeth the poet -to speak, from ver. 240 to 245, of the corruption of civil society into -tyranny, and its causes; and here, with all the dexterity of address, as -well as force of truth, he observes, it arose from the violation of that -great principle, which he so much insists upon throughout his Essay, -that each was made for the use of all. We may be sure, that in this -corruption, where right or natural justice was cast aside, and violence, -the atheist's justice, presided in its stead, religion would follow the -fate of civil society. We know, from ancient history, it did so. -Accordingly Mr. Pope, from ver. 244 to 269, together with corrupt -politics, describes corrupt religion and its causes. He first informs -us, agreeable to his exact knowledge of antiquity, that it was the -politician, and not the priest (as the illiterate tribe of freethinkers -would make us believe), who first corrupted religion. Secondly, that the -superstition he brought in was not invented by him, as an engine to -play upon others (as the dreaming atheist feigns, who would thus account -for the origin of religion), but was a trap he first fell into himself: - - Superstition taught the tyrant awe. - -Ver. 269. _So drives self-love, &c._] The inference our author draws -from all this, from ver. 268 to 283, is, that self-love driveth through -right and wrong; it causeth the tyrant to violate the rights of mankind; -and it causeth the people to vindicate that violation. For self-love -being common to the whole species, and setting each individual in -pursuit of the same objects, it became necessary for each, if he would -secure his own, to provide for the safety of another's. And thus equity -and benevolence arose from that same self-love which had given birth to -avarice and injustice: - - His safety must his liberty restrain; - All join to guard what each desires to gain. - -The poet hath not anywhere shown greater address, in the disposition of -this work, than with regard to the inference before us, which not only -giveth a proper and timely support to what had been advanced in the -second Epistle concerning the nature and effects of self-love, but is a -necessary introduction to what follows, concerning the reformation of -religion and society; as we shall see presently. - -Ver. 283. _'Twas then, the studious head, &c._] The poet hath now -described the rise, perfection, and decay of civil policy and religion -in the more early times. But the design had been imperfect, had he -dropped his discourse here. There was, in after-ages, a recovery of -these from their several corruptions. Accordingly, he hath chosen that -happy era for the conclusion of his song. But as good and ill -governments and religions succeed one another without ceasing, he now -leaveth facts, and turneth his discourse, from ver. 282 to 295, to speak -of a more lasting reform of mankind, in the invention of those -philosophic principles, by whose observance a policy and a religion may -be for ever kept from sinking into tyranny and superstition: - - 'Twas then, the studious head, or generous mind, - Follow'r of God, or friend of human kind, - Poet or patriot, rose but to restore - The faith and moral, nature gave before; &c. - -The easy and just transition into this subject from the foregoing is -admirable. In the foregoing he had described the effects of self-love; -and now, with great art and high probability, he maketh men's -observations on these effects the occasion of those discoveries which -they have made of the true principles of policy and religion, described -in the present paragraph; and this he evidently hinteth at in that fine -transition: - - 'Twas then, the studious head, &c. - -Ver. 295. _Such is the world's great harmony, &c._] Having thus -described the true principles of civil and ecclesiastical policy, he -proceedeth, from ver. 294 to 303, to illustrate the harmony between the -two policies, by the universal harmony of nature: - - Such is the world's great harmony, that springs - From order, union, full consent of things. - -Thus, as in the beginning of this epistle he supported the general -principle of mutual love or association, by considerations drawn from -the particular properties of matter, and the mutual dependence between -vegetable and animal life, so, in the conclusion, he hath enforced the -particular principles of civil and religious society, from that general -harmony, which springs, in part, from those properties and dependencies. - -Ver. 303. _For forms of government let fools contest; &c._] But now the -poet, having so much commended the invention and inventors of the -philosophic principles of religion and government, lest an evil use -should be made of this, by men's resting in theory and speculation, as -they have been always apt to do in matters where practice makes their -happiness, he cautions his reader, from ver. 302 to 311, against this -error. The seasonableness of this reproof will appear evident enough to -those who know that mad disputes about liberty and prerogative had once -well nigh overturned our constitution; while others about mystery and -church authority had almost destroyed the very spirit of our religion. - -Ver. 311. _Man, like the generous vine, &c._] Having thus largely -considered man in his social capacity, the poet, in order to fix a -momentous truth in the mind of his reader, concludes the Epistle in -recapitulating the two principles which concur to the support of this -part of his character, namely, self-love and social, and in showing that -they are only two different motions of the appetite to good, by which -the Author of Nature hath enabled man to find his own happiness in the -happiness of the whole. This he illustrates with a thought as sublime as -that general harmony which he describes: - - On their own axis as the planets run, - Yet make at once their circle round the sun; - So two consistent motions act the soul; - And one regards itself, and one the whole. - Thus God and nature linked the general frame, - And bade self-love and social be the same. - -For he hath the art of converting poetical ornament into philosophic -reasoning; and of improving a simile into an analogical argument; of -which, more in our next. - - - COMMENTARY ON EPISTLE IV. - -The two foregoing Epistles having considered man with regard to the -means (that is, in all his relations, whether as an individual, or a -member of society), this last comes to consider him with regard to the -end, that is, happiness. It opens with an invocation to happiness, in -the manner of the ancient poets; who, when destitute of a patron god, -applied to the muse; and if she was not at leisure, took up with any -simple virtue next at hand, to inspire and prosper their undertakings. -This was the ancient invocation, which few modern poets have had the art -to imitate with any degree either of spirit or decorum: but our author -has contrived to make his subservient to the method and reasoning of his -philosophic composition. I will endeavour to explain so uncommon a -beauty. It is to be observed, that the pagan deities had each their -several names and places of abode, with some of which they were supposed -to be more delighted than others, and consequently to be then most -propitious when invoked by the favourite name and place. Hence we find -the hymns of Homer, Orpheus, and Callimachus to be chiefly employed in -reckoning up the several titles and habitations by which the patron god -was known and distinguished. Our poet hath made these two circumstances -serve to introduce his subject. His purpose is to write of happiness: -method, therefore, requires that he first define what men mean by -happiness, and this he does in the ornament of a poetic invocation, in -which the several names that happiness goes by are enumerated: - - Oh happiness! our being's end and aim! - Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name. - -After the definition, that which follows next is the proposition, which -is, that human happiness consists not in external advantages, but in -virtue. For the subject of this Epistle is to detect the false notions -of happiness, and to settle and explain the true; and this the poet lays -down in the next sixteen lines. Now the enumeration of the several -situations where happiness is supposed to reside, is a summary of false -happiness placed in externals: - - Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below, - Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow? - Fair op'ning to some court's propitious shrine, - Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? - Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, - Or reaped in from harvests of the field? - -The six remaining lines deliver the true notion of happiness, and show -that it is rightly placed in virtue, which is summed up in these two: - - Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere - 'Tis no where to be found, or every where. - -The poet, having thus defined his terms, and laid down his proposition, -proceeds to the support of his thesis, the various arguments of which -make up the body of the epistle. - -Ver. 19. _Ask for the learn'd, &c._] He begins, from ver. 18 to 29, with -detecting the false notions of happiness. These are of two kinds, the -philosophical and popular. The popular he had recapitulated in the -invocation, when happiness was called upon, at her several supposed -places of abode: the philosophical only remained to be delivered: - - Ask of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are blind; - This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind: - Some place the bliss in action, some in ease; - Those call it pleasure, and contentment these. - -They differed as well in the means, as in the nature of the end. Some -placed happiness in action, some in contemplation; the first called it -pleasure, the second ease. Of those who placed it in action and called -it pleasure, the route they pursued either sunk them into sensual -pleasures, which ended in pain; or led them in search of imaginary -perfections, unsuitable to their nature and station, see Ep. i., which -ended in vanity. Of those who placed it in ease, the contemplative -station they were fixed in made some, for their quiet, find truth in -every thing; others, in nothing: - - Who thus define it, say they more or less - Than this, that happiness is happiness? - -The confutation of these philosophic errors he shows to be very easy, -one common fallacy running through them all, namely this, that instead -of telling us in what the happiness of human nature consists, which was -what was asked of them, each busies himself in explaining in what he -placed his own. - -Ver. 29. _Take natures path, &c._] The poet then proceeds, from ver. 28 -to 35, to reform their mistakes; and shows them that, if they will but -take the road of nature, and leave that of mad opinion, they will soon -find happiness to be a good of the species, and, like common sense, -equally distributed to all mankind. - -Ver. 35. _Remember, man, &c._] Having exposed the two false species of -happiness, the philosophical and popular, and announced the true; in -order to establish the last, he goes on to a confutation of the two -former. - -I. He first, from ver. 34 to 49, confutes the philosophical, which, as -we said, makes happiness a particular, not a general good. And this two -ways; 1. From his grand principle, that God acts by general laws; the -consequence of which is, that happiness, which supports the well-being -of every system, must needs be universal, and not partial, as the -philosophers conceived. 2. From fact, that man instinctively concurs -with this designation of Providence, to make happiness universal, by his -having no delight in any thing uncommunicated or uncommunicable. - -Ver. 49. _Order is heaven's first law;_] II. In the second place, from -ver. 48 to 67, he confutes the popular error concerning happiness, -namely, that it consists in externals. This he does, first, by inquiring -into the reasons of the present providential disposition of external -goods,--a topic of confutation chosen with the greatest accuracy and -penetration. For, if it appears they were given in the manner we see -them distributed, for reasons different from the happiness of -individuals, it is absurd to think that they should make part of that -happiness. He shows, therefore, that disparity of external possessions -among men was for the sake of society: 1. To promote the harmony and -happiness of a system; because the want of external goods in some, and -the abundance in others, increase general harmony in the obligor and -obliged. Yet here, says he, mark the impartial wisdom of heaven; this -very inequality of externals, by contributing to general harmony and -order, produceth an equality of happiness amongst individuals. 2. To -prevent perpetual discord amongst men equal in power, which an equal -distribution of external goods would necessarily occasion. From hence he -concludes, that as external goods were not given for the reward of -virtue, but for many different purposes, God could not, if he intended -happiness for all, place it in the enjoyment of externals. - -Ver. 67. _Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, &c._] His second -argument, from ver. 66 to 73, against the popular error of happiness -being placed in externals, is, that the possession of them is -inseparably attended with fear; the want of them with hope; which -directly crossing all their pretensions to making happy, evidently shows -that God had placed happiness elsewhere. And hence, in concluding this -argument, he takes occasion, from ver. 72 to 77, to upbraid the -desperate folly and impiety of those who, in spite of God and nature, -will yet attempt to place happiness in externals: - - Oh sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise, - By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies? - Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, - And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. - -Ver. 77. _Know, all the good, &c._] The poet having thus confuted the -two errors concerning happiness, the philosophical and popular, and -proved that true happiness was neither solitary and partial, nor yet -placed in externals, goes on, from ver. 76 to 83, to show in what it -doth consist. He had before said in general, and repeated it, that -happiness lay in common to the whole species. He now brings us better -acquainted with it, in a more explicit account of its nature, and tells -us, it is all contained in health, peace, and competence; but that these -are to be gained only by virtue, namely, by temperance, innocence, and -industry. - -Ver. 83. _The good or bad, &c._] Hitherto the poet hath only considered -health and peace: - - But health consists with temperance alone; - And peace, oh virtue! peace is all thy own. - -One head yet remained to be spoken to, namely, competence. In the -pursuit of health and peace there is no danger of running into excess; -but the case is different with regard to competence: here wealth and -affluence would be apt to be mistaken for it, in men's passionate -pursuit after external goods. To obviate this mistake, therefore, the -poet shows, from ver. 82 to 93, that, as exorbitant wealth adds nothing -to the happiness arising from a competence, so, as it is generally -ill-gotten, it is attended with circumstances which weaken another part -of this triple cord, namely, peace. - - Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, - Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. - But health consists with temperance alone; - And peace, oh virtue! peace is all thy own. - -Ver. 93. _Oh blind to truth, &c._] Our author having thus largely -confuted the mistake, that happiness consists in externals, proceeds to -expose the terrible consequences of such an opinion, on the sentiments -and practice of all sorts of men; making the dissolute, impious and -atheistical; the religious, uncharitable and intolerant; and the good, -restless and discontent. For when it is once taken for granted, that -happiness consists in externals, it is immediately seen that ill men are -often more happy than the good, which sets all conditions on objecting -to the ways of Providence, and some even on rashly attempting to rectify -his dispensations, though by the violation of all laws, divine and -human. Now this being the most important part of the subject under -consideration, is deservedly treated most at large. And here it will be -proper to take notice of the art of the poet in making this confutation -serve, at the same time, for a full solution of all objections which -might be made to his main proposition, that happiness consists not in -externals. - -1. He begins, first of all, with the atheistical complainers; and -pursues their impiety from ver. 93 to 131. - - Oh blind to truth! and God's whole scheme below, &c. - -Ver. 97. _But fools, the good alone unhappy call, &c._] He exposes their -folly, even in their own notions of external goods. 1. By examples, from -ver. 98 to 111, where he shows, first, that if good men have been -untimely cut off, this is not to be ascribed to their virtue, but to a -contempt of life, which hurried them into dangers. Secondly, That if -they will still persist in ascribing untimely death to virtue, they must -needs, on the same principle, ascribe long life to it also; -consequently, as the argument, in fact, concludes both ways, in logic it -concludes neither. - - Say, was it virtue, more though heav'n ne'er gave, - Lamented Digby! sunk thee to the grave? - Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, - Why, full of days and honour, lives the sire? - -Ver. 111. _What makes all physical or moral ill?_] 2. He exposes their -folly, from ver. 110 to 131, by considerations drawn from the system of -nature: and these twofold, natural and moral. You accuse God, says he, -because the good man is subject to natural and moral evil. Let us see -whence these proceed. Natural evil is the necessary consequence of a -material world so constituted. But that this constitution was best, we -have proved in the first Epistle. Moral evil ariseth from the depraved -will of man. Therefore neither one nor the other from God. But you say, -adds the poet, to these impious complainers, that though it be fit man -should suffer the miseries which he brings upon himself, by the -commission of moral evil; yet it seems unfit that his innocent posterity -should bear a share of the burden. To this, says he, I reply, - - We just as wisely might of heav'n complain - That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain, - As that the righteous son is ill at ease, - When his lewd father gave the dire disease. - -But you will still say, Why doth not God either prevent or immediately -repair these evils? You may as well ask, why he doth not work continual -miracles, and every moment reverse the established laws of nature: - - Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires, &c. - -This is the force of the poet's reasoning, and these the men to whom he -addresseth it, namely, the libertine cavillers against Providence. - -Ver. 131. _But still this world, &c._] II. But now, so unhappy is the -condition of our corrupt nature, that these are not the only -complainers. Religious men are but too apt, if not to speak out, yet -sometimes secretly to murmur against Providence, and say, its ways are -not equal. Those especially, who are more inordinately devoted to a sect -or party, are scandalised, that the just, (for such they esteem -themselves,) the just, who are to judge the world, have no better a -portion in their own inheritance and dominion. The poet, therefore, now -leaves those more professedly impious, and turns to these less -profligate complainers, from ver. 130 to 149: - - But still this world, so fitted for the knave, &c. - -As the former wanted external goods to be the reward of virtue for the -moral man, so these want them for the pious, in order to have a kingdom -of the just. To this the poet holds it sufficient to answer: Pray first -agree among yourselves who those just are. As they are not likely to do -this, he bids them to rest satisfied; to remember his fundamental -principle, that whatever is, is right; and to content themselves (as -their religion teaches them to profess a more than ordinary submission -to the will of Providence) with that common answer which he, with so -much reason and piety, gives to every kind of complainer. However, -though there be yet no kingdom of the just, there is still no kingdom of -the unjust; both the virtuous and the vicious (whatsoever becomes of -those whom every sect calls the faithful) have their share in external -goods; and what is more, the virtuous have infinitely the most enjoyment -of their share: - - This world, 'tis true, - Was made for Cæsar, but for Titus too: - And which more bless'd? who chained his country? say! - Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day? - -I have been the more solicitous to explain this last argument, and to -show against whom it is directed, because a great deal depends upon it -for the illustration of the sense, and the defence of the poet's -reasoning. For if we suppose him to be still addressing himself to those -impious complainers, confuted in the forty preceding lines, we should -make him guilty of a paralogism, in the argument about the just; and in -the illustration of it by the case of Calvin. For then the libertine -asks, Why the just, that is, the moral man, is not rewarded? The answer -is, that none but God can tell, who the just, that is, the faithful man, -is. Where the term is changed, in order to support the argument; for -about the truly moral man there is no dispute; about the truly faithful -or the orthodox, a great deal. But take the poet right, as arguing here -against religious complainers, and the reasoning is strict and logical. -They ask, why the truly faithful are not rewarded? He answereth, they -may be for aught you know; for none but God can tell who they are. - -Ver. 149. _"But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed."_] III. The -poet, having dispatched these two species of murmurers, comes now to the -third, and still more pardonable sort, the discontented good men, who -lament only that virtue starves, while vice riots. To these he replies, -from ver. 148 to 157, that, admit this to be the case, yet they have no -reason to complain, either of the good man's lot in particular, or of -the dispensation of Providence in general. Not of the former, because -happiness, the reward of virtue, consisteth not in externals; nor of the -latter, because ill men may gain wealth by commendable industry; good -men want necessaries through indolence or ill conduct. - -Ver. 157. _But grant him riches, &c._] But as modest as this complaint -seemeth at first view, the poet next shows, from ver. 156 to 167, that -it is founded on a principle of the highest extravagance, which will -never let the discontented good man rest, till he becomes as vain and -foolish in his imagination as the very worst sort of complainers. For -that when once he begins to think he wants what is his due, he will -never know where to stop, while God hath any thing to give. - -Ver. 167. _What nothing earthly gives, &c._] But this is not all; the -poet showeth next, from ver. 166 to 185, that these demands are not only -unreasonable, but in the highest degree absurd likewise. For that those -very goods, if granted, would be the destruction of that virtue for -which they are demanded as a reward. He concludes, therefore, on the -whole, that - - What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, - The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy, - Is virtue's prize, - -And that to aim at other, which not only is of no use to us here, but, -what is more, will be of none hereafter, is a passion like that of an -infant or a savage, where the one is impatient for what he will soon -despise, and the other makes a provision for what he can never want. - -Ver. 185. _To whom can riches give repute, or trust,_] The poet now -enters more at large upon the matter; and still continuing his discourse -to this third sort of complainers (whom he indulgeth, as much more -pardonable than the first or second, in rectifying all their doubts and -mistakes), he proves, both from reason and example, how unable any of -those things are, which the world most admires, to make a good man -happy. For as to the philosophic mistakes concerning happiness, there -being little danger of their making a general impression, he had, after -a short confutation, dismissed them altogether. But external goods are -those syrens, which so bewitch the world with dreams of happiness, that -it is of all things the most difficult to awaken it out of its -delusions; though, as he proves in an exact review of the most -pretending, they dishonour bad men, and add no lustre to the good. That -it is only this third, and least criminal sort of complainers, against -whom the remaining part of the discourse is directed, appeareth from the -poet's so frequently addressing himself, henceforward, to his friend. - -I. He beginneth therefore, from ver. 184 to 205, with considering -riches. 1. He examines first, what there is of real use or enjoyment in -them; and showeth, they can give the good man only that very contentment -in himself, and that very esteem and love from others, which he had -before; and scornfully cries out to those of a different opinion: - - Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind, - The lover and the love of human-kind, - Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, - Because he wants a thousand pounds a year! - -2. He next examines the imaginary value of riches, as the fountain of -honour. For the objection of his adversaries standeth thus: As honour is -the genuine claim of virtue, and shame the just retribution of vice; and -as honour, in their opinion, follows riches, and shame, poverty, -therefore the good man should be rich. He tells them in this they are -much mistaken: - - Honour and shame from no condition rise; - Act well your part; there all the honour lies. - -What power then has fortune over the man? None at all; for as her -favours can confer neither worth nor wisdom; so neither can her -displeasure cure him of any of his follies. On his garb, indeed, she -hath some little influence; but his heart still remains the same: - - Fortune in men has some small difference made; - One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade. - -So that this difference extends no further than to the habit; the pride -of heart is the same both in the flaunter and the flutterer, as it is -the poet's intention to insinuate by the use of those terms. - -Ver. 205. _Stuck o'er with titles, &c._] II. Then, as to nobility, by -creation or birth; this too the poet shows, from ver. 204 to 217, is in -itself as devoid of all real worth as the rest; because, in the first -case, the honour is generally gained by no merit at all; in the second, -by the merit of the first founder of the family, which, when well -considered, is generally the subject rather of humiliation than of -glory. - -Ver. 217. _Look next on greatness; &c._] III. The poet now unmasks, from -ver. 216 to 237, the false pretences of greatness, whereby it is seen -that the hero and the politician (the two characters which would -monopolize that quality) do, after all their bustle, if they want -virtue, effect only this, that the one proves himself a fool, and the -other a knave: and virtue they but too generally want; the art of -heroism being understood to consist in ravage and desolation; and the -art of politics, in circumvention. It is not success, therefore, that -constitutes true greatness; but the end aimed at, and the means which -are employed. And if these be right, glory will follow as the reward, -whatever happens to be the issue: - - Who noble ends by noble means obtains, - Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains, - Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed - Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. - -Ver. 237. _What's fame?_] IV. With regard to fame, that still more -fantastic blessing, he showeth, from ver. 236 to 259, that all of it, -besides what we hear ourselves, is merely nothing; and that, even of -this small portion, no more of it giveth the possessor a real -satisfaction, than what is the fruit of virtue. Thus he shows, that -honour, nobility, greatness, glory, so far as they have any thing real -and substantial, that is, so far as they contribute to the happiness of -the possessor, are the sole issue of virtue; and that neither riches, -courts, armies, nor the populace, are capable of conferring them. - -Ver. 259. _In parts superior what advantage lies?_] V. But lastly, the -poet shows, from ver. 258 to 269, that as no external goods can make man -happy, so neither is it in the power of all internal. For that even -superior parts bring no more real happiness to the possessor than the -rest; nay, that they put him into a worse condition; for that the -quickness of apprehension and depth of penetration do but sharpen the -miseries of life. - -Ver. 269. _Bring then these blessings to a strict account; &c._] Having -thus proved how empty and unsatisfactory all these greatest external -goods are, from an examination of their nature; he proceeds to -strengthen his argument, from ver. 268 to 309, by these three further -considerations: - -1. That the acquirement of these goods is made with the loss of one -another, or of greater, either as inconsistent with them, or as spent in -attaining them. - -2. That the possessors of each of these goods are generally such, as are -so far from raising envy in a good man, that he would refuse to take -their persons, though, accompanied with their possessions: and this the -poet illustrates by examples. - -3. That even the possession of them altogether, where they have excluded -virtue, only terminates in more enormous misery. - -Ver. 309. _Know then this truth, &c._] Having thus at length shown that -happiness consists neither in external goods of any kind, nor in all -kinds of internal (that is, in such of them as are not of our own -acquirement), nor yet in the visionary pursuits of the philosophers, he -concludes, from ver. 308 to 311, that it is to be found in virtue alone. - -Ver. 311. _The only point when human bliss stands still, &c._] Hitherto -the poet had proved, negatively, that happiness consists in virtue, by -showing, that it did not consist in anything else. He now, from ver. 310 -to 327, proves the same positively, by an enumeration of the qualities -of virtue, all naturally adapted to give and to increase human -happiness; as its constancy, capacity, vigour, efficacy, activity, -moderation, and self-sufficiency. - -Ver. 327. _See the sole bliss heav'n could on all bestow!_] Having thus -proved that happiness is placed in virtue; he proves next, from ver. 326 -to 329, that it is rightly placed there; for that then, and then only, -all may partake of it, and all be capable of relishing it. - -Ver. 329. _Yet poor with fortune, &c._] The poet then, with some -indignation, observeth, from ver. 328 to 341, that as obvious and as -evident as this truth was, yet riches and false philosophy had so -blinded the discernment even of improved minds, that the possessors of -the first placed happiness in externals, unsuitable to man's nature; and -the followers of the latter, in refined visions, unsuitable to his -situation: while the simple-minded man, with nature only for his guide, -found plainly in what it should be placed. - -Ver. 341. _For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal,_] But this is -not all; the author shows further, from ver. 340 to 353, that when the -simple-minded man, on his first setting out in the pursuit of truth in -order to happiness, hath had the wisdom - - To look through nature up to nature's God, - -(instead of adhering to any sect or party, where there was so great odds -of his choosing wrong), that then the benefit of gaining the knowledge -of God's will written in the mind, is not confined there; for standing -on this sure foundation, he is now no longer in danger of choosing -wrong, amidst such diversities of religions; but by pursuing this grand -scheme of universal benevolence, in practice as well as theory, he -arrives at length to the knowledge of the revealed will of God, which is -the consummation of the system of benevolence: - - For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal, - And opens still, and opens on his soul; - Till lengthened on to faith, and unconfined, - It pours thy bliss that fills up all the mind. - -Ver. 353. _Self-love, thus pushed to social, &c._] The poet, in the last -place, marks out, from ver. 352 to 373, the progress of his good man's -benevolence, pushed through natural religion to revealed, till it -arrives to that height which the sacred writers describe as the very -summit of Christian perfection; and shows how the progress of human -differs from the progress of divine benevolence. That the divine -descends from whole to parts; but that the human must rise from -individual to universal. His argument for this extended benevolence is, -that, as God has made a whole, whose parts have a perfect relation to, -and an entire dependency on each other, man, by extending his -benevolence throughout that whole, acts in conformity to the will of his -Creator; and therefore this enlargement of his affection becomes a duty. -But the poet hath not only shown his piety in this observation, but the -utmost art and address likewise in the disposition of it. The Essay on -Man opens with exposing the murmurs and impious conclusions of foolish -men against the present constitution of things. As it proceeds, it -occasionally detects all those false principles and opinions, which led -them to conclude thus perversely. Having now done all that was necessary -in speculation, the author turns to practice, and ends his Essay with -the recommendation of an acknowledged virtue, charity,--which, if -exercised in that extent which conformity to the will of God requireth, -would effectually prevent all complaints against the present order of -nature,--such complaints being made with a total disregard to everything -but their own private system, and seeking remedy in the disorder, and at -the expense of all the rest. This observation, - - Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, - -is important. Rochefoucault, Esprit, and their coarse and wordy -disciple, Mandeville, had observed, that self-love was the origin of -all those virtues which mankind most admire, and therefore foolishly -supposed it was the end likewise, and so taught that the highest -pretences to disinterestedness were only the more artful disguises of -self-love. But our author, who says somewhere or other, - - Of human nature, wit its worst may write; - We all revere it in our own despite, - -saw, as well as they, and everybody else, that the passions began in -self-love; yet he understood human nature better than to imagine that -they ended there. He knew that reason and religion could convert -selfishness into its very opposite; and therefore teacheth that - - Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake: - -and thus hath vindicated the dignity of human nature, and the -philosophic truth of the christian doctrine. - -Ver. 394. _Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right;_] The poet's -address to his friend, which concludeth this Epistle so nobly, and -endeth with a recapitulation of the general argument, affords me the -following observation, with which I shall conclude these remarks. There -is one great beauty that shines through the whole Essay. The poet, -whether he speaks of man as an individual, a member of society, or the -subject of happiness, never misseth an opportunity, while he is -explaining his state under any of these capacities, to illustrate it in -the most artful manner by the enforcement of his grand principle, that -every thing tendeth to the good of the whole, from whence his system -gaineth the reciprocal advantage of having that grand theorem realized -by facts, and his facts justified on a principle of right or nature. - -Thus I have endeavoured to analyse and explain the exact reasoning of -these four Epistles. Enough, I presume, to convince every one, that it -hath a precision, force, and closeness of connection rarely to be met -with, even in the most formal treatises of philosophy. Yet in doing -this, it is but too evident I have destroyed that grace and energy which -animates the original. And now let the reader believe, if he be so -disposed, what M. de Crousaz, in his critique upon this work, insinuates -to be his own opinion, as well as that of his friends: "Some persons," -says he, "have conjectured that Mr. Pope did not compose this Essay at -once, and in a regular order; but that after he had written several -fragments of poetry, all finished in their kind, (one, for example, on -the parallel between reason and instinct, another upon man's groundless -pride, another on the prerogatives of human nature, another on religion -and superstition, another on the original of society, and several -fragments besides on self-love and the passions), he tacked these -together as he could, and divided them into four epistles; as, it is -said, was the fortune of Homer's Rhapsodies." I suppose this -extravagance will be believed just as soon of one as of the other. But -M. Du Resnel, our poet's translator, is not behind-hand with the critic, -in his judgment on the work. "The only reason," says he, "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 -admitted." And again: "I was, by the unanimous opinion of all those whom -I have consulted on this occasion, and, amongst these, of several -Englishmen completely skilled in both languages, obliged to follow a -different method. The French are not satisfied with sentiments, however -beautiful, unless they be methodically disposed. Method being the -characteristic that distinguishes our performances from those of our -neighbours," &c. After having given many examples of the critical skill -of this wonderful man of method, in the foregoing notes, it is enough -just to have quoted this flourish of self-applause, and so to leave him -to the laughter of the world. - - - - - NOTES. - - - NOTES ON EPISTLE I. - -Ver. 7, 8. _A wild,--Or garden,_] The wild relates to the human -passions, productive, as he explains in the second epistle, both of good -and evil. The garden to human reason, so often tempting us to transgress -the bounds God has set to it, and wander in fruitless enquiries. - -Ver. 12. _Of all who blindly creep, &c._] _i.e._ Those who only follow -the blind guidance of their passions; or those who leave behind them -common sense and sober reason, in their high flights through the regions -of metaphysics. Both which follies are exposed in the fourth Epistle, -where the popular and philosophical errors concerning happiness are -detected. The figure is taken from animal life. - -Ver. 15. _Laugh where we must, &c._] Intimating, that human follies are -so strangely absurd, that it is not in the power of the most -compassionate, on some occasions, to restrain their mirth; and that its -crimes are so flagitious, that the most candid have seldom an -opportunity, on this subject, to exercise their virtue. - -Ver. 16. _Vindicate the ways of God to man._] Milton's phrase, -judiciously altered, who says, justify the ways of God to man. Milton -was addressing himself to believers, and delivering reasons or -explaining the ways of God; this idea, the word justify precisely -conveys. Pope was addressing himself to unbelievers, and exposing such -of their objections whose ridicule and absurdity arises from the -judicial blindness of the objectors; he, therefore, more fitly employs -the word vindicate, which conveys the idea of a confutation attended -with punishment. Thus suscipere vindictam legis, to undertake the -defence of the law, implies punishing the violators of it. - -Ver. 19, 20. _Of man, what see we but his station here, - From which to reason, or to which refer?_] - -The sense is, "we see nothing of man but as he stands at present in his -station here; from which station, all our reasonings on his nature and -end must be drawn; and to this station they must all be referred." The -consequence is, that our reasonings on his nature and end must needs be -very imperfect. - -Ver. 21. _Through worlds unnumbered, &c._] Hunc cognoscimus solummodo -per proprietates suas et attributa, et per sapientissimas et optimas -rerum structuras et causas finales. _Newtoni Princ. Schol. gen. sub. -fin._ - -Ver. 30. _The strong connexions, nice dependencies,_] The thought is -very noble, and expressed with great beauty and philosophic exactness. -The system of the universe is a combination of natural and moral -fitnesses, as the human system is of body and spirit. By the strong -connexions, therefore, the poet alluded to the natural part; and by the -nice dependencies, to the moral. For the Essay on Man is not a system -of naturalism, on the philosophy of Bolingbroke, but a system of natural -religion, on the philosophy of Newton. Hence it is, that where he -supposes disorders may tend to some greater good in the natural world, -he supposes they may tend likewise to some greater good in the moral, as -appears from these sublime images in the following lines: - - If plagues and earthquakes break not heav'n's design, - Why then a Borgia or a Catiline? - Who knows, but he whose hand the lightning forms, - Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, - Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar's mind, - Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind? - -Ver. 35 to 42.] In these lines the poet has joined the beauty of -argumentation to the sublimity of thought; where the similar instances, -proposed for his adversaries' examination, show as well the absurdity of -their complaints against order, as the fruitlessness of their inquiries -into the arcana of the Godhead. - -Ver. 41. _Or ask of yonder, &c._] On these lines M. Voltaire thus -descants: "Pope dit que l'homme ne peut savoir pourquoi les lunes de -Jupiter sont moins grandes que Jupiter. Il se trompe en cela; c'est une -erreur pardonnable. Il n'y a point de mathématicien qui n'eût fait -voir," &c. And so goes on to show, like a great mathematician as he is, -that it would be very inconvenient for the page to be as big as his lord -and master. It is pity all this fine reasoning should proceed on a -ridiculous blunder. The poet thus reproves the impious complainer of the -order of Providence: You are dissatisfied with the weakness of your -condition. But, in your situation, the nature of things requires just -such a creature as you are: in a different situation, it might have -required that you should be still weaker. And though you see not the -reason of this in your own case, yet, that reasons there are, you may -see in the case of other of God's creatures: - - Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made - Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade; - Or ask of yonder argent fields above, - Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove. - -Here, says the poet, the ridicule of the weeds' and the satellites' -complaint, had they the faculties of speech and reasoning, would be -obvious to all; because their very situation and office might have -convinced them of their folly. Your folly, says the poet to his -complainers, is as great, though not so evident, because the reason is -more out of sight; but that a reason there is, may be demonstrated from -the attributes of the Deity. This is the poet's clear and strong -reasoning; from whence, we see, he was so far from saying, that man -could not know the cause why Jove's satellites were less than Jove, that -all the force of his reasoning turns upon this, that man did see and -know it, and should from thence conclude, that there was a cause of this -inferiority as well in the rational as in the material creation. - -Ver. 64. _Egypt's God:_] Called so, because the god Apis was worshipped -universally over the whole land of Egypt. - -Ver. 87. _Who sees with equal eye, &c._] Matt. x. 29. - -Ver. 93. _What future bliss, &c._] It hath been objected, that "the -system of the best weakens the other natural arguments for a future -state; because, if the evils which good men suffer, promote the benefit -of the whole, then every thing is here in order, and nothing amiss that -wants to be set right, nor has the good man any reason to expect amends, -when the evils he suffered had such a tendency." To this it may be -replied, 1. That the poet tells us, Ep. iv. ver. 361, that God loves -from whole to parts. Therefore, if, in the beginning and progress of the -moral system, the good of the whole be principally consulted, yet, on -the completion of it, the good of particulars will be equally provided -for. 2. The system of the best is so far from weakening those natural -arguments, that it strengthens and supports them. For if those evils, to -which good men are subject, be mere disorders, without any tendency to -the greater good of the whole, then, though we must, indeed, conclude -that they will hereafter be set right, yet this view of things, -representing God as suffering disorders for no other end than to set -them right, gives us too low an idea of the divine wisdom. But if those -evils (according to the system of the best) contribute to the greater -perfection of the whole, such a reason may be then given for their -permission, as supports our idea of divine wisdom to the highest -religious purposes. Then, as to the good man's hopes of retribution, -these still remain in their original force: for our idea of God's -justice, and how far that justice is engaged to a retribution, is -exactly and invariably the same on either hypothesis. For though the -system of the best supposes that the evils themselves will be fully -compensated by the good they produce to the whole, yet this is so far -from supposing that particulars shall suffer for a general good, that it -is essential to this system, that, at the completion of things, when the -whole is arrived to the state of utmost perfection, particular and -universal good shall coincide; - - Such is the world's great harmony, that springs - From order, union, full consent of things: - Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made - To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade, &c.--Ep. iii. ver. 295. - -Which coincidence can never be, without a retribution to each good man -for the evils he has suffered here below. - -Ver. 97. _from home,_] The construction is,--The soul, uneasy and -confined, being from home, expatiates, etc. By which words, it was the -poet's purpose to teach, that the present life is only a state of -probation for another, more suitable to the essence of the soul, and to -the free exercise of its qualities. - -Ver. 110. _He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;_] The French -translator, M. l'Abbé du Resnel, has turned the line thus: - - Il ne désire point cette céleste flamme - Qui des purs Seraphins dévore, et nourrit l'ame. - -_i.e._ The savage does not desire that heavenly flame, which at the same -time that it devours the souls of pure seraphim, nourishes them. On -which M. de Crousaz (who, by the assistance of a translation abounding -in these absurdities, writ a Commentary on the Essay on Man, in which we -find nothing but greater absurdities) remarks, "Mr. Pope, in exalting -the fire of his poetry by an antithesis, throws occasionally his -ridicule on those heavenly spirits. The Indian, says the poet, contents -himself without any thing of that flame, which devours at the same time -that it nourisheth." _Comm._ p. 77. But the poet is clear of this -imputation. Nothing can be more grave or sober than his English, on this -occasion; nor, I dare say, to do the translator justice, did he aim to -be ridiculous. It is the sober, solid theology of the Sorbonne. Indeed, -had such a writer as Mr. Pope used this school-jargon, we might have -suspected he was not so serious as he should be. The reader, as he goes -along, will see more of this translator's peculiarities. And the -conclusion of the commentary on the fourth Epistle will show why I have -been so careful to preserve them. - -Ver. 131. _Ask for what end, &c._] If there be any fault in these lines, -it is not in the general sentiment, but in the ill choice of instances -made use of in illustrating it. It is the highest absurdity to think -that earth is man's footstool, his canopy the skies, and the heavenly -bodies lighted up principally for his use; yet surely, it is very -excusable to suppose fruits and minerals given for this end. - -Ver. 150. _Then Nature deviates; &c._] "While comets move in very -eccentric orbs, in all manner of positions, blind fate could never make -all the planets move one and the same way in orbs concentric; some -inconsiderable irregularities excepted, which may have risen from the -mutual actions of comets and planets upon one another, and which will be -apt to increase, till this system wants a reformation." _Sir Isaac -Newton's Optics, Quæst. ult._ - -Ver. 155. _If plagues, &c._] What hath misled M. de Crousaz in his -censure of this passage, is his supposing the comparison to be between -the effects of two things in this sublunary world; when not only the -elegancy, but the justness of it, consists in its being between the -effects of a thing in the universe at large, and the familiar, known -effects of one in this sublunary world. For the position enforced in -these lines is this, that partial evil tends to the good of the whole: - - Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, - May, must be right, as relative to all.--Ver. 51. - -How does the poet enforce it? If you will believe this critic, in -illustrating the effects of partial moral evil in a particular system, -by that of partial natural evil in the same system, and so he leaves his -position in the lurch. But the poet reasons at another rate. The way to -prove his point, he knew, was to illustrate the effect of partial moral -evil in the universe, by partial natural evil in a particular system. -Whether partial moral evil tend to the good of the universe, being a -question which, by reason of our ignorance of many parts of that -universe, we cannot decide but from known effects, the rules of good -reasoning require that it be proved by analogy, _i.e._ setting it by, -and comparing it with, a thing clear and certain; and it is a thing -clear and certain, that partial natural evil tends to the good of our -particular system. - -Ver. 157. _Who knows but He, &c._] The sublimity with which the great -Author of Nature is here characterized, is but the second beauty of this -fine passage. The greatest is the making the very dispensation objected -to, the periphrasis of his title. - -Ver. 174. _And little less than angels, &c._] "Thou hast made him a -little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and -honour." Psalm viii. 5. - -Ver. 202. _And stunned him, &c._] This instance is poetical, and even -sublime, but misplaced. He is arguing philosophically in a case that -required him to employ the real objects of sense only: and, what is -worse, he speaks of this as a real object, If nature thundered, &c. The -case is different where, in ver. 253, he speaks of the motion of the -heavenly bodies, under the sublime conception of ruling angels: for -whether there be ruling angels or no, there is real motion, which was -all his argument wanted; but if there be no music of the spheres, there -was no real sound, which his argument was obliged to find. - -Ver. 209. _Mark how it mounts, to man's imperial race,_] M. du Resnel -has turned the latter part of the line thus, - - Jusqu'à l'homme, ce chef, ce roi de l'univers. - -"Even to man, this head, this king of the universe," which is so sad a -blunder, that it contradicts the poet's peculiar system; who, although -he allows man to be king of this inferior world, yet he thinks it -madness to make him king of the universe. If the philosophy and argument -of the poem could not teach him this, yet methinks the poet's own words, -in this very Epistle, might have prevented his mistake: - - So man; who here seems principal alone, - Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown. - -If the translator imagined that Mr. Pope was speaking ironically where -he talks of man's imperial race, and so would heighten the ridicule of -the original by _ce roi de l'univers_, the mistake is still worse; for -the force of the argument depends upon its being said seriously; the -poet being here speaking of a scale from the highest to the lowest in -the mundane system. - -Ver. 224. _For ever separate, &c._] Near, by the similitude of the -operation; separate, by the immense difference in the nature of the -powers. - -Ver. 226. _What thin partitions, &c._] So thin, that the atheistic -philosophers, as Protagoras, held that thought was only sense: and from -thence concluded, that every imagination or opinion of every man was -true; [Greek: Pasa phantasia estin alêthês]. But the poet determines -more philosophically that they are really and essentially different, -how thin soever the partition be by which they are divided. Thus (to -illustrate the truth of this observation) when a geometer considers a -triangle, in order to demonstrate the equality of its three angles to -two right ones, he has the picture or image of some sensible triangle -in his mind, which is sense; yet, notwithstanding, he must needs have -the notion or idea of an intellectual triangle likewise, which is -thought; for this plain reason, because every image or picture of a -triangle must needs be obtusangular, or rectangular, or acutangular; -but that which, in his mind, is the subject of his proposition, is the -ratio of a triangle, undetermined to any of these species. On this -account it was that Aristotle said, [Greek: Noêmata tini dioisei, -tou mê phantasmata einai, ê oude tauta phantasmata, all' ouk aneu -phantasmatôn]. "The conceptions of the mind differ somewhat from -sensible images; they are not sensible images, and yet not quite free -or disengaged from sensible images." - -Ver. 243. _Or in the full creation leave a void, &c._] This is only an -illustrating allusion to the Aristotelian doctrines of _plenum_ and -_vacuum_, the full and void here meant relating not to matter but to -life. - -Ver. 247. _And if each system in gradation roll,_] Alluding to the -motion of the planetary bodies of each system, and to the figures -described by that motion. - -Ver. 251. _Let earth unbalanced_] _i.e._ Being no longer kept within its -orbit by the different directions of its progressive and attractive -motions,--which, like equal weights in a balance, keep it in an -equilibre. - -Ver. 253. _Let ruling angels, &c._] The poet, throughout this work, has, -with great art, used an advantage which his employing a Platonic -principle for the foundation of his Essay, had afforded him; and that -is, the expressing himself, as here, in Platonic language, which, -luckily for his purpose, is highly poetical, at the same time that it -adds a grace to the uniformity of his reasoning. - -Ver. 259. _What if the foot, &c._] This fine illustration in defence of -the system of nature, is taken from St. Paul, who employed it to defend -the system of grace. - -Ver. 266. _The great directing_ MIND, _&c._] "Veneramur autem et colimus -ob dominium. Deus enim sine dominio, providentiâ, et causis finalibus, -nihil aliud est quam fatum et natura." _Newtoni Princip. Schol. gener. -sub finem._ - -Ver. 268. _Whose body nature is, &c._] M. de Crousaz remarks, on this -line, that "A Spinozist would express himself in this manner." I believe -he would; for so the infamous Toland has done, in his atheist's liturgy, -called Pantheisticon. But so would St. Paul likewise, who, writing on -this subject, the omnipresence of God in his Providence, and in his -Substance, says, in the words of a pantheistical Greek poet, _In him we -live, and move, and have our being_; _i.e._ we are parts of him, _his -offspring_: And the reason is, because a religious theist and an impious -pantheist both profess to believe the omnipresence of God. But would -Spinoza, as Mr. Pope does, call God the great directing mind of all, who -hath intentionally created a perfect universe? Or would a Spinozist have -told us, - - The workman from the work distinct was known? - -a line that overturns all Spinozism from its very foundations. But this -sublime description of the Godhead contains not only the divinity of St. -Paul; but, if that will not satisfy the men he writes against, the -philosophy likewise of Sir Isaac Newton. The poet says, - - All are but parts of one stupendous whole, - Whose body nature is, and God the soul; &c. - -The philosopher:--"In ipso continentur et moventur universa, sed absque -mutuâ passione. Deus nihil patitur ex corporum motibus; illa nullam -sentiunt resistentiam ex omnipræsentiâ Dei.--Corpore omni et figurâ -corporeâ destituitur.--Omnia regit et omnia cognoscit.--Cum unaquæque -spatii, particula sit semper, et unumquodque durationis indivisibile -momentum, ubique certe rerum omnium Fabricator ac Dominus non erit -nunquam, nusquam." - -Mr. Pope: - - Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, - As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; - As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, - As the rapt seraph that adores and burns: - To him, no high, no low, no great, no small; - He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. - -Sir Isaac Newton:--"Annon ex phænomenis constat esse entem incorporeum, -viventem, intelligentem, omnipræsentem, qui in spatio infinito, tanquam -sensorio suo, res ipsas intime cernat, penitusque perspiciat, totasque -intra se præsens præsentes complectatur?" - -But now, admitting there were an ambiguity in these expressions, so -great that a Spinozist might employ them to express his own particular -principles; and such a thing might well be, because the Spinozists, in -order to hide the impiety of their principle, are wont to express the -omnipresence of God in terms that any religious theist might employ; in -this case, I say, how are we to judge of the poet's meaning? Surely by -the whole tenor of his argument. Now, take the words in the sense of the -Spinozists, and he is made, in the conclusion of the epistle, to -overthrow all he had been advancing throughout the body of it: for -Spinozism is the destruction of an universe, where every thing tends, by -a foreseen contrivance in all its parts, to the perfection of the whole. -But allow him to employ the passage in the sense of St. Paul, That we, -and all creatures, live, and move, and have our being in God; and then -it will be seen to be the most logical support of all that had preceded. -For the poet, having, as we say, laboured through his epistle to prove, -that every thing in the universe tends, by a foreseen contrivance, and a -present direction of all its parts, to the perfection of the whole, it -might be objected, that such a disposition of things, implying in God a -painful, operose, and inconceivable extent of Providence, it could not -be supposed that such care extended to all, but was confined to the more -noble parts of the creation. This gross conception of the First Cause -the poet exposes, by showing that God is equally and intimately present -to every particle of matter, to every sort of substance, and in every -instant of being. - -Ver. 277. _As full, as perfect, &c._] Which M. du Resnel translates -thus, - - Dans un homme ignoré sous une humble chaumière, - Que dans le séraphin, rayonnant de lumière. - -_i.e._ "As well in the ignorant man, who inhabits a humble cottage, as -in the seraph encompassed with rays of light." The translator, in good -earnest thought, that a vile man that mourned could be no other than -some poor country cottager. Which has betrayed M. de Crousaz into this -important remark: "For all that, we sometimes find in persons of the -lowest rank, a fund of probity and resignation which preserves them from -contempt; their minds are, indeed, but narrow, yet fitted to their -station," &c. _Comm._ p. 120. But Mr. Pope had no such childish idea in -his head. He was here opposing the human species to the angelic; and so -spoke of the first, when compared to the latter, as vile and -disconsolate. The force and beauty of the reflection depend upon this -sense; and, what is more, the propriety of it. - -Ver. 278. _As the rapt seraph, &c._] Alluding to the name seraphim, -signifying burners. - -Ver. 294. _One truth is clear, whatever is, is right._] It will be -difficult to think any caviller should have objected to this conclusion; -especially when the author, in this very epistle, has himself thus -explained it: - - Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, - May, must be right, as relative to all. - So man, who here seems principal alone, - Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown; - Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal: - 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. - -But without any regard to the evidence of this illustration, M. de -Crousaz exclaims: "See the general conclusion, All that is, is right. So -that at the sight of Charles the First losing his head on the scaffold, -we must have said, this is right; at the sight too of his judges -condemning him, we must have said, this is right; at the sight of some -of these judges, taken and condemned for the action which he had owned -to be right, we must have cried out, this is doubly right." Never was -any thing more amazing than that the absurdities arising from the sense -in which this critic takes the great principle, of whatever is, is -right, did not show him his mistake. For could any one in his senses -employ a proposition in a meaning from whence such evident absurdities -immediately arise? I have observed, that this conclusion, whatever is, -is right, is a consequence of these premises, that partial evil tends to -universal good; which the author employs as a principle to humble the -pride of man, who would impiously make God accountable for his creation. -What then does common sense teach us to understand by whatever is, is -right? Did the poet mean right with regard to man, or right with regard -to God; right with regard to itself, or right with regard to its -ultimate tendency? Surely with regard to God; for he tells us his design -is to vindicate the ways of God to man. Surely with regard to its -ultimate tendency; for he tells us again, all partial ill is universal -good. Ver. 291. Now is this any encouragement to vice? Or does it take -off from the crime of him who commits it, that God providentially -produces good out of evil? Had Mr. Pope abruptly said in his conclusion, -the result of all is, that whatever is, is right, the objector had even -then been inexcusable for putting so absurd a sense upon the words, when -he might have seen that it was a conclusion from the general principle -above-mentioned; and therefore must necessarily have another meaning. -But what must we think of him, when the poet, to prevent mistakes, had -delivered, in this very place, the principle itself, together with this -conclusion as the consequence of it? - - All discord, harmony not understood; - All partial evil, universal good; - And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, - One truth is clear, whatever is, is right. - -He could not have told his reader plainer that his conclusion was the -consequence of that principle, unless he had written therefore in great -church letters. - - - NOTES ON EPISTLE II. - -Ver. 3. _Placed on this isthmus, &c._] As the poet hath given us this -sublime description of man for the very contrary purpose to what -sceptics are wont to employ such kind of paintings, namely, not to deter -men from the search, but to excite them to the discovery of truth; he -hath, with great judgment, represented men as doubting and wavering -between the right and wrong object; from which state it is allowable to -hope he may be relieved by a careful and circumspect use of reason. On -the contrary, had he supposed man so blind as to be busied in choosing, -or doubtful in his choice, between two objects equally wrong, the case -had appeared desperate, and all study of man had been effectually -discouraged. But M. du Resnel, not seeing the reason and beauty of this -conduct, hath run into the very absurdity, which I have here shown Mr. -Pope so artfully avoided. Of which the learned reader may take the -following proofs. The poet says, - - Man hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest. - -Now he tells us it is man's duty to act, not rest, as the stoics -thought; and, to this their principle, the latter word alludes, whose -virtue, as he says afterwards, is - - Fixed as in a frost, - Contracted all, retiring to the breast: - But strength of mind is exercise, not rest. - -Now hear the translator, who is not for mincing matters: - - Seroit-il en naissant au travail condamné? - Aux douceurs du répos seroit-il destiné? - -and these are both wrong, for man is neither condemned to slavish toil -and labour, nor yet indulged in the luxury of repose. The poet says, - - In doubt to deem himself a God, or beast. - -_i.e._ He doubts, as appears from the very next line, whether his soul -be mortal or immortal; one of which is the truth, namely, its -immortality, as the poet himself teaches, when he speaks of the -omnipresence of God: - - Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part.--Epist. i. 275. - -The translator, as we say, unconscious of the poet's purpose, rambles as -before: - - Tantôt de son esprit admirant l'excellence, - Il pense qu'il est Dieu, qu'il en a la puissance; - Et tantôt gémissant des besoins de son corps, - Il croit que de la brute, il n'a que les ressorts. - -Here his head, turned to a sceptical view, was running on the different -extravagances of Plato in his theology, and of Descartes in his -physiology. Sometimes, says he, man believes himself a real God; and -sometimes again, a mere machine: things quite out of the poet's thought -in this place. Again, the poet, in a beautiful allusion to Scripture -sentiments, breaks out into this just and moral reflection on man's -condition here, - - Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err. - -The translator turns this fine and sober thought into the most -outrageous scepticism: - - Ce n'est que pour mourir, qu'il est né, qu'il respire; - Et toute sa raison n'est presque qu'un délire. - -and so make his author directly contradict himself, where he says of -man, that he hath - - Too much knowledge for the sceptic side. - -Ver. 10. _Born but to die, &c._] The author's meaning is, that as we are -born to die, and yet do enjoy some small portion of life, so, though we -reason to err, yet we comprehend some few truths. This is the weak state -of reason, in which error mixes itself with all its true conclusions -concerning man's nature. - -Ver. 11. _Alike in ignorance, &c._] _i.e._ The proper sphere of his -reason is so narrow, and the exercise of it so nice, that the too -immoderate use of it is attended with the same ignorance that proceeds -from the not using it at all. Yet though, in both these cases, he is -abused by himself, he has it still in his own power to disabuse himself, -in making his passions subservient to the means, and regulating his -reason by the end of life. - -Ver. 12. _Whether he thinks too little or too much:_] It is so true, -that ignorance arises as well from pushing our inquiries too far, as -from not carrying them far enough, that we may observe, when -speculations, even in science, are carried beyond a certain point,--that -point where use is reasonably supposed to end, and mere curiosity to -begin,--they conclude in the most extravagant and senseless inferences, -such as the unreality of matter; the reality of space; the servility of -the will, &c. The cause of this sudden fall out of full light into utter -darkness, seems not to arise from the natural condition of things, but -to be the arbitrary decree of infinite wisdom and goodness, which -imposed a barrier to the extravagances of its giddy, lawless creature, -always inclined to pursue truths of less importance too far, and to -neglect those which are more necessary for his improvement in his -station here. - -Ver. 17. _Sole judge of Truth, in endless error hurled:_] Some have -imagined that the author, by, in endless error hurled, meant, cast into -endless error, or into the regions of endless error, and therefore have -taken notice of it as an incongruity of speech. But they neither -understood the poet's language, nor his sense. To hurl and cast are not -synonymous; but related only as the genus and species; for to hurl -signifies not simply to cast, but to cast backward and forward, and is -taken from the rural game called hurling. So that, into endless error -hurled, as these critics would have it, would have been a barbarism. His -words therefore signify tossed about in endless error; and this he -intended they should signify, as appears from the antithesis, sole judge -of truth. So that the sense of the whole is, "Though, as sole judge of -truth, he is now fixed and stable; yet, as involved in endless error, he -is now again hurled, or tossed up and down in it." This shows us how -cautious we ought to be in censuring the expressions of a writer, one of -whose characteristic qualities was correctness of expression and -propriety of sentiment. - -Ver. 20. _Go, measure earth, &c._] Alluding to the noble and useful -labours of the modern mathematicians, in measuring a degree at the -equator and the polar circle, in order to determine the true figure of -the earth; of great importance to astronomy and navigation; and which -proved of equal honour to the wonderful sagacity of Newton. - -Ver. 22. _Correct old Time, &c._] This alludes to Newton's Grecian -Chronology, which he reformed on those two sublime conceptions, the -difference between the reigns of kings, and the generations of men; and -the position of the colures of the equinoxes and solstices at the time -of the Argonautic expedition. - -Ver. 29, 30. _Go, teach Eternal Wisdom, &c._] These two lines are a -conclusion from all that had been said from ver. 18 to this effect: "Go -now, vain man, elated with thy acquirements in real science, and -imaginary intimacy with God; go, and run into all the extravagances I -have exploded in the first Epistle, where thou pretendest to teach -Providence how to govern; then drop into the obscurities of thy own -nature, and thereby manifest thy ignorance and folly." - -Ver. 31. _Superior beings, &c._] In these lines the poet speaks to this -effect: "But to make you fully sensible of the difficulty of this study, -I shall instance in the great Newton himself, whom, when superior -beings, not long since, saw capable of unfolding the whole law of -nature, they were in doubt whether the owner of such prodigious sagacity -should not be reckoned of their order, just as men, when they see the -surprising marks of reason in an ape, are almost tempted to rank him -with their own kind." And yet this wondrous man could go no further in -the knowledge of himself than the generality of his species. M. du -Resnel, who understood nothing of all this, translates these four -celebrated lines thus: - - Des célestes esprits la vive intelligence - Regarde avec pitié notre foible science; - Newton, le grand Newton, que nous admirons tous, - Est peut-être pour eux, ce qu'un singe est pour nous. - -But it is not the pity, but the admiration of the celestial spirits -which is here spoken of. And it was for no slight cause they admired; it -was, to see a mortal man unfold the whole law of nature. By which we see -it was not Mr. Pope's intention to bring any of the ape's qualities, but -its sagacity, into the comparison. But why the ape's, it may be said, -rather than the sagacity of some more decent animal, particularly the -half-reasoning elephant, as the poet calls it; which, as well on account -of this its excellence, as for its having no ridiculous side, like the -ape, on which it could be viewed, seems better to have deserved this -honour? I reply, because, as a shape resembling human (which only the -ape has) must be joined with great sagacity, to raise a suspicion that -the animal, thus endowed, is related to man, so the spirituality, which -Newton had in common with angels, joined to a penetration superior to -man, made those beings suspect he might be one of their order. On this -ground of relation, we see the whole beauty of the thought depends. And -here let me take notice of a new species of the sublime, of which our -poet may be justly said to be the maker; so new, that we have yet no -name for it, though of a nature distinct from every other known beauty -of poetry. The two great perfections in works of genius are wit and -sublimity. Many writers have been witty; some have been sublime; and a -few have even possessed both these qualities separately. But none, that -I know of, besides our poet, hath had the art to incorporate them; of -which he hath given many examples, both in this Essay, and his other -poems; one of the noblest being the passage in question. This seems to -be the last effort of the imagination to poetical perfection; and in -this compounded excellence, the wit receives a dignity from the sublime, -and the sublime a splendour from the wit, which, in their state of -separate existence, they neither of them had. Yet a late critic, who -writes with the decision of a Lord of Session on Parnassus, thinks -otherwise: "It may be gathered," says he, "from what is said above, that -wit and ridicule make not an agreeable mixture with grandeur. Dissimilar -emotions have a fine effect in a slow succession; but in a rapid -succession which approaches to co-existence, they will not be -relished."[1595] What pity is it, that the poet should here confute the -critic, by doing what the critic, with his rules, teaches us cannot be -done. Boileau, who was both poet and critic, had a clear view of this -excellence in idea; while the mere critic had no idea of what had been -clearly set before his eyes. - - On peut être à la fois et pompeux et plaisant; - Et je haïs un sublime ennuyeux et pesant. - -Ver. 37. _Who saw its fires here rise, &c._] Sir Isaac Newton, in -calculating the velocity of a comet's motion, and the course it -describes, when it becomes visible in its descent to, and ascent from, -the sun, conjectured, with the highest appearance of truth, that comets -revolve perpetually round the sun, in ellipses vastly eccentrical, and -very nearly approaching to parabolas. In which he was greatly confirmed, -in observing between two comets a coincidence in their perihelions, and -a perfect agreement in their velocities. - -Ver. 45. _vanity, or dress,_] These are the first parts of what the -poet, in the preceding line, calls the scholar's equipage of pride. By -vanity, is meant that luxuriancy of thought and expression in which a -writer indulges himself, to show the fruitfulness of his fancy or -invention. By dress, is to be understood a lower degree of that -practice, in amplification of thought and ornamental expression, to give -force to what the writer would convey: but even this, the poet, in a -severe search after truth, condemns; and with great judgment, -conciseness of thought, and simplicity of expression, being as well the -best instruments, as the best vehicles of truth. Shakespeare touches -upon this latter advantage with great force and humour. The flatterer -says to Timon in distress, "I cannot cover the monstrous bulk of their -ingratitude with any size of words." The other replies, "Let it go -naked; men may see't the better." - -Ver. 46. _Or learning's luxury, or idleness;_] The luxury of learning -consists in dressing up and disguising old notions in a new way, so as -to make them more fashionable and palatable; instead of examining and -scrutinizing their truth. As this is often done for pomp and show, it is -called luxury; as it is often done too to save pains and labour, it is -called idleness. - -Ver. 47. _Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain,_] Such as the -mathematical demonstration concerning the small quantity of matter; the -endless divisibility of it, &c. - -Ver. 48. _Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;_] _i.e._ when -admiration has set the mind on the rack. - -Ver. 49. _Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts - Of all our vices have created arts;_] - -_i.e._ Those parts of Natural Philosophy, Logic, Rhetoric, Poetry, &c., -which administer to luxury, deceit, ambition, effeminacy, &c. - -Ver. 74. _Reason, the future, &c._] _i.e._ by experience, reason -collects the future; and by argumentation, the consequence. - -Ver. 109. _Nor God alone, &c._ - -The translator turns it thus: - - Dieu lui-même, Dieu sort de son profond repos. - -And so, makes an epicurean God, of the Governor of the universe. M. de -Crousaz does not spare this expression of God's coming out of his -profound repose. "It is," says he, "excessively poetical, and presents -us with ideas which we ought not to dwell upon," &c. and then, as usual, -blames the author for the blunder of his translator. _Comm._ p. 158. - -Ver. 109. _Nor God alone, &c._] These words are only a simple -affirmation in the poetic dress of a similitude, to this purpose: "Good -is not only produced by the subdual of the passions, but by the -turbulent exercise of them,"--a truth conveyed under the most sublime -imagery that poetry could conceive or paint. For the author is here only -showing the providential issue of the passions, and how, by God's -gracious disposition, they are turned away from their natural -destructive bias, to promote the happiness of mankind. As to the method -in which they are to be treated by man, in whom they are found, all that -he contends for, in favour of them, is only this, that they should not -be quite rooted up and destroyed, as the stoics, and their followers, in -all religions, foolishly attempted. For the rest, he constantly repeats -this advice, - - The action of the stronger to suspend, - Reason still use, to reason still attend. - -Ver. 133. _As man, perhaps, &c._] "Antipater Sidonius Poeta omnibus -annis uno die natali tantum corripiebatur febre, et eo consumptus est -satis longâ senectâ." _Plin._ 1. vii. _N. H._ This Antipater was in the -times of Crassus, and is celebrated for the quickness of his parts by -Cicero. - -Ver. 147. _Reason itself, &c._] The Poet, in some other of his epistles, -gives examples of the doctrines and precepts here delivered. Thus, in -that Of the Use of Riches, he has illustrated this truth in the -character of Cotta: - - Old Cotta shamed his fortune and his birth, - Yet was not Cotta void of wit or worth. - What though (the use of barb'rous spits forgot) - His kitchen vied in coolness with his grot? - If Cotta lived on pulse, it was no more - Than bramins, saints, and sages did before. - -Ver. 149. _We, wretched subjects, &c._] St. Paul himself did not choose -to employ other arguments, when disposed to give us the highest idea of -the usefulness of christianity (Rom. vii.) But it may be, the poet finds -a remedy in natural religion. Far from it. He here leaves reason -unrelieved. What is this, then, but an intimation that we ought to seek -for a cure in that religion, which only dares profess to give it? - -Ver. 163. _'Tis hers to rectify, &c._] The meaning of this precept is, -That as the ruling passion is implanted by nature, it is reason's office -to regulate, direct, and restrain, but not to overthrow it. To reform -the passion of avarice, for instance, into a parsimonious dispensation -of the public revenues: to direct the passion of love, whose object is -worth and beauty, - - To the first good, first perfect, and first fair, - -the [Greek: to kalon t' agathon], as his master Plato advises; and to -restrain spleen to a contempt and hatred of vice. This is what the poet -meant, and what every unprejudiced man could not but see he must needs -mean, by rectifying the master passion, though he had not confined us -to this sense, in the reason he gives of his precept in these words: - - A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends, - And several men impels to several ends; - -for what ends are they which God impels to, but the ends of virtue? - -Ver. 175. _Th' eternal art, &c._] The author has, throughout these -epistles, explained his meaning to be that vice is, in its own nature, -the greatest of evils, and produced through the abuse of man's free -will: - - What makes all physical and moral ill? - There deviates nature, and here wanders will: - -but that God in his infinite goodness, deviously turns the natural bias -of its malignity to the advancement of human happiness. A doctrine very -different from the Fable of the Bees, which impiously and foolishly -supposes it to have that natural tendency. - -Ver. 204. _The god within the mind._] A Platonic phrase for conscience; -and here employed with great judgment and propriety. For conscience -either signifies, speculatively, the judgment we pass of things upon -whatever principles we chance to have, and then it is only opinion, a -very unable judge and divider; or else it signifies, practically, the -application of the eternal rule of right (received by us as the law of -God) to the regulation of our actions; and then it is properly -conscience, the god (or the law of God) within the mind, of power to -divide the light from the darkness in this Chaos of the passions. - - Ver. 253. _Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally - The common interest, &c._] - -As these lines have been misunderstood, I shall give the reader their -plain and obvious meaning. To these frailties, says he, we owe all the -endearments of private life; yet when we come to that age, which -generally disposes men to think more seriously of the true value of -things, and consequently of their provision for a future state, the -consideration, that the grounds of those joys, loves, and friendships, -are wants, frailties, and passions, proves the best expedient to wean us -from the world; a disengagement so friendly to that provision we are now -making for another state. The observation is new, and would in any place -be extremely beautiful, but has here an infinite grace and propriety, as -it so well confirms, by an instance of great moment, the general thesis, -that God makes ill, at every step, productive of good. - -Ver. 270. _the poet in his muse._] The author having said, that no one -could change his own profession or views for those of another, intended -to carry his observations still further, and show that men were -unwilling to exchange their own acquirements even for those of the same -kind, confessedly larger, and infinitely more eminent in another. To -this end he wrote, - - What partly pleases, totally will shock: - I question much, if Toland would be Locke. - -But wanting another proper instance of this truth, he reserved the lines -above for some following edition of this Essay, which he did not live to -give. - -Ver. 280. _And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age:_] A satire on -what is called, in popery, the _Opus operatum_. As this is a description -of the circle of human life returning into itself by a second childhood, -the poet has with great elegance concluded his description with the same -image with which he set out, "And life's poor play is o'er." - -Ver. 286. _And each vacuity of sense by pride:_] An eminent casuist, -Father Francis Garasse, in his Somme Théologique, has drawn a very -charitable conclusion from this principle, which he hath well -illustrated: "Selon la justice," says this equitable divine, "tout -travail honnête doit être recompensé de louange ou de satisfaction. -Quand les bons esprits font un ouvrage excellent, ils sont justement -recompensés par les suffrages du public. Quand un pauvre esprit -travaille beaucoup, pour faire un mauvais ouvrage, il n'est pas juste ni -raisonnable, qu'il attende des louanges publiques; car elles ne lui sont -pas dues. Mais afin que ses travaux ne demeurent pas sans recompense, -Dieu lui donne une satisfaction personelle, que personne ne lui peut -envier sans une injustice plus que barbare; tout ainsi que Dieu, qui est -juste, donne de la satisfaction aux grenouilles de leur chant. Autrement -la blâme public, joint à leur mécontentement, seroit suffisant pour les -réduire au désespoir." - - - NOTES ON EPISTLE III. - -Ver. 3. _superfluous health,_] Immoderate labour and immoderate study -are equally the impairers of health. They whose station sets them above -both, must needs have an abundance of it, which not being employed in -the common service, but wasted in luxury and folly, the post properly -calls a superfluity. - -Ver. 4. _impudence of wealth,_] Because wealth pretends to be wisdom, -wit, learning, honesty, and, in short, all the virtues in their turns. - -Ver. 3-6.] M. du Resnel, not seeing into the admirable purpose of the -caution contained in these four lines, hath quite dropped the most -material circumstances contained in the last of them; and what is worse, -for the sake of a foolish antithesis, hath destroyed the whole propriety -of the thought in the two first; and so, between both, hath left his -author neither sense nor system. - - Dans le sein du bonheur, ou de l'adversité. - -Now, of all men, those in adversity have least needs of this caution, as -being least apt to forget, that God consults the good of the whole, and -provides for it by procuring mutual happiness by means of mutual wants; -it being seen that such who yet retain the smart of any fresh calamity, -are most compassionate to others labouring under distresses, and most -prompt and ready to relieve them. - -Ver. 9. _See plastic nature, &c._] M. du Resnel mistook this description -of the preservation of the material universe, by the quality of -attraction, for a description of its creation; and so translates it - - Vois du sein du Chaos éclater la lumière, - Chaque atome ébranlé courir pour s'embrasser, &c. - -This destroys the poet's fine analogical argument, by which he proves, -from the circumstance of mutual attraction in matter, that man, while he -seeks society, and thereby promotes the good of his species, co-operates -with God's general dispensation; whereas the circumstance of a creation -proves nothing but a Creator. - -Ver. 12. _Formed and impelled, &c._] Formed and impelled are not words -of a loose, undistinguishable meaning thrown in to fill up the verse. -This is not our author's way; they are full of sense, and of the most -philosophical precision. For to make matter so cohere as to fit it for -the uses intended by its Creator, a proper configuration of its -insensible parts is as necessary as that quality so equally and -universally conferred upon it, called attraction. To express the first -part of this thought, our author says formed; and to express the latter, -impelled. - -Ver. 19, 20. _Like bubbles, &c._] M. du Resnel translates these two -lines thus: - - Sort du néant, y rentre, et reparoit au jour. - -He is here, indeed, consistently wrong: for having, as we said, mistaken -the poet's account of the preservation of matter for the creation of it, -he commits the very same mistake with regard to the vegetable and -animal systems; and so talks now, though with the latest, of the -production of things out of nothing. Indeed, by his speaking of their -returning into nothing, he has subjected his author to M. de Crousaz's -censure: "Mr. Pope descends to the most vulgar prejudices, when he tells -us that each being returns to nothing: the vulgar think that what -disappears is annihilated," &c. _Comm._ p. 221. - -Ver. 22. _One all-extending, all-preserving soul,_] Which, in the -language of Sir Isaac Newton, is "Deus omnipræsens est, non per virtutem -solam, sed etiam per substantiam: nam virtus sine substantiâ subsistere -non potest." _Newt. Princ. Schol. gen. sub fin._ - -Ver. 23. _greatest with the least;_] As acting more strongly and -immediately in beasts, whose instinct is plainly an external reason; -which made an old school-man say, with great elegance, "Deus est anima -brutorum:" - - In this 'tis God directs. - -Ver. 45. _See all things for my use!_] On the contrary, the wise man -hath said, "The Lord hath made all things for himself." Prov. xvi. 4. - -Ver. 50. _Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole:_] Alluding to the -witty system of that philosopher,[1596] which made animals mere -machines, insensible of pain or pleasure; and so encouraged men in the -exercise of that tyranny over their fellow-creatures, consequent on such -a principle. - -Ver. 152. _Man walked with beast, joint tenant of the shade;_] The poet -still takes his imagery from Platonic ideas, for the reason given above. -Plato had said, from old tradition, that, during the golden age, and -under the reign of Saturn, the primitive language then in use was common -to man and beasts. Moral instructors took advantage of the popular sense -of this tradition, to convey their precepts under those fables which -gave speech to the whole brute creation. The naturalists understood the -tradition in the contrary sense, to signify, that, in the first ages, -men used inarticulate sounds, like beasts, to express their wants and -sensations; and that it was by slow degrees they came to the use of -speech. This opinion was afterwards held by Lucretius, Diodorus Sic., -and Gregory of Nyss. - -Ver. 156. _All vocal beings, &c._] This may be well explained by a -sublime passage of the Psalmist, who, calling to mind the age of -innocence, and full of the great ideas of those - - Chains of love - Combining all below and all above, - Which to one point, and to one centre bring, - Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king; - -breaks out into this rapturous and divine apostrophe, to call back the -devious creation to its pristine rectitude; that very state our author -describes above: "Praise the Lord, all his angels; praise ye him, all -his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon; praise him, all ye stars of -light," &c. Psalm cxlviii. - -Ver. 158. _Unbribed, unbloody, &c._] _i.e._ the state described from -ver. 263 to 269 was not yet arrived. For then, when superstition was -become so extreme as to bribe the gods with human sacrifices, tyranny -became necessitated to woo the priest for a favourable answer. - -Ver. 159. _Heav'n's attribute, &c._] The poet supposeth the truth of the -Scripture account, that man was created lord of this inferior world (Ep. -i. ver. 230). - - Subjected these to those, and all to thee. - -What hath misled some to imagine that our author hath here fallen into a -contradiction, was, I suppose, such passages as these, "Ask for what end -the heav'nly bodies shine," &c.; and again, "Has God, thou fool! worked -solely for thy good," &c. But, in truth, this is so far from -contradicting what he had said of man's prerogative, that it greatly -confirms it, and the Scripture account concerning it. And because the -licentious manner in which this subject has been treated, has made some -readers jealous and mistrustful of the author's sober meaning, I shall -endeavour to explain it. Scripture says, that man was made lord of this -sublunary world. But intoxicated with pride, the common effect of -sovereignty, he erected himself, like little partial monarchs, into a -tyrant. And as tyranny consists in supposing all made for the use of -one, he took those freedoms with all, which are the consequence of such -a principle. He soon began to consider the whole animal creation as his -slaves rather than his subjects, as created for no use of their own, but -for his use only, and therefore treated them with the utmost cruelty; -and not content, to add insult to his cruelty, he endeavoured to -philosophize himself into an opinion that these animals were mere -machines, insensible of pain or pleasure. Thus man affected to be the -wit as well as tyrant of the whole. So that it became one who adhered to -the Scripture account of man's dominion to reprove this abuse of it, and -to show that - - Heav'n's attribute was universal care, - And man's prerogative to rule, but spare. - -Ver. 171. _Thus then to man, &c._] - -M. du Resnel has translated the lines thus: - - La nature indignée alors se fit entendre; - Va, malheureux mortel, va, lui dit-elle, apprendre; - -One would wonder what should make the translator represent nature in -such a passion with man, and calling him names, at a time when Mr. Pope -supposed her in her best good-humour. But what led him into this mistake -was another as gross. His author having described the state of innocence -which ends at these lines, - - Heav'n's attribute was universal care, - And man's prerogative to rule, but spare, - -turns from those times, to a view of these latter ages, and breaks out -into this tender and humane complaint, - - Ah! how unlike the man of times to come, - Of half that live the butcher and the tomb, &c. - -Unluckily, M. du Resnel took this man of times to come for the corrupter -of that first age, and so imagined the poet had introduced nature only -to set things right: he then supposed, of course, she was to be very -angry; and not finding the author had represented her in any great -emotion, he was willing to improve upon his original. - -Ver. 174. _Learn from the beasts, &c._] See Pliny's _Nat. Hist._ 1. -viii. c. 27, where several instances are given of animals discovering -the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own use of them; and pointing -out to some operations in the art of healing, by their own practice. - -Ver. 199. _observant men obeyed;_] The epithet is beautiful, as -signifying both obedience to the voice of nature, and attention to the -lessons of the animal creation. But M. l'Abbé, who has a strange -fatality of contradicting his original, whenever he attempts to -paraphrase, as he calls it, the sense, turns the lines in this manner: - - Par ces mots la nature excita l'industrie, - Et de l'homme féroce enchaina la furie. - -"Chained up the fury of savage man"; and so contradicts the author's -whole system of benevolence, and goes over to the atheist's, who -supposes the state of nature to be a state of war. What seems to have -misled him was these lines: - - What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, - And he returned a friend who came a foe. - -But M. du Resnel should have considered, that though the author holds a -state of nature to be a state of peace, yet he never imagined it -impossible that there should be quarrels in it. He had said, - - So drives self-love through just and through unjust. - -He pushes no system to an extravagance, but steers (as he says in his -preface) through doctrines seemingly opposite, or, in other words, -follows truth uniformly throughout. - -Ver. 208. _When love was liberty,_] _i.e._ When men had no need to guard -their native liberty from their governors by civil pactions, the love -which each master of a family had for those under his care being their -best security. - -Ver. 211. _'Twas virtue only, &c._] Our author hath good authority for -this account of the origin of kingship. Aristotle assures us, that it -was virtue only, or in arts or arms: [Greek: Kathistatai basileus ek tôn -epieikôn kath' hyperochên aretês, ê praxeôn tôn apo tês aretês, ê kath' -hyperochên toioutou genous]. - -Ver. 219. _He from the wond'ring furrow, &c._] _i.e._ He subdued the -intractability of all the four elements, and made them subservient to -the use of man. - -Ver. 225. _Then, looking up, &c._] The poet here maketh their more -serious attention to religion to have arisen, not from their gratitude -amidst abundance, but from their inability in distress, by showing that, -in prosperity, they rested in second causes, the immediate authors of -their blessings, whom they revered as God; but that, in adversity, they -reasoned up to the First: - - Then, looking up from sire to sire, &c. - -This, I am afraid, is but too true a representation of humanity. - -Ver. 225 to 240.] M. du Resnel, not apprehending that the poet was here -returned to finish his description of the state of nature, has fallen -into one of the grossest errors that ever was committed. He has mistaken -this account of true religion for an account of the origin of idolatry, -and thus he fatally embellishes his own blunder: - - Jaloux d'en conserver les traits et la figure, - Leur zèle industrieux inventa la peinture. - Leurs neveux, attentifs à ces hommes fameux, - Qui par le droit du sang avoient régné sur eux, - Trouvent-ils dans leur suite un grand, un premier père, - Leur aveugle respect l'adore et le révère. - -Here you have one of the finest pieces of reasoning turned at once into -a heap of nonsense. The unlucky term of "Great first Father," was -mistaken by our translator to signify a "great grandfather." But he -should have considered, that Mr. Pope always represents God under the -idea of a Father. He should have observed, that the poet is here -describing those men who - - To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, - And owned a father, where they own'd a God! - -Ver. 231. _Ere wit oblique, &c._] A beautiful allusion to the effects of -the prismatic glass on the rays of light. - -Ver. 242. _Th' enormous faith, &c._] In this Aristotle placeth the -difference between a king and a tyrant, that the first supposeth himself -made for the people; the other, that the people are made for him: -[Greek: Bouletai d' ho basileus einai phulax, hopôs hoi men kektêmenoi -tas ousias mêthen adikon paschôsin, ho de dêmos mê hubrizêtai mêthen; -hê de tyrannis pros ouden apoblepei koinon, ei mê tês idias ôpheleias -charin]. Pol. lib. V. cap. 10. - -Ver. 245. _Force first made conquest, &c._] All this is agreeable to -fact, and shows our author's knowledge of human nature. For that -impotency of mind, as the Latin writers call it, which gives birth to -the enormous crimes necessary to support a tyranny, naturally subjects -its owner to all the vain, as well as real, terrors of conscience. Hence -the whole machinery of superstition. It is true, the poet observes, that -afterwards, when the tyrant's fright was over, he had cunning enough, -from the experience of the effect of superstition upon himself, to turn -it, by the assistance of the priest (who for his reward went shares with -him in the tyranny) against the justly dreaded resentment of his -subjects. For a tyrant naturally and reasonably supposeth all his slaves -to be his enemies. Having given the causes of superstition, he next -describeth its objects: - - Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, &c. - -The ancient pagan gods are here very exactly described. This fact -evinceth the truth of that original, which the poet gives to -superstition; for if these phantasms were first raised in the -imagination of tyrants, they must needs have the qualities here assigned -to them. For force being the tyrant's virtue, and luxury his happiness, -the attributes of his god would of course be revenge and lust; in a -word, the antitype of himself. But there was another, and more -substantial cause, of the resemblance between a tyrant and a pagan god; -and that was the making gods of conquerors, as the poet says, and so -canonizing a tyrant's vices with his person. That these gods should suit -a people humbled to the stroke of a master will be no wonder, if we -recollect a generous saying of the ancients,--"that day which sees a man -a slave takes away half his virtue." - -Ver. 262. _and heav'n on pride._] This might be very well said of those -times when no one was content to go to heaven without being received -there on the footing of a god, with a ceremony of an [Greek: -Apotheôsis]. - -Ver. 283. _'Twas then, the studious head, &c._] The poet seemeth here to -mean the polite and nourishing age of Greece; and those benefactors to -mankind, which he had principally in view, were Socrates and Aristotle; -who, of all the pagan world, spoke best of God, and wrote best of -government. - -Ver. 295. _Such is the world's great harmony, &c._] A harmony very -different from the pre-established harmony of the celebrated Leibnitz, -which introduceth a fatality destructive of all religion and morality. -Yet hath the learned M. de Crousaz ventured to accuse our poet of -espousing that dangerous whimsy. The pre-established harmony was built -upon, and is an outrageous extension of a conception of Plato, who, -combating the atheistical objections about the origin of evil, employs -this argument in defence of Providence: "That amongst an infinite number -of possible worlds in God's idea, this which he hath created and brought -into being, and which admits of a mixture of evil, is the best. But if -the best, then evil consequently is partial, comparatively small, and -tendeth to the greater perfection of the whole." This principle is -espoused and supported by Mr. Pope with all the power of reason and -poetry. But neither was Plato a fatalist, nor is there any fatalism in -the argument. As to the truth of the notion, that is another question; -and how far it cleareth up the very difficult controversy about the -origin of evil, is still another. That it is a full solution of the -difficulty, I cannot think, for reasons too long to be given in this -place. Perhaps we shall never have a full solution here, and it may be -no great matter though we have not, as we are demonstrably certain of -the moral attributes of the Deity. Yet this will never hinder writers -from exposing themselves on this subject. A late author[1597] thinks he -can account for the origin of evil, and therefore he will write: he -thinks too, that the clearing up this difficulty is necessary to secure -the foundation of religion, and therefore he will print. But he is -doubly mistaken: he must know little of philosophy to fancy that he has -found the solution; and still less of religion, to imagine that the want -of his solution can affect our belief in God. Such writers - - Amuse th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile. - -However, Mr. Pope may be justified in receiving and enforcing this -Platonic notion, as it hath been adopted by the most celebrated and -orthodox divines both of the ancient and modern church. This doctrine -was taken up by Leibnitz; but it was to ingraft upon it a most -pernicious fatalism. Plato said, God chose the best: Leibnitz said, he -could not but choose the best, as he could not act without, what this -philosopher called, a sufficient reason. Plato supposed freedom in God -to choose one of two things equally good: Leibnitz held the supposition -to be absurd: but, however, admitting the case, he still held that God -could not choose one of two things equally good. Thus it appears, the -first went on the system of freedom; and that the latter, -notwithstanding the most artful disguises of his principles, in his -Theodicée, was a thorough fatalist: for we cannot well suppose he would -give that freedom to man which he had taken away from God. The truth of -the matter seems to be this: he saw, on the one hand, the monstrous -absurdity of supposing, with Spinoza, that blind fate was the author of -a coherent universe; but yet, on the other, he could not conceive with -Plato, how God could foresee and conduct, according to an archetypal -idea, a world, of all possible worlds the best, inhabited by free -agents. This difficulty, therefore, which made the socinians take -prescience from God, disposed Leibnitz to take free-will from man: and -thus he fashioned his fantastical hypothesis; he supposed that when God -made the body, he impressed on his new-created machine a certain series -or suite of motions; and that when he made the fellow soul, he impressed -a correspondent series of ideas; whose operations, throughout the whole -duration of the union, were so exactly timed, that whenever an idea was -excited, a correspondent motion was ever ready to satisfy the volition. -Thus, for instance, when the mind had the will to raise the arm to the -head, the body was so pre-contrived, as to raise, at that very moment, -the part required. This he called the pre-established harmony; and with -this he promised to do wonders. "Yet after all," says an excellent -philosopher and best interpreter of Newton, "he owned to his friends, -that this extraordinary notion was only a lusus ingenii (un jeu -d'esprit) to try his parts, and laugh at the credulity of philosophers; -who are as fond of a new paradox, as enthusiasts of a new light. If at -other times he was so pleased with his own notions in his Theodicée, as -to defend them seriously against the learned Dr. Clarke, that shows only -that he angled for two different sorts of reputation, from the same -performance; and unluckily he lost both. The subject was too serious to -pass for a romance; and the principles too absurd to be admitted for -truth." _Mr. Baxter's Appendix to the Inquiry into the Nature of the -Human Soul_, p. 162. As this was the case, none would have thought it -amiss in M. Voltaire to oppose one romance to another, had he rested -there. But his tale of Candide, which professes to ridicule the optimism -of Leibnitz, was apparently composed in favour of an irreligious -naturalism, which he makes the solution of all the difficulties in the -story. - -Ver. 303. _For forms of government, &c._] Such as Harrington, Wildman, -Neville,[1598] &c. about the several forms of a legitimate policy. These -fine lines have been strangely misunderstood. The author, against his -own express words, against the plain sense of his system, hath been -conceived to mean, that all governments and all religions were, as to -their forms and objects, indifferent. But as this wrong judgment -proceeded from ignorance of the reason of the reproof, as explained -above,[1599] that explanation is alone sufficient to rectify the -mistake. However, not to leave him under the least suspicion in a matter -of so much importance, I shall justify the sense here given to this -passage, more at large: - -I. And first, as to society: Let us consider the words themselves; and -then compare this mistaken sense with the context. The poet, we may -observe, is here speaking, not of civil society at large, but of a just -legitimate policy: - - Th' according music of a well-mixed state. - -Now mixed states are of various kinds; in some of which the democratic, -in others the aristocratic, and in others the monarchic form prevails. -Now, as each of these mixed forms is equally legitimate, as being -founded on the principles of natural liberty, that man is guilty of the -highest folly, who chooseth rather to employ himself in a speculative -contest for the superior excellence of one of these forms to the rest, -than in promoting the good administration of that settled form to which -he is subject. And yet most of our warm disputes about government have -been of this kind. Again, if by forms of government must needs be meant -legitimate government, because that is the subject under debate, then by -modes of faith, which is the correspondent idea, must needs be meant the -modes or explanations of the true faith, because the author is here too -on the subject of true religion: - - Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new. - -Besides, the very expression (than which nothing can be more precise) -confineth us to understand by modes of faith, those human explanations -of christian mysteries, in contending about which zeal and ignorance -have so perpetually violated charity. Secondly, If we consider the -context; to suppose him to mean, that all forms of government are -indifferent, is making him directly contradict the preceding paragraph, -where he extols the patriot for discriminating the true from the false -modes of government. He, says the poet, - - Taught pow'r's due use to people and to kings, - Taught not to slack, nor strain its tender strings; - The less, or greater, set so justly true, - That touching one must strike the other too; - Till jarring interests of themselves create - Th' according music of a well mixed state. - -Here he recommendeth the true form of government, which is the mixed. In -another place he as strongly condemneth the false, or the absolute _jure -divino_ form: - - For nature knew no right divine in men. - -But the reader will not be displeased to see the poet's own apology, as -I find it written in the year 1740, in his own hand, in the margin of a -pamphlet, where he found these two celebrated lines very much -misapplied: "The author of these lines was far from meaning that no one -form of government is, in itself, better than another, (as, that mixed -or limited monarchy, for example, is not preferable to absolute), but -that no form of government, however excellent or preferable, in itself, -can be sufficient to make a people happy, unless it be administered with -integrity. On the contrary, the best sort of government, when the form -of it is preserved, and the administration corrupt, is most dangerous." - -II. Again, to suppose the poet to mean, that all religions are -indifferent, is an equally wrong, as well as uncharitable suspicion. Mr. -Pope, though his subject, in this Essay on Man, confineth him to natural -religion, his purpose being to vindicate God's natural dispensations to -mankind against the atheist, yet he giveth frequent intimations of a -more sublime dispensation, and even of the necessity of it, particularly -in his second Epistle, ver. 149, &c., where he confesseth the weakness -and insufficiency of human reason. And likewise in his fourth Epistle, -where, speaking of the good man, the favourite of heaven, he saith, - - For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal, - And opens still, and opens on his soul: - Till, lengthened on to faith, and unconfined, - It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. - -But natural religion never lengthened hope on to faith; nor did any -religion, but the christian, ever conceive that faith could fill the -mind with happiness. Lastly, In this very Epistle, and in this very -place, speaking of the great restorers of the religion of nature, he -intimates that they could only draw God's shadow, not his image: - - Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new, - If not God's image, yet his shadow drew: - -as reverencing that truth, which telleth us, this discovery was reserved -for the "glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God." 2 Cor. iv. -4. - -Ver. 305. _For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;_] These -latter ages have seen so many scandalous contentions for modes of faith, -to the violation of Christian charity, and dishonour of sacred -Scripture, that it is not at all strange they should become the object -of so benevolent and wise an author's resentment. But that which he here -seemed to have more particularly in his eye, was the long and -mischievous squabble between Waterland and Jackson,[1600] on a point -confessedly above reason, and amongst those adorable mysteries, which it -is the honour of our religion to find unfathomable. In this, by the -weight of answers and replies, redoubled upon one another without mercy, -they made so profound a progress, that the one proved, nothing hindered -in nature, but that the Son might have been the Father; and the other, -that nothing hindered in grace, but that the Son may be a mere creature. -But if, instead of throwing so many Greek Fathers at one another's -heads, they had but chanced to reflect on the sense of one Greek word, -[Greek: apeiria], that it signifies both infinity and ignorance, this -single equivocation might have saved them ten thousand, which they -expended in carrying on the controversy. However, those mists that -magnified the scene enlarged the character of the combatants, and -nobody expecting common sense on a subject where we have no ideas, the -defects of dulness disappeared, and its advantages (for, advantages -it has) were all provided for. The worst is, such kind of writers -seldom know when to have done. For writing themselves up into the same -delusion with their readers, they are apt to venture out into the more -open paths of literature, where their reputation, made out of that -stuff which Lucian calls [Greek: skotos holochroos], presently falls -from them, and their nakedness appears. And thus it fared with our two -worthies. The world, which must have always something to amuse it, -was now, and it was time, grown weary of its playthings; and catched -at a new object, that promised them more agreeable entertainment. -Tindal, a kind of bastard Socrates, had brought our speculations from -heaven to earth, and, under the pretence of advancing the antiquity -of christianity, laboured to undermine its original. This was a -controversy that required another management. Clear sense, severe -reasoning, a thorough knowledge of prophane and sacred antiquity, and -an intimate acquaintance with human nature, were the qualities proper -for such as engaged in this subject. A very unpromising adventure for -these metaphysical nurslings, bred up under the shade of chimeras. Yet -they would needs venture out.[1601] What they got by it was only to be -once well laughed at, and then, forgotten. - -But one odd circumstance deserves to be remembered; though they wrote -not, we may be sure, in concert, yet each attacked his adversary at the -same time; fastened upon him in the same place; and mumbled him with -just the same toothless rage. But the ill success of this escape soon -brought them to themselves. The one made a fruitless effort to revive -the old game, in a discourse on The Importance of the Doctrine of the -Trinity; and the other has been ever since rambling in Space and -Time.[1602] This short history, as insignificant as the subjects of it -are, may not be altogether unuseful to posterity. Divines may learn by -these examples to avoid the mischiefs done to religion and literature, -through the affectation of being wise above what is written, and knowing -beyond what can be understood. - -Ver. 318. _And bade self-love and social be the same._] True self-love -is an appetite for that proper good, for the enjoyment of which we were -made as we are. Now that good is commensurate with all other good, and a -part and portion of universal good: it is, therefore, the same with -social, which hath these properties. - - - NOTES ON EPISTLE IV. - -Ver. 6. _O'erlooked, seen double, &c._] O'erlooked by those who place -happiness in any thing exclusive of virtue; seen double by those who -admit any thing else to have a share with virtue in procuring happiness, -these being the two general mistakes which this Epistle is employed to -confute. - -Ver. 21, 23. _Some place the bliss in action,-- - Some sunk to beasts, &c._] - -1. Those who place happiness, or the _summum bonum_, in pleasure, -[Greek: Hêdonê]; such as the Cyrenaic sect, called, on that account, -the Hedonic. 2. Those who place it in a certain tranquillity or -calmness of mind, which they call [Greek: Euthymia]; such as the -Democritic sect. 3. The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The Protagorean, -which held that Man was [Greek: pantôn chrêmatôn metron], the measure -of all things; for that all things which appear to him, are, and those -things which appear not to any man, are not; so that every imagination -or opinion of every man was true. 6. The Sceptic; whose absolute doubt -is, with great judgment, said to be the effect of indolence, as well -as the absolute trust of the Protagorean. For the same dread of labour -attending the search of truth, which makes the Protagorean presume it -is always at hand, makes the Sceptic conclude it is never to be found. -The only difference is, that the laziness of the one is desponding, and -the laziness of the other sanguine; yet both can give it a good name, -and call it happiness. - -Ver. 23. _Some sunk to beasts, &c._] These four lines added in the last -edition, as necessary to complete the summary of the false pursuits -after happiness among the Greek philosophers. - -Ver. 35. _Remember, man, "the Universal Cause - "Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws:"_] - -I reckon it for nothing that M. du Resnel saw none of the fine reasoning -from these two lines to ver. 73, in which the poet confutes both the -philosophic and popular errors concerning happiness. What I can least -bear is his perverting these two lines to a horrid and senseless -fatalism, foreign to the argument in hand, and directly contrary to the -poet's general principles: - - Une loi générale - Détermine toujours la cause principale; - -_i.e._ a general law always determines the first cause: which is the -very Fate of the ancient pagans; who supposed that the destinies gave -law to the father of gods and men. The poet says again, soon after, ver. -49, "Order is heaven's first law," _i. e._ the first law made by God -relates to order, which is a beautiful allusion to the Scripture history -of the creation, when God first appeased the disorders of chaos, and -separated the light from the darkness. Let us now hear his translator: - - L'ordre, cet inflexible et grand législateur, - Qui des décrets du ciel est le premier auteur. - -Order, that inflexible and grand legislator, who is the first author of -the law of heaven. A proposition abominable in most senses; absurd in -all. - -Ver. 79. _Reason's whole pleasure, &c._] This is a beautiful periphrasis -for happiness; for all we feel of good is by sensation and reflection. -But the translator, who seemed little to concern himself with the poet's -philosophy or argument, mistook this description of happiness for a -description of the intellectual and sensitive faculties, opposed to one -another, and therefore turns it thus, - - Le charme séducteur, dont s'enivrant les sens, - Les plaisirs de l'esprit, encore plus ravissans; - -And so, with the highest absurdity, not only makes the poet constitute -_sensual excesses_ a part of human happiness, but likewise the product -of virtue. - -Ver. 82. _And peace, &c._] Conscious innocence, says the poet, is the -only source of internal peace; and known innocence, of external; -therefore, peace is the sole issue of virtue, or, in his own emphatic -words, peace is all thy own; a conclusive observation in his argument; -which stands thus: Is happiness rightly placed in externals? No; for it -consists in health, peace, and competence; health and competence are the -product of temperance; and peace, of perfect innocence. - -Ver. 100. _See god-like Turenne_] This epithet has a peculiar justness, -the great man to whom it is applied not being distinguished from other -generals, for any of his superior qualities, so much as for his -providential care of those whom he led to war, in which he was so -intent, that his chief purpose in taking on himself the command of -armies, seems to have been the preservation of mankind. In this god-like -care he was more remarkably employed throughout the whole course of that -famous campaign in which he lost his life. - -Ver. 110. _Lent heav'n a parent, &c._] This last instance of the poet's -illustration of the ways of Providence, the reader sees has a peculiar -elegance, where a tribute of piety to a parent is paid in return of -thanks to, and made subservient of his vindication of, the great Giver -and Father of all things. The mother of the author, a person of great -piety and charity, died the year this poem was finished, viz. 1733. - -Ver. 121. _Think we, like some weak prince, &c._] Agreeable hereunto, -Holy Scripture, in its account of things under the common Providence of -heaven, never represents miracles as wrought for the sake of him who is -the object of them, but in order to give credit to some of God's -extraordinary dispensations to mankind. - -Ver. 123. _Shall burning Etna, &c._] Alluding to the fate of those two -great naturalists, Empedocles and Pliny, who both perished by too near -an approach to Etna and Vesuvius, while they were exploring the cause of -their eruptions. - -Ver. 142. After ver. 142 in some editions: - - Give each a system, all must be at strife; - What different systems for a man and wife! - -The joke, though lively, was ill placed, and therefore struck out of the -text. - -Ver. 177. _Go, like the Indian, &c._] Alluding to the example of the -Indian, in Epist. i. ver. 99, which shows, that that example was not -given to discredit any rational hopes of future happiness, but only to -reprove the folly of separating them from charity, as when - - Zeal, not charity, became the guide, - And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride. - -Ver. 219. _Heroes are much the same, &c._] This character might have -been drawn with greater force; and deserved the poet's care. But Milton -supplies what is here wanting. - - They err who count it glorious to subdue - By conquest far and wide, to over-run - Large countries, and in field great battles win, - Great cities by assault. What do these worthies, - But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave - Peaceable nations, neighb'ring or remote, - Made captive, yet deserving freedom more - Than those their conqu'rors; who leave behind - Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove, - And all the flourishing works of peace destroy? - Then swell with pride, and must be titled gods; - Till conqu'ror death discovers them scarce men, - Rolling in brutish vices and deformed, - Violent or shameful death their due reward.--Par. Reg. b. iii. - -Ver. 222. _an enemy of all mankind!_] Had all nations, with regard to -their heroes, been of the humour with the Normans, who called Robert -II., the greatest of their Dukes, by the name of Robert the Devil, the -races of heroes might have been less numerous, or, however, less -mischievous. - -Ver. 267. _Painful pre-eminence, &c._] This, to his friend, nor does it -at all contradict what he had said to him concerning happiness, in the -beginning of the Epistle: - - 'Tis never to be bought, but always free, - And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee. - -For there he compliments his virtue; here he estimates the value of his -politics, which he calls wisdom. He is now proving that nothing either -external to man, or what is not in man's power, and of his own -acquirement, can make him happy here. The most plausible rival of -virtue is human wisdom: yet even this is so far from giving any degree -of real happiness, that it deprives us of those common comforts of life, -which are a kind of support, under the want of happiness. Such as the -more innocent of those delusions which he speaks of in the second -Epistle, - - Those painted clouds that beautify our days, &c. - -Now knowledge destroyeth all those comforts, by setting man above life's -weaknesses; so that in him, who thinketh to attain happiness by -knowledge alone, independent of virtue, the fable is reversed, and in a -preposterous attempt to gain the substance, he loseth even the shadow. -This I take to be the sense of this fine stroke of satire on the wrong -pursuits after happiness. - -Ver. 281, 283. _If parts allure thee,-- - Or ravished with the whistling of a name,_] - -These two instances are chosen with great judgment. The world, perhaps, -doth not afford two such other. Bacon discovered and laid down those -true principles of science, by whose assistance Newton was enabled to -unfold the whole law of nature. He was no less eminent for the creative -power of his imagination, the brightness of his conceptions, and the -force of his expression; yet being convicted on his own confession for -bribery and corruption in the administration of justice, while he -presided in the supreme court of equity, he endeavoured to repair his -ruined fortunes by the most profligate flattery to the court, which, -indeed, from his very first entrance into it, he had accustomed himself -to practise with a prostitution that disgraceth the very profession of -letters or of science. - -Cromwell seemeth to be distinguished in the most eminent manner, with -regard to his abilities, from all other great and wicked men, who have -overturned the liberties of their country. The times in which others -have succeeded in this attempt, were such as saw the spirit of liberty -suppressed and stifled by a general luxury and venality; but Cromwell -subdued his country, when this spirit was at its height, by a successful -struggle against court-oppression; and while it was conducted and -supported by a set of the greatest geniuses for government the world -ever saw embarked together in one common cause. - -Ver. 283. _Or ravished with the whistling of a name,_] And even this -fantastic glory sometimes sutlers a terrible reverse. Sacheverel, in his -Voyage to Icolm-kill, describing the church there, tells us, that "in -one corner is a peculiar enclosure, in which were the monuments of the -kings of many different nations, as Scotland, Ireland, Norway, and the -Isle of Man. This (said the person who showed me the place, pointing to -a plain stone) was the monument of the great Teague, king of Ireland. I -had never heard of him, and could not but reflect of how little value is -greatness, that has barely left a name scandalous to a nation, and a -grave which the meanest of mankind would never envy." - -Ver. 309. _Know then this truth, enough for man to know, - "Virtue alone is happiness below."_] - -M. du Resnel translates the line thus: - - Apprend donc, qu'il n'est point ici bas de bonheur, - Si la vertu no règle et l'esprit et le coeur. - -_i.e._ Learn then, that there is no happiness here below, unless virtue -regulates the heart and the understanding, which destroys all the force -of his author's conclusion. He had proved, that happiness consists -neither in external goods, as the vulgar imagined, nor yet in the -visions of the philosophers: he concludes, therefore, that it consists -in virtue alone. His translator says, that without virtue, there can be -no happiness. And so say the men whom his author is here confuting. For -though they supposed external goods requisite to happiness, it was when -in conjunction with virtue. Mr. Pope says, - - Virtue alone is happiness below: - -And so ought a faithful translator to have said after him. - -Ver. 316. After ver. 316, in the MS. - - Ev'n while it seems unequal to dispose, - And chequers all the good man's joys with woes, - 'Tis but to teach him to support each state, - With patience this, with moderation that; - And raise his base on that one solid joy, - Which conscience gives, and nothing can destroy. - -These lines are extremely finished. In which there is such a soothing -sweetness in the melancholy harmony of the versification, as if the poet -was then in that tender office in which he was most officious, and in -which all his soul came out, the condoling with some good man in -affliction. - -Ver. 341. _For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal, &c._] Plato, in -his first book of a Republic, hath a remarkable passage to this purpose: -"He whose conscience does not reproach him, has cheerful hope for his -companion, and the support and comfort of his old age, according to -Pindar. For this great poet, O Socrates, very elegantly says, That he -who leads a just and holy life, has always amiable hope for his -companion, which fills his heart with joy, and is the support and -comfort of his old age. Hope, the most powerful of the divinities, in -governing the ever-changing and inconstant temper of mortal men." In the -same manner Euripides speaks in his Hercules Furens: "He is the good man -in whose breast hope springs eternally. But to be without hope in the -world, is the portion of the wicked." - -Ver. 373. _Come then, my friend! &c._] This noble apostrophe, by which -the poet concludes the Essay in an address to his friend, will furnish a -critic with examples of every one of those five species of elocution, -from which, as from its sources, Longinus deduceth the sublime. - -1. The first and chief is a grandeur and sublimity of conception: - - Come then, my friend! my genius! come along; - O master of the poet, and the song! - And while the muse now stoops, and now ascends, - To man's low passions, or their glorious ends. - -2. The second, that pathetic enthusiasm, which, at the same time, melts -and inflames: - - Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise, - To fall with dignity, with temper rise; - Formed by thy converse, happily to steer - From grave to gay, from lively to severe; - Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, - Intent to reason, or polite to please. - -3. A certain elegant formation and ordonance of figures: - - Oh! while along the stream of time thy name - Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame, - Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, - Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale? - -4. A splendid diction: - - When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose - Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes, - Shall then this verse to future age pretend - Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend? - That urged by thee, I turned the tuneful art, - From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart; - For wit's false mirror held up nature's light. - -5. And fifthly, which includes in itself all the rest, a weight and -dignity in the composition: - - Shew'd erring pride, whatever is, is right; - That reason, passion, answer one great aim; - That true self-love and social are the same; - That virtue only makes our bliss below; - And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know.[1603] - - - - - NOTES OF W. WARBURTON ON THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. - - -_Universal Prayer._] It may be proper to observe, that some passages in -the preceding Essay, having been unjustly suspected of a tendency -towards fate and naturalism, the author composed this prayer as the sum -of all, to show that his system 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 submission to his will (the -great principle enforced throughout the Essay), was not meant suffering -ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination, but resting in a -religious acquiescence, and confidence full of hope and immortality. To -give all this the greater weight, the poet chose for his model the -Lord's Prayer, which, of all others, best deserves the title prefixed to -his paraphrase. - -Ver. 29. _If I am right, thy grace impart,-- - I am wrong, O teach my heart_] - -As the imparting of grace, on the Christian system, is a stronger -exertion of the divine power than the natural illumination of the heart, -one would expect that right and wrong should change places, more aid -being required to restore men to right, than to keep them in it. But as -it was the poet's purpose to insinuate that revelation was the right, -nothing could better express his purpose, than making the right secured -by the guards of grace. - - - END OF VOL. II. - - - BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] This language, held by Warton in his Essay on the Genius of Pope, -was subsequently reversed by him in his edition of Pope's Works. He then -acknowledged that the notion of "a methodical regularity" in the Essay -on Criticism was a "groundless opinion." - -[2] Singer's Spence, p. 107. - -[3] Johnson's Works, ed. Murphy, vol. ii. p. 354. - -[4] Spence, p. 128. - -[5] Spence, p. 147. - -[6] Spence, p. 205. - -[7] Warton's Pope, vol. i. p. xviii. - -[8] Dennis's Reflections, Critical and Satyrical, upon a late Rhapsody -called An Essay upon Criticism, was advertised as "this day published" -in _The Daily Courant_ of June 20, 1711. Pope sent the pamphlet to -Caryll on June 25, and in a letter to Cromwell of the same date, he says -"Mr. Lintot favoured me with a sight of Mr. Dennis's piece of fine -satire before it was published." - -[9] Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Dunciad, p. 39. - -[10] Ver. 147. - -[11] Dennis's Reflections, p. 29. - -[12] Pope to Caryll, June 25, 1711. - -[13] Spence, p. 208. - -[14] Ver. 158. - -[15] Imitations of Horace, bk. ii. Sat. 1, ver. 75. - -[16] Dennis's Reflections, p. 22. - -[17] Pope to Caryll, June 25, 1711; Pope to Trumbull, Aug. 10, 1711. - -[18] Biographia Literaria, ed. 1847, vol. i. p. 3. - -[19] Wakefield's Works of Pope, p. 168. - -[20] Spectator, No. 253, Dec. 20, 1711. - -[21] Pope to Steele, Dec. 30, 1711. - -[22] Essay on the Genius of Pope, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 108. - -[23] Lectures on the English Poets, 3rd ed. p. 142. - -[24] De Quincey's Works, ed. 1862, vol. vii. p. 64; xv. p. 142. - -[25] Spence, p. 176. - -[26] Spence, p. 147, 211. - -[27] Dryden's Virgil, ed. Carey, vol. ii. p. xxxii., lxxxviii. - -[28] Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 5th ed. vol. iv. -p. 228. - -[29] Pope's Poetical Works, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 9. - -[30] Ver. 68, 130-140, 146-157, 161-166. - -[31] Ver. 715-730. - -[32] Spence, p. 195. - -[33] Ver. 719. - -[34] Poetical Works of Dryden, ed. Robert Bell, vol. i. p. 75. - -[35] Ver. 395, 406. - -[36] Ver. 480. - -[37] Temple of Fame, ver. 505. - -[38] Jortin's Works, vol. xiii. p. 124. - -[39] Ver. 511, 514, 100, 629-644, 107. - -[40] Ver. 524, 526. - -[41] Ver. 596-610. - -[42] Religio Laici. - -[43] Ver. 600-603. - -[44] Spence, p. 212. - -[45] Essay on the Genius of Pope, vol. i. p. 195. - -[46] Works of Edward Young, ed. Doran, vol. ii. p. 578. - -[47] Moore's Life of Byron, 1 vol. ed., p. 699. - -[48] Hazlitt's Lectures on the English Poets, p. 145. - -[49] De Quincey's Works, vol. xv. p. 141: xii. p. 58. - -[50] De Quincey's Works, vol. xv. p. 142. - -[51] De Quincey's Works, vol. viii. p. 14. - -[52] De Quincey's Works, vol. viii. p. 15-17. - -[53] Pope's Poetical Works, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 7. - -[54] Dryden's Epilogue to All for Love: - - This difference grows, - Betwixt our fools in verse, and yours in prose. - -[55] An extravagant assertion. Those who can appreciate, are beyond -comparison more numerous than those who can produce, a work of genius. - -[56] Qui scribit artificiose, ab aliis commode scripta facile -intelligere proterit. Cic. ad Herenn. lib. iv. De pictore, sculptore, -fictore, nisi artifex, judicare non potest. Pliny.--POPE. - -Poets and painters must appeal to the world at large. Wretched indeed -would be their fate, if their merits were to be decided only by their -rivals. It is on the general opinion of persons of taste that their -individual estimation must ultimately rest, and if the public were -excluded from judging, poets might write and painters paint for each -other.--ROSCOE. - -The execution of a work and the appreciation of it when executed are -separate operations, and all experience has shown that numbers pronounce -justly upon literature, architecture, and pictures, though they may not -be able to write like Shakespeare, design like Wren, or paint like -Reynolds. Taste is acquired by studying good models as well as by -emulating them. Pope, perhaps, copied Addison, Tatler, Oct. 19, 1710: -"It is ridiculous for any man to criticise on the works of another who -has not distinguished himself by his own performances." - -[57] Omnes tacito quodam sensu, sine ulla arte aut ratione, quæ sint in -artibus ac rationibus, recta et prava dijudicant. Cic. de Orat. lib. -iii.--POPE. - -[58] The phrase "_more_ disgraced" implies that slight sketches "justly -traced" are a disgrace at best, whereas they have often a high degree of -merit. - -[59] Plus sine doctrina prudentia, quam sine prudentia valet doctrina. -Quint.--POPE. - -[60] Between ver. 25 and 26 were these lines, since omitted by the -author: - - Many are spoiled by that pedantic throng, - Who with great pains teach youth to reason wrong. - Tutors, like virtuosos, oft inclined - By strange transfusion to improve the mind, - Draw off the sense we have, to pour in new; - Which yet, with all their skill, they ne'er could do.--POPE. - -The transfusion spoken of in the fourth verse of this variation is the -transfusion of one animal's blood into another.--WAKEFIELD. - -[61] "Nature," it is said in the Spectator, No. 404, "has sometimes made -a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making, by applying his -talents otherwise than nature designed." The idea is expressed more -happily by Dryden in his Hind and Panther: - - For fools are doubly fools endeav'ring to be wise. - -Pope contradicts himself when he says in the text that the men made -coxcombs by study were meant by nature but for fools, since they are -among his instances of persons upon whom nature had bestowed the "seeds -of judgment," and who possessed "good sense" till it was "defaced by -false learning." - -[62] Dryden's Medal: - - The wretch turned loyal in his own defence. - -[63] The couplet ran thus in the first edition, with less neatness and -perspicuity: - - Those hate as rivals all that write; and others - But envy wits as eunuchs envy lovers. - -The inaccuracy of the rhymes excited him to alteration, which occasioned -a fresh inconvenience, that of similar rhymes in the next couplet but -one.--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden's Prologue to the Second Part of the Conquest of Granada: - - They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write, - Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite. - -[64] In the manuscript there are two more lines, of which the second was -afterwards introduced into the Dunciad: - - Though such with reason men of sense abhor; - Fool against fool is barb'rous civil war. - Though Mævius scribble and the city knight, &c. - -The city knight was Sir Richard Blackmore, who resided in Cheapside. "In -the early part of Blackmore's time," says Johnson, "a citizen was a term -of reproach, and his place of abode was a topic to which his adversaries -had recourse in the penury of scandal." - -[65] Dryden's Persius, Sat. i. 100: - - Who would be poets in Apollo's spite. - -[66] "The simile of the mule," says Warton, "heightens the satire, and -is new," but the comparison fails in the essential point. Pope's -"half-learn'd witlings," who aim at being wit and critic, are inferior -to both, whereas the mule, to which he likens the literary pretender, is -in speed and strength superior to the ass. - -[67] "I am confident," says Dryden in the dedication of his Virgil, -"that you will look on those half-lines hereafter as the imperfect -products of a hasty muse, like the frogs and serpents in the Nile, part -of them kindled into life, and part a lump of unformed, unanimated mud." - -[68] The diction of this line is coarse, and the construction -defective.--WAKEFIELD. - -The omission of "them" after "call" exceeds the bounds of poetic -licence. - -[69] Equivocal generation is the production of animals without parents. -Many of the creatures on the Nile were supposed to be of this class, and -it was believed that they were fashioned by the action of the sun upon -the slime. The notion was purely fanciful, as was the idea that the -insects were half-formed--a compound of mud and organisation. - -[70] Dryden's Persius, v. 36: - - For this a hundred voices I desire - To tell thee what an hundred tongues would tire. - -"I have often thought," says the author of the Supplement to the -Profound, speaking of Pope's couplet, "that one pert fellow's tongue -might tire a hundred pair of attending ears; but I never conceived that -it could communicate any lassitude to the tongues of the bystanders -before." The evident meaning of Pope is that it would tire a hundred -ordinary tongues to talk as much as one vain wit, but the construction -is faulty. - -[71] This is a palpable imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 38: - - Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, æquam - Viribus; et versate diu, quid ferre recusent, - Quid valeant humeri.--WAKEFIELD. - -[72] Pope is unfortunate in his selection of instances to illustrate his -position that the various mental faculties are never concentrated in the -same individual. Men of great intellect have sometimes bad memories, and -a good memory is sometimes found in persons of a feeble intellect; but -it is a monstrous paradox to assert that a retentive memory and a -powerful understanding cannot go together. No one will deny that Dr. -Johnson and Lord Macaulay were gifted with vigorous, brilliant minds; -yet the memory of the first was extraordinary, and that of the second -prodigious. In general, men of transcendent abilities have been -remarkable for their knowledge. - -[73] Dryden, in his Character of a Good Parson: - - But when the milder beams of mercy play.--WAKEFIELD. - -[74] From the second couplet, apparently meant to be the converse of the -first, one would suppose that he considered the understanding and -imagination as the same faculty, else the counterpart is -defective.--WARTON. - -The structure of the passage requires the interpretation put upon it by -Warton, in which case the language is incorrect. The statement is not -even true of the imagination proper, as the example of Milton would -alone suffice to prove. His imagination was grand, and the numberless -phrases he adopted from preceding writers evince that it was combined -with a memory unusually tenacious. - -[75] This position seems formed from the well-known maxim of -Hippocrates, which is found at the entrance of his aphorisms, "Life is -short, but art is long."--WAKEFIELD. - -The standard of excellence in any art or science, must always be that -which is attained by the persons who follow it with the greatest -success; and those who give themselves up to a particular pursuit will, -with equal talents, eclipse the rivals who devote to it only fragments -of time. For this reason men can rarely attain to the highest skill in -more than one department, however many accomplishments they may possess -in a minor degree. The native power to shine in various callings may -exist, but the practice which can alone make perfect, is wanting. - -[76] These are the words of Lord Shaftesbury in his Advice to an Author: -"Frame taste by the just standard of nature." The principle is as old as -poetry, and has been laid down by multitudes of writers; but the -difficulty, as Bowles remarks, is to determine what is "nature," and -what is "her just standard." "Nature" with Pope meant Homer. - -[77] Roscommon's Essay: - - Truth still is one: Truth is divinely bright; - No cloudy doubts obscure her native light.--WAKEFIELD. - -[78] Translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry by Sir William Soame and -Dryden, canto i. - - Love reason then, and let whate'er you write - Borrow from her its beauty, force, and light. - -[79] In the early editions, - - That art is best which most resembles her, - Which still presides, yet never does appear. - -[80] Dryden's Virgil, Æn. vi. 982: - - ------one common soul - Inspires, and feeds, and animates the whole.--WAKEFIELD. - -[81] So Ovid, exactly, Metam. iv. 287: - - causa latet; vis est notissima.--WAKEFIELD. - -Duke of Buckingham's Essay on Poetry: - - A spirit which inspires the work throughout, - As that of nature moves the world about; - Itself unseen, yet all things by it shown. - -[82] In all editions before the quarto of 1743, it was, - - There are whom heav'n has blest with store of wit, - Yet want as much again to manage it. - -The idea was suggested by a sentence in Sprat's Account of Cowley: "His -fancy flowed with great speed, and therefore it was very fortunate to -him that his judgment was equal to manage it." Pope gave a false sparkle -to his couplet by first using "wit" in one sense and then in another. -"Wit to manage wit," says the author of the Supplement to the Profound, -"is full as good as one tongue's tiring another. Any one may perceive -that the writer meant that judgment should manage wit; but as it stands -it is pert." Warburton observes that Pope's later version magnified the -contradiction; for he who had already "a profusion of wit," was the last -person to need more. - -[83] "Ever are at strife," was the reading till the quarto of 1743. - -[84] We shall destroy the beauty of the passage by introducing a most -insipid parallel of perfect sameness, if we understand the word "like" -as introducing a simile. It is merely as if he had said: "Pegasus, as a -generous horse is accustomed to do, shows his spirit most under -restraint." Our author might have in view a couplet of Waller's, in his -verses on Roscommon's Poetry: - - Direct us how to back the winged horse, - Favour his flight, and moderate his force.--WAKEFIELD. - -[85] Dryden's preface to Troilus and Cressida: "If the rules be well -considered, we shall find them to be made only to reduce nature into -method." - -[86] It was "monarchy" until the edition of 1743. - -[87] Translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry, by Dryden and Soame: - - And afar off hold up the glorious prize.--WAKEFIELD. - -[88] Nec enim artibus editis factum est ut argumenta inveniremus, sed -dicta sunt omnia antequam præciperentur; mox ea scriptores observata et -collecta ediderunt. Quintil.--POPE. - -[89] This seems to have been suggested by a couplet in the Court -Prospect of Hopkins: - - How are these blessings thus dispensed and giv'n? - To us from William, and to him from heav'n. - -[90] After this verse followed another, to complete the triplet, in the -first impressions: - - Set up themselves, and drove a sep'rate trade.--WAKEFIELD. - -[91] A feeble line of monosyllables, consisting of ten low -words.--WARTON. - -The entire passage seems to be constructed on some remarks of Dryden in -his Dedication to Ovid: "Formerly the critics were quite another species -of men. They were defenders of poets, and commentators on their works, -to illustrate obscure beauties, to place some passages in a better -light, to redeem others from malicious interpretations. Are our -auxiliary forces turned our enemies? Are they from our seconds become -principals against us?" The truth of Pope's assertion, as to the matter -of fact, will not bear a rigorous inquisition, as I believe these -critical persecutors of good poets to have been extremely few, both in -ancient and modern times.--WAKEFIELD. - -[92] The prescription of the physician was formerly called his bill. -Johnson, in his Dictionary, quotes from L'Estrange, "The medicine was -prepared according to the bill," and Butler, in Hudibras, speaks of - - him who took the doctor's bill, - And swallowed it instead of the pill. - -The story ran that a physician handed a prescription to his patient, -saying, "Take this," and the man immediately swallowed it. - -[93] This is a quibble. Time and moths spoil books by destroying them. -The commentators only spoiled them by explaining them badly. The editors -were so far from spoiling books in the same sense as time, that by -multiplying copies they assisted to preserve them. - -[94] Soame and Dryden's Translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry: - - Keep to each man his proper character; - Of countries and of times the humours know; - From diff'rent climates diff'ring customs grow. - -The principle here is general. Pope, in terms and in fact, applied it -only to the ancients. Had he extended the precept to modern literature -he would have been cured of his delusion that every deviation from the -antique type arose from unlettered tastelessness. - -[95] In the first edition, - - You may confound, but never criticise, - -which was an adaptation of a line from Lord Roscommon: - - You may confound, but never can translate. - -[96] The author, after this verse, originally inserted the following, -which he has however omitted in all the editions: - - Zoilus, had these been known, without a name - Had died, and Perrault ne'er been damned to fame; - The sense of sound antiquity had reigned, - And sacred Homer yet been unprophaned. - None e'er had thought his comprehensive mind } - To modern customs, modern rules confined;} - Who for all ages writ, and all mankind. } - Be his great works, &c.--POPE. - -Perrault, in his Parallel between the ancients and the moderns, carped -at Homer in the same spirit that Zoilus had done of old. - -[97] Horace, Ars Poet., ver. 268: - - vos exemplaria Græca - Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna. - -Tate and Brady's version of the first psalm: - - But makes the perfect law of God - His business and delight; - Devoutly reads therein by day, - And meditates by night.--WAKEFIELD. - -[98] Dryden, Virg. Geor. iv. 408: - - And upward follow Fame's immortal spring.--WAKEFIELD. - -[99] Lord Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse: - - Consult your author with himself compared. - -[100] The word outlast is improper; for Virgil, like a true Roman, never -dreamt of the mortality of the city.--WAKEFIELD. - -[101] Variation: - - When first young Maro sung of kings and wars, - Ere warning Phoebus touched his trembling ears. - - Cum canerem reges et prælia, Cynthius aurem - Vellit. Virg. Ecl. vi. 3. - -It is a tradition preserved by Servius, that Virgil began with writing a -poem of the Alban and Roman affairs, which he found above his years, and -descended, first to imitate Theocritus on rural subjects, and afterwards -to copy Homer in heroic poetry.--POPE. - -The second line of the couplet in the note was copied, as Mr. Carruthers -points out, from Milton's Lycidas: - - Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears. - -The couplet in the text, with the variation of "great Maro" for "young -Maro," was Pope's original version, but Dennis having asked whether he -intended "to put that figure called a bull upon Virgil" by saying that -he designed a work "to outlast immortality," the poet wrote in the -margin of his manuscript "alter the seeming inconsistency," which he -did, by substituting the lines in the note. In the last edition, he -reinstated the "bull." The objection of Dennis was hypercritical. The -phrase only expresses the double fact that the city was destroyed, and -that its fame was durable. The manuscript supplies another various -reading, which avoids both the alleged bull in the text, and the bad -rhyme of the couplet in the note: - - When first his voice the youthful Maro tried, - Ere Phoebus touched his ear and checked his pride. - -[102] - - And did his work to rules as strict confine.--POPE. - -[103] Aristotle, born at _Stagyra_, B.C. 384.--CROKER. - -[104] In the manuscript a couplet follows which was added by Pope in the -margin, when he erased the expression "a work t' outlast immortal Rome:" - - "Arms and the Man," then rung the world around, - And Rome commenced immortal at the sound - -[105] When Pope supposes Virgil to have properly "checked in his bold -design of drawing from nature's fountain," and in consequence to have -confined his work within rules as strict, - - As if the Stagyrite o'erlooked each line, - -how can he avoid the force of his own ridicule, where a little further, -in this very piece, he laughs at Dennis for - - Concluding all were desp'rate sots and fools, - Who durst depart from Aristotle's rules.--DR. AIKIN. - -The argument of Pope is sophistical and inconsistent. It is -inconsistent, because if Virgil found Homer and nature the same, his -work would not have been confined within stricter rules when he copied -Homer than when he copied nature. It is sophistical, because though -Homer may be always natural, all nature is not contained in his works. - -[106] Rapin's Critical Works, vol. ii. p. 173: "There are no precepts to -teach the hidden graces, and all that secret power of poetry which -passes to the heart." - -[107] Neque enim rogationibus plebisve scitis sancta sunt ista præcepta, -sed hoc, quicquid est, utilitas excogitavit. Non negabo autem sic utile -esse plerumque; verum si eadem illa nobis aliud suadebit utilitas, hanc, -relictis magistrorum auctoritatibus, sequemur. Quintil. lib. ii. cap. -13.--POPE. - -[108] Dryden's Aurengzebe: - - Mean soul, and dar'st not gloriously offend!--STEEVENS. - -[109] This couplet, in the quarto of 1743, was for the first time placed -immediately after the triplet which ends at ver. 160. The effect of this -arrangement was that "Pegasus," instead of the "great wits," became the -antecedent to the lines, "From vulgar bounds," &c., and the poetic steed -was said to "snatch a grace." Warton commented upon the absurdity of -using such language of a horse, and since it is evident that Pope must -have overlooked the incongruity, when he adopted the transposition, the -lines were restored to their original order in the editions of Warton, -Bowles, and Roscoe. - -[110] So Soame and Dryden of the Ode, in the Translation of Boileau's -Art of Poetry: - - Her generous style at random oft will part, - And by a brave disorder shows her art. - -And again: - - A generous Muse, - When too much fettered with the rules of art, - May from her stricter bounds and limits part.--WAKEFIELD. - -[111] This allusion is perhaps inaccurate. The shapeless rock, and -hanging precipice do not rise out of nature's common order. These -objects are characteristic of some of the features of nature, of those -especially that are picturesque. If he had said that amid cultivated -scenery we are pleased with a hanging rock, the allusion would have been -accurate.--BOWLES. - -The criticism of Bowles does not apply to the passage in Sprat's Account -of Cowley, from which Pope borrowed his comparison: "He knew that in -diverting men's minds there should be the same variety observed as in -the prospects of their eyes, where a rock, a precipice, or a rising wave -is often more delightful than a smooth even ground, or a calm sea." - -[112] Another couplet originally followed here: - - But care in poetry must still be had; - It asks discretion ev'n in running mad: - And though, &c. - -which is the _insanire cum ratione_ taken from Terence by Horace, at -Sat. ii. 3, 271.--WAKEFIELD. - -[113] "Their" means "their own."--WARTON. - -[114] Dryden in his dedication to the Æneis: "Virgil might make this -anachronism by superseding the mechanic rules of poetry, for the same -reason that a monarch may dispense with or suspend his own laws." - -[115] Pope's manuscript supplies two omitted lines: - - The boldest strokes of art we may despise, - Viewed in false lights with undiscerning eyes. - -[116] A violation of grammatical propriety, into which many of our first -and most accurate writers have fallen. "Mishapen" is doubtless the true -participle.--WAKEFIELD. - -[117] Pope took his imagery from Horace, Ars Poet., 361: - - Ut pictura, poesis erit: quæ, si propiùs stes, - Te capiat magis; et quædam, si longiùs abstes: - Hæc amat obscurum; volet hæc sub luce videri. - -He was also indebted to the translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry by -Dryden and Soame: - - Each object must be fixed in the due place, - And diff'ring parts have corresponding grace. - -[118] [Greek: Oiun ti poiousin oi phronimoi stratêlatai kata tas tazeis -tôn strateumatôn]. Dion. Hal. De Struct. Orat.--WARBURTON. - -[119] It may be pertinent to subjoin Roscommon's remark on the same -subject: - - ----Far the greatest part - Of what some call neglect is studied art. - When Virgil seems to trifle in a line, - 'Tis but a warning piece which gives the sign, - To wake your fancy and prepare your sight - To reach the noble height of some unusual flight.--WARTON. - -Variety and contrast are necessary, and it is impossible all parts -should be equally excellent. Yet it would be too much to recommend -introducing trivial or dull passages to enhance the merit of those in -which the whole effort of genius might be employed.--BOWLES. - -[120] Modeste, et circumspecto judicio de tantis viris pronunciandum -est, ne (quod plerisque accidit) damnent quod non intelligunt. Ac si -necesse est in alteram errare partem, omnia eorum legentibus placere, -quam multa displicere maluerim. Quint.--POPE. - -Lord Roscommon was not disposed to be so diffident in those excellent -verses of his Essay: - - For who, without a qualm, hath ever looked - On holy garbage, though by Homer cooked? - Whose railing heroes, and whose wounded gods, - Make some suspect he snores as well as nods.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope originally wrote in his manuscript, - - Nor Homer nods so often as we dream, - -which was followed by this couplet: - - In sacred writ where difficulties rise, - 'Tis safer far to fear than criticise. - -[121] So Roscommon's epilogue to Alexander the Great: - - Secured by higher pow'rs exalted stands - Above the reach of sacrilegious hands.--WAKEFIELD. - -[122] The poet here alludes to the four great causes of the ravage -amongst ancient writings. The destruction of the Alexandrine and -Palatine libraries by fire; the fiercer rage of Zoilus, Mævius, and -their followers, against wit; the irruption of the barbarians into the -empire; and the long reign of ignorance and superstition in the -cloisters.--WARBURTON. - -I like the original verse better-- - -Destructive war, and all-devouring age,-- - -as a metaphor much more perspicuous and specific.--WAKEFIELD. - -In his epistle to Addison, Pope has "all-devouring age," but the epithet -here is more original and striking, and admirably suited to the subject. -This shows a nice discrimination. "All-involving" would be as improper -in the Essay on Medals as "all-devouring" would be in this -place.--BOWLES. - -A couplet in Cooper's Hill suggested the couplet of Pope: - - Now shalt thou stand, though sword, or time, or fire, - Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall conspire. - -[123] Thus in a poem on the Fear of Death, ascribed to the Duke of -Wharton: - - ----There rival chiefs combine - To fill the gen'ral chorus of her reign.--WAKEFIELD. - -[124] Cowley on the death of Crashaw: - - Hail, bard triumphant. - -Virg. Æn. vi. 649: - - Magnanimi heroes! nati melioribus annis.--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden's Religio Laici: - - Those giant wits in happier ages born. - -From Pope's manuscript it appears that he had originally written: - - Hail, happy heroes, born in better days. - -In a note he gave the line from Virgil of which his own was a -translation. - -[125] An imitation of Cowley, David. ii. 833: - - Round the whole earth his dreaded name shall sound - And reach to worlds that must not yet be found.--WAKEFIELD. - -[126] Oldham's Elegies: - - What nature has in bulk to me denied. - -[127] "Everybody allows," says Malebranche, "that the animal spirits are -the most subtle and agitated parts of the blood. These spirits are -carried with the rest of the blood to the brain, and are there separated -by some organ destined to the purpose." Pope adopted the doctrine -"allowed by everybody," but which consisted of assumptions without -proof. The very existence of these fluid spirits had never been -ascertained. The remaining physiology of Pope's couplet was erroneous. -When there is a deficiency of blood, its place is not supplied by wind. -The grammatical construction, again, is vicious, and ascribes "blood and -spirits" to souls as well as to bodies. The moral reflection illustrated -by the simile is but little more correct. Men in general are not proud -in proportion as they have nothing to be proud of. - -[128] Pope is commonly considered to have laid down the general -proposition that total ignorance was preferable to imperfect knowledge. -The context shows that he was speaking only of conceited critics, who -were presumptuous because they were ill-informed. He tells such persons -that the more enlightened they become the humbler they will grow. - -[129] In the early editions, - - Fired with the charms fair science does impart. - -Though "does" is removed, "with what" is less dignified and graceful -than "with the charms." The diction of the couplet is prosaic and devoid -of elegance.--WAKEFIELD. - -[130] Dryden, in the State of Innocence, Act i. Sc. i.: - - Nor need we tempt those heights which angels keep.--WAKEFIELD. - -[131] The proper word would have been "beyond." - -[132] - - [Much we begin to doubt and much to fear - Our sight less trusting as we see more clear.] - So pleased at first the tow'ring Alps to try, - Filled with ideas of fair Italy, - The traveller beholds with cheerful eyes - The less'ning vales, and seems to tread the skies.--POPE. - -The couplet between brackets is from the manuscript. The next couplet, -with a variation in the first line, was transferred to the epistle to -Jervas. - -[133] This is, perhaps, the best simile in our language--that in which -the most exact resemblance is traced between things in appearance -utterly unrelated to each other.--JOHNSON. - -I will own I am not of this opinion. The simile appears evidently to -have been suggested by the following one in the works of Drummond: - - All as a pilgrim who the Alps doth pass, - Or Atlas' temples crowned with winter's glass, - The airy Caucasus, the Apennine, - Pyrene's cliffs where sun doth never shine, - When he some heaps of hills hath overwent, - Begins to think on rest, his journey spent, - Till mounting some tall mountain he doth find - More heights before him than he left behind.--WARTON. - -The simile is undoubtedly appropriate, illustrative, and eminently -beautiful, but evidently copied.--BOWLES. - -[134] Diligenter legendum est ac pæne ad scribendi solicitudinem: nec -per partes modo scrutanda sunt omnia, sed perlectus liber utique ex -integro resumendus. Quint.--POPE. - -[135] The Bible never descends to the mean colloquial preterites of -"chid" for "did chide," or "writ" for "did write," but always uses the -full-dress word "chode" and "wrote." Pope might have been happier had he -read his Bible more, but assuredly he would have improved his -English.--DE QUINCEY. - -[136] Boileau's Art of Poetry by Dryden and Soame, canto i.: - - A frozen style, that neither ebbs or flows, - Instead of pleasing makes us gape and doze. - -[137] Much in the same strain Garth's Dispensary, iv. 24: - - So nicely tasteless, so correctly dull.--WAKEFIELD. - -[138] This is an adaptation of a couplet in Dryden's Eleonora: - - Nor this part musk, or civet can we call, - Or amber, but a rich result of all. - -[139] It is impossible to determine whether he refers to St. Peter's or -the Pantheon. - -[140] An impropriety of the grossest kind is here committed. Grammar -requires "appears."--WAKEFIELD. - -[141] Dryden's translation of Ovid's Met. book xv. - - Greater than whate'er was, or is, or e'er shall be.--HOLT WHITE. - -Epilogue to Suckling's Goblins: - - Things that ne'er were, nor are, nor ne'er will be.--ISAAC REED. - -[142] Horace, Ars Poet. 351: - - Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis - Offendar maculis. - -[143] _Lays_ for _lays down_, but, as Warton remarks, the word thus used -is very objectionable. - -[144] To the same effect Quintilian, lib. i. Ex quo mihi inter virtutes -grammatici habebitur, aliqua nescire.--WAKEFIELD. - -[145] The incident is taken from the Second Part of Don Quixote, first -written by Don Alonzo Fernandez de Avellanada, and afterwards -translated, or rather imitated and new-modelled, by no less an Author -than the celebrated Le Sage. "But, Sir, quoth the Bachelor, if you would -have me adhere to Aristotle's rules, I must omit the combat. Aristotle, -replied the Knight, I grant was a man of some parts; but his capacity -was not unbounded; and, give me leave to tell you, his authority does -not extend over combats in the list, which are far above his narrow -rules. Believe me the combat will add such grace to your play, that all -the rules in the universe must not stand in competition with it. Well, -Sir Knight, replied the Bachelor, for your sake, and for the honour of -chivalry, I will not leave out the combat. But still one difficulty -remains, which is, that our common theatres are not large enough for it. -There must be one erected on purpose, answered the Knight; and in a -word, rather than leave out the combat, the play had better be acted in -a field or plain."--WARTON. - -[146] In all editions till the quarto of 1743, - - As e'er could D----s of the laws o' th' stage. - -[147] In the manuscript the reply of the knight is continued through -another couplet: - - In all besides let Aristotle sway, - But knighthood's sacred, and he must give way. - -[148] The phrase "curious not knowing," is from Petronius, and Pope has -written the words of his original on the margin of the manuscript: Est -et alter, non quidem doctus, sed curiosus, qui plus docet quam scit. - -[149] The conventionalities of foppery and ceremony are always changing, -and what Pope says of manners may have been extensively true of his own -generation. At present bad manners commonly proceed either from -defective sensibility, or from men having more regard to themselves than -to their company. - -[150] This had been the practice of some artists. "Their heroes," says -Reynolds, speaking of the French painters in 1752, "are decked out so -nice and fine that they look like knights-errant just entering the lists -at a tournament in gilt armour, and loaded most unmercifully with silk, -satin, velvet, gold, jewels, &c." Pope had in his mind a passage of -Cowley's Ode on Wit: - - Yet 'tis not to adorn, and gild each part; - That shows more cost than art. - Jewels at nose and lips but ill appear; - Rather than all things wit, let none be there. - -[151] Naturam intueamur, hanc sequamur: id facillimè accipiunt animi -quod agnoscunt. Quint. lib. 8, c. 3.--POPE. - -Dryden's preface to the State of Innocence: "The definition of wit, -which has been so often attempted, and ever unsuccessfully, by many -poets, is only this, that it is a propriety of thoughts and words." - -[152] Pope's account of wit is undoubtedly erroneous; he depresses it -below its natural dignity, and reduces it from strength of thought to -happiness of language.--JOHNSON. - -The error was in stating a partial as an universal truth; for the second -line of the couplet correctly describes the quality which gives the -charm to numberless passages both in prose and verse. Instead of "ne'er -so well," the reading of the first edition was "ne'er before," which was -not equally true. But Pope followed the passage in Boileau, from which -the line in the Essay on Criticism was derived: "Qu'est-ce qu'une pensée -neuve, brillante, extraordinaire? Ce n'est point, comme se le persuadent -les ignorants, une pensée que personne n'a jamais eu, ni dû avoir. C'est -au contraire une pensée qui a dû venir à tout le monde, et que quelqu'un -s'avise le premier d'exprimer. Un bon mot n'est bon mot qu'en ce qu'il -dit une chose que chacun pensoit, et qu'il la dit d'une manière vive, -fine et nouvelle." - -[153] Light "sweetly recommended" by shades, is an affected form of -speech. "Does 'em good," in the next couplet, offends in the opposite -direction, and is meanly colloquial. - -[154] Two lines, which follow in the manuscript, are, from such a poet, -worth quoting as a curiosity, since in the ruggedness of the metre, the -badness of the rhyme, and the grossness of the metaphor, they are among -the worst that were ever written: - - Justly to think, and readily express, - A full conception, and brought forth with ease. - -[155] "Let us," says Mr. Webb, in a passage quoted by Warton, -"substitute the definition in the place of the thing, and it will stand -thus: 'A work may have more of nature dressed to advantage than will do -it good.' This is impossible, and it is evident that the confusion -arises from the poet having annexed different ideas to the same word." - -[156] "Take upon content" for "take upon trust" was a form of speech -sanctioned by usage in Pope's day. Thus Rymer says of Hart the actor, -"What he delivers every one takes upon content. Their eyes are -prepossessed and charmed by his action." - -[157] Nothing can be more just, or more ably and eloquently expressed -than this observation and illustration respecting the character of false -eloquence. Fine words do not make fine poems, and there cannot be a -stronger proof of the want of real genius than those high colours and -meretricious embellishments of language, which, while they hide the -poverty of ideas, impose on the unpractised eye with a gaudy semblance -of beauty.--BOWLES. - -[158] "Decent" has not here the signification of modest, but is used in -the once common sense of becoming, attractive. - -[159] Dryden's preface to All for Love: "Expressions are a modest -clothing of our thoughts, as breeches and petticoats are for our -bodies." Pope's couplet should have been more in accordance with his -precept. "Still" is an expletive to piece out the line, and upon this -superfluous word, he has thrown the emphasis of the rhyme, which, in its -turn, is mean and imperfect. - -[160] Abolita et abrogata retinere, insolentiæ cujusdam est, et frivolæ -in parvis jactantiæ. Quint. lib. i. c. 6. - -Opus est, ut verba a vetustate repetita neque crebra sint, neque -manifesta, quia nil est odiosius affectatione, nec utique ab ultimis -repetita temporibus. Oratio cujus summa virtus est perspicuitas, quam -sit vitiosa, si egeat interprete? Ergo ut novorum optima erunt maxime -vetera, ita veterum maxime nova. Idem.--POPE. - -[161] See Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour.--POPE. - -Dryden's Dedication to the Assignation: "He is only like Fungoso in the -play, who follows the fashion at a distance." - -[162] If Pope's maxim was universally obeyed no new word could be -introduced. Dryden was more judicious. "When I find," he said, "an -English word significant and sounding, I neither borrow from the Latin -nor any other language; but when I want at home I must seek abroad." - -[163] - - Quis populi sermo est? quis enim? nisi carmina molli - Nunc demum numero fluere, ut per læve severos - Effundat junctura ungues: scit tendere versum - Non secus ac si oculo rubricam dirigat uno.--Pers., Sat. i.--POPE. - -Garth in the Dispensary: - - Harsh words, though pertinent, uncouth appear; - None please the fancy who offend the ear. - -[164] "There" is a feeble excrescence to force a rhyme. - -[165] Fugiemus crebras vocalium concursiones, quæ vastam atque hiantem -orationem reddunt. Cic. ad Heren. lib. iv. Vide etiam Quintil. lib. ix. -c. 4.--POPE. - -Vowels were said to open on each other when two words came together of -which the first ended, and the second commenced with a vowel. Pope has -illustrated the fault by crowding three consecutive instances into his -verse. The poets diminished the conflict of vowels by a free recourse to -elisions. The most usual were the cutting off the "e" in "the," as "th' -unlearned," ver. 327; and the "o" in "to," as "t' outlast," ver. 131, -"t' examine," ver. 134, "t' admire," ver. 200. The two words were thus -fused into one, and the old authors combined them in writing as well as -in the pronunciation. The manuscripts of Chaucer have "texcuse," not "t' -excuse;" "thapostle," not "th' apostle." The custom has not kept its -ground. Whatever might be supposed to be gained in harmony by the -conversion of "to examine" into "texamine," or of "the unlearned" into -"thunlearned" was more than lost by the departure from the common forms -of speech. - -[166] "The characters of bad critic and bad poet are grossly confounded; -for though it be true that vulgar readers of poetry are chiefly -attentive to the melody of the verse, yet it is not they who admire, but -the paltry versifier who employs monotonous syllables, feeble -expletives, and a dull routine of unvaried rhymes." Essays Historical -and Critical.--WARTON. - -[167] "Low" in contradistinction to lofty. The phrase would now mean -coarse and vulgar words. - -[168] From Dryden. "He creeps along with ten little words in every line, -and helps out his numbers with _for_, _to_, and _unto_, and all the -pretty expletives he can find, while the sense is left half-tired behind -it." Essay on Dram. Poetry.--WARBURTON. - -A collection of monosyllables when it arises from a correspondence of -subject is highly meritorious. Let a single example from Milton suffice: - - O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, - Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens and shades of death. - -How successfully does this range of little words represent to our -imaginations, - - The growing labours of the lengthened way.--WAKEFIELD. - -"It is pronounced by Dryden," says Johnson, "that a line of -monosyllables is almost always harsh. This is evidently true, because -our monosyllables commonly begin and end with consonants." As Dryden -expressed it, "they are clogged with consonants," and "it seldom," he -says, "happens but a monosyllable line turns verse to prose, and even -that prose is rugged and inharmonious." The authority of Dryden has led -many persons to mistrust their own ears, and imagine, like Johnson and -Wakefield, that monosyllables were only fitted at best to produce some -special effect. Numerous examples in Dryden's poetry contradict his -criticism, and Milton abounds in sweet and sonorous monosyllabic lines, -as Par. Lost, v. 193: - - His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow - Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines, - With ev'ry plant, in sign of worship wave. - -And ver. 199: - - ye birds, - That singing up to heaven gate ascend, - Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise. - -Melodious lines, such as the first verse in the first of these passages, -which have the monosyllables relieved but by a single dissyllable, are -past counting up. Addison praised Pope for exemplifying the faults in -the language which condemned them. "The gaping of the vowels in the -second line, the expletive 'do' in the third line, and the ten -monosyllables in the fourth, give such a beauty to this passage, as -would have been very much admired in an ancient poet." The feat was too -easy to call for much admiration. There was more difficulty in eschewing -than in mimicking the vicious style of bad versifiers. Pope himself has -not avoided the frequent use of "low words" and "feeble expletives." - -[169] Atterbury's Preface to Waller's Poems: "He had a fine ear, and -knew how quickly that sense was cloyed by the same round of chiming -words still returning upon it." - -[170] Hopkins's translation of Ovid's Met., book xi.: - - No tame nor savage beast dwells there; no breeze - Shakes the still boughs, or whispers thro' the trees: - Here easy streams with pleasing murmurs creep, - At once inviting and assisting sleep.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope uses these trite ideas and "unvaried chimes" himself. In the fourth -Pastoral we have "gentle breeze, trembling trees, whispering breeze, -dies upon the trees," and in Eloisa we have "the curling breeze, panting -on the trees."--CROKER. - -Pope took the idea from Boileau: - - Si je louois Philis "en miracles féconde," - Je trouverois bientôt, "à nulle autre seconde;" - Si je voulois vanter un objet "nonpareil," - Je mettrois à l'instant, "plus beau que le soleil;" - Enfin, parlant toujours d' "astres" et de "merveilles," - De "chefs-d'oeuvres des cieux," de "beautés sans pareilles." - -[171] Dryden in his Annus Mirabilis, stanza 123: - - So glides the trodden serpent on the grass, - And long behind his wounded volume trails.--WAKEFIELD. - -[172] Boileau's Art of Poetry translated by Soame and Dryden: - - Those tuneful readers of their own dull rhymes. - -[173] The construction might be for anything that the composition shows -to the contrary, "leave such to praise," which is subversive of the -poet's meaning.--WAKEFIELD. - -[174] Sufficient justice is not done to Sandys, who did more to polish -and tune the English versification by his Psalms and his Job, than those -two writers, who are usually applauded on this subject.--WARTON. - -Bowles adds his testimony to "the extraordinary melody and vigour" of -the versification of Sandys. Ruffhead, in his life of Pope, having -called the Ovid of Sandys an "indifferent translation," Warburton has -written on the margin, "He was not an indifferent, but a very fine -translator and versifier." - -[175] Writers who seem to have composed with the greatest ease have -exerted much labour in attaining this facility. It is well known that -the writings of La Fontaine were laboured into that facility for which -they are so famous, with repeated alterations and many erasures. Moliere -is reported to have passed whole days in fixing upon a proper epithet or -rhyme, although his verses have all the flow and freedom of -conversation. I have been informed that Addison was so extremely nice in -polishing his prose compositions that when almost a whole impression of -a Spectator was worked off he would stop the press to insert a new -preposition or conjunction.--WARTON. - -[176] Lord Roscommon says: - - The sound is still a comment to the sense.--WARBURTON. - -The whole of this passage on the adaptation of the sound to the sense is -imitated, and, as may be seen by the references of Warburton, is in part -translated, from Vida's Art of Poetry. - -[177] - - Tum is læta canunt, &c. Vida, Poet. 1. iii. ver. 403.--WARBURTON. - -[178] - - Tum longe sale saxa sonant, &c. Vida, Poet. 1. iii. v. 388.--WARBURTON. - -[179] - - Atque ideo si quid geritur molimine magno, - Adde moram et pariter tecum quoque verba laborent - Segnia. Vida, ib. 417.--WARBURTON. - -[180] - - At mora si fuerit damno, properare jubebo, &c. Vida, ib. - 420.--WARBURTON. - -[181] Our poet here endeavours to fasten on Virgil a most insufferable -absurdity, which no poetical hyperbole will justify, namely, the reality -of these wonderful performances, a flight over the unbending corn, and -across the sea with unbathed feet. Virgil only puts the supposition, and -speaks of her extraordinary velocity in the way of comparison, that she -seemed capable of accomplishing so much had she made the attempt. She -could fly, if she had chosen, nor would have injured, in that case, the -tender blades of corn.--WAKEFIELD. - -[182] The verse intended to represent the whisper of the vernal breeze -must surely be confessed not much to excel in softness or volubility; -and the smooth stream runs with a perpetual clash of jarring consonants. -The noise and turbulence of the torrent is, indeed, distinctly imaged; -for it requires very little skill to make our language rough. But in the -lines which mention the effort of Ajax, there is no particular heaviness -or delay. The swiftness of Camilla is rather contrasted than -exemplified. Why the verse should be lengthened to express speed, will -not easily be discovered. In the dactyls, used for that purpose by the -ancients, two short syllables were pronounced with such rapidity, as to -be equal only to one long; they therefore naturally exhibit the act of -passing through a long space in a short time. But the Alexandrine, by -its pause in the midst, is a tardy and stately measure; and the word -"unbending," one of the most sluggish and slow which our language -affords, cannot much accelerate its motion.--JOHNSON. - -Wakefield says that "the tripping word _labours_, in ver. 371, is -unhappy," and Aaron Hill contended that three at least of the five -concluding words of the line "danced away upon the tongue with a -tripping and lyrical lightness." - -[183] See Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Music; an Ode by Mr. -Dryden.--POPE. - -[184] This resembles a line in Hughes's Court of Neptune: - - Beholds th' alternate billows all and rise.--WAKEFIELD. - -[185] - - And now and then, a sigh he stole, - And tears began to flow. Dryden.--WAKEFIELD. - -[186] Pope confounds vocal and instrumental with poetical harmony. -Timotheus owed his celebrity to his music, and Dryden never wrote a -note. - -[187] Creech's translation of Horace's Art of Poetry: - - men of sense retire, - The boys abuse, and only fools admire. - -Aaron Hill says, that Pope was very fond of the line in the text, and -often repeated it. Hill, who "abhorred the sentiment," once asked him if -he still adhered to the opinion of Longinus, that the true sublime -thrilled and transported the reader. On Pope replying in the -affirmative, his interrogator pressed him with the contradiction, and -the perplexed poet, according to Hill's report, took refuge in nonsense, -and made this unintelligible answer,--"that Longinus's remark was truth, -but that, like certain truths of more importance, it required assent -from faith, without the evidence of demonstration." It must be evident -that Shakespeare, Milton, and scores besides, are worthy of admiration; -and no man would show his sense by protesting that he did not admire but -only approved of them. Pope is inconsistent, for at ver. 236 he speaks -of "_rapture_ warming the mind," and of "the generous pleasure to be -_charmed_ with wit." - -[188] In all editions before the quarto of 1743, "Some the French -writers." - -[189] This was directed against Pope's co-religionists, and greatly -annoyed them. The offence was not that he had misrepresented their -views, but that he had denounced a doctrine which all zealous papists -maintained. "Nothing," he said, when writing in vindication of the -passage to Caryll, "has been so much a scarecrow to our opponents as -that too peremptory and uncharitable assertion of an utter impossibility -of salvation to all but ourselves. I own to you I was glad of any -opportunity to express my dislike of so shocking a sentiment as those of -the religion I profess are commonly charged with, and I hoped a slight -insinuation, introduced by a casual similitude only, could never have -given offence, but on the contrary, must needs have done good in a -nation wherein we are the smaller party, and consequently most -misrepresented, and most in need of vindication." The Roman Catholics -took to themselves the couplet "Meanly they seek," which followed the -simile, but Pope pointed out that the plural "some," and not the -singular "each man," was the antecedent to "they." The comparison was -not kept up throughout the paragraph, and the lines after ver. 397 refer -solely to the critics. - -[190] The word "enlights" is, I believe, of our poet's coinage, -analogically formed from "light," as "enlighten" from -"lighten."--WAKEFIELD. - -[191] Sir Robert Howard's poem against the Fear of Death: - - And neither gives increase, nor brings decay. - -[192] There is very little poetical expression from this line to ver. -450. It is only mere prose fringed with rhyme. Good sense in a very -prosaic style; reasoning, not poetry.--WARTON. - -[193] "Joins with quality" for "joins with men of rank" is a vulgar -colloquialism. - -[194] - - In sing-song Durfey, Oldmixon or me, - -was the original reading of the manuscript. - -[195] This couplet is succeeded by two more lines in the manuscript: - - And while to thoughts refined they make pretence, - Hate all that's common, ev'n to common sense. - -[196] In the first edition the reading was "dull believers," which Pope -in the second edition altered to "plain." The change was occasioned by -the outcry against the couplet. "An ordinary man," he wrote to Caryll, -"would imagine the author plainly declared against these schismatics for -quitting the true faith out of contempt of the understanding of some few -of its believers. But these believers are called 'dull,' and because I -say that these schismatics think some believers dull, therefore these -charitable well-disposed interpreters of my meaning say that I think all -believers dull." There is a culpable levity in the language of Pope's -lines, but he could not intend to espouse the cause of the sceptics when -he selects them as an instance of people who "purposely go wrong" -because "the crowd go right." - -[197] If this couplet is interpreted by the grammatical construction, -the "unfortified towns daily changed their sides" in consequence of -vacillating "betwixt sense and nonsense." Of course Pope only meant that -in war weak towns frequently changed sides, but not for the same reason -that weak heads changed their opinions. - -[198] The Book of Sentences was a work of Peter Lombard, which consisted -of subtle disquisitions on theology. Thomas Aquinas wrote a commentary -upon it. - -[199] St. Thomas Aquinas died in 1274. Scotus, who died in 1308, -disputed the doctrines of his predecessor, and their respective -disciples divided for a century the theological world.--CROKER. - -[200] Cowley speaks of "the cobwebs of the schoolmen's trade," and says -in a note, "the distinctions of the schoolmen may be likened to cobwebs -either because of the too much fineness of the work, or because they -take not the materials from nature, but spin it out of themselves." - -[201] A place where old and second-hand books were sold formerly, near -Smithfield.--POPE. - -[202] Between this and verse 448: - - The rhyming clowns that gladded Shakespear's age, - No more with crambo entertain the stage. - Who now in anagrams their patron praise, - Or sing their mistress in acrostic lays? - Ev'n pulpits pleased with merry puns of yore; - Now all are banished to th' Hibernian shore! - [And thither soon soft op'ra shall repair, - Conveyed by Sw----y to his native air. - There, languishing awhile, prolong its breath, - Till like a swan it sings itself to death.] - Thus leaving what was natural and fit, - The current folly proved their ready wit: - And authors thought their reputation safe, - Which lived as long as fools were pleased to laugh.--POPE. - -The lines between brackets are from the manuscript, and were not printed -by Pope. The whole passage was probably written after the poem was first -published, since the topics seem to have been suggested by Addison's -papers upon false wit in the Spectator of May, 1711, where the anagrams, -acrostics, and punning sermons of the reign of James I. are all -enumerated. Swiney was the director of the Italian opera, which, at the -commencement of 1712, failed to meet with adequate support, and he -withdrew, not to Ireland, but to the continent. "He remained there," -says Cibber, "twenty years, an exile from his friends and country." - -[203] An additional couplet follows in the manuscript: - - To be spoke ill of, may good works befall, - But those are bad of which none speak at all. - -[204] The parson alluded to was Jeremy Collier; the critic was the Duke -of Buckingham; the first of whom very powerfully attacked the -profligacy, and the latter the irregularity and bombast of some of -Dryden's plays. These attacks were much more than merry jests.--WARTON. - -[205] Dryden himself, Virg. Geor. iv. 729: - - But she returned no more to bless his longing eyes.--WAKEFIELD. - -[206] Blackmore's attack upon Dryden occurs in a poem which appeared in -1700, called a Satire against Wit. The author treats wit as money, and -proposes that the whole should be recoined for the purpose of separating -the base metal from the pure. - - Into the melting pot when Dryden comes - What horrid stench will rise, what noisome fumes! - How will he shrink when all his lewd allay - And wicked mixture shall be purged away! - When once his boasted heaps are melted down, - A chestful scarce will yield one sterling crown. - -This is exaggerated, but the censure is directed against the indecency -which was really infamous. The invectives of Milbourne in his Notes on -Dryden's Virgil, 1698, had not the same excuse. The strictures are -confined to the translation of the Eclogues and Georgics, and are -throughout rabid, insolent, coarse, and contemptible. To demonstrate his -own superiority, Milbourne inserted specimens of a rival translation, -which is on a par with his criticisms. He was in orders, and -acknowledges that one of his reasons for not sparing Dryden was that -Dryden never spared a clergyman. "I am only," replied the poet, with -exquisite sarcasm, "to ask pardon of good priests, and am afraid his -part of the reparation will come to little." Dryden retaliated upon both -antagonists together in the couplet, - - Wouldst thou be soon dispatched, and perish whole? - Trust Maurus with thy life, and Milbourne with thy soul. - -Pope's line in the first edition was - - New Bl----s and new M----s must arise. - -In the second edition he substituted S----s, which meant Shadwells, for -Bl----s, but in the quarto of 1717 he again coupled Blackmore with -Milbourne, and printed both names at full length. Blackmore was living, -and the changes indicate Pope's varying feelings towards him. - -[207] In the fifth book of Vitruvius is an account of Zoilus's coming to -the court of Ptolemy at Alexandria, and presenting to him his virulent -and brutal censures of Homer, and begging to be rewarded for his work; -instead of which, it is said, the king ordered him to be crucified, or, -as some said, stoned. His person is minutely described in the eleventh -book of Ælian's various History.--WARTON. - -Boileau's Art of Poetry, translated by Soame and Dryden: - - Let mighty Spenser raise his reverend head, - Cowley and Denham start up from the dead. - -[208] A beautiful and poetical illustration. Pope has the art of -enlivening his subject continually by images and illustrations drawn -from nature, which by contrast have a particularly pleasing effect, and -which are indeed absolutely necessary in a didactic poem.--BOWLES. - -The passage originally stood thus in the manuscript: - - Wit, as the sun, such pow'rful beams displays, - It draws up vapours that obscures its rays, - But, like the sun eclipsed, makes only known - The shadowing body's grossness, not its own; - And all those clouds that did at first invade - The rising light, and interposed a shade, - When once transpierced with its prevailing ray - Reflect its glories, and augment the day. - -[209] His instance refuted his position that "bare threescore" was the -duration of modern fame. "It is now a hundred years," said Dennis in -1712, "since Shakespeare began to write, more since Spenser flourished, -and above three hundred years since Chaucer died. And yet the fame of -none of these is extinguished." Another century and a half has elapsed, -and the reputation of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare is greater than -ever. The notion of the "failing language" is not more sound. Though it -is a hundred and fifty years since the Essay on Criticism was published, -there is not a line which has an antiquated air. - -[210] - - The treach'rous colours in few years decay.--POPE. - -The next line is from Addison: - - And all the pleasing landscape fades away. - -[211] That is, of which those, who do not possess it, form an erroneous -estimate, as productive of more happiness and enjoyment to the owner, -than he really receives from it.--WAKEFIELD. - -[212] In the previous paragraph Pope admitted that the fame of a modern -might last three-score years. Here, contradicting himself and the facts, -he limits its duration to the youth of the author. He applies to poets -in general what was only true of inferior writers. The ephemeral -versifiers were examples of deficient "wit," and not of the unhappy -consequences of genuine poetic power. - -[213] - - Like some fair flow'r that in the spring does rise.--POPE. - -This line was an example both of the "feeble expletive" and of the "ten -low words." "Supplies" in the amended version is, as Wakefield observes, -a poor expression. - -[214] The Duke of Buckingham's Vision: - - The dearest care that all my thought employs. - -[215] Wakefield objects to the "slovenly superfluity of words," and asks -"to whom can a wife possibly belong but the owner?" He misunderstood -Pope, who, by "the wife of the owner," meant the wife of the owner of -the wit. The metaphor is coarse, and out of keeping with the theme. - -[216] Thus in the first edition: - - The more his trouble as the more admired, - Where wanted scorned, and envied where acquired. - -Against this Pope wrote, "To be altered. See Dennis, p. 20." "How," said -Dennis, "can wit be scorned where it is not? The person who wants this -wit may indeed be scorned, but such a contempt declares the honour that -the contemner has for wit." Pope, in a letter to Caryll, admitted that -he had been guilty of a bull, and the reading in the second edition was, - - 'Tis most our trouble when 'tis most admired, - The more we give, the more is still required. - -[217] In the first edition, - - Maintained with pains, but forfeited with ease; - -and in the second edition, - - The fame with pains we gain, but lose with ease. - -The original version appears better than the readings which successively -replaced it. - -[218] Another couplet follows in the manuscript: - - Learning and wit were friends designed by heav'n; - Those arms to guard it, not to wound, were giv'n. - -[219] Dryden's Prologue to the University of Oxford: - - Be kind to wit, which but endeavours well, - And, where you judge, presumes not to excel. - -The feelings of antiquity were doubtless represented truly by Horace -when he said that indifferent poets were not tolerated by anybody. There -is not the least foundation for Pope's statement that it was the habit -of old to praise bad authors for endeavouring well, and if it had been, -the authors would not have cared for commendations on their abortive -industry to the disparagement of their intellect. - -[220] Wakefield remarks upon the unhappy effect of "crowns" and "crown" -in consecutive lines, and thinks the phrase "some others" in the next -verse too mean and elliptical. Soame and Dryden, in their translation of -Boileau's Art of Poetry, speak of the "base rivals" who - - aspire to gain renown - By standing up and pulling others down. - -[221] Mr. Harte related to me, that being with Mr. Pope when he received -the news of Swift's death, Harte said to him, he thought it a fortunate -circumstance for their friendship, that they had lived so distant from -each other. Pope resented the reflection, but yet, said Harte, I am -convinced it was true.--WARTON. - -[222] That is, all the unsuccessful authors maligned the successful. The -unsuccessful writers never said anything more slanderous. - -[223] Boileau's Art of Poetry, translated by Soame and Dryden: - - Never debase yourself by treach'rous ways - Nor by such abject methods seek for praise. - -Pope's own life is the strongest example upon record of the degradation -he deplores. - -[224] In the margin of the manuscript Pope has written the passages of -Virgil from which he took his expressions. Æn. iii. 56: - - quid non mortalia pectora cogis - Auri sacra fames? - -Geor. i. 37: - - Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido, - -which Dryden translates, - - Nor let so dire a thirst of empire move. - -[225] Such a manly and ingenuous censure from a culprit in this way, as -in the case of Pope, is entitled to great praise.--WAKEFIELD. - -If his indecorums had been the failing of youth and thoughtlessness, and -he had publicly recanted his errors, his self-condemnation would be -meritorious. The larger portion of his offences were, on the contrary, -committed after he had declared indecency to be unpardonable. Any man, -however persistently reprobate, might earn "great praise" on terms like -these. - -[226] No one has expressed himself upon this subject so pithily as -Cowley: - - 'tis just - The author blush, there where the reader must. - -[227] Hamlet: - - And duller shoulds't thou be than the fat weed.--BOWLES. - -[228] Wits, says he, in Charles the Second's reign had pensions, when -all the world knows that it was one of the faults of that reign that -none of the politer arts were then encouraged. Butler was starved at the -same time that the king had his book in his pocket. Another great wit -[Wycherley] lay seven years in prison for an inconsiderable debt, and -Otway dared not to show his head for fear of the same fate.--DENNIS. - -[229] "The young lords who had wit in the court of Charles II. were," -says Dennis, "Villiers Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Mulgrave, -afterwards Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, Lord Buckhurst afterwards Earl -of Dorset, the Marquess of Halifax, the Earl of Rochester, Lord Vaughan, -and several others." The jilts who ruled the state were the mistresses -of the king. The Duke of Buckingham and his Rehearsal are chiefly aimed -at in the expression "statesmen farces writ."--CROKER. - -[230] Pepys, under the date of June 12, 1663, notices that wearing masks -at the theatre had "of late become a great fashion among the ladies." -Cibber states that the immorality of the plays was the cause of the -usage. When he wrote in 1739 the custom had been abolished for many -years in consequence of the ill effects which attended it. - -[231] He must mean in everyday life. There was no use for the "modest -fan" at the theatre after the ladies had adopted the more effectual plan -of wearing masks. Pope, ver. 535, ascribes the introduction of -"obscenity" to the Restoration. In the theatre the grossness was a -legacy from the older drama, and particularly from the plays of Beaumont -and Fletcher, which were the most popular pieces on the stage. - -[232] The author has omitted two lines which stood here as containing a -national reflection, which in his stricter judgment he could not but -disapprove, on any people whatever.--POPE. - -The cancelled couplet was as follows: - - Then first the Belgian morals were extolled, - We their religion had, and they our gold. - -This sneer was dictated by the poet's dislike to William III. and the -Dutch, for displacing the popish king James II.--CROKER. - -This ingenious and religious author seems to have had two particular -antipathies--one to grammatical and verbal criticism, the other to false -doctrine and heresy. To the first we may ascribe his treating Bentley, -Burman, Kuster, and Wasse with a contempt which recoiled upon himself. -To the second we will impute his pious zeal against those divines of -king William, whom he supposed to be infected with the infidel, or the -socinian, or the latitudinarian spirit, and not so orthodox as himself, -and his friends Swift, Bolingbroke, etc. Thus he laid about him, and -censured men of whose literary, or of whose theological merits or -defects, he was no more a judge than his footman John Searle.--DR. -JORTIN. - -[233] Jortin asserted that by the "unbelieving priests" Pope alluded to -Burnet. If Jortin is right, the passage was not satire but falsehood. -That there was, however, much infidelity and socinianism during the -reign of William III. is proved by an address of the House of Commons to -the king, quoted by Bowles, "beseeching his majesty to give effectual -orders for suppressing all pernicious books and pamphlets which -contained impious doctrines against the Holy Trinity, and other -fundamental articles of the protestant faith, tending to the subversion -of the christian religion." This address was presented in February 1698. - -[234] In this line he had Kennet in view, who was accused of having -said, in a funeral sermon on some nobleman, that converted sinners, if -they were men of parts, repented more speedily and effectually than dull -rascals.--JORTIN. - -[235] The published sermons of the reign of William III. do not answer -to this description, which is certainly a calumny. - -[236] So Lucretius, iv. 333: - - Lurida præterea fiunt quæcunque tuentur - Arquati. - - Besides, whatever jaundice-eyes do view, - Looks pale as well as those, and yellow too.--Creech. - -This notion of the transfusion of the colour to the object from a -jaundiced eye, though current in all our authors, is, I believe, a mere -vulgar error.--WAKEFIELD. - -It is still a disputed point whether jaundice ever affects the eye in a -degree to permit only the passage of the yellow rays. The instances are -at least very rare; but popular belief is a sufficient ground for a -poetical comparison. Pope had just exemplified his simile; for -everything looked yellow to him in the reign of William III. - -[237] In the first edition, - - Speak when you're sure, yet speak with diffidence. - -Dennis objected that a man when sure should speak "with a modest -assurance," and Pope wrote on the margin of the manuscript, "Dennis, p. -21. Alter the inconsistency." - -Pope's maxim was commended by Franklin. He found that his overbearing, -dictatorial manner roused needless opposition, and he resolved never "to -use a word that imported a fixed opinion," but he employed instead the -qualifying phrases, "I conceive," "I imagine," or "it so appears to me -at present." "To this," he says, "after my character of integrity, I -think it principally owing that I had early so much weight with my -fellow citizens when I proposed new institutions or alterations in the -old; for I was but a bad speaker, subject to much hesitation, and yet I -generally carried my point." He admits that his humility was feigned. -Had it been real there would have been no need for "I conceive," "I -imagine," which are implied without a tiresome, superfluous repetition. -Unless the dogmatism is in the mind opinions have not the tone of -decrees. - -[238] Warton praises Pope for practising the precept in correcting the -poems of Wycherley, and condemned Wycherley for ungenerously resenting -the candour of his critic. Bowles extenuates the conduct of Wycherley, -and says that "the superannuated bard" bore the corrections with "great -temper till Pope seriously advised him to turn the whole into prose." -Warton and Bowles were deceived by the printed correspondence of Pope -and Wycherley, and were not aware that the letters were garbled in the -very particulars which relate to the cause of the quarrel,--a quarrel so -discreditable to Pope that he had recourse to forgery to shield himself -and throw the blame upon Wycherley. It is certain that "the -superannuated bard" did not take offence at the advice to turn his works -into prose, and there is no reason to doubt the contemporaneous report -that his anger arose from discovering that Pope, while professing -unlimited friendship, had made him the subject of some satirical verses. - -[239] This picture was taken to himself by John Dennis, a furious old -critic by profession, who, upon no other provocation, wrote against this -Essay and its author in a manner perfectly lunatic: for, as to the -mention made of him in ver. 270, he took it as a compliment, and said it -was treacherously meant to cause him to overlook this abuse of his -person.--POPE. - -Pope's acrimonious note on his early antagonist first appeared in the -edition of 1743, when Dennis had been some years dead. "His book against -me," the poet wrote to Caryll, Nov. 19, 1712, "made me very heartily -merry in two minutes' time," and here we find him still smarting with -resentment after thirty years and upwards had gone by, and his enemy was -in the grave. The original reading in the manuscript of ver. 585 was -"But D---- reddens." The substituted name is taken from Dennis's tragedy -of "Appius and Virginia," which appeared in 1709. The stare was one of -his characteristics. "He starts, stares, and looks round him at every -jerk of his person forward," says Sir Richard Steele, when describing -his walk. The "tremendous" was not only a sarcasm on his appearance, but -on his partiality for the epithet, which was an old topic of ridicule. -"If," said Gildon, in 1702, "there is anything of tragedy in the piece, -it lies in the word 'tremendous,' for he is so fond of it he had rather -use it in every page than slay his beloved Iphigenia." Gay, in 1712, -jeeringly dedicated his Mohocks to Mr. D[ennis], and assigned, among the -reasons for the selection, that his theme was "horrid and tremendous." - -[240] This thought occurs also in Donne's fourth Satire, which our poet -has modernised: - - And though his face be as ill - As theirs, which in old hangings whip Christ, still - He strives to look worse.--WAKEFIELD. - -[241] It may not be known to every reader that noblemen and the sons of -noblemen are admitted of course at our universities to the degree of -M.A., after keeping the terms of two years.--WAKEFIELD. - -The privilege is now abolished. - -[242] If Cibber was the dull fellow Pope would have had him thought, no -conduct could have been more proper towards him than that which Pope -here recommends. Pope seems to have anticipated Colley's subsequent -resolution "to write as long" as Pope "could rail."--BOWLES. - -[243] Duke of Buckingham's Essay on Satire, - - But who can rail so long as he can sleep? - -[244] Pope may have derived this comparison from the "Epilogue, written -by a person of honour," to Dryden's Secret Love: - - But t'other day I heard this rhyming fop - Say critics were the whips, and he the top: - For as a top spins best the more you baste her, - So ev'ry lash you give, he writes the faster, - -The author of the Epilogue was more exact than Pope, whose application -of the simile is inaccurate, for the top is in full spin when it is -popularly said to be asleep. - -[245] Dryden's Aurengzebe: - - The dregs and droppings of enervate love.--STEEVENS. - -It has been suggested that he alludes to Wycherley.--WARTON. - -Whom else could the lines suit at that period, when Pope says, "Such -bards we _have_?" If Wycherley was intended, what must we think of Pope, -who could wound, in this manner, his old friend, for whom he professed -so much kindness, and who first introduced him to notice and -patronage.--BOWLES. - -The application was too obvious for Pope to have ventured on the lines -unless he had designed to expose his former ally. The original reading -of ver. 610 in the manuscript was, - - But if incorrigible bards we view, - Know there are mad, &c. - -And the alteration turned an unappropriated description into a -particular censure on living men. Wycherley would be the last person to -detect the likeness, and relaxing, some months after the Essay appeared, -in his indignation against Pope, "he praised the poem," according to a -letter of Cromwell, dated Oct. 26, 1711, but which rests on the -authority of Pope alone. - -[246] In allusion to this class of pedants Gray said, "Learning never -should be encouraged; it only draws out fools from their obscurity." - -[247] A common slander at that time in prejudice of that deserving -author. Our poet did him this justice, when that slander most prevailed; -and it is now (perhaps the sooner for this very verse) dead and -forgotten.--POPE. - -The accusation from which he defended Garth was brought against Pope -himself. "This poem," says Johnson, of Cooper's Hill, "had such -reputation as to excite the common artifice by which envy degrades -excellence. A report was spread that the performance was not Denham's -own, but that he had bought it of a vicar for forty pounds. The same -attempt was made to rob Addison of his Cato and Pope of his Essay on -Criticism." The story told was that Wycherley sent the Essay to Pope for -his revision, and that Pope published it as his own. Authors are not the -only persons who are exposed to such calumnies. The victories of a great -general are almost invariably imputed to some subordinate officer, and -it was long a favourite theory of the malignant that Napoleon owed his -successes to Berthier, and the Duke of Wellington to Sir George Murray. - -[248] There is an ellipse of "that" after "sacred," and of "it" after -"fops," or the line is not English, and when the omitted words are -supplied the inversion is intolerable. - -[249] The propriety of the specification in this proverbial remark is -founded on a circumstance no longer existing in our poet's time, and -derived, therefore, by him from older writers. "In the reigns of James -I. and Charles I.," says Pennant, "the body of St. Paul's cathedral was -the common resort of the politicians, the newsmongers, and the idle in -general. It was called Paul's Walk, and the frequenters known by the -name of Paul's walkers."--WAKEFIELD. - -[250] Between this and ver. 624-- - - In vain you shrug and sweat and strive to fly: - These know no manners but in poetry. - They'll stop a hungry chaplain in his grace, - To treat of unities of time and place.--POPE. - -[251] This stroke of satire is literally taken from Boileau: - - Gardez-vous d'imiter ce rimeur furieux, - Qui, de ses vains écrits, lecteur harmonieux, - Aborde en récitant quiconque le salue, - Et poursuit de ses vers les passants dans la rue. - Il n'est temple si saint, des anges respecté, - Qui soit contre sa muse un lieu de sûreté. - -Which lines allude to the impertinence of a French poet called Du -Perrier, who finding Boileau one day at church, insisted upon repeating -to him an ode during the elevation of the host.--WARTON. - -Boileau tells the incident of an individual poetaster. Pope generalises -the exceptional trait, and represents it to have been the usual practice -of foppish critics to talk criticism at the altar. The probability is -that he had never known an instance. The line "For fools rush in," is -certainly fashioned, says Bishop Hurd, on Shakespeare, Richard iii. Act -1, Sc. 3: - - Wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch. - -[252] Virgil, Geo. iv. 194: - - Excursusque breves tentant. - Nor forage far, but short excursions make. Dryden.--WAKEFIELD. - -[253] "Humanly" is improperly put for humanely. The only authorised -sense of the former is belonging to man; of the latter, kindly, -compassionately.--DR. GEORGE CAMPBELL. - -[254] "Love to praise" means "a love of bestowing praise," but, as -Wakefield says, it is an "obscure expression, and repugnant to usage." - -[255] This is followed by two additional lines in the manuscript: - - Such did of old poetic laws impart, - And what till then was fury turned to art. - -[256] Between ver. 646 and 647, I have found the following lines, since -suppressed by the author: - - That bold Columbus of the realms of wit, - Whose first discovery's not exceeded yet. - Led by the light of the Mæonian star, - He steered securely, and discovered far. - He, when all nature was subdued before, - Like his great pupil, sighed and longed for more; - Fancy's wild regions yet unvanquished lay, - A boundless empire, and that owned no sway. - Poets, &c.--WARBURTON. - -[257] Dr. Knightly Chetwood to Lord Roscommon: - - Hoist sail, bold writers! search, discover far; - You have a compass for a polar star.--WAKEFIELD. - -[258] After ver. 648, in the first edition, came this couplet: - - Not only nature did his laws obey, - But fancy's boundless empire owned his sway. - -Dennis denied that nature obeyed the laws of Aristotle. "The laws of -nature," he said, "are unalterable but by God himself." Pope's language -is inaccurate. - -[259] The obvious interpretation of this passage would be that poets, -Homer excepted, indulged in "savage liberty" till they were restrained -by the laws of Aristotle, which is inconsistent with ver. 92-99, where -Pope says that the Greek critics framed their laws from the practice of -the poets. - -[260] He presided over wit by his Rhetoric and Poetics, and gave proofs -by his Physics that he had "conquered nature." Pope's panegyric on the -dominion exercised by Aristotle is far inferior to Dryden's celebration -of the deliverance from it. - - The longest tyranny that ever swayed - Was that wherein our ancestors betrayed - Their free-born reason to the Stagyrite, - And made his torch their universal light. - Had we still paid that homage to a name, - Which only God and nature justly claim, - The western seas had been our utmost bound, - Where poets still might dream the sun was drowned, - And all the stars that shine in southern skies - Had been admired by none but savage eyes. - -[261] Oldham-- - - Each strain a graceful negligence does wear.--WAKEFIELD. - -[262] "Before he goes ten lines further," said Dennis, "he forgets -himself, and commends Longinus for the very contrary quality for which -he commended Horace. He commends Horace for judging coolly in verse, and -extols Longinus for criticising with fire in prose." With very little -faith in the traits he had ascribed to Horace, Pope was tempted in the -manuscript to reverse the characteristic, and write - - He judged with spirit as he sung with fire. - -He subsequently affixed to the original reading the note, "Not to be -altered. Horace judged with coolness as Longinus with fire." - -[263] Dennis notices that this couplet is borrowed from Roscommon's -Essay on Translated Verse: - - Thus make the proper use of each extreme, - And write with fury, but correct with phlegm. - -[264] In all Pope's works there cannot be found a couplet so paltry and -impertinent as this.--WAKEFIELD. - -The construction of the last line is deplorably faulty. "Horace does not -suffer more by wits than he suffers by critics" is Pope's meaning, but -interpreted by his language, he would be read as asserting that Horace -did not suffer more by wrong translations than critics suffered by wrong -quotations. - -[265] Dionysius of Halicarnassus.--POPE. - -These prosaic lines, this spiritless eulogy, are much below the merit of -the critic whom they are intended to celebrate.--WARTON. - -A most meagre account of a very excellent and judicious critic. But what -can we expect when men overstep the limit of their enquiries, and rush -in where learning has not authorised them to tread.--WAKEFIELD. - -The lines first appeared in the second edition. In a pretended letter to -Addison, dated October 10, 1714, Pope speaks of having found a -particular remark in one of the treatises of the Greek critic, but he -had probably never looked into the original when this couplet was -written, and seems to have falsely inferred from chance quotations that -the comments upon Homer were the special characteristic of the works of -Dionysius. Pope was indebted for the leading phrase in his couplet to a -passage of Rochester, quoted by Wakefield: - - Compare each phrase, examine ev'ry line, - Weigh ev'ry word, and ev'ry thought refine. - -[266] This dissolute and effeminate writer little deserved a place among -good critics for only two or three pages on the subject of -criticism.--WARTON. - -It is to be suspected that Pope had never read Petronius, and mentioned -him on the credit of two or three sentences which he had often seen -quoted, imagining that where there was so much, there must necessarily -be more. Young men, in haste to be renowned, too frequently talk of -books which they have scarcely seen.--JOHNSON. - -If Pope had been acquainted with the general tenor of the fragments -which remain of Petronius, he would not have celebrated the most corrupt -and disgusting writer of antiquity for an unalloyed combination of -charming qualities. - -[267] To commend Quintilian barely for his method, and to insist merely -on this excellence, is below the merit of one of the most rational and -elegant of Roman writers. Considering the nature of Quintilian's -subject, he afforded copious matter for a more appropriate and poetical -character. No author ever adorned a scientifical treatise with so many -beautiful metaphors.--WARTON. - -[268] In the early editions, - - Nor thus alone the curious eye to please, - But to be found, when need requires, with ease. - -[269] - - The Muses sure Longinus did inspire.--POPE. - -The taste and sensibility of Longinus were exquisite; but his -observations are too general, and his method too loose. The precision of -the true philosophical critic is lost in the declamation of the florid -rhetorician. Instead of showing for what reason a sentiment or image is -sublime, and discovering the secret power by which they affect a reader -with pleasure, he is ever intent on producing something sublime himself, -and strokes of his own eloquence.--WARTON. - -[270] This verse is ungrammatical. With respect to the thought, Boileau, -whose translation of Longinus our poet had most probably read, has said, -in his preface to that work, exactly the same thing: "Souvent il fait la -figure qu'il enseigne; et, en parlant du sublime, il est lui-même -très-sublime." Pope's couplet seems indebted also to the Prologue of -Dryden's Tempest, speaking of Shakespeare: - - He, monarch-like, gave those his subjects law; - And is that nature, which they paint and draw.--WAKEFIELD. - -Wakefield calls ver. 680 "ungrammatical," because, literally construed, -it reads, "And whose own example is himself, etc." - -[271] "Felt" is a flat, insipid word in this place.--WAKEFIELD. - -[272] "Rome," as invariably pronounced by Pope's contemporaries had the -same sound with "doom," and the pronunciation is not quite obsolete in -our own time among persons who were born in the last century. In the -previous part of the poem he had made Rome rhyme to "dome," which itself -was often pronounced like "doom." - -[273] "The superstition of some ages after the subversion of the Roman -Empire," wrote Pope to Caryll, July 19, 1711, "is too manifest a truth -to be denied, and does in no sort reflect upon the present catholics, -who are free from it. Our silence on these points may, with some reason, -make our adversaries think we allow and persist in those bigotries, -which in reality all good and sensible men despise, though they are -persuaded not to speak against them." Most of Pope's associates were men -of letters or men of the world, and he could know little of the spirit -of the church to which he nominally belonged, when he was simple enough -to believe that the Romanists of his day would sanction a sweeping -denunciation of the ignorance and superstition of the monks. - -[274] - - All was believed, but nothing understood.--POPE. - -[275] Between ver. 690 and 691, the author omitted these two: - - Vain wits and critics were no more allowed, - When none but saints had licence to be proud.--POPE. - -[276] Here he forms the tenses wrong.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope told Caryll that he did not speak in this couplet "of learning in -general, but of polite learning,--criticism, poetry, etc.--which was the -only learning concerned in the subject of the Essay." He at the same -time confessed his belief that the learning which the monks possessed -"was barely kept alive by them." The explanation would not contribute to -conciliate the offended catholics. - -[277] The "glory" from his own greatness, the "shame" from the rancour -with which some of his brother priests assailed him.--CROKER. - -Oldham in his Satire: - - On Butler, who can think without just rage, - The glory and the scandal of the age.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope avowed his conviction to Caryll that the priests had openly accused -him of heterodoxy in other passages of his poem, because they were -secretly exasperated at his eulogy upon Erasmus. "What in their own -opinion," he said, "they are really angry at is that a man whom their -tribe oppressed and persecuted should be vindicated after a whole age of -obloquy by one of their own people, who is free and bold enough to utter -a generous truth in behalf of the dead, whom no man sure will flatter, -and few do justice to." - -[278] If the restoration of learning consisted in recovering the works -and reviving the spirit of the ancients, it had been in a great degree -accomplished before the time of Erasmus.--ROSCOE. - -[279] Genius is here personified, and this person is said by Pope to -have been "spread over the ruins of Rome." The poet has evidently mixed -up genius considered as a quality of the remains of antiquity with -genius considered as a presiding being. - -[280] For the expression in the last half of this verse, Wakefield -quotes Addison on sculpture in the letter from Italy, - - Or teach their animated rocks to live. - -And for the expression in the first half, he quotes Dryden's Religio -Laici: - - Or various atoms, interfering dance, - Leaped into form. - -Wakefield ascribes the origin of the phrase to the fable that the stones -of Thebes moved into their places at the music of Amphion, and it is -thus used by Waller in his poem upon his Majesty's Repairing of St. -Paul's: - - He like Amphion makes those quarries leap - Into fair figures from a confused heap. - -[281] Leo was not only an admirer of music, but a skilful performer, and -we are informed by Pietro Aaron that "though he had acquired a -consummate knowledge in most arts and sciences, he seemed to love, -encourage, and exalt music more than any other." To sacred music he paid -a more particular attention, and sought throughout Europe for the most -celebrated performers, both vocal and instrumental.--ROSCOE. - -[282] M. Hieronymus Vida, an excellent Latin poet, who writ an Art of -Poetry in verse. He flourished in the time of Leo X.--POPE. - -But Vida was by no means the most celebrated poet that adorned the age -of Leo X. His merits seem not to have been particularly attended to in -England till Pope had bestowed this commendation upon him, although the -Poetics had been correctly published at Oxford by Basil Kennet some time -before. They are perhaps the most perfect of his compositions; they are -excellently translated by Pitt.--WARTON. - -[283] "The ancients," says the writer of the Supplement to the Profound, -"always gave ivy to the poets, as may appear from numberless places in -the classics, nor was it ever applied to patrons or critics, in -contradistinction to poets, by any but this ingenious author." - -[284] Alluding to - - "Mantua, væ miseræ, nimium vicina Cremonæ." Virg.--WARBURTON. - -This application is made in Kennet's edition of Vida.--WARTON. - -To say that the birth-place of Vida would be next in fame to the -birth-place of Virgil was to rank him before all the other poets that -Italy had produced--before Dante, Petrarch, Tasso, and Ariosto. The -antithesis is marred by its want of truth. - -[285] This, Warburton says, refers to the sack of Rome by the Duke of -Bourbon, which Pope assumed had driven poetry out of Italy. The assigned -cause is inadequate to account for the effect. - -[286] The "born to serve" is a sarcasm on the readiness with which the -French submitted to the despotism of Louis XIV. - -[287] May I be pardoned for declaring it as my opinion, that Boileau's -is the best Art of Poetry extant? The brevity of his precepts, the -justness of his metaphors, the harmony of his numbers, as far as -Alexandrine lines will admit, the exactness of his method, the -perspicacity of his remarks, and the energy of his style, all duly -considered, may render this opinion not unreasonable. It is scarcely to -be conceived, how much is comprehended in four short cantos. He that has -well digested these, cannot be said to be ignorant of any important rule -of poetry.--WARTON. - -Boileau is said by Pope to sway in right of Horace because the Frenchman -avowed that he based his Art of Poetry on that of the Roman. The English -poet has been indebted to both. - -[288] The comparison fails. The Romans of old subdued the Britons, and -ruled over them for centuries. - -[289] Essay on Poetry, by the Duke of Buckingham. Our poet is not the -only one of his time who complimented this Essay and its noble author. -Mr. Dryden had done it very largely in the Dedication to his Translation -of the Æneid; and Dr. Garth, in the first edition of his Dispensary, -says: - - The Tyber now no courtly Gallus sees, - But smiling Thames enjoys his Normanbys; - -though afterwards omitted, when parties were carried so high in the -reign of Queen Anne, as to allow no commendation to an opposite in -politics. The duke was all his life a steady adherent to the church of -England party, yet an enemy to the extravagant measures of the court in -the reign of Charles II. On which account, after having strongly -patronized Mr. Dryden, a coolness succeeded between them on that poet's -absolute attachment to the court, which carried him some length beyond -what the duke could approve of. This nobleman's true character had been -very well marked by Mr. Dryden before: - - The muse's friend, - Himself a muse. In Sanadrin's debate - True to his prince, but not a slave of state. - Abs. and Achit. - -Our author was more happy; he was honoured very young with his -friendship, and it continued till his death in all the circumstances of -a familiar esteem.--POPE. - -The Duke of Buckingham, in his Essay, has followed the method of -Boileau, in discoursing on the various species of poetry in their -different gradations, to no other purpose than to manifest his own -inferiority. His reputation was owing to his rank. In reading his poems -one is apt to exclaim with our author, "What woeful stuff this madrigal -would be," &c.--WARTON. - -Pope must have been well aware that, amongst all the poetic triflers of -the day, there was not one more ripe for the Dunciad. The fact, I fear, -is that Pope admired him, in spite of his verses, as a man rich and -prosperous.--DE QUINCEY. - -The couplet in which the duke is mentioned was first inserted in the -quarto of 1717, and the note on him in the edition of 1743. In the -original manuscript Pope had made the same character serve for him and -Lord Roscommon: - - Such learn'd and modest, not more great than good, - With manners gen'rous as his noble blood, - E'er saints impatient snatched him to the sky, - Roscommon was, and such is Normanby. - -[290] An Essay on translated Verse seems, at first sight, to be a barren -subject; yet Roscommon has decorated it with many precepts of utility -and taste. It is indisputably better written, in a closer and more -vigorous style, than the last-mentioned essay.--WARTON. - -When Warton wrote, some traditional reputation still lingered round the -poems of Roscommon. His feeble platitudes are now forgotten. - -[291] Rochester's Poems: - - to her was known - Every one's fault or merit but her own.--CUNNINGHAM. - -[292] Walsh was in general a flimsy and frigid writer. The Rambler calls -his works pages of inanity. His three letters to Pope, however, are well -written. His remarks on the nature of pastoral poetry, on borrowing from -the ancients, and against florid conceits, are worthy perusal.--WARTON. - -In the manuscript, the eulogy on Walsh was at first somewhat different: - - Such late was Walsh--nor can'st thou, Muse, offend, - Next these to name the Muse's judge and friend; - Who free from envious censure, partial praise, - Showed ancient candour in malicious days - To frailties mild, &c. - -The Muse did offend notwithstanding. After speaking of the irritation he -excited by his commendations of Erasmus, Pope thus continued in his -letter to Caryll of July 19, 1711:--"Others, you know, were as angry -that I mentioned Mr. Walsh with honour, who as he never refused to any -one of merit of any party the praise due to him, so honestly deserved it -from all others of never so different interests or sentiments." The -objections seem to have come from the Roman Catholics, and to have been -made on religious or political grounds, from which it may be inferred -that Walsh was an active opponent of the exiled family. Neither the -laudation of Dryden, who said he was "the best critic of our nation," -nor the poetical tribute of Pope, could do more than preserve the bare -name of an author whose literary qualifications were of the most trivial -kind. Dennis, who was acquainted with him, and who admits that he was an -indifferent poet, adds that "he was learned, candid and judicious, and a -man of a very good understanding in spite of his being a beau." He was a -country gentlemen of fortune, and a member of parliament, which were the -principal circumstances that conferred lustre upon his small talents in -the eyes of the wits. - -[293] Pope fell into the prevalent vice of uttering extravagant, -insincere compliments; for it is impossible to believe that he "no more -attempted to rise" in verse because he had lost the guidance of Walsh. -The guide had not done much towards directing Pope's flight, and -"teaching him to sing." The Pastorals were his only work, antecedent to -the Essay on Criticism, which had a nominal originality, and three of -these Pastorals were written before he and Walsh were acquainted. - -[294] The hint for the first verse in this couplet seems to have been -supplied by Dryden's conclusion of the Religio Laici: - - Yet neither praise expect, nor censure fear. - -The second verse of the couplet seems to be an adaptation of a line in -Prior's Henry and Emma: - - Joyful to live yet not afraid to die. - -[295] These concluding lines bear a great resemblance to Boileau's -conclusion of his Art of Poetry, but are perhaps superior: - - Censeur un peu fâcheux, mais souvent nécessaire; - Plus enclin à blâmer, que savant à bien faire.--WARTON. - -[296] By Bishop Hurd. - -[297] Warburton's remarks on the quotation from Addison's paper in the -Spectator, originally ran thus: "Whereas nothing can be more unlike, in -this respect, than these two poems--the Essay on Criticism having, as we -shall show, all the regularity that method can demand, and the Art of -Poetry all the looseness and inconnection that a familiar conversation -would indulge. Neither, were it otherwise, would this excellent author's -observation excuse our poet, who, writing in the formal way of a -discourse, was obliged to observe the method of such compositions, while -Horace in an easy epistle needed no apology for want of it. For it is -the nature of the composition that makes method proper or unnecessary." -The passage was altered out of compliment to the commentary of his -friend Hurd on the Art of Poetry, and Warburton, who had previously -contended that method was needless in Horace, now maintained that there -was no "prerogative in verse to dispense with regularity." It was common -with him to regulate his critical opinions by his personal partialities -or aversions. - -[298] The author of this work, in which some of Warburton's opinions -were attacked, was John Gilbert Cooper. He was a vain man, with a slight -tincture of learning, and very small abilities. Burke called him an -insufferable coxcomb. - -[299] Upton published Critical Observations upon Shakespeare, and says -that he offended Warburton by omitting to mention him. After Warburton -had attacked him Upton retaliated. - -[300] When Warburton published his Shakespeare in 1747, Edwards exposed, -in his Canons of Criticism, the dogmatism and absurdity of many of the -comments and conjectures. His book was unanswerable, and Warburton was -reduced to display his spleen in such sneers as the present. - -[301] The work which Warburton vaunts as the only honest piece of modern -criticism, was by his friend and flatterer Hurd. Personal partiality -might excuse the undue exaltation of a feeble production, but is no -apology for calumniating men who were quite as candid and far more able. - -[302] The objector was Warton. He justly intimated that the character -which Pope had given of Petronius, conveyed an erroneous idea of the -nature of his writings. - -[303] Dennis's Remarks on the Rape of the Lock were written in 1714, and -published in 1728. "To cure the little gentleman of his wretched -conceitedness, by giving him a view of his ignorance, his folly, and his -natural impotence," Dennis, in 1717, brought out a critical pamphlet on -three of his works, and kept back the exposure of the Rape of the Lock -"_in terrorem_, which had so good an effect, that the author endeavoured -for a time to counterfeit humility, and a sincere repentance, but no -sooner did he believe that time had caused these things to be forgot, -than he relapsed into ten times the folly and the madness that ever he -had shown before." The fresh provocation was the Dunciad, and the -treatise on the Profound, and poor Dennis printed his awe-inspiring -Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, to give "the little gentleman" another -lesson in humility. - -[304] Joseph Warton. - -[305] In his Observations on the Poetic character of Pope, Bowles -reiterates that the Rape of the Lock is "a composition to which it will -be in vain to compare anything of the kind,--that it stands alone, -unrivalled, and possibly never to be rivalled." "The Muse," he adds, -"has no longer her great characteristic attributes, pathos or sublimity; -but she appears so interesting that we almost doubt whether the garb of -elegant refinement is not as captivating, as the most beautiful -appearances of nature." - -[306] "The small edition of Pope," writes Warburton to Hurd, June 30, -1753, "is the correctest of all; and I was willing you should always see -the best of me." Warburton refers to his 12mo. ed. 1753, and in this -corrected edition Pope's initial is omitted. - -[307] Rape of the Lock, cant. i. ver. 3; Singer's Spence, p. 147. - -[308] Johnson's Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, vol. iii., p. 19; -Boswell's Life of Johnson, I vol. ed., p. 462. Johnson's conversation -with the Abbess took place in 1775. "She knew Pope, and thought him -disagreeable." - -[309] Warburton's Pope, ed. 1760, vol. iv. p. 27. - -[310] Pope's Poetical Works, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 327. Pope told Spence -that he gave the advice, but this was a false pretence. He may have had -a two-fold motive for the misrepresentation,--first, the wish to exalt -his critical perspicacity, since it was then acknowledged that Cato was -unfitted for the stage, and had owed its success to party passion; -secondly, the desire of appearing to have adopted a manly tone towards -Addison in the infancy of their acquaintance. - -[311] Macaulay's Essays, 1 vol. ed., p. 717. - -[312] "In mock heroic poems," said Addison, Spectator, No. 523, "the use -of the heathen mythology is not only excusable but graceful, because it -is the design of such compositions to divert by adapting the fabulous -machines of the ancients to low subjects, and at the same time by -ridiculing such kinds of machinery in modern writers." Pope's projected -machinery was not to be burlesque, and did not come under Addison's -exception. - -[313] Warburton's Pope, vol. iv. p. 26. - -[314] Dennis's Remarks on Pope's Rape of the Lock, preface, p. ix.; -Dennis's Remarks upon the Dunciad, p. 41; Pope's Correspondence, ed. -Elwin, vol. i. p. 398, note. - -[315] Pope's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 400. The disclaimer of Addison -is in a letter which he directed Steele to write to Lintot. Steele says -that the pamphlet "was offered to be communicated" to Addison before it -was published, and Dennis concluded that the offer came from Pope. It -doubtless came from the bookseller, for Pope was anxious to preserve his -incognito. He assured Cromwell and Caryll, that he was not the author, -and to have avowed the satire would have betrayed his double-dealing to -Lintot, and proclaimed to the public that the rancour towards Dennis was -dictated by revenge. When the Narrative of Dennis's Frenzy was offered -to Addison, he answered, that "he could not in honour and conscience be -privy to such treatment, and was sorry to hear of it." If this reply was -communicated to Pope, zeal for Addison could not be the motive for -persevering in a publication which was thoroughly distasteful to him, -let alone the absurdity of the supposition that Addison's interests -could have weighed with the person who had instigated the attack. -Accordingly, Pope in his pamphlet scoffed at Dennis, but did not reply -to his criticisms upon Cato. - -[316] Pope's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 398. - -[317] Spence, p. 35. - -[318] Spence, p. 178. - -[319] De Quincey's Works, vol. vii. p. 66; xv. p. 98. - -[320] De Quincey's Works, vol. xv. p. 116. - -[321] Hazlitt's Lectures on the English Poets, 3rd ed., p. 140. - -[322] Remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock, p. 27. - -[323] Ruffhead's Life of Pope, p. 113. - -[324] Dennis's Remarks, p. 24. - -[325] Dennis's Remarks, p. 40. - -[326] Dennis's Remarks, p. 8, 9. - -[327] A fragment of Pope's writing has been cut away by the binder, and -the words in brackets are conjectural. - -[328] Dennis's Remarks, Preface, p. v. vii. - -[329] Memoirs of Wordsworth, vol. ii. p. 221. - -[330] Cowper's Works, ed. Southey, 1854, vol. i. p. 313. - -[331] Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, ed. 1847, vol. i. p. 39. - -[332] Cowper's Works, vol. ii. p. 399. - -[333] Dennis's Remarks, p. 33, 47. - -[334] Lives of the Poets, vol. i. p. 74. - -[335] Historical Rhapsody on Mr. Pope, 2nd ed., p. 89. - -[336] Lectures on the British Poets, by Henry Reed. Philadelphia, 1857, -vol. i. p. 314. - -[337] De Quincey's Works, vol. xii. p. 17. - -[338] Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii. sc. 1. - -[339] Moore's Life of Byron, 1 vol. ed., p. 695. - -[340] Bowles's Pope, vol. x. p. 364. - -[341] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 696. - -[342] Bowles's Pope, vol. x. p. 363; Bowles's Letters to Campbell, 2nd -ed., p. 22 - -[343] Campbell's Specimens of British Poets, 1 vol. ed., p. lxxxvii. - -[344] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 693. - -[345] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 693. - -[346] Lectures on the English Poets, p. 389. - -[347] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 694. - -[348] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 697. - -[349] Bowles's Pope, vol. x. p. 371. - -[350] Warburton's Pope, vol. iv. p. 16. - -[351] Warton's Essay on the Genius of Pope, 5th ed., vol. ii. p. 404; -Bowles's Letters to T. Campbell, 2nd ed., p. 28. - -[352] Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. p. 116; Cowper to Unwin, -Jan. 5, 1782. - -[353] Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. p. 137; Hazlitt's Lectures -on the English Poets, p. 133. - -[354] Byron's Works, 1 vol. ed., p. 804. - -[355] Memoirs of Wordsworth, vol. ii. p. 215, 225, 470. - -[356] Lectures on the English Poets, p. 137. - -[357] Pope's Poetical Works, vol. i. p. 4. - -[358] Prologue to the Satires, ver. 28, 342; Essay on Man, Ep. i. ver. -16. - -[359] Hurd's Horace, 5th ed., vol. iii. p. 148. - -[360] Memoirs of Wordsworth, vol. i. p. 339, 342. - -[361] The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, chap. 3. - -[362] Advancement of Learning, ed. Montagu, p. 127. A sentence from the -passage is quoted by Hurd, who concludes that "pleasure in the idea of -Lord Bacon is the ultimate and appropriate end of poetry." Hurd could -not have looked into the original, and must have been deceived by -trusting to second-hand extracts. - -[363] Advancement of Learning, p. 127. - -[364] The Recluse, Book v. - -[365] The title of Mrs. continued in Pope's early time to be applied -indifferently to all grown up ladies, whether married or single. The -contracted form Miss was appropriated to young girls and women of loose -character. - -[366] Pope never, I think, is so unsuccessful as when he is writing to -the ladies. He talks of the impropriety of using hard words before a -lady. He must bring "her acquainted with the Rosicrucians," and explain -what is meant by "machinery." This is done with such an air of conceited -superiority, and of affected condescension, that it appears to me as -pedantic as the pedantry he pretended to despise. The latter part of the -epistle is certainly urbane, elegant and unaffected.--BOWLES. - -[367] C---- or C----l in all the impressions which appeared in Pope's -lifetime. "In this more solemn edition," Pope wrote to Caryll, Feb. 25, -1714, when the poem was about to be published in its enlarged shape, "I -was strangely tempted to have set your name at length, as well as I have -my own; but I remembered the desire you formerly expressed to the -contrary, besides that it may better become me to appear as the offerer -of an ill present, than you as the receiver of it." - -[368] Roscommon in his Essay: - - Or Gallus song, so tender and so true, - As e'en Lycoris might with pity view.--WAKEFIELD. - -[369] This is formed from Virgil, Geor. iv. 6. Sedley's version of the -passage imitated: - - The subject's humble, but not so the praise, - If any muse assists the poet's lays. - -Dryden's Translation: - - Slight is the subject, but the praise not small - If heav'n assist, and Phoebus hear my call.--WAKEFIELD. - -[370] "_Compel_," says Dennis, "is a botch for the sake of the rhyme. -The word that should naturally have been used was either _induce_ or -_provoke_." _Impel_ would have fitted both the rhyme and the sense. - -[371] "Belinda was Mrs. Arabella Fermor; the Baron was Lord Petre, of -small stature, who soon after married a great heiress, Mrs. Warmsley, -and died, leaving a posthumous son; Thalestris was Mrs. Morley; Sir -Plume was her brother, Sir George Brown, of Berkshire." Copied from a -MS. in a book presented by R. Lord Burlington, to Mr. William -Sherwin.--WARTON. - -All these persons were Roman Catholics. The marriage of Lord Petre to -Miss Warmsley took place in March, 1712, and he died the year after in -March, 1713, at the age of 22. Miss Fermor married Mr. Perkins, of Ufton -Court, near Reading, in 1714. Her husband died in 1736, and she herself -in 1738.--CROKER. - -[372] This passage is a palpable imitation of the exordium of the Æneis, -and particularly the last line. - - ----tantæne animis coelestibus iræ? - - And dwell such passions in coelestial minds?--WAKEFIELD. - -It was in the first editions: - - And dwells such rage in softest bosoms then, - And lodge such daring souls in little men?--POPE. - -The second line of the rejected reading was from Addison's translation -of the fourth Georgic: - - Their little bodies lodge a mighty soul. - -Pope probably altered the couplet in consequence of an objection of the -author of the Supplement to the Profound, who remarked upon the mean -effect which resulted from throwing the rhyme upon "then;" "for the -rhyme," says Dr. Trapp, "draws out the sound of little and ignoble -words, and makes them observed." - -[373] By _timorous_ I understand _feeble_, from the medium through which -it passed.--WAKEFIELD. - -[374] Verse 13, &c., stood thus in the first edition: - - Sol through white curtains did his beams display, - And ope'd those eyes which brighter shine than they: - Shock just had giv'n himself the rousing shake, - And nymphs prepared their chocolate to take; - Thrice the wrought slipper knocked against the ground, - And striking watches the tenth hour resound.--POPE. - -[375] Belinda rung a hand-bell, which not being answered, she knocked -with her slipper. Bell-hanging was not introduced into our domestic -apartments till long after the date of the Rape of the Lock. There are -no bells at Hampton Court, nor were there any in the first quarter of -the present century at Chatsworth and Holkham. I myself, about the year -1790, remember that it was still the practice for ladies to summon their -attendants to their bedchambers by knocking with a high-heeled shoe. -Servants, too, were accustomed to wait in ante-rooms, whence they were -summoned by hand-bells, and this explains the extraordinary number of -such rooms in the houses of the last century.--CROKER. - -[376] All the verses from hence to the end of this canto were added -afterwards.--POPE. - -And, as Mr. Croker observes, Pope, in adding them, did not perceive that -he introduced an inconsistency. At ver. 14 Belinda is represented as -waking, and at ver. 20 we have her still sleeping. - -[377] The frequenters of the court appeared in clothes of unusual -splendour on the birth-day of King, Queen, Prince or Princess of Wales. -There are innumerable allusions in the writings of the time to the -magnificence of the dresses at the birth-night balls. - -[378] "The silver token" alludes to the silver pennies which fairies -were said to drop at night into the shoes of maids who kept the house -clean and tidy. "The circled green" refers to those rings of grass of a -deeper hue than the surrounding pasture, which were formerly believed to -be caused by the midnight dances "of airy elves." This was the lore -taught by the nurse. The priest infused the legends of "virgins visited -by angel-powers."--CROKER. - -[379] The drive in Hyde Park is still called the ring, though the site -and shape have been changed.--CROKER. - -The box at the theatre, and the ring in Hyde Park, are frequently -mentioned as the two principal places for the public display of beauty -and fashion. Thus Lord Dorset, in his lines on Lady Dorchester: - - Wilt thou still sparkle in the box - Or ogle in the ring. - -And Garth, in the Dispensary, speaking of a deceased young lady, says: - - How lately did this celebrated thing - Blaze in the box, and sparkle in the ring. - -[380] Epilogue to Dryden's Tyrannick Love: - - For after death we sprites have just such natures - We had, for all the world, when human creatures.--STEEVENS. - -[381] - - Quæ gratia currûm - Armorumque fuit vivis, quæ cura nitentes - Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos. - Virg. Æneid, vi.--POPE. - -To Dryden's version of which passage our poet was indebted: - - The love of horses which they had alive, - And care of chariots, after death survive.--WAKEFIELD. - -[382] Dryden, Æn. i. 196: - - The realms of ocean and the fields of air.--WAKEFIELD. - -In Le Comte de Gabalis the salamanders who dwelt in fire, the nymphs who -peopled the seas and rivers, the gnomes who filled the earth almost to -the centre, and the sylphs who in countless multitudes floated in the -air, are said to be formed of the purest portion of the elements they -respectively inhabit. But their moral and mental natures are not, as in -the Rape of the Lock, the counter-part of their corporeal qualities, and -they are a race of beings distinct from man, and not deceased mortals, -as with Pope, who was indebted for this circumstance to the account of -the fairy train in Dryden's Flower and Leaf: - - And all those airy shapes you now behold - Were human bodies once, and clothed with earthly mould. - -[383] The idea and the phraseology are both from Paradise Lost, i. 423: - - For spirits when they please - Can either sex assume, or both.... - ... In what shape they choose, - Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, - Can execute their aery purposes, - And works of love or enmity fulfill. - -[384] Parody of Homer.--WARBURTON. - -Dryden, Hind and Panther, 3rd part: - - Immortal pow'rs the term of conscience know, - But int'rest is her name with men below.--HOLT WHITE. - -[385] That is, too sensible of their beauty.--WARBURTON. - -[386] The gnomes who prompt the disdain of the nymphs predestined to -disappointment.--CROKER. - -[387] - - Jam clypeus clypeis, umbone repellitur umbo. - Ense minax ensis, pede pes, et cuspide cuspis, &c. - Statius.--WARBURTON. - -To drive a coach has an exclusive technical meaning, which renders -Pope's phrase improper for expressing that the thought of a second coach -obliterates from the minds of belles the thought of a previous coach. - -[388] "Claim thy protection" signifies "I claim to be protected by -thee," whereas the sense here is, "I claim to protect thee." - -[389] The language of the Platonists, the writers of the intelligible -world of Spirits, &c.--POPE. - -[390] It cannot be that Belinda then saw for the first time a -billet-doux. The meaning no doubt is that a billet-doux was the first -thing she saw that morning.--CROKER. - -[391] Evidently from Addison's Spectator, No. 69, May, 1711. "The single -dress of a woman of quality is often the product of an hundred climates. -The muff and the fan come together from the different ends of the earth. -The scarf is sent from the torrid zone, and the tippet from beneath the -pole. The brocade petticoat arises out of the mines of Peru, and the -diamond necklace out of the bowels of Indostan."--WARTON. - -[392] Ancient traditions of the Rabbis relate, that several of the -fallen angels became amorous of women, and particularize some; among the -rest Asael, who lay with Naamah, the wife of Noah, or of Ham; and who, -continuing impenitent, still presides over the women's toilets. Bereshi -Rabbi, in Genes, vi. 2.--POPE. - -[393] A comparison pressed too far loses its beauty in departing from -truth. When Pope makes Belinda equal, in the glory of her appearance, to -the sun,--"the rival of his beams" who was "of this great world both eye -and soul," he falls into an insipid hyperbole. When Chaucer, in his -Knight's Tale, says, - - Up rose the sun, and up rose Emily, - -everyone feels the matchless charm of the allusion. - -[394] From hence the poem continues, in the first edition, to ver. 46: - - "The rest, the winds dispersed in empty air;" - -all after, to the end of this Canto, being additional.--POPE. - -[395] Wakefield remarks, that this line is marred by the abbreviation, -_you'll_, and he suggests that a better reading would be, - - Look on her face and _you_ forget them all. - -[396] Sandys's Paraphrase of the Song of Solomon, 1641: - - One hair of thine in fetters ties. - -Buchanan, Epigram, lib. i. xiv.: - - Et modo membra pilo vinctus miser abstrahoruno.--STEEVENS. - -Dryden's Persius, v. 247: - - She knows her man, and when you rant and swear, - Can draw you to her with a single hair. - -[397] An imitation, or a translation rather, of Æneid, ii. 390: - - ----dolus, an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?--WAKEFIELD. - -[398] Virgil, Æneid, xi. 798.--POPE. - -Dryden's Translation: - - Apollo heard, and granting half his pray'r, - Shuffled in winds the rest, and tossed in empty air. - -So Dryden's version of Ceyx & Alcyone, Ovid. _Met._ x.: - - This last petition heard of all her pray'r - The rest dispersed by winds were lost in air.--WAKEFIELD. - -[399] Dryden, Æn. vii. 10: - - the moon was bright - And the sea trembled with her silver light.--HOLT WHITE. - -Pope, says Wakefield, has put "tides" in the plural "merely to -accommodate the rhyme." The tides are the ebb and the flow, and cannot -be applied to only one of the two. - -[400] Dryden's Virgin Martyr: - - And music dying in remoter sounds.--STEEVENS. - -[401] A parody on the beginning of the second and tenth books of the -Iliad.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope's own translation of the commencement of the tenth book has a close -resemblance to the lines in the Rape of the Lock: - - All night the chiefs before their vessels lay, - And lost in sleep the labours of the day: - All but the king; with various thoughts oppressed - His country's cares lay rolling in his breast. - -[402] The gossamer, which is spun in autumn by a species of spider that -has the power of sailing in the air, was formerly supposed to be the -product of sun-burnt dew. Thus Spenser speaks of - - ----The fine nets which oft we woven see - Of scorched dew. - -[403] Milton of the wings of Raphael, Par. Lost, v. 283: - - And colours dipped in heav'n; - Sky-tinctured grain.--WAKEFIELD. - -[404] The comets. - -[405] "Did you ever," says Dennis, "hear before that the planets were -rolled by the _aerial_ kind?" and Pope writes on the margin "expressly -otherwise." He states that the "ethereal" kind are described down to -ver. 80, and that the "aerial kind" are the "less refined" beings who -dwell "beneath the moon." Clearly the distinction had not occurred to -him when he wrote the poem, for he calls both kinds "aerial" at ver. 76. - -[406] In the first edition: - - Hover, and catch the shooting stars by night. - -Dryden's Flower and Leaf: - - At other times we reign by night alone, - And posting through the skies pursue the moon. - -[407] A compliment to Queen Anne, whom he lavishly commends in his -Windsor Forest.--WAKEFIELD. - -The angel in Addison's Rosamond, Act 3, says, - - In hours of peace, unseen, unknown - I hover o'er the British throne. - -[408] Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med. Part I. 31; "I do think that many -mysteries ascribed to our own inventions have been the courteous -revelations of spirits; for those noble essences in heaven bear a -friendly regard unto their fellow natures on earth." The comparative -inferiority of Pope's mimic subject is strongly felt when we bring the -diminutive ideas into immediate contrast with their elevated originals. - -[409] That is, her ear-drops set with brilliants.--WAKEFIELD. - -[410] To crisp in our earlier writers is a common word for curl, from -the Latin _crispo_.--WAKEFIELD. - -[411] "This," says Warburton, in a manuscript note, "was a fine stroke -of satire to insinuate that the lapdog is often the concern of the fair, -superior to all the charities, as Milton calls them, of parental -relation." - -[412] Ovid, Met. xiii, 2: Clypei dominus _septemplicis_ -Ajax.--WARBURTON. - -Sandys's Translation: - - Uprose the master of the seven-fold Shield. - -[413] The hoop petticoat, in spite of the notion of Addison, that "a -touch of his pen would make it contract itself like the sensitive -plant," continued in fashion as an ordinary dress for upwards of -threescore years, and remained the court costume till the death of Queen -Charlotte.--CROKER. - -[414] Many modern editions read _shrivelled_, but Pope took his epithet, -now obsolete, from Dryden's Flower and Leaf: - - Then drooped the fading flow'rs, their beauty fled, - And rivelled up with heat, lay dying in their bed.--WAKEFIELD. - -[415] Chocolate was made in a kind of mill.--CROKER. - -[416] The anonymous translator of Ariadne to Theseus: - - And trembling at the waves which roll below.--WAKEFIELD. - -[417] The first edition continues from this line to ver. 24 of this -Canto.--POPE. - -[418] The modern portion of Hampton Court, and the East and South -fronts, were built by William III., who frequently resided there. Queen -Anne only went there occasionally.--CROKER. - -[419] Originally in the first edition, - - In various talk the cheerful hours they passed, - Of who was bit, or who capotted last.--POPE. - -When one party has won all the tricks of cards at picquet, he is said to -have _capotted_ his antagonist.--JOHNSON. - -Dryden's Æn. vi. 720: - - While thus in talk the flying hours they pass. - -[420] Japan screens, as appears from the Spectator, were then the rage, -and in the Woman of Taste, 1733, we have the couplet, - - Ne'er chuse a screen, and never touch a fan, - Till it has sailed from India or Japan. - -[421] The snuff-box of the beau, and the fan of the woman of fashion, -are frequent subjects of ridicule in the Spectator. The fan was employed -to execute so many little coquettish manoeuvres, that Addison ironically -proposed that ladies should be drilled in the use of it, as soldiers -were trained to the exercise of arms. - -[422] The fifth Pastoral of A. Philips: - - The sun now mounted to the noon of day - Began to shoot direct his burning ray. - -[423] From Congreve.--WARTON. - -A repulsive and unfounded couplet. Judges never sign sentences, and if a -juryman is in haste to dine it is at least as easy to acquit as to -condemn.--CROKER. - -[424] Dryden's Æn. vii. 170: - - And the long labours of your voyage end.--WAKEFIELD. - -Owing to the change of fashion the particulars in the text no longer -serve to mark the time of the day. From Swift's Journal of a Modern -Lady, written in 1728, we learn that the fashionable dinner-hour, when -"the long labours of the toilet ceased," was four o'clock. Cards were -reserved for after tea; but the holiday-makers, who in the Rape of the -Lock, go by water to Hampton Court, are represented as playing from the -usual dinner-hour till coffee is brought in, which may have been a -common arrangement in these pleasure-parties. - -[425] All that follows of the game at ombre, was added since the first -edition, till ver. 105, which connected thus, - - Sudden the board with cups and spoons is crowned.--POPE. - -[426] Ombre was invented in Spain, and owed its name to the phrase which -was to be used by the person who undertook to stand the game,--"_Yo soy -l'hombre_, I am the man." In the Rape of the Lock Belinda was the ombre, -and hence she is described as encountering singly her two antagonists. - -[427] The game could be played with two, three, or five; but three was -the usual number, and nine cards were dealt to each. - -[428] From the Spanish _matador_, a murderer, because the matadors in -ombre were the three best cards, and the slayers of all that came into -competition with them. - -[429] Knave was the old term for a servant, and Wakefield remarks that -they are represented "in garbs succinct," because, among the ancients, -domestics, when at work, had their flowing robes gathered up to the -girdle about the waist. - -[430] The ombre had the privilege of deciding which suit should be -trumps. - -[431] The whole idea of this description of a game at ombre is taken -from Vida's description of a game at Chess in his poem intitled -_Scacchia Ludus_.--WARBURTON. - -Pope not only borrowed the general conception of representing the game -under the guise of a battle, but he has imitated particular passages of -his Latin prototype. Vida's poem is a triumph of ingenuity, when the -intricacy of chess is considered, and the difficulty of expressing the -moves in a dead language. Yet the original is eclipsed by Pope's more -consummate copy. - -[432] Spadillio is from _Espadilla_, the Spanish term for the ace of -spades; and _Basto_ is the Spanish name for the ace of clubs. Whatever -suit was trumps the ace of spades was the first card in power, and the -ace of clubs the third. Manillio, the second in power of the three -Matadores, varied with the trumps. When spades or clubs were trumps -Manillio was the two of trumps, and when hearts or diamonds were trumps -Manillio was the seven of trumps. - -[433] Dryden's MacFlecknoe: - - The hoary prince in majesty appeared. - -[434] Pam, the highest card in loo, is the knave of clubs. - -[435] These lines are a parody of several passages in -Virgil.--WAKEFIELD. - -[436] Dryden's Æn. vi. 384: - - Just in the gate, and in the jaws of hell.--WAKEFIELD. - -If either of the antagonists made more tricks than the ombre, the winner -took the pool, and the ombre had to replace it for the next game. This -was called codille. - -[437] Unless hearts were trumps the ace of hearts ranked after king, -queen, and knave. - -[438] Dryden's Æn. xii. 1344: - - With groans the Latins rend the vaulted sky, - Woods, hills, and valleys to the voice reply. - -[439] - - Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futuræ; - Et servare modum, rebus sublata secundis! - Turno tempus erit magno cum optaverit emptum - Intactum Pallanta; et cum spolia ista diemque - Oderit. Virg.--WARBURTON. - -Dryden's Translation, x. 698: - - O mortals! blind of fate; who never know - To bear high fortune, or endure the low! - The time shall come, when Turnus, but in vain, - Shall wish untouched the trophies of the slain: - Shall wish the fatal belt were far away; - And curse the dire remembrance of the day.--WAKEFIELD. - -[440] From hence the first edition continues to ver. 134.--POPE. - -[441] Coffee it seems was then not only made but ground by the ladies, -and from the expression "the berries crackle" it might almost be -supposed that they roasted it also.--CROKER. - -"There was a side-board of coffee," says Pope, in his letter describing -Swift's mode of life at Letcombe in 1714, "which the Dean roasted with -his own hands in an engine for that purpose." - -[442] A sarcastic allusion to the pretentious talk of the would-be -politicians who frequented coffee-houses. These oracles were a standing -topic of ridicule. - -[443] Vide Ovid's Metamorphoses, viii.--POPE. - -Nisus had a purple hair on which depended the safety of himself and his -kingdom. When the Cretans made war upon him, his daughter Scylla fell in -love with their leader Minos, whom she saw from a high tower. Hurried -away by her passion, she plucked out her father's hair as he slept, and -carried it to Minos, who was victorious in consequence, and Scylla was -turned for her crime into a bird. The line of Pope is made up from a -passage in Dryden's translation of the first Georgic, where, having -applied the epithet "injured" to Nisus, he adds, - - And thus the purple hair is dearly paid. - -[444] Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel: - - But when to sin our blessed nature leans - The careful devil is still at hand with means. - -[445] In the first edition it was thus, - - As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.--Ver. 134. - - First he expands the glitt'ring forfex wide - T' inclose the lock; then joins it to divide; - The meeting points the sacred hair dissever, - From the fair head, for ever, and for ever.--Ver. 154. - -All that is between was added afterwards.--POPE. - -[446] This repetition is formed on similar passages in -Virgil.--WAKEFIELD. - -As, for instance, Dryden's Æn. vi. 950: - - Then thrice around his neck his arms he threw; - And thrice the flitting shadow slipped away. - -[447] See Milton, lib. vi. 330, of Satan cut asunder by the Angel -Michael.--POPE. - - But th' ethereal substance closed - Not long divisible. - -[448] - - Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit, - Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt. Virg.--POPE. - -[449] A famous book written about that time by a woman: full of court -and party scandal; and in a loose effeminacy of style and sentiment, -which well-suited the debauched taste of the better vulgar.--WARBURTON. - -Mrs. Manley, the author of it, was the daughter of Sir Roger Manley, -Governor of Guernsey, and the author of the first volume of the famous -Turkish Spy, published from his papers, by Dr. Midgley. She was known -and admired by all the wits of the times. She died in the house of -Alderman Barber, Swift's friend; and was said to have been the mistress -of the alderman.--WARTON. - -Her actions were even more infamous than her writings. One Mary Thompson -had been kept by a person named Pheasant, and at his death, in 1705, she -endeavoured to pass herself off for his wife, that she might have a -right of dower out of his estate. According to Mr. Nichols, in a note to -Steele's Letters, Mrs. Manley was bribed by the promise of 100_l._ -a-year for life, to aid Mrs. Thompson in getting a forged entry of the -marriage inserted in a register. The case was heard in Doctors' Commons, -and Mrs. Manley's guilt was proved. But neither her profligacy nor her -frauds could deprive her of the countenance of political partisans like -Swift and Prior, or of good-natured men of pleasure like Steele. - -[450] Ladies in those days sometimes received visits in their -bed-chambers, when the bed was covered with a richer counterpane, and -"graced" by a small pillow with a worked case and lace edging. Of the -female fashions which Pope pleasantly assumes will be as lasting as the -swimming of fishes or the flight of birds, the greater part have passed -away.--CROKER. - -[451] Ogilby, Virg. Ecl. v.: - - So long thy honoured name and praise shall last. - -Dryden, Æn. i. 857: - - Your honour, name, and praise shall never die!--WAKEFIELD. - -[452] So Juvenal exactly, x. 146: - - Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris.--WAKEFIELD. - -[453] Addison of Troy in his poem to the king: - - And laid the labour of the gods in dust.--WAKEFIELD. - -[454] Addison's translation of Horace, Ode iii. 3: - - Thrice should my favourite Greeks his works confound, - And hew the shining fabric to the ground.--WAKEFIELD. - -[455] - - Ille quoque eversus mons est, &c. - Quid faciant crines, cum ferro talia cedant? - Catull. de Com. Berenices.--POPE. - -[456] - - At regina gravi, &c.--Virg. Æn. iv. 1.--POPE. - - But anxious cares already seized the queen; - She fed within her veins a flame unseen. - Dryden's Transl.--WAKEFIELD. - -[457] The thought and turn of these lines is imitated from the -Dispensary, Canto iii.: - - Not beauties fret so much if freckles come, - Or nose should redden in the drawing-room. - -[458] All the lines from hence to the 94th verse, that describe the -house of Spleen, are not in the first edition; instead of them followed -only these: - - While her racked soul repose and peace requires, - The fierce Thalestris fans the rising fires. - -And continued at the 94th verse of this Canto.--POPE. - -[459] Garth in the Dispensary, canto iv.: - - The bat with sooty wings flits through the grove. - -[460] Spleen was thought to be engendered by the east wind. Cowper, in -the Task, Bk. iv. ver. 363, speaks of - - the unhealthful east - That breathes the spleen. - -[461] In this description our poet seems to have had before him the Cave -of Envy in Ovid, Met. ii. 760: - - Protinus Invidiæ nigro squallentia tabo - Tecta petit. Domus est imis in vallibus antri - Abdita, sole carens, non ulli pervia vento. - - Shut from the winds and from the wholesome skies, - In a deep vale the gloomy dungeon lies; - Dismal and cold, where not a beam of light - Invades the winter, or disturbs the night. - Addison's Trans.--WAKEFIELD. - -[462] For "Megrim," the first edition has "Languor." - -[463] "Wait" for "wait on" or "by" is a very harsh ellipse, though it -has the sanction of Dryden. - -[464] Hypochondriacal disorders, under the name of vapours or spleen, -were then the fashionable complaint, and as they often presented no -definite bodily symptoms they could be readily feigned. The "gown" and -"night-dress" of Pope are the "dressing-gown" of our day. - -[465] Oldham had expressed the same idea in The Dream: - - Not dying saints enjoy such ecstacies - When they in visions antedate their bliss. - -The ancients believed the spleen to be the seat of mirth, and hence a -disordered spleen was supposed to produce melancholy and moroseness. The -second sense, in modern usage, has driven out the first, and spleen has -become synonymous with surliness and gloom, but Pope in prose as well as -verse gave it a wider range, and appears to ascribe to it those -creations of the imagination which are mistaken for realities. -"Methinks," he writes to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, "I am imitating in -my ravings the _dreams of splenetic_ enthusiasts and solitaires, who -fall in love with saints and fancy themselves in favour of angels and -spirits." - -[466] Snakes erect on the "rolling spires," or coils of their bodies, as -Milton says that the neck of the serpent was "erect amidst his circling -spires." - -[467] In the last century the word "machine" was currently employed to -designate the supernatural agents in a fiction, and their proceedings -when acting in human affairs. Thus, by the expression "angels in -machines" is meant angels interposing on behalf of mankind. - -[468] Ovid, Met. i. 1: - - In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas - Corpora. - - Of bodies changed to various forms I sing. - --Dryden's Trans.--WAKEFIELD. - -[469] See Hom. Iliad, xviii., of Vulcan's walking tripods.--POPE. - -Van Swieten, in his Commentaries on Boerhaave, relates that he knew a -man who had studied till he fancied his legs to be of glass. His maid -bringing wood to his fire threw it carelessly down. Our sage was -terrified for his legs of glass. The girl, out of patience with his -megrims, gave him a blow with a log on the parts affected. He started up -in a rage, and from that moment recovered the use of his glass -legs.--WARTON. - -[470] Alludes to a real fact; a lady of distinction imagined herself in -this condition.--POPE. - -[471] The fanciful person, here alluded to, was Dr. Edward Pelling, -chaplain to several successive monarchs. Having studied himself into -hypochondriasis between the age of forty and fifty, he imagined himself -to be pregnant, and forbore all manner of exercise lest motion should -prove injurious to his ideal burden.--STEEVENS. - -[472] This is adopted from the Loyal Subject of Beaumont and -Fletcher.--STEEVENS. - -[473] In imitation of the golden branch which Æneas carried as a -passport when he visited the infernal regions. Spleenwort is a species -of fern. "Its virtues," says Cowley, "are told in its name." He makes it -compare itself with "painted flowers," and exclaim, - - They're fair, 'tis true, they're cheerful, and they're green, - But I, though sad, procure a gladsome mien. - -The plant has lost the little credit it once possessed as a remedy for -hypochondriacal affections. - -[474] Bishop Lowth notices Pope's frequent violation of grammar in -joining a pronoun in the singular to a verb in the plural. Thus when he -says in the Messiah, - - O thou my voice inspire - Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire, - -either "thou" should be "you," or else "touched" should be "touchedst, -didst touch." Pope has committed the same error in this speech to the -Queen of Spleen; for that "thou," and not "you," is, or ought to be, the -pronoun understood follows from the expression "_thy_ power" at ver. 65. -Hence "who rule" should be "who rulest," or "who dost rule," and so with -the other verbs in the second person. - -[475] The disease was probably named from the atmospheric vapours which -were reputed to be a principal cause of English melancholy. Cowper says -of England in his Task, Bk. v. ver. 462, - - Thy clime is rude, - Replete with vapours, and disposes much - All hearts to sadness, and none more than mine. - -[476] Citron-water was a cordial distilled from a mixture of spirit of -wine with the rind of citrons and lemons. There are numerous allusions -in the literature of Pope's day to the fondness of women of fashion for -this drink, as in Swift's Journal of a Modern Lady, where he says that -"to cool her heated brains" when she wakes at noon she - - Takes a large dram of citron-water. - -[477] The curl papers of ladies' hair used to be fastened with strips of -pliant lead.--CROKER. - -[478] That is, at whose shrine all our sex resign ease, pleasure, and -virtue. "Honour" means female reputation. - -[479] A parody of Virgil, Ecl. i. 60.--WAKEFIELD. - -Garth, Dispensary, Canto iii.: - - The tow'ring Alps shall sooner sink to vales, - And leeches in our glasses swell to whales; - Or Norwich trade in instruments of steel, - And Bromingham in stuffs and druggets deal. - -[480] Sir George Brown. He was angry that the poet should make him talk -nothing but nonsense: and in truth one could not well blame -him.--WARBURTON. - -This is one instance out of many in which Pope took unwarrantable -liberties with private character. Spence had been told that the -description "was the very picture of the man." - -[481] A cane diversified with darker spots.--WAKEFIELD. - -The "nice conduct" of canes is ridiculed by Addison in No. 103 of the -Tatler. A man of fashion, with "a cane very curiously clouded, and a -blue ribbon to hang it on his wrist," protests that the "knocking it -upon his shoe, leaning one leg upon it, or whistling with it on his -mouth are such great reliefs to him in conversation that he does not -know how to be good company without it." A second beau is warned that -his cane must be forfeited if "he walks with it under his arm, -brandishes it in the air, or hangs it on a button." - -[482] In allusion to Achilles's oath in Homer, Il. i.--POPE. - - But by this scepter solemnly I swear - Which never more green leaf or growing branch shall bear. - Dryden's Trans.--WAKEFIELD. - -[483] Dryden's Æn. i. 770: - - If yet he lives and draws this vital air. - -[484] Borrowed from Dryden's Epistle to Mr. Granville: - - The long contended honours of the field.--HOLT WHITE. - -[485] These two lines are additional; and assign the cause of the -different operation on the passions of the two ladies. The poem went on -before without that distinction, as without any machinery, to the end of -the Canto.--POPE. - -At ver. 91, Umbriel empties the bag which contains the angry passions -over the heads of Thalestris and Belinda. At ver. 142 he breaks the -phial of sorrow over Belinda alone, whence Belinda's anger is turned to -grief, and Thalestris remains indignant. - -[486] A parody of Virg. Æn. iv. 657: - - Felix heu nimium felix! si litora tantum - Nunquam Dardaniæ tetigissent nostra carinæ.--WAKEFIELD. - -[487] Pope originally wrote: - - 'Twas this the morning omens did foretell. - -He altered the verse, together with one or two others of the same kind, -to get rid of the "did". - -[488] Butler, the poet, says that the object of black patches was to -make the complexion look fairer by the contrast. Dryden has a similar -idea in Palamon and Arcite: - - Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen - Whose dusk set off the whiteness of his skin. - -[489] Prior's Henry and Emma: - - No longer shall thy comely tresses break - In flowing ringlets on thy snowy neck.--WAKEFIELD. - -[490] Sir William Bowles on the Death of Charles II.: - - And in their rulers fate bewail their own. - -[491] Translated from Virgil, Æn. iv. 440: - - Fata obstant, placidasque viri deus obstruit aures. - Fate and great Jove had stopped his gentle tears.--Waller.--WAKEFIELD. - -[492] The entreaties to stay which Dido's sister, Anna, addressed to -Æneas.--CROKER. - -Virgil says that the pathetic entreaties to stay sent a thrill of grief -through the mighty breast of Æneas, but that his resolution was -unshaken. Pope's couplet supposes that he inwardly wavered. - -[493] A new character introduced in the subsequent editions, to open -more clearly the moral of the poem, in a parody of the speech of -Sarpedon to Glaucus in Homer.--POPE. - -The parody first appeared when the Rape of the Lock was inserted in the -quarto of 1717. In the previous enlarged editions, which contained the -machinery, the sixth verse was followed by what is now verse -thirty-seven: - - To arms, to arms! the bold Thalestris cries. - -[494] Homer. - - Why boast we, Glaucus! our extended reign, - Where Xanthus' streams enrich the Lycian plain; - Our num'rous herds that range each fruitful field, - And hills where vines their purple harvest yield; - Our foaming bowls with gen'rous nectar crowned, - Our feasts enhanced with music's sprightly sound; - Why on those shores are we with joy surveyed, - Admired as heroes, and as gods obeyed; - Unless great acts superior merit prove, - And vindicate the bounteous pow'rs above? - 'Tis ours, the dignity they give, to grace; - The first in valour, as the first in place: - That while with wond'ring eyes our martial bands - Behold our deeds transcending our commands, - Such, they may cry, deserve the sov'reign state, - Whom those that envy, dare not imitate. - Could all our care elude the greedy grave, - Which claims no less the fearful than the brave, - For lust of fame I should not vainly dare - In fighting fields, nor urge thy soul to war. - But since, alas! ignoble age must come, - Disease, and death's inexorable doom; - The life which others pay, let us bestow, - And give to fame what we to nature owe; - Brave though we fall, and honoured if we live, - Or let us glory gain, or glory give.--WARBURTON. - -The passage quoted by Warburton is from Pope's own translation of the -Episode of Sarpedon, which appeared in Dryden's Miscellany, in 1710. - -[495] Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel: - - The young men's vision, and the old men's dream.--WAKEFIELD. - -[496] Denham, in his version of the speech of Homer parodied by our -poet: - - Why all the tributes land and sea affords?-- - As gods behold us, and as gods adore.--WAKEFIELD. - -[497] Gay, in the Toilette: - - Nor shall side-boxes watch my restless eyes, - And, as they catch the glance in rows arise - With humble bows; nor white-gloved beaux approach - In crowds behind to guard me to my coach.--WAKEFIELD. - -[498] The ladies at this time always sat in the front, the gentlemen in -the side-boxes.--NICHOLS. - -In Steele's Theatre, No. 3, January 9, 1720, his "representatives of a -British audience" are "three of the fair sex for the front boxes, two -gentlemen of wit and pleasure for the side-boxes, and three substantial -citizens for the pit." "The virgin ladies," he said, in the Guardian, -No. 29, April 14, 1713, "usually dispose themselves in the front of the -boxes, the young married women compose the second row, while the rear is -generally made up of mothers of long standing, undesigning maids, and -contented widows."--CUNNINGHAM. - -[499] It is a verse frequently repeated in Homer after any speech, - - ----So spoke--and all the heroes applauded.--POPE. - -[500] From hence the first edition goes on to the conclusion, except a -very few short insertions added to keep the machinery in view to the end -of the poem.--POPE. - -[501] Æneid. v. 140: - - ----ferit æthera clamor. - Their shouting strikes the skies.--WAKEFIELD. - -[502] Homer, Il. xx.--POPE. - -[503] This verse is an improvement on the original, Æneid. viii. 246: - - ----trebidentque immisse lumine manes. - And the ghosts tremble at intruding light.--WAKEFIELD. - -The concluding line of the paragraph is from Addison's translation of a -passage in Silius Italicus: - - Who pale with fear the rending earth survey - And startle at the sudden flash of day. - -There is more of bathos than of humour from ver. 43 to ver. 52. The -exaggeration is carried so far that even the similitude of caricature is -lost. - -[504] These four lines added, for the reason before mentioned.--POPE. - -[505] Minerva in like manner, during the battle of Ulysses with the -suitors in the Odyssey, perches on a beam of the roof to behold -it.--POPE. - -[506] Like the heroes in Homer when they are spectators of a -combat.--WARTON. - -[507] This idea is borrowed from a couplet in the Duke of Buckingham's -Essay on Poetry where he ridicules the poetical dialogues of the -_dramatis personæ_ in the reign of Charles II. - - Or else like bells, eternally they chime - They sigh in simile, and die in rhyme. - -[508] Wakefield quotes passages from Sir Philip Sidney, Drummond, and -Milton, in which the phrase "living death" occurs. - -[509] The words of a song in the Opera of Camilla.--POPE. - -"Here," said Dennis, speaking of the death of the beau and witling, "we -have a real combat, and a metaphorical dying," and he did the lines no -injustice when he added that they were but a "miserable pleasantry." - -[510] - - Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abjectus in herbis, - Ad vada Mæandri concinit albus olor. - Ov. Ep.--POPE. - -[511] Vid. Homer, Il. viii. and Virg. Æn. xii.--POPE. - -The passage in Homer to which the poet refers is where Jupiter, before -the conflict between Hector and Achilles, weighs the issue in a pair of -scales. - -[512] These two lines added for the above reason.--POPE. - -[513] In imitation of the progress of Agamemnon's sceptre in Homer, Il. -ii.--POPE. - -[514] Pins to adorn the hair were then called bodkins, and Sir George -Etherege, in Tonson's Second Miscellany, traces the genealogy of some -jewels through the successive stages of the ornament of a cap, the -handle of a fan, and ear-rings, till they became, like the gold seal -rings, in the Rape of the Lock, - - A diamond bodkin in each tress, - The badges of her nobleness, - For every stone, as well as she, - Can boast an ancient pedigree. - -[515] "Who," asked Dennis, "ever heard of a dead man that burnt in -Cupid's flames?" Pope had originally written, - - And still burn on, in Cupid's flames, alive. - -[516] Dryden's Alexander's Feast: - - A present deity! they shout around: - A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound.--STEEVENS. - -[517] Vide Ariosto, Canto xxxiv.--POPE. - -From the catalogue which follows it appears that, by "_all_ things lost -on earth," Pope meant only such things as, in his opinion, were -hypocritical, foolish, and frivolous. These mounted to the lunar sphere -when they had finished their course here below,--a career very short in -instances like the "tears of heirs," and, perhaps, very long in -instances like the butterflies preserved in the cabinets of collectors. - -[518] Apparently Pope had the erroneous idea that distinguished soldiers -were men of dull and ponderous minds. - -[519] The alms would not be "lost on earth," however unprofitable they -might be to the alms-givers, from whom they had been extorted by fear -instead of proceeding from a benevolent disposition. - -[520] Dryden's Oedipus, act 2: - - The smiles of courtiers, and the harlot's tears, - The tradesman's oaths, and mourning of an heir, - Are truths, to what priests tell.--HOLT WHITE. - -[521] Denham, in Cooper's Hill, gave him a hint: - - their airy shape - All but a quick poetic sight escape.--WAKEFIELD. - -[522] - - Flammiferumque trahens spatioso limite crinem - Stella micat. Ovid.--POPE. - -Dryden, Æneis, v. 1092: - - Descends, and draws behind a trail of light.--WAKEFIELD. - -[523] These two lines added, for the same reason, to keep in view the -machinery of the poem.--POPE. - -Dryden's Æneis, v. 691: - - And as it flew - A train of following flames ascending drew; - Kindling they mount, and mark the shiny way - Across the skies, as falling meteors play. - -[524] The promenades in the Mall lasted till the middle of the reign of -George III., and it would appear from this line that they were enlivened -by music.--CROKER. - -[525] Rosamond's lake was a small oblong piece of water near the Pimlico -Gate of St. James's Park. When it was done away with, about the middle -of the last century, the public, unwilling to lose the romantic name, -transferred it to the dirty pond in the Green Park, which has, in its -turn, been filled up.--CROKER. - -[526] John Partridge was a ridiculous stargazer, who in his almanacks -every year never failed to predict the downfall of the Pope, and the -King of France, then at war with the English.--POPE. - -He had been made the subject of ridicule by Swift, Steele, Addison and -others.--CROKER. - -[527] Milton, Par. Lost, v. ver. 261, calls the telescope "the glass of -Galileo," who first employed it to observe the heavens. - -[528] Phebe in As You Like It, Act iii. Sc. 5, says to her despised and -despairing lover, - - Thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye. - -[529] The compliment was meant to be serious, but is marred by its -extravagance. "Millions" is too hyperbolical. - -[530] Spenser in his 75th Sonnet: - - Not so, quoth I: let baser things devise - To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: - My verse your virtues rare shall eternise, - And in the heavens write your glorious name. - -And Cowley, in his imitation of Horace, Ode iv. 2: - - He bids him live and grow in fame - Among the stars he sticks his name.--WAKEFIELD. - -[531] Wakefield says "there is an affectation and ambiguity in this -account which he does not comprehend." The uncertainty with which Pope -speaks, refers to his doubt of the identity of the lady celebrated by -the duke. Enough of "ambiguity and affectation" remains, which would -have been no mystery to Wakefield if he had been aware that Pope's -object was to deceive. - -[532] The Memoirs by Ayre appeared in 1745, without the name of the -publisher. In a pamphlet which was printed the same year, under the -title of Remarks on Squire Ayre's Memoirs, it is stated that the work -was put together, and published by Curll, who being notorious for the -manufacture of vapid, lying biographies, suppressed a name which would -have been fatal to the sale of his trash. - -[533] Warton's Essay, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 329. - -[534] Pope's Correspondence, ed. Elwin, vol. i., pp. 144, 158-160, 162. - -[535] "Pray in your next," writes Caryll to Pope, July 16, 1717, "tell -me who was the unfortunate lady you address a copy of verses to. I think -you once gave me her history, but it is now quite out of my head." Pope, -in his reply does not allude to the subject, and Caryll says to him on -Aug. 18, "You answer not my question who the unfortunate lady was that -you inscribe a copy of verses to in your book. I long to be re-told her -story, for I believe you already told me formerly; but I shall refer -that, and a thousand other things more, to chat over at our next -meeting, which I hope draws near." This letter was answered by Pope on -Aug. 22, but there is still not a word on the unfortunate lady. - -[536] Dr. Morell, in his notes to Seneca's Epistles, says, "I remember -when I was a boy at Eton that an old almswoman, Mrs. Pain, having been -cut down alive, gave this reason for hanging herself, that she was -afraid of dying." To rush into death from the fear of death is not -uncommon, and shows how far suicide is from being an evidence of -superior courage. Acute philosophers have not always reasoned better -than Pope. M. Lerminier, a French writer of repute, eulogises, in his -Philosophie du Droit, the suicide of Cato for "a pure and majestic act." -"In the Memoirs of the Emperor's Valet," he says in the next sentence, -"we learn that Napoleon tried to destroy himself at Fontainebleau in -1814. He took poison; remedies were applied, and he recovered. He was -not to die thus. Would you wish that Napoleon's end should have been -that of an amorous sub-lieutenant, or a ruined banker?" But this was the -veritable end of Cato. He died the death of "amorous sub-lieutenants and -ruined bankers." The question of M. Lerminier revealed his consciousness -that suicide was not heroism, or, in justification of the attempt of the -Emperor, he would have asked, "Would you not have wished that Napoleon's -end should have been the pure and majestic end of Cato?" - -[537] Comus, ver. 205. - -[538] I Viaggi di Marco Polo, ed. Pasini, 1847, p. 45. - -[539] A belief akin to that which grew up in deserts prevailed in -England. Hamlet doubts whether his father's ghost is a "spirit of health -or goblin damned," and Horatio attempts to dissuade Hamlet from -following it lest it should prove to be an impostor. A "goblin damned" -may have put on the "fair and warlike form" of the King of Denmark, may -"tempt" Hamlet to the "dreadful summit of the cliff," may "there assume -some other horrible form which might draw him into madness," and impel -him to commit suicide. The radical idea is the same in Shakespeare and -Marco Polo. Fiends personate the relations or friends of an intended -victim that they may decoy him to his death. - -[540] - - And beck'ning woos me, from the fatal tree - To pluck a garland for herself or me. - -[541] Elements of Criticism, 6th ed., vol. i. p. 477. - -[542] Ben Jonson's Elegy on the Marchioness of Winchester: - - What gentle ghost besprent with April dew, - Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew? - And beck'ning woos me?--WARTON. - -[543] Johnson gives two meanings for "to gore,"--"to stab," "to pierce;" -and "to pierce with a horn." The second, or special signification, has -since superseded the general sense in popular usage, though, as with -many other words, a sense which has become obsolete in conversation is -occasionally revived in books. Formerly, the general sense of "to -pierce," without reference to the mode of piercing, was the predominant -meaning, and Milton, Par. Lost, vi. 386, employed the word to denote the -gaps made in the ranks of a defeated army: - - the battle swerved - With many an inroad gored. - -[544] The third Elegy of Crashaw: - - And I, what is my crime, I cannot tell, - Unless it be a crime t' have loved too well.--STEEVENS. - -[545] Shakespeare, Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2: - - Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; - By that sin fell the angels. - -[546] Dryden, To the Duchess of Ormond: - - And where imprisoned in so sweet a cage - A soul might well be pleased to pass an age. - -[547] Cowley has a couplet not unlike his, Davideis, i. 80: - - Where their vast court the mother-waters keep, - And undisturbed by moons in silence sleep.--WAKEFIELD. - -[548] Duke's translation of Juvenal, Sat. iv.: - - Without one virtue to redeem his fame.--WAKEFIELD. - -[549] Dryden, Ovid's Amor. ii. 19: - - But thou dull husband of a wife too fair.--WAKEFIELD. - -[550] Lord Kames objects to the false antithesis between cold flesh and -mental warmth. - -[551] Milton, Comus, ver. 753: - - Love-darting eyes or tresses like the morn.--WAKEFIELD. - -[552] Rolling eyes are contrary to the English idea of feminine -refinement. Pope admired them. He had previously said in the Rape of the -Lock, Cant. v. 33, - - Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll. - -[553] Wakefield mentions that the phrase "unknowing how to yield" is -used by Dryden, Æneis, xi. 472, and that the entire couplet is almost -identical with two passages in Pope's own translation of the Iliad. The -first is at Book ix. 749. The second is at Book xxii. 447, and runs -thus: - - The furies that relentless breast have steeled - And cursed thee with a heart that cannot yield. - -[554] From a fragment of Sir Edward Hungerford, according to a writer in -the Gentleman's Magazine for 1764: - - The soul by pure religion taught to glow - At others' good, or melt at others' woe.--WAKEFIELD. - -[555] Dryden, Æneis, ix. 647, where the mother of Euryalus laments her -son, whose body remains with the enemy: - - Nor was I near to close his dying eyes, - To wash his wounds, to weep his obsequies.--WAKEFIELD. - -The cruelties of the lady's relations, the desolation of the family, the -being deprived of the rights of sepulture, the circumstance of dying in -a country remote from her relations, are all touched with great -tenderness and pathos, particularly the four lines from the 51st, "By -foreign hands," &c.--WARTON. - -[556] The anonymous translator of Ariadne to Theseus: - - Poor Ariadne! thou must perish here, - Breathe out thy soul in strange and hated air, - Nor see thy pitying mother shed one tear; - Want a kind hand, which thy fixed eyes may close, - And thy stiff limbs may decently compose. - -So Gay in his Dione, Act ii. Sc. 1: - - What pious care my ghastful lid shall close? - What decent hand my frozen limbs compose.--WAKEFIELD. - -De Quincey assumes that the term "decent limbs" refers to the lady's -shape, and he remarks that the language "does not imply much enthusiasm -of praise." Pope had perhaps the same idea in his mind as the translator -he imitated, and "thy decent limbs were composed" may be put -inaccurately for "thy limbs were composed decently." - -[557] The poet in the previous couplet has employed the word "mourn" to -signify genuine regret. In this verse it is put for the act of wearing -mourning,--the appearing in the "sable weeds," which are, "the mockery -of woe" when the sorrow is not real. - -[558] Dryden, Virg. Ecl. x. 51: - - How light would lie the turf upon my breast. - -A. Philips in his third Pastoral: - - The flow'ry turf lie light upon thy breast. - -This thought was common with the ancients.--WAKEFIELD. - -[559] Tasso's description of an angel in the translation of Fairfax, i. -14: - - Of silver wings he took a shining pair - Fringed with gold.--WAKEFIELD. - -[560] The expression has reference to ver. 61. "No sacred earth allowed -her room," but her remains have "made sacred" the common earth in which -she was buried. - -[561] Such a poem as Pope's Elegy, deeply serious and pathetic, rejects -with disdain all fiction. Upon that account the passage from ver. 59 to -ver. 68 deserves no quarter; for it is not the language of the heart, -but of the imagination indulging its flights at ease, and by that means -is eminently discordant with the subject. It would be a still more -severe censure if it should be ascribed to imitation, copying -indiscreetly what has been said by others.--LORD KAMES. - -The ghost of the injured person appears to excite the poet to revenge -her wrongs. He describes her character, execrates the author of her -misfortunes, expatiates on the severity of her fate, the rites of -sepulture denied her in a foreign land. Then follows, "What though no -weeping," &c. Can anything be more naturally pathetic? Yet the critic -tells us he can give no quarter to this part of the poem. Well might our -poet's last wish be to commit his writings to the candour of a sensible -and reflecting judge, rather than to the malice of every short-sighted -and malevolent critic.--WARBURTON. - -[562] When Pope describes the retribution which is to fall upon the -imperious relatives of the unfortunate lady, he says, - - Thus unlamented pass the proud away; - -and it is to these same relations, whose pride was their vice, that he -reverts in the line, - - 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be. - -The persecutors who have hunted you into the grave, shall one day share -your fate. - -[563] R. Herrick, in a Meditation for his Mistress: - - You are the queen all flow'rs among, - But die you must, fair maid, ere long, - As he, the maker of this song.--WAKEFIELD. - -[564] Dean Milman, in his History of Latin Christianity, says that -Heloisa "was distinguished for her surpassing beauty." There is no -authority for this assertion, which is one of the embellishments of -later romancers. - -[565] "She knew Latin," says M. Rémusat, "and wrote it with facility and -talent. As to Greek and Hebrew I can hardly believe that she was -acquainted with more than the alphabet, and a few words which were -quoted habitually in theology or in philosophy." The treatises of -Abelard prove that he could read neither Greek nor Hebrew, and it is not -likely that Heloisa was more learned than her master. Latin was the -literary language of the day. - -[566] The sentiments which Warton imagined to be borrowed from Madame -Guion and Fenelon were taken from the English translation of the Letters -of Heloisa and Abelard. Kindred thoughts may be found in the works of -almost any devotional writer. - -[567] M. Rémusat, who accepts the letters without misgiving, -acknowledges that the form of the _Historia Calamitatum_ "appears to be -an artificial frame to the picture." He assumes that the avowed purpose -is a pretext, and that the repentant philosopher commences his narrative -with a misstatement. The fiction which M. Rémusat is obliged to admit, -does not ward off the strongest objection to the genuineness of the -letters, and is the hypothesis least favourable to the reputation of -Abelard; for his treachery to Heloisa is immensely aggravated by the -admission that his narrative was meant for the public, and not for the -eye alone of a friend. - -[568] Essai Historique sur Abailard et Heloise, ed. 1861, p. xxvi. - -[569] Essai Historique, p. lxiii. - -[570] As You Like It, Act iv. sc. 3. - -[571] History of Latin Christianity, vol. iii. p. 363. - -[572] Philosophie du Moyen Age, ed. 1856, p. 3. - -[573] Vie d'Abelard, Tome 1. p. 262. - -[574] Hist. de France, tom. iii. 317. - -[575] Horne's Works, vol. i. p. 248. - -[576] Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 33. -Fox, the statesman, was one of those who thought "Eloisa much greater in -her letters than Pope had made her." - -[577] Mason's Life of Whitehead, p. 35. - -[578] The letter which Abelard addressed to his friend, and which had -fallen into the hands of Eloisa. - -[579] Dryden's Don Sebastian: - - And when I say Sebastian, dear Sebastian! - I kiss the name I speak.--STEEVENS. - -[580] That is, a lively representation of his person was retained in her -mind. So Drayton where he speaks of his departed love: - - Clear Ankor, on whose silver-sanded shore - My soul-shrined saint, my fair idea lies.--WAKEFIELD. - -[581] Claudian, De Nupt. Honor. et Mar. ver. 9: - - Nomenque beatum - Injussæ scripsere manus.--WAKEFIELD. - -[582] Drayton's Heroical Epistle of Rosamond to Henry: - - My hapless name with Henry's name I found-- - Then do I strive to wash it out with tears, - But then the same more evident appears.--HOLT WHITE. - -[583] Some of these circumstances have perhaps a little impropriety when -introduced into a place so lately founded as was the Paraclete; but are -so well imagined and so highly painted, that they demand -excuse.--WARTON. - -[584] This is borrowed from Milton's Comus, ver. 428: - - By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades.--WAKEFIELD. - -[585] A suspected poem of the Duke of Wharton on the Fear of Death: - - Where feeble tapers shed a gloomy ray - And statues pity feign; - Where pale-eyed griefs their wasting vigils keep.--WAKEFIELD. - -[586] A puerile conceit from the dew which runs down stone and metals in -damp weather.--WAKEFIELD. - -A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1836, quotes a -parallel couplet from a poem by the Duke of Wharton: - - Where kneeling statues constant vigils keep, - And round the tombs the marble cherubs weep. - -[587] He followed Milton in the Penseroso: - - Forget thyself to marble.--WAKEFIELD. - -Heloisa to Abelard: "O vows! O convent! I have not lost my humanity -under your inexorable discipline. You have not made me marble by -changing my habit." With the exception of a passage or two quoted by -Wakefield, all the extracts in the notes are from Pope's chief -text-book, the English work of Hughes, which is very unfaithful to the -Latin original. - -[588] In every edition till that of Warburton the reading was, - - Heav'n claims me all in vain while he has part. - -[589] Heloisa to Abelard: "By that melancholy relation to your friend -you have awakened all my sorrows." - -[590] Dryden's Æneis, v. 64: - - A day for ever sad, for ever dear.--WAKEFIELD. - -[591] Heloisa to Abelard: "Shall my Abelard be never mentioned without -tears? Shall the dear name be never spoken but with sighs?" - -[592] Heloisa to Abelard: "I met with my name a hundred times. I never -saw it without fear; some heavy calamity always followed it. I saw yours -too equally unhappy." - -[593] Pomfret in his Vision: - - For sure that flame is kindled from below - Which breeds such sad variety of woe.--WAKEFIELD. - -Steevens quotes from Dryden's State of Innocence the expression "sad -variety of hell," and the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes from -Yalden's Force of Jealousy the expression "a large variety of woe." - -[594] Dryden, Palamon and Arcite: - - Now warm in love, now with'ring in the grave.--WAKEFIELD. - -[595] Fame is not a passion.--WARTON. - -Ambition is the passion, and fame is the object of the passion. - -[596] Heloisa to Abelard: "Let me have a faithful account of all that -concerns you. I would know everything, be it ever so unfortunate. -Perhaps by mingling my sighs with yours I may make your sorrows less." - -[597] Heloisa to Abelard: "We may write to each other. Let us not lose -through negligence the only happiness which is left us, and the only one -perhaps which the malice of our enemies can never ravish from us." - -[598] Heloisa to Abelard: "Tell me not by way of excuse you will spare -our tears; the tears of women shut up in a melancholy place, and devoted -to penitence, are not to be spared." - -[599] Denham of Prudence: - - To live and die is all we have to do.--WAKEFIELD. - -Prior's Celia to Damon: - - And these poor eyes - No longer shall their little lustre keep, - And only be of use to read and weep. - -[600] Heloisa to Abelard: "Be not then unkind, nor deny me that little -relief. All sorrows divided are made lighter." - -[601] Heloisa to Abelard: "Letters were first invented for comforting -such solitary wretches as myself." - -[602] Heloisa to Abelard: "What cannot letters inspire? They have souls; -they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the -transports of the heart; they have all the fire of our passions; they -can raise them as much as if the persons themselves were present; they -have all the softness and delicacy of speech, and sometimes a boldness -of expression even beyond it." - -[603] Otway's translation of Phædra to Hippolytus: - - Thus secrets safe to farthest shores may move: - By letters foes converse, and learn to love.--WAKEFIELD. - -[604] This is the most exquisite description of the first commencement -of passion that our language, or perhaps any other, affords.--BOWLES. - -[605] Prior's Celia to Damon: - - In vain I strove to check my growing flame, - Or shelter passion under friendship's name. - -[606] The Divinity himself. Dryden, in his 12th Elegy: - - So faultless was the frame, as if the whole - Had been an emanation of the soul.--WAKEFIELD. - -[607] Heloisa to Abelard: "That life in your eyes which so admirably -expressed the vivacity of your mind; your conversation, which gave -everything you spoke such an agreeable and insinuating turn; in short, -everything spoke for you." - -[608] She says herself, "You had, I confess, two qualities in great -perfection with which you could instantly captivate the heart of any -woman,--a graceful manner of reading and singing." She mentions in -another place also the excellence of his singing.--WAKEFIELD. - -[609] He was her preceptor in philosophy and divinity.--POPE. - -Dryden, Epistle, 14: - - The fair themselves go mended from thy hand.--WAKEFIELD. - -[610] Dryden's Oedipus, end of Act iii.: - - And backward trod the paths I sought to shun. - -[611] Thy holy precepts and the sanctity of thy character had made me -conceive of thee as of a being more venerable than man, and approaching -the nature of superior existences. But thy personal allurements soon -inspired those tender feelings which gradually conducted me from a -veneration of the angel to a less pure and dignified sensation--love for -the man.--WAKEFIELD. - -[612] Dryden, Ovid's Met. x.: - - And own no laws but those which love ordains.--WAKEFIELD. - -Heloisa to Abelard: "The bonds of matrimony, however honourable, still -bear with them a necessary engagement, and I was very unwilling to be -necessitated to love always a man who perhaps would not always love me." - -[613] - - Love will not be confined by maisterie: - When maisterie comes, the lord of Love anon - Flutters his wings, and forthwith is he gone. - Chaucer.--POPE. - -Hudibras, Part iii. Cant. i. 553: - - Love that's too generous to abide - To be against its nature tied, - Disdains against its will to stay, - But struggles out and flies away.--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden's Aurengezebe: - - 'Tis true of marriage bands I'm weary grown, - Love scorns all ties but those that are his own.--STEEVENS. - -The passage cited by Pope from Chaucer is in the Franklin's Tale. -Spenser copied and altered the lines, which led Wakefield to imagine -that Pope had committed the double error of falsely imputing them to -Chaucer, and quoting them incorrectly. - -[614] Heloisa to Abelard: "It is not love but the desire of riches and -honour which makes women run into the embraces of an indolent husband: -ambition, not affection, forms such marriages. I believe indeed they may -be followed with some honours and advantages, but I can never think that -this is the way to enjoy the pleasures of an affectionate union." - -[615] Heloisa to Abelard: "This restless tormenting -passion"--ambition--"punishes them for aiming at other advantages by -love than love itself." - -[616] Heloisa to Abelard: "How often I have made protestations that it -was infinitely preferable to me to live with Abelard as his mistress -than with any other as empress of the world, and that I was more happy -in obeying you than I should have been in lawfully captivating the lord -of the universe." - -[617] Heloisa to Abelard: "Though I knew that the name of wife was -honourable in the world, and holy in religion, yet the name of your -mistress had greater charms because it was more free. I despised the -name of wife that I might live happy with that of mistress." - -[618] Heloisa to Abelard: "We are called your sisters, and if it were -possible to think of any expressions which would signify a dearer -relation we would use them." - -[619] Denham, Cooper's Hill: - - Happy when both to the same centre move, - When kings give liberty, and subjects love.--CUNNINGHAM. - -[620] Heloisa to Abelard: "If there is anything which may properly be -called happiness here below, I am persuaded it is in the union of two -persons who love each other with perfect liberty, who are united by a -secret inclination, and satisfied with each other's merit. Their hearts -are full, and leave no vacancy for any other passion." - -[621] Heloisa to Abelard: "If I could believe you as truly persuaded of -my merit as I am of yours, I might say there has been a time when we -were such a pair." - -[622] Mrs. Rowe in her Elegy: - - A dying lover pale and gasping lies.--WAKEFIELD. - -[623] Heloisa to Abelard: "Where was I? where was your Heloise then? -What joy should I have had in defending my lover. I would have guarded -you from violence, though at the expense of my life; my cries and -shrieks alone would have stopped the hand." - -[624] For "stroke" Pope, in all editions till that of 1736, read "hand," -the word in the translation. He had used "hand" in the rhyme of the -previous couplet, and it was probably to avoid the repetition that he -made the alteration. - -[625] Careless readers may misapprehend the sense. "Pain" here means -punishment, _poena_.--HOLT WHITE. - -Like a verse of Drummond's: - - The grief was common, common were the cries.--WAKEFIELD. - -Heloisa to Abelard: "You alone expiated the crime common to us both. You -only were punished though both of us were guilty." - -[626] Heloisa to Abelard: "Oh whither does the excess of passion hurry -me! Here love is shocked, and modesty joined with despair deprive me of -speech." - -[627] A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Settle's Empress of -Morocco: - - _Muly Hamet._--Speak. - _Empress._--Let my tears and blushes speak the rest. - -[628] The altar of Paraclete, says Mr. Berrington, did not then exist. -They were not professed at the same time or place; one was at -Argenteuil, the other at St. Denys.---WARTON. - -[629] Abelard to Heloisa: "I accompanied you with terror to the foot of -the altar, and while you stretched out your hand to touch the sacred -cloth, I heard you pronounce distinctly those fatal words which for ever -separated you from all men." - -[630] Her kissing the veil with "cold lips" strongly marks her want of -that fervent zeal and devotion which should influence those votaries who -renounce the world. The presages, likewise, which attended the rites are -finely imagined,--the trembling of the shrines, and the pallid hue of -the lamps as if they were conscious of the reluctant sacrifice she was -making.--RUFFHEAD. - -[631] Prior, in Henry and Emma, has a verse of similar pauses, and -similar phraseology: - - Thy lips all trembling, and thy cheeks all pale.--WAKEFIELD. - -[632] Abelard to Heloisa: "I saw your eyes when you spoke your last -farewell fixed upon the cross." Heloisa to Abelard: "It was your command -only, and not a sincere vocation, as is imagined, that shut me up in -these cloisters." The two passages combined suggested the line in the -text. - -[633] Heloisa to Abelard: "You may see me, hear my sighs, and be a -witness of all my sorrows, without incurring any danger, since you can -only relieve me with tears and words." - -[634] Roscoe remarks that the lines which follow cannot be justified by -anything in the letters of Eloisa. Sentiments equally gross are however -expressed both in the original Latin and in the adulterated translation -which was Pope's authority. - -[635] Concannen's Match at Football, Canto iii.: - - And drank in poison from her lovely eye. - -Creech, at the beginning of his Lucretius: - - Where on thy bosom he supinely lies, - And greedily drinks love at both his eyes.--WAKEFIELD. - -Smith's Phædra and Hippolytus, Act i.: - - Drank gorging in the dear delicious poison.--STEEVENS. - -[636] "If thou canst forget me, think at least upon thy flock," says -Wakefield, in explanation of the train of thought; and he adds a passage -from a letter of Eloisa in which she terms the monastery Abelard's "new -plantation," and assures him that frequent watering is essential to the -tender plants. - -[637] Heloisa to Abelard: "The innocent sheep, tender as they are, would -yet follow you through deserts and mountains." - -[638] He founded the monastery.--POPE. - -Heloisa to Abelard: "You only are the founder of this house. You by -inhabiting here have given fame and sanctity to a place known before -only for robbers and murderers." - -[639] So Dryden says of Absalom, - - And Paradise was opened in his face. - -The original of the image in the text is in Isaiah li. 3: - - He will make her wilderness like Eden, - And her desert like the garden of Jehovah. - -Whence Milton derived it, Par. Reg. i. 7: - - And Eden raised in the waste wilderness.--WAKEFIELD. - -[640] The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Boileau, Le Moine: - - Là les salons sont peints, les meubles sont dorés - Des larmes et du sang des pauvres devorés. - -[641] Heloisa to Abelard: "These cloisters owe nothing to public -charities; our walls were not raised by the usury of publicans, nor -their foundations laid on base extortion. The God whom we serve sees -nothing but innocent riches, and harmless votaries whom you have placed -here." - -[642] There were no benefactors whose praises were celebrated in the -services, but the building was vocal only with the praise of the Deity. - -[643] Our author imitates Milton: - - And storied windows richly dight - Casting a dim religious light.--WAKEFIELD. - -[644] Dryden had said of his Good Parson: - - His eyes diffused a venerable grace.--WAKEFIELD. - -[645] Mrs. Rowe on the Creation: - - And kindling glories brighten all the skies.--WAKEFIELD. - -[646] By pretending that she desires Abelard to visit the Paraclete in -obedience to the call of her sister nuns. - -[647] Heloisa to Abelard: "But why should I entreat you in the name of -your children? Is it possible I should fear obtaining anything of you -when I ask in my own name? And must I use any other prayers than my own -to prevail upon you?" - -[648] From the superscription of Heloisa's letter to Abelard: "To her -lord, her father, her husband, her brother; his servant, his child, his -wife, his sister, and to express all that is humble, respectful, and -loving to her Abelard, Heloisa writes this." - -[649] Our poet is indebted to a translation of the Virgilian cento of -Ausonius in Dryden's Miscellanies, vi. p. 143: - - My love, my life, - And every tender name in one, my wife.--WAKEFIELD. - -[650] Mr. Mills, a clergyman, who visited the Paraclete about the year -1765, says, "Mr. Pope's description is ideal. I saw neither rocks, nor -pines, nor was it a kind of ground which ever seemed to encourage such -objects." - -[651] Addison's translation of book iii, of the Æneis: - - The hollow murmurs of the winds that blow. - -[652] The little river Ardusson glittered along the valley of the -Paraclete.--MILLS. - -[653] Philips, in his fourth Pastoral: - - Nor dropping waters which from rocks distil, - And welly grots with tinkling echoes fill.--WAKEFIELD. - -[654] Milton's Penseroso: - - When the gust hath blown his fill - Ending on the rustling leaves.--WAKEFIELD. - -[655] Dryden, Virg. Geo. iv. 432: - - When western winds on curling waters play. - -[656] Dryden, Virg. Æn. iii. 575: - - Most upbraid - The madness of the visionary maid.--WAKEFIELD. - -[657] Milton's Penseroso: - - To arched walks of twilight groves.--WAKEFIELD. - -[658] Waller's version of Æneid iv.: - - A death-like quiet, and deep silence fell. - -Dryden's Astræa Redux: - - A dreadful quiet felt.--WAKEFIELD. - -Charles Bainbrigg on the death of Edward King: - - Abyssum - Terribilis requies et vasta silentia cingant.--STEEVENS. - -[659] Fenton in his version of Sappho to Phaon: - - With him the caves were cool, the grove was green, - But now his absence withers all the scene.--WAKEFIELD. - -[660] Dryden's Theodore and Honoria: - - With deeper brown the grove was overspread.--STEEVENS. - -Dryden, Æn. vii. 40: - - The Trojan from the main beheld a wood, - Which thick with shades and a brown horror stood.--WAKEFIELD. - -[661] In allusion to this sacrifice of herself at his will she says in -her first letter: "You are of all mankind most abundantly indebted to -me; and particularly for that proof of absolute submission to your -commands in thus destroying myself at your injunction."--WAKEFIELD. - -[662] Heloisa to Abelard: "Death only can make me leave the place where -you have fixed me, and then too my ashes shall rest there, and wait for -yours." - -[663] Abelard to Heloisa: "I hope you will be contented when you have -finished this mortal life to be buried near me. Your cold ashes need -then fear nothing." - -[664] Heloisa to Abelard: "Among those who are wedded to God I serve a -man. What a prodigy am I! Enlighten me, O Lord! Does thy grace or my -despair draw these words from me?" - -[665] Heloisa to Abelard: "I am sensible I am in the temple of chastity -only with the ashes of that fire which has consumed us." - -[666] This couplet, and its wretched rhymes, seem derived from an elegy -of Walsh in Dryden's Miscellanies: - - I know I ought to hate you for the fault; - But oh! I cannot do the thing I ought.--WAKEFIELD. - -[667] Heloisa to Abelard: "I am here a sinner, but one, who far from -weeping for her sins, weeps only for her lover; far from abhorring her -crimes endeavours only to add to them, and then who pleases herself -continually with the remembrance of past actions when it is impossible -to renew them." And again: "I, who have experienced so many pleasures in -loving you feel, in spite of myself, that I cannot repent of them, nor -forbear enjoying them over again as much as is possible by recollecting -them in my memory." Abelard, in the translation of the letters, -expresses the same sentiment: "Love still preserves its dominion in my -fancy, and entertains itself with past pleasures." - -[668] Abelard to Heloisa: "To forget in the case of love is the most -necessary penitence, and the most difficult." - -[669] Dryden's Cymon and Iphigenia: - - Then impotent of mind, with altered sense - She hugged th' offender, and forgave th' offence.--WAKEFIELD. - -[670] Abelard to Heloisa: "How can I separate from the person I love the -passion I must detest? Will the tears I shed be sufficient to render it -odious to me? It is difficult in our sorrow to distinguish penitence -from love." - -[671] Heloisa to Abelard: "A heart which has been so sensibly affected -as mine cannot soon be indifferent. We fluctuate long between love and -hatred before we can arrive at a happy tranquillity." Abelard to -Heloisa: "In such different disquietudes I contradict myself; I hate -you; I love you." - -[672] Heloisa to Abelard: "God has a peculiar right over the hearts of -great men. When he pleases to touch them he ravishes them, and lets them -not speak nor breathe but for his glory." - -[673] Heloisa to Abelard: "Yes, Abelard, I conjure you teach me the -maxims of divine love. Oh! for pity's sake help a wretch to renounce her -desires, herself, and, if it be possible, even to renounce you." - -[674] Heloisa to Abelard: "When I shall have told you what rival hath -ravished my heart from you, you will praise my inconstancy, and will -pray this rival to fix it. By this you may judge that it is God alone -that takes Heloise from you. What other rival could take me from you? -Could you think me guilty of sacrificing the virtuous and learned -Abelard to any other but God?" - -[675] Horace, Epist. Lib. i. xi. 9: - - Oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis. - - My friends forgetting, by my friends forgot.--WAKEFIELD. - -[676] Taken from Crashaw.--POPE. - -Wakefield gives the complete couplet from Crashaw's Description of a -religious House: - - A hasty portion of prescribed sleep; - Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep. - -[677] The idea of the "wings of seraphs shedding perfumes" is from -Milton, Par. Lost, v. 286, where Raphael "shakes heavenly fragrance" -from "his plumes," and Dryden in his Tyrannic Love, Act v., mentions the -perfumes, the spousals, and the celestial music as accompaniments of the -death of St. Catherine: - - Æthereal music did her death prepare, - Like joyful sounds of spousals in the air; - A radiant light did her crowned temple gild, - And all the place with fragrant scents was filled; - Of charming notes we heard the last rebounds, - And music dying in remoter sounds. - -[678] Adapted from Dryden's Britannia Redivivus: - - As star-light is dissolved away - And melts into the brightness of the day. - -[679] Dryden's Cinyras and Myrrha, translated from Ovid: - - For guilty pleasure gives a double gust. - -[680] Heloisa to Abelard: "I will own to you what makes the greatest -pleasure I have in my retirement. After having passed the day in -thinking of you, full of the dear idea I give myself up at night to -sleep. Then it is that Heloise, who dares not without trembling think of -you by day, resigns herself entirely to the pleasure of hearing you, and -speaking to you. I see you Abelard, and glut my eyes with the sight. -Sometimes forgetting the perpetual obstacles to our desires, you press -me to make you happy, and I easily yield to your transports. Sleep gives -me what your enemies' rage has deprived you of, and our souls, animated -with the same passion, are sensible of the same pleasure. But, oh, you -delightful illusions, soft errors, how soon do you vanish away! At my -awaking I open my eyes, and see no Abelard; I stretch out my arms to -take hold of him, but he is not there; I call upon him, he hears me -not." - -[681] Dryden, Æneis, iv. 677, supplied the idea: - - She seems, alone, - To wander in her sleep through ways unknown, - Guideless and dark; or in a desert plain - To seek her subjects, and to seek in vain. - -[682] The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes the same expression -from Steele's Miscellanies: - - No more severely kind affect to put - That lovely anger on. - -[683] Heloisa to Abelard: "You are happy, Abelard, and your misfortunes -have been the occasion of your finding rest. The punishment of your body -has cured the deadly wounds of your soul. I am a thousand times more to -be lamented than you; I must resist those fires which love kindles in a -young heart." - -[684] Dryden's Ovid, Met. i.: - - Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow, - And bade the congregated waters flow.--WAKEFIELD. - -[685] Sir William Davenant's Address to the Queen: - - Smooth as the face of waters first appeared, - Ere tides began to strive, or winds were heard; - Kind as the willing saints, and calmer far - Than in their sleeps forgiven hermits are.--WAKEFIELD. - -[686] Heloisa to Abelard: "When we love pleasures we love the living and -not the dead." In all editions till that of 1736 this couplet followed: - - Cut from the root my perished joys I see, - And love's warm tide for ever stopped in thee. - -[687] Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. 309: - - Love in your heart as idly burns - As fire in antique Roman urns - To warm the dead, and vainly light - Those only that see nothing by 't.--WAKEFIELD. - -[688] Heloisa to Abelard: "Whatever endeavours I use, on whatever side I -turn me, the sweet idea still pursues me, and every object brings to my -mind what I ought to forget. Even into holy places before the altar, I -carry with me the memory of our guilty loves. They are my whole -business." - -[689] Abelard to Heloisa: "In spite of severe fasts your image appears -to me, and confounds all my resolutions." - -[690] Sedley's verses on Don Alonzo: - - The gentle nymph, - Drops tears with every bead.--WAKEFIELD. - -The force of the line is, however, in the phrase "too soft" which Pope -has added. "With every bead I drop a tear of tender love instead of a -tear of bitter repentance." - -[691] Smith's Phædra and Hippolytus, Act i.: - - All the idle pomp, - Priests, altars, victims swam before my sight.--STEEVENS. - -[692] How finely does this glowing imagery introduce the transition, - - While prostrate here, &c.--BOWLES. - -[693] The whole of this paragraph is from Abelard's letter to Heloisa: - -"I am a miserable sinner prostrate before my judge, and with my face -pressed to the earth I mix my tears and sighs in the dust when the beams -of grace and reason enlighten me. Come, see me in this posture and -solicit me to love you! Come, if you think fit, and in your holy habit -thrust yourself between God and me, and be a wall of separation! Come -and force from me those sighs, thoughts, and vows which I owe to him -only! Assist the evil spirits and be the instrument of their malice! But -rather withdraw yourself and contribute to my salvation." - -[694] Abelard to Heloisa: "Let me remove far from you, and obey the -apostle who hath said, fly." - -[695] Wakefield quotes the lines of Hopkins to a lady, where, speaking -of her beauties, he entreats that she will - - Drive 'em somewhere, as far as pole from pole; - Let winds between us rage, and waters roll. - -[696] Abelard to Heloisa: "It will always be the highest love to show -none: I here release you of all your oaths and engagements to me." - -[697] The combination "heavenly-fair" is also found in Sandys, Congreve, -and Tickell.--WAKEFIELD. - -[698] "Low-thoughted care" is from Milton's Comus.--WARTON. - -[699] This resembles a passage in Crashaw: - - Fair hope! our earlier heaven.--WAKEFIELD. - -[700] "It should," says Mr. Mills, "be _near_ her cell. The doors of all -cells open into the common cloister. In that cloister are often tombs." -Steevens adds the frivolous objection that the "Paraclete had been too -recently founded for monuments of the dead to be expected there." -Heloisa had been five years abbess when she wrote her first letter to -Abelard, and it is certainly not an extravagant supposition that a death -might have occurred among the nuns in that space of time. - -[701] Dryden's Palamon and Arcite: - - And issuing sighs that smoked along the wall.--WAKEFIELD. - -Addison's translation of a passage from Claudian: - - Oft in the winds is heard a plaintive sound - Of melancholy ghosts that hover round. - -[702] Fenton's translation of Sappho to Phaon: - - Here, while by sorrow lulled to sleep I lay, - Thus said the guardian nymph, or seemed to say.--WAKEFIELD. - -Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 4: - - Hark! you are called: some say, the Genius so - Cries, "Come!" to him that instantly must die. - -[703] Pope owes much throughout this poem to the character of Dido as -drawn by Virgil, and this passage seems directly formed upon one in -Dryden, Æn. iv. 667: - - Oft when she visited this lonely dome - Strange voices issued from her husband's tomb: - She thought she heard him summon her away, - Invite her to his grave, and chide her stay. - -The imitation of the passage in Ovid, Epist. vii. 101, similar to this -from Virgil, is still more palpable: - - Hinc ego me sensi noto quater ore citari: - Ipse sono tenui dixit, "Elissa, veni!" - Nulla mora est; venio; venio, tibi debita conjux.--WAKEFIELD. - -[704] It is well contrived that this invisible speaker should be a -person that had been under the very same kind of misfortunes with -Eloisa.--WARTON. - -[705] Dryden's version of the latter part of the third book of -Lucretius: - - But all is there serene in that eternal sleep.--WAKEFIELD. - -[706] In the first edition: - - I come ye ghosts.--WAKEFIELD. - -[707] Ogilby, Virg. Æn. xi.: - - And to the dead our last sad duties pay. - -Dryden, Æn. xi. 322: - - Perform the last sad office to the slain.--WAKEFIELD. - -[708] Dryden's Aurengezebe at the commencement of Act iv.: - - I thought before you drew your latest breath, - To sooth your passage, and to soften death. - -[709] Oldham's translation of Bion on the death of Adonis: - - Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eye-balls roll, - Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul. - -Dryden's Virg. Æn. iv. 984: - - While I in death - Lay close my lips to hers, and catch the flying breath. - -And in his Cleomenes, the end of Act iv.: - - ----sucking in each other's latest breath.--WAKEFIELD. - -[710] Rowe's ode to Delia: - - When e'er it comes, may'st thou be by, - Support my sinking frame, and teach me how to die.--WAKEFIELD. - -[711] Dryden Æn., xi. 1194: - - And from her cheeks the rosy colour flies. - -[712] Abelard to Heloisa: "You shall see me to strengthen your piety by -the horror of this carcase, and my death, then more eloquent than I can -be, will tell you what you love when you love a man." - -[713] Spenser, Faerie Queen, i. 4, 45: - - Cause of my new grief, cause of new joy.--WAKEFIELD. - -[714] Abelard and Eloisa were interred in the same grave, or in -monuments adjoining, in the monastery of the Paraclete. He died in the -year 1142, she in 1163 [4].--POPE. - -Abelard and Heloisa are said to have been both sixty-three when they -died. They were buried in the same crypt, but it was not till 1630, or -near five hundred years after the death of Heloisa, that their remains -were consigned to the same grave. Then their bones are reported to have -been put into a double coffin, divided by a partition of lead. They -subsequently underwent various disinterments and removals, till in 1817 -the alleged relics were transferred to the cemetery of Père-Lachaise, at -Paris, and have not since been disturbed. - -[715] Dryden, in his translation of Canace to Macareus: - - I restrained my cries - And drunk the tears that trickled from my eyes.--WAKEFIELD. - -[716] Milton, Il Penseroso: - - There let the pealing organ blow - To the full-voiced choir below. - -[717] "Dreadful sacrifice" is the ritual term. So in the History of -Loretto, 1608, ch. 20, p. 278, "The priest, as the use is, assisted the -cardinal in the time of the dreadful sacrifice."--STEEVENS. - -[718] Warton says that the eight concluding lines of the Epistle "are -rather flat and languid." It is indeed an absurd supposition that a -woman who had been speaking the fervid language of christianity should -imagine that her state in the world beyond the grave would be that of a -"pensive ghost," and that her consolation would consist in having her -woes "well-sung" on earth. And it is in the tremendous conflict between -piety and passion, while divine and human love are contending fiercely -for the mastery, that she finds relief in this unsubstantial idea that -some future lover would make her the subject of a poem. - -[719] The last line is imitated from Addison's Campaign. - - Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright-- - Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast, - And those who paint them truest, praise them most. - -This Pope had in his thoughts; but not knowing how to use what was not -his own, he spoiled the thought when he had borrowed it. Martial -exploits may be painted; perhaps woes may be painted; but they are -surely not painted by being well sung: it is not easy to paint in song, -or to sing in colours.--JOHNSON. - -[720] Roscoe supposes Richardson to have asserted that there was an -"entire discrepancy between the Essay on Man as published, and the -original manuscripts," and to have implied that the change was from -"infidelity" to its opposite. This is not the statement of Richardson. -He says, on the contrary, that when the "exceptionable passages" were -pointed out Pope "did not think of altering them," and "never dreamed of -adopting" a more orthodox "scheme" for his Essay till after "its -fatalism and deistical tendency" had excited that "general alarm" which -could not precede the publication of the poem, and which only, in fact, -commenced some three years later. Richardson is enforcing his charge -against Warburton of inventing forced meanings, and the instance would -contradict the accusation if Pope had altered his language from deism to -orthodoxy before he printed the work. The commentary would then have -expressed the natural sense of the text. The change of which Richardson -speaks was not in the Essay itself, but in the interpretation Pope put -upon it. While he was composing the poem he accepted the deistical -construction of the Richardsons; and when he was terrified at the -"general alarm" he endorsed the christian construction of Warburton. - -[721] Dr. Desaguliers, the son of a French refugee, was born at Rochelle -in 1683, and died, Feb. 29, 1744, at the Bedford Coffee-house, Covent -Garden. He was a clergyman of the church of England, a great lover of -science, and a friend of Newton. He delivered lectures for many years on -Experimental Philosophy, and published an excellent work on the subject -in 2 vols. 4to. He does not appear to have shown any turn for poetry, -and those who ascribed to him the Essay on Man may have had no better -ground for their opinion than that the poem treated of one kind of -philosophy, and Desaguliers was learned in another. - -[722] Thomas Catesby, Lord Paget, son of the Earl of Uxbridge, died -before his father in Jan. 1742. He published in 1734, a poem called An -Essay on Human Life; and in 1737 An Epistle to Mr. Pope, in -Anti-heroics. "The former," says Horace Walpole, "is written in -imitation of Pope's ethic epistles, and has good lines, but not much -poetry." - -[723] In the Life of Pope by the pretended Squire Ayre, it is said that -"a certain gentleman," meaning Mallet, was at Pope's house shortly after -the first Epistle was published, and in answer to the question "What new -pieces were brought to light?" replied, "That there was a thing come out -called an Essay on Man, and it was a most abominable piece of stuff; -shocking poetry, insufferable philosophy, no coherence, no connection at -all." Pope confessed he was the author, which, says Ayre, "was like a -clap of thunder to the mistaken bard; with a blush and a bow he took his -leave of Pope, and never ventured to show his unlucky face there again." -The final statement is contradicted by the letters of Pope and Mallet, -which prove that they carried on a cordial intercourse to the last. The -rest of the story is improbable, for it is not likely that Pope, who was -bent at this early period upon keeping the authorship a secret, would -have unmasked himself in a manner to preclude confidence, and provoke -Mallet to divulge the truth to the world. Ayre's authority is good for -nothing, and Ruffhead only copied Ayre, but his repetition of the -anecdote gave it currency, and it has ever since passed unquestioned -from writer to writer. - -[724] Warburton. "Your Travels I hear much of," says Pope in the letter -to Swift; "my own I promise you shall never more be in a strange land, -but a diligent, I hope, useful investigation of my own territories. I -mean no more translations, but something domestic, fit for my own -country, and my own time." The allusion is obscure, and it may be -doubted whether Pope referred to his ethical scheme, which he did not -commence till four years later. - -[725] Bolingbroke. - -[726] The authority was Lord Bathurst. Dr. Hugh Blair dined with him in -1763, and says in a letter to Boswell, that "the conversation turning on -Mr. Pope, Lord Bathurst told us that the Essay on Man was originally -composed by Lord Bolingbroke in prose, and that Mr. Pope did no more -than put it into verse: that he had read Lord Bolingbroke's manuscript -in his own handwriting, and remembered well that he was at a loss -whether most to admire the elegance of Lord Bolingbroke's prose, or the -beauty of Mr. Pope's verse." Boswell read the account to Johnson, who -replied, "Depend upon it, sir, this is too strongly stated. Pope may -have had from Bolingbroke the philosophic stamina of his Essay, and -admitting this to be true, Lord Bathurst did not intentionally falsify. -But the thing is not true in the latitude that Blair seems to imagine; -we are sure that the poetical imagery, which makes a great part of the -poem, was Pope's own." - -[727] The first treatise of Crousaz was translated by Miss Carter, and -published in 1738, under the title of An Examination of Mr. Pope's Essay -on Man. The second treatise was translated by Johnson himself, and -published in 1742, with the title, A Commentary on Mr. Pope's Principles -of Morality. - -[728] Theobald's Shakespeare was published in 1733, the same year with -the first three epistles of the Essay on Man. - -[729] Warburton's first letter in vindication of Pope appeared in The -Works of the Learned, December 1738. The journal called The Present -State of the Republic of Letters, had come to an end in 1736. - -[730] Jacob Robinson, a bookseller in Fleet-street, was the publisher of -The Works of the Learned, to which Warburton sent his five letters in -reply to Crousaz. - -[731] This was done in 1740, when the five letters were expanded into -six. A seventh letter was added in a subsequent edition, and the whole -was re-arranged in four letters in the edition of 1742. - -[732] Ruffhead's Life of Pope, p. 219. - -[733] Warton states that Dobson relinquished the undertaking from the -impossibility of preserving in Latin verse the conciseness of the -English. He appears to have accomplished half his task; for when -Christopher Smart subsequently volunteered his services, Pope said in -his reply, Nov. 18, 1740, "The two first epistles are already well -done." A specimen from Dobson's translation of each of these epistles -was among the papers of Spence, and is printed in the appendix to Mr. -Singer's edition of the Anecdotes. A version of the Essay in Latin -hexameters appeared at Wirtemberg. This, Pope tells Smart, was "very -faithful but inelegant," and he adds that his reason for desiring a more -adequate rendering was that either the sense or the poetry was lost in -all the foreign translations. - -[734] By "his friend," Johnson means Warburton, not Dobson. - -[735] This sort of burlesque abstract, which may be so easily but so -unjustly made of any composition whatever, is exactly similar to the -imperfect and unfair representation which the same critic has given of -the beautiful imagery in Il Penseroso of Milton.--WARTON. - -Johnson's criticism of a poem like this, cannot be compared with his -futile declamation against the imagery of the Penseroso. For in speaking -of the Penseroso, Johnson spoke of what I do not hesitate to say he did -not understand. He had no congenial feelings properly to appreciate the -character of such poetry; but the case is different where he brings his -great mind to try, by the test of truth, arguments and doctrines which -appeal to the understanding. Johnson was not an inadequate judge of -Pope's philosophy, though he was certainly so of Milton's poetry. But no -composition could possibly stand before his contemptuous -declamation.--BOWLES. - -[736] Bowles himself had a low opinion of the "system of philosophy" -embodied in the Essay on Man. After stating that Pope was the pupil of -Bolingbroke, he adds, "But this poem will continue to charm from the -music of its verse, the splendour of its diction, and the beauty of its -illustrations, when the philosophy that gave rise to it, like the coarse -manure that fed the flowers, is perceived and remembered no more." - -[737] Burke's Works, ed. 1808, vol. v. p. 172. - -[738] Spence, p. 108, 127. - -[739] Essay on Man, Epist. iv. ver. 391. Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. -p. 40. "You have begun at my request the work which I have wished long -that you would undertake." - -[740] Spence, p. 238. - -[741] Spence, p. 36. - -[742] Spence, p. 103. - -[743] Pope to Swift, Sept. 15, 1734. - -[744] Spence, p. 12. - -[745] Warton's Essay on the Genius of Pope, 5th ed. vol. ii. p. 149. - -[746] "It may safely," says Lord Kames, "be pronounced a capital defect -in the composition of a verse, to put a low word, incapable of an -accent, in the place where this accent should be," and he instances the -last syllable of "dependencies," in Pope's Essay on Man, Epist. i. ver. -30: - - But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, - The strong connections, nice dependencies, - Gradations just, &c. - -What appeared a defect to Lord Kames will seem to many persons an -advantage. The want of accent softens the rhyme, and relieves the -monotonous, cloying effect of a full concord of sound. In most of Pope's -imperfect rhymes the similarity of sound is too slight, and the ear is -disappointed. - -[747] Letters by Eminent Persons, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 48. - -[748] Spence, p. 108. - -[749] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 335. - -[750] Bolingbroke's Works, Philadelphia, vol. iii. pp. 40, 45; vol. iv. -p. 111. - -[751] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 336. - -[752] Grimouard, Essai sur Bolingbroke, quoted by Cooke, Memoirs of -Bolingbroke, vol. ii. p. 96. - -[753] Chesterfield's Works, ed. Mahon, vol. ii. p. 445. - -[754] Ruffhead, Life of Pope, p. 219. The manuscript of this passage -exists in Warburton's handwriting. Ruffhead altered two or three words, -which are here restored from the original. - -[755] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 91. - -[756] Spence, who wrote down the anecdote from Warburton's conversation, -says that Hooke talked of "Lord Bolingbroke's disbelief of the moral -attributes of God," which agrees substantially with the language in -Ruffhead. - -[757] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 320. - -[758] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. pp. 23, 24; vol. iii. p. 430. - -[759] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 111. - -[760] Essay on Man, Epist. ii. ver. 1; iv. ver. 398, and the additional -couplet in the note. - -[761] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. pp. 175, 152. - -[762] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 335. - -[763] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 88. - -[764] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 336. - -[765] Warburton, Note on Epist. ii. ver. 149. - -[766] Warburton, Note on Epist. iii. ver. 303. - -[767] Warburton, Note on Epist. iii. ver. 303. - -[768] Epist. ii. ver. 274; Epist. iii. ver. 286. - -[769] Epist. iii. ver. 305. - -[770] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 335. - -[771] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 436. - -[772] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. pp. 333, 366. "The imperfection of -the parts," says Leibnitz, Opera, p. 638, "produce a greater perfection -in the whole." According to his custom, Bolingbroke copied Leibnitz -without naming him. - -[773] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 41. - -[774] Pope's Correspondence, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 339. - -[775] Pope's Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 339, 345, 346, 348. - -[776] Spence, p. 107. - -[777] Middleton to Warburton, Jan. 7, 1740. - -[778] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 262. - -[779] Spence, p. 238. - -[780] Watson's Life of Warburton, p. 15. - -[781] Warburton's Letters to Hurd, p. 224. - -[782] Tyers, Historical Rhapsody, p. 78. - -[783] For this we have the authority of Dr. Law, the Bishop of Carlisle, -in the preface to his translation of King's Origin of Evil. - -[784] Prior's Life of Malone, p. 430. Warton's Pope, vol. i. p. xlv. - -[785] Warburton's Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, ed. 1742, p. -182. - -[786] Warburton's Pope, Essay on Man, Epist. ii. ver. 31. - -[787] Warton's Pope, vol. iii. p. 162. - -[788] Warburton's Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, p. 121. - -[789] Warburton's Letters to Hurd, p. 224. - -[790] Warburton to Dr. Doddridge, Feb. 12, 1739, in Nichols, -Illustrations of Literary History, vol. ii. p. 816. - -[791] Warburton's Vindication of Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, 1740, p. 83. - -[792] Nichols, Illustrations of Literary History, vol. ii. p. 113. - -[793] Warburton's Pope, Epist. iv. ver. 394. - -[794] Warton's Pope, vol. ix. p. 342. - -[795] Nichols, Illustrations of Lit. Hist., vol. ii. p. 53. - -[796] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. pp. 92, 185. - -[797] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 53. - -[798] Pope to Warburton, Sept. 20, 1739; Jan. 4, 1740. - -[799] Oeuvres de Louis Racine, ed. 1808, tom. i. p. 444. "If," said -Voltaire, "Pope wrote this letter to Racine, God must have given him at -the close of his life the gift of tongues." Voltaire repeats three times -over in his works, that he associated with Pope for a twelvemonth, and -knew, what was publicly notorious in England, that he could hardly read -French, and could not speak one word or write one line of the language. -The objection was founded on the mistaken assumption that the French -translation was the original letter. In the later editions of Racine's -poem the letter is printed from Pope's English. Voltaire was annoyed -that Pope should "retract" his deism, and wanted to have it believed -that Ramsay alone was responsible for the sentiments expressed in the -letter to Racine. - -[800] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 457. - -[801] Ruffhead, Life of Pope, p. 542. Spence, p. 277. - -[802] Oeuvres de Louis Racine, tom. i. p. 451. - -[803] Oeuvres de Louis Racine, tom. i. p. 442. - -[804] Spence, p. 231. - -[805] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 62. - -[806] Epist. ii. ver. i. - -[807] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 52. - -[808] Leibnitz, Opera Philosophica, ed. Erdmann, pp. 506, 544. - -[809] Hume's Essays, ed. 1809, vol. ii. pp. 146, 147, 152. - -[810] Hume's Essays, vol. ii. p. 153. - -[811] John, xv. 2. - -[812] Phillimore's Life of Lord Lyttelton, vol. i. p. 304. - -[813] Leibnitz, Opera, p. 628. - -[814] Epist. i. ver. 159, 151-4. - -[815] Epist. i. ver. 141-6. - -[816] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 366. - -[817] Leibnitz, Opera, pp. 571, 577. - -[818] Epist. i. ver. 147, iv. ver. 115. - -[819] Epist. iv. ver. 116, note. - -[820] Leibnitz, Opera, pp. 312, 431, 507, 603. - -[821] Epist. i. ver. 241-258. - -[822] Epist. i. ver. 47-8. - -[823] Epist. i. ver. 43-50. - -[824] Voltaire, Oeuvres, tom. xlvii. p. 98. - -[825] Jeremiah, ix. 23, 24. - -[826] John, xiv. 9. - -[827] Epist. ii. ver. 1-2. - -[828] Epist. ii. ver. 3-18. - -[829] Epist. i. 61-8. - -[830] Epist. ii. ver. 53-8. - -[831] Warburton's Commentary, Epist. ii. ver. 53. - -[832] Epist. ii. ver. 235-8. - -[833] Epist. ii. ver. 53. - -[834] Epist. i. ver. 131. - -[835] Epist. ii. ver. 126. - -[836] Madame de Staël, De l'Allemagne, Part iii., Chap. 16. - -[837] Butler's Sermons, Oxford, 1835, pp. xx., 8, 161. - -[838] A man may eat from principle, which often happens with the sick -when they are wishing to die, and appetite is extinct. For the same -reason they may eat delicacies when the stomach rebels against common -fare. This was the case with Pascal in his illness, and, from a mistaken -asceticism, he endeavoured to swallow the choice food without tasting -it. - -[839] Epist. ii. ver. 70, 113, 116, 119-22. - -[840] Epist. ii. ver. 131-148, 157. - -[841] Epist. ii. ver. 138, 147. - -[842] Crousaz's Commentary on Pope's Essay, translated by Johnson, p. -109. - -[843] Fable of the Bees, ninth edition, vol. i. p. 137. - -[844] Epist. ii. ver. 175, 197. - -[845] Epist. ii. ver. 185-194. - -[846] Epist. ii. ver. 59, 67. - -[847] Epist. ii. ver. 147. - -[848] Epist. ii. ver. 201. - -[849] Matthew, xii. 33. - -[850] Epist. iii. ver. 261. - -[851] Epist. ii. ver. 185-194, 196. - -[852] Spence, p. 9. - -[853] Epist. ii. ver. 216, note. - -[854] Epist. ii. ver. 245. - -[855] Epist. ii. ver. 285-292. - -[856] Epist. ii. ver. 291. Spence, p. 109. - -[857] Epist. ii. ver. 238. - -[858] Argument of Epist. ii. - -[859] Epist. ii. ver. 241-4. - -[860] Epist. ii. ver. 272. - -[861] Epist. ii. ver. 286-7. - -[862] Epist. ii. ver. 288. - -[863] Epist. ii. ver. 268. - -[864] Bolingbroke, Works, vol. iv. p. 154. - -[865] Epist. ii. ver. 273. - -[866] Epist. ii. ver. 275-282. - -[867] Epist. ii. ver. 293-4. - -[868] Epist. iii. ver. 149. - -[869] Epist. iii. ver. 209. - -[870] Epist. iii. ver. 232-40. - -[871] Epist. iii. ver. 201-6. - -[872] Epist. iii. ver. 149-168. - -[873] Epist. iii. ver. 245. - -[874] Epist. iii. ver. 221. - -[875] Epist. iii. ver. 154, 217. - -[876] Epist. i. ver. 165-170. - -[877] Epist. iii. ver. 169-198. - -[878] Epist. iii. ver. 179-182. - -[879] Epist. iii. ver. 183-188, 210. - -[880] Epist. iii. ver. 303. - -[881] Epist. iii. ver. 269, 279. - -[882] Epist. iii. ver. 305. - -[883] Epist. iii. ver. 307-310. - -[884] Epist. iv. ver. 331. - -[885] Epist. iv. ver. 111-115. - -[886] Spence, p. 107. - -[887] Spence, p. 206. - -[888] Epist. i. ver. 16. - -[889] The Design, _post_, p. 343. - -[890] Epist. iii. ver. 19. - -[891] Epist. i. ver. 73, 93-4. - -[892] Epist. iv. ver. 310. Argument to Epist. iv. - -[893] Epist. iv. ver. 66. - -[894] Epist. iv. ver. 167-172. - -[895] Mackintosh, Miscellaneous Works, ed. 1851, p. 13. - -[896] Epist. iv. ver. 57. - -[897] Epist. iv. ver. 69-72. - -[898] Recollections by Samuel Rogers, pp. 31, 35. - -[899] Argument to Epist. iv. - -[900] Epist. iv. ver. 77-80. - -[901] Bolingbroke's Works, Vol. iv., p. 378. - -[902] Epist. iv. ver. 149. - -[903] Epist. iv. ver. 87. - -[904] Epist. iv. ver. 89. - -[905] Epist. iv. ver. 98. - -[906] Epist. iv. ver. 99-102. - -[907] Epist. iv. ver. 98, 121-130. - -[908] Matt. x. 29-31. - -[909] Wollaston, Religion of Nature Delineated, 7th ed., p. 192. - -[910] Epist. iv. ver. 105. - -[911] Epist. iv. ver. 149-155. - -[912] Epist. iv. ver. 156. - -[913] Philipp. iv. 11. - -[914] Heb. xii. 11. - -[915] Epist. iv. ver. 157-166. - -[916] Epist. iv. ver. 189-192. - -[917] Epist. iv. ver. 193-204. - -[918] Epist. iv. ver. 205-258. - -[919] Epist. iv. ver. 259-268. - -[920] Henry V., Act iv., Sc. 1. - -[921] Epist. ii. ver. 85. - -[922] Epist. iv. ver. 19. - -[923] Epist. iv. ver. 23, 28. - -[924] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 286. - -[925] Epist. iv. ver. 29. - -[926] Epist. ii. ver. 35-42. - -[927] Epist. iv. ver. 29-34. - -[928] Rasselas, chap. xxii. - -[929] Butler, Sermons, Preface, pp. vii., xi. - -[930] Bolingbroke, Works, vol. iv. p. 430. - -[931] The Design. See _post_, p. 344. - -[932] De Quincey, Works, ed. 1863, vol. viii. pp. 21, 51; xii. pp, 25, -33. - -[933] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. p. 44. - -[934] Johnson, Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. p. 105. - -[935] De Quincey, Works, vol. xii. p. 32. - -[936] Voltaire, Oeuvres, tom. xii. p. 156; xxxvii. p. 260. - -[937] Marmontel, Éléments de Littérature, Art. Épitre. - -[938] Dugald Stewart, Works, ed. Hamilton, vol. vii. p. 133. - -[939] Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Poets, ed. 1841, p. 147. - -[940] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. p. 42. - -[941] Life of Byron by Moore, 1 vol. ed. p. 696. - -[942] Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Poets, pp. 375, 377-8. - -[943] Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Poets, p. 374. - -[944] De Quincey, Works, vol. xii. pp. 21, 22. - -[945] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. pp. 45-50; xii. 297-303. - -[946] Marmontel, Éléments de Littérature, Art. Didactique. - -[947] Bolingbroke, Works, vol. iii. p. 44. - -[948] Bolingbroke, Works, vol. ii. p. 220; iii. p. 128. - -[949] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. p. 50. - -[950] Milton, Comus, ver. 476. - -[951] Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Poets, p. 378. - -[952] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. p. 51. - -[953] Taine, Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise, 2nd ed. tom. iii. p. -91; iv. pp. 172-176, 203. - -[954] Taine, tom. iv. p. 175. - -[955] This prefatory notice only appeared in the first edition of the -first epistle. - -[956] "Whose" is by some authors made the possessive case of "which," -and applied to things as well as persons.--LOWTH. - -[957] Two "Epistles to Mr. Pope concerning the Authors of the Age," by -the poet Young. They were published in 1730. - -[958] The second Epistle of the Essay on Man had the brief preface which -follows: "The author has been induced to publish these Epistles -separately for two reasons, the one that he might not impose upon the -public too much at once of what he thinks incorrect; the other, that by -this method he might profit of its judgment on the parts, in order to -make the whole less unworthy of it." - -[959] "The Design" was prefixed in 1735, when Pope inserted the four -Epistles of the Essay on Man in his works. - -[960] The early editions have "forming out of all." - -[961] For "St. John" the manuscript has "Memmius," and the first edition -"Lælius." Memmius was an author and orator of no great distinction to -whom Lucretius dedicated his De Rerum Natura. Lælius was celebrated for -his statesmanship, his philosophical pursuits, and his friendship, and -is described by Horace as delighting, on his retirement from public -affairs, in the society of the poet Lucilius. Thus the name was fitted -to the functions of Bolingbroke, and the relation in which he stood to -Pope. - -[962] Pope's manuscript supplies various readings of this line: - - puzzled to flattered - puzzling to blustering - grovelling low-thoughted - To working statesmen and ambitious kings. - -In a letter to Swift, Dec. 19, 1734, Pope says that the couplet was a -monitory, and ineffectual hint to Bolingbroke, to give up politics for -philosophy. If the censure was directed against the party vices of the -man the reproof is inconsistent with the eulogy on his patriotism, -Epist. iv. ver. 265, and if against his pursuit in the abstract, it is -folly to say that statesmanship is one of the "meaner things" which -should be left to "low ambition," and empty "pride." - -[963] MS.: - - Since life, my friend, can, etc. - -[964] Denham, of Prudence: - - Learn to live well, that thou may'st die so too: - To live and die is all we have to do: - -the latter of which verses our poet has inserted without alteration in -his Prologue to the Satires, ver. 262.--WAKEFIELD. - -[965] This exordium relates to the whole work, first in general, then in -particular. The 6th, 7th, and 8th lines allude to the subjects of this -book,--the general order and design of Providence; the constitution of -the human mind, whose passions cultivated are virtues, neglected vices; -the temptations of misapplied self-love, and wrong pursuits of power, -pleasure, and false happiness.--POPE. - -"The whole work" was to have been in four books, and the phrase "this -book" means the four published Epistles of the Essay on Man, which were -to form the first book of the full design. - -[966] In the first edition, - - A mighty maze of walks without a plan. - -This Pope altered because, says Johnson, "if there was no plan it was -vain to describe or to trace the maze." - -[967] The 6th verse alludes to the subject of this first Epistle--the -state of man here and hereafter, disposed by Providence, though to him -unknown.--POPE. - -[968] Alludes to the subject of the second Epistle,--the passions, their -good or evil.--POPE. - -[969] Alludes to the subject of the fourth Epistle,--of man's various -pursuits of happiness or pleasure.--POPE. - -[970] The 10th, 13th, and 14th verses allude to the subject of the -second Epistle of the second book,--the characters of men and -manners.--POPE. - -The four published Moral Essays were a portion of the projected second -book. - -[971] The 11th and 12th verses allude to the subject of the first -Epistle of the second book,--the limits of reason, learning, and -ignorance.--POPE. - -This Epistle was never written, but some part of the matter was -incorporated into the fourth Book of the Dunciad. - -[972] MS.: - - Of all that blindly creep the tracts explore, - And all the dazzled race that blindly soar. - -Those who "blindly creep" are the ignorant and indifferent; those who -"sightless soar" are the presumptuous, who endeavour to transcend the -bounds prescribed to the intellect of man. - -[973] Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Part ii.: - - while he with watchful eye - Observes, and shoots their treasons as they fly.--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden, Aurengzebe, Act iii.: - - Youth should watch joys and shoot 'em as they fly. - -[974] These metaphors, drawn from the field sports of setting and -shooting, seem much below the dignity of the subject, and an unnatural -mixture of the ludicrous and serious.--WARTON. - -They are the more so as Pope is not content with barely touching the -metaphor of shooting _en passant_, but pursues it with so much -minuteness. Let us "_beat_ this ample field,"--"_try_ what the _covert_ -yields,"--"_eye_ nature's walks,"--"_shoot_ folly." An illustration, if -not at all dignified, or in correspondence with the theme, should not be -pursued so minutely that the mind must perforce observe its -meanness.--BOWLES. - -[975] "Candid" here bears the unusual sense of "lenient and favourable -in our judgment." - -[976] Alludes to the subject which runs through the whole design,--the -justification of the methods of Providence.--POPE. - -Milton, Par. Lost, i. 26: - - And justify the ways of God to men.--WARTON. - -[977] The last part of the verse is barbarously elliptical. The meaning -is that all our reasonings respecting the end of man must be drawn from -his station here, and to this station we must refer all that we learn -respecting him. Since we can know nothing but what relates to our -present condition, the doctrine of a future life is excluded. - -[978] MS.: - - Through endless worlds His endless works are known, - But ours, etc. - -[979] MS.: - - He who can all the flaming limits pierce, - Of worlds on worlds that form one universe. - -[980] "And what" was the reading of all editions till that of 1743. -Wollaston's Religion of Nature, ed. 1750, p. 143: "The fixed stars are -so many other suns with their several sets of planets about them." - -[981] MS.: - - What other habitants in ev'ry star. - -[982] This was the reading of the first edition which Pope ultimately -restored, but in the edition of 1735 the line stands thus: - - May tell why heav'n made all things as they are. - -Pope's assertion in the text that it is impossible for us to "tell why -heaven has made us as we are," unless we had a complete insight into the -plan of universal creation, contradicts ver. 48, where he says that "it -is plain there must be somewhere such a rank as man." - -[983] First edition: "And centres." - -[984] Bolingbroke, Fragment 43: "As distant as are the various systems, -and systems of systems that compose the universe, and different as we -may imagine them to be, they are all tied together by relations and -connections, by gradations and dependencies."--WAKEFIELD. - -[985] Pascal's Thoughts, translated by Dr. Kennet, 2nd ed., 1727, p. -288: "If a man did but begin with the study of himself he would soon -find how incapable he was of proceeding further. For what possibility is -there that the part should contain the whole?" - -[986] I should have pointed out the expression and great effect of this -line as illustrating the subject it describes; but Ruffhead says "it is -the most heavy, languid, and unpoetical of all Pope ever wrote, and that -the expletive 'to' before the verb is unpardonable."--BOWLES. - -[987] An allusion to the golden chain of Homer, which the poet -represents as sustained by Jove, with the whole creation appended to -it.--WAKEFIELD. - -[988] "Why one reason," says Wakefield, "should be harder than the other -I am unable to discern." The passage is taken, as Warton pointed out, -from Voltaire's remarks on Pascal's Thoughts, but Voltaire put the -questions on the same footing, and did not pretend that the second was -harder to solve than the first. "You are astonished," he says "that God -has made man so contracted, so ignorant, and so unhappy. Why are you not -astonished that he has not made him more contracted, more ignorant, and -more unhappy?" Neither question ought to have presented any difficulty -to Pope, since it was "plain" to him that "the best possible system" -required that "there should be somewhere such a rank as man." All who -admit the attributes of the Deity must allow that every portion of the -world, sentient or insensible, is the consummation of wisdom with -reference to its place in the infinite and eternal scheme. "God," says -Leibnitz, "does not even neglect inanimate things; they are unconscious, -but God is conscious for them. He would reproach himself with the least -real defect in the universe, although no one perceived it." - -[989] Wakefield quotes Milton, Par. Lost, iii. 460, where the phrase -"those argent fields" is applied to the heavens. - -[990] This word is commonly pronounced in prose with the e mute in the -plural, as in the singular, and is therefore only of three syllables; -but Pope has in the plural continued the Latin form and assigned it -four. I think, improperly.--JOHNSON. - -[991] Pope says that we cannot tell why Jupiter's satellites are less -than Jupiter. Any mathematician could have shown him that if Jupiter was -less than his satellites they would not revolve round him.--VOLTAIRE. - -Warburton, to evade Voltaire's criticism, put a strained and -paraphrastic interpretation upon Pope's lines. Their natural meaning is, -that man is too ignorant to comprehend why he is not less instead of -greater,--nay, that he cannot even tell why oaks are taller than weeds, -why Jupiter's satellites are less than Jupiter, and all his -investigations into the earth and the heavens will not supply him with -the answer. - -[992] Pope did not generally condescend to the artificial inversion -which places the adjective after the substantive. Here, in a passage -where simplicity was an object, we have "systems possible" followed by -"wisdom infinite,"--combinations, too, which have the effect of -producing a disagreeable monotony, occurring in the same part of the -lines to which they respectively belong.--CONINGTON. - -[993] Bolingbroke, Fragment 43: "Since infinite wisdom not only -established the end, but directed the means, the system of the universe -must necessarily be the best of all possible systems."--WAKEFIELD. - -[994] There must be no interval, that is, between the parts, or they -will not cohere. - -[995] Bolingbroke, Fragment 43: "It might be determined in the divine -ideas that there should be a gradation of life and intellect throughout -the universe. In this case it was necessary that there should be some -creatures at our pitch of rationality."--WAKEFIELD. - -The theory of a chain of beings was adopted by Bolingbroke and Pope from -Archbishop King's Essay on the Origin of Evil. Arguing from the analogy -of our own world, King contended that a universe fully peopled with -superior natures would leave room for an inferior grade, and these for -lower grades still, in a continuously descending scale. There must -either be inferior creatures, or else voids in creation, and we may -presume that the maximum of existence is most conducive to the ends of -benevolence and wisdom. - -[996] MS.: - - Is but if God has placed his creature wrong. - -[997] Bolingbroke, Fragment 50: "The seeming imperfection of the parts -is necessary to the real perfection of the whole."--WAKEFIELD. - -The sentence quoted by Wakefield was copied by Bolingbroke from -Leibnitz. Lord Shaftesbury adopted the same hypothesis in his Inquiry -concerning Virtue. If, he says, our earth is a part only of some other -system, and if what is ill in our system makes for the good of the -general system, then there is nothing ill with respect to the whole. -Rousseau, who heartily embraced the doctrine, remarks that "we cannot -give direct proofs for or against, because these proofs depend on a -complete knowledge of the constitution of the universe, and of the ends -of its author." - -[998] Bolingbroke, Fragments 43 and 63: "We labour hard, we complicate -various means to bring about some one paltry purpose.--In the works of -men the most complicated schemes produce very hardly and very -uncertainly one single effect: in the works of God one single scheme -produces a multitude of different effects, and answers an immense -variety of purposes."--WAKEFIELD. - -How clearly and closely is this sentiment expressed by Pope, and yet how -difficult to render into verse with precision and effect.--BOWLES. - -In the first line the phrase "one single," for "one single movement," is -especially inelegant. Bowles might have selected many couplets from the -Essay on Man more deserving of the commendation. The thought which Pope -owed to Bolingbroke, Bolingbroke owed to Leibnitz, who says in his -Théodicée, "Everything in nature is connected, and if a skilful artizan, -engineer, architect, statesman, often makes the same contrivance serve -for several purposes, we may affirm that God, whose wisdom and power are -perfect, does so always." Hence Pope contends that what is defective in -man considered separately, may be advantageous in relation to the hidden -ends he is intended to serve. - -[999] Bolingbroke, Fragments 43: "We ought to consider the world no -otherwise than as a little wheel in our solar system; nor our solar -system any otherwise than as a little but larger wheel in the immense -machine of the universe; and both the one and the other necessary -perhaps to the motion of the whole."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1000] MS.: - - We see but here a part, etc. - -[1001] Since the monarchy of the universe is a dominion unlimited in -extent, and everlasting in duration, the general system of it must -necessarily be quite beyond our comprehension. And since there appears -such a subordination, and reference of the several parts to each other, -as to constitute it properly one administration or government, we cannot -have a thorough knowledge of any part without knowing the whole. This -surely should convince us that we are much less competent judges of the -very small part which comes under our notice in this world than we are -apt to imagine.--BISHOP BUTLER. - -[1002] MS.: - - When the proud steed shall know why man now reins - His stubborn neck, now drives, etc. - -[1003] In the former editions, - - Now wears a garland an Egyptian god.--WARBURTON. - -A bull was kept at Memphis by the Egyptians, and worshipped, under the -name of Apis, as a god. Other oxen were sacrificed to him, which brought -the bovine "victims" and the bovine "god" into direct contrast. - -[1004] Pope may mean that we cannot tell with respect to the general -scheme of Providence why we are made what we are, in which case he -unsays what he had said just before, that "it is plain there must be -somewhere such a rank as man." Or he may mean that we cannot tell with -respect to ourselves the use and end of our being and its vicissitudes, -in which case the doctrine would debase every person who received it, by -diverting him from his true end, which is to imitate and adore the -perfections of God. - -[1005] The expression, "as he ought," is imperfect for "ought to -be."--WARTON. - -[1006] Bolingbroke, Frag. 50: "The nature of every creature is adapted -to his state here, to the place he is to inhabit." - -[1007] This line is the application to man of the language which the -schoolmen applied to the Deity,--that his eternity was a moment, and his -immensity a point. The couplet in the MS. was at first as follows: - - Lord of a span, and hero of a day, - In one short scene to strut and pass away, - -[1008] MS.: - - What then, imports it whether here or there? - -[1009] Ed. 1: - - If to be perfect in a certain state, - What matter here or there, or soon or late? - And he that's bless'd to-day as fully so, - As who began ten thousand years ago. - -Omitted in the subsequent editions.--POPE. - -This note appeared, 1735, in vol. 2 of the quarto edition of Pope's -Poetical Works. The lines originally followed ver. 98, and when they -re-appeared in the text in 1743 they were shifted to their present -position. They are especially bad,--elliptical and prosaic in -expression, and sophistical in argument. The suffering which matters -nothing when it is over is not unimportant while it lasts. A prolonged -imprisonment in a noisome dungeon does not cease to be a penalty because -the captive will one day be free. The Bible recognises the bitterness of -human misery, but teaches that christians are to be reconciled to it on -account of the moral purposes it subserves, and the endless felicity -which ensues. Pope notes in his MS. that ver. 76 is "reversed from -Lucretius on death," and Wakefield quotes the translation of Dryden -which Pope copied: - - The man as much to all intents is dead - Who dies to-day, and will as long be so, - As he who died a thousand years ago. - -[1010] See this pursued in Epist. iii. ver. 66, etc., ver. 79, -etc.--POPE. - -[1011] This resembles Phædrus, Fab. v. 15: - - Ipsi principes - Illam osculantur, quâ sunt oppressi, manum.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1012] Matt. x. 29.--WARBURTON. - -Pope, in the MS., had expanded the idea, and added this couplet: - - No great, no little; 'tis as much decreed - That Virgil's Gnat should die as Cæsar bleed. - -It is doubtful whether Virgil was the author of the Culex or Gnat, -which, says Mr. Long, "is a kind of Bucolic poem in 413 hexameters, -often very obscure." Pope's assertion that there is "no great, no -little," is contradicted by the passage in St. Matthew to which -Warburton refers. Our Lord there assures us that "we are of more value -than many sparrows," and the ruin of a world, with its myriad of -sentient beings, must be of infinitely greater moment in the sight of -the Deity than the bursting of a bubble. Pope repeats, ver. 279, a -statement which is repugnant to reason, to revelation, and to his own -system of a scale of beings. - -[1013] MS.: - - Systems like atoms into ruin hurled. - -[1014] Edit. 1. Fol. and Quart.: - - What bliss above he gives not thee to know, - But gives that hope to be thy bliss below. - -Further opened in Epist. ii. ver. 283. Epist. iii. ver. 74. Epist. iv. -ver. 346, etc.--POPE. - -[1015] Pope has frequently contradicted this line, and allowed that men -who place their happiness in right objects, and use the recognised -means, enjoy a present pleasure, in addition to the hope of an equal or -greater pleasure in the future. This hope in turn is constantly -realised, in contradiction to the lively saying ascribed to Lord Bacon, -that "hope makes a good breakfast, but a bad supper." - -[1016] All editions till that of 1743 had "at" for "from." The home of -the soul was this world according to the first reading, and the next -world according to the second. The alteration was made under the -auspices of Warburton to get rid of the imputation that Pope doubted or -disbelieved the immortality of the soul. - -[1017] MS.: - - Seeks God in clouds or on the wings of wind. - -The savage, that is, being ignorant of scientific laws, supposes the -wind and the rain to be produced directly by the Deity without the -interposition of secondary causes. - -[1018] Dryden, Threnod. August. Stanza 12: - - Out of the solar walk and heaven's highway.--HURD. - -[1019] The ancient opinion that the souls of the just went thither. See -Tully, Som. Scipion. and Manilius i. [ver. 733-799.]--POPE. - -Virtue is in Cicero the title of admission into the milky way, but the -version which Manilius gives of the popular creed assumes that the milky -way is the general receptacle for earthly celebrities, without any -special regard to their morals. - -[1020] Shakespeare, Tempest, Act iv. Sc. 1. "The cloud-capped towers." - -[1021] Dryden, Æn. vii. 310: - - From that dire deluge through the wat'ry waste.--WAKEFIELD. - -MS.: - - This hope kind nature's flattery has giv'n, - Behind his cloud-topp'd hills he builds a heav'n; - Some happier world which woods on woods infold, - Where never christian pierced for thirst of gold. - -Pope must have assumed that the Indian's hope of a blissful immortality -was an unsubstantial dream, or he would not have called it "nature's -_flattery_." - -[1022] MS.: - - Where gold ne'er grows, and never Spaniards come, - Where trees bear maize, and rivers flow with rum. - Exiled or chained he lets you understand - Death but returns him to his native land; - Or firm as martyrs, smiling yields the ghost, - Rich of a life that is not to be lost. - But does he say the Maker is not good, - Till he's exalted to what state he would: - Himself alone high heav'n's peculiar care, - Alone made happy when he will and where? - -There is an earlier form of the last couplet: - - He waits for bliss in a remoter sphere - Nor proudly claims it when he will and where. - -[1023] So in Homer, at the funeral of Patroclus, xxiii. 212, of our -poet's translation: - - Of nine large dogs, domestic at his board, - Fall two, selected to attend their lord.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1024] "Sense" is put for "the senses," and Pope exclaims against the -folly of censuring the government of God on the strength of the -imperfect information which the senses supply. - -[1025] Bolingbroke, Fragment 25: "This is to weigh his own opinion -against Providence." Pope adduces the contented faith of the savage to -rebuke the dissatisfaction of certain civilised men. The contrast -completely fails. The contentment and dissatisfaction are applied by -Pope to different objects, the contentment of the savage being limited -to his idea of a future life, whereas the dissatisfaction of civilised -man is said to be chiefly with his present condition, about which the -savage is often dissatisfied likewise. The imperfect information of -missionaries is not even sufficient warrant for asserting that all -Indians believed in a future state, and if there were dissentients among -them their case did not differ from that of civilised men. Above all the -contentment of the Indian is the result of grovelling views, and -uninquiring ignorance, and whatever may be the errors of infidels among -ourselves they cannot be remedied by an appeal to those blind -conceptions of the savage, which Pope supposed to be false. "Our -flattering ourselves here," he said to Spence, "with the thoughts of -enjoying the company of our friends when in the other world may be but -too like the Indians thinking that they shall have their dogs and horses -there." - -[1026] First edition: - - Pronounce He acts too little or too much. - -[1027] "Gust," or the relish for anything, is the opposite of "disgust," -and is applied by Pope to the pleasures of the palate. The word is found -in Dryden, and several other writers, but never came into general use. - -[1028] MS.: - - Yet if unhappy think tis He's unjust, - -which is the reading of the first edition, except that "thou" is -substituted for "if." - -[1029] The meaning cannot be that the caviller complained that other -creatures were made perfect as well as himself, because nobody supposed -that either men or animals were perfect. Pope apparently means that -these persons complained that man was not an exception to the general -law of imperfection and mortality, although he "alone" would then have -been "perfect" in this world, and immortal in the next. It follows that -the objectors disbelieved in the immortality of the soul, and that Pope -thought their demand for immortality unreasonable. - -[1030] The "balance" in which qualities are weighed; the "rod" with -which offences are chastised. - -[1031] Divines maintained that there must be a future state, or that -many of the phenomena of this life would be inexplicable. Bolingbroke -rejected a future state, and argued that this life was a scheme complete -in itself. All who did not concur in his view "joined," he said, "in a -clamour against Providence," and "murmured against his justice." Not -that they had ever uttered a syllable against Providence, for they were -devout and humble adorers of his perfections, but they denied that -Bolingbroke's scheme was God's scheme, and Bolingbroke in his arrogance -and passion insisted that whoever repudiated his philosophy set himself -up against God. Pope versified the declamation of Bolingbroke, without -pointing it to the class against whom it was originally directed. - -[1032] The first edition reads "In pride, my friend, in pride," and the -edition of 1735, "In reas'ning pride, my friend." - -[1033] Verbatim from Bolingbroke: "Men would be angels, and we see in -Milton that angels would be gods."--WARTON. - -Sir Fulk Greville, "Works, 1633, p. 73: - - Men would be tyrants, tyrants would be gods."--HURD. - -[1034] Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ed. Montagu, p. 267: -"Aspiring to be like God in power, the angels transgressed and fell; -aspiring to be like God in knowledge, man transgressed and fell." - -[1035] Piety must equally answer with grateful adoration that all these -things have been created for the use of man. The error of pride is in -the assumption that they have been created for man alone, who is only -one out of an infinity of creatures on our globe, as our globe again is -only a portion of a larger system. Hence Pope intends us to infer, that -it is folly for us to test all things by the consequences to ourselves. -The language, however, which he puts into the mouth of pride is -extravagant, and "can hardly," says M. Crousaz, "have been ever uttered -by any one, unless it were in jest." - -[1036] MS.: - - For me young nature decks her vernal bow'r, - Suckles each bud, and pencils ev'ry flow'r. - -[1037] Garth, Dispensary, i. 175: - - His couch a trench, his canopy the skies.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope remembered Isaiah lxvi. 1: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my -throne, and the earth is my footstool." No sane man could ever pretend -that "earth was his footstool," and Pope alone is responsible for the -unbecoming misapplication of the prophet's language. - -[1038] MS.: - - or when oceans - When earth quick swallows, inundations sweep. - -[1039] "A nation" in the first edition. The expression is hyperbolical. -Pope alludes to such catastrophes as the inundation of Jutland when the -sea broke down the dykes in 1634, and fifteen thousand people were -drowned. Irruptions on a smaller scale have sometimes been occasioned by -the rising of the sea during an earthquake. In that of 1783 the -inhabitants of Scilla, in the kingdom of Naples, deserted their city to -avoid being crushed by the falling houses, and fled to the shore. A -mighty wave, which swept three miles inland, carried back with it 2473 -persons, and their prince among the number. Cowper, The Task, ii. 117, -has recorded the tragedy in his grandest verse: - - Where now the throng - That pressed the beach, and hasty to depart, - Looked to the sea for safety? They are gone, - Gone with the refluent wave into the deep, - A prince with half his people. - -[1040] Pope says, that "earthquakes swallow towns _to_ one grave, whole -nations _to_ the deep," where "to" should be "in." But this would not -have suited the phrase "tempests sweep," and the poet preferred brevity -to correctness. - -[1041] First edition: - - Blame we for this the wise Almighty Cause; - No, 'tis replied, he acts by gen'ral laws. - -The government by general laws, we are told, has "a few exceptions," -which must either refer to the scripture miracles, which Pope did not -believe when he wrote the Essay on Man, or to the doctrine of a special -providence, which he opposes in the fourth epistle. - -[1042] "Some change" for "there has been some change," is bad English. -The argument is not superior to the language. Plagues, earthquakes, and -tempests, say the vindicators of nature, may in part be explained by the -changes which have taken place since the creation of the world. Pope, -Epist. iv. ver. 115, repeats that "evil" has been "admitted" through -"change." As no reason is assigned for this conversion of physical good -into physical evil, the supposition does not diminish the difficulty. - -[1043] On a cursory reading we might understand Pope to mean that nature -sometimes deviates from her stated course for the purpose of promoting -human happiness. This sense does not agree with the context, and the -true interpretation is, that if the great end of terrestrial creation is -allowed to be human happiness, then it is clear that nature sometimes -deviates from that end, as in the instance of plagues and earthquakes. - -[1044] The assertion is monstrous that we cannot be expected to control -our evil passions because nature has her storms, diseases, and -earthquakes. This is not to justify the ways of God, but the ways of -wicked men. The physical evil ordained by the ruler of the world, cannot -be put upon the same foundation with the moral evil which reason and -revelation condemn. Sin is permitted because it is better that offences -should exist than that free will should be destroyed, but it is -lamentable that we should will to do evil in preference to good. The -justification of the abuses of free will is a distinct proposition from -the argument into which Pope glides, that it is not harder to understand -why man should be allowed to be a scourge to man than why suffering -should be inflicted through the agency of earthquakes and pestilence. - -[1045] To draw a parallel between things of a nature entirely different -is mere sophistry. A continual spring would be fatal to the earth and -its inhabitants, but how would the world suffer if men were always wise, -calm, and temperate?--CROUSAZ. - -[1046] Shortly after his father, Alexander VI., ascended the papal -throne in 1492, Cæsar Borgia commenced the career of war, massacre, and -murder which made him the scourge and terror of Italy. He was killed by -a musket-ball at a petty siege in 1507. The conspiracy of Catiline -against the Roman government was terminated by his death at the head of -his banditti, B.C. 62, but from his depraved and desperate character -there was every reason to believe that he would have used a victory to -plunder with insatiable greediness, and to destroy with remorseless -cruelty. - -[1047] God does not "pour ambition into Cæsar's mind," or the -all-perfect being would be the author of sin. The aberrations of -ambition are the acts of the ambitious man. - -[1048] Alexander the Great. He made a pilgrimage to the temple of -Jupiter Ammon, in Africa, and the priests styled him son of their god. -Upon the faith of the oracle his flatterers believed, or affected to -believe, that he was of divine descent. - -[1049] The four lines, ver. 157-160, first appeared in the edition of -1743. - -[1050] MS.: - - From whence all physical or moral ill? - 'Tis nature wand'ring from the eternal will. - -Pope plainly avows that physical evil is the disobedience of inanimate -nature to the Creator, as moral evil arose from the disobedience of man. -The couplet, in an altered form, was transferred to Epist. iv. ver. 111, -where the context confirms the interpretation which the present version -appears to require. - -[1051] See this subject extended in Epist. ii. from ver. 100 to ver. -122; ver. 165, etc.--POPE. - -Pope is answering the objections to moral evil. The passions for which -he has undertaken to account are vicious in kind or in degree--they are -the passions which are contrary to "virtue," ver. 166,--the passions of -Borgia, Catiline, Cæsar, and Alexander,--and these are not elements -essential to human life. - -[1052] Pope uses almost the very words of Bolingbroke: "To think -worthily of God we must think that the natural order of things has been -always the same; and that a being of infinite wisdom and knowledge, to -whom the past and the future are like the present, and who wants no -experience to inform him, can have no reason to alter what infinite -wisdom and knowledge have once done."--WARTON. - -In saying that the "general order" had been "kept," Pope did not mean -that there were no exceptions, for he held that there had been "some -change" since the beginning of things, which was to reject the fanciful -principle of Bolingbroke. Infinite wisdom cannot err, but change is not -necessarily the reparation of error, and a progressive may be preferable -to a stationary system. - -[1053] This is Pope's summary of his weak defence of moral evil. Moral -and physical irregularities, he says in effect, have always prevailed, -and both are indispensable. He denies this in his third epistle, and -asserts that universal innocence endured for several generations to the -great advantage of man. - -[1054] Psalm viii. 5: "Thou hast made him a little lower than the -angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour."--WARBURTON. - -[1055] MS.: "Brawn." - -[1056] Pope, in these lines, diverts himself with drawing the picture of -a fool, that he may remark upon him, and extend the remarks to mankind -in general. But such fools are rarely to be met with, and I question -whether one can be found infatuated to a degree like this.--CROUSAZ. - -Bishop Butler, like Crousaz, did not believe that such "fools" existed. -"Who," he asked, "ever felt uneasiness upon observing any of the -advantages brute creatures have over us?" Pope's authority was The -Moralists of Lord Shaftesbury. "Why, says one, was I not made by nature -strong as a horse? Why not hardy and robust as this brute creature? or -nimble and active as that other?" - -[1057] The inversion is harsh; and when the words are ranged in their -proper order, "If he call all creatures made for his use," is but -uncouth English. - -[1058] Shaftesbury's Moralists, Part ii. Sect. 4: "Nature has managed -all for the best, with perfect frugality and just reserve; profuse to -none, but bountiful to all." - -[1059] It is a certain axiom in the anatomy of creatures, that in -proportion as they are formed for strength their swiftness is lessened; -or as they are formed for swiftness their strength is abated.--POPE. - -This is an error. The most powerful race-horses are often the fleetest. - -[1060] First edition: - - So justly all proportioned to each state. - -[1061] Vid. Epist. iii. ver. 79, etc., and ver. 109, etc.--POPE. - -[1062] That is, in its own state or condition. - -[1063] First edition: - - Each beast, each insect, happy as it can, - Is heav'n unkind to nothing but to man? - Shall man, shall reasonable man alone - Be or endowed with all, or pleased with none? - -[1064] First edition: - - No self-confounding faculties to share, - No senses stronger than his brain can bear. - -This rejected couplet embodied a fancy from Lord Shaftesbury's Moralists -that the leading qualities in any being are always provided at the -expense of other organs, and that if man had been endowed with greater -and more numerous bodily capacities his brain would have been starved. - -[1065] 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." - -[1066] The abbreviated language of the last four lines, which are not -legitimate composition, makes it difficult to follow the construction: -"Say what the use were finer touch given if, trembingly alive all o'er, -we were to smart and agonise at ev'ry pore? Or what the use of quick -effluvia darting through the brain, if we were to die of a rose in -aromatic pain?" - -[1067] Locke, Essay on the Human Understanding, bk. ii. chap. 23, sect. -12: "If our sense of hearing were but one thousand times quicker than it -is, how would a perpetual noise distract us. And we should in the -quietest retirement be less able to sleep or meditate than in the middle -of a sea-fight."--WARTON. - -Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1, 617. - - Her voice, the music of the spheres, - So loud, it deafens mortal ears.--WAKEFIELD. - -It was an ancient fancy that the planets rolled along spheres, emitting -music as they went. Pope's supposition that the music would stun us, -alludes to the remarks of Cicero, Somnium Scipionis, that the crash of -harmony is so tremendous that human ears cannot receive it, just as -human eyes cannot gaze at the sun. Warburton remarks that Pope should -not have illustrated a philosophical argument by the example of an -unreal sound. - -[1068] First edition: - - Through gen'ral life, behold the scale arise - Of sensual and of mental faculties! - Vast range of sense from man's imperial race - To the green myriads, etc. - -A very little observation would have satisfied Pope that "green" is not -the prevailing hue of the "myriads in the peopled grass." Wakefield says -that the expression "man's imperial race," in ver. 209, is from Dryden's -Virg. Geo. iii. 377, and that the general argument is from Bolingbroke's -Fragments: "There is a gradation of sense and intelligence here from -animal beings imperceptible to us for their minuteness, without the help -of microscopes, and even with them, up to man." This is what Leibnitz -called "the law of continuity." "Nature," he said, "never proceeds by -leaps." - -[1069] The manner of the lions hunting their prey in the deserts of -Africa is this; at their first going out in the night-time they set up a -loud roar, and then listen to the noise made by the beasts in their -flight, pursuing them by the ear, and not by the nostril. It is -probable, the story of the jackal's hunting for the lion was occasioned -by observation of this defect of scent in that terrible animal.--POPE. - -Pope was mistaken in his notion that the lion hunted by ear alone, and -that his sense of smell was obtuse. His scenting powers are very acute. -The account which Pope gives would not, if it were true, explain why the -jackal should have been singled out for the office of lion's provider. -The real reason is told by Livingstone. When the lion is devouring his -prey, "the jackal comes sniffing about, and sometimes suffers for his -temerity by a stroke from the lion's paw laying him dead." The -persevering attempt of the lesser animal to share the spoils with the -greater, led to the belief that the two worked in concert--that the -jackal was the pioneer, and the lion the executioner. There are two -other readings of ver. 213 in the MS.: - - smell the stupid ass - Degrees of scent the vulgar brute between. - -All the versions are deformed by the license of putting the preposition -"between" after its noun. - -[1070] It was formerly a common belief that fish were deaf; but Pope -ascribes to them some capacity of hearing, and this is now known to be -correct. - -[1071] Dryden, Marriage-a-la-mode, Act ii.: - - And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such, - That, spider-like, we feel the tender'st touch.--WAKEFIELD. - -These lines are admirable patterns of forcible diction. The peculiar and -discriminating expressiveness of the epithets ought to be particularly -regarded. Perhaps we have no image in the language more lively than that -of ver. 218. "To live along the line," is equally bold and beautiful. In -this part of the epistle the poet seems to have remarkably laboured his -style, which abounds in various figures, and is much elevated. Pope has -practised the great secret of Virgil's art, which was to discover the -very single epithet that precisely suited each occasion. If Pope must -yield to other poets in point of fertility of fancy, or harmony of -numbers, yet in point of propriety, closeness, and elegance of diction, -he can yield to none.--WARTON. - -[1072] The house-spider conceals itself in a cell, which is constructed -below the web, and at a distance from it. The threads which are spun -from the edge of the web to the spider's lurking-hole, vibrate when a -fly comes in contact with the web, and are at once a telegraph to give -information to the spider, and a bridge along which it can rush forward -to secure its prey. - -[1073] When the nectar of flowers is poisonous, the bee has not the -power of separating its noxious from its wholesome properties, nor do -bees always avoid the flowers which are hurtful to them. Some honey -which is fatal to man may not be injurious to the insects collecting it. - -[1074] At first it ran, - - How instinct varies! What a hog may want - Compared with thine, half-reasoning elephant.--WARTON. - -[1075] Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel: - - Great wits are sure to madness near allied - And thin partitions do their bounds divide. - -Pope is illustrating his proposition that there must be grades of -capacity for animal to be subject to animal, and all animals to man. The -application of the couplet to his argument is obscure, and the couplet -itself very vague. The "remembrance" closely "allied to reflection" -appears to be the effort of attention by which we recall the dormant -stores of memory. "Thought" is a dubious term, but seems to be put by -Pope for the acts of mind which take their rise in the mind itself, as -willing, imagining, reasoning, etc., in contradistinction to seeing, -feeling, taste, etc., which are produced by the operation of external -things upon the senses. - -[1076] A two-fold or mixed nature was sometimes in old language called a -"middle nature," such as a compound of mind and matter, or an amphibious -animal, and Pope perhaps meant that the double nature "longs to join" in -a more intimate union. Or he may have meant by "middle," an intermediate -nature, such as any creature which has an order of beings above and -below it, but then to satisfy Pope's phraseology there must be two of -these middle natures which are longing to unite with each other, and the -higher would not desire to be "joined" to the lower. The couplet seems -at best to be mere mystical jargon. - -[1077] The idea is in Locke's Essay, bk. iii. chap. 6, sect. 12, which -Warton quotes. Bolingbroke, Fragment 49, copied Locke and others, and -Pope copied Bolingbroke. - -[1078] Ed. 1st: - - Ethereal essence, spirit, substance, man.--POPE. - -[1079] This is a magnificent passage. Thomson had before said in Summer, -ver. 333: - - Has any seen - The mighty chain of beings, lessening down - From infinite perfection, to the brink - Of dreary nothing.--WARTON. - -Kennet's Pascal, p. 166: "He will find himself hanging, in the material -scale, between the two vast abysses of infinite and nothing." - -[1080] All that can be said of a scale of beings is to be found in the -third chapter of King's Origin of Evil, and in a note ending with these -emphatic words: "Whatever system God had chosen, there could have been -but a determinate multitude of the most perfect creatures, and when that -was completed there would have been a station for creatures less -perfect, and it would still have been an instance of goodness to give -them a being as well as others."--WARTON. - -[1081] Suffer men, says Pope, to encroach upon superior powers, and -either inferior powers must rise to the rank we have vacated, or by not -moving forward into the gap, they will leave a void in creation. - -[1082] MS.: - - in nature what it hates, a void; - Or leave a gap in the creation void; - The scale is broken if a step destroyed. - -[1083] Dryden, Love Triumphant, Act iv. Sc. 1: - - Great nature, break thy chain, that links together - The fabric of this globe, and make a chaos. - -[1084] MS.: - - Yet more ev'n systems in gradation roll. - -[1085] Bolingbroke, Fragment 42: "We cannot doubt that numberless -worlds, and systems of worlds, compose this amazing whole, the -universe." - -[1086] Milton, Par. Lost, vii. 242: - - And earth self-balanced on her centre hung. - -The tendency of the earth to move in a straight line is balanced by the -attraction of the sun, and Pope supposes this attraction to cease. - -[1087] I like the reading of earlier editions better; - - Planets and suns _rush_ lawless through the sky.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1088] After Pope's death "tremble" was misprinted "trembles," and the -error has been retained in most editions. The construction is, "Let -planets and suns run lawless through the sky, let being be wrecked on -being, world on world, let heaven's whole foundations nod to their -centre, and let nature tremble to the throne of God!" - -[1089] These six lines, ver. 251-256, are added since the first -edition.--POPE. - -Ruffhead says "there is no reading these lines without being struck with -a momentary apprehension." Without quite allowing this, we cannot but -feel their great beauty and force. Line rises upon line, with greater -effect and nobler imagery, and in the conclusion the poet has touched -the idea with propriety, as well as dignity and sublimity. If he had -been more particular, the passage would have been unworthy the grandeur -of the subject; had he been less it would have been obscure. He has at -once evinced judgment and poetry. If there be a word or two not quite -suitable, perhaps it is "run," and "foundations nod." I could have -wished such a word as "rushed lawless," or "flamed lawless through the -sky."--BOWLES. - -[1090] The chief problem which Pope undertook to solve was the existence -of moral evil. Yet, if man, in obedience to God's commands, became -morally perfect, none of the disastrous effects the poet describes would -ensue. Angels would not be hurled from their spheres; worlds would not -be wrecked; nor would heaven's foundations nod to their centre. Reason -and revelation unite in the conclusion that moral perfection would, on -the contrary, be an unmitigated blessing. Consequently Pope's hypothesis -explains nothing unless he had shown how it is that a system which -rendered evil impossible would be inferior to our own. - -[1091] Plotinus, translated by Cudworth, Intellectual System, ed. -Harrison, vol. iii., p. 479: "Some things in me partake only of being, -some of life also, some of sense, some of reason, and some of intellect -above reason. But no man ought to require equal things from unequal; nor -that the finger should see, but the eye; it being enough for the finger -to be a finger, and to perform its own office."--WARTON. - -[1092] Bolingbroke, Fragment 66: "Nothing can be more absurd than the -complaints of creatures who are in one of these orders, that they are -not in another." - -[1093] Vid. the prosecution and application of this in Epist. iv. ver. -162.--POPE. - -[1094] "Soul," says Samuel Clarke, "signifies a part of a whole, whereof -body is the other part, and they, being united, mutually affect each -other as parts of the same whole. But God is present to every part of -the universe, not as a soul, but as a governor, so as to act upon -everything in what manner he pleases, himself being acted upon by -nothing." Warburton quotes some passages from Sir Isaac Newton asserting -the omnipresence of the Deity, and the commentator affirms that the poet -expressed the identical doctrine of the philosopher. This is a -misrepresentation. The extracts of Warbuton are from the scholium to the -Principia, where Newton adds, "God governs all things, not as a soul of -the world, but as the Lord of the universe. The Godhead of God is his -dominion, a dominion not like that of a soul over its own body, but that -of a Lord over his servants." The doctrine which Pope held in common -with Sir Isaac Newton was the omnipresence of the Deity. The doctrine -which Sir Isaac Newton repudiated, and which Pope maintained, was that -the world was the body of God as the human frame is of man. The world in -this sense was not the work of the Deity, but a portion of him. Pope -abandoned his present creed, Epist. iii. ver. 229, where he says, - - The worker from the work distinct was known. - -[1095] Every ear must feel the ill effect of the monotony in these -lines. The cause is obvious. When the pause falls on the fourth -syllable, we shall find that we pronounce the six last in the same time -that we do the four first, so that the couplet is not only divided into -two equal lines, but each line, with respect to time, is divided into -two equal parts.--WEBB. - -[1096] Our poet is certainly indebted to the following verses of Mrs. -Chandler on Solitude: - - He's all in all: his wisdom, goodness, pow'r, - Spring in each blade, and bloom in ev'ry flow'r; - Smile o'er the meads, and bend in ev'ry hill, } - Glide in the stream, and murmur in the rill: } - All nature moves obedient to his will. } - -Dryden, in the State of Innocence, Act v., was probably also in our -poet's recollection: - - Where'er thou art, he is: th' eternal mind - Acts through all places, is to none confined; - Fills ocean, earth, and air, and all above, - And through the universal mass does move.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1097] "Our mortal part," is put in opposition to "soul," and the -antithesis is a recognition of the soul's immortality. The allusion was -too slight to offend Bolingbroke, or, perhaps, to attract his notice. - -[1098] Dugald Stewart observes that everyone must be displeased with -this line, because the triviality of the alliteration is at variance -with the sublimity of the subject. - -[1099] First edition: - - As the rapt Seraphim that sings and burns. - -The name Seraphim, says Warburton, signifies burners, and Wakefield -quotes, in illustration, from Spenser's Hymn of Heavenly Beauty, stanza -14: - - And those eternal burning Seraphims - Which from their faces dart out fiery light. - -[1100] These are lines of a marvellous energy and closeness of -expression.--WARTON. - -The concluding lines appear to be a false jingle of words which -neutralise the whole of Pope's argument. If there is to Providence "no -high, no low, no great, no small," the gradation of beings is a -delusion. What things are in the sight of God, that they are in reality, -and since no one thing in creation is superior or inferior to any other -thing, Pope's language throughout this epistle is unmeaning. The final -phrase of the couplet is bathos. God is not only the "equal" of "all" -his works, he is immeasurably beyond them. - -[1101] The "order" is the gradation of beings, and "what we blame" is -our own rank in the scale of creation, whereas, says Pope, our "proper -bliss depends upon it." - -[1102] MS.: - - Cease then, nor order imperfection call - On which depends the happiness of all. - Reason, to think of God when she pretends, - Begins a censor, an adorer ends. - See and confess, this just, this kind degree - Of blindness, etc. - -[1103] Pope would not express a "sure and certain hope in a blessed -resurrection." He used the same equivocal language as his "guide," who -had no faith that "another sphere" existed for man. "Let the -tranquillity of my mind," said Bolingbroke, Frag. 51, "rest on this -immovable rock, that my future, as well as my present state, are ordered -by an almighty and all-wise Creator." - -[1104] MS.: - - In the same hand, the same all-plastic pow'r. - -[1105] "Nature is the art whereby God governs the world," says -Hobbes.--WARTON. - -Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med. Part i. 16: "In brief all things are -artificial; for nature is the art of God." - -[1106] Art, in the sense of design, is manifest in nature, and has been -traced in endless particulars. Pope must mean by "unknown art" the -ultimate principles to which the laws of nature owe their efficiency. - -[1107] From Fontenelle: "Everything is chance, provided we give this -name to an order unknown to us."--WARTON. - -[1108] Feltham's Resolves: "The world is kept in order by discord, and -every part of it is but a more particular composed jar. And in all these -it makes greatly for the Maker's glory that such an admirable harmony -should be produced out of such an infinite discord."--WARTON. - -[1109] This line ran thus in the first edition: - - And spite of pride, and in thy reason's spite. - -Pope afterwards, says Johnson, discovered, or was shown, that the -"truth" which subsisted "in spite of reason" could not be very "clear." - -[1110] MS.: - - Learn we ourselves, not God presume to scan, - But know the study, etc. - -[1111] Ed. 1.: - - The only science of mankind is man. - -Ed. 2.: - - The proper study, etc.--POPE. - -"The true science and true study of man is man," says Charron in his -treatise on Wisdom; and Pascal, in his thoughts translated by Dr. -Kennet, 1727, p. 248, says, "The study of man is the proper employment -and exercise of mankind." But Pascal is maintaining that man should -study himself in preference to mathematics, and not to the exclusion of -God, which is a doctrine that would have filled him with horror. - -[1112] From Cowley, who says of life, in his ode on Life and Fame: - - Vain, weak-built isthmus, which dost proudly rise - Up betwixt two eternities.--WARTON. - -[1113] Kennet's Pascal, p. 160: "We have an idea of truth, not to be -effaced by all the wiles of the sceptic." - -[1114] The stoic took his stand upon virtue, and with a stern faith in -the all-sufficiency of moral excellence he calmly defied the trials of -life. - -[1115] Johnson, in his translation of Crousaz, says he cannot determine -whether any one has discovered the true meaning of the words "in doubt -to act or rest." The language is vague, and incapable of an -interpretation which is generally true; but the probable sense seems to -be that man is in doubt whether to embrace an active belief, or whether -to resign himself to a passive, inert scepticism. - -[1116] First edition: - - To deem himself a part of God or beast. - -Kennet's Pascal, p. 30, furnished the hint for the line: "What, then, is -to be the fate of man? Shall he be equal to God, or shall he not be -superior to the beasts?" - -[1117] Man is not born only to die, but death has the present life on -one side of it, and immortality on the other. Man does not reason only -to err, but to establish a multitude of mighty truths. - -[1118] "Such is the reason of man that he is equally ignorant whether, -etc." - -[1119] From Kennet's Pascal, p. 180: "If we think too little of a thing -or too much, our head turns giddy, and we are at a loss to find out our -way to truth." - -[1120] Kennet's Pascal, p. 162: "What a chimæra then is man! What a -confused chaos! What a subject of contradiction!" - -[1121] "Abused" here means "deceived," a sense of the word which was -once common. Lord Bacon, Essay on Cunning: "Some build upon the abusing -of others, and, as we now say, putting tricks upon them." Bishop Hall, -Contemplations upon the New Testament, bk. ii. cont. 6: "Crafty men and -lying spirits agreed to abuse the credulous world." - -[1122] Kennet's Pascal, p. 162: "If he is too aspiring we can lower him; -if too mean we can raise him." - -[1123] From Kennet's Pascal, p. 162: "A professed judge of all things, -and yet a feeble worm of the earth; the great depositary and guardian of -truth, and yet a mere huddle of uncertainty; the glory and the scandal -of the universe." - -[1124] After ver. 18 in the MS.: - - For more perfection than this state can bear - In vain we sigh; heav'n made us as we are. - [If gods we _must_ because we _would_ be, then - Pray hard ye monkies, and ye may be men.] - As wisely sure a modest ape might aim - To be like man, whose faculties and frame - He sees, he feels, as you or I to be - An angel thing we neither know nor see. - Observe how near he edges on our race; - What human tricks! how risible of face! - "It must be so--why else have I the sense - Of more than monkey charms and excellence? - Why else to walk on two so oft essayed? - And why this ardent longing for a maid?" - So Pug might plead, and call his gods unkind, - Till set on end, and married to his mind. - Go, reas'ning thing! assume the Doctor's chair, - As Plato deep, as Seneca severe: - Fix moral fitness, and to God give rule, - Then drop, etc.--WARBURTON. - -The couplet between brackets was omitted by Warburton. There is still -another reading in the MS. of the couplet, "Observe how near," etc. - - Observe his love of tricks, his laughing face; - An elder brother, too, to human race. - -[1125] MS.: - - Go, reas'ning man, go mount, etc. - -[1126] MS.: - - Instruct erratic planets where to run. - -[1127] Warburton says that the phrase "correct old Time" refers to Sir -Isaac Newton's Chronology of Antient Kingdoms Amended, in which one of -the main positions was based upon astronomical science. More probably -Pope alluded to the familiar fact of the Gregorian reformation of the -calendar by substituting new style for old. The change was adopted -towards the close of the sixteenth century through the greater part of -Europe, but the old style was retained in England till 1752. By -"regulate the sun," Wakefield understands the use of equal mean for -unequal apparent time. - -[1128] Ed. 4, 5.: - - Show by what rules the wand'ring planets stray, - Correct old Time, and teach the sun his way.--POPE. - -"Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule," exclaims Pope, ver. 29, and -Warburton correctly remarks that the sarcastic summary is "a conclusion -from all that had been said before from ver. 18 to this effect." The -illustrations which go before should consequently be examples of the -wild attempts to show how the world might have been better contrived, -and Pope points to such schemes when he says, "_Instruct_ the planets in -what orbs to run." But he has perplexed his meaning by improperly mixing -up with instances of ignorant presumption, those real discoveries in -science, which are the result of a patient investigation of God's works, -and have no connection with the pretence of "teaching Eternal Wisdom how -to rule." - -[1129] Bolingbroke, Fragment 58: "They soar up on Platonic wings to the -first good and the first just." Plato taught that there was a good in -itself, a just in itself, a beautiful in itself, etc. These ideas, as he -called them, these faultless archetypes of earthly qualities, were not -mere abstractions of the mind. They had a real existence, and all that -was good, beautiful, and just in this world, was derived from them. The -"empyreal sphere" was the outermost of the nine fictitious spheres of -the ancients, and is "inhabited," says Cicero in his Vision of Scipio, -"by that all-powerful God who controls the other spheres." Pope learned -his contempt of Plato from Bolingbroke, who said of him with his usual -intemperance, and more than his usual ignorance, that he was the "father -of philosophical lying, and treated every subject like a bombast poet, -and a mad theologian." - -[1130] MS.: - - And proudly rave of imitating God. - -Bolingbroke, Fragment 2: "I dare not use theological familiarity and -talk of imitating God." Frag. 4: "I hold it to be worse than absurd to -assert that man can imitate God." The Platonists taught that if we would -know and imitate God we must withdraw the mind from the things of sense, -and contemplate the spiritual and the perfect. Pope's object was to -ridicule those who thought that the perfections of the Deity were to be -the model for the imperfect efforts of man. The notion, he says, is not -less preposterous than the Eastern absurdity of twisting in a circle to -imitate the apparent revolution of the sun. - -[1131] MS.: - - So Eastern madmen in a circle run. - -[1132] Plutarch tells us, in his Life of Numa, that the followers of -Pythagoras were enjoined to turn themselves round during the performance -of their religious worship; and that this circumrotation was intended to -imitate the revolution of the world. Pliny, in his Natural History, -xxviii. 5, mentions the same practice.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope referred to the sacred dance of the Mahometan monks. "They turn on -their left foot," says Thevenot, "like a wind-mill driven by a strong -wind," and Lady Mary W. Montagu, who witnessed the ceremony, states that -they whirled round with an amazing swiftness for above an hour without -any of them showing the least appearance of giddiness, which, she adds, -is not to be wondered at when it is considered they are all used to it -from their infancy. - -[1133] MS.: - - Of moral fitness fix th' unerring rule. - -[1134] MS.: - - Angels themselves, I grant it, when they saw - One mighty man, etc. - -[1135] MS.: - - Admired an angel in a human shape. - -[1136] From the Zodiac of Palingenius: - - Simia coelicolum, risusque jocusque deorum est - Tunc homo, cum temerè ingenio confidit, et audet - Abdita naturæ scrutari, arcanaque divum.--WARTON. - -This image gives an air of burlesque to the passage, notwithstanding all -that can be said. It is degrading to the subject, to the idea of the -"superior beings," and to the character on whom it is meant as a -panegyric.--BOWLES. - -The author of a Letter to Mr. Pope, 1735, says that the lines on Newton -had been "generally admired and repeated." From this praise he justly -dissents. Either the angels could not have "admired" Newton in the -proper sense of the word, or they could not have "shown him as we show -an ape," when he would have appeared a grotesque and ludicrous object. -The idea is altogether a poor conceit, and was not worth borrowing. In -the MS. an additional couplet followed ver. 34: - - Ah, turn the glass! it shows thee all along - As weak in conduct, as in science strong. - -[1137] Ed. 4: The whirling comet.--POPE. - -[1138] Ed. 1: - - Could he who taught each planet where to roll, - Describe or fix one movement of the soul? - Who marked their points to rise or to descend, - Explain his own beginning or his end?--POPE. - -[1139] Sir Isaac Newton showed the probability, converted into certainty -by later observations, that comets travelled in elongated curves, and -were subjected to the identical law of attraction which governed the -motions of the planets. The laws of gravitation were the "rules" which -"bound" the comets, and Pope contrasts these definite laws of matter -with the variable "movements" of the human mind, which cannot be "fixed" -or reduced to rule. The mind, however, has also its laws, which, -notwithstanding the disturbing force of free-will, are sufficiently -understood for the practical purposes of life. - -[1140] Ed. 4: - - Who saw the stars here rise, and here descend?--POPE. - -[1141] The comparison is pointless. Newton knew far more of his end,--of -his mission and ultimate destiny,--than of the purpose and fate of -comets, and did not know less of his own beginning than of the origin of -the heavenly bodies. Man is incapable of conceiving the mode by which a -single atom of the universe was called into being, nor can he penetrate -to the essence of a single law or particle of matter any better than to -the essence of mind. After ver. 38 there is this couplet in the MS.: - - Or more of God, or more of man can find, - Than this that one is good, and one is blind? - -There is a kindred antithesis in the last verse of the Epistle, but the -exaggeration of the statement is less strongly marked. - -[1142] "Alas," says Pope, "what wonder" that Newton should be unable to -"explain his own beginning and end," since "what reason weaves is undone -by passion." But this cannot be the cause of our inability to unfold the -creative process, for when passion is not permitted to interfere with -reason we make no advance towards an explanation of our "own beginning." -Passion does often interfere with the just perception of our proper -"end," and with the practice of the duties we perceive, only Pope should -have known that to rise superior to passion is the daily discipline of -hosts of men. "It seems," says Pascal, "to be the divine intention to -perfect the will rather than the understanding," and of the two we can -approximate nearer to moral perfection than to universal science. - -[1143] MS.: - - Unchecked may mount thy intellectual part - From whim to whim,--at best from art to art. - -[1144] MS.: - - Joins truth to truth, or mounts - There mounts unchecked, and soars from art to art. - -[1145] An allusion to the web of Penelope in Homer's -Odyssey.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1146] That is, of all the studies which are dictated by the vices of -pride and vanity. He followed Bolingbroke, who wrote long tirades -against moralists, divines, and metaphysicians, for indulging, from hope -of fame, in barren, chimerical speculations. - -[1147] This paragraph first appeared in the edition of 1743. In the -preceding paragraph, we are told that, in physical science, man "may -rise unchecked from art to art." Unless, therefore, Pope reckoned -physical science among the worthless departments of knowledge, there -was, by his own statement, one vast and important scientific region -which was destined to unlimited extension, and of which it was not -correct to say that a "little sum" must serve the future, as it had -served the past. - -[1148] MS.: - - Two different principles our nature move; - One spurs, one reins; this reason, that self-love. - -Cicero's Offices, i. 28: "The powers of the mind are twofold; one -consists in appetite, by the Greeks called [Greek: hormê] (impulse), -which hurries man hither and thither; the other in reason, which -teaches and explains what we are to do, and what we are to avoid." - -[1149] The MS. goes on thus: - - Of good and evil gods what frighted fools, - Of good and evil, reason puzzled schools, - Deceived, deceiving taught, to these refer; - Know both must operate, or both must err.--WARBURTON. - -[1150] "Still" is thrust in to supply a rhyme. "Ascribe" is "we ascribe" -carried on from "we call" at ver. 55. - -[1151] "Acts," in the signification of "incites to action" was formerly -common. "Most men," says Barrow, "are greatly tainted with self-love; -some are wholly possessed and _acted_ by it." - -[1152] MS.: - - Self-love the spring of action lends the force; - Reason's comparing balance states the course: - The primal impulse, and controlling weight - To give the motion, and to regulate. - -Bolingbroke, Fragment 3, says that "appetite and passion are the spring -of human nature; reason the balance to control and regulate it." The -image is borrowed from the works of the watch, where the spring is the -moving power, and the balance regulates the motion. - -[1153] Without self-love, that is, man would be like "a plant," and -without reason like "a meteor,"--the slave of destructive passions. The -first comparison is inconsiderate. The man who had no self-love, which -means no moving principle, no affections or desires, would not even -"draw nutrition, and propagate." The appetite for food, the sexual -appetite, and the care for life, would all be wanting, and he would -"rot" at once. Or if reason, without desires, could induce him to foster -an existence to which he was totally indifferent, reason might equally -impel him to other acts besides the preservation of himself, and the -perpetuation of his race. - -[1154] Meteors may flame lawless through empty space, but man could not -be flaming through a "void" when he was "destroying others." - -[1155] The objects, that is, of reason lie at a distance. MS.: - - Self-love yet stronger as its objects near; - Reason's diminished as remote appear. - -[1156] From Lord Bacon: "The affections carry ever an appetite to good -as reason doth. The difference is, that the affection beholdeth merely -the present, reason beholdeth the future and sum of time."--RUFFHEAD. - -"The sensual man," says Crousaz in illustration of the principle, -"indulges in the pleasures of a luxurious table regardless of the -diseases that may be the consequence of his gluttony, but the reasoner -prefers a lasting tranquillity to transient enjoyment." - -[1157] Bolingbroke, Fragment 6: "Self-love is the original spring of -human actions. Experience and observation require time; and reason that -collects from them comes slowly to our assistance." Experience -enlightens reason by showing us what is hurtful in practice, and what -beneficial. Pope's line is badly expressed. "Attention gains habit," for -"habits are acquired by attention," is barely English. - -[1158] MS.: "nature." "Grace" here signifies the Divine assistance -vouchsafed to the natural powers of man in his efforts after goodness. -Pope's original reading,--"grace and nature"--was a censure of the -attempts to define the respective influences exerted by the nature of -man, and the grace or intervention of God. The substitute of "virtue" -for "nature," obscures the meaning, but the poet apparently had still in -his mind the long controversies on the share which appertained to -"grace" in the production of "virtue." He may have thought that it was -needless to try and settle the precise part which belonged to grace, -since nature and grace are both gifts of the same Almighty Being. - -[1159] Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato divided the faculties into "sense -and reason," and the classification passed from the ancients to the -schoolmen. "Sense" comprised the five senses, with every act of the mind -which was supposed to depend on bodily sensations. Under this head were -included the passions and desires, and "sense," in its moral -signification, was the equivalent of what Pope calls "self-love." - -[1160] MS.: - - Let metaphysics common reason split. - -[1161] In the MS. this couplet follows: - - Too nice distinctions honest sense will shun, - Know pleasure, good, and happiness are one. - -[1162] MS.: - - Both fly from pain, to pleasure both aspire, - With one aversion, and with one desire. - -Pope charges the schoolmen with being at war about a name when they -distinguished between "sense" and "reason," and the distinction is a -capital article in his own moral creed. He charges them with maintaining -that sense and reason were not merely separate, but contending powers, -and he too has insisted on the universality of the strife. "Sense," or, -in his language, "self-love," "looks," ver. 73, to "immediate," "reason" -to "future good," and in this difference of view the "temptations" of -self-love "throng thicker than the arguments" of reason. The contest is -the subject of a long disquisition further on, and Pope laments, ver. -149-160, that passion should conquer in the fight. When he interjected -the paragraph, in which he contradicted himself, he rested his case on -the proposition that reason, which pursues interest well-understood, and -self-love, which gratifies present passion, "aspire to one -end,--pleasure." But the pleasure sought by reason and self-love -respectively is not the same pleasure, and so incompatible were the two -pleasures in his estimation that he calls one, ver. 92, "our greatest -evil," the other "our greatest good." - -[1163] MS.: - - Reason itself more nicely shares in all. - -[1164] MS.: - - Passions whose ends are honest, means are fair. - -[1165] "List," which would probably now be thought a vulgarism, was in -Pope's day the established word. Our form, "enlist," was apparently -unknown to Johnson, who did not insert it in his Dictionary. - -[1166] "Passions that court an aim" is surely a strange -expression.--WARTON. - -For "court" Pope had at first written "boast." - -[1167] The "imparted" or sympathetic passions are the benevolent -impulses and affections. As to their "kind," or nature, they are, says -Pope, "modes of self-love," but when the self-love assumes the form of -loving others the passion is "exalted, and takes the name of some -virtue." He passes the affections over here with this slight allusion, -and returns to them at ver. 255, and more at length in Epistle iii. - -[1168] What says old Epictetus, who knew stoicism better than these men? -"I am not to be apathetic or void of passions, like a statue. I am to -discharge all the relations of a social and friendly life,--the parent, -the husband, the brother, the magistrate." The stoic apathy was no more -than a freedom from irrational and excessive agitations of the -soul.--JAMES HARRIS. - -[1169] That is, in cold insensibility. Lady Chudleigh's dialogue on the -death of her daughter: - - Honour is ever the reward of pain: - A lazy virtue no applause will gain.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1170] The stoic aimed at inner perfection, and trusted to the serenity -of virtue to sustain him in all the trials of life. Pope erroneously -imagined that stoics were selfish and inactive because they were calm -and self-contained. Seneca, De Ot. i. 4, says, they insisted that we -must never cease labouring for the common good, and Cicero, De Fin. iii. -19, says they placed their force of character at the service of mankind, -and thought it their duty to live, and if need were to die, for the -benefit of the public. - -[1171] A couplet is added in the MS.: - - Virtue dispassioned naked meets the fight, - Comes without arms, and conquers but by flight. - -[1172] MS.: - - Passions like tempests put in act the soul. - -[1173] Spectator, June 18, 1712. No. 408: "Passions are to the mind as -winds to a ship; they only can move it, and they too often destroy it. -Reason must then take the place of pilot, and can never fail of securing -her charge if she be not wanting to herself." - -[1174] Tate's paraphrase from Simonides, Dryden's Miscellanies, vol. v. -p. 55: - - On life's wide ocean diversely launched out, - Our minds alike are tossed on waves of doubt, - Holding no steady course, or constant sail, - But shift and tack with ev'ry veering gale.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1175] In the mariner's compass the paper on which the points of the -compass are marked is called "the card." - -[1176] Carew's Poems: - - A troop of deities came down to guide - Our steerless barks in passion's swelling tide, - By virtue's card.--WAKEFIELD. - -After ver. 108 in the MS.: - - A tedious voyage! where how useless lies - The compass, if no pow'rful gusts arise!--WARBURTON. - -[1177] Psalm civ. 3: "Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the -waters, and walketh upon the wings of the wind."--BOWLES. - -Dryden's Ceyx and Alcyone: - - And now sublime she rides upon the wind.--WARTON. - -Pope held that "fierce ambition" was instigated by the Almighty, Epist. -i. ver. 159, and compared his inspiration of such tumultuous passions to -his "heaving old ocean, and winging the storm." The poet must be -understood as upholding the same extended and licentious doctrine when -he returns to the comparison, and talks of "God mounting the storm" of -the passions, and "walking upon the wind." - -[1178] After ver. 112 in the MS.: - - The soft, reward the virtuous or invite; - The fierce, the vicious punish or affright.--WARBURTON. - -[1179] How, that is, can the stoic succeed in destroying passions which -enter into the very composition of man? The stoic made no such -pretension. What he laboured to "destroy" were those "perturbations of -mind" which Zeno, Tusc. iv. 6, maintained to be "repugnant to reason, -and against nature," and for which the stoical remedy, Tusc. iv. 28, was -the demonstration that they "were vicious, and had nothing natural or -necessary in them." The principle for which Pope contended was the very -maxim of the stoics,--they insisted that "reason should keep to nature's -road." The real question was, whether they did not sometimes go too far, -and condemn natural emotions under the name of prohibited perturbations. - -[1180] All he means is, that the intentions of God are manifested in the -nature of man. - -[1181] Dryden, State of Innocence, Act v.: - - With all the num'rous family of death. - -Garth, Dispensary, vi. 138: - - And all the faded family of care.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1182] Warton remarks that the group of allegorical personages are here -suddenly changed to things which are to be "mixed with art." - -[1183] MS.: - - To blend them well, and harmonise their strife - Makes all etc. - -[1184] In plain prose thus: "To grasp present pleasures and to find -future pleasures is the whole employ of body and mind." Pope's line is -rendered intolerable by its elliptical and inverted language, and the -unmeaning expletive "still." - -[1185] MS.: - - Present to seize, or future to obtain - The whole employ of body and of brain. - -[1186] MS.: - - On stronger senses stronger passions strike. - -[1187] MS.: - - Hence passions rise, and more or less inflame, - Proportioned to each organ of the frame, - Nor here internal faculties control, - Nor soul on body acts, but that on soul. - -Pope derived the notion from Mandeville, who says that the diversity of -passions in different men "depend only upon the different frame,--the -inward formation of either the solids or the fluids." According to Pope -the strongest organ gives rise to some passion of corresponding -strength, which finally absorbs all other passions. - -[1188] The use of this doctrine, as applied to the knowledge of mankind, -is one of the subjects of the second book.--POPE. - -Pope refers to Moral Essays, Epist. 1. Of the Knowledge and Characters -of Men. - -[1189] The metaphor is taken from the casting of metal. The "mind's -disease," says Pope, is in the original casting, and is not a defect -which arises subsequently. - -[1190] Dryden's Juvenal, Sat. x. 489: - - One, with cruel art, - Makes Colon suffer for the peccant part.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1191] The "faculties" are not a class of powers distinct from "wit, -spirit, reason," but these last are among the faculties, and we must -understand the passage as if Pope had written that wit and spirit, with -all the other faculties, including reason itself, contribute to the -growth of the ruling passion. - -[1192] By inventing arguments in its justification, as Pope explains at -ver. 156. - -[1193] Taken from Bacon, De Calore.--WARTON. - -This comparison, which might be very proper in philosophy, has a mean -effect in poetry.--BOWLES. - -In the MS. this couplet is added: - - Its own best forces lead the mind astray, - Just as with Teague his own legs ran away. - -Two lines, which do not appear in the subsequent editions, were inserted -after ver. 148 in the quarto of 1735: - - The ruling passion, be it what it will, - The ruling passion conquers reason still. - -[1194] MS.: - - And we who vainly boast her rightful sway - In our weak etc. - -[1195] M.S.: - - Can reason more etc. - -[1196] From La Rochefoucauld: "Reason frequently puts itself on the side -of the strongest passion; there is no violent passion which has not its -reason to justify it."--WARTON. - -[1197] Pope copied Mandeville: "Man's strong habits and inclinations can -only be subdued by passions of greater violence." - -[1198] Cowley's poem on the late civil war: - - The plague, we know, drives all diseases out.--WAKEFIELD. - -Ruffhead and Bowles unite in condemning the colloquial familiarity of -Pope's simile. - -[1199] MS.: - - This bias nature to our temper lends. - -The couplet was not in the first edition. - -[1200] The particular application of this to the several pursuits of -men, and the general good resulting thence, falls also into the -succeeding book.--POPE. - -The "succeeding book" is the Moral Essays, which are almost entirely -made up of satiric sketches. Pope dilated upon the evil resulting from -"the mind's disease, the ruling passion," but barely touched upon "the -general good." - -[1201] Man can only be driven from passion to passion during the infancy -of the ruling passion, which continues to grow, Pope tells us, till it -has overspread the entire mind, and obliterated every subordinate -desire. - -[1202] From Rochefoucauld, Maxim 266: "It is a mistake to believe that -none but the violent passions, such as ambition and love, are able to -triumph over the other passions. Laziness, languid as it is, often gets -the mastery of them all, usurps over all the designs and actions of -life, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and -virtues."--WARTON. - -[1203] MS.: - - Th' Eternal Art that mingles good with ill. - -[1204] Caryll's Hypocrite in Dryden's Miscellanies, iv. p. 312: - - Hypocrisy at last should enter in, - And fix this floating mercury of sin.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1205] MS.: - - The noblest fruits the planter's hope may mock, - Which thrive inserted on the savage stock. - -[1206] He argues that our primitive tendencies are too various to be -steady. Man is mercurial and fickle till his numerous passions are lost -in the ruling passion, which converts our changeable propensities into a -single desire. Under the government of reason this "savage" and vicious -"stock" sends forth a healthy shoot of virtue which is rendered strong -and stable by the vigour of the ruling passion, or parent stem. The -theory is wrong throughout. People are not composed of only one passion, -virtue cannot be the product of a vice, and the simulated virtue which -proceeds from a solitary passion will be as contracted as its cause. -Pope's catalogue of the ruling passions, and their attendant virtues, -exhibits a counterfeit dismembered virtue,--a single false limb in the -place of a complete and living body. An unmaimed virtue requires the -cultivation of our nature in its complexity, and virtues are grafted on -lawful tendencies, and not on lawless passions. - -[1207] Ver. 184 is followed by this couplet in the MS.: - - As dulcet pippins from the crabtree come, - As sloes' rough juices melt into a plum. - -[1208] Pope probably alluded to Swift when he spoke of the "crops of wit -and honesty" which were the product of "spleen, obstinacy, and hate." -The spleen and hate engendered wit by prompting satiric effusions; but -wit is not in itself a virtue, and when Pope inserted it in his -catalogue he must have been thinking of the moral ends it might -subserve. - -[1209] MS.: - - Vain-glory, courage, justice can supply. - -[1210] MS.: - - Envy, in critics and old maids the devil, - Is emulation in the learn'd and civil. - -"Emulation," says Bishop Butler, "is merely the desire of equality with, -or superiority over others, with whom we compare ourselves. To desire -the attainment of this equality, or superiority, by the particular means -of others being brought down to our level, or below it, is, I think, the -distinct notion of envy." A man who was made up of rivalry, which is -Pope's supposition, would be an odious character, even without the -additional taint of envy, from which, nevertheless, he could hardly be -free. - -[1211] Pope speaks after Mandeville, who says that shame and pride are -the "two passions in which the seeds of most virtues are contained." -Pride he defined to be the faculty by which men overvalued themselves, -and were led to do what would win them applause. "There is not," he -says, "a duty to others or ourselves that may not be counterfeited by -it." No quality, he admits, is more detested, and it would defeat its -own end if it did not disguise itself in the garb of virtue. - -[1212] As Pope supposes shame to be "a disease of the mind," he could -not apply the term to the self-reproaches of an enlightened conscience, -but must mean the humiliation produced by censure. This species of shame -can only bind us to average decency of conduct, is a feeble protection -against secret vice, and often an incentive to baseness. Spurious shame, -as Mandeville remarks, induces women to murder their illegitimate -children, drives many to tell falsehoods to conceal their faults, -changes with the company and public opinion, and begets a degrading -compliance with the evil habits of associates, and with the lax customs -of the age. - -[1213] After ver. 194 in the MS.: - - How oft with passion, virtue points her charms! - Then shines the hero, then the patriot warms. - Peleus' great son, or Brutus who had known - Had Lucrece been a whore, or Helen none? - But virtues opposite to make agree, - That, reason, is thy task, and worthy thee. - Hard task, cries Bibulus, and reason weak, - "Make it a point, dear Marquess, or a pique. - Once for a whim, persuade yourself to pay - A debt to reason, like a debt at play. - For right or wrong have mortals suffered more? - B[lount] for his prince, or B** for his whore? - Whose self-denials nature most control? - His who would save a sixpence, or his soul. - Web for his health, a Chartreux for his sin, - Contend they not which soonest shall grow thin? - What we resolve we can: but here's the fault, - We ne'er resolve to do the thing we ought."--WARBURTON. - -There is another version of the last couplet but one in the MS.: - - Which will become more exemplary thin, - W[eb] for his health, De Rancé for his sin? - -Web may have been the General Webb who got considerable reputation for -his defeat of the French at Wynendale in 1708. Swift in his Journal to -Stella, April 19, 1711, speaks of him as "going with a crutch and a -stick." Rancé was born at Paris in 1626, and died in 1700. In 1662 he -assumed the government of the monastery of La Trappe, and was noted for -the austerities he imposed and practised. Mr. Croker thinks that "B." -who "suffered for his prince" was Edward Blount, the Roman Catholic -Devonshire squire. He went into voluntary exile after the rebellion of -1715, but did not remain abroad many years. - -[1214] Yet in the previous couplet we are informed that there is hardly -a virtue which will not grow on the "pride" we are here enjoined to -"check." - -[1215] MS.: - - Thus every ruling passion of the mind - Stands to some virtue and some vice inclined. - -[1216] The MS. has two other versions of this line: - - Check but its force or compass short of ill. - Turn but the bias from the side of ill. - -[1217] But not by grafting temperance and humanity upon his ruling -passions--sensuality and cruelty. He must have torn up his evil passions -by the roots, and cultivated virtues in their stead. - -[1218] Catiline hemmed in by superior forces died fighting with the -courage of despair. Unless he was greatly maligned his conspiracies were -prompted by profligate selfishness without any mixture of patriotism. -Decius, instructed by a vision on the eve of the battle of Vesuvius, -B.C. 340, that the general on the one side, and the army on the other -was doomed, rushed into the thick of the fight to ensure by his own -death the destruction of the enemy. The story of Decius may be fabulous, -like that of Pope's next example, Curtius, who when informed, B.C. 362, -that a chasm which had opened in the Roman forum could never be filled -up till the basis of the Roman greatness had been committed to it, was -alleged to have mounted on horseback clad in armour, and to have leaped -into the gulf. Courage, the quality common to Catiline, Decius, and -Curtius, is never a ruling passion, but is the effect of some antecedent -motive, which may be vanity or duty, lofty patriotism or criminal -ambition. - -[1219] MS.: - - And either makes a patriot or a knave. - -[1220] MS.: - - Divide, before the genius of the mind. - -or, - - 'Tis reason's task to sep'rate in the mind. - -The idea expressed in the couplet is an adaptation of a passage in the -first chapter of Genesis. As God in the chaos of the world "divided the -light from the darkness," so the God within us, which is our reason, -does the same with the chaos of the mind. The chaos, on Pope's system, -was in the actions, and not in the motives. The sweet water and the -bitter flowed from the same tainted fountain,--from ambition, pride, -sloth, etc. - -[1221] MS.: - - Extremes in man concur to gen'ral use. - -Pope's meaning seems to be that in all terrestrial things, except man, -extremes or contraries produce opposite and uncompounded effects. In -man, extremes, in the shape of virtue and vice, join and mix together. -There is no force in the distinction. Hot water, for instance, mixes -with cold, and a mean temperature is the result. - -[1222] "Great purposes," says Warburton in explanation of this passage, -"are served by vice and virtue invading each other's bounds, no less -than the perfecting the constitution of the whole, as lights and shades, -in a well wrought picture, make the harmony and spirit of the -composition." By this rule virtue dashed with vice is more "spirited and -harmonious" than virtue without alloy. Warburton allowed himself to be -deluded by a metaphor. Black paint has no resemblance to black -morals,--shadows in a picture to hatred, avarice, and so on. - -[1223] Too nice, that is, to permit us to distinguish where ends, etc. -The ellipse goes beyond any poetical licence which is consistent with -writing English. - -[1224] The lines from ver. 207 to 214 are versified from Clarke's -Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, 10th ed., p. 184: "As in -painting two very different colours may, from the highest intenseness in -either extreme, terminate in the midst insensibly, so that it shall not -be possible to determine exactly where the one ends, and the other -begins, and yet the colours may differ as much as can be, not in degree -only but in kind, so, though it may, perhaps, be very difficult in some -nice cases to define exactly the bounds of right and wrong, yet right -and wrong are totally different, even altogether as much as white and -black, light and darkness." The argument of Clarke was directed against -Hobbes, and his disciples, who denied that there was any inherent -difference between good and evil, and supported their paradox by -pleading the impossibility of drawing a line between the two. - -[1225] Here follows in the MS.: - - To strangle in its birth each rising crime - Requires but little,--just to think in time. - In ev'ry vice, at first, in some degree - We see some virtue, or we think we see. - Our vices thus are virtues in disguise, - Wicked but by degrees, or by surprise. - -Of the last couplet there is a second version: - - Thus spite of all the Frenchman's witty lies - Most vices are but virtues in disguise. - -The witty Frenchman was La Rochefoucauld. Pope's counter-maxim is only a -form of La Rochefoucald's principle, converted into an apparent -contradiction by an equivocal use of the phrase "virtues in disguise." -Those who pursue vicious objects are reluctant to allow that they are -the slaves of vice. "Hence," says Hutcheson, in a passage quoted by -Warton, "the basest actions are dressed in some tolerable mask. What -others call avarice, appears to the agent a prudent care of a family or -friends; fraud, artful conduct; malice and revenge, a just sense of -honour; fire and sword and desolation among enemies, a just defence of -our country; persecution, a zeal for truth." Pope assumes that the vice -is inspired by genuine virtue, whereas the virtue is a pretence, a -flimsy pretext to excuse wrong-doing. The vice is real, the virtue -fictitious, and this is the principle of La Rochefoucauld. - -[1226] Dryden's Hind and Panther, Part i.: - - For truth has such a face and such a mien, - As to be loved needs only to be seen.--WAKEFIELD. - -The lines from ver. 217 to 221 are thus varied in the MS.: - - Vice all abhor, the monster is too foul; - Naked, indeed, she shocks us to the soul; - But dressed too well, with tempting time and place, - That but to pity her is to embrace. - Where art thou, Vice? 'twas never yet agreed, etc. - -[1227] The word is inappropriate. Men do not become sensual out of pity -to the miseries of sensuality, or envious from compassion for the pangs -of envy. Pity may be felt for the evils which vice entails, but this is -not pity for the vice, nor a temptation to practise it. - -[1228] After ver. 220 in ed. 1: - - A cheat, a whore, who starts not at the name, - In all the Inns of Court, or Drury Lane? - -These two omitted in the subsequent editions.--POPE. - -The dishonest lawyer, and woman of the town, applied soft names to their -vices, and were startled to be called by their proper appellations. The -couplet was followed in the MS. by some further illustrations:-- - - B[lun]t but does - K---- brings matters on; - Rogues but do business; spies but serve the crown; - Sid has the secret, Chartres - H[e]r[ve]y the court, and Huggins knows the town; - Kind-hearted Peter helps the rich in want, - Nero's a wag, and Messaline gallant. - -The last couplet assumed a second form: - - Nero's a wag, Faustina some suspect - Of gallantry, and Sutton of neglect. - -Sutton, Peter Walter, Hervey, Huggins, Chartres, and Blunt will reappear -in connection with the offences for which they are satirised here. Sid -was Lord Godophin, who was lampooned under the name of Sid Hamet by -Swift. Pope, in his Moral Essays, Epist. 1, ver. 86, speaks of his - - Newmarket fame, and judgment in a bet; - -and the phrase, "Sid has the secret" is an insinuation that his -"judgment in a bet" sometimes arose from his being privy to the tricks -of the turf. - -[1229] After ver. 226 in the MS.: - - The Col'nel swears the agent is a dog; - The scriv'ner vows th' attorney is a rogue; - Against the thief th' attorney loud inveighs, - For whose ten pound the county twenty pays; - The thief damns judges, and the knaves of state, - And dying mourns small villains hanged by great.--WARBURTON. - -The agent of whom the Colonel complained was the army agent. The -scrivener, who drew contracts, and invested money, hated the attorneys -because they were in part competitors for the same class of business. -Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, says, that Mr. Ellis, who died in 1791, -aged 93, was the last of the scriveners. Their occupation had gradually -lapsed to other professions, legal or monetary. Pope's remaining -instances are forced. The attorney did not pay more than his neighbours -to the county expenditure for prosecuting thieves, and as the trials -were much to his own profit, he was the last person who had an interest -in inveighing against thievery. As little did the thief at his execution -denounce "the knaves of state," of whom he commonly knew nothing. Pope -has put the satire of the Beggar's Opera into the mouth of the veritable -pick-pockets and highwaymen. - -[1230] MS.: - - Ev'n those who dwell in Vice's very zone. - -[1231] From moral insensibility, that is, they are either unconscious of -their vice, or, being conscious, pretend ignorance. - -[1232] Pope goes too far. The worst men acknowledge that some things are -crimes. - -[1233] Addison, Spectator, No. 183: "There was no person so vicious who -had not some good in him, nor any person so virtuous who had not in him -some evil." - -[1234] This couplet follows ver. 234 in the MS.: - - Some virtue in a lawyer has been known, - Nay in a minister, or on a throne. - -[1235] Complete virtue, and complete vice, says Pope, are both hostile -to self-interest, a plain confession that his selfish system was -incompatible with thorough virtue. He assures us, Epist. iv. ver. 310, -that "virtue alone is happiness below," but to be consistent he must -have meant virtue seasoned with vice. - -[1236] He is far from saying that good effects naturally rise from vice -or folly, and affirms nothing but that God superintends the world in -such a manner that they do not produce all those destructive -consequences that might reasonably be expected from them.--JOHNSON. - -MS.: - - That draws a virtue out of ev'ry vice. - -Or, - - And public good extracts from private vice. - -The last version is taken from the title of Mandeville's work, "The -Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices, Public Benefits." Johnson's -interpretation of the text does not agree with Pope's assertion, that -"imperfections are usefully distributed to all orders of men." - -[1237] MS.: - - Each frailty wisely to each rank applied. - -The line is disfigured by the clumsy transition from the present tense -to the past for the sake of the rhyme, which is a trifle in comparison -with the doctrine that "heaven applies happy frailties to all ranks." If -the "frailties" specified by Pope are "happy," fear must be a -recommendation in a statesman, rashness in a general, presumption in a -king, and a credulous faith in the presumption the best condition for -the people. - -[1238] The sense of shame in virgins is not a frailty to be ranked with -pride, rashness, and presumption. - -[1239] There is another side to the picture. The ends of vice are also -raised from vanity, which begets wastefulness, debt, slander, and a -multitude of evils. - -[1240] That is, "heaven can build," the "can" being supplied from "can -raise," ver. 245. - -[1241] Shaftesbury's Moralists: "Is not both conjugal affection and -natural affection to parents, love of a common city, community, or -country, with the other duties and social parts of life, founded in -these very wants?"--WARTON. - -[1242] Men, says Pope, are reconciled to death from growing weary of the -"wants, frailties, and passions" of life. "The observation," says -Warburton, "is new, and would in any place be extremely beautiful, but -has here an _infinite_ grace and propriety." This is one of the stock -forms of Warburton's adulation. Pope's remark was stale, and from the -nature of the case could not be new if, as he asserted, it was generally -true, since all men in their declining years could not, through all -time, have left unexpressed the feeling which made them all willing to -die. What all men think many men will say. - -[1243] The MS. adds this couplet: - - What partly pleases, totally will shock; - Nor Ross would be Argyle, nor Toland - I question much if Toland would be Locke. - -The Duke of Argyle and General Ross were both soldiers, both -politicians, and both Scotchmen. Ross was a member of the House of -Commons. Toland introduced metaphysics into his infidel works, and Pope -signifies by his couplet that the inferior in a particular department -would not desire on the whole to change characters with a superior in -the same department. - -[1244] MS.: - - The learn'd are blessed such wonders to explore. - -[1245] Buoyed up by the expectation that he would hit upon the secret of -transmuting the baser metals into gold. - -[1246] MS.: - - The chemist's happy in his golden views, - Payn in his madness, Welsted in his muse. - -[1247] From La Rochefoucauld, Maxim 36: "Nature seems to have bestowed -pride on us, on purpose to save us the pain of knowing our own -imperfections."--WARTON. - -[1248] Bolingbroke, Frag. 50: "Hope, that cordial drop, which sweetens -every bitter potion, even the last."--WAKEFIELD. - -MS.: - - With ev'ry age of man new passions rise, - Hope travels through nor quits him when he dies. - -[1249] The lines, ver. 275-282, first appeared in the edition of 1743. -They were evidently suggested by a passage in Garth's Dispensary, Canto -v.: - - Children at toys as men at titles aim, - And in effect both covet but the same, - This Philip's son proved in revolving years, - And first for rattles, then for worlds shed tears. - -[1250] When Pope used the phrase "a little louder," he was thinking of -the "rattle," and forgot the "straw." - -[1251] The "garters" refer to the badge of the order of the garter. -"Scarf," in the sense of a badge of honour, was in Pope's day -appropriated to the nobleman's chaplain. "His sister," says Swift, -speaking of a clerical time-server in his Essay on the Fates of -Clergymen, "procured him a scarf from my lord." Addison in the -Spectator, No. 21, compares bishops, deans, and archdeacons to generals; -doctors of divinity, prebendaries, and "all that wear scarves" to -field-officers; and the rest of the clergy to subalterns. "There has -been," he says, "a great exceeding of late years in the second division, -several brevets having been granted for the converting of subalterns -into scarf-officers, insomuch that within my memory the price of -lute-string"--the material of which the scarf was made--"is raised above -twopence in a yard." The number of chaplains a nobleman could "qualify" -varied with his rank. A duke might nominate six, a baron three. The -distinction, when Pope wrote his Essay, was too slight to be fitly -classed with orders of knighthood. - -[1252] The infant's pleasure in trifles may be the kindly work of nature -providing for the enjoyments of an age incapable of better things; but -the maturer delight in the "scarfs, garters, gold," is not the work of -nature, but of folly. The first is a harmless instinct; the other a -culpable vanity.--CROLY. - -[1253] Small balls of glass or pearl, or other substance, strung upon a -thread, and used by the Romanists to count their prayers; from whence -the phrase "to tell beads," or to be at one's "beads," is, to be at -prayer.--JOHNSON. - -[1254] MS.: - - At last he sleeps, and all the care is o'er. - -[1255] MS.: "Till then." - -[1256] MS.: - - Observant then, how from defects of mind - Spring half the bliss, or rest of humankind! - How pride rebuilds what reason can destroy, &c. - -[1257] MS.: - - Of certainty by faith, of sense by pride. - -[1258] MS.: - - These still repair what wisdom would destroy. - -[1259] MS.: - - Through life's long dream new prospects entertain. - -[1260] MS.: - - Life's prospects alter ev'ry step we gain, - And Nature gives no vanity in vain. - -[1261] See further of the use of this principle in man, Epist. 3, ver. -121, 124, 133, 143, 199, etc., 269, etc., 316, etc. And Epist. 4, ver. -353 and 363.--POPE. - -[1262] MS.: - - Confess one comfort ever will arise. - -[1263] Bolingbroke, Fragment 53: "God is wise and man a fool." - -[1264] In several editions in quarto, - - Learn, Dulness, learn! "The Universal Cause," etc.--WARBURTON. - -[1265] The "one end" is the good of the whole. - -[1266] MS.: - - Must act by gen'ral not by partial laws. - -[1267] That is, those who are rich in temporal blessings should remember -that the world is not made for them alone. - -[1268] MS.: - - Look nature through, and see the chain of love. - -[1269] Ed. 1.: - - See lifeless matter moving to one end.--POPE. - -"Plastic," or as Bolingbroke called it, "fashioning nature," was in its -etymological and popular sense, the power in nature which gave things -their shape or figure. This seems to be the meaning in Pope. The -philosophic sense of the phrase was more extensive. The laws of matter -may have been made self-acting, or they may be maintained by the direct -and constant interposition of God. Cudworth, and some other writers, who -held the first of these opinions, called "plastic nature" the inward -energy, the operative principle which is as a sort of life to the laws. -The "plastic nature" of Cudworth is, in reality, nothing more than the -laws of matter, with the proviso that they work by an inherent virtue -infused into them by the Creator once for all. - -[1270] "Embrace" is an inappropriate word. The particles of matter do -not clasp. They are not even in contact, but only contiguous. - -[1271] MS.: - - Press to one centre of commutual good. - -As the inorganic, or lifeless matter, of which he had previously spoken, -gravitates to a centre, so the "matter" which is "endued with life" also -"presses" to a "centre"--"the general good." The comparison of the -general good to the centre of gravity is inaccurate. The centre of -gravity is a point; the general good is diffused good. - -[1272] Shaftesbury's Moralists, Part i. Sect. 3: "The vegetables by -their death sustain the animals, and animal bodies dissolved enrich the -earth, and raise again the vegetable world."--WARTON. - -[1273] Pope is speaking in the context of plants and animals, which are -the "they" of ver. 20. He threw ver. 18 into a parenthesis, and said, -"_we_ catch," because the interjected remark relates to men. The power -displayed in the transmission of life from parents to progeny is happily -illustrated by Fénelon, in his Traité de l'Existence de Dieu: "What -should we think of a watchmaker who could make watches which would -produce other watches to infinity, insomuch that the two first watches -would be sufficient to propagate and perpetuate the species over all the -earth? What should we say of an architect who had the art to construct -houses which generated fresh houses to replace our dwellings before they -began to fall into ruin?" - -[1274] "Connects," that is, "the greatest with the least." Pope, in his -free use of elliptical expressions, having omitted "the," Warburton -interprets the phrase according to the strict language, and supposes the -meaning to be that the greatness of the Deity is manifested most in the -creatures which are least. - -[1275] Another couplet follows in the MS.: - - More pow'rful each as needful to the rest, - Each in proportion as he blesses blessed. - -[1276] The passage is indebted to Fenton, in his Epistle to Southerne: - - Who winged the winds, and gave the streams to flow, - And raised the rocks, and spread the lawns below.--WAKEFIELD. - -MS.: - - Think'st thou for thee he feeds the wanton fawn - And not as kindly spreads for him the lawn? - Think'st thou for thee the sky-lark mounts and sings? - -[1277] Apart from the metre the proper order of the words would be, -"loves and raptures of his own swell the note." - -[1278] MS.: "gracefully." The reading Pope substituted is not much -better, for the generality of men are not absurd enough to ride -"pompously." - -[1279] This description of the hog as living on the labours of the lord -of creation, without ploughing, or obeying his call, gives the idea of -some untamed depredator, and not of a domestic animal kept to be eaten. -The lord lives on the hog. - -[1280] MS.: "Sir Gilbert," which meant Sir Gilbert Heathcote, a rich -London alderman, who had been lord mayor. The fur was a part of his -official robes. - -[1281] MS.: - - Know, Nature's children with one care are nursed; - What warms a monarch, warmed an ermine first. - -[1282] After ver. 46 in the former editions: - - What care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat him! - All this he knew; but not that 'twas to eat him, - As far as goose could judge he reasoned right; - But as to man, mistook the matter quite.--WARBURTON. - -Cowley, in his Plagues of Egypt, stanza 1: - - All creatures the Creator said were thine: - No creature but might since say, "Man is mine." - -Gay, Fable 49: - - The snail looks round on flow'r and tree, - And cries, "All these were made for me."--WAKEFIELD. - -The goose is taken from Peter Charron; but such a familiar and burlesque -image is improperly introduced among such solid and serious -reflections.--WARTON. - -Pope copied Charron's predecessor, Montaigne, Book ii. Chap. 12: "For -why may not a goose say thus, 'The earth serves me to walk upon, the sun -to light me. I am the darling of nature. Is it not man that keeps, -lodges, and serves me? It is for me that he both sows and grinds.'" "The -pampered goose," says Southey, "must have been forgetful of plucking -time, as well as ignorant of the rites that are celebrated in all -old-fashioned families on St. Michael's Day." The goose's ignorance of -his future fate was part of Pope's argument, and he contended that the -men who exclaimed, "See all things for my use," were equally blind to -the purposes for which they were destined. The illustration is poor both -poetically and philosophically. - -[1283] Bolingbroke, Fragment 43: "The hypothesis that assumes the world -made for man is not founded in reason."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1284] That is, "Let it be granted that man is the intellectual lord;" -for "wit" is here used in its extended sense of intellect in general. - -[1285] MS.: - - 'Tis true the strong the weaker still control, - And pow'rful man is master of the whole: - Him therefore nature checks; he only knows, etc. - -[1286] What an exquisite assemblage is here, down to ver. 70, of deep -reflection, humane sentiments, and poetic imagery. It is finely observed -that compassion is exclusively the property of man alone.--WARTON. - -[1287] That is, varying with her position, and the different angles in -which the reflected light strikes upon the eye.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1288] MS.: - - Turns he his ear when Philomela sings? - Admires her eye the insect's gilded wings? - -The superior mercy with which Pope accredits men is of an unreflecting -description, since he implies that it is regulated by gaiety of colour, -and sweetness of song, and not by the capacities of creatures for -pleasure and pain. The claim itself is unfounded under the circumstances -of his comparison. The falcon and the jay must eat their natural prey or -starve, and when hunger or gratification solicits him, man never -hesitates to kill the animals which are needful for his support or -delicious to his palate. If he had a taste for "insects with gilded -wings," the gilding on their wings would not restrain him. Martial, Lib. -xiii. Ep. 70, says of the peacock, "You admire him every time he -displays his jewelled wings, and can you, hard-hearted man, deliver him -to the cruel cook?" and Pope in his celebrated lines on the pheasant had -commemorated the impotence of brilliant plumage to touch the compassion -of the sportsman. The poet, in this Epistle, forgot that in Epist. i. -ver. 117, he had accused man of "destroying all creatures for his sport -or gust," which is to place him below the animals. He is undoubtedly -without an equal in his destructive propensities, and too often abuses -his power over the sentient world. - -[1289] Pope starts with the intimation that mankind extend their -protection to animals from commiseration for their "wants and woes," and -ends with declaring that the motive is "interest, pleasure, and pride." - -[1290] Borrowed from Milton's Samson Agonistes, ver. 549: - - Wherever fountain or fresh current flowed - Against the eastern ray, translucent, pure - With touch ethereal of heav'n's fiery rod, - I drank.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1291] Several of the ancients, and many of the Orientals since, -esteemed those who were struck by lightning as sacred persons, and the -particular favourites of heaven.--POPE. - -Plutarch mentions that persons struck with lightning were held in -honour, which did not accord with the concurrent belief that lightning -was the instrument of Jove's vengeance. Superstitions often clash. - -[1292] "View" is "prospect,"--a vision of future bliss. - -[1293] Sir W. Temple, Works, vol. iii. p. 539: "Man is a thinking thing, -whether he will or no." - -[1294] Pope repeats in this paragraph the argument he uses Epist. i. -ver. 77-98, to prove that death has been beneficently disarmed of its -terrors. Unthinking animals cannot be troubled at the prospect, for they -have no knowledge, he says, of their end, which is more than we can -tell; and thinking beings, according to him, have, in addition to the -hope which mingles with their dread, the unfailing belief that death, -though always drawing nearer, is never near. Such an irrational delusion -in a "thinking thing" is, in Pope's estimation, a "standing miracle." -The ostensible miracle is deduced from his exaggeration of the truth. -The conviction that death is distant usually yields when appearances are -against the supposition. Hale men often rush consciously upon certain -destruction; old and sick men have constantly the genuine belief that -their end is at hand; and dying men expect each day or hour to be their -last. The false expectation of prolonged life does not enter into their -minds, and can have nothing to do with their resignation, peace, or joy. - -[1295] This is the true principle from which Pope immediately departs, -and exalts instinct above reason. "Man," says Aristotle, "has sometimes -more, sometimes less than the beast;" for they are adapted to different -functions, and man excels in his sphere, and beasts in theirs. The -sphere of man is the highest, and his faculties are proportionate. He -cannot do the work of the bee, but he can do his own work, which is -greater. - -[1296] The roman catholic council, which claims to be infallible. -Instinct, says Pope, being infallible does not need the guidance of any -other infallible authority. When he speaks of "full instinct," he -probably means that instinct is always complete within its own limited -domain, for if he intended to put "full instinct" in opposition to the -instinct which is defective and misleads, he would contradict ver. 94, -in which he states that instinct "must go right." - -[1297] After ver. 84 in the MS.: - - While man with op'ning views of various ways - Confounded, by the aid of knowledge strays: - Too weak to choose, yet choosing still in haste, - One moment gives the pleasure and distaste.--WARBURTON. - -[1298] In Pope's wide sense of the term, reason adapts means to ends, -and distinguishes between truth and falsehood, right and wrong. The -faculty operates in part spontaneously, and in part with effort. In an -endless number of ordinary circumstances man cannot help observing, -comparing, and inferring, and his reason is itself an instinct which -"comes a volunteer." The distinction is, that man does not stop with the -unconstrained exercise of his powers. He aspires to progress, and -laboriously pushes forward, while animals turn round, generation after -generation, in the same narrow circle. What Pope supposed was a mark of -man's inferiority is just the ground of his superiority. His conquests -begin with his difficulties and exertions. - -[1299] Pope says, ver. 79, that whether blessed with reason or instinct -"all enjoy the power that tends to bliss,--all find the means -proportioned to the end." He now contradicts himself with regard to -reason, and says that, in the effort to determine which of our impulses -are beneficial and which injurious, it never hits the mark, but labours -in vain after happiness. The wisdom he denies to reason he erroneously -ascribes to instinct, which has no superiority in securing an immunity -from ill. Through want of foresight, and the limitation of their powers -of contrivance, myriads of creatures die of hunger and cold. Those which -come off with life suffer frequently from scarcity and inclement -seasons. Their defective sagacity makes them a prey to each other and to -man, and often when they escape death they receive torturing injuries. -The young are exposed to wholesale destruction, and in many instances -the parents manifest a grief which if short is at least acute. Creatures -of the same species have their intestine enmities, and engage in combats -attended by wounds and death. They have their fears, jealousies, and -tempers, their alternations of contentment and dissatisfaction, and upon -the whole the instinct conferred upon animals seems a less protection -from present evils than a moderate use of reason in man. What -alleviation there may be to animals in their inevitable trials cannot be -known to us, but no one will imagine that they can be supported by -sublimer hopes than our own. - -[1300] This is a mistake. Instinct is often imperfect with reference to -its own special ends. Misled by the odour of the African carrion flower, -the flesh-flies lay their eggs in it, and the progeny, not being -vegetable feeders, are starved. Here the injury is to the offspring. In -other cases the erring individuals suffer for their own mistake. Pope, -in this Epistle, magnifies instinct, and disparages reason. In Epist. -i., ver. 232, he took the opposite side, and said that the reason of man -was all the "powers" of animals "in one." - -[1301] MS.: - - One in their act to think and to pursue, - Sure to will right, and what they will to do. - -Pope's meaning is, that there is no conflict in animals, as in man, -between passion and reason, between desire and judgment, that there is -not in the operations of animals, as in man's contrivances, a studied -adaptation of means to ends, nor a balancing of method against method, -and of end against end, but that animals are endowed with singleness of -purpose, know instinctively what to do, and how to do it. - -[1302] MS.: - - Reason prefer to instinct if you can. - -[1303] Addison, Spectator, No. 121; "To me instinct seems the immediate -direction of Providence. A modern philosopher delivers the same opinion -where he says, God himself is the soul of brutes." Upon the theory that -brutes act from the immediate impulse of their Maker, there is a -difficulty in explaining the cases of misdirected instinct, as when a -jackdaw drops cart-loads of sticks down a chimney, in the vain endeavour -to obtain a basis for its nest. Some animals, again, profit by -experience, as foxes which improve in cunning, and we must infer that -the assistance afforded by the Deity increases with the experience of -the animals, though the experience is in nowise concerned in the result. -A viciousness of temper, which resembles the evil passions of men, -sometimes dominates in brutes, as we may see in horses and dogs, and we -cannot ascribe these propensities to the immediate instigation of the -Creator, unless we accept Pope's doctrine that God "pours fierce -ambition into Cæsar's mind." - -[1304] "Wood" in all editions, though designated as an erratum by Pope -in his small edition of 1736. The mention of "tides" and "waves" in the -next couplet should have called attention to a mistake, which seems -obvious enough even without any special notice.--CROKER. - -[1305] This instinct is not invariable. Animals eat food poisoned -artificially, and sometimes feed greedily upon poisonous natural -products. Yew is a poison to cows and horses, and yet with an abundance -of wholesome herbage they will sometimes eat the yew. - -[1306] Every verb and epithet has here a descriptive force. We find more -imagery from these lines to the end of the Epistle, than in any other -parts of this Essay. The origin of the connections in social life, the -account of the state of nature, the rise and effects of superstition and -tyranny, and the restoration of true religion and just government, all -these ought to be mentioned as passages that deserve high applause, nay, -as some of the most exalted pieces of English poetry.--WARTON. - -[1307] The halcyon or king-fisher was reputed by the ancients "to build -upon the wave," and the entrance to the floating nest was supposed to be -contrived in a manner to admit the bird, and exclude the water of the -sea. Either Pope believed the fable, or he thought himself at liberty to -illustrate the marvels of instinct by fictitious examples. The couplet -was originally thus in the MS.: - - The cramp-fish, remora what secret charm - To stop the bark, arrest the distant arm? - -The cramp-fish is the torpedo. "She has the quality," says Montaigne, -"not only to benumb all the members that touch her, but even through the -nets transmits a heavy dullness into the hands of those that move them; -nay, it is further said, that if one pour water upon her, he will feel -this numbness mount up the water to the hand, and stupify the feeling -through the water." The remora, or sucking-fish, sticks by the disc on -the top of its head, to ships and other fishes, and "renders -immoveable," says Pliny, "the vessels which no chain could stay, no -weighty anchor moor." The mighty prowess ascribed to the remora is -imaginary, and the electrical capacity of the torpedo greatly -exaggerated. The story of halcyon, cramp-fish, and remora are all in -Book ii. chap. 12 of Montaigne's Essays. - -[1308] The geometric, or garden-spider, makes a web of concentric -circles, but the house-spider, which used to have credit for weaving a -web of parallel longitudinal lines crossed by parallel transverse lines, -observes no such regularity in the construction of her toils. - -[1309] An eminent mathematician.--POPE. - -He was born in France in 1667. Driven from his native country in 1685 by -the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he settled in London, and died -there in 1754. He got his living mainly by teaching mathematics, in -which his skill was consummate, and his publications on the subject -attest the acuteness and originality of his genius. He was on terms of -friendship with Newton. - -[1310] The poet probably took the hint of this passage from Lord Bacon's -De augmentis scientiarum: "Who taught the raven in a drought to throw -pebbles into an hollow tree where she espied water, that the water might -rise so as she might come to it? Who taught the bee to sail through such -a vast sea of air, and to find a way from the field in flower, a great -way off to her hive?"--RUFFHEAD. - -[1311] MS.: - - Through air's vast oceans see the storks explore, - Columbus-like, a world unknown before. - -[1312] From Le Spectacle de la Nature of the Abbé Pluche: "Who informed -their young that it would be requisite to travel into a foreign country? -What particular bird takes the charge upon him of assembling their grand -council, and fixing the day of their departure?" - -[1313] The MS. has the lines which follow: - - Boast we of arts? a bee can better hit - The squares than Gibbs, the bearings than Sir Kit. - To poise his dome a martin has the knack, - While bold Bernini lets St. Peter's crack. - -Gibbs was born about 1674 and died in 1754. He designed St. Martin's -church in London, and the Radcliffe library at Oxford. Sir Kit is Sir -Christopher Wren. A century after the dome of St. Peter's was erected, -Bernini inserted staircases in the hollow piers which support the -cupola, and the cracks in the dome were falsely ascribed to his -operations. The martins are not more infallible than man, and, unlike -man, they do not profit by experience. White of Selborne relates that -they built in the window corners of a house in his neighbourhood, where -the recess was too shallow to protect their work, which was washed down -with every hard rain, and yet year after year they persevered through -the summer in their useless drudgery. - -[1314] Bolingbroke, Fragment 51: "We are designed to be social, not -solitary creatures. Mutual wants unite us, and natural benevolence and -political order, on which our happiness depends, are founded in -them."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1315] Ether was reputed to be an element finer than air, and to fill -the regions beyond our atmosphere. Some of the stoics believed that -ether was the animating principle of all things, and Pope adopted the -doctrine. Hence he calls ether "all-quickening," and says that "one -nature feeds the vital flame" in all the creatures of earth, air, and -water. - -[1316] Bolingbroke, Fragment 51: "As our parents loved themselves in us, -so we love ourselves in our children."--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel: - - Our fond begetters who would never die, - Love but themselves in their posterity. - -The lines from ver. 115 to ver. 124 are varied in the MS.: - - Quick with this spirit new-born nature moved, - Itself each creature in its species loved; - Each sought a pleasure not possessed alone, - Each sex desired alike till two were one. - This impulse animates; one nature feeds - The vital lamp, and swells the genial seeds: - All spread their image with like ardour stung, - All love themselves, reflected in their young. - -Dr. George Campbell remarks, in his Philosophy of Rhetoric, that to talk -of creatures loving themselves in their progeny is nonsensical rant. Of -many fathers and mothers it would be nearer the truth to say that they -love their children almost to the exclusion of themselves. Neither Pope -nor Bolingbroke had children, and not having experienced, they -misapprehended, the parental feeling. - -[1317] Pope's division of duties is not the law of creation. In a -multiplicity of cases both parents feed, and both defend their young. -When the sire is of no use in providing food, as with grass-eating -animals, he equally abandons his defending function, and does not even -recognise his offspring. - -[1318] MS.: - - Till taught to range the wood, or wing the air, - There instinct ends its passion and its care. - -[1319] Locke, Civil Government, book ii. chap. vii. sect. 79: "The -conjunction between male and female ought to last so long as is -necessary to the support of the young ones. And herein, I think, lies -the chief, if not the only reason, why the male and female in mankind -are tied to a longer conjunction than other creatures, whose young being -able to subsist of themselves before the time of procreation returns -again, the conjugal bond dissolves of itself." - -[1320] Bolingbroke, Fragment 3: "Reason improved sociability, extended -it to relations more remote, and united several families into one -community, as instinct had united several individuals into one family." -"Interest" in Pope's line signifies "advantage." Reason, he says, -teaches man to improve on the ties of instinct, and form connections -beyond his immediate family, whereby he at once extends his love, and -the advantages derived from it. - -[1321] That is, man becomes constant from choice. - -[1322] MS.: - - And ev'ry tender passion takes its turn. - -The line in the text alludes to Pope's hypothesis that every virtue is -grafted upon a ruling passion. - -[1323] "Charity" is used in the antiquated sense of "love." "New needs," -says Pope, give rise to "new helps," and the virtue "benevolence" is -grafted upon the natural affections. - -[1324] He means that the latest brood, being young children, love their -parents by nature, while the previous brood, being grown up, only love -parents from habit. - -[1325] MS.: - - Scarce had the last the parents' care outgrown - Before they saw those parents want their own. - -Dryden, Palamon and Arcite, Book iii.: - - and issuing into man, - Grudges their life from whence his own began. - -[1326] MS.: - - Stretch the long interest, and support the line. - -[1327] The MS. goes on thus: - - She spake, and man her high behests obeyed; - Harmless amidst his fellow-beasts he strayed; - For pride was not; joint tenant of the shade - He shared with beasts his table and his bed; - No murder etc. - -"He speaks," says M. Crousaz, "of what passed in the earliest ages of -the world no less positively than an eye-witness." Pope followed the -ancient fable which he may have read, among other places, in Montaigne's -Essays, Book ii. Chap. 12: "Plato, in his picture of the golden age -under Saturn, reckons, among the chief advantages that a man then had, -his communications with beasts, by which he acquired a very perfect -intelligence and prudence, and led his life more happily than we could -do." - -[1328] "Her birth" is the birth of nature. The personification of nature -in the phrase "the state of nature," or "the natural state," is so -forced, that we do not at once perceive that "nature" is the noun to -which "her" refers. - -[1329] "Union" is put for voluntary union, the union of social -affection, in contrast to the bonds of fear, coercion, and the -necessities of life, which are large elements in the present condition -of mankind. The beasts were included in the common league, and animals -of prey unknown in Pope's state of nature. But he did not keep steady to -his first account. - -[1330] So Hall, Satires, Book iii. Sat. 1: - - Then crept in pride, and peevish covetise, - And man grew greedy, discordous, and nice. - Now man that erst hail-fellow was with beast, - Woxe on to ween himself a god at least.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1331] Dryden, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book xv.: - - The woolly fleece that clothed her murderer. - -[1332] Virgil, Ecl. x. 58: "lucos sonantes;" Dryden, "sounding -woods."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1333] MS.: - - He called on heav'n for blessing, they for food. - -[1334] MS.: - - Unstained with gore the grassy altar grew, - Priests yet were temperate, yet no passions knew; - Nor yet would glutton zeal devoutly eat, - Nor faithful av'rice hugged his god in plate. - -The pagans feasted upon the meat they offered to idols, which is what we -are to understand by the "glutton zeal" that "devoutly eats." - -[1335] Dryden, Virg. Æn. ix. 640: - - Ah how unlike the living is the dead.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1336] MS.: - - Of half that live himself the living tomb. - -[1337] MS.: - - Who, foe to nature, other kinds o'erthrown - Restless he seeks dominion o'er his own. - -Or, - - Who deaf to nature's universal groan, - Murders all other kinds, betrays his own. - -This is the same amiable being who is celebrated, ver. 51, for "helping -the wants and woes of other creatures," and sparing singing-birds and -gilded insects out of pure compassion. - -[1338] Pope probably meant that man was a "fiercer savage" than the -animals of which he shed the blood, but as the "blood" only is -mentioned, there is no proper positive to the comparative. - -[1339] Dryden in his version of the speech of Pythagoras in Ovid, Met. -Book xv., which our poet doubtless had in view through this whole -delineation: - - Th' essay of bloody feasts on brutes began, - And after forged the sword to murder man.--WAKEFIELD. - -MS.: - - While nature, strict the injury to scan, - Left man the only beast to prey on man. - -[1340] MS.: - - In early times when man aspired to art. - -The lines from ver. 161 to 168 are parenthetical, and Pope now goes back -to the primitive age in which uncorrupted man associated freely with the -beasts, and profited by their teaching. - -[1341] MS.: - - 'Twas then the voice of mighty nature spake. - -[1342] It is a caution commonly practised amongst navigators, when -thrown upon a desert coast, and in want of refreshments, to observe what -fruits have been touched by the birds, and to venture on these without -further hesitation.--WARBURTON. - -[1343] See Pliny's Nat. Hist. Lib. viii. cap. 27, where several -instances are given of animals discovering the medicinal efficacy of -herbs by their own use of them, and pointing to some operations in the -art of healing by their own practice.--WARBURTON. - -The instances are all fanciful or fabulous. - -[1344] Montaigne, Essays, Book ii. Chap. 12: "Democritus held and -proved, that most of the arts we have were taught us by other animals, -as by the spider to weave and sew, by the swallow to build, by the swan -and nightingale music, and by several animals to make medicines." - -[1345] The MS. adds: - - Behold the rabbit's fortress in the sands, - The beaver's storied house not made with hands. - -A rabbit-burrow has no resemblance to a military fortress, and Pope -prudently omitted the incongruous comparison. Martial, Lib. xiii. Ep. -60, had used the illustration in a directly opposite sense, and said -that rabbits, by teaching the art of mining, had shown the enemy how -fortresses could be taken. - -[1346] Oppian, Halicut. Lib. i., describes this fish in the following -manner: "They swim on the surface of the sea, on the back of their -shells, which exactly resemble the hulk of a ship. They raise two feet -like masts, and extend a membrane between, which serves as a sail; the -other two feet they employ as oars at the side. They are usually seen in -the Mediterranean."---POPE. - -The paper-nautilus, or Argonauta Argo, has eight arms. The first pair in -the female expand at their extremities, so that each of the two arms -terminates in a broad thin membrane. These broad membranes do not exist -in the male, and modern naturalists reject the idea that they are used -for sails. - -[1347] MS.: - - There, too, each form of social commerce find, - So late by reason taught to human kind. - Behold th' embodied locust rushing forth - In sabled millions from th' inclement north; - In herds the wolves, invasive robbers, roam, - In flocks, the sheep pacific, race at home. - What warlike discipline the cranes display, - How leagued their squadron, how direct their way. - -[1348] The Guardian, No. 157: "Everything is common among ants." - -[1349] "Anarchy without confusion" is a contradiction in terms, -according to the meaning which is now universally attached to the word -anarchy. Pope understands by it the mere absence of all inequality of -station. - -[1350] The Guardian, No. 157: "Bees have each of them a hole in their -hives; their honey is their own; every bee minds her own concerns." The -natural history of former times abounded in fables, and among the number -was the fancy that each bee had its separate cell, and private store of -honey. - -[1351] An adaptation of the Latin proverb, mentioned by Cicero, Off. i. -10, and Terence, Heaut. iv. 5, that over-strained law is often -unrestrained injustice. The letter contravenes the spirit. - -[1352] The imagery of the passage is derived from an observation of a -Greek philosopher, who compared laws to spiders' webs,--too fragile to -hold fast great offenders, and too strong to suffer trivial culprits to -escape.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope upbraids men for enacting laws too strong for the weak instead of -following the laws of bees, which are "wise as nature, and as fixed as -fate." Such is their superior consideration for the weak that the -workers kill the drones when they become burthensome to them, and so far -are we behind them in our poor law legislation that we are compelled to -maintain the useless members of society,--the old, the crippled, the -hopelessly sick, the insane, the idiotic--all of whom, if we would only -learn mercy and wisdom of the bee, we should immediately put to death. -The doctrine of Pope is altogether childish. The contracted routine of a -bee's existence has too little in common with the complicated relations -of human life for bee-hive usages to displace the statutes of the realm. - -[1353] Till ed. 5: - - Who for those arts they learned of brutes before, - As kings shall crown them, or as gods adore.--POPE. - -[1354] Roscommon's version of Horace's Art of Poetry: - - Cities were built, and useful laws were made.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1355] In the MS. thus: - - The neighbours leagued to guard their common spot, - And love was nature's dictate, murder not. - For want alone each animal contends; - Tigers with tigers, that removed, are friends. - Plain nature's wants the common mother crowned, - She poured her acorns, herbs, and streams around. - No treasure then for rapine to invade, - What need to fight for sunshine, or for shade? - And half the cause of contest was removed, - When beauty could be kind to all who loved.--WARBURTON. - -Of the first couplet there are two other versions in the MS.: - - Fear would forbid th' unpractised to engage, - And nature's dictate love, not blood and rage. - -Or, - - Unpractised man, that knew no murd'ring skill, - And nature's dictate was to love, not kill. - -[1356] MS.: - - Commerce, convenience, change might strongly draw. - -[1357] These two lines added since the first edition.--POPE. - -The second line of the couplet had already appeared in the Epistle of -Eloisa to Abelard, ver. 92, in connection with sentiments which leave no -doubt of Pope's meaning. In the primitive and golden age he held that -love had full liberty to obey its inclinations, or, as he expressed it -in the passage of the MS. quoted by Warburton, "beauty could then be -kind to all who loved." In other words there was a community of women -regulated by no other law than natural impulse. - -[1358] MS.: - - These states had lords 'tis true, but each its own, - Not all subjected to the rule of one, - Unless where from one lineage all began, - And swelled into a nation from a man. - -The nature of the distinction which Pope draws between the lordship over -the early states, and kingly rule, is clear from ver. 215, where he says -that till monarchy was established patriarchal government prevailed, and -each state was only a collection of relations who obeyed the family -chief. In a monarchy two or more states were joined together, and the -national began to take the place of the family tie. The effect of the -change would be great. The social bond between the governor and the -governed would be weakened, and the official dignity, the harsh -authority, and selfish impulses of the ruler would be quickly increased. - -[1359] "Sons," that is, "obeyed a sire" on account of his "virtue," and -not on account of his parental authority. Pope had in his mind the -remarks of Locke. A mature understanding is necessary for the right -direction of the will, and parents must govern the will of the child -till he is competent to govern his own. He is then responsible to -himself. He owes his parents lasting honour, gratitude, and assistance, -but ceases to be under their command, and if, in primitive times, the -children, who had arrived at years of discretion, accepted a father for -their ruler, his "virtue," says Pope, was the cause. - -[1360] Locke, Civil Government, bk. ii. chap. vi. sect. 74: "It is -obvious to conceive how easy it was in the first ages of the world for -the father of the family to become the prince of it." The right order of -Pope's distorted language is that "virtue made the father of a people a -prince." He was raised to be a prince because he had manifested a -fatherly care for the people. - -[1361] Hooker, Eccles. Polity, bk. i. chap. x. sect. 4: "The chiefest -person in every household was always as it were a king, and fathers did -at the first exercise the office of priests." - -[1362] A finer example can perhaps scarce be given of a compact and -comprehensive style. The manner in which the four elements were subdued -is comprised in these four lines alone. There is not an useless word in -this passage. There are but three epithets,--"wond'ring, profound, -aerial"--and they are placed precisely with the very substantive that is -of most consequence. If there had been epithets joined with the other -substantives, it would have weakened the nervousness of the sentence. -This was a secret of versification Pope well understood, and hath often -practised with peculiar success.--WARTON. - -Warton's criticism appears to be wrong throughout. He says the lines -describe "the manner in which the four elements were subdued;" but we -learn nothing of "the manner" by being told that "fire" was "commanded," -and water "controlled." He says "there is not an useless word;" but as -either "command" or "control" would apply with equal propriety to both -fire and water, the second verb is added solely to eke out the line, and -the adjective "profound," when joined to "abyss," is weak tautology for -the sake of the rhyme. He says that the epithets "are placed precisely -with the very substantive that is of most consequence;" but why is the -"fire" less important than the "abyss?" The verses might pass without -comment if Warton had not extolled them for imaginary merits. The first -line is an example of the sacrifice of truth and picturesqueness to -hyperbolical, affected forms of speech. To talk of "calling food from -the wond'ring furrow" conveys a false idea of agricultural processes. - -[1363] MS.: - - He crowned the wond'ring earth with golden grain, - Taught to command the fire, control the main, - Drew from the secret deep the finny drove, - And fetched the soaring eagle from above. - -The first couplet is again varied: - - He taught the arts of life, the means of food, - To pierce the forest, and to stem the flood. - -[1364] MS.: - - Till weak, and old, and dying they began. - -This couplet is followed in the MS. by a second which Pope omitted: - - Saw his shrunk arms, pale cheeks, and faded eye, - Beheld him bend, and droop, and sink, and die. - -[1365] Men are said by the poet to have been awakened by the death of -the patriarch to reflection upon his original, and to have advanced -upwards from father to father, that is, from cause to cause, till their -enquiries terminated in one original Father, one first, independent, -uncreated cause.--JOHNSON. - -At ver. 148 we are told that "the state of nature was the reign of God," -and at ver. 156 that "all vocal beings"--man, bird, and beast--joined -then in "hymning" their Creator. This condition of things, we learn from -ver. 149, dated from the "birth" of nature, which is contrary to Pope's -present conjecture that the primitive families may, perhaps, have had no -conception of a Deity. The poet's language is irrational. If God did not -reveal himself to them in any direct way, they might yet be supposed -capable of inferring from their own existence and that of the universe, -a truth which their posterity deduced from the death of patriarch after -patriarch. - -[1366] Pope ought to have written "began." He has improperly put the -participle for the past tense. The meaning of the couplet is, that men -may possibly have learned from tradition that, "this all," did not exist -from eternity, but had a beginning, and therefore a Creator. - -[1367] A belief, that is, in the unity of God was the original faith, -and polytheism a later corruption. - -[1368] Warburton says that the allusion is to the refraction of light in -passing through the oblique sides of the glass prism. - -[1369] It was before the fall that God pronounced that all was good. But -our author never adverts to any lapsed condition of man.--WARTON. - -He adverts to it in this passage, where he contrasts primitive virtue -with subsequent license. - -[1370] This couplet follows in the MS.: - - 'Twas simple worship in the native grove, - Religion, morals, had no name but love. - -[1371] The divine right of kings to their throne, and the unlawfulness -of deposing them, however much they might oppress the people for whose -benefit they were appointed to rule, was a doctrine first taught in the -time of the Stuarts. "It was never heard of among mankind," says Locke -writing in 1690, "till it was revealed to us by the divinity of this -last age." In opposition to the slavish theory which would subject -nations to despots, Pope says that when government was instituted -allegiance was the voluntary homage of love. - -[1372] Mr. Pope told us that of the number that had read these Epistles, -he knew of no one that took the elegance, or even the true meaning of -the word "enormous," except Lord Bolingbroke alone. I wonder at it. I am -sure I never understood it otherwise than as "out of all rule," and I do -not know how anybody could that had read Horace's "abnormis sapiens," -and Milton's "enormous bliss." Mr. Pope added for that reason, against -his rule of brevity, the two next lines to explain it, and accordingly I -since saw them interlined in the original MS.--RICHARDSON. - -Milton's "enormous bliss" was bliss "wild, above rule or art." The -persons who misunderstood the epithet in Pope's poem must have been -those who read the MS.; for the explanatory couplet appeared in the -first edition of the Epistle. He obviously meant by "enormous faith" -that the faith was an enormity, and it is difficult to conjecture what -other sense could be attached to his phrase. - -[1373] The "cause" here signifies the purpose or motive manifested in -the constitution of the world, and this purpose is "inverted" by the -doctrine that "many are made for one." The one is made for the -many,--the prince for the people. - -[1374] Wicked rulers, terrified by an evil conscience, became the dupe -of impostors who professed to speak in the name of the invisible powers. - -[1375] MS.: - - Split the huge oak, and rocked the rending ground. - -Wakefield points out that the lines, ver. 249-252, are from Lucretius, -v. 1217. - -[1376] MS.: - - From op'ning earth showed fiends infernal nigh, - And gods supernal from the bursting sky. - -[1377] Horace, Ode iii. bk. iii., translated by Addison: - - An umpire, partial, and unjust, - And a lewd woman's impious lust. - -[1378] Bolingbroke, Fragment 22: "Men made the Supreme Being after their -own image. Fierce and cruel themselves they represented him hating -without reason, revenging without provocation, and punishing without -measure." Pope says that tyrants would believe such gods as were formed -like tyrants. He meant that the tyrants would believe _in_ the gods, but -probably found the "in" unmanageable. - -[1379] MS.: - - The native wood seemed sacred now no more. - -People no longer held sacred the natural temple in which, ver. 155, men -and beasts formerly "hymned their God," but it was thought necessary to -worship in costly buildings, and sacrifice animals on "marble altars." - -[1380] Bolingbroke, Fragment 24: "God was appeased provided his altars -reeked with gore." A sentence of the same Fragment furnished Pope with -his view of heathen sacrifices: "The Supreme Being was represented so -vindictive and cruel, that nothing less than acts of the utmost cruelty -could appease his anger, and his priests were so many butchers of men -and other animals." - -[1381] The "flamen" was a priest attached exclusively to the service of -some particular god. - -[1382] MS.: - - The glutton priest first tasted living food. - -Bolingbroke, Fragment 24: "As if God was appeased whenever the priest -was glutted with roast meat." Wakefield remarks that Pope followed -Pythagoras in calling food "living," because it had once been alive. A -meat diet is said, ver. 167, to have been the origin of wars, and here -we are told that the "flamen first tasted living food" after war and -tyranny had over-spread the earth, which is an inconsistency, unless -Pope believed that his "glutton priests" were more abstemious than the -rest of mankind till animals were sacrificed in the name of religion. -The poet, in this Epistle, is loud in denouncing the practice of eating -animal food, but he ate it without scruple himself. - -[1383] Milton, Par. Lost, i. 392: - - First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood - Of human sacrifice, and parent's tears, - Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud - Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire - To his grim idol. - -Many of Pope's writings are strewed with Miltonic phrases, though they -need not be pointed out, and certainly do not detract from his general -merit. Such interweavings of significant and forcible expressions have -often a striking effect.--BOWLES. - -[1384] The image is derived from the old engines of war, such as the -catapult which threw stones. The Flamen made an engine of his god, and -assailed foes by threatening them with chastisement from heaven. - -[1385] Hooker, Eccles. Polity, bk. i. chap. x. sect. 5: "At the first, -it may be, that all was permitted unto their discretion which were to -rule, till they saw that to live by one man's became the cause of all -men's misery. This constrained them to unto laws."--WARTON. - -In the MS. there is this couplet after ver. 272: - - For say what makes the liberty of man? - 'Tis not in doing what he would but can. - -The lines were intended to give the reason why law is not an -infringement of liberty, and were probably cancelled because the reason -was as applicable to cruel as to salutary laws. Upon Pope's principle -the worst despotism would not interfere with the liberty of the subject, -provided only that resistance was hopeless. - -[1386] When the proprietor is asleep the weak rob him by stealth, and -when he is awake the strong rob him by violence. - -[1387] Bolingbroke, Fragment 6: "Private good depends on the public." - -[1388] The inspired strains of the Hebrew Scriptures are the only -instance in which poetry has "restored faith and morals." The heathen -poets adopted the absurd and profligate fables current in their day, and -christian poets have never done more than reflect the prevalent -christianity. The term "patriot" is commonly applied to political -benefactors, and not to the preachers and disseminators of -righteousness. Pope fell back on the fiction of regenerating poets and -patriots to avoid all mention of the saints and martyrs who really -performed the mighty work. Bolingbroke hated the apostles of genuine -religion, and his pupil had no reverence for them. - -[1389] Pope breaks down in his comparison of a mixed government to a -stringed instrument. An instrument would not be "set justly true," but -rendered worthless, when in "touching one" string the musician "must -strike the other too." - -[1390] This is the very same illustration that Tully uses, De Republica: -"Quæ harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea est in civitate -concordia."--WARTON. - -[1391] The deduction and application of the foregoing principles, with -the use or abuse of civil and ecclesiastical policy, was intended for -the subject of the third book.--POPE. - -[1392] "Consent" is now limited to mental consent, and the word is -obsolete in the sense of "consent of things." - -[1393] From Denham's Cooper's Hill: - - Wisely she knew the harmony of things, - As well as that of sounds, from discord springs.--HURD. - -[1394] "Where the small and weak" are "made to serve, not suffer," "the -great and mighty to strengthen, not invade." - -[1395] This couplet is at variance with ver. 289-294, where a mixed form -of government is lauded for its superiority. - -[1396] Cowley's verses on the death of Crashaw: - - His path, perhaps, in some nice tenets might - Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right. - -The position is demonstrably absurd in both poets. All conduct -originates in principles. Where the principles, therefore, are not -strictly pure, and accurately true, the conduct must deviate from the -line of perfect rectitude.--WAKEFIELD. - -"I prefer a bad action to a bad principle," says Rousseau, somewhere, -and Rousseau was right. A bad action may remain isolated; a bad -principle is always prolific, because, after all, it is the mind which -governs, and man acts according to his thoughts much oftener than he -himself imagines.--GUIZOT. - -He whose life is in the right cannot, says Pope, in any sense calling -for blame, have a wrong faith. But the answer is that his life cannot be -in the right unless in so far as it bends to the influences of a true -faith. How feeble a conception must that man have of the infinity which -lurks in a human spirit, who can persuade himself that its total -capacities of life are exhaustible by the few gross acts incident to -social relations, or open to human valuation? The true internal acts of -moral man are his thoughts, his yearnings, his aspirations, his -sympathies or repulsions of heart. This is the life of man as it is -appreciable by heavenly eyes.--DE QUINCEY. - -[1397] MS.: - - Prefer we then the greater to the less, - For charity is all men's happiness. - -[1398] MS.: - - But charity the greatest of the three. - -1 Cor. xiii. 13: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but -the greatest of these is charity." - -[1399] The MS. adds this couplet: - - Th' extended earth is but one sphere of bliss - To him, who makes another's blessing his. - -[1400] At the same time. - -[1401] From the Spectator, No. 588, said to be written by Mr. Grove: "Is -benevolence inconsistent with self-love? Are their motions contrary? No -more than the diurnal rotation of the earth is opposed to its annual; or -its motion round its own centre, which might be improved as an -illustration of self-love, to that which whirls it about the common -centre of the world, answering to universal benevolence."--WARTON. - -[1402] "Nature" is not a power coordinate with God, but only the means -by which he acts. - -[1403] Bolingbroke, Fragment 51: "A due use of our reason makes -self-love and social coincide, or even become in effect the -same."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1404] Happiness is with Pope the sole end of life, and virtue is only a -means. The means cannot be more binding than the end, and happiness is -not obligatory and virtue is. A certain contempt, again, for pain and -privation is heroic, but indifference to moral worth is degradation. -Thus virtue is plainly an end in itself, and is superior, not -subordinate, to happiness. - -[1405] Overlooked in the things which would yield it, and in other -things magnified by the imagination, as is happily expressed by Young, -when he says, Universal Passion, Sat. i., 238: - - None think the great unhappy but the great. - -[1406] Pope personified happiness at the beginning, but seems to have -dropped that idea in the seventh line, where the deity is suddenly -transformed into a plant, from whence this metaphor of a vegetable is -carried on through the eleven succeeding lines till he suddenly returns -to consider happiness again as a person, in the eighteenth -line.--WARTON. - -The change from a person to a thing commences at the third verse, where -Pope calls happiness "that something," and he changes back to the person -in the eighth verse, where he addresses happiness as "thou." - -[1407] MS.: - - O happiness! to which we all aspire, - Winged with strong hope, and borne with full desire; - That good, we still mistake, and still pursue, - Still out of reach, yet ever in our view; - That ease, for which in want, in wealth we sigh, - That ease, for which we labour and we die; - Tell me, ye sages, (sure 'tis yours to know), - Tell in what mortal soul this ease may grow. - -[1408] "Is there," asks Mr. Croker, "any other authority for shine as a -noun?" The noun is found in Milton, and Locke, and in much earlier -writers, but Johnson says, "it is a word, though not unanalogical, yet -ungraceful, and little used." - -[1409] "Flaming" is not an appropriate epithet for mines. The line calls -up a false idea of splendour, and not a vision of subterranean gloom and -desolation. - -[1410] Dryden, Æn. xii. 963: - - An iron harvest mounts, and still remains to mow.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope's image is not sufficiently distinctive. There is only one word, -the epithet "iron," to indicate that he is speaking of military renown, -and this epithet, drawn from the material of which swords are made, is -also applicable to the sickle. - -[1411] "Say in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow," is the -invocation addressed by Pope to Happiness. He now strangely answers his -own inquiry in a tone of rebuke, as though it were preposterous to ask -the question. "Where grows! where grows it not?" - -[1412] These lines follow in the MS.: - - Heav'n plants no vain desire in human kind, - But what it prompts to seek, directs to find, - From whom, so strongly pointing at the end, - To hide the means it never could intend. - Now since, whatever happiness we call, - Subsists not in the good of one, but all, - And whosoever would be blessed must bless, - Virtue alone can form that happiness. - -A sentence in Hooker's Eccl. Pol., Book i. Chap. viii. Sect. 7, will -explain Pope's idea in the last four lines: "If I cannot but wish to -receive all good at every man's hand, how should I look to have any part -of my desire satisfied, unless myself be careful to satisfy the like -desire in other men?" - -[1413] "Sincere" in its present use is the opposite of "disingenuous," -"deceptive," and has always a moral signification. Formerly it had the -sense, which Pope gives it here, of "pure," "unadulterated," without any -necessary ethical meaning. Thus Dryden, Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. - - And none can boast sincere felicity. - -Philemon Holland talks of "sincere vermillion," Arbuthnot of "sincere -acid," and Hooker speaks of keeping the Scriptures "entire and sincere." - -[1414] This was flattery. Bolingbroke was notoriously a prey to factious -rancour, and the pangs of disappointed ambition. - -[1415] Epicureans.--POPE. - -[1416] Stoics.--POPE. - -Pope's account of the epicureans is the exact opposite of the truth. He -says they "placed bliss in action," whereas Seneca tells us, Benef. iv. -4: "Quæ maxima Epicure felicitas videtur, nihil agit." The poet's -account of the stoics is equally wrong. Instead of placing "bliss in -ease" they inculcated the sternest self-denial, and untiring efforts to -fulfil all virtue. - -[1417] Epicureans.--POPE. - -[1418] Stoics.--POPE. - -The true stoic did not, as Pope asserts, "confess virtue vain." He -contended that it was all-sufficient. Till the edition of 1743 this -couplet was as follows: - - One grants his pleasure is but rest from pain; - One doubts of all; one owns ev'n virtue vain. - -The two lines which conclude the paragraph, and which first appeared in -the edition of 1743, were written at Warburton's suggestion. The object -of the addition was to represent the credulous man who trusted -everything as equally deceived with the sceptic who trusted in nothing. -Of the last line there is a second version: - - One trusts the senses, and one doubts of all. - -[1419] Sceptics.--POPE. - -Pyrrho and his followers held that we can only know things as they -appear, and not as they are. Thence they maintained that appearances -must be absolutely indifferent, and that we could be equally happy in -all conditions,--in sickness, for instance, Cicero, Fin. ii. 13, as in -health. The one reality which Pyrrho admitted was virtue, and this he -said (Cicero, Fin. iv. 16), was the supreme good which he who possessed -had nothing left to desire. - -[1420] Pope's complaint, that the directions of the ancient moralists -amounted to no more than that "happiness is happiness," arose from his -ignorance of their tenets. The stoics and sceptics placed the supreme -good in unconditional virtue, and the epicureans taught the precise -doctrine of Pope himself, that pleasure is the goal, and virtue the -road. The admonition, "take nature's path," which Pope would substitute -for the teaching of these sects, was the maxim on which they all -insisted. - -[1421] Pope has here adopted the sentiments of the Grecian sage who -said, "That if we live according to nature we shall never be poor, and -if we live according to opinion we shall never be rich."--RUFFHEAD. - -For opinion creates the fantastic wants of fashion and luxury. - -[1422] He means that happiness does not "dwell" in any "extreme" of -wealth, rank, talent, etc., but that all "states," or classes of men -"can reach it." - -[1423] MS.: - - True happiness, 'tis sacred truth I tell, - Lies but in thinking, &c. - -The man who always "thinks right" is infallible in wisdom, and if he -always "means well" he must act in obedience to his infallible -convictions, when he will also be impeccable. There needs but this, says -Pope, to secure happiness. He scoffs at the vague definitions of -philosophers, and substitutes the luminous direction that we should be -infallible in our views, and impeccable in our conduct. - -[1424] "The common sense" and "common ease" of which all the world have -an equal share, cannot exceed the measure of sense and ease which falls -to the lot of the most foolish and suffering of mankind. This is the -same sort of equality that there is between the income of a pauper and a -millionaire, since both have half-a-crown a week. - -[1425] The MS. adds: - - In no extreme lies real happiness, - Not ev'n of good or wisdom in excess. - -"Good" and "wisdom" in the last line might be supposed to mean something -that was not true wisdom and goodness if Pope had not argued, ver. -259-268, that real wisdom was injurious to happiness. He would have the -"right thinking" alloyed with error, and the "meaning well" with evil. - -[1426] That is, all which can "justly" or rightly be termed happiness. - -[1427] The image is drawn from a person leaning towards another, and -listening to what he says. Pope took the expression from the simile of -the compasses in Donne's Songs and Sonnets: - - And though it in the centre sit, - Yet when the other far doth roam, - It leans, and hearkens after it, - And grows erect, as that comes home. - -[1428] The MS. goes on thus: - - 'Tis not in self it can begin and end, - The bliss of one must with another blend: - The strongest, noblest pleasures of the mind - All hold of mutual converse with the kind. - Can sensual lust, or selfish rapine, know - Such as from bounty, love, or mercy flow? - Of human nature wit its worst may write, - We all revere it in our own despite. - -[1429] This couplet follows in the MS.: - - To rob another's is to lose our own, - And the just bound once passed the whole is gone. - -[1430] MS.: - - inference if you make, - That such are happier, 'tis a gross mistake. - Say not, "Heav'n's here profuse, there poorly saves, - And for one monarch makes a thousand slaves;" - You'll find when causes and their ends are known, - 'Twas for the thousand heav'n has made that one. - Ev'n mutual want to common blessings tends, - One labours, one directs, and one defends, - While double pay benevolence receives, - Is blessed in what it takes, and what it gives. - In what (heav'n's hand impartial to confess) - Need men be equal but in happiness. - The bliss of all, if heav'n's indulgent aim, - He could not place in riches, pow'r or fame. - In these suppose it placed, one greatly blessed, - Others were hurt, impoverished, or oppressed; - Or did they equally on all descend, - If all were equal must not all contend? - -[1431] After ver. 66 in the MS. - - Tis peace of mind alone is at a stay: - The rest mad fortune gives or takes away: - All other bliss by accident's debarred, - But virtue's, in the instant, a reward; - In hardest trials operates the best, - And more is relished as the more distressed.--WARBURTON. - -There is still another couplet in the MS.: - - Virtue's plain consequence is happiness, - Or virtue makes the disappointment less. - -[1432] The exemplification of this truth, by a view of the equality of -happiness in the several particular stations of life, was designed for -the subject of a future Epistle.--POPE. - -"Heaven's just balance" is made "equal," says this writer, because men -are harassed with fears in proportion to their elevation, and amused -with hopes in a state of distress. But a man may be good either in high -or low rank; and God does not, to make the happiness of mankind equal, -fill the heart of one with idle fears, and of the other with chimerical -hopes.--CROUSAZ. - -[1433] Sir W. Temple, Works, vol. iii. p. 531: "Whether a good -condition with fear of being ill, or an ill with hope of being well, -pleases or displeases most." Pope's MS. goes on thus: - - How widely then at happiness we aim - By selfish pleasures, riches, pow'r or fame! - Increase of these is but increase of pain, - Wrong the materials, and the labour vain. - -[1434] He had in his mind Virgil's description, borrowed from Homer, of -the attempt made by the giants, in their war against the gods, to scale -the heavens by heaping Ossa upon Pelion, and Olympus upon Ossa. Pope -took the expressions "sons of earth," and "mountains piled on -mountains," from Dryden's translation, Geor. i. 374. - -[1435] "Still" is repeated to give force to the remonstrance. "Attempt -still to rise, and Heaven will still survey your vain toil with -laughter." - -[1436] An allusion to Psalm ii. 1, 4: "Why do the heathen rage, and the -people imagine a vain thing? He that sitteth in the heavens shall -laugh."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1437] MS.: - - The gods with laughter on the labour gaze, - And bury such in the mad heaps they raise. - -[1438] "Nature" is a name for the second causes, or instruments, by -which God works. Pope speaks as if nature's meaning was distinct from -the meaning of God. - -[1439] By "mere mankind" Pope means man in his present earthly -condition, and not the generality of mankind as distinguished from -favoured mortals, for he says, ver. 77, that individuals can no more -attain to any greater good than mankind at large. - -[1440] From Bolingbroke, Fragment 52: "Agreeable sensations, the series -whereof constitutes happiness, must arise from health of body, -tranquillity of mind, and a competency of wealth." - -[1441] The MS. adds, - - Behold the blessing then to none denied - But through our vice, by error or by pride; - Which nothing but excess can render vain, - And then lost only when too much we gain. - -[1442] The sense of this ill-expressed line is, that bad men taste the -gifts of fortune less than good men, in proportion as they obtain them -by worse means. The couplet was originally thus in the MS.: - - The good, the bad may fortune's gifts possess; - The bad acquire them worse, enjoy them less. - -[1443] "That" is put improperly for "those that." - -[1444] MS.: - - Secure to find, ev'n from the very worst, - If vice and virtue want, compassion first. - -[1445] But are not the one frequently mistaken for the other? How many -profligate hypocrites have passed for good?--WARTON. - -Men not intrinsically virtuous have often had the good opinion of the -world; the happiness they want is a good conscience. - -[1446] After ver. 92 in the MS.: - - Let sober moralists correct their speech, - No bad man's happy: he is great, or rich.--WARBURTON. - -[1447] That is, "who fancy bliss allotted to vice." - -[1448] Lord Falkland was killed by a musket ball at the battle of -Newbury, Sept. 20, 1643. Turenne was killed by a cannon ball, near -Sassback, July 26, 1675. Sir Philip Sidney was mortally wounded by a -bullet at Zutphen, Sept. 22, 1586, and died a few days afterwards. -Sidney was 32 years of age at his death, Falkland 33, and Turenne 64. - -[1449] The Hon. Robert Digby, who died, aged 40, April 19, 1726. Pope -wrote his epitaph. - -[1450] MS.: - - Brave Sidney falls amid the martial strife, - Not that he's virtuous, but profuse of life. - Not virtue snatched Arbuthnot's hopeful bloom, - And sent thee, Craggs, untimely to the tomb. - Say not 'tis virtue, but too soft a frame, - That Walsh his race, and Scud'more ends her name. - Think not their virtues, more though heav'n ne'er gave, - Unites so many Digbys in a grave. - Fierce love, not virtue, Falkland, was thy doom, - Her grief, not virtue, nipped Louisa's bloom. - -The Arbuthnot mentioned here was Charles, a clergyman, and son of the -celebrated physician. His death in 1732 was supposed to have been -occasioned by the lingering effects of a wound he received in a duel he -fought while at Oxford with a fellow-collegian, his rival in love. James -Craggs died of the small-pox Feb. 14, 1721, aged 35. Virtue had -certainly no share in his death, for he was licentious in private life, -and in his public capacity accepted a bribe from the South Sea -directors. Walsh died in 1708, at the age of 49. His virtue may be -estimated by his confession that he had committed every folly in love, -except matrimony. Lady Scudamore, widow of Sir James Scudamore, and -daughter of the fourth Lord Digby, died of the small-pox, May 3, 1729, -aged 44. She left only a daughter, who married, and hence Pope's -expression, "Scud'more ends her name." The many Digbys united in one -grave were the children of the fifth Lord, the father of the poet's -friend, Robert. I do not know what is meant by the "fierce love" which -was Falkland's "doom," nor can I identify the Louisa who died of grief. - -[1451] William, fifth Lord Digby, was 74 when this fourth Epistle was -published in 1734, and he lived to be 92. He died December 1752. - -[1452] M. de Belsunce, was made bishop of Marseilles in 1709. In the -plague of that city in 1720 he distinguished himself by his activity. He -died at a very advanced age in 1755.--WARTON. - -[1453] Some anonymous verses in Dryden's Miscellanies, vi. p. 76: - - When nature sickens, and with fainting breath - Struggles beneath the bitter pangs of death.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1454] Dryden, Virg. x. 1231: - - O Rhoebus! we have lived too long for me, - If life and long were terms that could agree.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1455] MS.: - - Yet hemmed with plagues, and breathing deathful air, - Marseilles' good bishop still possess the chair; - And long kind chance, or heav'n's more kind decree, - Lends an old parent, etc. - -Pope's mother died June 7, 1733. She was said by the poet to be 93, but -was only 91, if the register of her baptism, June 18, 1642, gives the -year of her birth, which is doubtless the case, since an elder sister -was baptised in 1641, and a younger in 1643. - -[1456] How change can admit, or nature let fall any evil, however short -and rare it may be, under the government of an all-wise, powerful, and -benevolent Creator, is hardly to be understood. These six lines are -perhaps the most exceptionable in the whole poem in point both of -sentiment and expression.--WARTON. - -Pope's justification of the partial ill which is not a general good is, -in substance, that Providence has not supreme dominion over his physical -laws, that change and nature act independently of him, and vitiate his -work. In place of ver. 113-16 the earlier editions have this couplet: - - God sends not ill, 'tis nature lets it fall, - Or chance escape, and man improves it all. - -The notion that the disturbing operations of "chance" could explain the -existence of evil was intrinsically absurd, and inconsistent with Ep. -i., ver. 290, where Pope says that "all chance is direction." Chance is, -in strictness, a nonentity, and merely signifies that the cause of an -effect is unknown to us, or beyond our control. Neither supposition -could apply to the Almighty. Warburton quotes a couplet from the MS., -which could not be retained without a glaring contradiction, when Pope -had discovered two other evil-doers besides man,--nature and chance: - - Of every evil, since the world began - The real source is not in God, but man. - -[1457] This comparison of the favourites of the Almighty to the -favourites of a weak prince is fallacious and revolting. Weak princes -select their favourites from weak or vicious motives. The favourites of -heaven are the righteous. - -[1458] Warburton says that Pope alluded to Empedocles. The story ran -that he pretended to be a divinity, and threw himself into the crater of -Ætna, that nobody might know what had become of him, and might conclude -that he had been carried up into heaven. All the circumstances of his -death are doubtful, and whether he was a calumniated sage, or a -conceited madman, legends are not a proper illustration of God's -dealings with mankind. Pope had originally written, - - T' explore Vesuvius if great Pliny aims, - Shall the loud mountain call back all its flames? - -At the eruption of Vesuvius in 79, Pliny, the naturalist, was commanding -the Roman fleet in the Gulf of Naples. He made for the coast in the -neighbourhood of the volcano, till checked by the falling stones and -ashes, he sailed to Stabiæ, and landed. In a few hours the tottering of -the houses, shaken by the earthquake, warned him to fly, and according -to his nephew he was overtaken by flames and sulphurous vapours, and -suffocated. Stabiæ is ten miles from Vesuvius, and the flame and vapour -could hardly have been propelled from the mountain. - -[1459] The forgetfulness to thunder supposes unconscious obliviousness, -the recalling the fires conscious activity. The mountain would not at -the same moment forget to keep up the irruption, and remember to -restrain it. - -[1460] Wollaston, Religion of Nature, sect. v. prop. 18: "If a man's -safety should depend upon winds or rains, must new motions be impressed -upon the atmosphere?" - -[1461] Warton tells us in a note on one of Pope's letters to Bethel, -that the latter was "celebrated in two fine lines in the Essay on Man on -account of an asthma with which he was afflicted." I find in Ruffhead's -Life a quotation from a letter of Pope's to Bethel, "then in Italy," and -we may conclude that Bethel, being troubled with an asthma, visited -Italy for relief, but that in crossing the sea the "motions of the sea -and air" disagreed with him, as they do with most people.--CROKER. - -[1462] "You," is Bolingbroke, to whom the epistle is addressed. A writer -in the Adventurer, No. 63, quotes Wollaston, Religion of Nature, sect. -v. prop. 18: "If a good man be passing by an infirm building, just in -the article of falling, can it be expected that God should suspend the -force of gravitation till he is gone by, in order to his deliverance?" -The illustrations and language Pope copied from Wollaston are the -objections of those who deny a special Providence, and Wollaston only -stated the arguments to refute them. - -[1463] MS.: - - Or shall some ruin, as it nods to fall, - For Chartres' brains reserve the hanging wall? - No,--in a scene far higher heav'n imparts - Rewards for spotless hands, and honest hearts. - -The last couplet is a direct acknowledgment of a future state, and was -probably omitted to avoid contradicting the infidel tenets of -Bolingbroke. - -[1464] Christians have never raised the objection. They only say that -since this world is not a kingdom of the just, reason, as well as -revelation, teaches that there must be a kingdom to come. - -[1465] Bolingbroke, Fragment 57: "Christian divines complain that good -men are often unhappy, and bad men happy. They establish a rule, and are -not agreed about the application of it; for who are to be reputed good -christians? Go to Rome, they are papists. Go to Geneva, they are -calvinists. If particular providences are favourable to those of your -communion they will be deemed unjust by every good protestant, and God -will be taxed with encouraging idolatry and superstition. If they are -favourable to those of any of our communions they will be deemed unjust -by every good papist, and God will be taxed with nursing up heresy and -schism." - -[1466] MS.: - - This way, I fear, your project too must fall, - Will just what serves one good man serve 'em all? - -[1467] After ver. 142 in some editions: - - Give each a system, all must be at strife; - What diff'rent systems for a man and wife?--WARBURTON. - -[1468] Young, Universal Passion, Sat. iii. 61. - - The very best ambitiously advise. - -MS.: - - The best in habits variously incline. - -[1469] MS.: - - E'en leave it as it is; this world, etc. - -[1470] He alludes to the complaint of Cato in Addison's tragedy, Act iv. -Sc. 4: - - Justice gives way to force: the conquered world - Is Cæsar's; Cato has no business in it. - -And Act v. Sc. 1: - - This world was made for Cæsar. - -"If," says Pope, "the world is made for ambitious men, such as Cæsar, it -is also made for good men, like Titus." Extreme cases test principles, -and to establish his position, that the virtuous in this life have -always a larger share of enjoyments than the worldly, Pope should have -dealt with some of the numerous instances in which the good have been -condemned to tortures in consequence of their goodness. - -[1471] Remembering one evening that he had given nothing during the day, -Titus exclaimed, "My friends, I have lost a day." - -[1472] Unquestionably it must be one of the rewards if Pope is right in -maintaining that present happiness is proportioned to virtue. No more -cruel mockery could be conceived than to act on his doctrine, and tell a -virtuous mother, surrounded by starving children, that she and her -little ones were quite as happy as the families who lived in abundance. - -[1473] MS.: - - Can God be just if virtue be unfed? - Why, fool, is the reward of virtue bread? - 'Tis his who labours, his who sows the plain, - 'Tis his who threshes, or who grinds the grain. - -[1474] The MS. has two readings: - - Where madness fights for tyrants or for gain. - Where folly fights for kings or drowns for gain. - -In the early editions Pope adopted the first version; in the later the -second, with the change of "dives" for "drowns." - -[1475] "Why no king?" is equivalent to "why is he not any king?" The -proper form would be "why not a king?" - -[1476] MS.: - - Then give him this, and that, and everything: - Still the complaint subsists; he is no king. - Outward rewards for inward worth are odd: - Why then complain not that he is no god? - -Ver. 162 in the text is inconsistent with ver. 161. Pope supposes the -good to rise in their demands until they rebel against receiving -external rewards for internal merits, and insist that man should be a -god, and earth a heaven, which heaven is one of the externals they have -just indignantly repudiated. - -[1477] Pope is speaking of the good, and what good man ever did "ask and -reason" according to Pope's representation? - -[1478] In a work of so serious a cast surely such strokes of levity, of -satire, of ridicule, as also lines 204, 223, 276, however poignant and -witty, are ill-placed and disgusting, are violations of that propriety -which Pope in general so strictly observed.--WARTON. - -[1479] MS.: - - But come, for virtue the just payment fix, - For humble merit say a coach and six, - For justice a Lord Chancellor's awful gown, &c. - -Pope showed his consciousness of the weakness of his cause by raising -false issues. Virtue would not be rewarded by swords, gowns, and -coaches, but is it rewarded by the cross, the stake, the rack, and the -dungeon? - -[1480] This sarcasm was directed against George II. When Prince of Wales -he quarrelled with his father, and patronised the opposition. On his -accession to the throne he abandoned the opposition, to which Pope's -friends belonged, and retained the ministers of George I. - -[1481] After ver. 172 in the MS.: - - Say, what rewards this idle world imparts, - Or fit for searching heads or honest hearts.--WARBURTON. - -[1482] Heaven in this line has either improperly the double sense of a -person and a place,--the God of heaven, and the kingdom of the -blessed--or else "there" is a clumsy tautological excrescence to furnish -a rhyme. - -[1483] These eight succeeding lines were not in former editions; and -indeed none of them, especially lines 177 and 179, do any credit to the -author.--WARTON. - -From Warton's note it would appear that the lines were first printed in -his own edition in 1797, whereas they were published in Pope's edition -of 1743. The poet had then renounced Bolingbroke for Warburton, and -ventured to admit that there was a heaven reserved for man. - -[1484] The "boy and man makes an individual" is not grammar. - -[1485] Thus till the edition of 1743: - - For riches, can they give, but to the just, - His own contentment, or another's trust? - -[1486] We see in the world, alas! too many examples of riches giving -repute and trust, content and pleasure to the worthless and -profligate.--WARTON. - -[1487] Dryden: - - Let honour and preferment go for gold, - But glorious beauty isn't to be sold. - -The MS. adds: - - Were health of mind and body purchased here, - 'Twere worth the cost; all else is bought too dear. - -[1488] The man, that is, who is the lover of human kind, and the object -of their love. - -[1489] No rational believer in Providence ever did suppose that to have -less than a thousand a year was a mark of God's hatred, or ever doubted -that the sufferings of good men in this life were consistent with the -dispensations of wisdom and mercy. Pope began by undertaking to prove -that happiness was independent of externals, and drops into the separate -and indubitable proposition that earthly happiness and the blessing of -God are not dependent upon the possession of a thousand a year. - -[1490] This seems not to be proper; the words "flaunt" and "flutter" -might with more propriety have changed places.--JOHNSON. - -The satirical aggravation here is conducted with great dexterity by an -interchange of terms: the gaudy word "flaunt" properly belongs to the -sumptuous dress, and that of "flutter" to the tattered -garment.--WAKEFIELD. - -Wakefield did not perceive that the language no longer fitted the facts; -for though flimsy rags flutter, the stiff brocade did not. Pope avoided -the inconsistency in his first draught: - - Oft of two brothers one shall be surveyed - Flutt'ring in rags, one flaunting in brocade. - -[1491] This must be understood as if Pope had written, "The cobbler is -aproned." - -[1492] MS.: - - What differs more, you cry, than gown and hood? - A wise man and a fool, a bad and good. - -The miserable rhyme in the text had the authority of a pun in -Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI. Act v. Sc. 6: - - Why what a peevish fool was that of Crete - That taught his son the office of a fowl? - And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drowned. - -[1493] He alluded to Philip V. of Spain, who resigned his crown to his -son, Jan. 10, 1724, and retired to a monastery. The son died in August, -and on Sept. 5, 1724, Philip reascended the throne. Weak-minded, -hard-hearted, superstitious, and melancholy mad, he was a just instance -of a man who owed all his consideration to the trappings of royalty. - -[1494] That is, the rest is mere outside appearance,--the leather of the -cobbler's apron, or the prunella of the clergyman's gown. Prunella was a -species of woollen stuff. - -[1495] _Cordon_ is the French term for the ribbon of the orders of -knighthood; but in England the ribbons are never called "strings," nor -would Pope have used the term unless he had wanted a rhyme for "kings." -The concluding phrase of the couplet was aimed at the supposed influence -of the mistresses of George II. - -[1496] Cowley, Translation of Hor. Epist. i. 10: - - To kings or to the favourites of kings.--HURD. - -[1497] In the MS. thus: - - The richest blood, right-honourably old, - Down from Lucretia to Lucretia rolled, - May swell thy heart and gallop in thy breast, - Without one dash of usher or of priest: - Thy pride as much despise all other pride - As Christ-church once all colleges beside.--WARBURTON. - -[1498] A bad rhyme to the preceding word "race." It is taken from -Boileau, Sat. v.: - - Et si leur sang tout pur, ainsi que leur noblesse, - Est passé jusqu'à vous de Lucrèce en Lucrèce.--WARTON. - -The bad rhyme did not appear till the edition of 1743. The couplet had -previously stood as follows: - - Thy boasted blood, a thousand years or so - May from Lucretia to Lucretia flow. - -[1499] Hall, Sat. iii.: - - Or tedious bead rolls of descended blood, - From father Japhet since Deucalion's flood.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1500] There are two other versions of this couplet in the MS.: - - But to make wits of fools, and chiefs of cowards, - What can? not all the pride of all the Howards. - -And, - - But make one wise, or loved, or happy man, - Not all the pride of all the Howards can. - -[1501] Pope took the phrase from Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, vol. i., -p. 26: "Who can forbear laughing when he thinks on all the great men -that have been so serious on the subject of that Macedonian madman?" -Warton protests against the application of the term to Alexander the -Great, and adds that Charles XII. of Sweden "deserved not to be joined -with him." The objection is well-founded, for Pope not only compared -them in their rage for war, but said that neither "looked further than -his nose," which was true of Charles XII., and false of Alexander, who -mingled grand schemes of civilisation with his selfish lust of dominion. - -[1502] "To find an enemy of all mankind," signifies to find some one who -is an enemy of all mankind, whereas Pope means to say that heroes desire -to find all mankind their enemies. He exaggerated the "strangeness" of -the conqueror's "purpose." The making enemies is incidental to the -purpose, but is not itself the end. - -[1503] The idea expressed in this line is put more clearly by Johnson in -his description of Charles XII: - - Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain, - "Think nothing gained," he cries, "till nought remain." - -[1504] There is something so familiar, nay even vulgar, in these two -lines as renders them very unworthy of our author.--RUFFHEAD. - -[1505] That is, "the politic and wise" are "no less alike" than the -heroes, of whom he had said, ver. 219, that they had all the same -characteristics. - -[1506] Shakespeare, Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3: "The sly, slow hours." - -[1507] "'Tis phrase absurd" is one of those departures from pure English -which would only be endurable in familiar poetry. - -[1508] The pronunciation of "great" was not uniform in Pope's day. "When -I published," says Johnson, "the plan for my Dictionary, Lord -Chesterfield told me that the word 'great' should be pronounced so as to -rhyme to 'state,' and Sir William Yonge sent me word that it should be -pronounced so as to rhyme to 'seat,' and that none but an Irishman would -pronounce it 'grait.'" Pope, in this epistle, and elsewhere, has made -"great" rhyme to both sounds. - -[1509] Marcus Aurelius, who regulated his life by the lofty principles -of the Stoics, was born A.D. 121 and died 180. The man, says Pope, who -aims at noble ends by noble means is great, whether he attains his end -or fails, whether he reigns like Aurelius or perishes like Socrates. - -[1510] Considering the manner in which Socrates was put to death, the -word "bleed" seems to be improperly used.--WARTON. - -[1511] Wollaston, Religion of Nature, sect. v. prop. 19: "Fame lives but -in the breath of the people." - -[1512] Is depreciating the passion for fame consistent with the doctrine -before advanced, Epist. ii. ver. 290, that "not a vanity is giv'n in -vain?"--WARTON. - -[1513] This is said to Bolingbroke. - -[1514] Celebrated men are aware that their reputation spreads wide, and -whether fame is valuable or worthless, "all that is felt of it" does not -"begin and end in the small circle of friends and foes." - -[1515] The men of renown,--the Shakespeares, Bacons, and Newtons,--can -never be "empty shades" while we have the works which were the fruit of -their prodigious intellects. When the wealth of a great mind is -preserved to posterity we possess a principal part of the man, and if in -the next world he takes no cognisance of his fame in this, it is we that -are the empty shades to him; he is a substance and a power to us. - -[1516] Wakefield says that "but for his political bias Pope would have -written, 'A Marlb'rough living.'" But Marlborough died in 1722, and the -point of Pope's line consisted in opposing the example of a living man -to a dead. - -[1517] The "wit" is not to be taken here in its narrow modern sense of a -jester. Pope is deriding fame in general, and divides famous men into -two classes,--"heroes and the wise." The wise, such as Shakespeare, -Bacon, and Newton, are compared to feathers, which are flimsy and showy; -and the heroes, who are the scourges of mankind, are compared to rods. - -[1518] "Honest" was formerly used in a less confined sense than at -present, but the word has never been adequate to designate "the noblest -work of God." - -[1519] Pope has hitherto spoken of all fame. He now speaks of bad fame, -and this was never supposed to be an element of happiness. - -[1520] He alludes to the disinterment of the bodies of Cromwell, -Bradshaw, and Ireton on Jan. 30, 1661, the anniversary of the execution -of Charles I. The putrid corpses were hung for the day upon a gibbet at -Tyburn, were decapitated at night, and the heads fixed on the front of -Westminster Hall. The trunks were buried in a hole dug near the gibbet. - -[1521] Marcellus was an opponent of Cæsar, and a partisan of Pompey. -After the battle of Pharsalia he retired to Mitylene, was pardoned by -Cæsar at the request of the senate, and assassinated by an attendant on -his way back to Rome. His moral superiority over Cæsar is conjecture. -Warton mentions that "by Marcellus Pope was said to mean the Duke of -Ormond," a man of small abilities, and a tool of Bolingbroke and Oxford. -He fled from England at the death of Queen Anne, joined the court of the -Pretender, and being attainted had to pass the rest of his life abroad. -He died at Madrid, Nov. 16, 1745, aged 94. One version of the couplet in -the MS. has the names of Walpole, and the jacobite member of parliament, -Shippen: - - And more contentment honest Sh[ippen] feels - Than W[alpole] with a senate at his heels. - -[1522] So Lord Lansdowne of Cato: - - More loved, more praised, more envied in his doom, - Than Cæsar trampling on the rights of Rome.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1523] "Superior parts" are ranked by Pope among "external goods," which -is a palpable error. Nothing can be less external to a man than his -mind. - -[1524] Which does not hinder our advancing with delight from truth to -truth, nor are we depressed because, to quote Pope's language, Epist. i. -ver. 71, "our knowledge is measured to our state and place." - -[1525] In the interests of charity, humility, and self-improvement, it -were to be wished that this was the universal result of superior -intelligence. - -[1526] Pope objects that wise men are "condemned to drudge," which is -not an evil peculiar to the tasks of wise men, and so immensely does the -pleasure of mental exercise preponderate over the weariness, that a -taste for philosophy, letters, and science is one of the surest -preservatives against the tedium of life. He objects that the wise have -no one to second or judge them rightly, which never happens. The most -neglected genius wins disciples from the beginning, who make up in -weight what they want in number, and were the adherents fewer, the -capacity which conceives important truths would be self-sustained from -the consciousness that truth is mighty and will prevail. - -[1527] The allusion is to Bolingbroke's patriotic pretensions, and -political impotence. The cause of his want of success is reversed by -Pope. He was understood well enough, and nobody trusted him in -consequence. His selfish, unprincipled ambition was too transparent. - -[1528] To a person that was praising Dr. Balguy's admirable discourses -on the Vanity and Vexation of our Pursuits after Knowledge, he replied, -"I borrowed the whole from ten lines of the Essay on Man, ver. 259-268, -and I only enlarged upon what the poet had expressed with such -marvellous conciseness, penetration, and precision." He particularly -admired ver. 266.--WARTON. - -The exclamation "painful pre-eminence," is from Addison's Cato, Act iii. -Sc. 5, where Cato applies the phrase to his own situation. - -[1529] This line is inconsistent with ver. 261-2. A man who feels -painfully his own ignorance and faults is not "above life's weakness." -The line is also inconsistent with ver. 310. No one can be above life's -weakness who is not transcendent in virtue, and then he cannot be above -"life's comfort," since Pope says, that "virtue alone is happiness -below." The melancholy picture, again, which the passage presents of the -species of martyrdom endured by Bolingbroke from his intellectual -pre-eminence, is inconsistent with ver. 18, where Pope says that perfect -happiness has fled from kings to dwell with St. John. - -[1530] "Call" for "call forth." - -[1531] Lord Umbra may have stood for a dozen insignificant peers who had -the ribbon of some order. Sir Billy was Sir William Yonge, who was made -a Knight of the Bath when the order was revived in May, 1725. "Without -having done anything," says Lord Hervey, "out of the common track of a -ductile courtier, and a parliamentary tool, his name was proverbially -used to express everything pitiful, corrupt, and contemptible." His one -talent was a fluency which sounded like eloquence, and meant nothing, -and this ready flow of specious language, unaccompanied by solid -reasoning or conviction, and always exerted on behalf of his patron, -Walpole, rendered his unconditional subserviency conspicuous. - -[1532] Mr. Croker suggests that Gripus and his wife may be Mr. Wortley -Montagu and Lady Mary. Pope accused them both of greed for money. - -[1533] Oldham: - - The greatest, bravest, wittiest of mankind.--BOWLES. - -[1534] From Cowley, Translation of Virgil: - - Charmed with the foolish whistlings of a name.--HURD. - -[1535] This resembles some lines in Roscommon's Essay: - - That wretch, in spite of his forgotten rhymes, - Condemned to live to all succeeding times.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope's examples would not bear out his language unless Bacon and -Cromwell were generally reprobated, whereas both have distinguished -champions and innumerable adherents. - -[1536] MS.: - - In one man's fortune, mark and scorn them all. - -The "ancient story" was a pretence which Pope inserted when he turned -the invective against the Duke of Marlborough into a general satire upon -a class. - -[1537] Mr. Croker asks "who was happy to ruin and betray?--the favourite -or the sovereign?" The language is confused, but "their" in the next -line refers to those who "ruin" and "betray," and shows that the -favourites were meant. They were happy to ruin those--the kings, to -betray these--the queens. The couplet made part of the attack upon the -Duke of Marlborough, and the words of ver. 290 were borrowed from -Burnet, who said in his defence of the Duke, "that he was in no -contrivance to ruin or betray" James II. While, however, he was a -trusted officer in the army of James he entered into a secret league -with the Prince of Orange, and deserted to him on his landing. The -accusation of lying in the arms of a queen, and afterwards betraying -her, alludes, says Wakefield, to Marlborough's youthful intrigue with -the Duchess of Cleveland, the mistress of Charles II., and we need not -reject the interpretation because the mistress of a king is not a queen, -or because there is no ground for believing that Marlborough betrayed -her. Pope constantly sacrificed accuracy of language to glitter of -style, and historic truth to satirical venom. - -[1538] In the MS. "great * * grows," that is, great Churchill or -Marlbro'.--CROKER. - -[1539] MS.: - - One equal course how guilt and greatness ran. - -[1540] This couplet and the next have a view to his supposed peculation -as commander-in-chief, and his prolongation of the war on this -account.--WAKEFIELD. - -The charges were the calumnies of an infuriated faction. His military -career while he was commander-in-chief was free from reproach. He was -never known to sanction an act of wanton harshness, or to exceed the -recognised usages of war. The pretence that he prolonged the contest for -the sake of gain does not require a refutation, for his accusers could -never produce a fragment of colourable evidence in support of the -allegation. The Duke of Wellington ridiculed the notion, and said that -however much Marlborough might have loved money he must have loved his -military reputation more. The poet, who denounced him as a man "stained -with blood," and "infamous for plundered provinces," could, at ver. 100, -call Turenne "god-like," though he gave the atrocious command to pillage -and burn the Palatinate, and turned it into a smouldering desert. -"Habit," says Sismondi, "had rendered him insensible to the sufferings -of the people, and he subjected them to the most cruel inflictions." - -[1541] MS.: - - Let gathered nations next their chief behold, - How blessed with conquest, yet more blessed with gold: - Go then, and steep thy age in wealth and ease, - Stretched on the spoils of plundered provinces. - -[1542] "Acts of fame" are not the best means of "sanctifying" wealth. -True charity is unostentatious. - -[1543] Wakefield quotes Horace, Od. ii. 2, or, as Creech puts it in his -translation, silver has no brightness, - - Unless a moderate use refine, - A value give, and make it shine. - -[1544] Dryden, Virg. Æn. iv. 250: - - But called it marriage, by that specious name - To veil the crime, and sanctify the shame.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1545] Originally, "Ambition, avarice, and th' imperious" etc., for -Marlborough was never the dupe of a "greedy minion." - -[1546] "Storied halls" are halls painted with stories or histories, as -in Milton, Il Penseroso, ver. 159: - - And storied windows richly dight - Casting a dim religious light. - -The walls and ceiling of the saloon at Blenheim are painted with figures -and trophies, and some rooms are hung with tapestry commemorating the -great sieges and battles of the Duke. The tapestry, which was -manufactured in the Netherlands, and was a present from the Dutch, is -described by Dyer in The Fleece, Book iii. ver. 499-517. - -[1547] Addison's Verses on the Play-House: - - A lofty fabric does the sight invade, - And stretches o'er the waves a pompous shade.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1548] Pope may mean that nothing affords happiness which infringes -virtue, and this would contradict the conclusion of the second epistle, -where he dwells upon the continuous happiness we derive from follies and -vanities. Or he may mean that virtue is by itself complete happiness, -whatever else may be our circumstances, which would contradict ver. 119, -where he says that the "virtuous son is ill at ease" when he inherits a -"dire disease" from his profligate father. - -[1549] The allusion here seems to be to the pole, or central point, of a -spherical body, which, during the rotatory motion of every other part, -continues immoveable and at rest.--WAKEFIELD. - -The "human bliss" does not "stand still," unless we believe that the -virtuous man suffers nothing when his virtue subjects him to scorn, -persecution, and tortures. - -[1550] "It" in this couplet and the next stands for virtuous "merit." - -[1551] Merchant of Venice, Act iv. Sc. 1: - - it is twice blessed; - It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. - -[1552] Immortality must be the "end" which it will be "unequalled joy to -gain," and yet "no pain to lose," since the annihilated will not be -conscious of the loss. Lord Byron expressed the same idea in a letter, -Dec 8, 1821: "Indisputably, the believers in the gospel have a advantage -over all others,--for this simple reason, that, if true, they will have -their reward hereafter, and if there be no hereafter, they can be but -with the infidel in his eternal sleep, having had the assistance of an -exalted hope through life." Pope and Byron leave out of their reckoning -the sufferings to which christians are constantly exposed through their -homage to christianity. - -[1553] After ver. 316 in the MS.: - - Ev'n while it seems unequal to dispose, - And chequers all the good man's joys with woes, - 'Tis but to teach him to support each state, - With patience this, with moderation that; - And raise his base on that one solid joy, - Which conscience gives, and nothing can destroy.--WARBURTON. - -The sense in the first line is not completed. Virtue "seems unequal to -dispose" something, but we are not told what. - -[1554] This is the Greek expression, [Greek: platus gelôs], broad or -wide laughter, derived, I presume, from the greater aperture of the -mouth in loud laughter.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1555] MS.: - - More pleasing, then, humanity's soft tears - Than all the mirth unfeeling folly wears. - -There are numerous grades of character between "unfeeling folly" and -christian excellence, and many gratifications of the earthly-minded are -assuredly more pleasant for the time than the sharp and ennobling pangs -of suffering virtue. - -[1556] MS.: - - Which not by starts, and from without acquired, - Is all ways exercised, and never tired. - -[1557] Is it so impossible that a "wish" should "remain" when Pope has -just said that virtue is "never elated while one oppressed man" exists? -Or has virtue in tears, ver. 320, no wish for that happiness which Pope -says, ver. 1, is "our being's end and aim?" Or is the "wish" for "more -virtue" fulfilled by the act of wishing, without frequent failure, and -perpetual conflict, and prolonged self-denial? - -[1558] "The good" is singular, and stands for "the good man," as is -required by the verbs "takes," "looks," "pursues," etc., up to the end -of the paragraph. - -[1559] Creech's Horace, Epist. i. 1, ver. 23: - - But if you ask me now what sect I own, - I swear a blind obedience unto none.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1560] Bolingbroke's Letters to Pope: "The modest enquirer follows -nature, and nature's God."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1561] MS.: - - Let us, my S[t. John], this plain truth confess, - Good nature makes, and keeps our happiness; - And faith and morals end as they began, - All in the love of God, and love of man. - -In his second epistle Pope maintains that we are born with the germ of -an unalterable ruling passion which grows with our growth, and swallows -up every other passion. Among these ruling passions he specifies spleen, -hate, fear, anger, etc., which are dispensed by fate, absorb the entire -man, and of necessity exclude love. Here, on the contrary, we are told, -ver. 327-340, that "the sole bliss heaven could on _all_ bestow," is the -virtue which "ends in love of God and love of man." - -[1562] He hopes, indeed, for another life, but he does not from hence -infer the absolute necessity of it, in order to vindicate the justice -and goodness of God.--WARTON. - -[1563] The "other kind" is the animal creation, which, says Pope, has -not been given any abortive instinct. Nature, which furnishes the -impulse, never fails to provide appropriate objects for its -gratification. - -[1564] The meaning of this couplet comes out clearer in the prose -explanation which Pope has written on his MS.: "God implants a desire of -immortality, which at least proves he would have us think of, and expect -it, and he gives no appetite in vain to any creature. As God plainly -gave this hope, or instinct, it is plain man should entertain it. Hence -flows his greatest hope, and greatest incentive to virtue." - -[1565] "His greatest virtue" is benevolence; "his greatest bliss" the -hope of a happy eternity. Nature connects the two, for the bliss depends -on the virtue. - -[1566] Pope exalts the duty of "benevolence," which, ver. 371, causes -"earth to smile with boundless bounty blessed." But bounty cannot -benefit the recipients, if the poet is right in maintaining that -happiness is independent of externals. - -[1567] Warton remarks that this simile, which is copied from Chaucer, -was used by Pope in two other places,--The Temple of Fame, ver. 436, and -the Dunciad, ii. ver. 407. - -[1568] Waller, Divine Love, Canto v.: - - A love so unconfined - With arms extended would embrace mankind. - Self-love would cease, or be dilated, when - We should behold as many selfs as men.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1569] MS.: - - To rise from individuals to the whole - Is the true progress of the god-like soul. - The first impression the soft passions make, - Like the small pebble in the limpid lake, - Begets a greater and a greater still, - The circle widening till the whole it fill; - Till God and man, and brute and reptile kind - All wake, all move, all agitate his mind; - Earth with his bounteous overflows is blessed; - Heav'n pleased beholds its image in his breast. - Parent or friend first touch the virtuous mind, - His country next, and next all human kind. - -[1570] In the MS. thus: - - And now transported o'er so vast a plain, - While the winged courser flies with all her rein, - While heav'n-ward now her mounting wing she feels, - Now scattered fools fly trembling from her heels, - Wilt thou, my St. John! keep her course in sight, - Confine her fury, and assist her flight?--WARBURTON. - -The exaggerated estimate which Pope had formed of the Essay on Man is -apparent from this passage. With respect to the poetry, "the winged -courser flew with all her rein;" with respect to the argument, -"scattered fools flew trembling" from its crushing power. - -[1571] "Stoops to man's low passions or ascends to the glorious ends" -for which those passions have been given. - -[1572] "Did he rise with temper," asks the writer of A Letter to Mr. -Pope, 1735, "when he drove furiously out of the kingdom the Duke of -Marlborough? or did he fall with dignity when he fled from justice, and -joined the Pretender?" Lord Hervey asserts, and many circumstances -confirm his testimony, that Bolingbroke "was elate and insolent in -power, dejected and servile in disgrace." - -[1573] Boileau's Art of Poetry, translated by Soame and Dryden, Cantos -i.: - - Happy, who in his verse can gently steer - From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1574] MS.: - - And while the muse transported, unconfined, - Soars to the sky, or stoops among mankind, - Teach her like thee, through various fortune wise, - With dignity to sink, with temper rise; - Formed by thy converse, steer an equal flight - From grave to gay, from profit to delight - Artful with grace, and natural to please, - Intent in business, elegant in ease. - -[1575] From Statius, Silv. Lib. i. Carm. iv. 120: - - immensæ veluti connexa carinæ - Cymba minor, cum sævit hyems, pro parte, furentes - Parva receptat aquas, et eodem volvitur austro.--HURD. - -Mr. Pope forgot while he wrote ver. 383-6, the censures he had so justly -cast, ver. 237, upon that vain desire of an useless -immortality--CROUSAZ. - -[1576] An unfortunate prophecy. Posterity has more than confirmed the -contempt in which Bolingbroke's character was held by his -contemporaries. - -[1577] "Pretend" is used in the old and literal sense "to stretch out -before any one." Its exact synonym in Pope's line is "proclaim." - -[1578] Pope professes to believe that all his poetry up to the Essay on -Man was made up of "sounds" to the exclusion of "things," and was -addressed as little "to the heart" as to the understanding. His change -of subject, and his panegyrics on virtue, had at least not taught him -that the manly simplicity of truth was to be preferred to insincere -hyperboles. - -[1579] In the MS. thus: - - That just to find a God is all we can, - And all the study of mankind is man.--WARBURTON. - -The MS. has another version of the couplet in the text: - - And all our knowledge, all our bliss below, - To love our neighbour, and ourselves to know. - -[1580] The rule of Horace and Warton for testing poetry was to divest it -of metre by changing the order of the words. The language of Bowles -would give the idea that the change was to be from one measure and set -of rhymes to another. - -[1581] Voltaire, Oeuvres, tom. xiv. p. 169. - -[1582] Epist. iv. ver. 112. - -[1583] Epist. iv. ver. 111-113. - -[1584] Epist. iv. ver. 121. - -[1585] Archbishop Whately, Bacon's Essays, p. 145, quotes this stanza, -and says that it is strange that Pope, and those who use similar -language, should have "failed to perceive that the pagan nations were in -reality atheists. For by the word God we understand an Eternal Being, -who made and who governs all things. And so far were the ancient pagans -from believing that 'in the beginning God made the heavens and the -earth,' that, on the contrary, the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, -and many other natural objects, were among the very gods they adored. -Accordingly, the apostle Paul expressly calls the ancient pagans, -atheists, Ephes. ii. 12, though he well knew that they worshipped -certain supposed superior beings which they called gods. But he says in -the Epistle to the Romans that 'they worshipped the creature more than, -that is, instead of the Creator.' And at Lystra, when the people were -going to do sacrifice to him and Barnabas, mistaking them for two of -their gods, he told them to 'turn from those vanities to serve the -living God, who made heaven and earth.'" The pagans were equally -ignorant of the holiness of the Supreme Being; and Pope himself, -describing the heathen divinities, Essay on Man, Epist. iii. 257, calls -them - - Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, - Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust. - -Such a divinity was Jupiter, and to worship an abominable phantom, -conspicuous for "rage, revenge, and lust," was not to adore "Jehovah." - -[1586] It ought to be "confinedst" or "didst confine," and afterwards -"gavedst" or "didst give" in the second person.--WARTON. - -[1587] This may mean that the Deity was beneficent, or holy, or both, -but whatever sense Pope attached to the word, he held with Bolingbroke -that the attributes of the Divine Being were not the qualities which -passed by the same name among us, and the present stanza is a -re-assertion of the doctrine of the Essay on Man, Epist. ii. 1, that we -must not "presume to scan God," or think to know more than the bare fact -that he is "good." - -[1588] First edition: - - Left conscience free and will. - -Here followed, if it is genuine, a suppressed stanza, which Mrs. Thrale -repeated to Dr. Johnson, and which she said a clergyman of their -acquaintance had discovered: - - Can sins of moments claim the rod - Of everlasting fires? - And that offend great nature's God - Which nature's self inspires - -Mrs. Thrale called the stanza "licentious," Johnson observed that it was -borrowed from the Pastor Fido of Guarini, and Boswell pointed out that a -"rod of fires" was an incongruous metaphor. "I warrant you, however," -said Johnson, "Pope wrote this stanza, and some friend struck it out." -The folly of the lines is transparent. The "sins" with which "nature's -self inspires" man, "conscience warns him not to do," ver. 14, and Pope -assumes that God will never be "offended" if we disregard conscience, -and yield to temptation. - -[1589] This stanza was evidently directed against the ascetic acts which -were rated high among virtues by the papists. - -[1590] There is something elevated in the idea and expression, - - Or think Thee Lord alone of man, - When thousand worlds are round; - -but the conclusion is a contrast of littleness, - - And deal damnation round the land.--BOWLES. - -[1591] Unquestionably no man of right judgment will pronounce the holder -of any opinion to be beyond the limits of divine mercy; but he may -justly pronounce the opinion itself to be ruinous in the highest degree. -Nothing can be more false than the spurious liberality which presumes -all opinions to be equally innocent, or affects to conceive that man is -answerable only for the sincerity of his convictions. He is accountable -for his opportunities, his understanding, and his knowledge, and if he -espouses error through negligence, prejudice, or presumption, he -involves himself in the full criminality of his error.--CROLY. - -[1592] I have often wondered that the same poet who wrote the Dunciad -should have written these lines. Alas for Pope, if the mercy he showed -to others was the measure of the mercy he received.--COWPER. - -[1593] Lucan, ix. 578: - - Estne Dei sedes, nisi terra, et pontus, et aer, - Et coelum, et virtus?--WAKEFIELD. - -[1594] Erudition and acuteness are not the only requisites of a good -commentator. That conformity of sentiment which enables him fully to -enter into the intention of his author, and that fairness of disposition -which places him above every wish of disguising or misrepresenting it, -are qualifications not less essential. In these points it is no breach -of candour to affirm, since the public voice has awarded the sentence, -that Dr. Warburton has, in various of his critical labours, shown -himself extremely defective, and perhaps in none more than in those he -has expended upon this performance, his manifest purposes in which, have -been to give it a systematic perfection that it does not possess, to -conceal as much as possible the suspicious source whence the author -derived his leading ideas, and to reduce the whole to the standard of -moral orthodoxy. So much is the sense of the poet strained and warped by -these processes of his commentator, that it is scarcely possible in many -places to enter into his real meaning, without laying aside the -commentary, and letting the text speak for itself--AIKIN. - -[1595] Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. i. p. 377. - -[1596] Descartes. - -[1597] Soame Jenyns, who published in 1757 a Free Enquiry into the -Nature and Origin of Evil. - -[1598] All three were republicans who flourished at the period of the -Great Rebellion. Harrington published his political work, Oceana, in -1656, and Neville his Plato Redivivus, or A Dialogue concerning -Government, in 1681. Burnet says of Wildman that he "had been a constant -meddler on all occasions in everything that looked like sedition, and -seemed inclined to oppose everything that was uppermost." He served in -the Parliamentary army, and proved troublesome to Cromwell, who -imprisoned him. His restless republicanism was thought dangerous at the -Restoration, and the government kept him under lock and key for some -years. He survived to take a share in the Revolution of 1688, and was as -hard to please as in his younger days. Pepys says in 1667, that he had -been "a false fellow to everybody." - -[1599] In the Commentary on ver. 303. - -[1600] A false pretence. Waterland expressed his disapproval of -Warburton's Divine Legation, and Jackson wrote a formal refutation. -Warburton, as sensitive as he was abusive, never forgave them, and to -revenge his wounded vanity, he thrust this forced digression into the -middle of Pope's works under the hollow plea that Pope seemed to have -had in his mind the controversy between Jackson and Waterland on the -Trinity. Jackson was an Arian clergyman, who defended the views of -Samuel Clarke. - -[1601] Tindal, who was a deist, published in 1730 his well-known work, -Christianity as old as the Creation. Waterland wrote an answer called -Scripture Vindicated, and Jackson, his Remarks on a book entitled, etc. - -[1602] Waterland published a sermon called, A familiar discourse upon -the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and the use and importance of it; and -Jackson, after publishing in 1734 his treatise On the Existence and -Unity of God, followed it up in 1735, with A Defence of the book -entitled, On the Existence, etc., in answer to Law's Enquiry into the -Ideas of Space, Time, etc. Warburton, in his discreditable note, has not -the candour to allude to the real ground of his rancour against Jackson -and Waterland. - -[1603] Nothing was ever more unfortunate than these five examples of -sublimity, all of which, as Dr. Warton observes, prove the -contrary.--BOWLES. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES - -Since Greek text cannot be rendered in this version, it has been -transliterated and enclosed in brackets, e.g. [Greek: entelecheia]. - -"oe" ligatures have been replaced by the separate "o" and "e" -characters. - -Except as noted below, obvious punctuation inconsistencies and -typographical errors and spelling errors have been corrected. - -Except as noted below, spelling and capitalization inconsistencies have -been retained. - -Pope often wrote names with dashes replacing part of the name, as in -'Sw--y'. The dashes look like em-dashes in the original, but they have -been changed to long dashes; thus, 'Sw----y'. - -On the title page, in the phrase "RT. HON. JOHN WILSON CROKER.", the -"T." in "RT." appears as a superscript. - -On p. 60, the first footnote (footnote 195) ('This couplet is succeeded -by two...') has nothing in the text pointing to it; however the couplet -on lines 426 and 427 is marked in pen at the side. This could be the -couplet referred to in footnote 195. - -On p. 126, the second footnote (footnote 318) ('Spence, p. 178.') has -nothing in the text pointing to it; however it seems likely that it -refers to the quote ending 'He has an appetite to satire.' - -On p. 127, 'terrestial' (in the phrase 'Whose shapes seemed not like to -terrestial boys,') was changed to 'terrestrial'. - -On the unnumbered page between p. 144 and p. 146, the line in the -third footnote (footnote 369), 'If any muse assists the poet's lays' -had 'asists' in the original. - -On p. 146, in the fourth footnote (footnote 375) the phrase 'I myself, -about the year 1790' was 'I myself, about the year year 1790' in the -original. - -On the unnumbered page before p. 186, the line 'Launched on the bosom -of the silver Thames' had 'bosm' in the original. - -On p. 231, the third footnote (footnote 576) ('Introduction to the -Literature of Europe, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 33....') has nothing in the -text pointing to it. - -On p. 254, the first footnote (footnote 697) ('The combination -"heavenly-fair"...') had nothing in the text pointing to it; a pointer -has been added after the first line on the page, which starts 'Oh grace -serene!' - -On p. 263, in the phrase 'With these precautions, in 1732[3] was -published...', the '[3]' does not indicate a footnote. Other footnote -indicators in the original were superscripts; this '[3]' was not. - -On p. 274, the word 'beforehand' was broken across two lines; it was -arbitrarily made 'beforehand' rather than 'before-hand'. - -On p. 388, the line 'Through life 'tis followed, ev'en at life's -expense' had 'expence' in the original. - -On p. 513, the phrase 'He subdued the intractability of all the four -elements' had 'intractibility' in the original. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 -(of 10), by Alexander Pope - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE *** - -***** This file should be named 43271-8.txt or 43271-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/7/43271/ - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Colin M. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of 10) - Poetry - Volume 2 - -Author: Alexander Pope - -Contributor: Whitwell Elwin - -Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43271] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE *** - - - - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Colin M. Kendall and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - - +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43271 ***</div> <div class='transnote'><p class="center"><i>Transcriber's Note:</i></p> <p>This text uses UTF-8 (unicode) file encoding. If the apostrophes @@ -39061,382 +39019,6 @@ of all the four elements' had 'intractibility' in the original. </div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 -(of 10), by Alexander Pope - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE *** - -***** This file should be named 43271-h.htm or 43271-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/7/43271/ - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Colin M. Kendall and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of 10) - Poetry - Volume 2 - -Author: Alexander Pope - -Contributor: Whitwell Elwin - -Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43271] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE *** - - - - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Colin M. Kendall and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - -TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: - -A. In the discussion of metricality on p. 27, in the text starting -"Several lines are not metrical...", there are a few letters with macrons -in the original; these are rendered as "[=e]", "[=n]", and "[=o]". - - - - - FRONTISPIECE TO POPE'S WORKS, VOL. II. - -[Illustration: Frontispiece to the Essay on Man, designed by Pope - to represent the vanity of human glory.] - - - - - THE WORKS - OF - ALEXANDER POPE. - - NEW EDITION. - - INCLUDING - - SEVERAL HUNDRED UNPUBLISHED LETTERS, AND OTHER - NEW MATERIALS. - - - COLLECTED IN PART BY THE LATE - - RT. HON. JOHN WILSON CROKER. - - - WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES. - - BY REV. WHITWELL ELWIN. - - VOL. II. - POETRY.--VOL. II. - - WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS. - - LONDON: - JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. - 1871. - - [_The right of Translation is reserved._] - - LONDON: - BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. - - * * * * * - - - - - AN - - ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1709. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM, - - 4to. - - - ----Si quid novisti rectius istis, - Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum.--HORAT. - -London: Printed for W. LEWIS, in Russel-Street, Covent Garden; and - sold by W. TAYLOR, at the Ship, in Pater-Noster-Row, T. OSBORN, in - Gray's-Inn, near the Walks, and J. GRAVES, in St. James's Street. - 1711. - -Warton says that the poem was "first advertised in the Spectator, No. -65, May 15th, 1711." Pope informed Caryll that a thousand copies were -printed. Lewis, the publisher, was a Roman Catholic, and an old -schoolfellow of the poet. - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - Written by Mr. POPE. - - The second edition, 8vo. - -London: Printed for W. LEWIS, in Russel-Street, Covent Garden, 1713. - -Though the date on the title page is 1713, Isaac Reed states that the -second edition was advertised in the Spectator on November 22, 1712. It -was a common practice to substitute the date of the coming, for that of -the expiring, year. A third and fourth edition in a smaller type and -size came out in 1713. In 1714, the poem was appended to the second -edition of Lintot's Miscellanies, by some arrangement with Lewis, whose -name appears upon the title page of that particular edition of the -Miscellanies as joint publisher. On July 17, 1716, Lintot purchased the -remainder of the copyright for L15, preparatory to inserting the piece -in the quarto of 1717. He brought out a sixth octavo edition of the -essay in 1719, and a seventh in 1722, and reprinted the poem in each of -the four editions of his Miscellanies which were published between 1720 -and 1732. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - Written in the year 1709. With the Commentary and Notes of - W. WARBURTON, A.M. 4to. - -The Essay on Criticism has no date, but on the title page of the "Essay -on Man," which appeared in the same volume is, "London: Printed by W. -BOWYER for M. COOPER, at the Globe in Pater-Noster Row. 1743." Pope, -writing to Warburton on October 7, 1743, says, "I have given Bowyer your -comment on the Essay on Criticism this week, and he shall lose no time -with the rest." On Jan. 12, 1744, he tells his commentator that the -publication had been delayed by the advice of Bowyer, and on Feb. 21, he -writes word that he shall keep it back till Warburton goes to town. -There is no doubt that the edition was printed in 1743, and published in -1744. - - - * * * * * - - - - -In the year 1709 was written the Essay on Criticism, a work which -displays such extent of comprehension, such nicety of distinction, such -acquaintance with mankind, and such knowledge both of ancient and modern -learning, as are not often attained by the maturest age and longest -experience. It was published about two years afterwards, and being -praised by Addison in the Spectator, with sufficient liberality, met -with so much favour as enraged Dennis, "who," he says, "found himself -attacked without any manner of provocation on his side, and attacked in -his person, instead of his writings, by one who was wholly a stranger to -him, at a time when all the world knew he was persecuted by fortune; and -not only saw that this was attempted in a clandestine manner, with the -utmost falsehood and calumny, but found that all this was done by a -little affected hypocrite, who had nothing in his mouth at the same time -but truth, candour, friendship, goodnature, humanity, and magnanimity." -How the attack was clandestine is not easily perceived, nor how his -person is depreciated; but he seems to have known something of Pope's -character, in whom may be discovered an appetite to talk too frequently -of his own virtues. Thus began the hostility between Pope and Dennis, -which, though it was suspended for a short time, never was appeased. -Pope seems, at first, to have attacked him wantonly; but though he -always professed to despise him, he discovers, by mentioning him very -often, that he felt his force or his venom. - -Of this Essay Pope declared that he did not expect the sale to be quick, -because "not one gentleman in sixty, even of liberal education, could -understand it." The gentlemen and the education of that time seem to -have been of a lower character than they are of this. He mentioned a -thousand copies as a numerous impression. Dennis was not his only -censurer. The zealous papists thought the monks treated with too much -contempt, and Erasmus too studiously praised; but to these objections he -had not much regard. The Essay has been translated into French by -Hamilton, author of the Comte de Grammont, whose version was never -printed; by Robotham, secretary to the king for Hanover, and by Resnel; -and commented by Dr. Warburton, who has discovered in it such order and -connection as was not perceived by Addison, nor, as is said, intended by -the author. Almost every poem consisting of precepts is so far arbitrary -and immethodical, that many of the paragraphs may change places with no -apparent inconvenience; for of two or more positions, depending upon -some remote and general principle, there is seldom any cogent reason why -one should precede the other. But for the order in which they stand, -whatever it be, a little ingenuity may easily give a reason. "It is -possible," says Hooker, "that, by long circumduction from any one truth, -all truth may be inferred." Of all homogeneous truths, at least of all -truths respecting the same general end, in whatever series they may be -produced, a concatenation by intermediate ideas may be formed such as, -when it is once shown, shall appear natural; but if this order be -reversed, another mode of connection equally specious may be found or -made. Aristotle is praised for naming fortitude first of the cardinal -virtues, as that without which no other virtue can steadily be -practised; but he might with equal propriety have placed prudence and -justice before it, since without prudence fortitude is mad, without -justice it is mischievous. As the end of method is perspicuity, that -series is sufficiently regular that avoids obscurity, and where there is -no obscurity, it will not be difficult to discover method. - -The Essay on Criticism is one of Pope's greatest works, and if he had -written nothing else, would have placed him among the first critics and -the first poets, as it exhibits every mode of excellence that can -embellish or dignify didactic composition--selection of matter, novelty -of arrangement, justness of precept, splendour of illustration, and -propriety of digression. I know not whether it be pleasing to consider -that he produced this piece at twenty, and never afterwards excelled it. -He that delights himself with observing that such powers may be soon -attained, cannot but grieve to think that life was ever after at a -stand. To mention the particular beauties of the essay, would be -unprofitably tedious; but I cannot forbear to observe that the -comparison of a student's progress in the sciences with the journey of a -traveller in the Alps, is perhaps the best that English poetry can show. -A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject; -must show it to the understanding in a clearer view, and display it to -the fancy with greater dignity; but either of these qualities may be -sufficient to recommend it. In didactic poetry, of which the great -purpose is instruction, a simile may be praised which illustrates though -it does not ennoble; in heroics that may be admitted which ennobles, -though it does not illustrate. That it may be complete, it is required -to exhibit, independently of its references, a pleasing image; for a -simile is said to be a short episode. To this antiquity was so -attentive, that circumstances were sometimes added which, having no -parallels, served only to fill the imagination, and produced what -Perrault ludicrously called "comparisons with a long tail." In their -similes the greatest writers have sometimes failed. The ship race -compared with the chariot race, is neither illustrated nor aggrandised; -land and water make all the difference. When Apollo, running after -Daphne, is likened to a greyhound chasing a hare, there is nothing -gained; the ideas of pursuit and flight are too plain to be made -plainer, and a god and the daughter of a god, are not represented much -to their advantage by a hare and a dog. The simile of the Alps has no -useless parts, yet affords a striking picture by itself; it makes the -foregoing position better understood, and enables it to take faster hold -on the attention; it assists the apprehension, and elevates the fancy. - -Let me likewise dwell a little on the celebrated paragraph in which it -is directed that the sound should seem an echo to the sense,--a precept -which Pope is allowed to have observed beyond any other English poet. -This notion of representative metre, and the desire of discovering -frequent adaptations of the sound to the sense, have produced, in my -opinion, many wild conceits and imaginary beauties. All that can furnish -this representation are the sounds of the words considered singly, and -the time in which they are pronounced. Every language has some words -framed to exhibit the noises which they express, as _thump_, _rattle_, -_growl_, _hiss_. These, however, are but few, and the poet cannot make -them more, nor can they be of any use but when sound is to be mentioned. -The time of pronunciation was in the dactylic measures of the learned -languages capable of considerable variety; but that variety could be -accommodated only to motion or duration, and different degrees of motion -were perhaps expressed by verses rapid or slow, without much attention -of the writer, when the image had full possession of his fancy; but our -language having little flexibility, our verses can differ very little in -their cadence. The fancied resemblances, I fear, arise sometimes merely -from the ambiguity of words; there is supposed to be some relation -between a _soft_ line and a _soft_ couch, or between _hard_ syllables -and _hard_ fortune. Motion, however, may be in some sort exemplified, -and yet it may be suspected that in such resemblances the mind often -governs the idea, and the sounds are estimated by their meaning. One of -their most successful attempts has been to describe the labour of -Sisyphus: - - With many a weary step, and many a groan, - Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone; - The huge round stone, resulting with a bound, - Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground. - -Who does not perceive the stone to move slowly upward, and roll -violently back? But set the same numbers to another sense: - - While many a merry tale, and many a song, - Cheered the rough road, we wished the rough road long; - The rough road then, returning in a round, - Mocked our impatient steps, for all was fairy ground. - -We have surely now lost much of the delay, and much of the rapidity. But -to show how little the greatest master of numbers can fix the principles -of representative harmony, it will be sufficient to remark that the poet -who tells us that - - When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, - The line too labours, and the words move slow; - Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, - Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main; - -when he had enjoyed for about thirty years the praise of Camilla's -lightness of foot, he tried another experiment upon _sound_ and _time_, -and produced this memorable triplet: - - Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join - The varying verse, the full resounding line, - The long majestic march, and energy divine. - -Here are the swiftness of the rapid race, and the march of slow-paced -majesty, exhibited by the same poet in the same sequence of syllables, -except that the exact prosodist will find the line of swiftness by one -time longer than that of tardiness. Beauties of this kind are commonly -fancied, and when real are technical and nugatory, not to be rejected, -and not to be solicited.--JOHNSON. - -The Essay on Criticism is a poem of that species for which our author's -genius was particularly turned,--the didactic and moral. It is -therefore, as might be expected, a master-piece in its kind. I have been -sometimes inclined to think that the praises Addison has bestowed on it -were a little partial and invidious. "The observations," says he, -"follow one another like those in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that -methodical regularity which would have been requisite in a prose -writer." It is, however, certain that the poem before us is by no means -destitute of a just integrity, and a lucid order.[1] Each of the -precepts and remarks naturally introduce the succeeding ones, so as to -form an entire whole. The Spectator adds, "The observations in this -Essay are _some_ of them _uncommon_." There is, I fear, a small mixture -of ill-nature in these words; for this Essay, though on a beaten -subject, abounds in many new remarks and original rules, as well as in -many happy and beautiful illustrations and applications of the old ones. -We are, indeed, amazed to find such a knowledge of the world, such a -maturity of judgment, and such a penetration into human nature, as are -here displayed, in so very young a writer as was Pope when he produced -this Essay, for he was not twenty years old. Correctness and a just -taste are usually not attained but by long practice and experience in -any art; but a clear head and strong sense were the characteristical -qualities of our author, and every man soonest displays his radical -excellences. If his predominant talent be warmth and vigour of -imagination it will break out in fanciful and luxuriant descriptions, -the colouring of which will perhaps be too rich and glowing. If his -chief force lies in the understanding rather than in the imagination, it -will soon appear by solid and manly observations on life or learning, -expressed in a more chaste and subdued style. The former will frequently -be hurried into obscurity or turgidity, and a false grandeur of diction; -the latter will seldom hazard a figure whose usage is not already -established, or an image beyond common life; will always be perspicuous -if not elevated; will never disgust if not transport his readers; will -avoid the grosser faults if not arrive at the greater beauties of -composition. When we consider the just taste, the strong sense, the -knowledge of men, books, and opinions that are so predominant in the -Essay on Criticism, we must readily agree to place the author among the -first critics, though not, as Dr. Johnson says, "among the first poets," -on this account alone. As a poet he must rank much higher for his Eloisa -and Rape of the Lock. The Essay, it is said, was first written in prose, -according to the precept of Vida, and the practice of Racine, who was -accustomed to draw out in plain prose, not only the subject of each of -the five acts, but of every scene, and every speech, that he might see -the conduct and coherence of the whole at one view, and would then say, -"My tragedy is finished."--WARTON. - -Most of the observations in this Essay are just, and certainly evince -good sense, an extent of reading, and powers of comparison, considering -the age of the author, extraordinary. Johnson's praise however is -exaggerated.--BOWLES. - -"Essay" in Pope's day was used in its now obsolete sense of an attempt. -Stephens in 1648 entitled his translation of the five first books of the -Thebais "an Essay upon Statius:" and Denham's "Essay on the second book -of Virgil's AEneis" is a version and not a dissertation. "I have -undertaken," Dryden wrote to Walsh, "to translate all Virgil; and as an -essay have already paraphrased the third Georgic as an example." Two -quotations in Johnson's Dictionary,--one from Dryden, the other from -Glanville,--show that the word was usually understood to imply -diffidence. Dryden, in his Epistle to Roscommon, says, - - Yet modestly he does his work survey, - And calls a finished poem an essay; - -and Glanville says, "This treatise prides itself in no higher a title -than that of an essay, or imperfect attempt at a subject." Locke named -his great and elaborate work an "Essay on the Human Understanding," from -the consciousness that it was an "imperfect attempt," and when hostile -critics refused him the benefit of his modest title, he answered that -they did his book an honour "in not suffering it to be an essay." Pope -borrowed both the word, and the plan of his poem, from some works which -enjoyed in his youth a credit far beyond their worth,--the Essay on -Translated Verse by the Earl of Roscommon, and the Essay on Satire, and -the Essay on Poetry by the Earl of Mulgrave, afterwards Duke of -Buckingham. These small productions had been suggested in their turn by -Horace's Art of Poetry, and its modern imitations. Roscommon and -Mulgrave, men of common-place minds, were incapable of originality, and -Pope, with the latent genius of a leader, was a follower in early years. - -"The things that I have written fastest," said Pope to Spence, "have -always pleased the most. I wrote the Essay on Criticism fast; for I had -digested all the matter in prose before I began upon it in verse."[2] -This last circumstance was mentioned by Warton in his Essay on the -Writings and Genius of Pope, long before the Anecdotes of Spence were -published, and Johnson commented upon the statement in his review of -Warton's work. "There is nothing," he said, "improbable in the report, -nothing indeed but what is more likely than the contrary; yet I cannot -forbear to hint the danger and weakness of trusting too readily to -information. Nothing but experience could evince the frequency of false -information, or enable any man to conceive that so many groundless -reports should be propagated as every man of eminence may hear of -himself. Some men relate what they think as what they know; some men of -confused memories and habitual inaccuracy ascribe to one man what -belongs to another; and some talk on without thought or care. A few men -are sufficient to broach falsehoods, which are afterwards innocently -diffused by successive relators."[3] The caution was not intended to -discredit the evidence of Spence. Warton had suppressed his authority, -and Johnson had a proper mistrust of common hearsay. - -On the title-page of the poem in the quarto of 1717, it is said, that it -was "written in the year 1709," to which Richardson has attached the -note, "Mr. Pope told me himself that the Essay on Criticism was, indeed, -written 1707, though said 1709 by mistake." The poet continued the -alleged mistake through all succeeding revisions. The quarto of 1743 was -the last edition he superintended, and 1709 appears as usual upon the -title-page, but Warburton announced in the final sentence of the -commentary, that the Essay was "the work of an author who had not -attained the twentieth year of his age," and as the author was born in -May, 1688, he must, according to this testimony, have completed his task -before May, 1708, which confirms the account of Richardson. Pope had -thus assigned one date to his piece on the first page of the quarto of -1743, and sanctioned the promulgation of a different date on the -concluding page. There is the same contradiction in his conversations -with Spence. "My Essay on Criticism," he said on one occasion, "was -written in 1709, and published in 1711, which is as little time as ever -I let anything of mine lay by me."[4] This agrees with the printed -title-page. "I showed Walsh," he said to Spence on another occasion, "my -Essay on Criticism in 1706. He died the year after."[5] This falls in -with the evidence of Richardson and Warburton; for Walsh died on March -15, 1708, and 1706 was an error for 1707. The double date reappears in a -note to the Pope Letters of 1735, solely through a change in the -punctuation. "Mr. Walsh," it was said in some copies, "died at 49 years -old, in the year 1708, the year after Mr. Pope writ the Essay on -Criticism." "Mr. Walsh," it was said in other copies, "died at 49 years -old in the year 1708, the year after Mr. Pope writ the Essay on -Criticism." In the first version it is asserted that the poem was -written in 1709, or the year after Mr. Walsh died; in the second version -it is asserted that it was written in 1707, and that Mr. Walsh died the -year after. Such a series of conflicting statements could not all be -accidental. When Pope published the quarto edition of his Letters in -1737, he again altered the note. "Mr. Walsh," he then said, "died at 49 -years old, in the year 1708, the year before the Essay on Criticism was -printed," which informs us of the new fact that it was printed a couple -of years before it was published, and since the poet assured Spence that -it was written two or three years before it was printed,[6] we have the -date of its composition once more thrown back to 1707. Pope forgot the -confession in the poem, ver. 735-740, that in consequence of having -"lost his guide" by the death of Walsh, he was afraid to attempt -ambitious themes, and selected the Essay on Criticism as a topic suited -to "low numbers." However fictitious may have been the reason he -assigned for the choice of his subject, he there admits that he did not -form the design till after the death of his friend in March 1708. In his -later statements he oscillated between the truth, and the desire to -magnify the precocity of his genius. He was always ambitious of the kind -of praise which Johnson bestows upon the Essay, when he calls it "the -stupendous performance of a youth not yet twenty." But at whatever -period the poem was first written, it did not appear till May, 1711, and -represents the capacity of Pope at twenty-three. He avowedly kept his -pieces long in manuscript for the purpose of maturing and polishing -them, and they were as good as he could make them at the period when -they finally left his hands. - -The Essay on Criticism was published anonymously. Warton was informed by -Lewis the bookseller, that "it laid many days in his shop unnoticed and -unread." Pope wrote word to Caryll, July 19, 1711, that he did not -expect it would ever arrive at a second edition. Piqued, said Lewis, at -the neglect, the poet one day directed copies to several great men, and -among others to Lord Lansdowne, and the Duke of Buckingham. These -presents caused the work to be talked about.[7] The name of the author, -which soon transpired, assisted the sale, and the paper of Addison in -the Spectator on December 20, 1711, brought the Essay under the notice -of the entire reading world, though it was still another twelvemonth -before the thousand copies were exhausted. - -The notoriety, if not the sale, of the Essay on Criticism must have been -promoted by the angry pamphlet put forth by Dennis six months before the -laudatory paper of Addison appeared in the Spectator.[8] Dennis was the -only living writer who was openly abused in the poem, and there was an -asperity in the language which savoured of personal hostility. He and -Pope were slightly acquainted. "At his first coming to town," says -Dennis, "he was very importunate with the late Mr. Henry Cromwell to -introduce him to me. The recommendation of Mr. Cromwell engaged me to be -about thrice in company with him; after which I went into the country, -and neither saw him, nor thought of him, till I found myself insolently -attacked by him in his very superficial Essay on Criticism."[9] A -passage quoted by Bowles from Pope's Prologue to the Satires reveals the -cause of the enmity: - - Soft were my numbers; who could take offence - While pure description held the place of sense? - Like gentle Fanny's was my flow'ry theme, - A painted mistress, or a purling stream. - Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret; - I never answered,--I was not in debt.[10] - -Here we learn that Dennis thought meanly of Pope's Pastorals. The -critic had enough taste for true poetry to despise the conventional -puerilities which, more than "pure description, held the place of sense" -in these juvenile effusions. He frequented the coffee-houses where -authors congregated, he indulged in professional talk, and his -unfavourable judgment was sure to get round to Pope. The irritation at -the time must have been great, since the censure continued to rankle in -the mind of the poet at the distance of five-and-twenty years. His -memory was less faithful when he claimed credit for not replying. He -found it convenient to forget that he had seized an early opportunity -for retaliating in the Essay on Criticism. - -Dennis complained that "he was attacked in a clandestine manner in his -person instead of his writings." "How the attack," says Johnson, "was -clandestine is not easily perceived, nor how his person is depreciated." -Evidently Dennis termed the attack clandestine, because the Essay was -anonymous, and his assailant concealed. Pope, however, had not been -studious of secrecy among his acquaintances, and Dennis showed in his -pamphlet that he knew perfectly well with whom he had to deal. His -assertion, denied by Johnson, that he was attacked "in his person -instead of his writings" is clearly correct, unless, contrary to usage, -the word is restricted to what is indelible in a man's bodily make. To -say that he reddened at every word of objection, and stared tremendous -with a threatening eye, like the fierce tyrants depicted in old -tapestry, was to represent his personal bearing and appearance in an -offensive light. Pope himself disclaimed the personality. "I cannot -conceive," he wrote to Caryll, June 25, 1711, "what ground he has for so -excessive a resentment, nor imagine how those three lines can be called -a reflection on his person which only describe him subject to a little -colour and stare on some occasions, which are revolutions that happen -sometimes in the best and most regular faces in Christendom." The -description, in other words, was not a reflection upon the person of -Dennis, because some persons with handsome faces were liable to the same -infirmity, and no satire was personal which did not declare a man to be -radically ugly. That the resentment might seem the more unreasonable, -the stare tremendous and threatening eye, were softened down to a -"little stare." This was characteristic of Pope. He was not afraid to -strike, but when the blow was resented, he frequently made a hasty and -ignominious retreat. Either he pretended that the satire was not aimed -at the individuals who called him to account, or he gave a mitigated and -erroneous version of his lampoons. - -Pope lashed Dennis for an intemperance of manner which could be -controlled at will. Dennis upbraided Pope with a deformity which he had -not caused and could not cure. "If you have a mind," said the infuriated -critic, "to enquire between Sunninghill and Oakingham, for a young, -squab, short gentleman, an eternal writer of amorous pastoral -madrigals, and the very bow of the god of Love, you will be soon -directed to him. And pray, as soon as you have taken a survey of him, -tell me whether he is a proper author to make personal reflections on -others. This little author may extol the ancients as much, and as long -as he pleases, but he has reason to thank the good gods that he was born -a modern, for had he been born of Grecian parents, and his father by -consequence had by law the absolute disposal of him, his life had been -no longer than that of one of his poems,--the life of half a day."[11] -There was a wide difference between ridiculing the distortions of -countenance which grew out of irascible vanity, and mocking at defects -which were a misfortune, and not a fault. But Pope's lines were -insulting, and a man of the world would have foreseen that Dennis would -repel insult by scurrility. The poet was as yet a novice in the coarse -personalities of that abusive age, and he had not anticipated such -brutal raillery. "The latter part of Mr. Dennis's book," he wrote to -Caryll, "is no way to be properly answered, but by a wooden weapon, and -I should perhaps have sent him a present from Windsor Forest of one of -the best and toughest oaken plants between Sunninghill and Oakingham if -he had not informed me in his preface that he is at this time persecuted -by fortune. This, I protest, I knew not the least of before; if I had, -his name had been spared in the Essay for that only reason."[12] Pope -could no more compete with Dennis in personal prowess, than Dennis could -compete in satire with Pope. His assigned reason for not executing his -empty vaunt was equally hollow. He was not wont to spare his enemies out -of consideration for their necessities, but taunted them with their -forlorn condition, and, true to his custom, the persecution of fortune, -which he said would have induced him to suppress his satire upon Dennis, -was made the ingredient of a fresh satire at a future day: - - I never answered; I was not in debt. - -The insinuation was unjust. Violent, and often wrong-headed, Dennis -spoke his genuine sentiments, and was not more a hireling than Pope, or -any other author who earns money by his pen. The poor debtor could not -have bartered his honour for a sorrier bribe. The pamphlet on the Essay -on Criticism consisted of thirty-two octavo pages of small print, with a -preface of five pages, and he received for it 2_l._ 12_s._ 6_d._ - -Dennis urged as an aggravation of the "falsehood and calumny" in the -Essay, that they proceeded from a "little affected hypocrite, who had -nothing in his mouth at the same time but truth, candour, friendship, -goodnature, humanity, and magnanimity." These are the qualities enforced -in the poem, and whether the description of Dennis, under the name of -Appius, was a faithful likeness or a caricature, the attack was at -variance with the precepts which accompanied it. Pope insisted that the -specification of faults, to be useful, must be delicate and courteous. -He laid down the proposition at ver. 573, that "blunt truths do more -mischief than nice falsehoods," and at ver. 576, that "without good -breeding truth is disapproved." At the interval of six lines he -exemplified the urbanity he enjoined by a derisive sketch which could -only be intended to injure and exasperate. The inconsistency did not -stop here. He prefaced the obnoxious passage by the maxim, "those best -can bear reproof who merit praise," and the sketch of Dennis is an -illustration of the opposite character. Was Pope a man who bore reproof -with the fortitude which entitled him to scoff at others for their -irritability? He certainly sometimes drew a flattering picture of his -own equanimity and forbearance. He assures us at ver. 741, that he was -"careless of censure." He told Spence, that "he never much minded what -his angry critics published against him,--only one or two things at -first." "When," he added, "I heard for the first time that Dennis had -written against me, it gave me some pain; but it was quite over as soon -as I came to look into his book, and found he was in such a -passion."[13] In the Prologue to the Satires, he represents himself to -have been a perfect model of candour and amiability, and says of the -objections of his correctors, - - If wrong I smiled; if right I kissed the rod.[14] - -But he could seldom keep long to one version of any subject, and the -truth comes out in his first Imitation of Horace: - - Peace is my dear delight,--not Fleury's more, - But touch me, and no minister so sore.[15] - -His works bear overwhelming testimony to the fact. His mind was like -inflamed flesh; the touch which a healthy constitution would have -disregarded, tortured and enraged him; his smile was a vindictive jeer; -and he used with acrimony the rod he professed to kiss. His soreness at -censure was the very cause of his charging the weakness upon Dennis. He -was angry at the disparagement of his Pastorals, and because he himself -was testy, he ridiculed the testiness of his critic. The accusation, -according to Dennis, was a malicious invention. "If a man," he said, "is -remarkable for the extraordinary deference which he pays to the opinions -and remonstrances of his friends, him he libels for his impatience -under reproof."[16] Though docility was not the virtue of Dennis, his -failing was probably overcharged in the Essay on Criticism, for -unmeasured exaggeration was a usual fault in the satire of Pope. - -In retaining a grudge against those who wounded his self-esteem, Pope -did not disdain to profit by their spiteful censorship. "I will make my -enemy," he said to Caryll, "do me a kindness where he meant an injury, -and so serve instead of a friend," and he requested Trumbull to tell him -"where Dennis had hit any blots."[17] He cared too much for his works to -be influenced by the stubborn pride which cannot stoop to confess an -error. Where the criticism has not been inspired by malice, authors in -general have not been intolerant of their critics. Coleridge relates -that his thankfulness to the reviewers of his juvenile poems was -sincere, when they concurred in condemning his obscurity, turgid -language, and profusion of double epithets. Of the obscurity he was -unconscious, "and my mind," he says, "was not then sufficiently -disciplined to receive the authority of others as a substitute for my -own conviction." "The glitter both of thought and diction" he pruned -with an unsparing hand, "though, in truth," he adds, "these parasite -plants of youthful poetry had insinuated themselves into my longer poems -with such intricacy of union that I was often obliged to omit -disentangling the weed from the fear of snapping the flower."[18] The -candour and manliness are charming, but it must not be overlooked that -the magnanimity diminishes as the mental capacity increases. Wakefield -well remarks that one reason why those who merit praise can best bear -reproof is, that the reproof is either counterbalanced by praise, or by -the inward consciousness that the merit is great and will prevail.[19] -Inferior writers have not the same consolation. The chief advantage -after all which authors derive from the enumeration of their defects is, -that it teaches them modesty, and the true limits of their powers. They -are seldom able to mend. The qualities they lack are not within their -reach; for the mind cannot rise above itself, and has little pliancy -when once it has taken its bent. - -The notice in the Spectator must have been doubly welcome to Pope after -the invective and cavils of Dennis. "In our own country," says Addison, -"a man seldom sets up for a poet without attacking the reputation of all -his brothers in the art. The ignorance of the moderns, the scribblers of -the age, the decay of poetry, are the topics of detraction with which he -makes his entrance into the world. I am sorry to find that an author, -who is very justly esteemed among the best judges, has admitted some -strokes of this nature into a very fine poem,--I mean the Art of -Criticism, which was published some months since, and is a master-piece -of its kind. The observations follow one another like those in Horace's -Art of Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would have been -requisite in a prose author. They are some of them uncommon, but such as -the reader must assent to, when he sees them explained with that -elegance and perspicuity in which they are delivered. As for those which -are the most known, and the most received, they are placed in so -beautiful a light, and illustrated with such apt allusions, that they -have in them all the graces of novelty, and make the reader, who was -before acquainted with them, still more convinced of their truth and -solidity. And here give me leave to mention what Monsieur Boileau has so -very well enlarged upon in the preface to his works, that wit and fine -writing do not consist so much in advancing things that are new, as in -giving things that are known an agreeable turn. It is impossible for us, -who live in the later ages of the world, to make observations in -criticism, morality, or in any art or science, which have not been -touched upon by others. We have little else left us but to represent the -common sense of mankind in more strong, more beautiful, or more uncommon -lights. If a reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but -very few precepts in it which he may not meet with in Aristotle, and -which were not commonly known by all the poets of the Augustan age. His -way of expressing and applying them, not his invention of them, is what -we chiefly admire."[20] Pope was delighted. "Moderate praise," he said -to Steele, whom he erroneously supposed to have held the pen, -"encourages a young writer, but a great deal may injure him; and you -have been so lavish in this point that I almost hope,--not to call in -question your judgment in the piece--that it was some particular -inclination to the author which carried you so far." He accepted in good -part the admonition for disparaging his "brother moderns," and expressed -his willingness to omit the "strokes" in another edition.[21] He -detected none of the "ill-nature" which Warton saw lurking in the phrase -"that _some_ of the observations were _uncommon_." Addison was familiar -with the sources from which the Essay was compiled, and could hardly -have been ignorant that even the "some" was a generous license. He -pleaded more plausibly for the work when he contended that wit consisted -in presenting old thoughts in a better dress, and that the "known -truths" in the poem were "placed in so beautiful a light, that they had -all the graces of novelty." The charge brought later by Pope against -Addison, of viewing him with jealous eyes, suggested to Warton his -strained imputation, which is not warranted by the expression he quotes, -and is contradicted by the genial tone of the praise. Addison at the -time had no acquaintance with Pope. The eulogy on the Essay was -spontaneous, and an envious rival would never have adopted the suicidal -device of voluntarily publishing a strong panegyric in a periodical -which every one read, and of which the decisions were accepted for law. - -The truth is, that Addison, by his encomiums and authority, brought into -vogue the exaggerated estimate entertained of the Essay. The authors of -the next generation read it in their boyhood, and were taught that it -was a model of its kind. Juvenile impressions retain their hold, and -upon no other supposition could we understand the preposterous opinion -of Johnson, that the work set Pope "among the first critics and the -first poets," and that he "never afterwards excelled it." Warton -disputed the rank assigned to the poet, and assented to the claim put -forth for the critic, which was equally untenable. He was misled by his -relish for platitudes. "I propose," he said, "to make some observations -on such passages and precepts in this Essay as, on account of their -utility, novelty, or elegance, deserve particular attention," and his -opening specimen of these merits is the line, - - In poets as true genius is but rare.[22] - -He selected for distinction several other remarks which were not more -exquisite in their form, or recondite in their substance. Hazlitt took -up the strain of Johnson and Warton. "The Rape of the Lock," he says, -"is a double-refined essence of wit and fancy, as the Essay on Criticism -is of wit and sense. The quantity of thought and observation in this -work, for so young a man as Pope was when he wrote it, is wonderful; -unless we adopt the supposition that most men of genius spend the rest -of their lives in teaching others what they themselves have learned -under twenty. The conciseness and felicity of the expression are equally -remarkable. Thus, in reasoning on the variety of men's opinions, he -says, - - 'Tis with our judgments, as our watches; none - Go just alike, yet each believes his own. - -Nothing can be more original and happy than the general remarks and -illustrations in the Essay: the critical rules laid down are too much -those of a school, and of a confined one."[23] De Quincey, a subtler and -sounder critic than Hazlitt, boldly challenged decisions which had -passed, but little questioned, from mouth to mouth. "The Essay on -Criticism," he says, "is the feeblest and least interesting of Pope's -writings, being substantially a mere versification, like a metrical -multiplication table, of common-places the most mouldy with which -criticism has baited its rat-traps. The maxims have no natural order or -logical dependency, are generally so vague as to mean nothing, and what -is remarkable, many of the rules are violated by no man as often as by -Pope, and by Pope nowhere so often as in this very poem."[24] The matter -of the Essay is not rated, in this passage, below its value. - -"I admired," said Lady Mary W. Montagu, "Mr. Pope's Essay on Criticism -at first very much, because I had not then read any of the ancient -critics, and did not know that it was all stolen."[25] Pope had found -the bulk of his materials nearer home. He told Spence that in his youth -"he went through all the best critics," and specified Quintilian, Rapin, -and Bossu.[26] He states in his Essay, ver. 712, that "critic-learning," -in modern times, "flourished most in France," and in fact the Rapins and -Bossus were his principal masters. They had been brought into credit -with our countrymen by Dryden. "Impartially speaking," he said, in his -Dedication to the AEneis, "the French are as much better critics than the -English as they are worse poets." He had a wonderful faith in the virtue -of their precepts. "Spenser," he said, "wanted only to have read the -rules of Bossu; for no man was ever born with a greater genius, or had -more knowledge to support it." He compared the French critics to -generals, and our celebrated poets to common soldiers; the poet executed -what the commanding mind of the critic planned.[27] The treatises which -would have perfected the genius of Spenser were shallow drowsy -productions, compounded of truisms, pedantic fallacies, and doctrines -borrowed from antiquity. Pope culled most of his maxims from these, and -other modern works. Many of his remarks were the common property of the -civilised world. A slight acquaintance with books and men is sufficient -to teach us that people are partial to their own judgment, that some -authors are not qualified to be poets, wits, or critics, and that -critics should not launch beyond their depth. Such profound reflections, -kept up throughout the Essay, owed their credit to the disguising -properties of verse. Along with the singular nicety of distinction, and -knowledge of mankind, Johnson detected a no less surprising range of -ancient and modern learning. Pope mentions Homer, Virgil, and half a -dozen Greek and Latin critics. He has characterised some of these -critics in a manner which betrays that he had never looked into their -works, and what he says of the rest only required that he should know -their writings by repute. All, and more than all, the classical -information embodied in the Essay, might have been picked up from his -French manuals in a single morning. - -A didactic poet who draws his precepts from the truisms and current -publications of his day, could not at twenty-three deserve credit for -precocity of learning or thought. He might still manifest an early -maturity of judgment in sifting the insignificant from the important, -the true from the false. Pope did not avoid the trite, but he is said to -have evinced a rare capacity for discriminating the true. Bowles agrees -with Johnson and Warton that "the good sense in the Essay is -extraordinary considering the age of the author," and it is pronounced -"an uncommon effort of critical good sense" by Hallam, conspicuous -himself for sense and sobriety.[28] Whoever looks through the -speciousness of rhyme, and views the ideas in their naked meaning, will -be much more struck by the want of good sense in the principal critical -canons. They are not even "extraordinary for the age of the author;" -versed as he was in English literature they are below his years. They -are the narrow, erroneous dogmas of a youth fresh from school-boy -studies, who imagined that the Greeks and Romans had ransacked the -illimitable realms of genius and taste, and swept off the whole of the -spoils. He broadly asserted this doctrine in the poetical creed which he -prefixed to his works.[29] He was at least old enough then to know -better, from whence it is clear that the common statements respecting -him are the opposite of the truth. He did not display the ripe judgment -of manhood in his juvenile criticism; he remained a boy in criticism -when he was a man. - -Follow nature, said Pope, in his Essay, but beware of taking nature at -first hand. Homer and nature are the same, and to copy nature is to copy -the rules deduced from his works. The ancients sometimes deviated into -excellence by throwing off their self-imposed shackles. The moderns must -not presume to be irregularly great. They must keep to the precepts, and -if they ever break a rule they must at least be able to quote a case -precisely parallel from a classical author.[30] The English had not -submitted to the wholesome restraint. They had been "fierce for the -liberties of wit," and Pope avows his conviction that the entire race of -English writers were therefore "uncivilised," with the exception of a -few who had "restored among us wit's fundamental laws." He names the -most illustrious of these reformers. They were three in number,--the -Duke of Buckingham, Lord Roscommon, and Walsh.[31] The absurdity could -not be exceeded. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton were -"uncivilised" writers; they not only fell into minor errors, but set at -nought the "_fundamental_ laws" of poetry, while the persons who taught -how English poetry was to be raised from its rude condition were a trio -of prosy mediocrities, whose works might have been annihilated without -leaving the smallest vacuum in literature. "The Duke of Buckingham," -said Pope later, "was superficial in everything; even in poetry, which -was his forte."[32] - -Pope seems to have been unconscious of the vast metamorphose which the -world had undergone since the close of the Greek and Roman eras. -Religion, institutions, usages, opinions, all had changed. Society was -in a ferment with new ideas; nations had been gathered out of new -elements; characters were moulded under new influences, and the play of -passions, interests, convictions, and policy had assumed new forms. This -altered order of things was reflected in our poetry. The mighty men of -genius who led the way could not have put aside their genuine thoughts -to mimic works which, noble in themselves, were musty and obsolete in -modern imitations. The vigorous races which had sprung up drew living -pictures from their own minds; they were inspired by national and -present sentiments; they stamped upon their verse the feelings, humours, -and beliefs of their age. They borrowed from the classics, and sometimes -with bad taste; but the extrinsic details they appropriated were not -permitted to cramp the masculine elasticity of their native fancy and -experience. The materials of the edifice, in the main, were no longer -the same, and neither was the shape they assumed. The difference was as -great as between a Grecian temple and a Gothic cathedral. The principles -which governed the ancients in their compositions were confined, and did -not give verge enough for that variety and picturesqueness among -ourselves which demanded to be embodied in written words. The -originality, which was our glory, appeared a vice to Pope. The -adaptation of the structure to its complex purposes he believed to be a -declension towards barbarism. He would have preferred that our -magnificent English literature, instinct with the freshness of nature, -and gathering into its huge circumference the growth of centuries, -should have been reduced to a stale and meagre counterfeit. The ancients -had the prerogative to make and break critical laws; the moderns must -not dare to think for themselves. Genius had been free in Greece, and -was to be altogether a slave in England. It cannot be urged in excuse -for this protest against the independence of our literature that Pope -had imbibed the prejudices of his generation. His doctrine was -hacknied, but not allowed. He admits that it had few disciples,[33] and -one of the three adherents he claimed did not belong to him. "Not only -all present poets," wrote Dryden to Walsh, in 1693, "but all who are to -come in England will thank you for freeing them from the too servile -imitation of the ancients."[34] The rules of Pope could never have -prevailed, for they were intrinsically false, and would have emasculated -every national literature. The thoughts, words, and deeds of the actual -world would not have been impressed upon its books; a gulf would have -separated the sympathies of the reader from the feeble, monotonous -unrealities of the author, and both author and reader would soon have -grown sick of this unnatural effort to be artificial and dull. - -An exclusive partisan of classical poetry, Pope did not the less -denounce sectarians in wit, the contracted spirits "who the ancients -only or the moderns prize," and he exhorted critics "to regard not if -wit be old or new."[35] The contradiction in his principles was not -accompanied by a corresponding contradiction in his practice, for in no -part of his Essay did he rectify his injustice towards his countrymen. -He had not one word of commendation for any great English poet, with the -exception of Dryden, and him he chiefly extolled, in company with Denham -and Waller, for his metrical euphony. Nay, Pope limited the fame of our -most illustrious writers to barely threescore years, on the pretence -that their language became partially obsolete, which would yet leave -them an enormous advantage over dead tongues. Because "length of fame -(our second life) is lost," he exhorted the public in common fairness to -recognise merit betimes.[36] There was not a semblance of truth in his -premise, nor was the plea which he grounded upon it admissible in his -mouth. "How vain," he exclaimed, "that second life in other's -breath,"[37] and if posthumous fame was worthless there was no claim for -compensation. In reality the value is not in the posthumous fame, but in -the anticipation which converts it into an immediate possession, the -mind feasting in imagination upon plaudits to come. The successful -author adds them to the chorus of present praise, and the unsuccessful -creates for himself the fame he lacks. The parental partiality which -appeals from contemporaries to posterity may deceive, but it soothes and -sustains. "A reputation after death," said Jortin, "is like a favourable -wind after a shipwreck."[38] Rather the faith in a future reputation is -the preservative against shipwreck, unless when men are indifferent to -literary immortality. - -The ancients, according to Pope, had a moral as well as an intellectual -superiority. Of old the poets "who but endeavoured well," were praised -by their brethren. Now those who reached the heights of Parnassus -"employed their pains in spurning down others." Of old again the -professional critic was "generous and fanned the poet's fire." Now -critics hated the poet, and all the more that they had learned from him -the art of criticism.[39] A freedom from jealousy, a liberality of -eulogy were universal with pagans; malice and envy reigned supreme in -Christendom. Upon this false pretext Pope had the luxury of indulging in -the vice he reprobated. He preached up "good-nature," he would suffer no -leaven of "spleen and sour disdain,"[40] and his Essay throughout is a -diatribe against English critics. The entire crew were spiteful -blockheads without sense or principle. The excessive rancour points to -some personal offence, and it is probable that his estimate of critics -was regulated by their low opinion of his Pastorals, which was the chief -work he had hitherto published. When he speaks of poets he keeps no -better to the leniency he advocates. He would "sometimes have censure -restrained, and would charitably let the dull be vain," upon the -uncharitable allegation that the more they were corrected the worse they -grew. He engrafts upon his recommendation of a "charitable silence," an -invective against the inferior versifiers who, in their old age, have -not discovered that they are superannuated. For this inability to detect -the decay of their faculties he calls them "shameless bards, -impenitently bold."[41] No error of judgment had a stronger claim to be -treated with tenderness, and the bitterness of the passage was the less -excusable that it was certainly directed against his former friend -Wycherley. - -There are other contradictions in the Essay, and several of the minor -positions are glaringly erroneous. Dennis was within the truth when he -said of the whole that it was "very superficial." There remains the -question whether the poem is remarkable for the beauty of expression -signalised by Addison and Hazlitt. Pope intended his work to be a -combination of highly wrought passages, and of that more easy style -described by Dryden, when he says-- - - And this unpolished, rugged verse I chose, - As fittest for discourse, and nearest prose.[42] - -The parts of the Essay which are pitched in the highest key, are far the -best, and where Pope borrowed the imagery, as in the simile of the -traveller ascending the Alps, the lines owe their splendour to his -improvements. The similes designed to be witty are less happy. One or -two only are good; the rest have little point or appropriateness. -Anxious to string together as many smart comparisons as possible, Pope -was careless of consistency. Speaking of the futility of abusing paltry -versifiers, he says, - - Still humming on, their drowsy course they keep, - And lashed so long, like tops, are lashed asleep. - False steps but help them to renew the race, - As, after stumbling, jades will mend their pace.[43] - -The meaning of the first couplet seems to be that bad poets become -callous by castigation, and indifferent to censure; the meaning of the -second that failure stimulated them to improvement. In the first couplet -they proceed from drowsiness to slumber; in the second their false steps -stir them up to mend their pace. They are first represented as -proceeding from bad to worse, and then from bad to better. The attempt -in the Essay to turn common prose into rhyme is only partially -successful. Dryden and Byron, the greatest masters in different ways of -the familiar style, pour out words in their natural order with a -marvellous vigour and facility. The merit is in this unforced idiomatic -flow of the language, unimpeded by the shackles of rhymes. Almost -anybody may convert ordinary prose into defective verse, and much of the -verse in the Essay on Criticism is of a low order. The phraseology is -frequently mean and slovenly, the construction inverted and -ungrammatical, the ellipses harsh, the expletives feeble, the metre -inharmonious, the rhymes imperfect. Striving to be poetical, Pope fell -below bald and slip-shod prose. Examples lie thick, and a couple of -specimens will be enough: - - But when t'examine ev'ry part he came. - Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do. - -The transposition of the verb for the sake of the rhyme was the rule -with Pope. He habitually succumbed to the difficulty of preserving the -legitimate arrangement of words; yet it is an anomaly in literature that -with his powers and patient industry he could tolerate such despicable -examples of the licence, and this in enunciating hacknied precepts, only -to be raised above insipidity by the perfection with which they were -moulded into verse. Where the plain portions of the poem are not -positively bad, they are seldom of any peculiar excellence. Mediocrity, -relieved by occasional well-wrought passages, forms the staple of the -work, and Hazlitt must surely have given loose to one of his wilful -paradoxes when he contended that the general characteristics of the -Essay were originality, thought, strength, terseness, wit, felicitous -expression, and brilliant illustration. - -In its metrical qualities the Essay on Criticism is the worst of Pope's -poems. One blemish is a want of variety in his final words. "There are," -says Hazlitt, "no less than half a score couplets rhyming to _sense_. -This appears almost incredible without giving the instances, and no less -so when they are given." - - But of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence - To tire our patience, than mislead our sense.--lines 3, 4. - - In search of wit, these lose their common sense, - And then turn critics in their own defence.--l. 28, 29. - - Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, - And fills up all the mighty void of sense.--l. 209, 10. - - Some by old words to fame have made pretence, - Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense.--l. 324, 5. - - 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, - The sound must seem an echo to the sense.--l. 364, 5. - - At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence, - That always shows great pride, or little sense.--l. 386, 7. - - Be silent always when you doubt your sense; - And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence.--l. 566, 7. - - Be niggards of advice on no pretence: - For the worst avarice is that of sense.--l. 578, 9. - - Strain out the last dull droppings of their sense, - And rhyme with all the rage of impotence.--l. 608, 9. - - Horace still charms with graceful negligence, - And without method talks us into sense.--l. 653, 4. - -The corresponding word which forms the rhyme is not always varied. -"Offence" is used three times, and "defence" and "pretence" are each -employed twice. - -Hazlitt might have remarked, that _wit_ was even more favoured than -_sense_, and was used with greater laxity. A wit, in the reign of Queen -Anne was not only a jester, but any author of distinction; and wit, -besides its special signification, was still sometimes employed as -synonymous with mind. The ordinary generic and specific meanings, -already confusing and fruitful in ambiguities, were not sufficient for -Pope. A wit with him was now a jester, now an author, now a poet, and -now, again, was contradistinguished from poets. Wit was the intellect, -the judgment, the antithesis to judgment, a joke, and poetry. The word -does duty, with a perplexing want of precision, throughout the essay, -and furnishes a dozen rhymes alone: - - Nature to all things fixed the limits fit, - And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit.--lines 52, 3. - - One science only will one genius fit; - So vast is art, so narrow human wit.--l. 60, 1. - - A perfect judge will read each work of wit - With the same spirit that its author writ.--l. 233, 4. - - Nor lose for that malignant dull delight, - The gen'rous pleasure to be charmed with wit.--l. 237, 8. - - As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit, - T'avoid great errors, must the less commit.--l. 259, 60. - - Pleased with a work where nothing's just or fit; - One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit.--l. 291, 2. - - As shades more sweetly recommend the light, - So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit.--l. 301, 2. - - So schismatics the plain believers quit, - And are but damned for having too much wit.--l. 428, 9. - - Oft, leaving what is natural and fit, - The current folly proves the ready wit.--l. 448, 9. - - Jilts ruled the state, and statesmen farces writ: - Nay, wits had pensions, and young lords had wit.--l. 538, 9. - - Received his laws; and stood convinced 'twas fit, - Who conquered nature, should preside o'er wit.--l. 651, 2. - - He, who supreme in judgment, as in wit, - Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ.--l. 657, 8. - -In these twelve instances "wit" rhymes five times to "fit," and three -times to "writ." The monotony extends much farther. "Art," in the -singular or plural, terminates eight lines, and in every case rhymes to -"part," "parts," or "imparts." - -Imperfect rhymes abound. The examples which follow occur in the order in -which they are set down. "None, own--showed, trod--proved, -beloved--steer, character--esteem, them--full, rule--take, track--rise, -precipice--thoughts, faults--joined, mankind--delight, wit--appear, -regular--caprice, nice--light, wit--good, blood--glass, place--sun, -upon--still, suitable--ear, repair--join, line--line, join--Jove, -love--own, town--fault, thought--worn, turn--safe, laugh--lost, -boast--boast, lost (_bis_)--join, divine--prove, love--ease, -increase--care, war--join, shine--disapproved, beloved--take, -speak--fool, dull--satires, dedicators--read, head--speaks, -makes--extreme, phlegm--find, joined--joined, mind--revive, -live--chased, passed--good, blood--desert, heart--receive, give." In -numerous instances, "the weight of the rhyme," as Johnson expresses it, -when speaking of Denham, "is laid upon a word too feeble to sustain it." - - Some positive, persisting fops we know, - Who, if once wrong, will needs be always _so_; - - We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow, - Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us _so_. - -Several lines are not metrical unless pronounced with a wrong emphasis, -as - - False eloqu[=e]nce like th[=e] prismatic glass, - -which only ceases to be prose when "the," and the last syllable of -"eloquence," are accentuated, and it is then no longer English. Examples -like - - Atones not f[=o]r that envy which it brings; - That i[=n] proud dullness joins with quality; - That not alone what t[=o] your sense is due; - -are not much better. Many of the verses, and this last is a specimen, -offend the ear by the succession of "low" and "creeping words." Pope -belonged to the class of kings he mentions in his poem, who freely -dispensed with the laws they had made. - -Johnson, commenting on Pope's attempt to adapt the sound to the sense, -thinks it a contradiction, that he employed an Alexandrine to describe -the swiftness of Camilla, and thirty years afterwards used the same -measure to denote "the march of slow-paced majesty." There was no need -to look for an instance at the interval of thirty years. It would have -been found at an interval of half thirty lines in the Essay on -Criticism, where an Alexandrine is introduced to portray the dragging -progress of the wounded snake. The juxtaposition was doubtless -deliberate for the purpose of illustrating the opposite movements of -sluggishness and celerity. Johnson misunderstood the theory. The -Alexandrine was not supposed to represent speed, but space. Thus when -Pope describes the wound of Menelaus, in his translation of the Iliad, -he says in a note, "Homer is very particular here in giving the picture -of the blood running in a long trace, lower and lower. The author's -design being only to image the streaming of the blood, it seemed -equivalent to make it trickle through the length of an Alexandrine -line." - - As down thy snowy thigh distilled the streaming flood. - -A long line being presumed to suggest the motion of a long distance, the -retarded or accelerated motion was intended to be expressed by the slow -or rapid syllables of which the line was composed. The end was not -answered, because, as Johnson remarks, the break in the middle of the -Alexandrine is antagonistic to haste, and he has equally shown that Pope -was not happy in the application of his mistaken rule. The slow march -outstrips the swift Camilla, who is even left behind by the wounded -snake in the first half of the line. Had the examples been a complete -illustration of the theory, the gain would have been nothing. -Representative metre, in the strict sense of the term, though sanctioned -by eminent names, would degrade poetry. There cannot be a paltrier -poetic effect than to mimic the roll of stones, the trickling of blood, -and the dragging motion of wounded snakes. - -"Mr. Walsh used to tell me," says Pope, "that there was one way left of -excelling; for though we had several great poets, we never had any one -great poet that was correct, and he desired me to make that my study and -aim."[44] Warton calls this "very important advice,"[45] and both he and -Pope seem to assume that it had been effectual. The notion has been -generally accepted. "To distinguish this triumvirate from each other," -says Young, "Swift is a singular wit, Pope a correct poet, Addison a -great author."[46] "He is the most perfect of our poets," said Byron; -"the only poet whose faultlessness has been made his reproach."[47] -Hazlitt took the opposite side. "Those critics who are bigoted idolisers -of our author, chiefly on the score of his correctness, seem to be of -opinion that there is but one perfect writer, even Pope. This is, -however, a mistake; his excellence is by no means faultlessness. If he -had no great faults, he is full of little errors. His grammatical -construction is often lame and imperfect. His rhymes are constantly -defective, being rhymes to the eye instead of the ear; and this to a -greater degree, not only than in later, but than in preceding, writers. -The praise of his versification must be confined to its uniform -smoothness and harmony. In the translation of the Iliad, which has been -considered as his masterpiece in style and execution, he continually -changes the tenses in the same sentence for the purposes of the rhyme, -which shows either a want of technical resources, or great inattention -to punctilious exactness."[48] De Quincey confirms Hazlitt; but, with -his profounder knowledge of the characteristics of Pope's poetry, he saw -that the incorrectness was spread wider, and went deeper. "Let us ask," -he says, "what is meant by correctness? Correctness in developing the -thought? In connecting it, or effecting the transitions? In the use of -words? In the grammar? In the metre?" In all these points he maintains -that Pope, "by comparison with other great poets, was conspicuously -deficient."[49] For an example of incorrectness in developing the -thought De Quincey refers to the character of Addison: - - Who would not laugh, if such a man there be? - Who but must weep if Atticus were he? - -"Why must we laugh? Because we find a grotesque assembly of noble and -ignoble qualities. Very well; but why, then, must we weep? Because this -assemblage is found actually existing in an eminent man of genius. Well, -that is a good reason for weeping; we weep for the degradation of human -nature. But then revolves the question, Why must we laugh? Because, if -the belonging to a man of genius were a sufficient reason for weeping, -so much we know from the very first. The very first line says, - - Peace to all such: but were there one whose fires - _True genius kindles_, and fair fame aspires. - -Thus falls to the ground the whole antithesis of this famous character. -We are to change our mood from laughter to tears upon a sudden discovery -that the character belonged to a man of genius; and this we had already -known from the beginning. Match us this prodigious oversight in -Shakspeare."[50] Pope was still more deficient in logical correctness, -in the power of preserving consistency, and coherency between -congregated ideas. "Of all poets," says De Quincey, "that have practised -reasoning in verse he is the one most inconsequential in the deduction -of his thoughts, and the most severely distressed in any effort to -effect or to explain the dependency of their parts. There are not ten -consecutive lines in Pope unaffected by this infirmity. All his thinking -proceeded by insulated and discontinuous jets, and the only resource for -him, or chance of even seeming correctness, lay in the liberty of -stringing his aphoristic thoughts, like pearls, having no relation to -each other but that of contiguity."[51] Many of his arguments are -capable of a double construction; absolute contradictions are not -uncommon; and when we try to get a connected view of his principles we -are irritated by their discordance, indefiniteness, and obscurity. As -little will his grammar bear the test of correctness. "His syntax," says -De Quincey, "is so bad as to darken his meaning at times, and at other -times to defeat it. Preterites and participles he constantly confounds, -and registers this class of blunders for ever by the cast-iron index of -rhymes that never _can_ mend." Another defect of language was, in De -Quincey's opinion, "almost peculiar to Pope." "The language does not -realise the idea: it simply suggests or hints it. Thus, to give a single -illustration: - - Know God and Nature only are the same; - In man the judgment shoots at flying game. - -The first line one would naturally construe into this: that God and -Nature were in harmony, whilst all other objects were scattered into -incoherency by difference and disunion. Not at all; it means nothing of -the kind; but that God and Nature only are exempted from the infirmities -of change. This _might_ mislead many readers; but the second line _must_ -do so: for who would not understand the syntax to be, that the judgment, -as it exists in man, shoots at flying game? But, in fact, the meaning -is, that the judgment in aiming its calculations at man, aims at an -object that is still on the wing, and never for a moment -stationary."[52] This, De Quincey contends, is the worst of all possible -faults in diction, since perspicuity, ungrammatical and inelegant, is -preferable to conundrums of which the solution is difficult, and often -doubtful. He says that there are endless varieties of the vice in Pope, -and that "he sought relief for himself from half an hour's labour at the -price of utter darkness to his reader." De Quincey was in error when he -imputed the imperfections to indolence. There never was a more -painstaking poet than Pope. His works were slowly elaborated, and -diligently revised. "I corrected," he says, "because it was as pleasant -to me to correct as to write,"[53] and his manuscripts attest his -untiring efforts to mend his composition. Language and not industry -failed him. Happy in a multitude of phrases, lines, couplets, and -passages, his vocabulary and turns of expression were often unequal to -the exactions of verse. Not even rhymes, dearly purchased by violations -of grammar and a false order of words, nor the imperfection of the -rhymes themselves, could always enable him to satisfy the double -requirement of metre and clearness. Most of his usual deviations from -correctness are especially prominent in the Essay on Criticism, and any -one who reads it with common attention might be tempted to think that -the claim which Warton and others set up for Pope, was an insidious -device to injure his reputation by diverting attention from his merits, -and basing his fame upon a foundation too unstable to support it. The -advice of Walsh was foolish. A poet who believed originality to be -exhausted, and who merely aspired to echo his predecessors, with no -distinguishing quality of his own beyond some additional correctness, -might have spared his pains. The correct imitator would be intolerable -by the side of the fresh and vigorous genius he copied. The assumption -that the domain of poetic thought had been traversed in every direction, -and that no untrodden paths were left for future explorers, was itself a -delusion, soon to be refuted by Pope's own Rape of the Lock. Many -immortal works have since belied the shallow doctrine of Walsh, who made -his dim perceptions the measure of intellectual possibilities. The -aspects under which the world, animate and inanimate, may be regarded by -the poet are practically endless. The latent truths of science do not -offer to the philosopher a more unbounded field of novelty. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - PART I. - -INTRODUCTION: That it is as great a fault to judge ill, as to write ill, - and a more dangerous one to the public, ver. 1--That a true taste is - as rare to be found as a true genius, ver. 9 to 18--That most men - are born with some taste, but spoiled by false education, ver. 19 to - 25--The multitude of critics, and causes of them, ver. 26 to - 45--That we are to study our own taste, and know the limits of it, - ver. 46 to 67--Nature the best guide of judgment, ver. 68 to - 87--Improved by art and rules, which are but methodised nature, ver. - 88--Rules derived from the practice of the ancient poets, ver. 88 to - 110--That therefore the ancients are necessary to be studied by a - critic, particularly Homer and Virgil, ver. 120 to 138--Of licenses, - and the use of them by the ancients, ver. 142 to 180--Reverence due - to the ancients, and praise of them, ver. 181, &c. - - - PART II. VER. 201, &C. - -Causes hindering a true judgment--1. Pride, ver. 208--2. Imperfect - learning, ver. 215--3. Judging by parts, and not by the whole, ver. - 233 to 288--Critics in wit, language, versification, only, ver. 288, - 305, 339, &c.--4. Being too hard to please, or too apt to admire, - ver. 384--5. Partiality, too much love to a sect, to the ancients or - moderns, ver. 394--6. Prejudice or prevention, ver. 408--7. - Singularity, ver. 424--8. Inconstancy, ver. 430--9. Party spirit, - ver. 452, &c.--10. Envy, ver. 466--Against envy and in praise of - good nature, ver. 508, &c.--When severity is chiefly to be used by - critics, ver. 526, &c. - - - PART III. VER. 560, &C. - -Rules for the conduct of manners in a critic--1. Candour, ver. - 563--Modesty, ver. 566--Good breeding, ver. 572--Sincerity and - freedom of advice, ver. 578--2. When one's counsel is to be - restrained, ver. 584--Character of an incorrigible poet, ver. - 600--And of an impertinent critic, ver. 610--Character of a good - critic, ver. 629--The history of criticism, and characters of the - best critics, Aristotle, ver. 645--Horace, ver. 653--Dionysius, ver. - 665--Petronius, ver. 667--Quintilian, ver. 670--Longinus, ver. - 675--Of the decay of criticism, and its revival. Erasmus, ver. - 693--Vida, ver. 705--Boileau, ver. 714--Lord Roscommon, &c. ver. - 725--Conclusion. - - - - - AN - - ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - 'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill - Appear in writing or in judging ill; - But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence - To tire our patience, than mislead our sense. - Some few in that, but numbers err in this, 5 - Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss; - A fool might once himself alone expose, - Now one in verse makes many more in prose.[54] - 'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none - Go just alike, yet each believes his own. 10 - In poets as true genius is but rare, - True taste as seldom is the critic's share;[55] - Both must alike from heav'n derive their light, - These born to judge, as well as those to write. - Let such teach others who themselves excel, 15 - And censure freely, who have written well.[56] - Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, - But are not critics to their judgment too? - Yet, if we look more closely, we shall find - Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind:[57] 20 - Nature affords at least a glimm'ring light, - The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn right; - But as the slightest sketch, if justly traced, } - Is by ill-colouring but the more disgraced,[58] } - So by false learning is good sense defaced:[59] } 25 - Some are bewildered in the maze of schools,[60] - And some made coxcombs nature meant but fools.[61] - In search of wit, these lose their common sense, - And then turn critics in their own defence:[62] - Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write, 30 - Or with a rival's, or an eunuch's spite.[63] - All fools have still an itching to deride, - And fain would be upon the laughing side.[64] - If Maevius scribble in Apollo's spite,[65] - There are who judge still worse than he can write. 35 - Some have at first for wits, then poets passed, - Turned critics next, and proved plain fools at last. - Some neither can for wits nor critics pass, - As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass.[66] - Those half-learned witlings, num'rous in our isle, 40 - As half-formed insects on the banks of Nile;[67] - Unfinished things, one knows not what to call,[68] - Their generation's so equivocal:[69] - To tell 'em would a hundred tongues require, - Or one vain wit's, that might a hundred tire.[70] 45 - But you who seek to give and merit fame, - And justly bear a critic's noble name, - Be sure yourself and your own reach to know, - How far your genius, taste, and learning go;[71] - Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet, 50 - And mark that point where sense and dulness meet. - Nature to all things fixed the limits fit, - And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit. - As on the land while here the ocean gains, - In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains; 55 - Thus in the soul while memory prevails, - The solid pow'r of understanding fails;[72] - Where beams of warm imagination play,[73] - The memory's soft figures melt away.[74] - One science only will one genius fit; 60 - So vast is art, so narrow human wit:[75] - Not only bounded to peculiar arts, - But oft in those confined to single parts. - Like kings we lose the conquests gained before, - By vain ambition still to make them more 65 - Each might his sev'ral province well command, - Would all but stoop to what they understand. - First follow nature, and your judgment frame - By her just standard,[76] which is still the same: - Unerring nature, still divinely bright, 70 - One clear, unchanged, and universal light,[77] - Life, force, and beauty, must to all impart,[78] - At once the source, and end, and test of art. - Art from that fund each just supply provides; - Works without show, and without pomp presides:[79] 75 - In some fair body thus th' informing soul - With spirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole,[80] - Each motion guides, and ev'ry nerve sustains; - Itself unseen, but in th' effects remains.[81] - Some, to whom heav'n in wit has been profuse, 80 - Want as much more, to turn it to its use;[82] - For wit and judgment often are at strife,[83] - Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. - 'Tis more to guide, than spur the muse's steed; - Restrain his fury, than provoke his speed; 85 - The winged courser, like a gen'rous horse,[84] - Shows most true mettle when you check his course. - Those rules of old discovered, not devised, - Are nature still, but nature methodised;[85] - Nature, like liberty,[86] is but restrained 90 - By the same laws which first herself ordained. - Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites, - When to repress, and when indulge our flights: - High on Parnassus' top her sons she showed, - And pointed out those arduous paths they trod; 95 - Held from afar, aloft, th' immortal prize,[87] - And urged the rest by equal steps to rise. - Just precepts thus from great examples giv'n,[88] - She drew from them what they derived from heav'n,[89] - The gen'rous critic fanned the poet's fire, 100 - And taught the world with reason to admire. - Then criticism the muse's handmaid proved, - To dress her charms, and make her more beloved: - But following wits from that intention strayed, - Who could not win the mistress, wooed the maid;[90] 105 - Against the poets their own arms they turned, - Sure to hate most the men from whom they learned.[91] - So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art - By doctors' bills[92] to play the doctor's part, - Bold in the practice of mistaken rules, 110 - Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools. - Some on the leaves of ancient authors prey, - Nor time nor moths e'er spoiled[93] so much as they; - Some dryly plain, without invention's aid, - Write dull receipts how poems may be made; 115 - These leave the sense, their learning to display, - And those explain the meaning quite away. - You then whose judgment the right course would steer, - Know well each ancient's proper character; - His fable, subject, scope in ev'ry page; 120 - Religion, country, genius of his age:[94] - Without all these at once before your eyes, - Cavil you may,[95] but never criticise.[96] - Be Homer's works your study and delight, - Read them by day, and meditate by night;[97] 125 - Thence form your judgment, thence your maxims bring, - And trace the muses upward to their spring.[98] - Still with itself compared, his text peruse;[99] - And let your comment be the Mantuan muse. - When first young Maro in his boundless mind 130 - A work t' outlast[100] immortal Rome designed,[101] - Perhaps he seemed above the critic's law, - And but from nature's fountain scorned to draw: - But when t' examine ev'ry part he came, - Nature and Homer were, he found, the same. 135 - Convinced, amazed, he checks the bold design: } - And rules as strict his laboured work confine,[102] } - As if the Stagyrite[103] o'erlooked each line.[104] } - Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem; - To copy nature is to copy them.[105] 140 - Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, - For there's a happiness as well as care. - Music resembles poetry; in each } - Are nameless graces which no methods teach,[106] } - And which a master hand alone can reach. } 145 - If, where the rules not far enough extend,[107] - (Since rules were made but to promote their end,) - Some lucky licence answer to the full - Th' intent proposed, that licence is a rule. - Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take, 150 - May boldly deviate from the common track. - Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend,[108] - And rise to faults true critics dare not mend;[109] - From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part, - And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,[110] 155 - Which, without passing through the judgment, gains - The heart, and all its end at once attains. - In prospects, thus, some objects please our eyes, } - Which out of nature's common order rise,[111] } - The shapeless rock, or hanging precipice.[112] } 160 - But though the ancients thus their[113] rules invade, - (As kings dispense with laws themselves have made,[114]) - Moderns, beware! or if you must offend - Against the precept, ne'er transgress its end; - Let it be seldom, and compelled by need; 165 - And have, at least, their precedent to plead. - The critic else proceeds without remorse, - Seizes your fame, and puts his laws in force. - I know there are, to whose presumptuous thoughts - Those freer beauties, ev'n in them, seem faults.[115] 170 - Some figures monstrous and mis-shaped[116] appear, - Considered singly, or beheld too near, - Which, but proportioned to their light, or place, - Due distance reconciles to form and grace.[117] - A prudent chief not always must display[118] 175 - His pow'rs in equal rank, and fair array, - But with th' occasion and the place comply, - Conceal his force, nay, seem sometimes to fly. - Those oft are stratagems which errors seem,[119] - Nor is it Homer nods but we that dream.[120] 180 - Still green with bays each ancient altar stands, - Above the reach of sacrilegious hands;[121] - Secure from flames, from envy's fiercer rage, - Destructive war, and all-involving age.[122] - See, from each clime, the learn'd their incense bring; 185 - Hear, in all tongues consenting Paeans ring! - In praise so just let ev'ry voice be joined, - And fill the gen'ral chorus of mankind.[123] - Hail, bards triumphant! born in happier days;[124] - Immortal heirs of universal praise! 190 - Whose honours with increase of ages grow, - As streams roll down, enlarging as they flow; - Nations unborn your mighty names shall sound, - And worlds applaud, that must not yet be found![125] - O may some spark of your celestial fire, 195 - The last, the meanest of your sons inspire, - (That on weak wings, from far, pursues your flights; - Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes,) - To teach vain wits a science little known, - T' admire superior sense, and doubt their own! 200 - - - II. - - Of all the causes which conspire to blind - Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind, - What the weak head with strongest bias rules, - Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. - Whatever nature has in worth denied,[126] 205 - She gives in large recruits of needful pride; - For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find - What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind:[127] - Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, - And fills up all the mighty void of sense. 210 - If once right reason drives that cloud away, - Truth breaks upon us with resistless day. - Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, - Make use of ev'ry friend and ev'ry foe. - A little learning is a dang'rous thing; 215 - Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:[128] - There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, - And drinking largely sobers us again. - Fired at first sight with what the muse imparts,[129] - In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,[130] 220 - While from the bounded level of our mind, - Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;[131] - But more advanced, behold with strange surprise, - New distant scenes of endless science rise! - So pleased at first the tow'ring Alps we try,[132] 225 - Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky, - Th' eternal snows appear already past, - And the first clouds and mountains seem the last: - But those attained, we tremble to survey - The growing labours of the lengthened way, 230 - Th' increasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes, - Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise![133] - A perfect judge will read each work of wit[134] - With the same spirit that its author writ:[135] - Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find 235 - Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind; - Nor lose for that malignant dull delight, - The gen'rous pleasure to be charmed with wit. - But in such lays as neither ebb nor flow,[136] - Correctly cold,[137] and regularly low, 240 - That, shunning faults, one quiet tenour keep, - We cannot blame indeed, but we may sleep. - In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts - Is not th' exactness of peculiar parts; - 'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call, 245 - But the joint force and full result of all.[138] - Thus when we view some well-proportioned dome, - (The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome![139]) - No single parts unequally surprise, - All comes united to th' admiring eyes; 250 - No monstrous height, or breadth, or length, appear;[140] - The whole at once is bold, and regular. - Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, - Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.[141] - In ev'ry work regard the writer's end, 255 - Since none can compass more than they intend; - And if the means be just, the conduct true, - Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due.[142] - As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit, - T' avoid great errors, must the less commit: 260 - Neglect the rules each verbal critic lays,[143] - For not to know some trifles is a praise.[144] - Most critics, fond of some subservient art, - Still make the whole depend upon a part: - They talk of principles, but notions prize, 265 - And all to one loved folly sacrifice. - Once on a time, La Mancha's knight, they say,[145] - A certain bard encount'ring on the way, - Discoursed in terms as just, with looks as sage, - As e'er could Dennis, of the Grecian stage;[146] 270 - Concluding all were desp'rate sots and fools, - Who durst depart from Aristotle's rules. - Our author, happy in a judge so nice, - Produced his play, and begged the knight's advice; - Made him observe the subject, and the plot, 275 - The manners, passions, unities, what not, - All which, exact to rule, were brought about, - Were but a combat in the lists left out. - "What! leave the combat out!" exclaims the knight; - Yes, or we must renounce the Stagyrite. 280 - "Not so, by heav'n!" he answers in a rage, - "Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage." - So vast a throng the stage can ne'er contain. - "Then build a new, or act it in a plain."[147] - Thus critics of less judgment than caprice, 285 - Curious not knowing,[148] not exact but nice, - Form short ideas; and offend in arts, - As most in manners, by a love to parts.[149] - Some to conceit alone their taste confine, - And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at ev'ry line; 290 - Pleased with a work where nothing's just or fit; - One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit. - Poets, like painters, thus unskilled to trace - The naked nature, and the living grace, - With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part, 295 - And hide with ornaments their want of art.[150] - True wit is nature[151] to advantage dressed; - What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed;[152] - Something, whose truth convinced at sight we find, - That gives us back the image of our mind. 300 - As shades more sweetly recommend the light,[153] - So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit;[154] - For works may have more wit than does 'em good,[155] - As bodies perish through excess of blood. - Others for language all their care express, 305 - And value books, as women men, for dress: - Their praise is still,--the style is excellent; - The sense, they humbly take upon content.[156] - Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, - Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found: 310 - False eloquence, like the prismatic glass, - Its gaudy colours spreads on ev'ry place; - The face of nature we no more survey, - All glares alike, without distinction gay; - But true expression, like th' unchanging sun, } 315 - Clears and improves whate'er it shines upon, } - It gilds all objects, but it alters none.[157] } - Expression is the dress of thought, and still - Appears more decent,[158] as more suitable:[159] - A vile conceit in pompous words expressed 320 - Is like a clown in regal purple dressed: - For diff'rent styles with diff'rent subjects sort, - As sev'ral garbs with country, town, and court. - Some by old words to fame have made pretence,[160] - Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense; 325 - Such laboured nothings, in so strange a style, - Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile. - Unlucky, as Fungoso in the play,[161] } - These sparks with awkward vanity display } - What the fine gentleman wore yesterday; } 330 - And but so mimic ancient wits at best, - As apes our grandsires, in their doublets drest. - In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; - Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: - Be not the first by whom the new are tried,[162] 335 - Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. - But most by numbers judge a poet's song, - And smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong:[163] - In the bright muse, though thousand charms conspire, - Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire; 340 - Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, } - Not mend their minds; as some to church repair, } - Not for the doctrine, but the music there.[164] } - These equal syllables alone require, - Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire;[165] 345 - While expletives their feeble aid do join;[166] - And ten low words[167] oft creep in one dull line:[168] - While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, - With sure returns of still expected rhymes;[169] - Where'er you find "the cooling western breeze," 350 - In the next line, it "whispers through the trees:" - If crystal streams "with pleasing murmurs creep," - The reader's threatened, not in vain, with "sleep:"[170] - Then, at the last and only couplet fraught - With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, 355 - A needless Alexandrine ends the song, - That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.[171] - Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes,[172] and know - What's roundly smooth, or languishingly slow; - And praise[173] the easy vigour of a line, 360 - Where Denham's strength, and Waller's sweetness join.[174] - True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,[175] - As those move easiest who have learned to dance. - 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, - The sound must seem an echo to the sense.[176] 365 - Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,[177] - And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; - But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,[178] - The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar: - When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,[179] 370 - The line too labours, and the words move slow:[180] - Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, - Flies o'er th' unbending corn,[181] and skims along the main.[182] - Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise,[183] - And bid alternate passions fall and rise![184] 375 - While at each change, the son of Libyan Jove - Now burns with glory, and then melts with love; - Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow, - Now sighs steal out, and tears begin to flow:[185] - Persians and Greeks like turns of nature found, 380 - And the world's victor stood subdued by sound! - The pow'r of music all our hearts allow, - And what Timotheus was, is Dryden now.[186] - Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such, - Who still are pleased too little or too much. 385 - At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence, - That always shows great pride, or little sense: - Those heads, as stomachs, are not sure the best, - Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest. - Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move; 390 - For fools admire, but men of sense approve:[187] - As things seem large which we through mists descry, - Dulness is ever apt to magnify. - Some foreign writers,[188] some our own despise; - The ancients only, or the moderns prize. 395 - Thus wit, like faith, by each man is applied - To one small sect, and all are damned beside.[189] - Meanly they seek the blessing to confine, - And force that sun but on a part to shine, - Which not alone the southern wit sublimes, 400 - But ripens spirits in cold northern climes; - Which, from the first has shone on ages past, - Enlights[190] the present, and shall warm the last; - Though each may feel increases and decays,[191] - And see now clearer and now darker days: 405 - Regard not then if wit be old or new, - But blame the false, and value still the true. - Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own,[192] - But catch the spreading notion of the town: - They reason and conclude by precedent, 410 - And own stale nonsense which they ne'er invent. - Some judge of authors' names, not works, and then - Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men. - Of all this servile herd, the worst is he - That in proud dulness joins with quality,[193] 415 - A constant critic at the great man's board, - To fetch and carry nonsense for my lord. - What woeful stuff this madrigal would be, - In some starved hackney sonneteer, or me![194] - But let a lord once own the happy lines, 420 - How the wit brightens! how the style refines! - Before his sacred name flies ev'ry fault, - And each exalted stanza teems with thought! - The vulgar thus through imitation err; - As oft the learn'd by being singular; 425 - So much they scorn the crowd, that if the throng - By chance go right, they purposely go wrong: - So schismatics the plain believers quit,[196] - And are but damned for having too much wit. - Some praise at morning what they blame at night; 430 - But always think the last opinion right. - A muse by these is like a mistress used, - This hour she's idolised, the next abused; - While their weak heads, like towns unfortified, - 'Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their side.[197] 435 - Ask them the cause; they're wiser still they say; - And still to-morrow's wiser than to-day. - We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow; - Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so. - Once school divines this zealous isle o'erspread; 440 - Who knew most Sentences,[198] was deepest read; - Faith, gospel, all, seemed made to be disputed, - And none had sense enough to be confuted: - Scotists and Thomists,[199] now, in peace remain, - Amidst their kindred cobwebs[200] in Duck-lane.[201] 445 - If faith itself has diff'rent dresses worn, - What wonder modes in wit should take their turn?[202] - Oft, leaving what is natural and fit, - The current folly proves the ready wit; - And authors think their reputation safe, 450 - Which lives as long as fools are pleased to laugh. - Some valuing those of their own side or mind, - Still make themselves the measure of mankind: - Fondly we think we honour merit then, - When we but praise ourselves in other men. 455 - Parties in wit attend on those of state, - And public faction doubles private hate.[203] - Pride, malice, folly, against Dryden rose, - In various shapes of parsons, critics, beaus;[204] - But sense survived when merry jests were past; 460 - For rising merit will buoy up at last. - Might he return, and bless once more our eyes,[205] - New Blackmores and new Milbournes must arise:[206] - Nay, should great Homer lift his awful head, - Zoilus[207] again would start up from the dead. 465 - Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue; - But like a shadow, proves the substance true: - For envied wit, like Sol eclipsed, makes known - Th' opposing body's grossness, not its own. - When first that sun too pow'rful beams displays, 470 - It draws up vapours which obscure its rays; - But ev'n those clouds at last adorn its way, - Reflect new glories, and augment the day.[208] - Be thou the first true merit to befriend; - His praise is lost, who stays till all commend. 475 - Short is the date, alas! of modern rhymes, - And 'tis but just to let them live betimes. - No longer now that golden age appears, - When patriarch wits survived a thousand years: - Now length of fame (our second life) is lost, 480 - And bare threescore is all ev'n that can boast;[209] - Our sons their fathers' failing language see, - And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be. - So when the faithful pencil has designed - Some bright idea of the master's mind, 485 - Where a new world leaps out at his command, - And ready nature waits upon his hand; - When the ripe colours soften and unite, - And sweetly melt into just shade and light; - When mellowing years their full perfection give, 490 - And each bold figure just begins to live, - The treach'rous colours the fair art betray,[210] - And all the bright creation fades away! - Unhappy wit, like most mistaken things,[211] - Atones not for that envy which it brings. 495 - In youth alone its empty praise we boast,[212] - But soon the short-lived vanity is lost: - Like some fair flow'r the early spring supplies,[213] - That gaily blooms, but ev'n in blooming dies. - What is this wit, which must our cares employ?[214] 500 - The owner's wife,[215] that other men enjoy; - Then most our trouble still when most admired, - And still the more we give, the more required;[216] - Whose fame with pains we guard, but lose with ease,[217] - Sure some to vex, but never all to please; 505 - 'Tis what the vicious fear, the virtuous shun, - By fools 'tis hated, and by knaves undone! - If wit so much from ign'rance undergo, - Ah let not learning too commence its foe![218] - Of old, those met rewards who could excel, 510 - And such were praised who but endeavour'd well:[219] - Though, triumphs were to gen'rals only due, - Crowns were reserved to grace the soldiers too. - Now, they who reach Parnassus' lofty crown,[220] - Employ their pains to spurn some others down; 515 - And while self-love each jealous writer rules, - Contending wits become the sport of fools:[221] - But still the worst with most regret commend, - For each ill author is as bad a friend.[222] - To what base ends, and by what abject ways, 520 - Are mortals urged through sacred lust of praise![223] - Ah ne'er so dire a thirst of glory boast,[224] - Nor in the critic let the man be lost. - Good-nature and good sense must ever join; - To err is human, to forgive, divine. 525 - But if in noble minds some dregs remain - Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain; - Discharge that rage on more provoking crimes, - Nor fear a dearth in these flagitious times. - No pardon vile obscenity should find,[225] 530 - Though wit and art conspire to move your mind;[226] - But dulness with obscenity must prove - As shameful sure as impotence in love. - In the fat age of pleasure, wealth, and ease, - Sprung the rank weed,[227] and thrived with large increase: 535 - When love was all an easy monarch's care; - Seldom at council, never in a war: - Jilts ruled the state, and statesmen farces writ: - Nay, wits had pensions,[228] and young lords had wit;[229] - The fair sat panting at a courtier's play, 540 - And not a mask[230] went unimproved away: - The modest fan was lifted up no more,[231] - And virgins smiled at what they blushed before. - The following licence of a foreign reign - Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain;[232] 545 - Then unbelieving priests reformed the nation,[233] - And taught more pleasant methods of salvation;[234] - Where heaven's free subjects might their rights dispute, - Lest God himself should seem too absolute: - Pulpits their sacred satire learned to spare, 550 - And vice admired to find a flatt'rer there![235] - Encouraged thus, wit's Titans braved the skies, - And the press groaned with licensed blasphemies. - These monsters, critics! with your darts engage, - Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage! 555 - Yet shun their fault, who, scandalously nice, - Will needs mistake an author into vice; - All seems infected that th' infected spy, - As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.[236] - - - III. - - Learn then what morals critics ought to show, 560 - For 'tis but half a judge's task, to know. - 'Tis not enough, taste, judgment, learning, join; - In all you speak, let truth and candour shine, - That not alone what to your sense is due - All may allow, but seek your friendship too. 565 - Be silent always when you doubt your sense; - And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence:[237] - Some positive, persisting fops we know, - Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so; - But you with pleasure own your errors past, 570 - And make each day a critique on the last. - 'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; - Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do; - Men must be taught as if you taught them not, - And things unknown proposed as things forgot. 575 - Without good-breeding truth is disapproved; - That only makes superior sense beloved. - Be niggards of advice on no pretence: - For the worst avarice is that of sense. - With mean complaisance ne'er betray your trust, 580 - Nor be so civil as to prove unjust.[238] - Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; - Those best can bear reproof, who merit praise. - 'Twere well might critics still this freedom take, - But Appius reddens[239] at each word you speak, 585 - And stares, tremendous, with a threat'ning eye, - Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry.[240] - Fear most to tax an Honourable fool, - Whose right it is, uncensured, to be dull; - Such, without wit, are poets when they please, 590 - As without learning they can take degrees.[241] - Leave dang'rous truths to unsuccessful satires, - And flattery to fulsome dedicators, - Whom, when they praise, the world believes no more, - Than when they promise to give scribbling o'er. 595 - 'Tis best sometimes your censure to restrain, - And charitably let the dull be vain:[242] - Your silence there is better than your spite, - For who can rail so long as they can write?[243] - Still humming on, their drowsy course they keep, 600 - And lashed so long, like tops, are lashed asleep.[244] - False steps but help them to renew the race, - As, after stumbling, jades will mend their pace. - What crowds of these, impenitently bold, - In sounds and jingling syllables grown old, 605 - Still run on poets in a raging vein, - Ev'n to the dregs and squeezing of the brain, - Strain out the last dull droppings[245] of their sense, - And rhyme with all the rage of impotence. - Such shameless bards we have; and yet, 'tis true, 610 - There are as mad, abandoned critics too. - The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, - With loads of learned lumber in his head,[246] - With his own tongue still edifies his ears, - And always list'ning to himself appears. 615 - All books he reads, and all he reads assails, - From Dryden's Fables down to Durfey's Tales. - With him most authors steal their works, or buy; - Garth did not write his own Dispensary.[247] - Name a new play, and he's the poet's friend, 620 - Nay, showed his faults--but when would poets mend? - No place so sacred from such fops is barred,[248] - Nor is Paul's church[249] more safe than Paul's churchyard:[250] - Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead; - For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.[251] 625 - Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks, } - It still looks home, and short excursions makes;[252] } - But rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks, } - And never shocked, and never turned aside, - Bursts out, resistless, with a thund'ring tide. 630 - But where's the man, who counsel can bestow, - Still pleased to teach, and yet not proud to know? - Unbiassed, or by favour, or by spite; - Not dully prepossessed, nor blindly right; - Though learn'd, well-bred; and though well-bred, sincere; - Modestly bold, and humanly[253] severe; 636 - Who to a friend his faults can freely show, - And gladly praise the merit of a foe? - Blest with a taste exact, yet unconfined; - A knowledge both of books and human kind; 640 - Gen'rous converse; a soul exempt from pride; - And love to praise,[254] with reason on his side? - Such once were critics; such the happy few, - Athens and Rome in better ages knew.[255] - The mighty Stagyrite first left the shore, 645 - Spread all his sails, and durst the deeps explore;[256] - He steered securely, and discovered far,[257] - Led by the light of the Maeonian star.[258] - Poets, a race long unconfined, and free, - Still fond and proud of savage liberty, 650 - Received his laws;[259] and stood convinced 'twas fit, - Who conquered nature, should preside o'er wit.[260] - Horace still charms with graceful negligence,[261] - And without method talks us into sense; - Will, like a friend, familiarly convey 655 - The truest notions in the easiest way. - He, who supreme in judgment, as in wit, - Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ, - Yet judged with coolness,[262] though he sung with fire; - His precepts teach but what his works inspire. 660 - Our critics take a contrary extreme, - They judge with fury, but they write with phlegm:[263] - Nor suffers Horace more in wrong translations - By wits, than critics in as wrong quotations.[264] - See Dionysius[265] Homer's thoughts refine, 665 - And call new beauties forth from ev'ry line! - Fancy and art in gay Petronius please, - The scholar's learning, with the courtier's ease.[266] - In grave Quintilian's[267] copious work, we find - The justest rules, and clearest method joined: 670 - Thus useful arms in magazines we place, - All ranged in order, and disposed with grace, - But less to please the eye, than arm the hand, - Still fit for use, and ready at command.[268] - Thee, bold Longinus! all the Nine inspire,[269] 675 - And bless their critic with a poet's fire. - An ardent judge, who, zealous in his trust, - With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just: - Whose own example strengthens all his laws; - And is himself that great sublime he draws.[270] 680 - Thus long succeeding critics justly reigned, - Licence repressed, and useful laws ordained. - Learning and Rome alike in empire grew; - And arts still followed where her eagles flew; - From the same foes, at last, both felt[271] their doom, 685 - And the same age saw learning fall and Rome.[272] - With tyranny, then superstition joined, - As that the body, this enslaved the mind;[273] - Much was believed, but little understood,[274] - And to be dull was construed to be good;[275] 690 - A second deluge learning thus o'er-run, - And the monks finished what the Goths begun.[276] - At length Erasmus, that great injured name, - (The glory of the priesthood and the shame!)[277] - Stemmed the wild torrent of a barb'rous age,[278] 695 - And drove those holy Vandals off the stage. - But see! each muse, in Leo's golden days, - Starts from her trance, and trims her withered bays, - Rome's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread,[279] - Shakes off the dust, and rears his rev'rend head. 700 - Then sculpture and her sister-arts revive; - Stones leaped to form, and rocks began to live;[280] - With sweeter notes each rising temple rung;[281] - A Raphael painted, and a Vida sung.[282] - Immortal Vida: on whose honoured brow 705 - The poet's bays and critic's ivy grow:[283] - Cremona now shall ever boast thy name, - As next in place to Mantua, next in fame![284] - But soon by impious arms from Latium chased, - Their ancient bounds the banished Muses passed.[285] 710 - Thence arts o'er all the northern world advance, - But critic-learning flourished most in France; - The rules a nation, born to serve,[286] obeys; - And Boileau still in right of Horace sways.[287] - But we, brave Britons, foreign laws despised, 715 - And kept unconquered, and uncivilized; - Fierce for the liberties of wit, and bold, - We still defied the Romans, as of old.[288] - Yet some there were, among the sounder few - Of those who less presumed, and better knew, 720 - Who durst assert the juster ancient cause, - And here restored wit's fundamental laws. - Such was the Muse, whose rules and practice tell - "Nature's chief master-piece is writing well."[289] - Such was Roscommon, not more learn'd than good,[290] 725 - With manners gen'rous as his noble blood; - To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, - And ev'ry author's merit, but his own.[291] - Such late was Walsh,[292] the muse's judge and friend, - Who justly knew to blame or to commend: 730 - To failings mild, but zealous for desert; - The clearest head, and the sincerest heart. - This humble praise, lamented shade! receive, - This praise at least a grateful muse may give: - The muse, whose early voice you taught to sing, 735 - Prescribed her heights, and pruned her tender wing, - (Her guide now lost) no more attempts to rise, - But in low numbers short excursions tries;[293] - Content, if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view, - The learn'd reflect on what before they knew: 740 - Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame; - Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame;[294] - Averse alike to flatter, or offend; - Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.[295] - - - - - APPENDIX. - - -Dr. Warburton, endeavouring to demonstrate, what Addison could not -discover, nor what Pope himself, according to the testimony of his -intimate friend, Richardson, ever thought of or intended, that this -Essay was written with a methodical and systematical regularity, has -accompanied the whole with a long and laboured commentary, in which he -has tortured many passages to support this groundless opinion. Warburton -had certainly wit, genius, and much miscellaneous learning; but was -perpetually dazzled and misled, by the eager desire of seeing everything -in a new light unobserved before, into perverse interpretations and -forced comments. It is painful to see such abilities wasted on such -unsubstantial objects. Accordingly his notes on Shakspeare have been -totally demolished by Edwards and Malone; and Gibbon has torn up by the -roots his fanciful and visionary interpretation of the sixth book of -Virgil. And but few readers, I believe, will be found that will -cordially subscribe to an opinion lately delivered,[296] that his notes -on Pope's Works are the very best ever given on any classic whatever. -For, to instance no other, surely the attempt to reconcile the doctrines -of the Essay on Man to the doctrines of revelation, is the rashest -adventure in which ever critic yet engaged. This is, in truth, to -divine, rather than to explain an author's meaning.--WARTON. - -If this Commentary were only a perverse and forced interpretation, as -Warton insinuates, it is scarcely likely that Pope would have approved -of it so highly, as not only to speak of it in the warmest terms of -admiration, but to allow it to accompany his own edition of the poem. To -assert that Pope was not the best judge of his own meaning, is an insult -not only to his understanding, but to common sense; and to discard the -commentary of Warburton, as Warton has done in his edition, in order to -replace it by a series of notes, intended to impress the reader with his -own opinions, is a kind of infringement on those rights, which had -already been decided on by the only person who was entitled to judge on -the subject. For these reasons I have thought it advisable, in this -edition, to restore the commentary of Warburton entire, which has only -been partially done by Mr. Bowles; conceiving that it is as injurious, -if not more so, to the commentator, whose object it is to demonstrate -the order and consistency of the poem, to deprive him of a portion of -his remarks, as it is to deprive him of them altogether.--ROSCOE. - -Warburton's commentary proceeded upon two assumptions, which are not -complimentary to Pope. The first was that a poem which had contracted no -obscurity from age, and which consisted of a series of simple precepts, -was written in a manner so confused that it would not be intelligible to -ordinary readers, unless the whole was retold in cumbrous prose. The -second assumption was that Pope was so deficient in power of expression -that his ideas were constantly at variance with his words. One of the -sarcastic canons of criticism which Edwards deduced from Warburton's -Shakspeare was that an editor "may interpret his author so as to make -him mean directly contrary to what he says," and certain it is that if -Warburton's explanations are correct, Pope's language was often sadly -inaccurate. Roscoe, in effect, adopts the last solution, for he urges -that Pope, who was the best judge of his own meaning, acknowledged his -meaning to be that which Warburton ascribed to him. There is another, -and more probable alternative. Though Pope undeniably knew his own -meaning best, his vanity may have been gratified by the subtle views -which were imputed to him, and he may have had the weakness, in -consequence, to adopt interpretations which never crossed his mind when -he composed his poem. Since, however, he desired that his works should -be read by the light of Warburton's paraphrase, an editor is not -warranted in overruling the decision of the author, and on this account -the commentary and notes of Warburton are printed in their integrity, -though in themselves they are tedious, verbose, and barren. - - - - - THE COMMENTARY AND NOTES OF - - W. WARBURTON - - ON THE - - ESSAY ON CRITICISM. - - - COMMENTARY. - -_An Essay._] The poem is in one book, but divided into three principal -parts or members. The first, to ver. 201, gives rules for the study of -the art of criticism: the second, from thence to ver. 560, exposes the -causes of wrong judgment: and the third, from thence to the end, marks -out the morals of the critic. - -In order to a right conception of this poem, it will be necessary to -observe, that though it be entitled simply An Essay on Criticism, yet -several of the precepts relate equally to the good writing as well as to -the true judging of a poem. This is so far from violating the unity of -the subject, that it preserves and completes it: or from disordering the -regularity of the form, that it adds beauty to it, as will appear by the -following considerations: 1. It was impossible to give a full and exact -idea of the art of poetical criticism, without considering at the same -time the art of poetry; so far as poetry is an art. These therefore -being closely connected in nature, the author has, with much judgment, -interwoven the precepts of each reciprocally through his whole poem. 2. -As the rules of the ancient critics were taken from poets who copied -nature, this is another reason why every poet should be a critic: -therefore as the subject is poetical criticism, it is frequently -addressed to the critical poet. And 3dly, the art of criticism is as -properly, and much more usefully exercised in writing than in judging. - -But readers have been misled by the modesty of the title, which only -promises an art of criticism, to expect little, where they will find a -great deal,--a treatise, and that no incomplete one, of the art both of -criticism and poetry. This, and the not attending to the considerations -offered above, was what, perhaps misled a very candid writer, after -having given the Essay on Criticism all the praises on the side of -genius and poetry which his true taste could not refuse it, to say, that -"the observations follow one another like those in Horace's Art of -Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would have been -requisite in a prose writer." Spect. No. 235. I do not see how method -can hurt any one grace of poetry: or what prerogative there is in verse -to dispense with regularity. The remark is false in every part of it. -Mr. Pope's Essay on Criticism, the reader will soon see, is a regular -piece, and a very learned critic has lately shown that Horace had the -same attention to method in his Art of Poetry. See Mr. Hurd's Comment on -the Epistle to the Pisos.[297] - -Ver. 1. _'Tis hard to say, &c._] The poem opens, from ver. 1 to 9, with -showing the use and seasonableness of the subject. Its use, from the -greater mischief in wrong criticism than in ill poetry--this only -tiring, that misleading the reader. Its seasonableness, from the growing -number of bad critics, which now vastly exceeds that of bad poets. - -Ver. 9. _'Tis with our judgments, &c._] The author having shown us the -expediency of his subject, the art of criticism, inquires next, from -ver. 8 to 15, into the proper qualities of a true critic, and observes -first, that judgment alone is not sufficient to constitute this -character, because judgment, like the artificial measures of time, goes -different, and yet each man relies upon his own. The reasoning is -conclusive, and the similitude extremely just. For judgment, when it is -alone, is generally regulated, or at least much influenced, by custom, -fashion, and habit; and never certain and constant but when founded upon -and accompanied by taste, which is in the critic, what in the poet we -call genius. Both are derived from heaven, and like the sun, the natural -measure of time, always constant and equable. - -Judgment alone, it is allowed, will not make a poet; where is the wonder -then, that it will not make a critic in poetry? For on examination we -shall find, that genius and taste are but one and the same faculty, -differently exerting itself under different names, in the two -professions of poetry and criticism. The art of poetry consists in -selecting, out of all those images which present themselves to the -fancy, such of them as are truly beautiful; and the art of criticism in -discerning, and fully relishing what it finds so selected. The main -difference is, that in the poet, this faculty is eminently joined to a -bright imagination, and extensive comprehension, which provide stores -for the selection, and can form that selection, by proportioned parts, -into a regular whole: in the critic, it is joined to a solid judgment -and accurate discernment, which can penetrate into the causes of an -excellence, and display that excellence in all its variety of lights. -Longinus had taste in an eminent degree; therefore, this quality, which -all true critics have in common, our author makes his distinguishing -character: - - Thee, bold Longinus! all the Nine inspire, - And bless their critic with a poet's fire. - -_i. e._ with taste, or genius. - -Ver. 15. _Let such teach others, &c._] But it is not enough that the -critic hath these natural endowments of judgment and taste, to entitle -him to exercise his art; he should, as our author shows us, from ver. 14 -to 19, in order to give a further test of his qualification, have put -them successfully into use. And this on two accounts: 1. Because the -office of a critic is an exercise of authority. 2. Because he being -naturally as partial to his judgment as the poet is to his wit, his -partiality would have nothing to correct it, as that of the person -judged hath by the very terms. Therefore some test is necessary; and the -best and most unexceptionable, is his having written well himself--an -approved remedy against critical partiality, and the surest means of so -maturing the judgment as to reap with glory what Longinus calls "the -last and most perfect fruits of much study and experience." [Greek: E -gar ton logon krisis polles esti peiras teleutaion epigennema.] - -Ver. 19. _Yet, if we look, &c._] But the author having been thus free -with the fundamental quality of criticism, judgment, so as to charge it -with inconstancy and partiality, and to be often warped by custom and -affection, that he may not be misunderstood, he next explains, from ver. -18 to 36, the nature of judgment, and the accidents occasioning those -miscarriages before objected to it. He owns, that the seeds of judgment -are indeed sown in the minds of most men, but by ill culture, as it -springs up, it generally runs wild, either on the one hand, by false -learning, which pedants call philology, and by false reasoning, which -philosophers call school-learning, or, on the other, by false wit, which -is not regulated by sense, and by false politeness, which is solely -regulated by the fashion. Both these sorts, who have their judgment thus -doubly depraved, the poet observes, are naturally turned to censure and -abuse, only with this difference, that the learned dunce always affects -to be on the reasoning, and the unlearned fool on the laughing side. And -thus, at the same time, our author proves the truth of his introductory -observation, that the number of bad critics is vastly superior to that -of bad poets. - -Ver. 36. _Some have at first for wits, &c._] The poet having enumerated, -in this account of the nature of judgment and its various depravations, -the several sorts of bad critics, and ranked them into two general -classes, as the first sort,--namely, the men spoiled by false -learning--are but few in comparison of the other, and likewise come less -within his main view (which is poetical criticism) but keep grovelling -at the bottom amongst words and syllables, he thought it enough for his -purpose here, just to have mentioned them, proposing to do them right -hereafter. But the men spoiled by false taste are innumerable, and these -are his proper concern. He therefore, from ver. 35 to 46, subdivides -them again into the two classes of the volatile and heavy. He describes, -in few words, the quick progression of the one through criticism, from -false wit to plain folly, where they end; and the fixed station of the -other, between the confines of both; who under the name of witlings, -have neither end nor measure. A kind of half-formed creature from the -equivocal generation of vivacity and dulness, like those on the banks of -Nile, from heat and mud. - -Ver. 46. _But you who seek, &c._] Our author having thus far, by way of -introduction, explained the nature, use, and abuse of criticism, in a -figurative description of the qualities and characters of critics, -proceeds now to deliver the precepts of the art. The first of which, -from ver. 45 to 68, is, that he who sets up for a critic should -previously examine his own strength, and see how far he is qualified for -the exercise of his profession. He puts him in a way to make this -discovery, in that admirable direction given ver. 51. - - And mark that point where sense and dulness meet. - -He had shown above, that judgment, without taste or genius, is equally -incapable of making a critic or a poet. In whatsoever subject then the -critic's taste no longer accompanies his judgment, there he may be -assured he is going out of his depth. This our author finely calls, - - that point where sense and dulness meet. - -and immediately adds the reason of his precept, the author of nature -having so constituted the mental faculties, that one of them can never -greatly excel, but at the expense of another. From this state of -co-ordination in the mental faculties, and the influence and effects -they have upon one another, the poet draws this consequence, that no one -genius can excel in more than one art or science. The consequence shows -the necessity of the precept, just as the premises, from which the -consequence is drawn, show the reasonableness of it. - -Ver. 68. _First follow nature, &c._] The critic observing the directions -before given, and now finding himself qualified for his office, is shown -next how to exercise it. And as he was to attend to nature for a call, -so he is first and principally to follow nature when called. And here -again in this, as in the foregoing precept, our poet, from ver. 67 to -88, shows both the fitness and necessity of it. I. Its fitness. 1. -Because nature is the source of poetic art, this art being only a -representation of nature, who is its great exemplar and original. 2. -Because nature is the end of art, the design of poetry being to convey -the knowledge of nature in the most agreeable manner. 3. Because nature -is the test of art, as she is unerring, constant, and still the same. -Hence the poet observes, that as nature is the source, she conveys life -to art; as she is the end, she conveys force to it, for the force of any -thing arises from its being directed to its end; and as she is the test, -she conveys beauty to it, for everything acquires beauty by its being -reduced to its true standard. Such is the sense of these two important -lines, - - Life, force, and beauty must to all impart, - At once the source, and end, and test of art. - -II. The necessity of the precept is seen from hence. The two constituent -qualities of a composition, as such, are art and wit; but neither of -these attains perfection, till the first be hid, and the other -judiciously restrained. This only happens when nature is exactly -followed; for then art never makes a parade; nor can wit commit an -extravagance. Art, while it adheres to nature, and has so large a fund -in the resources which nature supplies, disposes every thing with so -much ease and simplicity, that we see nothing but those natural images -it works with, while itself stands unobserved behind; but when art -leaves nature, misled either by the bold sallies of fancy, or the quaint -oddness of fashion, she is then obliged at every step to come forward, -in a painful or pompous ostentation, in order to cover, to soften, or to -regulate the shocking disproportion of unnatural images. In the first -case, our poet compares art to the soul within, informing a beauteous -body; but in the last, we are bid to consider it but as a mere outward -garb, fitted only to hide the defects of a misshapen one. As to wit, it -might perhaps be imagined that this needed only judgment to govern it; -but, as he well observes, - - wit and judgment often are at strife, - Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. - -They want therefore some friendly mediator; and this mediator is nature: -and in attending to nature, judgment will learn where he should comply -with the charms of wit; and wit how she ought to obey the sage -directions of judgment. - -Ver. 88. _Those rules of old, &c._] Having thus, in his first precept, -to follow nature, settled criticism on its true foundation; he proceeds -to show, what assistance may be had from art. But lest this should be -thought to draw the critic from the ground where our poet had before -fixed him, he previously observes, from ver. 87 to 92, that these rules -of art, which he is now about to recommend to the critic's observance, -were not invented by abstract speculation; but discovered in the book of -nature; and that therefore, though they may seem to restrain nature by -laws, yet as they are laws of her own making, the critic is still -properly in the very liberty of nature. These rules the ancient critics -borrowed from the poets, who received them immediately from nature. - - Just precepts thus from great examples giv'n, - These drew from them what they derived from heav'n, - -so that both are to be well studied. - -Ver. 92. _Hear how learn'd Greece, &c._] He speaks of the ancient -critics first, and with great judgment, as the previous knowledge of -them is necessary for reading the poets, with that fruit which the end -here proposed requires. But having, in the foregoing observation, -sufficiently explained the nature of ancient criticism, he enters on the -subject treated of from ver. 91 to 118, with a sublime description of -its end; which was to illustrate the beauties of the best writers, in -order to excite others to an emulation of their excellence. From the -raptures which these ideas inspire, the poet is brought back, by the -follies of modern criticism, now before his eyes, to reflect on its base -degeneracy. And as the restoring the art to its original purity and -splendour is the great purpose of this poem, he first takes notice of -those, who seem not to understand that nature is exhaustless; that new -models of good writing may be produced in every age; and consequently, -that new rules may be formed from these models, in the same manner as -the old critics formed theirs, which was, from the writings of the -ancient poets: but men wanting art and ability to form these new rules, -were content to receive and file up for use, the old ones of Aristotle, -Quintilian, Longinus, Horace, &c. with the same vanity and boldness that -apothecaries practise, with their doctors' bills: and then rashly -applying them to new originals (cases which they did not hit) it was no -more in their power, than in their inclination, to imitate the candid -practice of the ancients when - - The gen'rous critic fanned the poet's fire, - And taught the world with reason to admire. - -For, as ignorance, when joined with humility, produces stupid -admiration, on which account it is commonly observed to be the mother of -devotion and blind homage, so when joined with vanity (as it always is -in bad critics) it gives birth to every iniquity of impudent abuse and -slander. See an example (for want of a better) in a late ridiculous and -now forgotten thing, called the Life of Socrates;[298] where the head of -the author (as a man of wit observed) has just made a shift to do the -office of a _camera obscura_, and represent things in an inverted order, -himself above, and Sprat, Rollin, Voltaire, and every other writer of -reputation, below. - -Ver. 118. _You then whose judgment, &c._] He comes next to the ancient -poets, the other and more intimate commentators of nature, and shows, -from ver. 117 to 141, that the study of these must indispensably follow -that of the ancient critics, as they furnish us with what the critics, -who only give us general rules, cannot supply, while the study of a -great original poet, in - - His fable, subject, scope in ev'ry page: - Religion, country, genius of his age; - -will help us to those particular rules which only can conduct us safely -through every considerable work we undertake to examine; and without -which, we may cavil indeed, as the poet truly observes, but can never -criticise. We might as well suppose that Vitruvius's book alone would -make a perfect judge of architecture, without the knowledge of some -great master-piece of science, such as the rotunda at Rome, or the -temple of Minerva at Athens, as that Aristotle's should make a perfect -judge of wit, without the study of Homer and Virgil. These therefore he -principally recommends to complete the critic in his art. But as the -latter of these poets has, by superficial judges, been considered rather -as a copier of Homer, than an original from nature, our author obviates -that common error, and shows it to have arisen (as often error does) -from a truth, _viz._, that Homer and nature were the same; that the -ambitious young poet, though he scorned to stoop at anything short of -nature, when he came to understand this great truth, had the prudence to -contemplate nature in the place where she was seen to most advantage, -collected in all her charms in the clear mirror of Homer. Hence it would -follow, that though Virgil studied nature, yet the vulgar reader would -believe him to be a copier of Homer; and though he copied Homer, yet the -judicious reader would see him to be an imitator of nature, the finest -praise which any one, who came after Homer, could receive. - -Ver. 141. _Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, &c._] Our author, -in these two general directions for studying nature and her -commentators, having considered poetry as it is, or may be reduced to -rule, lest this should be mistaken as sufficient to attain perfection -either in writing or judging, he proceeds from ver. 140 to 201, to point -up to those sublimer beauties which rules will never reach, nor enable -us either to execute or taste,--beauties, which rise so high above all -precept as not even to be described by it; but being entirely the gift -of heaven, art and reason have no further share in them than just to -regulate their operations. These sublimities of poetry (like the -mysteries of religion, some of which are above reason, and some contrary -to it) may be divided into two sorts, such as are above rules, and such -as are contrary to them. - -Ver. 146. _If, where the rules, &c._] The first sort our author -describes from ver. 145 to 152, and shows that where a great beauty is -in the poet's view, which no stated rules will authorise him how to -reach, there, as the purpose of rules is only to attain an end like -this, a lucky licence will supply the place of them: nor can the critic -fairly object, since this licence, for the reason given above, has the -proper force and authority of a rule. - -Ver. 152. _Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend, &c._] He -describes next the second sort, the beauties against rule. And even -here, as he observes, from ver. 151 to 161, the offence is so glorious, -and the fault so sublime, that the true critic will not dare either to -censure or reform them. Yet still the poet is never to abandon himself -to his imagination. The rules laid down for his conduct in this respect -are these: 1. That though he transgress the letter of some one -particular precept, yet that he be still careful to adhere to the end or -spirit of them all, which end is the creation of one uniform perfect -whole. And 2. That he have, in each instance, the authority of the -dispensing power of the ancients to plead for him. These rules observed, -this licence will be seldom used, and only when he is compelled by need, -which will disarm the critic, and screen the offender from his laws. - -Ver. 169. _I know there are, &c._] But as some modern critics have -pretended to say, that this last reason is only justifying one fault by -another, our author goes on, from ver. 168 to 181, to vindicate the -ancients; and to show that this presumptuous thought, as he calls it, -proceeds from mere ignorance,--as where their partiality will not let -them see that this licence is sometimes necessary for the symmetry and -proportion of a perfect whole, in the light, and from the point, wherein -it must be viewed; or where their haste will not give them time to -observe, that a deviation from rule is for the sake of attaining some -great and admirable purpose. These observations are further useful, as -they tend to give modern critics an humbler opinion of their own -abilities, and a higher of the authors they undertake to criticise. On -which account he concludes with a fine reproof of their use of that -common proverb perpetually in the mouths of the critics, "quandoque -bonus dormitat Homerus;" misunderstanding the sense of Horace, and -taking quandoque for aliquando: - - Those oft are stratagems which errors seem, - Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream. - -Ver. 181. _Still green with bays, &c._] But now fired with the name of -Homer, and transported with the contemplation of those beauties which a -cold critic can neither see nor conceive, the poet, from ver. 180 to -201, breaks out into a rapturous salutation of the rare felicity of -those few ancients who have risen superior over time and accidents; and -disdaining, as it were, any longer to reason with his critics, offers -this as the surest confutation of their censures. Then with the humility -of a suppliant at the shrine of immortals, and the sublimity of a poet -participating of their fire, he turns again to these ancient worthies, -and apostrophises their Manes: - - Hail, bards triumphant! &c. - -Ver. 200. _T' admire superior sense, and doubt their own!_] This line -concludes the first division of the poem; in which we see the subject of -the first and second part, and likewise the connexion they have with one -another. It serves likewise to introduce the second. The effect of -studying the ancients, as here recommended, would be the admiration of -their superior sense, which, if it will not of itself dispose moderns to -a diffidence of their own (one of the great uses, as well as natural -fruits of that study), our author, to help forward their modesty, in his -second part shows them (in a regular deduction of the causes and -effects of wrong judgment) their own bright image and amiable turn of -mind. - -Ver. 201. _Of all the causes, &c._] Having, in the first part, delivered -rules for perfecting the art of criticism, the second is employed in -explaining the impediments to it. The order of the two parts was well -adjusted. For the causes of wrong judgment being pride, superficial -learning, a bounded capacity, and partiality, they to whom this part is -principally addressed, would not readily be brought either to see the -malignity of the causes, or to own themselves concerned in the effects, -had not the author previously both enlightened and convinced them, by -the foregoing observations, on the vastness of art, and narrowness of -wit; the extensive study of human nature and antiquity; and the -characters of ancient poetry and criticism; the natural remedies to the -four epidemic disorders he is now endeavouring to redress. - -Ver. 201. _Of all the causes, &c._] The first cause of wrong judgment is -pride. He judiciously begins with this, from ver. 200 to 215, as on -other accounts, so on this, that it is the very thing which gives modern -criticism its character, whose complexion is abuse and censure. He calls -it the vice of fools, by which term is not meant those to whom nature -has given no judgment (for he is here speaking of what misleads the -judgment), but those to whom learning and study have given more -erudition than taste, as appears from the happy similitude of an -ill-nourished body, where the same words which express the cause, -express likewise the nature of pride: - - For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find, - What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind. - -It is the business of reason, he tells us, to dispel the cloud in which -pride involves the mind: but the mischief is, that the rays of reason, -diverted by self-love, sometime gild this cloud, instead of dispelling -it. So that the judgment, by false lights reflected back upon itself, is -still apt to be a little dazzled, and to mistake its object. He -therefore advises to call in still more helps: - - Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, - Make use of ev'ry friend and ev'ry foe. - -Both the beginning and conclusion of this precept are remarkable. The -question is of the means to subdue pride. He directs the critic to begin -with a distrust of himself; and this is modesty, the first mortification -of pride: and then to seek the assistance of others, and make use even -of an enemy; and this is humility, the last mortification of pride: for -when a man can once bring himself to submit to profit by an enemy, he -has either already subdued his vanity, or is in a fair way of so doing. - -Ver. 215. _A little learning, &c._] We must here remark the poet's skill -in his disposition of the causes obstructing true judgment. Each general -cause which is laid down first, has its own particular cause in that -which follows. Thus, the second cause of wrong judgment, superficial -learning, is what occasions that critical pride, which he places first. - -Ver. 216. _Drink deep, &c._] Nature and learning are the pole-stars of -all true criticism: but pride obstructs the view of nature; and a -smattering of letters makes us insensible of our ignorance. To avoid -this ridiculous situation, the poet, from ver. 214 to 233, advises, -either to drink deep, or not to drink at all; for the least sip at this -fountain is enough to make a bad critic, while even a moderate draught -can never make a good one. And yet the labours and difficulties of -drinking deep are so great, that a young author, "fired with ideas of -fair Italy," and ambitious to snatch a palm from Rome, here engages in -an undertaking like that of Hannibal: finely illustrated by the -similitude of an inexperienced traveller penetrating through the Alps. - -Ver. 233. _A perfect judge, &c._] The third cause of wrong judgment is a -narrow capacity; the natural cause of the foregoing defect, acquiescence -in superficial learning. This bounded capacity our author shows, from -ver. 232 to 384, betrays itself two ways: in its judgment both of the -matter, and the manner of the work criticised. Of the matter, in judging -by parts, or in having one favourite part to a neglect of all the rest. -Of the manner, in confining men's regard only to conceit, or language, -or numbers. This is our poet's order, and we shall follow him as it -leads us, only just observing one general beauty which runs through this -part of the poem; it is,--that under each of these heads of wrong -judgment, he has intermixed excellent precepts for the right. We shall -take notice of them as they occur. - -He exposes the folly of judging by parts very artfully, not by a direct -description of that sort of critic, but of his opposite, a perfect -judge, &c. Nor is the elegance of this conversion less than the art; for -as, in poetical _style_, one word or figure is still put for another, in -order to catch new lights from distant images, and reflect them back -upon the subject in hand, so in poetical _matter_ one person or -description may be commodiously employed for another, with the same -advantage of representation. It is observable that our author makes it -almost the necessary consequence of judging by parts, to find fault: and -this not without much discernment: for the several parts of a complete -whole, when seen only singly, and known only independently, must always -have the appearance of irregularity,--often of deformity; because the -poet's design being to create a resultive beauty from the artful -assemblage of several various parts into one natural whole, those parts -must be fashioned with regard to their mutual relations in the stations -they occupy in that whole, from whence the beauty required is to arise; -but that regard will occasion so unreducible a form in each part, when -considered singly, as to present a very mis-shapen form. - -Ver. 253. _Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see_,] He shows next, -from ver. 252 to 263, that to fix our censure on single parts, though -they happen to want an exactness consistent enough with their relation -to the rest, is even then very unjust: and for these reasons:--1. -Because it implies an expectation of a faultless piece, which is a vain -fancy. 2. Because no more is to be expected of any work than that it -fairly attains its end. But the end may be attained, and yet these -trivial faults committed: therefore, in spite of such faults, the work -will merit that praise that is due to everything which attains its end. -3. Because sometimes a great beauty is not to be procured, nor a -notorious blemish to be avoided, but by suffering one of these minute -and trivial errors. 4. And lastly, because the general neglect of them -is a praise, as it is the indication of a genius, attentive to greater -matters. - -Ver 263. _Most critics, fond of some subservient art, &c._] II. The -second way in which a narrow capacity, as it relates to the matter, -shows itself, is judging by a favourite part. The author has placed -this, from ver. 262 to 285, after the other of judging by parts, with -great propriety, it being indeed a natural consequence of it. For when -men have once left the whole to turn their attention to the separate -parts, that regard and reverence due only to a whole is fondly -transferred to one or other of its parts. And thus we see, that heroes -themselves, as well as hero-makers, even kings, as well as poets and -critics, when they chance never to have had, or long to have lost the -idea of that which is the only legitimate object of their office, the -care and conservation of the whole, are wont to devote themselves to the -service of some favourite part, whether it be love of money, military -glory, despotic power, &c. And all, as our author says on this occasion, - - to one loved folly sacrifice. - -This general misconduct much recommends that maxim in good poetry and -politics, to give a principal attention to the whole,--a maxim which our -author has elsewhere shown to be equally true likewise in morals and -religion, as being founded in the order of things; for if we examine we -shall find the misconduct here complained of to arise from this -imbecility of our nature, that the mind must always have something to -rest upon, to which the passions and affections may be interestingly -directed. Nature prompts us to seek it in the most worthy objects; and -reason points us to a whole, or system: but the false lights which the -passions hold out confound and dazzle us: we stop short; and, before we -get to a whole, take up with some part, which thenceforth becomes our -favourite. - -Ver. 285. _Thus critics of less judgment than caprice, - Curious not knowing, not exact but nice, - Form short ideas, &c._] - -2. He concludes his observations on those two sorts of judges by parts, -with this general reflection:--The curious not knowing are the first -sort, who judge by parts, and with a microscopic sight (as he says -elsewhere) examine bit by bit. The not exact but nice, are the second, -who judge by a favourite part, and talk of a whole to cover their -fondness for a part, as philosophers do of principles, in order to -obtrude notions and opinions in their stead. But the fate common to both -is, to be governed by caprice and not by judgment, and consequently to -form short ideas, or to have ideas short of truth; though the latter -sort, through a fondness to their favourite part, imagine that it -comprehends the whole in epitome, as the famous hero of La Mancha, -mentioned just before, used to maintain, that knight errantry comprised -within itself the quintessence of all science, civil, military, and -religious. - -Ver. 289. _Some to conceit alone, &c._] We come now to that second sort -of bounded capacity, which betrays itself in its judgment on the manner -of the work criticised. And this our author prosecutes from ver. 288 to -384. These are again subdivided into divers classes. - -Ver. 289. _Some to conceit alone, &c._] The first, from ver. 288 to 305, -are those who confine their attention solely to conceit or wit. And here -again the critic by parts, offends doubly in the manner, just as he did -in the matter; for he not only confines his attention to a part, when it -should be extended to the whole, but he likewise judges falsely of that -part. And this, as the other, is unavoidable, the parts in the manner -bearing the same close relation to the whole, that the parts in the -matter do; to which whole, the ideas of this critic have never yet -extended. Hence it is, that our author, speaking here of those who -confine their attention solely to conceit or wit, describes the distinct -species of true and false wit, because they not only mistake a wrong -disposition of true wit for a right, but likewise false wit for true. He -describes false wit first, from ver. 288 to 297, - - Some to conceit alone, &c., - -where the reader may observe our author's address in representing, in a -description of false wit, the false disposition of the true; as the -critic by parts is apt to fall into both these errors. - -He next describes true wit, from ver. 296 to 305, - - True wit is nature to advantage dressed, &c. - -And here again the reader may observe the same beauty; not only an -explanation of true wit, but likewise of the right disposition of it, -which the poet illustrates, as he did the wrong, by ideas taken from the -art of painting, in the theory of which he was exquisitely skilled. - -Ver. 305. _Others for language, &c._] He proceeds secondly to those -contracted critics, whose whole concern turns upon language, and shows, -from ver. 304 to 337, that this quality, where it holds the principal -place in a work, deserves no commendation:--1. Because it excludes -qualities more essential. And when the abounding verbiage has choked and -suffocated the sense, the writer will be obliged to varnish over the -mischief with all the false colouring of eloquence. 2. Secondly, because -the critic who busies himself with this quality alone, is unable to make -a right judgment of it; because true expression is only the dress of -thought, and so must be perpetually varied according to the subject, and -manner of treating it. But those who never concern themselves with the -sense, can form no judgment of the correspondence between that and the -language. - - Expression is the dress of thought, and still - Appears more decent, as more suitable, &c. - -Now as these critics are ignorant of this correspondence, their whole -judgment in language is reduced to verbal criticism, or the examination -of single words; and generally those which are most to his taste, are -(for an obvious reason) such as smack most of antiquity, on which -account our author has bestowed a little raillery upon it; concluding -with a short and proper direction concerning the use of words, so far as -regards their novelty and ancientry. - -Ver. 337. _But most by numbers judge, &c._] The last sort are those, -from ver. 336 to 384, whose ears are attached only to the harmony of a -poem. Of which they judge as ignorantly and as perversely as the other -sort did of the eloquence, and for the same reason. Our author first -describes that false harmony with which they are so much captivated; and -shows that it is wretchedly flat and unvaried: for - - Smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong. - -He then describes the true: 1. As it is in itself, constant; with a -happy mixture of strength and sweetness, in contradiction to the -roughness and flatness of false harmony: and 2. As it is varied in -compliance to the subject, where the sound becomes an echo to the sense, -so far as is consistent with the preservation of numbers, in -contradiction to the monotony of false harmony. Of this he gives us, in -the delivery of his precepts, four beautiful examples of smoothness, -roughness, slowness, and rapidity. The first use of this correspondence -of the sound to the sense, is to aid the fancy in acquiring a perfecter -and more lively image of the thing represented. A second and nobler, is -to calm and subdue the turbulent and selfish passions, and to raise and -warm the beneficent, which he illustrates in the famous adventure of -Timotheus and Alexander, where, in referring to Mr. Dryden's Ode on that -subject, he turns it to a high compliment on his favourite poet. - -Ver. 384. _Avoid extremes, &c._] Our author is now come to the last -cause of wrong judgment, partiality,--the parent of the immediately -preceding cause, a bounded capacity, nothing so much narrowing and -contracting the mind as prejudices entertained for or against things or -persons. This, therefore, as the main root of all the foregoing, he -prosecutes at large, from ver. 383 to 474. First, to ver. 394, he -previously exposes that capricious turn of mind, which, by running into -extremes, either of praise or dispraise, lays the foundation of an -habitual partiality. He cautions, therefore, both against one and the -other; and with reason; for excess of praise is the mark of a bad taste; -and excess of censure, of a bad digestion. - -Ver. 394. _Some foreign writers, &c._] Having explained the disposition -of mind which produces an habitual partiality, he proceeds to expose -this partiality in all the shapes in which it appears both amongst the -unlearned and the learned. - -I. In the unlearned it is seen, first, in an unreasonable fondness for, -or aversion to, our own or foreign, to ancient or modern writers. And as -it is the mob of unlearned readers he is here speaking of, he exposes -their folly in a very apposite similitude: - - Thus wit, like faith, by each man is applied - To one small sect, and all are damned beside. - -But he shows, from ver. 396 to 408, that these critics have as wrong -notions of reason as those bigots have of God; for that genius is not -confined to times or climates; but, as the common gift of nature, is -extended throughout all ages and countries; that indeed this -intellectual light, like the material light of the sun, may not shine at -all times, and in every place with equal splendour, but be sometimes -clouded with popular ignorance, and sometimes again eclipsed by the -discountenance of the great; yet it shall still recover itself, and, by -breaking through the strongest of these impediments, manifest the -eternity of its nature. - -Ver. 408. _Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own_,] A second -instance of unlearned partiality is (as he shows from ver. 407 to 424) -men's going always along with the cry, as having no fixed nor -well-grounded principles whereon to raise any judgment of their own. A -third is reverence for names, of which sort, as he well observes, the -worst and vilest are the idolizers of names of quality; whom therefore -he stigmatises as they deserve. Our author's temper as well as his -judgment is here seen, in throwing this species of partiality amongst -the unlearned critics. His affection for letters would not suffer him to -conceive, that any learned critic could ever fall into so low a -prostitution. - -Ver. 424. _The vulgar thus--As oft the learned_--] II. He comes in the -second place, from ver. 423 to 452, to consider the instances of -partiality in the learned. 1. The first is singularity. For, as want of -principles, in the unlearned, necessitates them to rest on the common -judgment as always right, so adherence to false principles (that is, to -notions of their own) mislead the learned into the other extreme of -supposing the common judgment always wrong. And as, before, our author -compared those to bigots, who made true faith to consist in believing -after others, so he compares these to schismatics, who make it to -consist in believing as no one ever believed before, which folly he -marks with a lively stroke of humour in the turn of the thought: - - So schismatics the plain believers quit, - And are but damned for having too much wit. - -2. The second is novelty. And as this proceeds sometimes from fondness, -sometimes from vanity, he compares the one to the passion for a -mistress, and the other to the pride of being in fashion; but the excuse -common to both is, the daily improvement of their judgment: - - Ask them the cause; they're wiser still they say; - And still to-morrow's wiser than to-day. - -Now as this is a plausible pretence for their inconstancy, and our -author has himself afterwards approved of it, as a remedy against -obstinacy and pride, where he says, ver. 570, - - But you with pleasure own your errors past, - And make each day a critique on the last, - -he has been careful, by the turn of the expression in this place, to -show the difference between the pretence and the remedy. For time, -considered only as duration, vitiates as frequently as it improves. -Therefore to expect wisdom as the necessary attendant of length of days, -unrelated to long experience, is vain and delusive. This he illustrates -by a remarkable example, where we see time, instead of becoming wiser, -destroying good letters, to substitute school divinity in their place; -the genius of which kind of learning, the character of its professors, -and the fate, which, sooner or later, always attends whatsoever is wrong -or false, the poet sums up in those four lines: - - Faith, gospel, all, seemed made to be disputed, &c. - -And in conclusion he observes, that perhaps this mischief, from love of -novelty, might not be so great, did it not, along with the critic, -infect the writer likewise, who, when he finds his readers disposed to -take ready wit on the standard of current folly, never troubles himself -to think of better payment. - -Ver. 452. _Some valuing those of their own side or mind, &c._] 3. The -third and last instance of partiality in the learned, is party and -faction, which is considered from ver. 451 to 474, where he shows how -men of this turn deceive themselves, when they load a writer of their -own side with commendation. They fancy they are paying tribute to merit, -when they are only sacrificing to self-love. But this is not the worst. -He further shows, that this party spirit has often very ill effects on -science itself, while, in support of faction, it labours to depress some -rising genius, that was, perhaps, raised by nature to enlighten his age -and country. By which he would insinuate, that all the baser and viler -passions seek refuge, and find support in party madness. - -Ver. 474. _Be thou the first, &c._] The poet having now gone through the -last cause of wrong judgment, and the root of all the rest, partiality, -and ended his remarks upon it with a detection of the two rankest kinds, -those which arise out of party rage and envy, takes the occasion, which -this affords him, of closing his second division in the most graceful -manner, from ver. 473 to 560, by concluding from the premises, and -calling upon the true critic to be careful of his charge, which is the -protection and support of wit; for, the defence of it from malevolent -censure is its true protection, and the illustration of its beauties, is -its true support. - -He first shows, the critic ought to do this service without loss of -time, and on these motives:--1. Out of regard to himself, for there is -some merit in giving the world notice of an excellence, but little or -none, in pointing, like an index, to the beaten road of admiration. 2. -Out of regard to the poem, for the short duration of modern works -requires that they should begin to live betimes. He compares the life of -modern wit (which in a changeable dialect, must soon pass away), and -that of the ancient (which survives in an universal language), to the -difference between the patriarchal age and our own, and observes, that -while the ancient writings live for ever, as it were, in brass and -marble, the modern are but like paintings, which, of how masterly a hand -soever, have no sooner gained their requisite perfection by the -softening and ripening of their tints, which they do in a very few -years, but they begin to fade and die away. 3. Lastly, our author shows -that the critic ought in justice to do this service out of regard to the -poet, when he considers the slender dowry the muse brings along with -her. In youth it is only a vain and short-lived pleasure; and in maturer -years, an accession of care and labour, in proportion to the weight of -reputation to be sustained, and of the increase of envy to be opposed: -and therefore, concludes his reasoning on this head with that pathetic -and insinuating address to the critic, from ver. 508 to 526. - - Ah! let not learning, &c. - -Ver. 526. _But if in noble minds some dregs remain, &c._] So far as to -what ought to be the true critic's principal study and employment. But -if the sour critical humour abounds, and must therefore needs have vent, -he directs to its proper object, and shows, from ver. 525 to 556, how it -may be innocently and usefully pointed. This is very observable; our -author had made spleen and disdain the characteristic of the false -critic, and yet here supposes them inherent in the true. But it is done -with judgment, and a knowledge of nature. For as bitterness and -astringency in unripe fruits of the best kind are the foundation and -capacity of that high spirit, race, and flavour which we find in them, -when perfectly concocted by the warmth and influence of the sun, and -which, without those qualities, would gain no more by that influence -than only a mellow insipidity, so spleen and disdain in the true critic, -when improved by long study and experience, ripen into an exactness of -judgment and an elegance of taste, although, in the false critic, lying -remote from the influence of good letters, they remain in all their -first offensive harshness and acerbity. The poet therefore shows how, -after the exaltation of these qualities into their state of perfection, -the very dregs (which, though precipitated, may possibly, on some -occasions, rise and ferment even in a noble mind) may be usefully -employed, that is to say, in branding obscenity and impiety. Of these, -he explains the rise and progress, in a beautiful picture of the -different geniuses of the two reigns of Charles II. and William III. The -former of which gave course to the most profligate luxury; the latter to -a licentious impiety. These are the crimes our author assigns over to -the caustic hand of the critic; but concludes however, from ver. 555 to -560, with this necessary admonition, to take care not to be misled into -unjust censure, either on the one hand, by a pharisaical niceness, or on -the other by a self-consciousness of guilt. And thus the second division -of his Essay ends: the judicious conduct of which is worthy our -observation. The subjects of it are the causes of wrong judgment. These -he derives upwards from cause to cause, till he brings them to their -source, an immoral partiality: for as he had, in the first part, - - traced the Muses upward to their spring, - -and shown them to be derived from heaven, and the offspring of virtue, -so hath he here pursued this enemy of the muses, the bad critic, to his -low original, in the arms of his nursing mother immorality. This order -naturally introduces, and at the same time shows the necessity of, the -subject of the third and last division, which is, on the morals of the -critic. - -Ver. 560. _Learn then, &c._] We enter now on the third part, the morals -of the critic. There seemed a peculiar necessity of inculcating precepts -of this sort to the critic, by reason of that native acerbity so often -found in the profession; of which, a short memorial will soon convince -the reader, and at the same time inform him why our author has here -included all critical morals in candour, modesty, and good breeding. -When, in these latter ages, human learning reared its head in the West, -and its tail, verbal criticism, was of course to rise with it, the -madness of critics presently became so offensive, that the sober -stupidity of the monks might appear the more tolerable evil. J. -Argyropylus, a mercenary Greek, who came to teach school in Italy after -the sacking of Constantinople by the Turk, used to maintain that Cicero -understood neither philosophy nor Greek; while another of his -countrymen, J. Lascaris by name, threatened to demonstrate that Virgil -was no poet. However, these men raised in the west of Europe an appetite -for the Greek language. So that Hermolaus Barbarus, a noted critic and -most passionate admirer of it, used to boast that he had invoked and -raised the devil, about the meaning of the Aristotelian [Greek: -entelecheia]. As this man was famous for his enchantments, so one, whom -Balzac speaks of, was as useful to letters by his revelations, and was -wont to say, that the meaning of such a verse in Persius, no one knew -but God and himself. But they were not all so modest. The celebrated -Pomponius Laetus, in excess of veneration for antiquity, became a real -pagan, raised altars to Romulus, and sacrificed to the gods of Greece. -But if the Greeks cried down Cicero, the Italian critics knew how -to support his credit. Every one has heard of the childish excesses -into which the fondness for being thought Ciceronians carried the -most celebrated Italians of this time. They generally abstained from -reading the scripture for fear of spoiling their style, and Cardinal -Bembo used to call the epistles of St. Paul by the contemptuous name -of epistolaccias,--great overgrown epistles. But Erasmus cured this -frenzy in that masterpiece of good sense, entitled Ciceronianus, for -which, as lunatics treat their physicians, the elder Scaliger insulted -him with all the brutal fury peculiar to his family and profession. -His son Joseph and Salmasius had such endowments of art and nature as -might have made them public blessings; yet how did these savages tear -and worry one another. The choicest of Joseph's flowers of speech were -_stercus diaboli_, and _lutum stercore maceratum_. It is true these -were strewn upon his enemies. He treated his friends better; for in a -letter to Thuanus, speaking of two of them, Clavius and Lipsius, he -calls the first "a monster of ignorance," and the other "a slave to the -Jesuits" and an "idiot." But so great was his love of sacred amity, -that he says, at the same time, "I still keep up a correspondence with -him, notwithstanding his idiotry, for it is my principle to be constant -in my friendships.--Je ne reste de lui ecrire nonobstant son idioterie, -d'autant que je suis constant en amitie." The character he gives of -his own work, in the same letter, is no less extraordinary: "Vous vous -pouvez assurer que nostre Eusebe sera un tresor des merveilles de la -doctrine chronologique." But this modest account of his chronology is a -trifle in comparison of the just esteem Salmasius conceived of himself, -as Mr. Colomies tells the story: This critic one day meeting two of -his brethren, Messrs. Gaulmin and Maussac, in the royal library at -Paris, Gaulmin, in a virtuous consciousness of their importance, told -the other two that he believed they three could make head against all -the learned in Europe. To which the great Salmasius fiercely replied, -"Do you and Mr. Maussac join yourselves to all that is learned in the -world, and you shall find that I alone am a match for you all." Vossius -tells us that, when Laur. Valla had snarled at every name of the first -order in antiquity, such as Aristotle, Cicero, and one whom I should -have thought this critic was likeliest to pass by, the redoubtable -Priscian, he impiously boasted that he had arms even against Christ -himself. But Codrus Urcaeus went further, and actually used those arms -the other only threatened with. This man while he was preparing some -trifling piece of criticism for the press, had the misfortune to hear -his papers were burned, on which he is reported to have broke out, -"Quodnam ego tantum scelus concepi, O Christe; quem ego tuorum unquam -laesi, ut ita inexpiabili in me odio debaccheris? Audi ea, quae tibi -mentis compos et ex animo dicam. Si forte, cum ad ultimam vitae finem -pervenero, supplex accedam ad te oratum, neve audias, neve inter tuos -accipias oro; cum infernis Diis in aeternum vitam agere decrevi." -Whereupon, says my author, he quitted the converse of men, threw -himself into the thickest of a forest, and there wore out the wretched -remains of life in all the agonies of despair. - -But to return to the poem. This third and last part is in two divisions. -In the first of which, from ver. 559 to 631, our author inculcates the -morals by precept. In the second, from ver. 630 to the end, by example. -His first precept, from ver. 561 to 566, recommends candour, for its use -to the critic, and to the writer criticised. - -2. The second, from ver. 565 to 572, recommends modesty, which manifests -itself in these four signs: 1. Silence where it doubts, - - Be silent always when you doubt your sense; - -2. A seeming diffidence where it knows, - - And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence; - -3. A free confession of error where wrong, - - But you with pleasure own your errors past; - -4. And a constant review and scrutiny even of those opinions which it -still thinks right. - - And make each day a critique on the last. - -3. The third, from ver. 571 to 584, recommends good-breeding, which will -not force truth dogmatically upon men, as ignorant of it, but gently -insinuates it to them, as not sufficiently attentive to it. But as men -of breeding are apt to fall into two extremes, he prudently cautions -against them. The one is a backwardness in communicating their -knowledge, out of a false delicacy, and for fear of being thought -pedants: the other, and much more common extreme, is a mean -complaisance, which those who are worthy of your advice do not need, to -make it acceptable; for such can best bear reproof in particular points, -who best deserve commendation in general. - -Ver. 584. _'Twere well might critics, &c._] The poet having thus -recommended in his general rules of conduct for the judgment, these -three critical virtues to the heart, shows next, from ver. 583 to 631, -upon what three sorts of writers these virtues, together with the advice -conveyed under them, would be thrown away; and which is worse, be repaid -with obloquy and scorn. These are the false critic, the dull man of -quality, and the bad poet, each of which species of incorrigible writers -he hath very exactly painted. But having drawn the last of them at full -length, and being always attentive to the two main branches of his -subject, which are, of writing and judging well, he re-assumes the -character of the bad critic (whom he had touched upon before), to -contrast him with the other; and makes the characteristic common to -both, to be a never-ceasing repetition of their own impertinence. - -_The poet_--still runs on in a raging vein, &c. ver. 606, &c. - -_The critic_--with his own tongue still edifies his ears, 614, &c. - -Than which there cannot be an observation more just, or more grounded on -experience. - -Ver. 631. _But where's the man, &c._] II. The second division of this -last part, which we now come to, is of the morals of critics, by -example. For, having in the first, drawn a picture of the false critic, -at large, he breaks out into an apostrophe, containing an exact and -finished character of the true, which, at the same time, serves for an -easy and proper introduction to this second division. For having asked, -from ver. 630 to 643, _Where's the man, &c._, he answers, from ver. 642 -to 681, that he was to be found in the happier ages of Greece and Rome; -in the characters of Aristotle and Horace, Dionysius and Petronius, -Quintilian and Longinus, whose several excellencies he has not only well -distinguished, but has contrasted them with a peculiar elegance. The -profound science and logical method of Aristotle is opposed to the plain -common sense of Horace, conveyed in a natural and familiar negligence; -the study and refinement of Dionysius, to the gay and courtly ease of -Petronius; and the gravity and minuteness of Quintilian, to the vivacity -and general topics of Longinus. Nor has the poet been less careful in -these examples, to point out their eminence in the several critical -virtues he so carefully inculcated in his precepts. Thus in Horace he -particularizes his candour; in Petronius, his good-breeding; in -Quintilian, his free and copious instruction; and in Longinus, his great -and noble spirit. - -Ver. 681. _Thus long succeeding critics, &c._] The next period in which -the true critic, he tells us, appeared, was at the revival and -restoration of letters in the West. This occasions his giving a short -history, from ver. 682 to 709, of the decline and re-establishment of -arts and sciences in Italy. He shows that they both fell under the same -enemy, despotic power; and that when both had made some little efforts -to recover themselves, they were soon again overwhelmed by a second -deluge of another kind, namely, superstition; and a calm of dulness -finished upon Rome and letters what the rage of barbarism had begun: - - A second deluge learning thus o'er-run, - And the monk finished what the Goth begun. - -When things had long remained in this condition, and all hopes of -recovery now seemed desperate, it was a critic, our author shows us, for -the honour of the art he here teaches, who at length broke the charm of -dulness, who dissipated the enchantment, and, like another Hercules, -drove those cowled and hooded serpents from the Hesperian tree of -knowledge, which they had so long guarded from human approach. - -Ver. 697. _But see! each Muse, in Leo's golden days_,] This presents us -with the second period in which the true critic appeared, of whom he has -given us a complete idea in the single example of Marcus Hieronymus -Vida; for his subject being poetical criticism, for the use principally -of a critical poet, his example is an eminent poetical critic, who had -written of the Art of Poetry in verse. - -Ver. 709. _But soon by impious arms, &c._] This brings us to the third -period, after learning had travelled still further West, when the arms -of the Emperor, in the sack of Rome by the Duke of Bourbon, had driven -it out of Italy, and forced it to pass the mountains. The examples he -gives in this period, are of Boileau in France, and of the Lord -Roscommon and the Duke of Buckingham in England: and these were all -poets, as well as critics in verse. It is true, the last instance is of -one who was no eminent poet, the late Mr. Walsh. This small deviation -might be well overlooked, were it only for its being a pious office to -the memory of his friend. But it may be further justified, as it was an -homage paid in particular to the morals of the critic, nothing being -more amiable than the character here drawn of this excellent person. He -being our author's judge and censor, as well as friend, it gives him a -graceful opportunity to add himself to the number of the later critics; -and with a character of his own genius and temper sustained by that -modesty and dignity which it is so difficult to make consistent, this -performance concludes. - -I have here given a short and plain account of the Essay on Criticism, -concerning which, I have but one thing more to say, that when the reader -considers the regularity of the plan, the masterly conduct of each part, -the penetration into nature, and the compass of learning so conspicuous -throughout, he should at the same time know, it was the work of an -author who had not attained the twentieth year of his age. - - - - - NOTES. - - -Ver. 28. _In search of wit, these lose their common sense_,] This -observation is extremely just. Search of wit is not only the occasion, -but the efficient cause of the loss of common sense; for wit consisting -in choosing out, and setting together such ideas from whose assemblage -pleasant pictures may be drawn on the fancy, the judgment, through an -habitual search of wit, loses, by degrees, its faculty of seeing the -true relation of things; in which consists the exercise of common sense. - -Ver. 32. _All fools have still an itching to deride, - And fain would lie upon the laughing side._] - -The sentiment is just, and if Hobbes's account of laughter be true, that -it arises from a silly pride, we see the reason of it. The expression -too is fine; it alludes to the condition of idiots and natural fools, -who are observed to be ever on the grin. - -Ver. 43. _Their generation's so equivocal._] It is sufficient that a -principle of philosophy has been generally received, whether it be true -or false, to justify a poet's use of it to set off his wit. But to -recommend his argument, he should be cautious how he uses any but the -true; for falsehood, when it is set too near the truth, will tarnish -what it should brighten up. Besides, the analogy between natural and -moral truth makes the principles of true philosophy the fittest for this -use. Our poet has been pretty careful in observing this rule. - -Ver. 51. _And mark that point where sense and dulness meet._] Besides -the peculiar sense explained in the comment, the words have still a more -general meaning, and caution us against going on, when our ideas begin -to grow obscure, as we are then most apt to do, though that obscurity be -an admonition that we should leave off, for it arises, either from our -small acquaintance with the subject, or the incomprehensibility of its -nature, in which circumstances a genius will always write as badly as a -dunce. An observation well worth the attention of all profound writers. - -Ver. 56. _Thus in the soul while memory prevails, - The solid pow'r of understanding fails; - Where beams of warm imagination play, - The memory's soft figures melt away._] - -These observations are collected from an intimate knowledge of human -nature. The cause of that languor and heaviness in the understanding, -which is almost inseparable from a very strong and tenacious memory, -seems to be a want of the proper exercise of that faculty, the -understanding being in a great measure unactive, while the memory is -cultivating. As to the other appearance, the decay of memory by the -vigorous exercise of fancy, the poet himself seems to have intimated the -cause of it in the epithet he has given to the imagination. For if, -according to the atomic philosophy, the memory of things be preserved in -a chain of ideas, produced by the animal spirits moving in continued -trains, the force and rapidity of the imagination, breaking and -dissipating the links of this chain by forming new associations, must -necessarily weaken, and disorder the recollective faculties. - -Ver. 67. _Would all but stoop to what they understand._] The expression -is delicate, and implies what is very true, that most men think it a -degradation of their genius to employ it in what lies level to their -comprehension, but had rather exercise their talents in the ambition of -subduing what is placed above it. - -Ver. 80. _Some, to whom heaven, &c._] Here the poet (in a sense he was -not, at first, aware of) has given an example of the truth of his -observation, in the observation itself. The two lines stood originally -thus: - - There are whom heav'n has blest with store of wit, - Yet want as much again to manage it. - -In the first line, wit is used, in the modern sense, for the effort of -fancy; in the second line it is used in the ancient sense, for the -result of judgment. This trick, played the reader, he endeavoured to -keep out of sight, by altering the lines as they now stand, - - Some, to whom heav'n in wit has been profuse, - Want as much more, to turn it to its use. - -For the words, "to manage it," as the lines were at first, too plainly -discovered the change put upon the reader, in the use of the word "wit." -This is now a little covered by the latter expression of "turn it to its -use." But then the alteration, in the preceding line, from "store of -wit," to "profuse," was an unlucky change. For though he who has "store -of wit" may want more, yet he to whom it was given in "profusion" could -hardly be said to want more. The truth is, the poet had said a lively -thing, and would, at all hazards, preserve the reputation of it, though -the very topic he is upon obliged him to detect the imposition, in the -very next lines, which show he meant two very different things, by the -very same term, in the two preceding: - - For wit and judgment often are at strife, - Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. - -Ver. 88. _Those rules of old, &c._] Cicero has, best of any one I know, -explained what that thing is which reduces the wild and scattered parts -of human knowledge into arts. "Nihil est quod ad artem redigi possit, -nisi ille prius, qui illa tenet, quorum artem instituere vult, habeat -illam scientiam, ut ex iis rebus, quarum ars nondum sit, artem efficere -possit.--Omnia fere, quae sunt conclusa nunc artibus, dispersa et -dissipata quondam fuerunt, ut in musicis, &c. Adhibita est igitur ars -quaedam extrinsecus ex alio genere quodam, quod sibi totum PHILOSOPHI -assumunt, quae rem dissolutam divulsamque conglutinaret, et ratione -quadam constringeret." De Orat. l. i. c. 41, 42. - -Ver. 112, 114. _Some on the leaves--Some dryly plain._] The first are -the apes of those learned Italian critics who at the restoration of -letters, having found the classic writers miserably deformed by the -hands of monkish librarians, very commendably employed their pains and -talents in restoring them to their native purity. The second, the -plagiarists from the French critics, who had made some admirable -commentaries on the ancient critics. But that acumen and taste, which -separately constitute the distinct value of those two species of Italian -and French criticism, make no part of the character of these paltry -mimics at home described by our poet in the following lines, - - These leave the sense, their learning to display, - And those explain the meaning quite away. - -Which species is the least hurtful, the poet has enabled us to determine -in the lines with which he opens his poem, - - But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence - To tire our patience, than mislead our sense. - -From whence we conclude that the Reverend Mr. Upton was much more -innocently employed, when he quibbled upon Epictetus, than when he -commented upon Shakespeare.[299] - -Ver. 150. _Thus Pegasus, &c._] We have observed how the precepts for -writing and judging are interwoven throughout the whole poem. The -sublime flight of a poet is first described, soaring above all vulgar -bounds, to snatch a grace directly which lies beyond the reach of a -common adventurer; and afterwards, the effect of that grace upon the -true critic; whom it penetrates with an equal rapidity, going the -nearest way to his heart, without passing through his judgment. By which -is not meant that it could not stand the test of judgment; but that, as -it was a beauty uncommon, and above rule, and the judgment habituated to -determine only by rule, it makes its direct appeal to the heart, which, -when once gained, soon brings over the judgment, whose concurrence (it -being now enlarged and set above forms) is easily procured. That this is -the poet's sublime conception appears from the concluding words: - - And all its end at once attains. - -For poetry doth not attain all its end, till it hath gained the judgment -as well as heart. - -Ver. 209. _Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, - And fills up all the mighty void of sense._] - -A very sensible French writer makes the following remark on this species -of pride: "Un homme qui scait plusieurs langues, qui entend les auteurs -grecs et latins, qui s'eleve meme jusqu'a la dignite de scholiaste; si -cet homme venoit a peser son veritable merite, il trouveroit souvent -qu'il se reduit avoir eu des yeux et de la memoire; il se garderoit bien -de donner le nom respectable de science a une erudition sans lumiere. Il -y a une grande difference entre s'enrichir des mots ou des choses, entre -alleguer des autorites ou des raisons. Si un homme pouvoit se surprendre -a n'avoir que cette sorte de merite, il en rougiroit plutot que d'en -etre vain." - -Ver. 235. _Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find - Where Nature moves, and rapture warms the mind_;] - -The second line, in apologizing for those faults which the first says -should be overlooked, gives the reason of the precept. For when a great -writer's attention is fixed on a general view of nature, and his -imagination becomes warmed with the contemplation of great ideas, it can -hardly be, but that there must be small irregularities in the -disposition both of matter and style, because the avoiding these -requires a coolness of recollection, which a writer so qualified and so -busied is not master of. - -Ver. 248. _The world's just wonder, and ev'n thine, O Rome!_] The -Pantheon I would suppose; perhaps St. Peter's; no matter which; the -observation is true of both. There is something very Gothic in the taste -and judgment of a learned man, who despises the masterpiece of art, the -Pantheon, for those very qualities which deserve our admiration. "Nous -esmerveillons comme l'on fait si grand cas de ce Pantheon, veu que son -edifice n'est de si grande industrie comme l'on crie: car chaque petit -masson peut bien concevoir la maniere de sa facon tout en un instant: -car estant la base si massive, et les murailles si espaisses, ne nous a -semble difficile d'y adjouster la vonte a claire voye."--Pierre Belon's -Observations, &c. The nature of the Gothic structures apparently led him -into this mistake of the architectonic art in general; that the -excellency of it consists in raising the greatest weight on the least -assignable support, so that the edifice should have strength without the -appearance of it, in order to excite admiration. But to a judicious eye -such a building would have a contrary effect, the appearance (as our -poet expresses it) of a monstrous height, or breadth, or length. Indeed, -did the just proportions in regular architecture take off from the -grandeur of a building, by all the single parts coming united to the -eye, as this learned traveller seems to insinuate, it would be a -reasonable objection to those rules on which this masterpiece of art was -constructed. But it is not so. The poet tells us truly, - - The whole at once is bold, and regular. - -Ver. 267. _Once on a time, &c._] This tale is so very apposite, that one -would naturally take it to be of the poet's own invention; and so much -in the spirit of Cervantes, that we might easily mistake it for one of -the chief beauties of that incomparable satire. Yet, in truth it is -neither; but a story taken by our author from the spurious Don Quixote, -which shows how proper an use may be made of general reading, when if -there be but one good thing in a book (as in that wretched performance -there scarce was more) it may be picked out, and employed to an -excellent purpose. - -Ver. 285. _Thus critics, &c._] In these two lines the poet finely -describes the way in which bad writers are wont to imitate the qualities -of good ones. As true judgment generally draws men out of popular -opinions, so he who cannot get from the crowd by the assistance of this -guide, willingly follows caprice, which will be sure to lead him into -singularities. Again, true knowledge is the art of treasuring up only -that which, from its use in life, is worthy of being lodged in the -memory, and this makes the philosopher; but curiosity consists in a vain -attention to every thing out of the way, and which for its inutility the -world least regards, and this makes the antiquarian. Lastly, exactness -is the just proportion of parts to one another, and their harmony in a -whole; but he who has not extent of capacity for the exercise of this -quality, contents himself with nicety, which is a busying oneself about -points and syllables, and this makes the grammarian. - -Ver. 297. _True wit is nature to advantage dressed, &c._] This -definition is very exact. Mr. Locke had defined wit to consist "in the -assemblage of ideas, and putting those together, with quickness and -variety, wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity, whereby to -make up pleasant pictures and agreeable visions in the fancy." But that -great philosopher, in separating wit from judgment, as he does in this -place, has given us (and he could therefore give us no other) only an -account of wit in general, in which false wit, though not every species -of it, is included. A striking image, therefore, of nature is, as Mr. -Locke observes, certainly wit; but this image may strike on several -other accounts, as well as for its truth and beauty, and the philosopher -has explained the manner how. But it never becomes that wit which is the -ornament of true poesy, whose end is to represent nature, but when it -dresses that nature to advantage, and presents her to us in the -brightest and most amiable light. And to know when the fancy has done -its office truly, the poet subjoins this admirable test, viz. When we -perceive that it gives us back the image of our mind. When it does that, -we may be sure it plays no tricks with us; for this image is the -creature of the judgment, and whenever wit corresponds with judgment, we -may safely pronounce it to be true. - -Ver. 311. _False eloquence, &c._] This simile is beautiful. For the -false colouring given to objects by the prismatic glass is owing to its -untwisting, by its obliquities, those threads of light which nature had -put together, in order to spread over its work an ingenious and simple -candour, that should not hide but only heighten the native complexion of -the objects. And false expression is nothing else but the straining and -divaricating the parts of true expression; and then daubing them over -with what the rhetoricians very properly term colours, in lieu of that -candid light, now lost, which was reflected from them in their natural -state, while sincere and entire. - -Ver. 364. _'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, - The sound must seem an echo to the sense._] - -The judicious introduction of this precept is remarkable. The poets, and -even some of the best of them, have been so fond of the beauty arising -from this trivial observance, that their practice has violated the very -end of the precept, which is the increase of harmony; and so they could -but raise an echo, did not care whose ears they offended by its -dissonance. To remedy this abuse therefore, our poet, by the -introductory line, would insinuate, that harmony is always to be -presupposed as observed, though it may and ought to be perpetually -varied, so as to produce the effect here recommended. - -Ver. 365. _The sound must seem an echo to the sense._] Lord Roscommon -says, - - The sound is still a comment to the sense. - -They are both well expressed, although so differently; for Lord -Roscommon is showing how the sense is assisted by the sound; Mr. Pope, -how the sound is assisted by the sense. - -Ver. 402. _Which, from the first, &c._] Genius is the same in all ages; -but its fruits are various, and more or less excellent as they are -checked or matured by the influence of government or religion upon them. -Hence in some parts of literature the ancients excel; in others, the -moderns, just as those accidental circumstances occurred. - -Ver. 444. _Scotists._] So denominated from Johannes Duns Scotus. Erasmus -tells us, an eminent Scotist assured him, that it was impossible to -understand one single proposition of this famous Duns, unless you had -his whole metaphysics by heart. This hero of incomprehensible fame -suffered a miserable reverse at Oxford in the time of Henry VIII. That -grave antiquary, Mr. Antony Wood (in the vindication of himself and his -writings from the reproaches of the Bishop of Salisbury), sadly laments -the deformation, as he calls it, of that university, by the King's -commissioners; and even records the blasphemous speeches of one of them, -in his own words: "We have set Duns in Boccardo, with all his blind -glossers, fast nailed up upon posts in all common houses of easement." -Upon which our venerable antiquary thus exclaims: "If so be, the -commissioners had such disrespect for that most famous author, J. Duns, -who was so much admired by our predecessors, and so difficult to be -understood, that the doctors of those times, namely, Dr. William Roper, -Dr. John Keynton, Dr. William Mowse, &c. professed that, in twenty-eight -years' study, they could not understand him rightly, what then had they -for others of inferior note?" What indeed! But if so be, that most -famous J. Duns was so difficult to be understood (for that this is a -most theologic proof of his great worth is past all doubt), I should -conceive our good old antiquary to be a little mistaken, and that the -nailing up this Proteus of the schools was done by the commissioners in -honour of the most famous Duns, there being no other way of catching the -sense of so slippery and dodging an author, who had eluded the pursuit -of three of their most renowned doctors in full cry after him, for eight -and twenty years together. And this Boccardo in which he was confined, -seemed very fit for the purpose, it being observed that men are never -more serious and thoughtful than in that place of retirement.--Scribl. - -Ver. 444. _Thomists_,] From Thomas Aquinas, a truly great genius, who, -in those blind ages, was the same in theology, that our Friar Bacon was -in natural philosophy; less happy than our countryman in this, that he -soon became surrounded with a number of dark glossers, who never left -him till they had extinguished the radiance of that light, which had -pierced through the thickest night of monkery, the thirteenth century, -when the Waldenses were suppressed, and Wickliffe not yet risen. - -Ver. 445. _Amidst their kindred cobwebs._] Were common sense disposed to -credit any of the monkish miracles of the dark and blind ages of the -church, it would certainly be one of the seventh century recorded by -honest Bale. "In the sixth general council," says he, "holden at -Constantinople, Anno Dom 680, contra Monothelitas, where the Latin mass -was first approved, and the Latin ministers deprived of their lawful -wives, spiders' webs, in wonderfull copye were seen falling down from -above, upon the heads of the people, to the marvelous astonishment of -many." The justest emblem and prototype of school metaphysics, the -divinity of Scotists and Thomists, which afterwards fell, in wonderfull -copye on the heads of the people, in support of transubstantiation, to -the marvelous astonishment of many, as it continues to do to this day. - -Ver. 450. _And authors think, &c._] This is an admirable satire on those -called authors in fashion, the men who get the laugh on their side. He -shows on how pitiful a basis their reputation stands,--the changeling -disposition of fools to laugh, who are always carried away with the last -joke. - -Ver. 463. _Milbourn_] The Rev. Mr. Luke Milbourn. Dennis served Mr. Pope -in the same office. But these men are of all times, and rise up on all -occasions. Sir Walter Raleigh had Alexander Ross; Chillingworth had -Cheynel; Milton a first Edwards; and Locke a second; neither of them -related to the third Edwards of Lincoln's Inn. They were divines of -parts and learning: this a critic without one or the other. Yet (as Mr. -Pope says of Luke Milbourn) the fairest of all critics; for having -written against the editor's remarks on Shakspear, he did him justice -in printing, at the same time, some of his own.[300] - -Ver. 468. _For envied wit, &c._] This similitude implies a fact too -often verified; and of which we need not seek abroad for examples. It is -this, that frequently those very authors, who have at first done all -they could to obscure and depress a rising genius, have at length been -reduced to borrow from him, imitate his manner, and reflect what they -could of his splendour, merely to keep themselves in some little credit. -Nor hath the poet been less artful, to insinuate what is sometimes the -cause. A youthful genius, like the sun rising towards the meridian, -displays too strong and powerful beams for the dirty temper of inferior -writers, which occasions their gathering, condensing, and blackening. -But as he descends from the meridian (the time when the sun gives its -gilding to the surrounding clouds) his rays grow milder, his heat more -benign, and then - - ev'n those clouds at last adorn its way, - Reflect new glories, and augment the day. - -484. _So when, &c._] This similitude from painting, in which our author -discovers (as he always does on that subject) real science, has still a -more peculiar beauty, as at the same time that it confesses the just -superiority of ancient writings, it insinuates one advantage the modern -have above them, which is this, that in these latter, our more intimate -acquaintance with the occasion of writing, and with the manners -described, lets us into those living and striking graces which may be -well compared to that perfection of imitation given only by the pencil, -while the ravages of time, amongst the monuments of former ages, have -left us but the gross substance of ancient wit,--so much only of the -form and fashion of bodies as may be expressed in brass or marble. - -Ver. 507.--_by knaves undone!_] By which the poet would insinuate a -common but shameful truth, that men in power, if they got into it by -illiberal arts, generally left wit and science to starve. - -Ver. 545. _Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain;_] The seeds of this -religious evil, as well as of the political good from whence it sprung -(for good and evil are incessantly arising out of one another) were sown -in the preceding fat age of pleasure. The mischiefs done during -Cromwell's usurpation, by fanaticism, inflamed by erroneous and absurd -notions of the doctrine of grace and satisfaction, made the loyal -latitudinarian divines (as they were called) at the restoration, go so -far into the other extreme of resolving all Christianity into morality, -as to afford an easy introduction to socinianism, which in that reign -(founded on the principles of liberty) men had full opportunity of -propagating. - -Ver. 561. _For 'tis but half a judge's task, to know._] The critic acts -in two capacities, of assessor and of judge: in the first, science alone -is sufficient; but the other requires morals likewise. - -Ver. 631. _But where's the man, &c._] The poet, by his manner of asking -after this character, and telling us, when he had described it, that -such once were critics, does not encourage us to search for it amongst -modern writers. And indeed the discovery of him, if it could be made, -would be but an invidious affair. However, I will venture to name the -piece of criticism in which all these marks may be found. It is -entitled, Q. Hor. Fl. Ars Poetica, et ejusd. Ep. ad Aug. with an English -Commentary and Notes.[301] - -Ver. 642. _with reason on his side?_] Not only on his side, but in -actual employment. The critic makes but a mean figure, who when he has -found out the beauties of his author, contents himself with showing them -to the world in only empty exclamations. His office is to explain their -nature, show from whence they arise, and what effects they produce, or -in the better and fuller expression of the poet, - - To teach the world with reason to admire. - -Ver. 652. _Who conquered nature, &c._] By this we must not understand -physical nature, but moral. The force of the observation consists in -giving it this sense. The poet not only uses the word nature, for human -nature, throughout this poem; but also, where in the beginning of it, he -lays down the principles of the arts he treats of, he makes the -knowledge of human nature the foundation of all criticism and poetry. -Nor is the observation less true than apposite. For Aristotle's natural -inquiries were superficial and ill made, though extensive; but his -logical and moral works are supremely excellent. In his moral, he has -unfolded the human mind, and laid open all the recesses of the heart and -understanding; and in his logical, he has not only conquered nature, but -by his categories, has kept her in tenfold chains; not as dulness kept -the muses in the Dunciad, to silence them; but as Aristaeus held Proteus -in Virgil, to deliver oracles. - -Ver. 665. _See Dionysius, &c._] In the first of these lines, on which -the other depends, the peculiar excellence of this critic, and indeed -the most material and useful part of a critic's office, is touched upon, -who, like the refiner, purifies the rich ore of an original writer; for -such a one busied in creating, often neglects to separate and refine the -mass, pouring out his riches rather in bullion than in sterling. - -Ver. 667. _Fancy and art, &c._] "The chief merit of Petronius," says an -objector,[302] "is that of telling a story with grace and ease." But the -poet is not here speaking, nor was it his purpose to speak, of the chief -merit of Petronius, but of his merit as a critic, which consisted, he -tells us, in softening the art of a scholar with the ease of a courtier, -and whoever reads and understands the critical part of his abominable -story-telling will see that the poet has given his true character as a -critic, which was the only thing he had to do with. - -Ver. 693. _At length Erasmus, &c._] Nothing can be more artful than the -application of this example, or more happy than the turn of the -compliment. To throw glory quite round the character of this admirable -person, he makes it to be (as in fact it really was) by his assistance -chiefly, that Leo was enabled to restore letters and the fine arts in -his pontificate. - -Ver. 694. _The glory of the priesthood and the shame!_] Our author -elsewhere lets us know what he esteems to be the glory of the priesthood -as well as of a christian in general, where comparing himself to -Erasmus, he says, - - In moderation placing all my glory, - -and consequently what he regards as the shame of it. The whole of this -character belonged eminently and almost solely to Erasmus: for the other -reformers, such as Luther, Calvin, and their followers, understood so -little in what true christian liberty consisted, that they carried with -them, into the reformed churches, that very spirit of persecution, which -had driven them from the church of Rome. - -Ver. 696. _And drove those holy Vandals off the stage._] In this attack -on the established ignorance of the times, Erasmus succeeded so well as -to bring good letters into fashion, to which he gave new splendour, by -preparing for the press correct editions of many of the best ancient -writers, both ecclesiastical and profane. But having laughed and shamed -his age out of one folly, he had the mortification of seeing it run -headlong into another. The virtuosi of Italy, in a superstitious dread -of that monkish barbarity which he had so severely handled, would use no -term (for now almost every man was become a Latin writer), not even when -they treated of the highest mysteries of religion, which had not been -consecrated in the capitol, and dispensed unto them from the sacred hand -of Cicero. Erasmus observed the growth of this classical folly with the -greater concern, as he discovered under all their attention to the -language of old Rome, a certain fondness for its religion, in a growing -impiety which disposed them to think irreverently of the christian -faith. And he no sooner discovered it than he set upon reforming it; -which he did so effectually in the dialogue, entitled Ciceronianus, that -he brought the age back to that just temper, which he had been all his -life endeavouring to mark out to it,--purity, but not pedantry in -letters, and zeal, but not bigotry, in religion. In a word, by employing -his great talents of genius and literature on subjects of general -importance; and by opposing the extremes of all parties in their turns; -he completed the real character of a true critic and an honest man. - - - - - RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM. - - WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1712. - - * * * * * - - - - - THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM. - - - Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos, - Sed juvat hoc praecibus me tribuisse tuis. - MART. LIB. 12. Ep. 86. - - - Printed for BERNARD LINTOTT. 1712. 8vo. - -This is the title-page of the original Rape of the Lock, in two cantos, -which appeared anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany. The poem begins on p. -353 of the volume, and the previous piece ends at p. 320. What purported -to be a second edition of the Miscellany came out in 1714, but except -that the gap between p. 320 and p. 353 had been filled up, and that the -Essay on Criticism is inserted at the end of the book, the work is -merely a reissue, with a new title-page, of the first edition, and the -Rape of the Lock, like the rest, is the old impression of 1712. Even the -primitive "Table of Contents" was retained, though it omits the -additional pieces, which were chiefly poems by Pope. His contributions -to the Miscellany are, however, enumerated on the title-page of the -second edition. - - - * * * * * - - - - - THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM. IN FIVE CANTOS. - - Written by Mr. POPE. - - - ----A tonso est hoc nomen adepta capillo.--OVID. - - -London: Printed for BERNARD LINTOTT, at the Cross Keys in Fleet Street. - 1714. 8vo. - -The first enlarged edition. A second and third edition followed in the -same year. After the Rape of the Lock had been included in the quarto of -1717, it was still printed in a separate form, and a "fifth edition -corrected" was published by Lintot in 1718. He also inserted the work in -the four editions of his Miscellanies, which appeared in the twelve -years from 1720 to 1732. Lintot paid Pope L7 on March 21, 1712, for the -Rape of the Lock in its first form, and gave L15 for the enlarged poem -on February 20, 1714. - -The first sketch of this poem was written in less than a fortnight's -time in 1711, in two cantos, and so printed in a Miscellany, without the -name of the author. The machines were not inserted till a year after, -when he published it, and annexed the dedication.--POPE, 1736. - -The stealing of Miss Belle Fermor's hair was taken too seriously, and -caused an estrangement between the two families, though they had lived -so long in great friendship before. A common acquaintance, and -well-wisher to both, desired me to write a poem to make a jest of it, -and laugh them together again. It was with this view that I wrote the -Rape of the Lock, which was well received, and had its effect in the two -families. Nobody but Sir George Brown was angry, and he was a good deal -so, and for a long time. He could not bear that Sir Plume should talk -nothing but nonsense. Copies of the poem got about, and it was like to -be printed, on which I published the first draught of it (without the -machinery) in a Miscellany of Tonson's. The machinery was added -afterwards to make it look a little more considerable, and the scheme of -adding it was much liked and approved of by several of my friends, and -particularly by Dr. Garth, who, as he was one of the best natured men in -the world, was very fond of it. The making the machinery, and what was -published before, hit so well together is, I think, one of the greatest -proofs of judgment of anything I ever did.--POPE in SPENCE. - -It appears by the motto "Nolueram," etc., that the following poem was -written or published at the lady's request. But there are some further -circumstances not unworthy relating. Mr. Caryll (a gentleman who was -secretary to Queen Mary, wife of James II., whose fortunes he followed -into France, author of the comedy of Sir Solomon Single, and of several -translations in Dryden's Miscellanies) originally proposed the subject -to him, in a view of putting an end, by this piece of ridicule, to a -quarrel that was risen between two noble families, those of Lord Petre -and of Mrs. Fermor, on the trifling occasion of his having cut off a -lock of her hair. The author sent it to the lady, with whom he was -acquainted; and she took it so well as to give about copies of it. That -first sketch, we learn from one of his letters, was written in less than -a fortnight, in 1711, in two cantos only, and it was so printed; first, -in a Miscellany of Bern. Lintot's, without the name of the author. But -it was received so well, that he made it more considerable the next -year by the addition of the machinery of the sylphs, and extended it to -five cantos. We shall give the reader the pleasure of seeing in what -manner these additions were inserted, so as to seem not to be added, but -to grow out of the poem. See Notes, Cant. I. ver. 9, etc. This insertion -he always esteemed, and justly, the greatest effort of his skill and art -as a poet.--WARBURTON. - -I hope it will not be thought an exaggerated panegyric to say that the -Rape of the Lock is the best satire extant; that it contains the truest -and liveliest picture of modern life; and that the subject is of a more -elegant nature, as well as more artfully conducted than that of any -other heroi-comic poem. If some of the most candid among the French -critics begin to acknowledge that they have produced nothing, in point -of sublimity and majesty, equal to the Paradise Lost, we may also -venture to affirm that in point of delicacy, elegance, and fine-turned -raillery, on which they have so much valued themselves, they have -produced nothing equal to the Rape of the Lock. It is in this -composition Pope principally appears a poet, in which he has displayed -more imagination than in all his other works taken together. It should, -however, be remembered, that he was not the first former and creator of -those beautiful machines, the sylphs, on which his claim to imagination -is chiefly founded. He found them existing ready to his hand; but has, -indeed, employed them with singular judgment and artifice.--WARTON. - -The Rape of the Lock is the most airy, the most ingenious, and the most -delightful of all Pope's compositions. At its first appearance it was -termed by Addison "merum sal." Pope, however, saw that it was capable of -improvement; and having luckily contrived to borrow his machinery from -the Rosicrucians, imparted the scheme, with which his head was teeming, -to Addison, who told him that his work, as it stood, was "a delicious -little thing," and gave him no encouragement to retouch it. This has -been too hastily considered as an instance of Addison's jealousy; for as -he could not guess the conduct of the new design, or the possibilities -of pleasure comprised in a fiction of which there had been no examples, -he might very reasonably and kindly persuade the author to acquiesce in -his own prosperity, and forbear an attempt which he considered as an -unnecessary hazard. Addison's counsel was happily rejected. Pope foresaw -the future efflorescence of imagery then budding in his mind, and -resolved to spare no art or industry of cultivation. The soft luxuriance -of his fancy was already shooting, and all the gay varieties of diction -were ready at his hand to colour and embellish it. His attempt was -justified by its success. The Rape of the Lock stands forward, in the -classes of literature, as the most exquisite example of ludicrous -poetry. Berkeley congratulated him upon the display of powers more truly -poetical than he had shown before. With elegance of description and -justness of precepts he had now exhibited boundless fertility of -invention. He always considered the intermixture of the machinery with -the action as his most successful exertion of poetical art. He indeed -could never afterwards produce anything of such unexampled excellence. -Those performances which strike with wonder are combinations of skilful -genius with happy casualty; and it is not likely that any felicity, like -the discovery of a new race of preternatural agents, should happen twice -to the same man. - -Of this poem the author was, I think, allowed to enjoy the praise for a -long time without disturbance. Many years afterwards Dennis published -some remarks upon it with very little force and with no effect; for the -opinion of the public was already settled, and it was no longer at the -mercy of criticism.[303] - -To the praises which have been accumulated on the Rape of the Lock by -readers of every class, from the critic to the waiting-maid, it is -difficult to make any addition. Of that which is universally allowed to -be the most attractive of all ludicrous compositions, let it rather be -now inquired from what sources the power of pleasing is derived. Dr. -Warburton, who excelled in critical perspicacity, has remarked that the -preternatural agents are very happily adapted to the purposes of the -poem. The heathen deities can no longer gain attention: we should have -turned away from a contest between Venus and Diana. The employment of -allegorical persons always excites conviction of its own absurdity; they -may produce effects, but cannot conduct actions: when the phantom is put -in motion it dissolves. Thus Discord may raise a mutiny, but Discord -cannot conduct a march, nor besiege a town. Pope brought in view a new -race of beings, with powers and passions proportionate to their -operation. The sylphs and gnomes act at the toilet and the tea-table, -what more terrific and more powerful phantoms perform on the stormy -ocean or the field of battle; they give their proper help and do their -proper mischief. Pope is said by an objector,[304] not to have been the -inventor of this petty nation; a charge which might with more justice -have been brought against the author of the Iliad, who doubtless adopted -the religious system of his country; for what is there but the names of -his agents which Pope has not invented? Has he not assigned them -characters and operations never heard of before? Has he not, at least, -given them their first poetical existence? If this is not sufficient to -denominate his work original, nothing original ever can be written. - -In this work are exhibited, in a very high degree, the two most engaging -powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and familiar things -are made new. A race of aerial people, never heard of before, is -presented to us in a manner so clear and easy, that the reader seeks for -no further information, but immediately mingles with his new -acquaintance, adopts their interests, and attends their pursuits, loves -a sylph and detests a gnome. That familiar things are made new, every -paragraph will prove. The subject of the poem is an event below the -common incidents of common life; nothing real is introduced that is not -seen so often as to be no longer regarded; yet the whole detail of a -female day is here brought before us, invested with so much art of -decoration, that, though nothing is disguised, everything is striking, -and we feel all the appetite of curiosity for that from which we have a -thousand times turned fastidiously away. - -The purpose of the poet is, as he tells us, to laugh at "the little -unguarded follies of the female sex." It is therefore without justice -that Dennis charges the Rape of the Lock with the want of a moral, and -for that reason sets it below the Lutrin, which exposes the pride and -discord of the clergy. Perhaps neither Pope nor Boileau has made the -world much better than he found it, but, if they had both succeeded, it -were easy to tell who would have deserved most from public gratitude. -The freaks, and humours, and spleen, and vanity of women, as they -embroil families in discord, and fill houses with disquiet, do more to -obstruct the happiness of life in a year than the ambition of the clergy -in many centuries. It has been well observed, that the misery of man -proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small -vexations continually repeated. - -It is remarked by Dennis likewise that the machinery is superfluous; -that by all the bustle of preternatural operation the main event is -neither hastened nor retarded. To this charge an efficacious answer is -not easily made. The sylphs cannot be said to help or to oppose, and it -must be allowed to imply some want of art, that their power has not -been sufficiently intermingled with the action. Other parts may likewise -be charged with want of connection; the game at ombre might be spared; -but if the lady had lost her hair while she was intent upon her cards, -it might have been inferred that those who are too fond of play will be -in danger of neglecting more important interests. These perhaps are -faults, but what are such faults to so much excellence?--JOHNSON. - -The Rape of the Lock at once placed Pope higher than any modern writer, -and exceeded everything of the kind that had appeared in the republic of -letters. Dr. Johnson truly says that it is the most airy, the most -ingenious, and the most delightful of all Pope's compositions. Indeed, -upon this subject there cannot be two opinions. This poem is founded, -however, upon local manners. And of all poems of that kind it is -undoubtedly far the best, whether we consider the exquisite tone of -raillery, a certain musical sweetness and suitableness in the -versification, the management of the story, or the kind of fancy and -airiness given to the whole. But what entitles it to its high claim of -peculiar poetic excellences?--the powers of imagination, and the -felicity of invention displayed in adopting, and most artfully -conducting, a machinery so fanciful, so appropriate, so novel, and so -poetical. The introduction of Discord, &c., as machinery in the Lutrin, -&c., is not to be mentioned at the same time. Such a being as Discord -will suit a hundred subjects; but the elegant, the airy sylph, - - Loose to the wind, whose airy garments flew, - Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew, - Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies, - Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes: - -such a being as this, is suited alone to the identical and peculiar poem -in which it is employed. I will now go a step farther in appreciating -the elegance and beauty of this poem, and I would ask the question, Let -any other poet,--Dryden, Waller, Cowley, or Gray,--be assigned this -subject, and this machinery: could they have produced a work altogether -so correct and beautiful from the same given materials? Let us, however, -still remember, that this poem is founded on local manners, and the -employment of the sylphs is in artificial life. For this reason the poem -must have a secondary rank, when considered strictly and truly with -regard to its poetry. Whether Pope would have excelled as much in -loftier subjects of a general nature, in the "high mood" of Lycidas, the -rich colourings of Comus, and the magnificent descriptions and sublime -images of Paradise Lost; or in painting the characters and employments -of aerial beings, - - That tread the ooze of the salt deep, - Or run upon the sharp wind of the north, - -is another question. He has not attempted it: I have no doubt he would -have failed. But to have produced a poem, infinitely the highest of its -kind, and which no other poet could perhaps altogether have done so -well, is surely very high praise. The excellence is Pope's own, the -inferiority is in the subject. No one understood better that excellent -rule of Horace: - - Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, aequam - Viribus.[305]--BOWLES. - -From the statement of Pope in the edition of 1736, it would be inferred -that the Rape of the Lock in its second form was prepared and published -in 1712. As usual he ante-dated his work. The original sketch came out -in 1712; the machinery was added in 1713, and the enlarged poem was not -published till the spring of 1714. Warburton's narrative, which in some -editions had Pope's initial affixed by an error of the press,[306] is in -part derived from Pope, and the rest is erroneous. The person who -bespoke the Rape of the Lock was not Mr. Secretary Caryll, but his -nephew, the Sussex squire, and for years the correspondent of Pope. The -assertion of Warburton, that Pope, when he wrote the work, was -acquainted with his heroine, is discredited by his letter to Caryll on -May 28, 1712. "Mr. Bedingfield," he there says, "has done me the favour -to send some books of the Rape to my Lord Petre and Mrs. Fermor," and -unless the poet had been a total stranger to them he would have -presented the copies himself. The language of the motto can only bear -the interpretation of Warburton, that the Rape of the Lock "was written -or published at the lady's request," but Warburton ought to have seen -that the motto was a deception. The piece was not _written_ at Miss -Fermor's request, for it was absurd to imagine that she would ask any -one to compose a poem to allay her own resentment against Lord Petre, -and there is the direct statement of Pope in the body of the work, and -in his conversation with Spence, that the suggestion did not come from -her.[307] The piece was not _published_ at her request, for in the -Dedication of the second edition to Miss Fermor, Pope says of the first -edition, "An imperfect copy having been offered to a bookseller, you had -the good nature for my sake to consent to the publication of one more -correct. This I was forced to before I had executed half my design, for -the machinery was entirely wanting to complete it." Warburton reversed -the parts. The requester was Pope, and Miss Fermor gave a consent which -it was vain to refuse when the sole alternative presented to her was -whether the poem should be printed surreptitiously, or under the -supervision of its author. The miserable farce of circulating copies of -a work, and then alleging that the publication had become a necessary -measure of self-defence, was one of those transparent pretences which -deceived no one except the person who fancied that he was deceiving. -Pope never wrote a line of the smallest value which was not intended for -the printer. - -The motto from Martial was doubtless attached to the Rape of the Lock in -the belief that Miss Fermor would be proud to countenance the -misrepresentation. The poet was mistaken. "A few years ago," says Dr. -Johnson, "a niece of Mrs. Fermor, who presided in an English convent at -Paris, mentioned Pope's work with very little gratitude, rather as an -insult than an honour; and she may be supposed to have inherited the -opinion of her family."[308] Pope told Spence that "nobody but Sir -George Brown was angry," and Warburton says that Miss Fermor "took the -poem so well as to give about copies of it," but we now know that -Johnson was right in his inference. "Sir Plume blusters, I hear," wrote -Pope to the younger Caryll, Nov. 8, 1712, five months after the Rape of -the Lock appeared; "nay, the celebrated lady herself is offended, and, -which is stranger, not at herself, but me. Is not this enough to make a -writer never be tender of another's character or fame?" Respect for the -fame and feelings of his heroine was not an act of grace; it was an -imperious duty. At the request of a common friend he had composed a poem -for an amiable purpose upon an incident of private life, and it would -have been a hateful abuse of his commission, a slanderous violation of -domestic sanctities, if he had penned a word which could sully the -reputation of an innocent maiden. He is not free from reproach. Without -intending to transgress he offended from inherent want of delicacy. He -made Belinda the subject of some gross double meanings, which provoked -the ribald comments of the critics, and, unless a morbid love of -notoriety had extinguished feminine purity, she must have been deeply -outraged by being associated with these licentious allusions. Her -indignation may appear to have come too late, for though her consent to -the publication of the work, when there was no real choice, does not -involve approval, she might, through her friends, have effectually -demanded the suppression of degrading couplets. Her very resentment, -however, when she read the work in print, is a presumption that they -were not in the manuscript which was sent her, and indeed it is -incredible that she, or her family, could ever have sanctioned such -revolting personalities. They are a sad exhibition of the ingrained -coarseness of Pope's taste,--of his incapacity to conceive the idea of -womanly homage to outward decency, to say nothing of innate refinement -and modesty. - -In the interval between the first and second edition of the Rape of the -Lock, Pope was compelled to acknowledge that he had inflicted an injury -on Miss Fermor. "I have some thoughts," he wrote to Caryll, Dec. 15, -1713, "of dedicating the poem to her by name, as a piece of justice in -return to the wrong interpretations she has suffered under on the score -of that piece." He tried a preface "which salved the lady's honour -without affixing her name," but she preferred the dedication. She wished -to be dissociated from his heroine, and he propitiated her by saying, -all the incidents are "fabulous except the loss of your hair; and the -character of Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but -beauty." "I believe," he wrote to Caryll, January 9, 1714, "I have -managed the dedication so nicely that it can neither hurt the lady nor -the author. I writ it very lately, and upon great deliberation. The -young lady approves of it, and the best advice in the kingdom, of the -men of sense, has been made use of in it, even to the treasurer's." -Plainer understandings will be puzzled to discover what scope there -could be for the "great deliberation" of the poet, and the advice of all -the ablest men throughout the kingdom, including the prime minister, -Lord Oxford, in making a simple declaration of a simple fact. To -complete the absolution of Miss Fermor, Pope substituted another motto -for the lines from Martial, and when their temporary withdrawal had -answered his purpose he restored them in the quarto edition of his -works. - -A more celebrated feud, if we are to trust the account of Warburton, -took its rise from the Rape of the Lock. The success of the first -edition "encouraged the author to give it a more important air" by the -addition of the supernatural machinery. "Full," says Warburton, "of this -noble conception he communicated it to Mr. Addison, who he imagined -would have been equally delighted with the improvement. On the contrary, -he had the mortification to see his friend receive it coldly; and even -to advise him against any alteration, for that the poem in its original -state was a delicious little thing, and, as he expressed it, _merum -sal_. Mr. Pope was shocked for his friend, and then first began to open -his eyes to his character."[309] The charge has been exposed by Johnson, -Macaulay, and Croker. Mr. Croker denies that the machinery was a -plausible suggestion. "I believe Addison's advice," he says, "to have -been a sincere and just opinion, and such as I should have expected from -the purity of his taste. The original poem tells the actual story and -exhibits a picture of real manners with so much wit and poetry, but also -with so much simplicity and clearness, that I can well imagine that -Addison might be alarmed at the proposition of introducing sylphs and -gnomes into a scene of common life already so admirably described. Even -now, with the advantage of seeing all the brilliancy with which Pope has -worked out what Addison thought an unfortunate conception, I will not -deny that such is the charm of truth that I have lately read the first -sketch with more interest, though certainly with less admiration than -its more fanciful and more gorgeous successor, which really seems -something like a beauty oppressed with the weight and splendour of her -ornaments. The game at cards, the most ingenious and beautiful of all -the additions, is only reality splendidly embellished, and would have -been equally well placed in the first sketch." Macaulay vindicates the -counsel of Addison upon a general principle, irrespective of the -apparent want of fitness between supernatural agents and the frivolities -of fashion,--a principle "the result of wide and long experience," which -is, that a successful work of imagination is injured by being recast. -"We cannot at this moment," he says, "call to mind a single instance in -which this rule has been transgressed with happy effect, except the -instance of the Rape of the Lock. Tasso recast his Jerusalem. Akenside -recast his Pleasures of the Imagination, and his Epistle to Curio. Pope -himself, emboldened no doubt by the success with which he had expanded -and remodelled the Rape of the Lock, made the same experiment on the -Dunciad. All these attempts failed. Who was to foresee that Pope would -once in his life be able to do what he could not himself do twice, and -what nobody else has ever done? Addison's advice was good, but if it had -been bad, why should we pronounce it dishonest? Scott tells us that one -of his best friends predicted the failure of Waverley. Herder adjured -Goethe not to take so unpromising a subject as Faust. Hume tried to -dissuade Robertson from writing the History of Charles the Fifth. Nay -Pope himself was one of those who prophesied that Cato would never -succeed on the stage, and advised Addison to print it without risking a -representation.[310] But Scott, Goethe, Robertson, Addison, had the -good sense and generosity to give their advisers credit for the best -intentions. Pope's heart was not of the same kind with theirs."[311] Of -the examples, which Macaulay quotes, of poems marred in the attempt to -mend them, the Jerusalem of Tasso was the only one which existed in the -days of Addison; and the Jerusalem was not a parallel case, for the mind -of Tasso was diseased when he remodelled his work, and he yielded, -against his judgment, to the cavils of critics instead of obeying the -self-born calls of imagination. Most men nevertheless would -instinctively recommend that whatever was beautiful should be let alone, -lest it should be deteriorated in the effort to make it better. When -Pope boasted that the adaptation of the new parts to the old, in the -Rape of the Lock, was the greatest triumph of his skill, he himself -confessed the risk and difficulty of the process, and justified the -misgivings of Addison. But besides the general hazard, we should expect, -with Mr. Croker, that Addison would have thought the particular project -for improving the poem to be essentially bad. Pope had shown a -predilection for heathen mythology, and his management of it had been -clumsy and lifeless. His scheme would have called up to Addison's mind -the interposition of the gods and goddesses in Homer and Virgil. The -conjunction of these obsolete figments, under new names, with the -trivialities of modern society, would have seemed incongruous and -pedantic,[312] and the previous works of Pope would have compelled the -conclusion that he had not the skill to deal with ethereal fiction. -Addison could neither have divined from a conversational description how -perfectly the agents would be adapted to their office, nor from Pope's -existing poetry how delicious they would be rendered by the felicity of -the execution. Unless there was the strongest presumption that the -recommendation to leave the poem unaltered was made in good faith, we -should not be warranted in believing the story, for no reliance could be -placed on the unsupported testimony of Pope when he was safe from -contradiction, and his object was to damage the reputation of a rival. - -Pope is convicted on his own evidence. He admits that the incident -"_first_ opened his eyes to the character of Addison," and by -consequence that Addison's conduct had been hitherto blameless. He thus -bears witness against himself of his readiness to impute the basest -motives upon the most trumpery pretexts. Being "_shocked_" at the moral -turpitude of "his friend," he could never again have treated him with -cordiality and confidence, and the alienation which ensued, must, on -Pope's own showing, have had its origin in Pope's morbid suspicions. But -there was an earlier transaction, which turns the tables with fatal -force upon Pope. Anterior to the conversation on the Rape of the -Lock,[313] he urged Lintot the bookseller to persuade Dennis to -criticise Addison's Cato.[314] Dennis published his Remarks, and Pope -followed with his anonymous pamphlet, Dr. Norris's Narrative of the -Phrenzy of J.D.,--a coarse, dull production, consisting of nothing but -low, intemperate abuse. Pope's device pointed to three results. He would -damage the reputation of Addison's play; he would provoke him into -turning his wrath upon Dennis; and he would secure an opening for -venting his own spleen against the critic without seeming to be actuated -by personal spite. Addison was disgusted with the pamphlet; and, -ignorant probably of its parentage, he let Dennis know that he -repudiated and condemned it.[315] The worst was to come. More than -twenty years afterwards Pope dressed up a letter which he had written to -Caryll, on the occasion of an attack in the Flying Post, and pretended -that it had been written to Addison when his play was assailed by -Dennis. In this fraudulent document Pope congratulates him on his share -in "the envy and calumny, which is the portion of all good and great -men," and declares that "he felt more warmth" at the Remarks on Cato -than when he read the Reflections on the Essay on Criticism.[316] Having -prompted the abuse, he published a fictitious letter to persuade the -world that he had overflowed with generous indignation. He wanted -posterity to believe that he had poured out these magnanimous sentiments -to Addison, who returned him envy and malice. His object was to magnify -his own virtues, and transfer his meanness and jealousy to the amiable -genius he had formerly wronged. "Addison," he said, "was very kind to me -at first, but my bitter enemy afterwards,"[317] and with the -consciousness of guilt, he tried to conceal that he had forfeited the -kindness by misconduct. He was bold with his forgeries and falsehoods in -the confidence that a dead man could tell no tales. Happily there are -flaws in the best-laid dishonest plots, and the hour of retribution -comes at last. At what period or in what degree Addison himself detected -Pope's practices is not definitely known, but he discovered enough to -avoid him. "Leave him as soon as you can," he said to Lady Mary W. -Montagu; "he will certainly play you some devilish trick else. He has an -appetite to satire." - -Up to the Rape of the Lock, Pope had only put borrowed thoughts into -verse. He now broke out into originality, but not without some -obligation to his predecessors. In one place De Quincey maintains that -the Rape of the Lock was not suggested by the Lutrin, because Pope did -not read French with ease to himself, and in another place that Voltaire -must have been wrong in saying that "Pope could hardly read French," -inasmuch as there are "numerous proofs that he had read Boileau with so -much feeling of his peculiar merit that he has appropriated and -naturalised some of his best passages."[319] The second statement of De -Quincey was the latest and the truest. Pope refers to the Lutrin in his -manuscript notes on the Remarks of Dennis, and certainly had it in his -mind when he framed the scheme of his poem. "The treasurer," it is said, -in the summary prefixed to Boileau's work, "is the highest dignitary in -the chapter. The precentor is the second dignitary. In front of the seat -of the latter there was formerly an enormous reading-desk, which almost -concealed him. He had it removed, and the treasurer wanted to put it -back. Hence arose the dispute which is the subject of the present poem." -Boileau converted the squabble into a satire on the indolence, the -sensuality, and pride of the cathedral clergy in the licentious reign of -Louis XIV. Pope converted the quarrel between Miss Fermor and Lord Petre -into a satire on the frivolities of a young lady of fashion from her -morning toilet to the close of her giddy day. Boileau called the Lutrin -a new species of burlesque, "because," he said, "in other burlesques -Dido and AEneas speak like fishwomen and scavengers; here a barber and -his wife speak like Dido and AEneas." Pope adopted a similar vein, and -invested the trifles of a gay and frivolous life with an adventitious -importance. Boileau parodied some well-known passages of Virgil. Pope -parodied both Virgil and Homer. The Lutrin opens with Discord appearing -to the sleeping treasurer, and warning him against the encroachments of -the rebellious precentor. The enlarged Rape of the Lock opens with Ariel -appearing, in a dream, to Belinda, and beseeching her to beware of some -disastrous impending event. The raillery on the foibles of women, which -is the central idea in Pope's poem, was caught up from the exquisite -pleasantry of Addison, who, in the Tatlers and Spectators, had -endeavoured to laugh the fair sex out of their levities of behaviour, -and extravagances of dress. Through his delicate humour, it had become -the popular topic in the light literature of the day. - -Johnson says of the sylphs that they are "a new race of beings," and -that there is nothing "but the names of his agents which Pope has not -invented." This is an exaggeration. The names were a considerable part -of the novelty; for, in the fundamental conception, the sylphs in the -Rape of the Lock were the time-honoured fairies of English literature. -Their immediate prototypes are the elves of Shakespeare. The sprites of -Pope belong to the same family with the diminutive, joyous, ethereal -creatures which anciently crept into acorn cups, couched in the bells of -cowslips, or lived under blossoms; who sported in air, rode on the -curled clouds, and flitted with the swiftness of thought over land and -sea; who hung dew-drops on flowers, fetched jewels from the deep, shaded -sleeping eyes from moonbeams with wings plucked from painted -butterflies, and who mingled, benignly or maliciously, in all but the -graver varieties of human affairs. Pope acknowledges the ancestry of his -newly-named race when Ariel,--whose own name confesses his -parentage,--addressing his subjects, says, - - Ye sylphs and sylphids, to your chief give ear; - Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons hear. - -The benevolent and mischievous fairies of old days were, in their turn, -little more than the good and evil angels dwarfed to suit their lighter -functions. For the precise outward aspect which Pope assigned to the -sylphs, he was beholden to Spenser, with whose works he was well -acquainted: - - And all about her neck and shoulders flew - A flock of little loves, and sports, and joys, - With nimble wings of gold and purple hue, - Whose shapes seemed not like to terrestrial boys, - But like to angels playing heav'nly toys. - -These are just the beings who hover round Belinda. But though Johnson's -claim for Pope is over-stated, his supernatural agents are the product -of genius. The vividness with which they are described, the novel -offices they fulfil, the poetic beauty with which they are invested, -even when engaged in employments not in their nature poetic, constitute -them a distinct variety, and they rise up before our minds like a fresh -creation, and not as the reflection of antecedent familiar forms. The -remark is true of the work throughout. What Pope borrowed he varied, -embellished, and combined in a manner which leaves the poem unique. Some -of the parts may be traced to earlier sources, but few master-pieces -have more originality in the aggregate. - -"The Rape of the Lock," says De Quincey, "is the most exquisite monument -of playful fancy that universal literature offers."[320] "The Rape of -the Lock," says Hazlitt, "is the most exquisite specimen of filigree -work ever invented. It is made of gauze and silver spangles. The most -glittering appearance is given to everything--to paste, pomatum, -billets-doux, and patches. Airs, languid airs, breathe around; the -atmosphere is perfumed with affectation. A toilet is described with the -solemnity of an altar raised to the goddess of vanity, and the history -of a silver bodkin is given with all the pomp of heraldry. No pains are -spared, no profusion of ornament, no splendour of poetic diction to set -off the meanest things. The balance between the concealed irony and the -assumed gravity is as nicely trimmed as the balance of power in Europe. -The little is made great and the great little. You hardly know whether -to laugh or weep. It is the triumph of insignificance, the apotheosis of -foppery and folly. It is the perfection of the mock-heroic."[321] The -world of fashion is displayed in its most gorgeous and attractive hues, -and everywhere the emptiness is visible beneath the outward splendour. -The beauty of Belinda, the details of her toilet, her troops of -admirers, her progress up the Thames, the game at cards, the aerial -escort which attend upon her, are all set forth with unrivalled grace -and fascination, and all bear the impress of vanity and vexation. -Nothing can exceed the art with which the satire is blended with the -pomp, mocking without disturbing the unsubstantial gewgaw. The double -vein is kept up with sustained skill in the picture of the outward -charms and inward frivolity of women. Ariel, describing the influence of -the sylphs upon them, says, that - - With varying vanities from ev'ry part, - They shift the moving toy-shop of their heart. - -This is the tone throughout. Their hearts are toy-shops. They reverse -the relative importance of things, and, as Hazlitt says, the "little" -with them "is great, and the great little." The Bible is mixed up with -"files of pins, puffs, powders, patches, billets-doux." Chastity and -china, prayers and masquerades, love and jewellery are put upon a -nominal equality, but with a manifest preponderance in favour of the -china, masquerades, and jewellery. The female passion is for carriages, -dress, cards, rank, and it is an insoluble mystery that "a belle should -reject a lord." The "grave Clarissa," who rebukes the "airs and flights" -of Belinda, can offer no higher motive for intermixing solid with -trifling qualities than - - That _men_ may say, when we the front-box grace, - "Behold the first in virtue as in face!" - -The continuous raillery against female foibles is playful in its -poignancy. The whole wears a festive air, and has none of the ill-nature -and venom which marked Pope's later satire. - -In allotting their several functions to the sylphs, Ariel reserves -Belinda's lap-dog for his own especial charge: - - Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock. - -Dennis said it was "contrary to all manner of judgment and decorum" that -the chief of the aerial train should be "only the keeper of a vile -Iceland cur," instead of protecting "the lady's favourite lock."[322] -Ruffhead repeated the futile objection.[323] "Black omens" announced -that some misfortune would befall Belinda, but the precise calamity had -been "wrapped by the fates in night." For aught Ariel knew, the attack -might be directed against the favourite dog, which is neither "vile" nor -"a cur" in Pope's poem, and which we may do Belinda the justice to -believe was more precious in her eyes than even a favourite ringlet. She -would rather have sacrificed her lock than her dog. Dennis from -hostility, and Ruffhead from dullness, missed the meaning of the stroke. -The climax of the omens which prefigured the coming disaster was that -"Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind." The "shrieks" of the -heroine, when the catastrophe arrived, were such as "when husbands or -when lap-dogs breathe their last." A gnome bent upon mischief made -pampered lap-dogs ill, and bright eyes wept over them. The undue -fondness for dogs and parrots, to the depreciation of the higher claims -of humanity, was no uncommon failing, and Pope's design was to ridicule -it. Locks of hair did not usurp the same supreme dominion, and Ariel, -ignorant where the danger would light, is properly represented as -guarding the pet dog, which had the first place in the affections of -heartless women of fashion. - -To the distempered mind of Dennis the sylphs appeared an absurd -excrescence. "They neither promote," he says, "nor retard the danger of -Belinda."[324] Johnson admits the force of the observation, and thinks -it "implies some want of art that their power has not been sufficiently -intermingled with the action." The criticism seems hasty. The sylphs -have a large share in the fascination of Belinda. Their province is to -heighten and protect her charms,--to preside at her toilet, to imprison -essences, to save the powder from too rude a gale, to steal washes from -the rainbow, to assist her blushes, and inspire her airs. They perform -these offices up to the fatal moment, and are not an incumbrance to the -narrative merely because they cannot avert the final stroke. Nay, their -impotence to stay the crisis is in keeping with the general spirit of -the poem. Belinda leads a life of vanity, and the sylphs are the -ministers of vanity. They are lustrous with a butterfly beauty, the -patrons of ephemeral folly, and it would be inconsistent with the moral -if they could have ensured a perpetual triumph to weaknesses which -inevitably terminate in mortification. Pope accounts for the failure of -the watchful legion to turn aside the catastrophe. Ariel recognises that -his power is gone when he perceives "an earthly lover lurking at -Belinda's heart,"--an intimation, perhaps, that lovers are headstrong -and incapable of guidance. Johnson asserts, and with as little reason, -that the game of cards, like the machinery, has no connection with the -subject of the poem. That subject is the exaltation of a beautiful young -lady throughout a day of glittering fashion, till the hollow pomp ends -in humiliation, anger, and tears. Whatever amusements and pageantry -entered into a day of the kind belonged directly to the theme, provided -they could be made subservient to poetic effect. - -When Ariel, baffled and weeping, is compelled to resign his charge, the -gnomes rush upon the scene, and retain their ascendancy till near the -end. They are but slightly sketched, and all we hear of the appearance -they present is that they have "a dusky, melancholy" aspect, and "sooty -pinions." Their functions are the opposite to those of the sylphs,--they -give lap-dogs diseases, discompose head-dresses, raise pimples on -beauteous faces, engender pride, and spoil graces. Dennis detected a -flaw. Umbriel descends to the Cave of Spleen, and procures from the -goddess a bag filled with the impetuous, and a phial with the depressing -passions. The gnome empties the bag of "sighs, sobs, and the war of -tongues" on Belinda, who immediately "burns with more than mortal ire." -The gnome next breaks over her the phial of "fainting fears and soft -sorrows," when she exchanges her expression of rage for "eyes -half-languishing, half-drowned in tears." "Now," says Dennis, "what could -be more useless, whether we look upon the bag or the bottle?"[325] -Without any assistance from the contents of the bag the "livid -lightning had flashed from Belinda's eyes," and she had "rent the -affrighted skies with her screams of horror." Without any assistance -from the bottle she was found, on the gnome's return, sunk in the arms -of a friend, "her hair unbound, and her eyes dejected." Pope replied on -the margin of his copy of Dennis's pamphlet, that Juno in the AEneid -summons Alecto from the infernal regions to stir up Amata, who was -already burning with anger. This was no answer if the cases had been -parallel, which they were not, for Amata's anger was only a passive -irritation, and Alecto was sent to goad her into active fury. A few -words would have obviated the criticism of Dennis, but the Cave of -Spleen would still be out of place. The personifications of ill-nature, -affectation, and diseased fancies are literal descriptions of men and -women transferred from the surface of the globe to a pretended world at -its centre. Where no invention is displayed, where there is nothing to -gratify and beguile the imagination, the departure from fact is -distasteful to the mind. Instead of copying classic fables, unsuited to -modern times, Pope might have exhibited the inhabitants of his Cave of -Spleen in the midst of that society to which they belonged, and ascribed -their repulsive qualities to the instigation of the gnomes. These rather -nugatory beings would have gained in importance, and the pictures of the -peevish, the affected, and the splenetic would have gained in force and -truth. - -Dennis justly found fault with particular passages, which are equally -false to social usages, and the general conception of the poem. The -exultation of Belinda at winning a game of cards takes the form of -"shouts which fill the sky," and which are echoed back from "the woods -and long canals." The impertinence of the baron in cutting off her curl -required a strong expression of indignation, but not that "the -affrighted skies should be rent with screams of horror." At the -conclusion of the battle, which in some of its incidents is a mere -vulgar brawl, Belinda again manifests her stentorian propensities by -"roaring in a louder strain than fierce Othello." There is no affinity -between Belinda gentle, graceful, and captivating, and Belinda shouting, -screaming, and roaring. Pope called his poem "heroi-comical," and it is -evident that he attached different meanings to the word. It was -"heroi-comical" to bring supernatural machinery to bear upon -common-place life, and surround the toilet and card-table with a fairy -brilliancy. It was equally "heroi-comical" to give vent to the -ebullitions of tragic or jovial frenzy on trivial occasions. The first -species of the "heroi-comical" lent a borrowed splendour to its objects; -the second species was burlesque, and reduced the heroine in her angry -moods, to the level of a coarse, plebeian termagant, and in her joyous -moments to that of an unmannerly, low-bred romp. The two species of the -"heroi-comical" could not be applied to the same person without jarring -discordance, and fortunately the burlesque and disenchanting element is -only sparingly introduced. - -"The Rape of the Lock," said Dennis, "is an empty trifle, which cannot -have a moral." The Lutrin, he maintains, on the contrary, is "an -important satirical poem upon the luxury, pride, and animosities of the -_popish clergy_, and the moral is, that when christians, and especially -the _clergy_, run into great heats about _religious_ trifles, their -animosity proceeds from the want of that _religion_ which is the -pretence of their quarrel."[326] Pope erased the epithet "religious," -and substituting "female sex" for "popish clergy," "ladies" for -"clergy," and "sense" for "religion," claimed the description for the -Rape of the Lock. Dennis quotes some lines in which Boileau, he says, -gives "broad hints of his real meaning," and Pope writes on the margin -the words, "Clarissa's speech,"--a speech which is more definite than -any of the hints in the Lutrin. In delicious verse Clarissa dwells on -the transitory power of a handsome face, insists on the superior -influence of good humour, and concludes with the couplet,-- - - Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll! - Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul. - -The moral here summed up pervades the poem, which is a continuous satire -on a tinsel existence. The injunction to be sweet-tempered is -indignantly rejected by Belinda, for the piece was professedly founded -on a subsisting feud, but the common sense of the admonitions shames the -folly which rejects them. Dennis undertook an impossible task when he -laboured to demonstrate the superiority of Boileau. The Lutrin is -stilted, extravagant, and prosaic by the side of the Rape of the Lock. - -Dennis's pamphlet against the Rape of the Lock consisted of seven -letters and a preface. Of four of these letters, Pope has written, in -his copy, sarcastic summaries, which throw no light on his poem, but -which betray by their exaggeration, his soreness at the criticisms. -Letter 1. "Proving that Boileau did not call his Lutrin, Poeme -Heroi-Comique, that Bossu does not say [anything of] the machines, and -that Butler [wrote][327] the notes to his own Hudibras." Letter 2. "Mr. -Dennis's positive word that the Rape of the Lock _can_ be nothing but a -trifle, and that the Lutrin cannot be so, however it may appear." Letter -3. "Where it appears to demonstration that no handsome lady ought to -dress herself, and no modest one to cry out or be angry." Letter 5. -"Showeth that the Rosicrucian doctrine is not the christian, and that -Callimachus and Catullus were a couple of fools." Catullus and -Callimachus are not mentioned by Dennis. He had only condemned a -passage in Pope which was imitated from these poets. In the third letter -Dennis said nothing against handsome women dressing themselves, or -against modest women crying out, but maintained that simplicity of dress -was more becoming than lavish adornments, and that "well-bred ladies," -when joyful or angry, did not fill the skies and surrounding country -with their shoutings and roarings. In the first letter the note of some -commentator on Hudibras was ascribed by Dennis to Butler, and in the -second letter he asserted that Boileau showed more judgment in styling -the Lutrin an "heroic poem" than did Pope in terming the Rape of the -Lock "heroi-comical." Dennis was not aware that Boileau in 1709 had -replaced "heroique" by "heroi-comique," and that the English poet -borrowed the epithet from his French precursor. Pope's manuscript -annotations are not behind Dennis's text in petty cavils. The combatants -were both too angry to be candid; or if Dennis shows candour, it is in -his undisguised disregard of it. He fulminated against Pope for calling -the objects of his dislike "fool, dunce, blockhead, scoundrel." -"Nothing," he continues, "incapacitates a man so much for using foul -language as good sense, good-nature, and good-breeding; and nothing -qualifies a man more for it than his being a clown, a fool, and a -barbarian." Therefore, said he, "I shall call A. P----E neither fool nor -dunce, nor blockhead; but I shall prove that he is all these in a most -egregious manner."[328] For boasting a virtue in the act of violating it -Dennis had no competitor. - -Wordsworth, writing to Mr. Dyce says, "Pope, in that production of his -boyhood, the Ode to Solitude, and in his Essay on Criticism, has -furnished proofs that at one period of his life he felt the charm of a -sober and subdued style, which he afterwards abandoned for one that is, -to my taste at least, too pointed and ambitious, and for a versification -too timidly balanced."[329] Southey and Coleridge accused Pope of -debasing the public taste, but they agreed in laying the blame on his -"meretricious" Homer, and excepted from their condemnation works which -Wordsworth included in his censure. "The mischief," says Southey, "was -effected not by Pope's satirical and moral pieces, for these entitle him -to the highest place among poets of his class; it was by his Homer. No -other work in the language so greatly vitiated the diction of English -poetry."[330] "In the course of one of my lectures," says Coleridge, "I -had occasion to point out the almost faultless position and choice of -words in Pope's original compositions, particularly in his Satires, and -Moral Essays, for the purpose of comparing them with his translation of -Homer, which I do not stand alone in regarding as the main source of our -pseudo-poetic diction."[331] Wordsworth loved simplicity of composition, -and language not ornate. His preference for the Essay on Criticism would -be intelligible if the piece had been free from adorned passages, and -the strained attempt to be pointed in some of the similes; or if the -style, in the quieter passages, had been consummate of its kind. Cowper -has described the qualities which are essential to the highest -excellence in this species of poetry. "Every man," he says, "conversant -with verse-making, knows by painful experience that the familiar style -is of all styles the most difficult to succeed in. To make verse speak -the language of prose, without being prosaic, to marshal the words of it -in such an order as they might naturally take in falling from the lips -of an extemporary speaker, yet without meanness, harmoniously, -elegantly, and without seeming to displace a syllable for the sake of -rhyme, is one of the most arduous tasks a poet can undertake."[332] -Pope, in his Essay on Criticism, did not reach Cowper's standard, and -far happier specimens of the style will be found in some of his Satires. - -The Rape of the Lock greatly surpasses in execution the Essay on -Criticism; and austere, indeed, must be the taste which could condemn -it. The "position of the words" is not always "faultless," for Pope -admitted too many of his usual inversions, but the phraseology is -beautiful in itself, and exquisitely adapted to the subject. The -language, simple in its units, is rich in combination, without ever -being florid or profuse. The poet had to depict empty glories made up of -outward pageantry, and as rainbows cannot be painted with grey, so Pope -dipped his pen in the glowing colours which represented the things. He -could not have employed his radiant tints with greater delicacy and -power. Few as are the details, the scenic effect is complete. He -displayed his judgment in eschewing minuteness which would have been -tedious and prosaic; the frail, superficial show could only be imposing -in a general view. The pointed lines which offended Wordsworth, are not -more numerous than befit the theme. A certain sparkle of style accorded -best with the glitter of the world described. Dennis denounced the -"puns." He said, "they shocked the rules of true pleasantry, and bore -the same proportion to thought which bubbles held to bodies."[333] Two -or three of the double-meanings are offensive from that grossness which -is the single serious flaw in the brilliant gem. The few which remain -are legitimate in a lively poem, when thus sparingly introduced. Nor -are they common puns, but words used at once in their literal and -metaphorical sense: - - Or stain her honour or her new brocade. - Or lose her heart or necklace at a ball. - He first the snuff-box opened then the case. - -Johnson has pointed out that Denham's verses on the Thames, "O! could I -flow like thee," are marked by the same property, and no one would call -them punning lines.[334] - -The enlarged edition of the Rape of the Lock had a rapid popularity. "It -has in four days' time," wrote Pope to Caryll, March 12, 1714, "sold to -the number of three thousand, and is already reprinted." "The sylphs and -the gnomes," says Tyers, "were the deities of the day."[335] Much of the -relish, with the herd of readers, has passed away with the novelty. "Of -the Rape of the Lock," says Professor Reed, "I acknowledge my inability -of admiration,"[336] and numbers who admire would qualify the -superlative language of De Quincey, Hazlitt, and Bowles. The -conventional elegancies of a particular class do not appeal to universal -sympathy. Many persons can enter no better into the fanciful beauty -which is thrown around routine trivialities. The facts with them are too -strong to admit of fiction. To these inaptitudes it must be added that -the subtle delicacies of humour, satire, language, and invention, which -mingle largely with the obvious beauties of the Rape of the Lock, can -only be perceived when the taste has been quickened by the early culture -of letters. De Quincey remarks that, with all orders of men, the -elementary passions and principles are easiest understood, for the seeds -of them are sown in every mind, and Milton and Shakespeare speak to -understandings which are impervious to the refined and airy graces of -Pope's artificial world.[337] - -A few have gone into the opposite extreme, and placed Pope on a level -with Shakespeare and Milton themselves. His strongest claim to the -distinction is the Rape of the Lock, but wide is the interval, whether -the test is character, passions, manners, descriptions, or machinery. -The characters in Pope's poem are slight and superficial. There is a -miniature sketch of an empty-headed fop, and an outside view of a -beautiful young lady fond of dress, amusements, and admiration; the rest -of the human personages are shadows. Passions, says Bowles, are the soul -of poetry, and in poetry of the highest order they are grand, terrible, -pathetic, or lovely; the grovelling, ludicrous, and trivial passions -are of a less poetical species. The passions of Belinda belong to this -lower class. Her grief and anger at the loss of her curl are professedly -mock-heroic. They are disproportioned to the frivolous cause, and -neither kindle, nor are meant to kindle, sympathy. The manners are not -the index to inner depths,--the outward expression of the noble, the -awful, or the tender. They are an exterior varnish, the mere formalities -of fashion. The descriptions, apart from the sylphs, are chiefly of the -toilet, the card-table, and such-like things, which have no kin-ship -with the strong, abiding emotions. The very sylphs, by their -employments, are, poetically, of an inferior race to the fairies who met - - on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, - By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, - Or on the beached margin of the sea, - To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind.[338] - -The beings who luxuriate in the everlasting beauties of nature have a -deeper charm for us than creatures whose chief delight is in the little -artifices of a woman's toilet. The skill is exquisite by which the -ephemeral nothings of gay fashion are coloured with the hues of poetic -fancy, but in spite of the brilliancy they remain nothings still, and -cannot compete with strains which are struck from the profoundest chords -in the heart and mind of man. Lord Byron, to save the supremacy of Pope, -asserted that "the poet is always ranked according to his -execution."[339] Bowles maintained that the test of poetical excellence -was the subject and execution combined.[340] He admitted that the -loftiest theme in feeble hands would be eclipsed by insignificant topics -when treated by a master, but he said that no genius could render -subordinate topics equal in poetry to the highest where the execution, -as in Shakespeare and Milton, was worthy of the subject. Lord Byron -stultified himself. He had no sooner completed his proof that execution -was the sole criterion of poetry, than he went on to argue that "the -highest of all poetry is ethical poetry, as the highest of all earthly -objects must be moral truth."[341] His paradox did not deserve a reply, -even if he had not contradicted it the moment it was uttered. Hume -wisely recommended that words should not be wasted upon theories which -it is inconceivable that any human being could believe. - -In his Observations on the Poetry of Pope, Bowles put the modes and -incidents of artificial life, the secondary passions, and descriptions -of outward objects in a lower grade than the development of the -impressive passions.[342] What he said of manners and passions was -suppressed by Campbell, who based his reply upon his own misstatements, -and proceeded to protest against "trying Pope exclusively by his powers -of describing inanimate phenomena."[343] No one could be more emphatic -than Bowles in placing souls before things. Of "inanimate phenomena," he -had said that "all images drawn from what is beautiful or sublime in the -works of nature, are more beautiful and sublime than any images drawn -from art." Again, his antagonists misrepresented him, and arguing as -though he had asserted that all images drawn from nature were beautiful, -and that there was no beauty in any image drawn from art, they imagined -they refuted him by adducing natural objects which were unsightly, and -artificial objects which were the reverse. The canal at Venice, without -the buildings and gondolas "would be nothing," said Lord Byron, "but a -clay-coloured ditch."[344] The illustration did not touch the position -of Bowles, who had never pretended that the ugly in nature eclipsed the -beautiful in art. His principle was that, beauty for beauty, Solomon in -the richest products of the loom was not arrayed like the flowers of the -field. Campbell did not reason better than Byron. He selected the -launching of a ship of the line for an instance of the sublime. -Admitting, what nobody could deny, that his ship was poetical, it did -not follow that the wooden structure had the grandeur of the ocean. His -language was a virtual confession that it was inferior. He endowed his -"vast bulwark" with attributes borrowed from nature, human and -inanimate. He thought "of the stormy element on which the vessel was -soon to ride, of the days of battle and nights of danger she had to -encounter, of the ends of the earth which she had to visit, of all that -she had to do and suffer for her country." He found the sublimity, not -in the ship, but in the associations,--in the stormy waves of the mighty -deep which was to be her home; in the terrors of darkness when she was -tempest-driven; in the vast distances she had to traverse; in the perils -and patriotism of the crew; in the fierce heroic contention of the -battle. Campbell was self-refuted. He fell into the same error with -respect to some fragments he quoted from the poets. Images derived from -nature and art were mixed together, and he did not perceive that the -passages owed their principal beauty to the nature. The fallacies of -disputants who wrote without thinking were easily exposed, and Bowles -got a signal victory over the whole of his numerous opponents. - -Many a work of man, like the ship, impresses us less by its intrinsic -qualities than by the train of ideas it suggests. Until the errors of -controversialists called for fuller explanations Bowles did not draw the -distinction, and Lord Byron was misled by overlooking it. "The -Parthenon," he said, "is more poetical than the rock on which it -stands."[345] "Not," replied Hazlitt, "because it is a work of art, but -because it is a work of art o'erthrown."[346] Prostrate and broken -columns, rent walls, and mouldering stone, exercise a more potent sway -over the feelings than temples in the freshness of their artistic -beauty. Hazlitt tells the obvious cause. Relics of departed glory, -dilapidated monuments of intellectual splendour, are mementos of the -fate which awaits the proudest works of man. With the thoughts of mighty -reverses mingle the reflections which are always engendered by -antiquity. The imagination reverts to shadowy, remote generations, to a -people and power long ago laid in dust, and the ruins have a pathos -which is the result of the centuries that have swept over them,--of the -mysteries, vicissitudes, and havoc of time. When Lord Byron asked if -there was an image in Gray's Elegy more striking than his "shapeless -sculptures," his own question might have revealed the truth to him.[347] -Whatever poetry may be embodied in the matchless art of Greece, there -can be none in the "shapeless sculptures" of country tomb-stones; but -they are memorials set up by poor cottagers to protect the bones of -kindred from insult, and the whole force of the phrase in the Elegy -arises from the prominence given to the tenderness and affection of -which "the shapeless sculptures" are the symbols. The emotion is -extrinsic to the rude, prosaic, and often ludicrous art. The same image -becomes poetical or unpoetical according to the associations with which -it is linked. The rusting, disused needles of Cowper's Mary, stricken by -paralysis, are associated, Byron says, "with the darning of stockings, -the hemming of shirts, and the mending of breeches."[348] This is the -ordinary, mechanic association, and had it been the association called -up by Cowper's lines they would not have been, what Byron pronounced -them, "eminently poetical and pathetic." The associations are of another -kind. The thousands who have shed tears over the lines to Mary did not -pay a tribute to the needles, or the uses to which the needles were -applied. They were melted by the representation--true and strong as the -living facts--of love, of decay, of desolation, and of anguish. The -different aspect of the same incident through the influence of -association is exemplified in the description of the tea in the Rape of -the Lock, and in the Task. The passage of Pope is not united to any -sentiment, and only pleases from the elegance of the verse and -language. Cowper sets the heart in a glow with the delicious picture he -presents of "fire-side enjoyments, and home-born happiness." - -Out-door nature, and the imposing or beautiful passions, were not "the -haunt and main region of Pope's song," and Bowles, after saying that the -representation of nature demanded a susceptible heart, and an observing -eye, goes on to state that "the weak eyes and tottering strength" of -Pope were the reason that he seldom excelled in depicting natural -appearances. His legs would not serve him to walk nor his eyes to see, -and he was limited to the particulars which "could be gained by books, -or suggested by imagination." "From his infirmities," Bowles continues, -"he must have been chiefly conversant with artificial life, but if he -had been gifted with the same powers of observing outward nature, I have -no doubt he would have evinced as much accuracy in describing the -appropriate and peculiar beauties such as nature exhibits in the Forest -where he lived, as he was able to describe in a manner so novel, and -with colours so vivid, a game of cards."[349] The premises are -erroneous. Pope's vision was not bad; his eyes, says Warburton, were -"fine, sharp, and piercing;"[350] and though he was too feeble for long -walks, he could, and did, ramble through woods and meadows, and along -the banks of streams. Nine-tenths of the finest descriptions from nature -in the poets are of sights and sounds which were within the range of his -common experience. The decision of Bowles must be reversed, and we must -ascribe the little nature in Pope's works to his want of mental -"susceptibility," and not to physical infirmity. His love of the country -was the cursory admiration which is seldom wanting. He had none of the -exceptional enthusiasm which could lead him to revel in nature, to -scrutinise it, and enrich his mind with its memories. His strongest -sympathies and antipathies were directed to the society of his day,--to -the men who praised or abused, caressed or defied him. - -The object of Bowles in setting forth his critical principles, was not -to condemn descriptions of artificial life or images taken from art, but -to single out the circumstances which render one class of poetry more -exalted than another. The bulk of Pope's works were satirical and -didactic: and the affinity to the highest species of poetry in the Rape -of the Lock, and the Epistle of Eloisa, was not so complete as to place -him on a level with the mightiest masters. Warton and Bowles united in -ranking him before Dryden and next to Milton.[351] Johnson doubtfully, -and Cowper unhesitatingly, put Dryden before him.[352] Cowper states -that he had "known persons of taste and discernment who would not allow -that Pope was a poet at all," and the language of some writers implies -that his claim to be called a poet was a serious moot-point with -critics. Johnson gravely replied to the question "whether Pope was a -poet," and Hazlitt said in 1818, that it was "a question which had -hardly yet been settled."[353] Who the sceptics were does not appear, -and it is probable that the opinion was never maintained by a single -person of reputation. Pope was placed higher by Warton and Bowles, who -were accused of depreciating, than by Johnson who defended him. Southey, -Wordsworth, and Coleridge had "an antipathy to him," according to -Byron;[354] but this was a false charge, originating in his own -antipathy to Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. They all admitted that -Pope had a brilliant poetical genius, and that many of his poems were of -extraordinary excellence. Wordsworth, the one perhaps of the three who -held him the cheapest, said he was "a man most highly gifted, who -unluckily took to the plain when the heights were within his reach." -Yet, while thinking that his poetry was not of the most poetical kind -"he committed much of him to memory," acknowledged that "he succeeded as -far as he went," and in mentioning the persons, dramatists omitted, who -were the representatives of the "poetic genius of England," he specially -named "Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, and Pope."[355] The real Pope -controversy was with the zealots who maintained that he was of the same -flight with Shakespeare and Milton. Their lofty estimate of his -comparative excellence, did not arise from their keener appreciation of -his merits; they were simply men of cold, unimaginative minds, who were -insensible to merits which were greater still. - -"Pope," said Hazlitt, "had none of the enthusiasm of poetry; he was in -poetry what the sceptic is in religion."[356] This was a creed he -sometimes avowed. "Poetry and criticism," he said in the preface to his -works, "are only the affair of idle men who write in their closets, and -of idle men who read there."[357] He talked later of his "idle songs," -but in the same breath, with characteristic inconsistency, he set up to -be the moral reformer of his age, and had undertaken a little before "to -vindicate" in verse "the ways of God to man."[358] His views of his art -are contradictory and irreconcileable. His disparagement of it was an -affectation founded upon a common definition of poetry, that its end was -to please. The premise, false from its incompleteness, led to degrading -conclusions. Hurd, who studied poetry for the purpose of analysing its -ingredients, and who should have known its true properties, adopted the -usual pleasure theory, and at thirty-seven he was naturally ashamed of -his frivolous pursuit. "He must not," he said, "pass more of his life in -these flowery regions; the light food was not the proper nourishment of -age." Verse was the amusement of youth, and unless very sparingly used, -was unbecoming the gravity of mature minds.[359] Milton had another -conception of the office of poetry, and he avowed that his purpose was -"to inbreed and cherish in a great people whatsoever in religion is holy -and sublime, in virtue amiable or grave." Wordsworth was of Milton's -school. His aim was, "to make men wiser, better, and happier." "Every -great poet," he said, "is a teacher; I wish to be considered as a -teacher or as nothing."[360] The right doctrine was enforced by a critic -whom Pope despised. "Poetry," wrote Dennis, "has two ends,--a -subordinate and a final one: the subordinate one is pleasure, and the -final one is instruction."[361] He had the sanction of Lord Bacon, who -declared that "poesy" had three uses, of which two were to inculcate -morality and heroism; the third alone was for "delectation."[362] -Aristotle long before had contended that poetry was a more effective -school of virtue than philosophy, and Horace avowed his conviction that -right and wrong were taught better by Homer than by the sages. The least -reflection upon the range of the noblest poetry must satisfy anybody -that entertainment is its smallest function. The poet has the world of -external things from which to cull his pictures. He gives definiteness -to what was vague, fixes what was transitory, detects delightful -resemblances, and brings to view unnoticed beauties. He invests the -realities with the thoughts of his impassioned mind, creating in us -sentiments, and supplying us with associations which we should not have -derived from the actual objects. Nature, in itself enchanting, has -meanings for us which were never dreamt of till we saw it through the -medium of the poet's representations. He has the world of mankind for -his province. He can take us the circuit of the passions; he can summon -them from the inner recesses of the soul, and set them in open array; -he can assign to each its rightful force, stripping corruption of its -disguises, and displaying what is lovely in its unadulterated lustre. He -can soar at pleasure into loftier regions, and when his main theme lies -in a lower sphere can link it, openly or by implication, to the world of -spirits,--to the divinity and the divine. Verse abounds in the strains -which lift the soul to heaven, or bring down heaven to glorify earth, -and sustain its weakness and woes. In a word, the poet treats of nature, -man, the superhuman, and treats of them in a way which dilates our -faculties and feelings, till through the contemplation of the ideal we -attain to a grander real. "Poesy," says Lord Bacon, "was ever thought to -have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect -the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind, -whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind unto the nature of -things."[363] The domain of high poetry is the sublime, the solemn, the -terrible, the pathetic, the tender, the sweet, and the tranquil; the -office of poetry is to purify, to ennoble, to humanise, to soften, to -soothe, and to delight. Poetry is great, and participates of divineness -in proportion as it employs these means, and attains these ends. The dry -unprofitable seeds which lurk in the heart, are by poetry quickened into -a resplendent growth. Through poetry, obscure vestiges of truth start -into distinctness, and flash upon the inward eye. Through poetry, the -ethereal elements of the mind, incessantly dissipated and deadened by -common concerns, are renewed in their sanctity. In the reach and -importance of the lessons no hard prosaic facts can go beyond exalted -poetry. The lesser kinds have their lesser uses, and chiefly in this -that they are often more attractive in youth than healthier -inspirations, and prepare the way for them. Wordsworth, in his boyhood, -was entranced by the false glitter of famous poems which in his manhood -seemed to him "dead as a theatre fresh emptied of spectators."[364] -Thrown aside when they had served their purpose, they were the initial -sparks which kindled a spirit that took precedence even of Milton in the -depth and compass of thoughts and feelings almost deserving the name of -revelations. - - - - - TO MRS.[365] ARABELLA FERMOR. - - MADAM, - -It will be in vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece, since -I dedicate it to you. Yet you may bear me witness, it was intended only -to divert a few young ladies, who have good sense and good humour enough -to laugh not only at their sex's little unguarded follies, but at their -own. But as it was communicated with the air of a secret, it soon found -its way into the world. An imperfect copy having been offered to a -bookseller, you had the good-nature, for my sake, to consent to the -publication of one more correct. This I was forced to, before I had -executed half my design, for the machinery was entirely wanting to -complete it. - -The machinery, Madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that -part which the deities, angels, or demons, are made to act in a poem. -For the ancient poets are in one respect like many modern ladies, let an -action be never so trivial in itself, they always make it appear of the -utmost importance. These machines I determined to raise on a very new -and odd foundation, the Rosicrucian doctrine of spirits. - -I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a lady; -but it is so much the concern of a poet to have his works understood, -and particularly by your sex, that you must give me leave to explain two -or three difficult terms.[366] - -The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The -best account I know of them is in a French book, called Le Comte de -Gabalis, which both in its title and size is so like a novel, that many -of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these -gentlemen the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call -sylphs, gnomes, nymphs, and salamanders. The gnomes or demons of earth -delight in mischief; but the sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are -the best conditioned creatures imaginable. For they say, any mortals may -enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle spirits, upon a -condition very easy to all true adepts, an inviolate preservation of -chastity. - -As to the following cantos, all the passages of them are as fabulous, as -the vision at the beginning, or the transformation at the end, except -the loss of your hair, which I always mention with reverence. The human -persons are as fictitious as the airy ones; and the character of -Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but in beauty. - -If this poem had as many graces as there are in your person, or in your -mind, yet I could never hope it should pass through the world half so -uncensured as you have done. But let its fortune be what it will, mine -is happy enough, to have given me this occasion of assuring you that I -am, with the truest esteem, - - Madam, - Your most obedient, humble servant, - A. POPE. - - - - - THE - RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - - CANTO I. - - What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, - What mighty contests rise from trivial things, - I sing--This verse to Caryll,[367] Muse! is due: - This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:[368] - Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, 5 - If she inspire, and he approve my lays.[369] - Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel[370] - A well-bred lord[371] t' assault a gentle belle? - O say what stranger cause, yet unexplored, - Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? 10 - In tasks so bold, can little men engage, - And in soft bosoms, dwells such mighty rage?[372] - Sol through white curtains shot a tim'rous[373] ray,[374] - And ope'd those eyes that must eclipse the day: - Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake, 15 - And sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake: - Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knocked the ground,[375] - And the pressed watch returned a silver sound. - Belinda still her downy pillow pressed,[376] - Her guardian sylph prolonged the balmy rest: 20 - 'Twas he had summoned to her silent bed - The morning dream that hovered o'er her head, - A youth more glitt'ring than a birth-night beau,[377] - (That ev'n in slumber caused her cheek to glow) - Seemed to her ear his winning lips to lay, 25 - And thus in whispers said, or seemed to say. - "Fairest of mortals, thou distinguished care - Of thousand bright inhabitants of air! - If e'er one vision touched thy infant thought, - Of all the nurse and all the priest have taught; 30 - Of airy elves by moonlight shadows seen, - The silver token, and the circled green,[378] - Or virgins visited by angel-pow'rs - With golden crowns and wreaths of heav'nly flow'rs; - Hear and believe! thy own importance know, 35 - Nor bound thy narrow views to things below. - Some secret truths, from learned pride concealed, - To maids alone and children are revealed. - What though no credit doubting wits may give? - The fair and innocent shall still believe. 40 - Know then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly, - The light militia of the lower sky: - These, though unseen, are ever on the wing, - Hang o'er the box, and hover round the ring.[379] - Think what an equipage thou hast in air, 45 - And view with scorn two pages and a chair. - As now your own, our beings were of old, - And once inclosed in woman's beauteous mould; - Thence, by a soft transition, we repair - From earthly vehicles to these of air. 50 - Think not, when woman's transient breath is fled, - That all her vanities at once are dead;[380] - Succeeding vanities she still regards, - And though she plays no more, o'erlooks the cards. - Her joy in gilded chariots, when alive, 55 - And love of ombre, after death survive.[381] - For when the fair in all their pride expire, - To their first elements, their souls retire: - The sprites of fiery termagants in flame - Mount up, and take a salamander's name. 60 - Soft yielding minds to water glide away, - And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tea. - The graver prude sinks downward to a gnome, - In search of mischief still on earth to roam. - The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair, 65 - And sport and flutter in the fields of air.[382] - "Know further yet; whoever fair and chaste - Rejects mankind, is by some sylph embraced: - For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease - Assume what sexes and what shapes they please.[383] 70 - What guards the purity of melting maids, - In courtly balls, and midnight masquerades, - Safe from the treach'rous friend, the daring spark, - The glance by day, the whisper in the dark, - When kind occasion prompts their warm desires, 75 - When music softens, and when dancing fires? - 'Tis but their sylph, the wise celestials know, - Though honour is the word with men below.[384] - "Some nymphs there are, too conscious of their face,[385] - For life predestined to the gnomes' embrace. 80 - These[386] swell their prospects and exalt their pride, - When offers are disdained, and love denied: - Then gay ideas crowd the vacant brain, - While peers and dukes, and all their sweeping train, - And garters, stars, and coronets appear, 85 - And in soft sounds 'Your Grace' salutes their ear. - 'Tis these that early taint the female soul, - Instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll, - Teach infant-cheeks a bidden blush to know, - And little hearts to flutter at a beau. 90 - "Oft, when the world imagine women stray, - The sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way, - Through all the giddy circle they pursue, - And old impertinence expel by new. - What tender maid but must a victim fall 95 - To one man's treat, but for another's ball? - When Florio speaks, what virgin could withstand, - If gentle Damon did not squeeze her hand? - With varying vanities, from ev'ry part, - They shift the moving toyshop of their heart; 100 - Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword-knots strive, - Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive.[387] - This erring mortals levity may call; - Oh blind to truth! the sylphs contrive it all. - "Of these am I, who thy protection claim,[388] 105 - A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name. - Late, as I ranged the crystal wilds of air, - In the clear mirror of thy ruling star[389] - I saw, alas! some dread event impend, - Ere to the main this morning sun descend. 110 - But heaven reveals not what, or how, or where: - Warned by the sylph, oh pious maid, beware! - This to disclose is all thy guardian can: - Beware of all, but most beware of man!" - He said; when Shock, who thought she slept too long, 115 - Leaped up, and waked his mistress with his tongue; - 'Twas then, Belinda, if report say true, - Thy eyes first opened on a billet-doux;[390] - Wounds, charms, and ardours, were no sooner read, - But all the vision vanished from thy head. 120 - And now, unveiled, the toilet stands displayed, - Each silver vase in mystic order laid. - First, robed in white, the nymph intent adores, - With head uncovered, the cosmetic pow'rs. - A heav'nly image in the glass appears, 125 - To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears; - Th' inferior priestess, at her altar's side, - Trembling begins the sacred rites of pride. - Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and here - The various off'rings of the world appear;[391] 130 - From each she nicely culls with curious toil, - And decks the goddess with the glitt'ring spoil. - This casket India's glowing gems unlocks, - And all Arabia breathes from yonder box. - The tortoise here and elephant unite, 135 - Transformed to combs, the speckled, and the white. - Here files of pins extend their shining rows, - Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billets-doux. - Now awful beauty puts on all its arms; - The fair each moment rises in her charms, 140 - Repairs her smiles, awakens ev'ry grace, - And calls forth all the wonders of her face; - Sees by degrees a purer blush arise, - And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes - The busy sylphs surround their darling care, 145 - These set the head, and those divide the hair,[392] - Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the gown; - And Betty's praised for labours not her own. - - - CANTO II. - - Not with more glories, in th' ethereal plain, - The sun first rises o'er the purpled main, - Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams[393] - Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames.[394] - Fair nymphs, and well-dressed youths around her shone, 5 - But ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone. - On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, - Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore. - Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose, - Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those; 10 - Favours to none, to all she smiles extends; - Oft she rejects, but never once offends. - Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike, - And, like the sun, they shine on all alike. - Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, 15 - Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide; - If to her share some female errors fall, - Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.[395] - This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, - Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind 20 - In equal curls, and well conspired to deck, - With shining ringlets, the smooth iv'ry neck. - Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains, - And mighty hearts are held in slender chains. - With hairy springes we the birds betray, 25 - Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey, - Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare, - And beauty draws us with a single hair.[396] - Th' advent'rous baron the bright locks admired; - He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired. 30 - Resolved to win, he meditates the way, - By force to ravish, or by fraud betray; - For when success a lover's toil attends, - Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.[397] - For this, ere Phoebus rose, he had implored 35 - Propitious heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r adored, - But chiefly Love--to Love an altar built, - Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt. - There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves, - And all the trophies of his former loves; 40 - With tender billets-doux he lights the pyre, - And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire. - Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes - Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize: - The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r, 45 - The rest, the winds dispersed in empty air.[398] - But now secure the painted vessel glides, - The sun-beams trembling on the floating tides:[399] - While melting music steals upon the sky, - And softened sounds along the waters die;[400] 50 - Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play, - Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay. - All but the sylph--with careful thoughts oppressed, - Th' impending woe sat heavy on his breast.[401] - He summons straight his denizens of air; 55 - The lucid squadrons round the sails repair: - Soft o'er the shrouds aerial whispers breathe, - That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath. - Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold, - Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold; 60 - Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight, - Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light. - Loose to the wind their airy garments flew, - Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew,[402] - Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies,[403] 65 - Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes; - While ev'ry beam new transient colours flings, - Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings. - Amid the circle, on the gilded mast, - Superior by the head, was Ariel placed; 70 - His purple pinions opening to the sun, - He raised his azure wand, and thus begun. - "Ye sylphs and sylphids, to your chief give ear! - Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons, hear! - Ye know the spheres, and various tasks assigned 75 - By laws eternal to th' aerial kind. - Some in the fields of purest ether play, - And bask and whiten in the blaze of day. - Some guide the course of wand'ring orbs on high,[404] - Or roll the planets through the boundless sky.[405] 80 - Some less refined, beneath the moon's pale light - Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,[406] - Or suck the mists in grosser air below, - Or dip their pinions in the painted bow, - Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main, 85 - Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain. - Others on earth o'er human race preside, - Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide: - Of these the chief the care of nations own, - And guard with arms divine the British throne.[407] 90 - "Our humbler province is to tend the fair, - Not a less pleasing, though less glorious care; - To save the powder from too rude a gale, - Nor let th' imprisoned essences exhale; - To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs; 95 - To steal from rainbows ere they drop in show'rs - A brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs, - Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs; - Nay oft, in dreams, invention we bestow, - To change a flounce, or add a furbelow.[408] 100 - "This day, black omens threat the brightest fair - That e'er deserved a watchful spirit's care; - Some dire disaster, or by force, or slight; - But what, or where, the fates have wrapped in night. - Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law, 105 - Or some frail china jar receive a flaw; - Or stain her honour, or her new brocade; - Forget her pray'rs, or miss a masquerade; - Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball; - Or whether heav'n has doomed that Shock must fall. 110 - Haste then, ye spirits! to your charge repair: - The flutt'ring fan be Zephyretta's care; - The drops to thee, Brillante,[409] we consign; - And, Momentilla, let the watch be thine; - Do thou, Crispissa,[410] tend her fav'rite lock; 115 - Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock.[411] - "To fifty chosen Sylphs, of special note, - We trust th' important charge, the petticoat: - Oft have we known that seven-fold fence[412] to fail, - Though stiff with hoops and armed with ribs of whale; 120 - Form a strong line about the silver bound, - And guard the wide circumference around.[413] - "Whatever spirit, careless of his charge, - His post neglects, or leaves the fair at large, - Shall feel sharp vengeance soon o'ertake his sins, 125 - Be stopped in vials, or transfixed with pins; - Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie, - Or wedged, whole ages, in a bodkin's eye: - Gums and pomatums shall his flight restrain, - While clogged he beats his silken wings in vain; 130 - Or alum styptics with contracting pow'r - Shrink his thin essence like a rivelled flow'r:[414] - Or, as Ixion fixed, the wretch shall feel - The giddy motion of the whirling mill,[415] - In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow, 135 - And tremble at the sea that froths below!"[416] - He spoke; the spirits from the sails descend: - Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend; - Some thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair; - Some hang upon the pendants of her ear; 140 - With beating hearts the dire event they wait, - Anxious, and trembling for the birth of fate. - - - CANTO III. - - Close by those meads, for ever crowned with flow'rs,[417] - Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs, - There stands a structure of majestic frame, - Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name. - Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom 5 - Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home; - Here thou, great ANNA! whom three realms obey, - Dost sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea.[418] - Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort, - To taste awhile the pleasures of a court; 10 - In various talk th' instructive hours they passed, - Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;[419] - One speaks the glory of the British Queen, - And one describes a charming Indian screen;[420] - A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes; 15 - At ev'ry word a reputation dies. - Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,[421] - With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that. - Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day, - The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray;[422] 20 - The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, - And wretches hang that jury-men may dine;[423] - The merchant from th' Exchange returns in peace, - And the long labours of the toilet cease.[424] - Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites,[425] 25 - Burns to encounter two advent'rous knights, - At ombre singly to decide their doom;[426] - And swells her breast with conquests yet to come. - Straight the three bands prepare in arms to join, - Each band the number of the sacred nine.[427] 30 - Soon as she spreads her hand, th' aerial guard - Descend, and sit on each important card: - First Ariel perched upon a Matadore,[428] - Then each according to the rank they bore; - For sylphs, yet mindful of their ancient race, 35 - Are, as when women, wondrous fond of place. - Behold, four kings, in majesty revered, - With hoary whisky and a forky beard; - And four fair queens whose hands sustain a flow'r, - Th' expressive emblem of their softer pow'r; 40 - Four knaves in garbs succinct,[429] a trusty band; - Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand; - And parti-coloured troops, a shining train, - Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain. - The skilful nymph reviews her force with care: 45 - Let spades be trumps! she said, and trumps they were.[430] - Now move to war her sable Matadores,[431] - In show like leaders of the swarthy Moors. - Spadillio first, unconquerable lord![432] - Led off two captive trumps, and swept the board. 50 - As many more Manillio forced to yield, - And marched a victor from the verdant field. - Him Basto followed, but his fate more hard - Gained but one trump and one plebeian card. - With his broad sabre next, a chief in years, 55 - The hoary majesty of spades appears,[433] - Puts forth one manly leg, to sight revealed, - The rest, his many-coloured robe concealed. - The rebel knave, who dares his prince engage, - Proves the just victim of his royal rage. 60 - Ev'n mighty Pam, that kings and queens o'erthrew, - And mowed down armies in the fights of loo,[434] - Sad chance of war! now destitute of aid, - Falls undistinguished by the victor spade! - Thus far both armies to Belinda yield; 65 - Now to the baron fate inclines the field. - His warlike Amazon her host invades, - Th' imperial consort of the crown of spades. - The club's black tyrant first her victim died, - Spite of his haughty mien, and barb'rous pride: 70 - What boots the regal circle on his head,[435] - His giant limbs, in state unwieldy spread; - That long behind he trails his pompous robe, - And of all monarchs only grasps the globe? - The baron now his diamonds pours apace! 75 - Th' embroidered king who shows but half his face, - And his refulgent queen, with pow'rs combined, - Of broken troops, an easy conquest find. - Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen, - With throngs promiscuous strew the level green. 80 - Thus when dispersed a routed army runs, - Of Asia's troops, and Afric's sable sons, - With like confusion different nations fly, - Of various habit, and of various dye; - The pierced battalions disunited fall, 85 - In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all. - The knave of diamonds tries his wily arts, - And wins (oh shameful chance!) the queen of hearts. - At this, the blood the virgin's cheek forsook, - A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look; 90 - She sees, and trembles at th' approaching ill, - Just in the jaws of ruin, and codille.[436] - And now (as oft in some distempered state) - On one nice trick depends the gen'ral fate: - An ace of hearts steps forth: the king unseen 95 - Lurked in her hand, and mourned his captive queen: - He springs to vengeance with an eager pace, - And falls like thunder on the prostrate ace.[437] - The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky; - The walls, the woods, and long canals reply.[438] 100 - Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,[439] - Too soon dejected, and too soon elate. - Sudden these honours shall be snatched away, - And cursed for ever this victorious day. - For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned,[440] 105 - The berries crackle, and the mill turns round;[441] - On shining altars of japan they raise - The silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze: - From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide, - While China's earth receives the smoking tide: 110 - At once they gratify their scent and taste, - And frequent cups prolong the rich repast. - Straight hover round the fair her airy band; - Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned, - Some o'er her lap their careful plumes displayed, 115 - Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade. - Coffee (which makes the politician wise, - And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)[442] - Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain - New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain. 120 - Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late, - Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate! - Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air, - She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair![443] - But when to mischief mortals bend their will, 125 - How soon they find fit instruments of ill![444] - Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace - A two-edged weapon from her shining case: - So ladies in romance assist their knight, - Present the spear, and arm him for the fight. 130 - He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends - The little engine on his fingers' ends; - This just behind Belinda's neck he spread, - As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.[445] - Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair, 135 - A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair; - And thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear; - Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near.[446] - Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought - The close recesses of the virgin's thought: 140 - As on the nosegay in her breast reclined, - He watched th' ideas rising in her mind, - Sudden he viewed in spite of all her art, - An earthly lover lurking at her heart. - Amazed, confused, he found his pow'r expired, 145 - Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired. - The peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide, - T' inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide. - Ev'n then, before the fatal engine closed, - A wretched sylph too fondly interposed; 150 - Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain, - (But airy substance soon unites again,)[447] - The meeting points the sacred hair dissever - From the fair head, for ever, and for ever! - Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes, 155 - And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. - Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast, - When husbands, or when lap-dogs breathe their last; - Or when rich china vessels fall'n from high, - In glitt'ring dust, and painted fragments lie! 160 - "Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine," - (The victor cried,) "the glorious prize is mine! - While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,[448] - Or in a coach and six the British fair, - As long as Atalantis[449] shall be read, 165 - Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed,[450] - While visits shall be paid on solemn days, - When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze, - While nymphs take treats, or assignations give, - So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!"[451] 170 - What time would spare, from steel receives its date, - And monuments, like men, submit to fate![452] - Steel could the labour of the gods destroy,[453] - And strike to dust th' imperial tow'rs of Troy; - Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, 175 - And hew triumphal arches to the ground.[454] - What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel - The conqu'ring force of unresisted steel?[455] - - - CANTO IV. - - But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed,[456] - And secret passions laboured in her breast. - Not youthful kings in battle seized alive, - Not scornful virgins who their charms survive, - Not ardent lovers robbed of all their bliss, 5 - Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss, - Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,[457] - Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinned awry, - E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair, - As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravished hair. 10 - For, that sad moment, when the sylphs withdrew,[458] - And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew, - Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite, - As ever sullied the fair face of light, - Down to the central earth, his proper scene, 15 - Repaired to search the gloomy cave of Spleen. - Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome,[459] - And in a vapour reached the dismal dome. - No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows, - The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.[460] 20 - Here in a grotto, sheltered close from air, - And screened in shades from day's detested glare,[461] - She sighs for ever on her pensive bed, - Pain at her side, and Megrim[462] at her head. - Two handmaids wait[463] the throne: alike in place, 25 - But diff'ring far in figure and in face. - Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid, - Her wrinkled form in black and white arrayed; - With store of pray'rs, for mornings, nights, and noons, - Her hand is filled; her bosom with lampoons. 30 - There Affectation with a sickly mien, - Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen, - Practised to lisp, and hang the head aside, - Faints into airs, and languishes with pride, - On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe, 35 - Wrapped in a gown, for sickness, and for show. - The fair ones feel such maladies as these, - When each new night-dress gives a new disease.[464] - A constant vapour o'er the palace flies; - Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise; 40 - Dreadful, as hermits' dreams in haunted shades, - Or bright, as visions of expiring maids.[465] - Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires,[466] - Pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple fires: - Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes, 45 - And crystal domes, and angels in machines.[467] - Unnumbered throngs, on ev'ry side are seen, - Of bodies changed to various forms by Spleen.[468] - Here living tea-pots stand, one arm held out, - One bent; the handle this, and that the spout: 50 - A pipkin there, like Homer's tripod walks;[469] - Here sighs a jar, and there a goose-pye talks;[470] - Men prove with child, as pow'rful fancy works,[471] - And maids turned bottles, call aloud for corks.[472] - Safe past the gnome through this fantastic band, 55 - A branch of healing spleenwort in his hand.[473] - Then thus addressed the pow'r--"Hail, wayward queen! - Who rule[474] the sex to fifty from fifteen: - Parent of vapours[475] and of female wit, - Who give th' hysteric, or poetic fit, 60 - On various tempers act by various ways, - Make some take physic, others scribble plays; - Who cause the proud their visits to delay, - And send the godly in a pet to pray; - A nymph there is, that all thy pow'r disdains, 65 - And thousands more in equal mirth maintains. - But oh! if e'er thy gnome could spoil a grace, - Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face, - Like citron-waters[476] matrons' cheeks inflame, - Or change complexions at a losing game; 70 - If e'er with airy horns I planted heads, - Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds, - Or caused suspicion when no soul was rude, - Or discomposed the head-dress of a prude, - Or e'er to costive lap-dog gave disease, 75 - Which not the tears of brightest eyes could ease: - Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin, - That single act gives half the world the spleen." - The goddess with a discontented air - Seems to reject him, though she grants his pray'r. 80 - A wondrous bag with both her hands she binds, - Like that where once Ulysses held the winds; - There she collects the force of female lungs, - Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues. - A phial next she fills with fainting fears, 85 - Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears. - The gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away, - Spreads his black wings, and slowly mounts to day. - Sunk in Thalestris' arms the nymph he found, - Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound. 90 - Full o'er their heads the swelling bag he rent, - And all the furies issued at the vent. - Belinda burns with more than mortal ire, - And fierce Thalestris fans the rising fire. - "O wretched maid!" she spread her hands, and cried, 95 - (While Hampton's echoes, "Wretched maid!" replied) - "Was it for this you took such constant care - The bodkin, comb, and essence to prepare? - For this your locks in paper durance bound? - For this with tort'ring irons wreathed around? 100 - For this with fillets strained your tender head, - And bravely bore the double loads of lead?[477] - Gods! shall the ravisher display your hair, - While the fops envy, and the ladies stare! - Honour forbid! at whose unrivalled shrine 105 - Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our sex resign.[478] - Methinks already I your tears survey, - Already hear the horrid things they say, - Already see you a degraded toast, - And all your honour in a whisper lost! 110 - How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend? - 'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend! - And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize, - Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes, - And heightened by the diamond's circling rays, 115 - On that rapacious hand for ever blaze? - Sooner shall grass in Hyde-Park Circus grow,[479] - And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow; - Sooner let earth, air, sea, to chaos fall, - Men, monkeys, lap-dogs, parrots, perish all!" 120 - She said; then raging to Sir Plume[480] repairs, - And bids her beau demand the precious hairs: - (Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, - And the nice conduct of a clouded cane)[481] - With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face, 125 - He first the snuff-box opened, then the case, - And thus broke out--"My Lord, why, what the devil! - Zounds! damn the lock! 'fore Gad, you must be civil. - Plague on't! 'tis past a jest--nay prithee, pox! - Give her the hair"--he spoke, and rapped his box. 130 - "It grieves me much," replied the peer again, - "Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain, - But by this lock, this sacred lock I swear,[482] - (Which never more shall join its parted hair; - Which never more its honours shall renew, 135 - Clipped from the lovely head where late it grew) - That while my nostrils draw the vital air,[483] - This hand, which won it, shall for ever wear." - He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spread - The long-contended honours of her head.[484] 140 - But Umbriel, hateful gnome! forbears not so; - He breaks the phial whence the sorrows flow.[485] - Then see! the nymph in beauteous grief appears, - Her eyes half languishing, half drowned in tears; - On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head, 145 - Which, with a sigh, she raised; and thus she said. - "For ever cursed be this detested day, - Which snatched my best, my fav'rite curl away! - Happy! ah ten times happy had I been,[486] - If Hampton-Court these eyes had never seen! 150 - Yet am not I the first mistaken maid, - By love of courts to num'rous ills betrayed. - Oh had I rather unadmired remained - In some lone isle, or distant northern land; - Where the gilt chariot never marks the way, 155 - Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea! - There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye, - Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die. - What moved my mind with youthful lords to roam? - O had I stayed, and said my pray'rs at home! 160 - 'Twas this the morning omens seemed to tell,[487] - Thrice from my trembling hand the patch-box[488] fell; - The tott'ring china shook without a wind, - Nay, Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind! - A sylph too warned me of the threats of fate, 165 - In mystic visions, now believed too late! - See the poor remnants of these slighted hairs! - My hands shall rend what ev'n thy rapine spares: - These in two sable ringlets taught to break, - Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck;[489] 170 - The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone, - And in its fellow's fate foresees its own;[490] - Uncurled it hangs, the fatal shears demands, - And tempts, once more, thy sacrilegious hands. - Oh hadst thou, cruel! been content to seize 175 - Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!" - - - CANTO V. - - She said: the pitying audience melt in tears, - But Fate and Jove had stopped the baron's ears.[491] - In vain Thalestris with reproach assails, - For who can move when fair Belinda fails? - Not half so fixed the Trojan could remain, 5 - "While Anna begged and Dido raged in vain.[492] - Then grave Clarissa[493] graceful waved her fan; - Silence ensued, and thus the nymph began. - "Say, why are beauties praised and honoured most,[494] - The wise man's passion, and the vain man's toast?[495] 10 - Why decked with all that land and sea afford, - Why angels called, and angel-like adored?[496] - Why round our coaches crowd the white-gloved beaux,[497] - Why bows the side-box from its inmost rows?[498] - How vain are all these glories, all our pains, 15 - Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains: - That men may say, when we the front box grace, - Behold the first in virtue as in face! - Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day, - Charmed the small-pox, or chased old age away; 20 - Who would not scorn what housewifes' cares produce, - Or who would learn one earthly thing of use? - To patch, nay ogle, might become a saint, - Nor could it sure be such a sin to paint. - But since, alas! frail beauty must decay, 25 - Curled or uncurled, since locks will turn to grey; - Since painted, or not painted, all shall fade, - And she who scorns a man, must die a maid; - What then remains but well our pow'r to use, - And keep good humour still whate'er we lose? 30 - And trust me, dear! good humour can prevail, - When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail. - Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; - Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul. - So spoke the dame, but no applause ensued;[499] 35 - Belinda frowned, Thalestris called her prude. - To arms, to arms! the fierce virago cries,[500] - And swift as lightning to the combat flies. - All side in parties, and begin th' attack; - Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack; 40 - Heroes' and heroines' shouts confus'dly rise, - And base and treble voices strike the skies.[501] - No common weapons in their hands are found, - Like gods they fight, nor dread a mortal wound. - So when bold Homer makes the gods engage,[502] 45 - And heav'nly breasts with human passions rage; - 'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms; - And all Olympus rings with loud alarms: - Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around, - Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps resound: 50 - Earth shakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way, - And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day![503] - Triumphant Umbriel on a sconce's height[504] - Clapped his glad wings, and sate to view the fight.[505] - Propped on their bodkin spears,[506] the sprites survey 55 - The growing combat, or assist the fray. - While through the press enraged Thalestris flies, - And scatters death around from both her eyes, - A beau and witling perished in the throng, - One died in metaphor, and one in song.[507] 60 - "O cruel nymph! a living death I bear,"[508] - Cried Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair. - A mournful glance Sir Fopling upwards cast, - "Those eyes are made so killing"[509]--was his last. - Thus on Maeander's flow'ry margin lies[510] 65 - Th' expiring swan, and as he sings he dies. - When bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down, - Chloe stepped in, and killed him with a frown; - She smiled to see the doughty hero slain, - But, at her smile, the beau revived again. 70 - Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air,[511] - Weighs the men's wits against the lady's hair; - The doubtful beam long nods from side to side; - At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside. - See fierce Belinda on the baron flies, 75 - With more than usual lightning in her eyes: - Nor feared the chief th' unequal fight to try, - Who sought no more than on his foe to die. - But this bold lord with manly strength endued, - She with one finger and a thumb subdued; 80 - Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew, - A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw; - The gnomes direct, to ev'ry atom just, - The pungent grains of titillating dust.[512] - Sudden, with starting tears each eye o'erflows, 85 - And the high dome re-echoes to his nose. - "Now meet thy fate," incensed Belinda cried, - And drew a deadly bodkin from her side. - (The same, his ancient personage to deck,[513] - Her great great grandsire wore about his neck, 90 - In three seal-rings; which after, melted down, - Formed a vast buckle for his widow's gown: - Her infant grandame's whistle next it grew, - The bell she jingled, and the whistle blew; - Then in a bodkin[514] graced her mother's hairs, 95 - Which long she wore, and now Belinda wears.) - "Boast not my fall," he cried, "insulting foe! - Thou by some other shalt be laid as low: - Nor think, to die dejects my lofty mind; - All that I dread is leaving you behind! 100 - Rather than so, ah let me still survive, - And burn in Cupid's flames--but burn alive."[515] - "Restore the Lock!" she cries; and all around - "Restore the Lock!" the vaulted roofs rebound.[516] - Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain 105 - Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain. - But see how oft ambitious aims are crossed, - And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost! - The lock, obtained with guilt, and kept with pain, - In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain: 110 - With such a prize no mortal must be blessed, - So heav'n decrees! with heav'n who can contest? - Some thought it mounted to the lunar sphere, - Since all things lost on earth are treasured there.[517] - There heroes' wits are kept in pond'rous vases,[518] 115 - And beaus' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases. - There broken vows, and death-bed alms[519] are found, - And lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound, - The courtier's promises, and sick man's pray'rs, - The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs,[520] 120 - Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea, - Dried butterflies, and tomes of casuistry. - But trust the muse--she saw it upward rise, - Though marked by none but quick, poetic eyes:[521] - (So Rome's great founder to the heav'ns withdrew, 125 - To Proculus alone confessed in view) - A sudden star, it shot through liquid air, - And drew behind a radiant trail of hair.[522] - Not Berenice's locks first rose so bright, - The heav'ns bespangling with dishevelled light. 130 - The sylphs behold it kindling as it flies, - And pleased pursue its progress through the skies.[523] - This the beau monde shall from the Mall survey, - And hail with music its propitious ray;[524] - This the bless'd lover shall for Venus take, 135 - And send up vows from Rosamonda's lake;[525] - This Partridge[526] soon shall view in cloudless skies, - When next he looks through Galileo's eyes;[527] - And hence th' egregious wizard shall foredoom - The fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome. 140 - Then cease, bright nymph! to mourn thy ravished hair, - Which adds new glory to the shining sphere! - Not all the tresses that fair head can boast, - Shall draw such envy as the lock you lost. - For after all the murders of your eye,[528] 145 - When, after millions slain,[529] yourself shall die; - When those fair suns shall set, as set they must, - And all those tresses shall be laid in dust, - This lock the muse shall consecrate to fame, - And 'midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name.[530] 150 - - - THE - - RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos - Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.--MART. - - First Edition. - - * * * * * - - - - - THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. - - - CANTO I. - - What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, - What mighty quarrels rise from trivial things, - I sing--This verse to C----l, Muse! is due: - This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view: - Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, 5 - If she inspire, and he approve my lays. - Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel - A well-bred lord t'assault a gentle belle? - O say what stranger cause, yet unexplored, - Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? 10 - And dwells such rage in softest bosoms then, - And lodge such daring souls in little men? - Sol through white curtains did his beams display, - And ope'd those eyes which brighter shine than they, - Shock just had giv'n himself the rousing shake, 15 - And nymphs prepared their chocolate to take; - Thrice the wrought slipper knocked against the ground, - And striking watches the tenth hour resound. - Belinda rose, and midst attending dames, - Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames: 20 - A train of well-dressed youths around her shone, - And ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone: - On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore - Which Jews might kiss and infidels adore. - Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose, 25 - Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those: - Favours to none, to all she smiles extends; - Oft she rejects, but never once offends. - Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike, - And, like the sun, they shine on all alike. 30 - Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, - Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide: - If to her share some female errors fall, - Look on her face, and you'll forgive 'em all. - This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, 35 - Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind - In equal curls, and well conspired to deck - With shining ringlets her smooth iv'ry neck. - Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains, - And mighty hearts are held in slender chains. 40 - With hairy springes we the birds betray, - Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey, - Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare, - And beauty draws us with a single hair. - Th' adventurous baron the bright locks admired; 45 - He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired. - Resolved to win, he meditates the way, - By force to ravish, or by fraud betray; - For when success a lover's toil attends, - Few ask if fraud or force attained his ends. 50 - For this, ere Phoebus rose, he had implored - Propitious heav'n, and every pow'r adored, - But chiefly Love--to Love an altar built, - Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt. - There lay the sword-knot Sylvia's hands had sewn 55 - With Flavia's busk that oft had wrapped his own: - A fan, a garter, half a pair of gloves, - And all the trophies of his former loves. - With tender billets-doux he lights the pire, - And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire. 60 - Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes - Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize: - The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r, - The rest the winds dispersed in empty air. - Close by those meads, for ever crowned with flow'rs 65 - Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs, - There stands a structure of majestic frame, - Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name. - Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom - Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home; 70 - Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey, - Dost sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea. - Hither our nymphs and heroes did resort, - To taste awhile the pleasures of a court; - In various talk the cheerful hours they passed, 75 - Of who was bit, or who capotted last; - This speaks the glory of the British queen, - And that describes a charming Indian screen; - A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes; - At ev'ry word a reputation dies. 80 - Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat, - With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that. - Now when, declining from the noon of day, - The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray; - When hungry judges soon the sentence sign, 85 - And wretches hang that jurymen may dine; - When merchants from th' Exchange return in peace, - And the long labours of the toilet cease, - The board's with cups and spoons, alternate, crowned, - The berries crackle, and the mill turns round; 90 - On shining altars of japan they raise - The silver lamp, and fiery spirits blaze: - From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide, - While China's earth receives the smoking tide. - At once they gratify their smell and taste, 95 - While frequent cups prolong the rich repast. - Coffee (which makes the politician wise, - And see through all things with his half-shut eyes) - Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain - New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain. 100 - Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late, - Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate! - Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air, - She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair! - But when to mischief mortals bend their mind, 105 - How soon fit instruments of ill they find! - Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace - A two-edged weapon from her shining case: - So ladies, in romance, assist their knight, - Present the spear, and arm him for the fight; 110 - He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends - The little engine on his fingers' ends; - This just behind Belinda's neck he spread, - As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head. - He first expands the glitt'ring forfex wide 115 - T' enclose the lock; then joins it, to divide; - One fatal stroke the sacred hair does sever - From the fair head, for ever, and for ever! - The living fires come flashing from her eyes, - And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. 120 - Not louder shrieks by dames to heav'n are cast, - When husbands die, or lapdogs breathe their last; - Or when rich china vessels, fall'n from high, - In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie! - "Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine," 125 - The victor cried, "the glorious prize is mine! - While fish in streams, or birds delight in air, - Or in a coach and six the British fair, - As long as Atalantis shall be read, - Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed, 130 - While visits shall be paid on solemn days, - When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze, - While nymphs take treats, or assignations give, - So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!" - What time would spare, from steel receives its date, 135 - And monuments, like men, submit to fate! - Steel did the labour of the gods destroy, - And strike to dust th' aspiring tow'rs of Troy; - Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, - And hew triumphal arches to the ground. 140 - What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel - The conqu'ring force of unresisted steel? - - - CANTO II. - - But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed, - And secret passions laboured in her breast. - Not youthful kings in battle seized alive, - Not scornful virgins who their charms survive, - Not ardent lover robbed of all his bliss, 5 - Not ancient lady when refused a kiss, - Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die, - Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinned awry, - E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair, - As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravished hair. 10 - While her racked soul repose and peace requires, - The fierce Thalestris fans the rising fires. - "O wretched maid!" she spread her hands, and cried, - (And Hampton's echoes, "Wretched maid!" replied) - "Was it for this you took such constant care 15 - Combs, bodkins, leads, pomatums to prepare? - For this your locks in paper durance bound? - For this with tort'ring irons wreathed around? - Oh had the youth been but content to seize - Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these! 20 - Gods! shall the ravisher display this hair, - While the fops envy, and the ladies stare! - Honour forbid! at whose unrivalled shrine - Ease, pleasure, virtue, all, our sex resign. - Methinks already I your tears survey, 25 - Already hear the horrid things they say, - Already see you a degraded toast, - And all your honour in a whisper lost! - How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend? - 'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend! 30 - And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize, - Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes, - And heightened by the diamond's circling rays, - On that rapacious hand for ever blaze? - Sooner shall grass in Hyde Park Circus grow, 35 - And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow; - Sooner let earth, air, sea, to chaos fall, - Men, monkeys, lapdogs, parrots, perish all!" - She said; then raging to Sir Plume repairs, - And bids her beau demand the precious hairs: 40 - Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, - And the nice conduct of a clouded cane, - With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face, - He first the snuff-box opened, then the case, - And thus broke out--"My lord, why, what the devil! 45 - Zounds! damn the lock! 'fore Gad, you must be civil! - Plague on't! 'tis past a jest--nay, prithee, pox! - Give her the hair."--He spoke, and rapped his box. - "It grieves me much," replied the peer again, - "Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain: 50 - But by this lock, this sacred lock, I swear, - (Which never more shall join its parted hair; - Which never more its honours shall renew, - Clipped from the lovely head where once it grew) - That, while my nostrils draw the vital air, 55 - This hand, which won it, shall for ever wear." - He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spread - The long-contended honours of her head. - But see! the nymph in sorrow's pomp appears, - Her eyes half-languishing, half drowned in tears; 60 - Now livid pale her cheeks, now glowing red, } - On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head, } - Which with a sigh she raised, and thus she said: } - "For ever cursed be this detested day, - Which snatched my best, my fav'rite curl away; 65 - Happy! ah ten times happy had I been, - If Hampton Court these eyes had never seen! - Yet am not I the first mistaken maid, - By love of courts to num'rous ills betrayed. - O had I rather unadmired remained 70 - In some lone isle, or distant northern land, - Where the gilt chariot never marked the way, - Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea! - There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye, - Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die. 75 - What moved my mind with youthful lords to roam? - O had I stayed, and said my pray'rs at home! - 'Twas this the morning omens did foretell, - Thrice from my trembling hand the patchbox fell; - The tott'ring china shook without a wind, 80 - Nay, Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind! - See the poor remnants of this slighted hair! - My hands shall rend what ev'n thy own did spare: - This in two sable ringlets taught to break, - Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck; 85 - The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone, - And in its fellow's fate foresees its own; - Uncurled it hangs, the fatal shears demands, - And tempts once more thy sacrilegious hands." - She said: the pitying audience melt in tears; 90 - But fate and Jove had stopped the baron's ears. - In vain Thalestris with reproach assails, - For who can move when fair Belinda fails? - Not half so fixed the Trojan could remain, - While Anna begged and Dido raged in vain. 95 - "To arms, to arms!" the bold Thalestris cries, - And swift as lightning to the combat flies. - All side in parties, and begin th' attack; - Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack; - Heroes' and heroines' shouts confus'dly rise, 100 - And bass and treble voices strike the skies; - No common weapons in their hands are found, - Like gods they fight, nor dread a mortal wound. - So when bold Homer makes the gods engage, - And heav'nly breasts with human passions rage, 105 - 'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms, - And all Olympus rings with loud alarms; - Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around, - Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps resound: - Earth shakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way, 110 - And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day! - While through the press enraged Thalestris flies, - And scatters death around from both her eyes, - A beau and witling perished in the throng, - One died in metaphor, and one in song. 115 - "O cruel nymph; a living death I bear," - Cried Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair. - A mournful glance Sir Fopling upwards cast, - "Those eyes are made so killing"--was his last. - Thus on Maeander's flow'ry margin lies 120 - Th' expiring swan, and as he sings he dies. - As bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down, - Chloe stepped in, and killed him with a frown; - She smiled to see the doughty hero slain, - But at her smile the beau revived again. 125 - Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air, - Weighs the men's wits against the lady's hair; - The doubtful beam long nods from side to side; - At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside. - See fierce Belinda on the baron flies, 130 - With more than usual lightning in her eyes: - Nor feared the chief th' unequal fight to try, - Who sought no more than on his foe to die. - But this bold lord, with manly strength endued, - She with one finger and a thumb subdued: 135 - Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew, - A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw; - Sudden, with starting tears each eye o'erflows, - And the high dome re-echoes to his nose. - "Now meet thy fate," th' incensed virago cried, 140 - And drew a deadly bodkin from her side. - "Boast not my fall," he said, "insulting foe! - Thou by some other shalt be laid as low; - Nor think to die dejects my lofty mind; - All that I dread is leaving you behind! 145 - Rather than so, ah let me still survive, - And still burn on, in Cupid's flames, alive." - "Restore the lock!" she cries; and all around - "Restore the lock!" the vaulted roofs rebound. - Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain 150 - Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain. - But see how oft ambitious aims are crossed, - And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost! - The lock, obtained with guilt, and kept with pain, - In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain: 155 - With such a prize no mortal must be blessed, - So heav'n decrees! with heav'n who can contest? - Some thought it mounted to the lunar sphere, - Since all that man e'er lost is treasured there. - There heroes' wits are kept in pond'rous vases, 160 - And beaux' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases. - There broken vows, and death-bed alms are found, - And lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound, - The courtier's promises, and sick man's pray'rs, - The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs, 165 - Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea, - Dried butterflies, and tomes of casuistry. - But trust the muse--she saw it upward rise, - Though marked by none but quick poetic eyes: - (Thus Rome's great founder to the heav'ns withdrew, 170 - To Proculus alone confessed in view) - A sudden star, it shot through liquid air, - And drew behind a radiant trail of hair. - Not Berenice's locks first rose so bright, - The skies bespangling with dishevelled light. 175 - This the beau monde shall from the Mall survey, } - As through the moonlight shade they nightly stray, } - And hail with music its propitious ray; } - This Partridge soon shall view in cloudless skies, - When next he looks through Galileo's eyes; 180 - And hence th' egregious wizard shall foredoom - The fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome. - Then cease, bright nymph! to mourn thy ravished hair, - Which adds new glory to the shining sphere! - Not all the tresses that fair head can boast, 185 - Shall draw such envy as the lock you lost. - For after all the murders of your eye, - When, after millions slain, yourself shall die; - When those fair suns shall set, as set they must, - And all those tresses shall be laid in dust, 190 - This lock the muse shall consecrate to fame, - And 'midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name. - - * * * * * - - - - - ELEGY - - TO THE MEMORY OF - - AN UNFORTUNATE LADY. - - -See the Duke of Buckingham's verses to a Lady designing to retire into a -Monastery compared with Mr. Pope's Letters to several Ladies, p. 206 -[86], quarto edition. She seems to be the same person whose unfortunate -death is the subject of this poem.[531]--POPE. - -The unfortunate lady seems to have been a particular favourite of our -poet. Whether he himself was the person she was removed from I am not -able to say, but whoever reads his verses to her memory will find she -had a very great share in him. This young lady who was of quality, had a -very large fortune, and was in the eye of our discerning poet a great -beauty, was left under the guardianship of an uncle, who gave her an -education suitable to her title; for Mr. Pope declares she had titles, -and she was thought a fit match for the greatest peer. But very young -she contracted an acquaintance, and afterwards some degree of intimacy, -with a young gentleman, who is only imagined, and, having settled her -affections there, refused a match proposed to her by her uncle. Spies -being set upon her, it was not long before her correspondence with her -lover of lower degree was discovered, which, when taxed with by her -uncle, she had too much truth and honour to deny. The uncle finding that -she could not, nor would strive to withdraw her regard from him, after a -little time forced her abroad, where she was received with all due -respect to her quality, but kept up from the sight or speech of anybody -but the creatures of this severe guardian, so that it was impossible for -her lover even to deliver a letter that might ever come to her hand. -Several were received from him with promises to get them privately -delivered to her, but those were all sent to England, and only served to -make them more cautious who had her in care. She languished here a -considerable time, went through a great deal of sickness and sorrow, -wept and sighed continually. At last wearied out, and despairing quite, -the unfortunate lady, as Mr. Pope justly calls her, put an end to her -own life. Having bribed a woman servant to procure her a sword, she was -found dead upon the ground, but warm. The severity of the laws of the -place where she was in denied her Christian burial, and she was buried -without solemnity, or even any to wait on her to her grave except some -young people of the neighbourhood, who saw her put into common ground, -and strewed her grave with flowers, which gave some offence to the -priesthood, who would have buried her in the highway, but it seems their -power there did not extend so far.--AYRE. - -From this account, given with the evident intention to raise the lady's -character, it does not appear that she had any claim to praise, nor much -to compassion. She seems to have been impatient, violent and -ungovernable. Her uncle's power could not have lasted long; the hour of -liberty and choice would have come in time. But her desires were too hot -for delay, and she liked self-murder better than suspense. Nor is it -discovered that the uncle, whoever he was, is with much justice -delivered to posterity as "a false guardian." He seems to have done only -that for which a guardian is appointed; he endeavoured to direct his -niece till she should be able to direct herself. Poetry has not often -been worse employed than in dignifying the amorous fury of a raving -girl. The verses have drawn much attention by the illaudable singularity -of treating suicide with respect; and they must be allowed to be written -in some parts with vigorous animation, and in others with gentle -tenderness; nor has Pope produced any poem in which the sense -predominates more over the diction. But the tale is not skilfully told; -it is not easy to discover the character of either the lady or her -guardian. Pope praises her for the dignity of ambition, and yet condemns -the uncle to detestation for his pride. The ambitious love of a niece -may be opposed by the interest, malice, or envy of an uncle, but never -by his pride. On such an occasion a poet may be allowed to be obscure, -but inconsistency never can be right.--JOHNSON. - -I have in my possession a letter to Dr. Johnson, containing the name of -the lady, and a reference to a gentleman well known in the literary -world for her history. Him I have seen, and from a memorandum of some -particulars to the purpose, communicated to him by a lady of quality, he -informs me that the unfortunate lady's name was Withinbury, corruptly -pronounced Winbury; that she was in love with Pope, and would have -married him; that her guardian, though she was deformed in her person, -looking upon such a match as beneath her, sent her to a convent, and -that a noose, and not a sword, put an end to her life.--SIR JOHN -HAWKINS. - -The Elegy to the Memory of an unfortunate lady, as it came from the -heart, is very tender and pathetic--more so, I think, than any other -copy of verses of our author. The true cause of the excellence of this -elegy is, that the occasion of it was real,--so true is the maxim that -nature is more powerful than fancy, and that we can always feel more -than we can imagine; and that the most artful fiction must give way to -truth, for this lady was beloved by Pope. After many and wide enquiries -I have been informed that her name was Wainsbury, and that--which is a -singular circumstance--she was as ill-shaped and deformed as our author. -Her death was not by a sword, but, what would less bear to be told -poetically, she hanged herself. Johnson has too severely censured this -elegy when he says, "that it has drawn much attention by the illaudable -singularity of treating suicide with respect." She seems to have been -driven to this desperate act by the violence and cruelty of her uncle -and guardian, who forced her to a convent abroad, and to which -circumstance Pope alludes in one of his letters.--WARTON. - -The real history of the lady distinguished by the epithet "unfortunate" -in Pope's exquisite elegy, is still involved in mysterious uncertainty. -One thing is plain, that he wished little should be known. It is -remarkable that Caryll asks the question in two letters, but Pope -returns no answer. It is in vain, after the fruitless enquiry of Johnson -and Warton, perhaps, to attempt further elucidation; but I should think -it unpardonable not to mention what I have myself heard, though I cannot -vouch for its truth. The story which was told to Condorcet by Voltaire, -and by Condorcet to a gentleman of high birth and character, from whom I -received it, is this:--that her attachment was not to Pope, or to any -Englishman of inferior degree, but to a young French prince of the blood -royal, Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Berry, whom, in early youth, she had -met at the court of France. The verses certainly seem unintelligible, -unless they allude to some connection to which her highest hopes, though -nobly connected herself, could not aspire. What other sense can be given -to these words: - - Why bade ye else, ye pow'rs, her soul aspire - Above the vulgar flight of low desire? - Ambition first sprung from your bless'd abodes, - The glorious fault of angels and of gods! - -She was herself of a noble family, or there can be no meaning in the -line, - - That once had beauty, _titles_, wealth and fame. - -Under the idea here suggested, a greater propriety is given to the -verse, which otherwise appears so tame and common-place, - - 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be. - -It sufficiently appears from Pope's letter that she was of a wild and -romantic disposition. She left her friends and country, and commenced a -sentimental pursuit after the object in which her ambition and -enthusiastic caprice had centered. Having alienated her relations by -her wayward conduct, and being disappointed in the hopes she had formed, -she retired voluntarily to a convent. Warton asserts that she was -"forced" into a nunnery. This is expressly contrary to what Pope himself -says in a letter to her: "If you are resolved in revenge to rob the -world of so much example as you may afford it, I believe your design to -be in vain; for, in a monastery, your devotions cannot carry you so far -towards the next world, as to make this lose sight of you." It is most -probable that incipient lunacy was the cause of her perverted feelings, -and untimely end. Johnson says, "poetry has been seldom worse employed -than in dignifying the amorous fury of a raving girl." This seems -severe, contemptuous, and unfeeling. Johnson, however, chiefly adverted, -I imagine, to the false reasoning and absurd attempt in the lines "Is -there no bright," &c., to make suicide the natural consequence of more -elevated feelings. Johnson spoke as a severe moralist, and a rigid -philosopher, against such contemptible reasoning as Pope employs upon -this subject from the fifth to the twenty-second verse. Having been, as -might naturally be expected from his superior understanding, disgusted -with the reasoning part of the poem, the gentler touches of fancy and -tenderness were lost, if I may say so, on him. He would turn with -disdain from such images as-- - - There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow; - -or perhaps exclaim, as upon another occasion, _Incredulus odi_. -Notwithstanding, however, his severity, the animated passages of this -poem, "But thou, false guardian," &c., and the lines of tenderness and -poetic fancy interspersed, cannot be read without sympathy. The verses -"Yet shall thy grave," &c., are possibly too common-place, but they are -surely beautiful. If any expression might be objected to, perhaps it -would be "silver" for "white" wings of an angel.--BOWLES. - -The Elegy, although produced at an early age, is not exceeded in pathos -and true poetry by any production of its author. But whilst we admit the -extraordinary powers displayed by the poet, we cannot but perceive that -they are apparently employed to give a sanction to an act of -criminality, and to inculcate principles which cannot be too cautiously -guarded against. It must, however, be observed, that this piece is not -to be judged of by the common rules of criticism. It is, in fact, a -spontaneous burst of indignation against the authors of the calamity -which it records. Throughout the whole poem, the author speaks as if he -were under a delusion, and utters sentiments which would be wholly -unpardonable at other times. It is only in this light that we can excuse -the violence of many of the expressions, which border on the very verge -of impiety. The first line of the poem demonstrates that he is no -longer under the control of reason. He sees the ghost of the person whom -he so highly admired and loved. The "visionary sword" gleams before his -eyes, and in the excess of his grief he perceives nothing but what is -great and noble in the act that terminated her life. This impassioned -strain is continued till his anger is turned against the author of her -sufferings, when it is poured out in one of the most terrific passages -which poetry, either ancient or modern, can exhibit,--a passage in which -indignation and revenge seem to absorb every other feeling, and to -involve not only the offender, but all who are connected with him, in -indiscriminate destruction. Nor is this sufficient--their destruction -must be the cause of exultation to others, and they are to become the -objects of insult and abhorrence-- - - There passengers shall stand, and pointing say, &c. - -Compassion at length succeeds to resentment, and pity to terror. The -poet in some degree assumes his own character, and his feelings are -expressed in language of the deepest affection and tenderness, which -impresses itself indelibly on the memory of the reader. The concluding -lines, whilst they display the ardour of real passion, demonstrate how -greatly the author was attached to the art he professed; _that_, and his -affection for the object of his grief, could only expire together; - - The Muse forgot, and thou beloved no more.--ROSCOE. - -This poem first appeared in the quarto of 1717, where it bore the title -of "Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady." In the edition of -1736, "Elegy" was substituted for "Verses." The earliest historical -account of the heroine was given by William Ayre, Esq., in a miserable -compilation called Memoirs of Pope, which is full of extravagant -fictions and blunders.[532] This wretched book-maker has merely turned -the incidents of the poem into prose, and amplified them in the process. -His narrative would be unworthy of notice if it had not been adopted by -Ruffhead, who borrowed, without acknowledgment, the statements, and, in -the main, the very language of Ayre. The authority of Ruffhead's work is -entirely due to the fact, that it was in part drawn up from manuscripts -supplied by Warburton, and was subsequently revised by him. The copy -corrected by the bishop contains no note on the pages which record the -fate of the unfortunate lady. It does not follow that he knew the -particulars to be true because he has not declared them to be false. He -was probably ignorant on the subject, and unable either to confirm or -confute the story. Dr. Johnson was in the same position. "The lady's -name and adventures," he says, in his Life of Pope, "I have sought with -fruitless inquiry. I can, therefore, tell no more than I have learned -from Mr. Ruffhead, who writes with the confidence of one who could trust -his information." The trust was fallacious. Ruffhead, an uncritical -transcriber, a blind man led by the blind, was deceived by a transparent -impostor who, in default of facts, embellished the hints in Pope's -verse. His style of invention is emblazoned in the last sentence of his -narrative when he says, that "the priesthood would have buried the lady -in the highway, but it seems their power there did not extend so far." -The law of England till the reign of George IV. ordained that a suicide, -unless irresponsible from insanity, should be interred in the highway, -and a stake driven through the body. Pope, in his poem, only spoke of -"unpaid rites," whence Ayre, alias Curll, concluded that the law of the -place did not sanction road-burial. Familiar, however, with the English -notion he transfers it to the priests of a locality where the usage, by -his own confession, did not exist. - -Nearly half a century after the death of the poet, Hawkins and Warton, -who evidently derived their statements from a common source, produced a -legend, which instead of being drawn from the elegy is directly opposed -to it. Pope says that the unfortunate lady destroyed herself with a -sword, Warton that she put an end to her life with a rope; Pope says -that she had beauty, Warton that she was deformed: Pope says that she -had titles, Warton that she was simply one Wainsbury; Pope says that she -had fame, and Warton has quoted a name so obscure that nobody has been -able to discover her lineage, her connections, her residence, or that -she was ever known to a single human being of the time. The Warton form -of the romance has been jotted down by the Duchess of Portland in her -note book, from which it appears that the narrators did not agree among -themselves; for Warton declares that the lady was beloved by Pope; the -duchess that Pope was beloved by the lady, and that he did not return -her affection. In his Essay on the Genius of Pope, Warton states that -her first suitor was the Duke of Buckingham, that on his deserting her -she retired into a convent in France, and that her retreat into a -nunnery prompted the poet, "who had conceived a violent passion for -her," to express his feelings in the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard.[533] -The Duke of Buckingham, on March 16, 1705, married his third wife, who -survived him. The tone and details of the Elegy forbid the notion that -it could have been written on a cast-off mistress of the duke, and the -incidents must, therefore, have occurred before March 16, 1705, when -Pope was barely sixteen years and ten months old. The fable thus -requires us to suppose that the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard was the -production of a lad of seventeen, that it was composed several years -before the translation of the letters existed from which he has borrowed -a considerable part of the phraseology as well as the ideas, and that -his virulent denunciation of the "false guardian," was for not allowing -a ward "with beauty, titles, wealth, and fame," to wed the son of a -linen-draper,--a mere boy without money, reputation, or prospects, and -who was deformed and stunted in an extreme degree. - -In 1806, Bowles promulgated a tradition which contradicts the -representations both of Ayre and Warton. The hero of Warton is Pope -himself; the hero of Bowles is the Duke of Berry. The heroine of Warton -in one version, for he is not consistent, was forced into a convent; and -the heroine of Bowles withdrew there of her own accord. The unfortunate -lady of Ayre and Ruffhead is driven abroad by her uncle, that she may be -weaned from an English attachment; the unfortunate lady of Bowles falls -in love with a foreigner on the continent; the lady of Ayre and Ruffhead -is thwarted in her matrimonial schemes because she has fixed her heart -upon a person beneath her; and the lady of Bowles is reduced to despair -because she aspires to the hand of a person above her. Bowles maintains -that the latter view must be received or the Elegy is unintelligible. -Johnson has shown that the Elegy is contradictory, and if the verses -which represent the lady's fate to have been the consequence of her -ambition favours the theory that she was enamoured of some superior in -rank, the passage which represents the uncle as steeling his heart -against his niece out of pride equally favours the rival hypothesis that -she was devoted to an inferior. - -At variance in nearly every particular, the conflicting histories of the -unfortunate lady have the common quality, that they are unsupported by a -single circumstance which could warrant the smallest measure of belief. -Bowles heard his version, for which he declined to vouch, from an -unnamed gentleman, who heard it from Condorcet, who heard it from -Voltaire, who heard it nobody knows where. Ayre and the rest cite no -witnesses whatever, for the obvious reason that they had none of any -value to cite. The only accounts which give the lady's name report it -differently, and not one of the investigators of her story,--not even -Warton after his "many and wide enquiries,"--can tell us where she was -born or died, or where she lived, or to whom she was related or known. -The veriest phantom that ever flitted in darkness before the eye of -credulous superstition could not be more illusive and impalpable. - -The biographers and editors who went about enquiring after the -unfortunate lady had no suspicion that she might be altogether a -poetical invention, nor could they have shown that here was the solution -of the mystery unless they had been in possession of the Caryll -correspondence. Pope, in a posthumous note, which was published by -Warburton, directs us to the letters to several ladies at p. 206 of the -quarto edition, for the indications that the unfortunate lady of the -Elegy was also the heroine of the Duke of Buckingham's Verses to a Lady -designing to retire into a Monastery. There are no letters to ladies at -p. 206 of the quarto, but some are inserted from p. 86 to p. 95, and 206 -is a palpable misprint for 86, where, in conformity with the title of -the duke's poem, we have a letter to a lady who was meditating a retreat -to a convent. The preceding letter is addressed to Mr. Caryll, and, in -the table of contents, is said to be "Concerning an unfortunate lady." -The letter which relates to the monastic project is said, in the table -of contents, to be "To the same lady," and thence it appears that the -lady who thought of withdrawing to a nunnery was the same unfortunate -lady who was the subject of the letter to Caryll. From the Caryll -correspondence we discover that she was the wife of John Weston, Esq., -of Sutton, in the county of Surrey; but, instead of dying by her own -hand in a foreign country, she died a natural death in her native land -on the 18th of October, 1724, several years after the poet had -commemorated the suicide of the unfortunate lady.[534] It follows that -he has falsely represented the unfortunate lady of his letters to have -been the same individual with the unfortunate lady of the Elegy, and -since he was driven to conjure up a fictitious victim we may be sure -that there was no real victim in the case. This explains Pope's omission -to answer Caryll's inquiry who the unfortunate lady was;[535] this -explains why the tragical death of a woman "with beauty, titles, wealth, -and fame," was unknown to her contemporaries; this explains why the -histories of her differ from each other, and why in every one of them -she remains a shadowy being whose very existence cannot be traced; this -explains why, as Johnson observes, it is not easy to make out from the -poem the character of either the heroine or her guardian: and this -accounts for the contradictions which have crept into the Elegy. Pope -adopted the common incident of a miserable girl having recourse to -self-destruction, and he wished to have it believed that he had a -personal interest in her fate. His disposition to talk of himself in his -poetry has been noticed by Johnson. Windsor Forest, the Essay on -Criticism, the Temple of Fame, the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard, and the -Rape of the Lock, all ended egotistically. The Elegy was an inviting -occasion for the indulgence of his propensity. He had got, as he -thought, a romantic heroine, and yielding to the temptation to blend his -name with her story, he wound up his verses with the celebration of his -devoted attachment to her. He laid the scene of her death abroad to -account for English ignorance of the tragedy, and he endeavoured to -authenticate the fable for posterity by a posthumous note which involved -the assumption that the unfortunate lady of his letters was the same -lady commemorated in his poem. The note which was designed to accredit -the tale has answered the opposite purpose, and convicted him of a -puerile deception, not the mere impulse of youthful vanity, but renewed -on the brink of the grave, with a final sense of satisfaction in -propping up and perpetuating the petty fraud. - -The supposition that the story was true has seduced Warton, Wakefield, -and Roscoe into some weak critical fancies. Warton thinks the Elegy the -most pathetic of Pope's writings, and says "that the cause of its -excellence is that the occasion of it was real." Wakefield remarks that -the text of the latest edition does not differ from the earliest, and -conjectures that "the author's interest in the subject rendered the poem -too affecting for his own perusal." Roscoe, to excuse the principles -inculcated in the piece, alleges that it was "a spontaneous burst of -indignation," and that "the first line demonstrates that Pope was no -longer under the control of reason." Similar causes have dissimilar -effects. Unfortunate ladies who are "no longer under the control of -reason" are prone to stab or hang themselves. When Pope is "no longer -under the control of reason" he sits down and writes an elegy which -Roscoe says "is not exceeded in pathos and true poetry by any production -of its author." Had the grief been as genuine as it was imaginary the -apology is manifestly futile; for the man whose mind is sufficiently -calm to permit him to sing his woes in polished verse, must have passed -beyond the stage when he is incapable of distinguishing right from -wrong. The plea might have justified the sentiments in a drama where the -speaker was represented as pouring out his feelings while the calamity -was fresh, but in an elegy the poet embodies his own opinions at the -time of composition, and the bad morality becomes deliberate doctrine. - -Vague and sounding verse could not lend a momentary speciousness to the -sophistries of the Elegy. That the transgression of the angels was -ambition is a common, though an unauthorised idea. That their sin was -"glorious" is a notion peculiar to Pope. This "glorious fault" they -infused into the unfortunate lady and "bade her soul aspire." The -particular aspiration they suggested to her was to marry out of her -sphere; her lofty ambition was an inordinate desire to make a good -worldly match. Thwarted in the magnanimous purpose of her life, she had -the second great merit of an heroic death; for to commit suicide was, in -Pope's opinion, "to think greatly," "to die bravely," "to act a Roman's -part." The exalted representation will not stand before the annals of -suicide. They bear daily witness that self-destruction is the refuge of -diseased, weak, pusillanimous, conscience-stricken minds.[536] The want -of fortitude is proportioned to the slightness of the disaster which -prompts the deed. What is remediable may be more readily endured than -what cannot be cured, and there could be no stronger mark of a childish, -self-indulgent, unhealthy character, without force or dignity, the slave -of impulse, than that a woman should be guilty of suicide because her -guardian refused his consent to an unequal marriage. There might be much -room for pity; there could be none for admiration. The strength of -affection which could be the only redeeming element is eliminated by the -poet who, in this part of the Elegy, resolves the lady's love into the -ignoble craving to marry into a higher station than her own. Her worldly -disposition is the evidence to Pope that she had "a purer spirit" than -such "kindred dregs" as had not sufficient grandeur of mind to worship -rank. Out of compassion for her superiority "fate snatched her early -away," that she might not be doomed to associate with the "dull souls" -who love their equals, and bear their trials with resignation. - -The opening lines of the Elegy have some of the indefiniteness which -Johnson censured in the portrayal of the lady and her guardian. A female -ghost with a gored and bleeding bosom, and bearing a visionary sword, -beckons the poet to go with her into a glade. For what purpose does she -beckon him? The apparition may be supposed to be the creature of a -heated imagination, but there should be some significance in the act -ascribed to her. The ghost of the King of Denmark did not beckon Horatio -or the sentinels. It passed by them with "a slow and stately march," and -made no sign, till Hamlet was present at its fourth appearance, and then - - It beckoned him to go away with it - As if it some impartment did desire - To him alone. - -The ghost of the unfortunate lady imparted no information to Pope, for -he avows his ignorance of everything relating to her ghostly condition. -A passage in Milton's Comus, separated from the context, might seem to -countenance the indiscriminate use of the epithet "beckoning," as if it -were a general characteristic of spectres. - - A thousand fantasies - Begin to throng into my memory, - Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire, - And airy tongues that syllable men's names - On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.[537] - -A superstition attached to "desert wildernesses," where the wanderer who -lost sight of his associates could seldom strike into their track on the -pathless waste, was made known to Milton by the travels of Marco Polo. -"If," says the old Venetian, in his account of the great Asiatic desert, -Lop or Gobi, "any one at night stays behind, or diverges from his -company, he hears, when he wishes to rejoin it, spirits speaking in the -air, who seem to be his comrades, and sometimes call him by his name, -beguiling him out of the right road, so that many continue to go astray -and perish."[538] The lady in Comus was in a like situation. She was -benighted, she had lost her way, she heard "the tumult of loud mirth," -and when she reached the spot from whence the merriment proceeded she -found "nought but darkness." Then the "calling shapes, and beck'ning -shadows dire," that lure poor wanderers to destruction, rushed into her -thoughts, and she conceived she might be the dupe of malignant -phantoms.[539] Pope's beckoning ghost was not of this class of "dire" -counterfeit "shadows." She is represented as an honest, sympathising -spirit, who could never have designed to entice her lover or friend into -the glade with a murderous intent. Warton quotes the commencement of Ben -Jonson's Epitaph on Lady Winchester, which Pope must have had in his -mind when he wrote his Elegy. The ghost beckoned Jonson to pluck a -garland from the yew tree.[540] A spirit could not have revisited the -world, for a more frivolous purpose, but at least the poet felt that he -must assign a cause for the beckoning. The omission in Pope arose from a -frequent source of misapplied language. Isolated lines and phrases, -which had the sanction of classic authors, lingered in his memory, and -he forgot the accompaniments to which they owed their fitness. - -The spectacle of the bleeding ghost of the lady haunting the glade by -moonlight suggests to the poet that she may be doing penance for her -self-inflicted death. He reasons himself into the conviction that her -violence was meritorious, and he concludes that she has been "snatched -to the pitying sky." At ver. 47 comes a couplet in which the christian -idea of a spirit in heaven is superseded by the pagan notion of an ever -"injured shade" to whom nothing can compensate for the loss of the -customary funereal rites. Out of his ambition to imitate classic poets -Pope jumbled discordant creeds together, and introduced this remnant of -an extinct mythology, absurd in itself and offensive in a modern elegy. -The passage which follows, from ver. 51 to ver. 68, is the most pleasing -part of the poem, though the ten lines from ver. 59 have been severely -criticised by Lord Kames. Fictitious topics of consolation were not, he -said, "the language of the heart, but of imagination indulging its -flights at ease," and were incompatible with "the deeply serious and -pathetic."[541] Warburton criticised the criticism. He said it "smelled -furiously of old John Dennis," and Bowles allowed that it was "absurd." -The tone of Lord Kames is, perhaps, too contemptuous, for the lines have -a certain sweetness of sentiment. Yet he was right when he maintained -that they were not in harmony with the professions of grief and -indignation which follow or go before. All ages and nations have shared -the conviction that the omnipotence behind the phenomena of nature -deputes them on special occasions to speak in exceptional ways to the -affections, hopes, and fears of man. In the rear of these beliefs are -numerous cases in which appearances are accepted for a symbolical -language, not with an absolute faith, but with a fond acquiescence -because they are the just reflection of our thoughts. Wordsworth's -exquisite Hart-leap Well,--perfect in its descriptive power, its easy -flow of beautiful English, and its mingled strains of animation and -pathos--culminates in the creed that the bleakness of the once luxuriant -enclosure in which the stag fell dead, is the protest of nature against -the palace and bowers erected there by the knight in exultant -commemoration of his cruel chase. Wide is the range in this domain of -poetry, from sublimity down to prettinesses, from prettinesses to poor -conceits. What is legitimate in itself may be wrongly placed, and here -is the fault of Pope's lines. Amid the tempest of sorrow and anger he -derives consolation from the notion that the first roses of the year -will blow on the grave of the unfortunate lady, that the earliest -dew-drops of the morning will weep her loss, that the turf will lie -light on her insensate corpse, and that angels will overshadow in -perpetuity the spot of earth which conceals it. The reveries of fancy -may gratify the tranquil mind. They would be mockery to a man absorbed -by terrible realities, to a man distracted by the suicide of the woman -he adored. - -The paragraph, "So peaceful rests," was much admired by the -stone-cutters, and with tasteless ignorance they engraved it, slightly -modified, upon hundreds of tombstones. No one in a churchyard requires -to be reminded that its buried population is "a heap of dust." Amid the -visible signs of mortality monuments should soothe and lift up the mind -by speaking of that which is not corruptible--of that which was best in -the acts, disposition, endurance, and belief of the dead, or of the -contrast between the earthly life that was and the life that is, between -the transitory and the immortal. Improper for an epitaph, the lines were -not unsuited to an elegy, if the final paragraph had opened up a -brighter vista instead of dropping into the lowest style of heathenism. -The affection of the elegy-writer was to cease with the "idle business" -of life, and the dearest object of his heart would be "beloved by him no -more." He had talked of "pale ghosts," and "bright reversions in the -skies," but by the time he got to the conclusion of his poetical -exercise, skies, and ghosts had faded from his thoughts, and his -language would leave the impression that the "last gasp" was the end of -all things. In composition the Elegy is terse and powerful; the ideas -are erroneous, inconsistent, or inadequate. Pagan and christian notions -clash together; the story is represented under contradictory phases; the -dreary close of the poem sets aside the faith which consoles survivors; -the sentiments at the beginning are false and melodramatic; and the -middle, though not devoid of tenderness, chiefly consists of borrowed -fictions, which are too artificial for the occasion. - - - ELEGY - - TO THE MEMORY OF - - AN UNFORTUNATE LADY. - - What beck'ning ghost,[542] along the moon-light shade - Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade? - 'Tis she!--but why that bleeding bosom gored?[543] - Why dimly gleams the visionary sword? - Oh ever beauteous, ever friendly! tell, 5 - Is it, in heav'n, a crime to love too well?[544] - To bear too tender, or too firm a heart, - To act a lover's or a Roman's part? - Is there no bright reversion in the sky, - For those who greatly think, or bravely die? 10 - Why bade ye else, ye pow'rs! her soul aspire - Above the vulgar flight of low desire? - Ambition first sprung from your bless'd abodes; - The glorious fault of angels[545] and of gods: - Thence to their images on earth it flows, 15 - And in the breasts of kings and heroes glows. - Most souls, 'tis true, but peep out once an age, - Dull sullen pris'ners in the body's cage:[546] - Dim lights of life, that burn a length of years - Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres; 20 - Like Eastern kings a lazy state they keep, - And, close confined to their own palace, sleep.[547] - From these perhaps (ere nature bade her die) - Fate snatched her early to the pitying sky. - As into air the purer spirits flow, 25 - And sep'rate from their kindred dregs below; - So flew the soul to its congenial place, - Nor left one virtue to redeem her race.[548] - But thou, false guardian of a charge too good,[549] - Thou mean deserter of thy brother's blood! 30 - See on these ruby lips the trembling breath, - These cheeks now fading at the blast of death; - Cold is that breast which warmed the world before,[550] - And those love-darting eyes[551] must roll no more.[552] - Thus, if eternal justice rules the ball, 35 - Thus shall your wives, and thus your children fall: - On all the line a sudden vengeance waits, - And frequent hearses shall besiege your gates; - There passengers shall stand, and pointing say, - (While the long fun'rals blacken all the way) 40 - "Lo! these were they, whose souls the furies steeled, - "And cursed with hearts unknowing how to yield."[553] - Thus unlamented pass the proud away, - The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day! - So perish all, whose breast ne'er learned to glow 45 - For others' good, or melt at others' woe.[554] - What can atone, oh ever-injured shade! - Thy fate unpitied, and thy rites unpaid? - No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear - Pleased thy pale ghost, or graced thy mournful bier. 50 - By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,[555] - By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,[556] - By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned, - By strangers honoured, and by strangers mourned! - What though no friends in sable weeds appear, 55 - Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn[557] a year, - And bear about the mockery of woe - To midnight dances, and the public show? - What though no weeping loves thy ashes grace, - Nor polished marble emulate thy face? 60 - What though no sacred earth allow thee room, - Nor hallowed dirge be muttered o'er thy tomb? - Yet shall thy grave with rising flow'rs be dressed, - And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast:[558] - There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow, 65 - There the first roses of the year shall blow; - While angels with their silver wings[559] o'ershade - The ground, now sacred[560] by thy reliques made.[561] - So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name, - What once had beauty, titles, wealth, and fame. 70 - How loved, how honoured once, avails thee not, - To whom related, or by whom begot; - A heap of dust alone remains of thee; - 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be![562] - Poets themselves must fall like those they sung, 75 - Deaf the praised ear, and mute the tuneful tongue.[563] - Ev'n he, whose soul now melts in mournful lays, - Shall shortly want the gen'rous tear he pays; - Then from his closing eyes thy form shall part, - And the last pang shall tear thee from his heart, 80 - Life's idle business at one gasp be o'er, - The muse forgot, and thou beloved no more! - - - - - ELOISA TO ABELARD. - - * * * * * - - - - - ELOISA TO ABELARD. - - Written by Mr. POPE. - - The second edition, 8vo. - -London: Printed for BERNARD LINTOT, at the Cross-keys between the Temple - Gates in Fleet Street. 1720. - - -The Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard first appeared in the quarto of 1717. -The second edition was accompanied by other poems on kindred -subjects--"Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady; Florelio, a -Pastoral, lamenting the Death of the late Marquis of Blandford, by Mr. -Fenton; Upon the Death of her Husband, by Mrs. Elizabeth Singer; A -Ballad, by Mr. Gay,--''Twas when the Seas were roaring;' and Richy and -Sandy, a Pastoral on the Death of Mr. Joseph Addison, by Allan Ramsay." -The Epistle was reprinted in Lintot's Miscellany in 1720, 1722, 1727, -and 1732. In the Miscellany of 1727 there was added for the first time a -motto from Prior's Alma: - - O Abelard ill-fated youth! - Thy fate will justify this truth; - But well I weet, thy cruel wrong - Adorns a nobler poet's song: - Dan Pope, for thy misfortune grieved, - With kind concern and skill has weaved - A silken web, and ne'er shall fade - Its colours; gently has he laid - The mantle o'er thy sad distress, - And Venus shall the texture bless. - He o'er the weeping nun has drawn - Such artful folds of sacred lawn, - That Love, with equal grief and pride, - Shall see the crime he strives to hide, - And softly drawing back the veil, - The god shall to his vot'ries tell - Each conscious tear, each blushing grace - That decked dear Eloisa's face. - -Lord Bathurst told Warton that Pope was not pleased with these lines, in -which the poet is accused of palliating Eloisa's guilt, and complimented -for the skill with which he did it; but we learn from a letter of Pope -to Christopher Pitt that he himself corrected the sheets of his own -pieces in the Miscellany of 1727, and if the passage from Prior had been -distasteful to him, he would not have prefixed it to the Epistle. The -motto was repeated in the Miscellany of 1732, and was omitted by him in -the later editions of his works. - -Of the Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard I do not know the date. Pope's -first inclination to attempt a composition of that tender kind arose, as -Mr. Savage told me, from his perusal of Prior's Nut-brown Maid. How much -he has surpassed Prior's work it is not necessary to mention, when -perhaps it may be said with justice that he has excelled every -composition of the same kind. The mixture of religious hope and -resignation gives an elevation and dignity to disappointed love which -images merely natural cannot bestow. The gloom of a convent strikes the -imagination with far greater force than the solitude of a grove. This -piece was, however, not much his favourite in his latter years, though I -never heard upon what principle he slighted it. The Epistle is one of -the most happy productions of human wit. The subject is so judiciously -chosen that it would be difficult, in turning over the annals of the -world, to find another which so many circumstances concur to recommend. -We regularly interest ourselves most in the fortunes of those who most -deserve our notice; Abelard and Eloisa were conspicuous in their days -for eminence of merit. The heart naturally loves truth; the adventures -and misfortunes of this illustrious pair are known from undisputed -history. Their fate does not leave the mind in hopeless dejection, for -they both found quiet and consolation in retirement and piety. So new -and so affecting is their story that it supersedes invention, and -imagination ranges at full liberty without straggling into scenes of -fable. The story thus skilfully adopted, has been diligently improved. -Pope has left nothing behind him which seems more the effect of studious -perseverance and laborious revisal. Here is particularly observable the -_curiosa felicitas_, a fruitful soil and careful cultivation. Here is no -crudeness of sense, nor asperity of language.--JOHNSON. - -Of all stories, ancient or modern, there is not, perhaps, a more proper -one to furnish out an elegiac epistle than that of Eloisa and Abelard. -Their distresses were of a most singular and peculiar kind, and their -names sufficiently known, but not grown trite or common by too frequent -usage. Pope was a most excellent improver, if no great original -inventor, and we see how finely he has worked up the hints of distress -that are scattered up and down in Abelard and Eloisa's letters, and in a -little French history of their lives and misfortunes. Abelard was -reputed the most handsome, as well as the most learned man, of his time, -according to the kind of learning then in vogue. An old chronicle, -quoted by Andrew du Chesne, informs us, that scholars flocked to his -lectures from all quarters of the Latin world; and his contemporary, -St. Bernard, relates, that he numbered among his disciples many -principal ecclesiastics and cardinals at the court of Rome. Abelard -himself boasts, that when he retired into the country, he was followed -by such immense crowds of scholars that they could get neither lodgings -nor provisions sufficient for them. He met with the fate of many learned -men, to be embroiled in controversy, and accused of heresy; for St. -Bernard, whose influence and authority were very great, got his opinion -of the Trinity condemned at a council held at Sens, 1140. But the -talents of Abelard were not confined to theology, jurisprudence, -philosophy, and the thorny paths of scholasticism. He gave proofs of a -lively genius by many poetical performances, insomuch that he was -reputed to be the author of the famous Romance of the Rose, which, -however, was indisputably written by John of Meun, a little city on the -banks of the Loire, about four miles from Orleans. It was he who -continued and finished the Romance of the Rose, which William de Lorris -had left imperfect forty years before. There is undoubted evidence that -[the earliest portion] was written an hundred years after Abelard -flourished, and if chronology did not absolutely contradict the notion -of his being the author of this very celebrated piece, yet are there -internal arguments sufficient to confute it. There are many severe and -satirical strokes on the character of Eloisa which the pen of Abelard -never would have given. In one passage she is introduced speaking with -indecency and obscenity; in another all the vices and bad qualities of -women are represented as assembled together in her alone: - - Qui les moeurs feminins savoit - Car tres-tous en soi les avoit. - -In a very old epistle dedicatory, addressed to Philip IV. of France by -this same John of Meun, and prefixed to a French translation of Boetius, -it appears that he also translated the epistles of Abelard to Heloisa, -which were in high vogue at the court. It is to be regretted that we -have no exact picture of the person and beauty of Eloisa. Abelard -himself says that she was "facie non infima."[564] Her extraordinary -learning many circumstances concur to confirm; particularly one, which -is, that the nuns of the Paraclete are wont to have the office of -Whitsunday read to them in Greek, to perpetuate the memory of her -understanding that language. A lady learned as was Eloisa in that age, -who indisputably understood the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, was a -kind of prodigy.[565] Her literature, says Abelard, "in toto regno -nominatissimam fecerat," and we may be sure more thoroughly attached him -to her. Bussy Rabutin speaks in high terms of commendation of the purity -of Eloisa's latinity,--a judgment worthy a French count. There is a -force but not an elegance in her style, which is blemished, as might be -expected, by many phrases unknown to the pure ages of the Roman -language, and by many Hebraisms borrowed from the translation of the -Bible. - -However happy and judicious the subject of Pope's Epistle may be thought -to be, as displaying the various conflicts and tumults between duty and -pleasure, between penitence and passion, that agitated the mind of -Eloisa, yet we must candidly own that the principal circumstance of -distress is of so indelicate a nature, that it is with difficulty -disguised by the exquisite art and address of the poet. The capital and -unrivalled beauties of the poem arise from the striking images and -descriptions of the convent, and from the sentiments drawn from the -mystical books of devotion, particularly Madame Guion, and the -Archbishop of Cambray.[566] The Epistle is on the whole, one of the most -highly finished, and certainly the most interesting of the pieces of our -author; and, together with the Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate -Lady, is the only instance of the pathetic Pope has given us. I think -one may venture to remark that the reputation of Pope as a poet among -posterity will be principally owing to his Windsor Forest, his Rape of -the Lock, and his Eloisa to Abelard, whilst the facts and characters -alluded to and exposed in his later writings, will be forgotten and -unknown, and their poignancy and propriety little relished. For wit and -satire are transitory and perishable, but nature and passion are -eternal.--WARTON. - -Pope must be judged according to the rank in which he stands,--among -those of the French school, not the Italian; among those whose -delineations are taken more from manners than from nature. When I say -that this is his predominant character, I must be insensible to -everything exquisite in poetry if I did not except the Epistle to -Eloisa; but this can only be considered according to its class, and if I -say that it seems to me superior to any other of the kind to which it -might fairly be compared, such as the Epistles of Ovid, Propertius, -Tibullus (I will not mention Drayton, and Pope's numerous subsequent -Imitations)--but when this transcendent poem is compared with those -which will bear the comparison, I shall not be deemed as giving -reluctant praise, when I declare my conviction of its being infinitely -superior to everything of the kind, ancient or modern. In this poem, -therefore, Pope appears on the high ground of the poet of nature, but -this certainly is not his general character. In the particular instance -of this poem how distinguished and superior does he stand. It is -sufficient that nothing of the kind has ever been produced equal to it -for pathos, painting, and melody. The mellifluence and solemn cadence of -the verse, the dramatic transitions, the judicious contrasts, the -language of genuine passion, uttered in the sweetest flow of music, and -the pervading solemnity and grandeur of the picturesque scenery, give -the Epistle a wonderful charm, and exemplify Pope's observation in his -Essay on Criticism, "there is a _happiness_ as well as care." The -inherent indelicacy of the subject is one objection to it, and who but -must lament its immoral effect, for of its beauty there can be but one -sentiment. It may be said of it with truth in the language of its -author: - - It lives, it breathes, it speaks what love inspires, - Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires; - -and as long as the English language remains, it will - - Call down tears through every age. - -Pope I have no doubt wrote the Epistle to Sappho, and this of Eloisa, -under the impression of strong personal feelings. It is supposed the -subject was suggested by the unfortunate young lady going into a -convent, whose untimely death occasioned the beautiful Elegy, "What -beck'ning ghost;" but I cannot help thinking the real circumstance that -occasioned these touching effusions was his early attachment to Lady -Mary W. Montagu. The concluding lines allude to her, as I think is -evident from his letter. Speaking of a volume he had sent her when -abroad, he adds, "Among the rest you have all I am worth, that is, my -works. There are few things in them but what you have already seen, -except the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard, in which you will find one -passage that I cannot tell whether to wish you should understand or -not." The lines could not be meant for the unfortunate lady, for she was -dead and forgotten--could not relate to Martha Blount, for he was not -"condemned whole years in absence to deplore," and therefore they could -be addressed only to Lady Mary; and "he best shall paint them who shall -feel them most," was a direct allusion to his own ardent but hopeless -passion.--BOWLES. - -Mr. Bowles has represented the Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard as being -of an immoral tendency. It must however be observed, that if this -construction be put upon the poem, it is what the author never intended. -On the contrary, his object is to show the fatal consequences of an -ungovernable passion; and if he has done this in natural and even -glowing language, it must be remembered that such are not his own -sentiments, but those of the person he has undertaken to represent, and -are in general given in nearly her own words. That many expressions and -passages may be pointed out which are inconsistent with the established -order and regulations of society, may be fully admitted. Such, for -instance, as the lines - - How oft, when pressed to marriage, have I said, - Curse on all laws but those which love has made! - -But surely it is not likely that such sentiments can impose upon the -weakest and most inexperienced minds. It is indeed highly probable that -Pope has in some few instances intentionally exaggerated the sentiments -and expressions of Eloisa in order to render it impossible for any -person of common capacity to be misled by such statements.--ROSCOE. - -In 1693 there appeared at the Hague a French translation of the Latin -letters of Abelard and Heloisa. The work was several times reprinted, -and a later editor, M. Du Bois, informs the reader that the translator -had taken the liberty to omit, to add, and to transpose at his pleasure. -"Some of the thoughts and expressions which are ascribed to Heloisa," -continues M. Du Bois, "are so well imagined that if we are disappointed -at not finding them in the original, and at her not having said the -things she has been made to say, we are agreeably forced to acknowledge -that they might have been said by her, and it is impossible not to be -grateful to the paraphrast for his boldness." The original -correspondence contains some interesting facts, much spurious rhetoric, -and many dull pedantic quotations. The work in its integrity was not -adapted for popular reading, but as the whole value of the letters -depended on their genuineness, they were nearly worthless in their -altered form. In 1714 Hughes, the author of the Siege of Damascus, -translated the adulterate French concoction, and from the phraseology -and substance of Pope's Epistle, it is manifest that he followed the -English version of Hughes. Wakefield and Warton have only looked for -parallel passages in the Latin, where they will often be sought in vain. - -The authenticity of the Latin letters has usually been taken for -granted, but I have a strong belief that they are a forgery. The first -letter is addressed by Abelard to a friend in misfortune, for the -purpose of consoling him with a tale of greater woes. The sequel is not -in keeping with the ostensible object. The autobiographical epistle is -full of vain-glorious, irrelevant matter, which no one would have -recorded whose intention was merely to soothe a sorrow-stricken man. The -particulars relative to Abelard's intercourse with Heloisa are worse -than gratuitous; they are abominable. The intrigue might be public; he -might avow and deplore it; but some reserve was due to decency and his -paramour. She was not an anonymous phantom who could not be reached by -his revelations. He told her name, and her connections which, according -to his narrative, were notorious already, and he was, therefore, -forbidden by such honour as even exists among profligates to expose the -secret details of her shame. But honour was unknown to him. The veil -which rakes who gloated over past misdeeds would have scorned to draw -aside was torn away by this pious penitent with treacherous -baseness.[567] The disguise is thinly worn. The Abelard of the letter is -not the contrite, sorrowing philosopher who is speaking of a gifted -woman he had enthusiastically loved, and against whom he had deeply -sinned. He is an unimpassioned author who founds a fiction upon a true -story, and realising imperfectly the sentiments proper to the situation, -relates what he thinks was likely to have happened without perceiving -that the confessions would have been infamy in Abelard. - -His letter in some unexplained manner got round to Heloisa. She might be -expected to be filled with rage and humiliation, and she sends a glowing -response to the degrading recital. She outstripped Abelard in shameless -frankness. Madame Guizot asserts that "she expresses much more in saying -much less, that she recalls, but does not specify,"[568] the truth being -that some particulars in her second letter are grosser and more precise -than anything which proceeded from the pen of Abelard. The plea that her -confessions were made to a husband is no extenuation, since she left his -previous revelations unrebuked, and the approval of _his_ disclosures -was a licence to show about _hers_. What is more, her champions discover -ample evidence in her letters that they were intended for publication. -"Heloisa," says Madame Guizot, "supplies details with the exactness of a -dramatic personage obliged to give an account of certain facts to the -audience. There are few letters of the period which have not the stamp -of a literary composition destined to a public sufficiently large to -render it necessary to put them in possession of the circumstances. If -any persons are surprised that Heloisa could design the revelations in -her first and especially in her second letter, for any eye but that of -Abelard, let them read the incidents she could see recounted without -offence in the _Historia Calamitatum_, and they will be convinced of the -existence of a state of manners in which elevated and even delicate -sentiments in a distinguished and naturally modest woman might be allied -to the strangest forms of language."[569] The case is put inaccurately. -The "sentiments" are not "delicate;" they are coarser than the language. -The reasoning of Madame Guizot is equally defective. An immodest act is -declared to be modest because Heloisa had committed a previous act of -immodesty. Her toleration of Abelard's grossness is the evidence of her -purity in imitating his freedoms. The appeal should have been to -independent works of the time, and these are opposed to the theory of -Madame Guizot. Language was often plainer than at present, but only -creatures of the disgusting type of the Wife of Bath proclaimed the -hidden details of their _own_ sexual licentiousness. The reputable -classes had risen high above the point at which elemental decency and -self-respect become extinct. Heloisa must, indeed, have been a woman of -an "unbashful forehead," to use the expression of Shakespeare, if she -deliberately placed herself before the public as she appears in the -letters. It is far more likely that they are the fabrication of an -unconcerned romancer, who speaks in the name of others with a latitude -which people, not entirely degraded, would never adopt towards -themselves. The suspicion is strengthened when the second party to the -correspondence, the chief philosopher of his generation, exhibits the -same exceptional depravity of taste. The improbability is great that -both should have courted a disgraceful notoriety. The correspondence was -coined in one mint; the impress it bears is male, and not female; and we -may apply to Heloisa the words of Rosalind,-- - - I say she never did invent these letters, - This is a man's invention, and his hand.[570] - -No portion of them, if they are genuine, can do honour to her memory. -The coarse particulars she divulged to the public would prove that she -was debased, and any sentiments which might have been creditable in an -artless effusion addressed to Abelard lose their value when they are a -studied rhetorical manifesto, got up to produce an impression on the -world. - -According to the _Historia Calamitatum_ Abelard was the eldest son of a -soldier in Brittany. His father, who had a tincture of learning, imbued -him with a passion for study. He renounced the weapons of war for those -of logic, resigned his paternal inheritance to his brothers, and -traversed the kingdom that he might engage in scholastic tournaments at -the towns on his road. He arrived at Paris about the year 1100, when he -was twenty-one. There he frequented the lectures of William of -Champeaux, the most famous dialectician of the day. Soon the pupil -questioned the doctrines of his master, and was often victorious in -their public disputations. He established a rival school, and the credit -of all other teachers was lost in his renown. William of Champeaux, -devoured with envy, struggled for years to drive his antagonist from the -field. The invincible Abelard never failed to defeat him, and finally -reigned without a competitor. - -When his supremacy was recognised in the domain of metaphysical logic, -he turned his attention to theology, and proceeding to Laon he sat under -Anselm, who was esteemed the foremost divine in the church. The author -of the letter affirms that his instruction consisted of fine words -without matter, smoke without flame, leaves without fruit. Abelard soon -relaxed in his attendance, and expressed his surprise to his -fellow-students that any aid should be used beyond the text and the -gloss in interpreting the Bible. With a derisive laugh they enquired if -he would be bold enough, on these terms, to become the expositor. He -accepted the challenge, and they thought to baffle him by allotting him -the book of Ezekiel. He replied by inviting them to hear his commentary -the following morning. They recommended him to take time, and he -answered that his habit was to prevail by force of mind, and not by -labour. His audience was small the next day, for it was considered -ridiculous that a young man, who had hardly looked into the Bible, -should extemporise an explanation of its obscurest prophecies. The few -who went were fascinated, and their praises caused his lecture-room to -be thronged. The old story was re-enacted. The pupil who had vanquished -the most celebrated metaphysician of his generation, now at the first -onset eclipsed the greatest theologian in Europe. Anselm, like William -of Champeaux, was filled with jealousy, and forbade him to continue his -disquisitions at Laon. - -He returned to Paris, and taught dialectics and divinity with equal -distinction. He had money and glory, he says, in profusion; he imagined -that he was the only philosopher on earth; and in the words of the -letter which bears his name, he was consumed by the fever of pride and -luxury. In this state of worldly prosperity he reached his thirty-sixth -year, when he formed his connection with Heloisa, who was barely -eighteen. His qualifications for amorous intrigue are related by him -with just the same boastful assurance with which he describes his -dictatorship in the schools. He declares that his youth, his fame, and -his handsome person gave him such a superiority over all other men, that -no woman could resist him. Whoever she might be she would have thought -herself honoured by his love; and the context shows that the love he -meant was illicit. The learning of Heloisa obtained her the preference, -and he deliberately formed a plan to seduce her. She resided with her -uncle Fulbert, a canon of the cathedral at Paris, who doated on money -and his niece. Abelard appealed to the double passion. Professing to -desire a release from household cares, he offered to board and lodge -with the canon on any terms he chose to ask, and to devote his leisure -hours to the instruction of Heloisa. Fulbert was delighted. He confided, -to use the language of the letter, the tender lamb to the ravenous wolf, -and enjoined the tutor to administer corporal punishment when his pupil -neglected her studies. The comment of Abelard, or his representative, is -extraordinary. He marvels at the simplicity of the canon in entrusting -him with an authority which would enable him, if Heloisa resisted his -fondness, to subdue her by blows. He thinks Fulbert childishly credulous -for not divining that the grand luminary of philosophy and divinity was -a wretch of fiendish depravity--a demon who would adopt the brutal -expedient of beating an innocent girl into submission to his wicked -designs. In his third letter he acknowledges that he had put the method -in practice when the temporary scruples of his victim prevailed. - -During the frenzy of his passion Abelard was indifferent to literary -glory. His lectures were a burthen to him, and he only cared to compose -amatory songs, which he informs his friend are still popular in numerous -countries. Heloisa says in her reply that, as the greater part of these -poems celebrated their love, her name became famous, and the jealousy of -the women was roused. This is one of the many improbabilities of the -story. At the exact period that Abelard, by his own acknowledgment, was -anxious to conceal his passion from Fulbert, he published it in popular -ballads to the world. The inconsistency is too glaring. A second -statement is more consonant with human nature. The nerveless lectures, -and preoccupied air of Abelard betrayed his infatuation to his -disciples. They divined the truth; the intrigue was noised abroad, and -the rumour at last got round to Fulbert. Abelard asserts that he and his -concubine were overwhelmed with anguish and shame on their detection; -Heloisa that her amour was the envy of princesses and queens. The -apocryphal writer, after the manner of his tribe, overlooked these -discrepancies. - -When the first shock of disgrace was past, the lovers disregarded -appearances, and carried on their intercourse without disguise. The poor -canon was nearly mad between grief and rage, and Abelard to appease him -led Heloisa to the altar, on the understanding that their union should -be kept a secret; but the relations of the bride broke their promise, -and proclaimed that she was married. She protested it was false, and -Fulbert, exasperated by her denial, treated her harshly. Her husband -removed her to the abbey of Argenteuil, near Paris, that she might be -safe from persecution. Her friends conjectured that his object was to -get rid of her, and in revenge for his former treachery and present -heartlessness, Fulbert bribed some miscreants to mutilate him when he -was asleep. Overwhelmed with mortification, he resolved to hide his head -in a convent, and selected St. Denis. His jealousy would not suffer him -to leave Heloisa free, and before he bound himself by an irrevocable vow -he obliged her to take the veil. - -The monks in Abelard's new retreat led the dissolute life in which he -himself had indulged up to the moment of his disaster. He provoked their -hostility by his remonstrances, and to get rid of him they joined in the -entreaties of his disciples that he would leave his cell, and resume his -lectures. The concourse of hearers was so great that the district where -he set up his chair could not afford them food and lodging. The -popularity of his teaching is attested by independent evidence, although -his extant treatises are bald in style, prolix and cloudy in exposition, -abstruse and barren in substance. But manuscripts were scarce; the -multitude were chiefly dependent upon oral instruction; literature was -almost unknown, and the subtleties of a meagre metaphysical system -applied to theology, had a charm for active intellects when theology, -logic, and metaphysics had undivided possession of the schools. -Controversy lent its powerful aid, animating the dry bones with the -fiery life of human passion. The superiority of Abelard in the verbal -strife was due to the comparative feebleness of his adversaries, and not -to the absolute greatness of his acute, but narrow and unprolific mind. -"How is it," said a nobleman to Lely, "that you are so celebrated, when -you know, as well as I do, that you are no painter?" "True," replied -Lely, "but I am the best you have." - -The revival of Abelard's popularity was attended by the old results. -Rival schools were deserted, envy, malice, and hatred were inflamed. -Applying his metaphysical logic to the doctrines of the Bible he -produced a treatise on the Trinity, which he asserts solved every -difficulty; and the more transcendent was the mystery, the greater, he -says, was the admiration at the acuteness of his solution. But it was by -altering the dogma that he brought it down to the level of human reason, -and a council at Soissons accused him of heresy. If the letter is to be -credited, his antagonists paid him the compliment of refusing to hear -his defence, on the plea that his arguments would confound the united -world. The assembly voted him guilty, and the troubles which grew out of -his condemnation ended in his withdrawing to an uninhabited district on -the banks of the river Ardusson, where he constructed an oratory of -reeds and mud. Admiring crowds pursued him into his desolate retreat. -Sleeping in rude huts, and subsisting on bread and herbs, they abjured -the physical luxuries of existence for the mental feast of listening to -the arid speculations in vogue. His auditors replaced his oratory by a -larger building of wood and stone, which might serve for a lecture-room, -and he named it the Paraclete, or the Comforter, because Providence had -sent him consolation to the spot whither he had fled in despair. He, or -his personator on his behalf, cannot suppress the usual vaunts. His -body, he says, was concealed by his seclusion, but he filled the -universe by his word and his renown. His enemies were enraged, and -groaned inwardly, "Behold the world is gone after him, and our -persecution has increased his glory." He admits that the sentiment did -not fall from their lips, and it is merely the form in which his vanity -embodied their feelings. The celebrated St. Bernard entered the lists -against him, and Abelard began to be deserted by his adherents. He -completely lost heart, and when the monks of a remote abbey on the coast -of Brittany appointed him their head, he was glad to embrace a -banishment which removed him from the midst of his increasing foes. New -enmities awaited him. As at St. Denis, he soon became odious to his -brethren by reproving their laxity. Their vindictive rage knew no -bounds. They poisoned his food, but he forbore to taste it. They -poisoned the chalice at the altar, but he did not drink of it. They -suborned a servant to poison his victuals when he was on a visit to his -brother, and again he happened not to eat of the dish, while a monk who -partook of it died on the spot. Wherever he went they posted hired -assassins on the road, and for some untold reason he always escaped. He -procured the expulsion of the most desperate of his bloodthirsty -children, and when the remainder were about to stab him he eluded their -daggers. The sword, when he wrote, was still hanging over his head, and -he passed his days in almost breathless fear. The early novelist who -composed the apocryphal correspondence had the art to leave him in this -critical situation. But the Abelard of the autobiography is a repulsive -hero of romance, since even the penitent is boastful, coarse, and -callous. - -The abbey of Argenteuil, where Heloisa was prioress, was a dependency of -the abbey of St. Denis. The parent monastery reclaimed the building and -turned out Heloisa and the nuns. Abelard invited them to meet him at the -Paraclete, and he established them in the oratory and its appurtenances, -which had remained unoccupied since he settled in Brittany. He took -frequent journeys from his abbey to instruct and console them, till -finding that his visits gave rise to scandal, he went no more. Heloisa -had not seen him or heard from him for a considerable period, when his -letter to the unknown friend fell by accident into her hands, and she -immediately replied to it. Her character, whether drawn by herself or -some fabricator who wrote in her name, comes out clearly in the -correspondence. Abelard states that she laboured to dissuade him from -marriage when he informed her of his promise to Fulbert after the -detection of the intrigue. She said that it would be dishonourable for a -philosopher, whom nature had created for the world, to be enslaved to a -woman, and submitted to the ignominious yoke of matrimony. She said that -his renown would be diminished, that his future career would be checked, -that the church would be injured, and that she could have no pride in a -union which would degrade both of them by tarnishing his glory. In her -answer she confirms his representations; and adds, that if the name of -wife was holier, she held that of mistress, concubine, or harlot, to be -sweeter, not only for the reasons which Abelard had recapitulated, but -because she hoped that the less she made herself the more she would rise -in his favour. Dean Milman is in error when he asserts that she -"resisted the marriage in an absolute, unrivalled spirit of devotion, so -wonderful that we forget to reprove."[571] She did not overlook her -personal interests, but believed that the concubine would enjoy more -love and consideration than the wife. The theory of her willingness to -be sacrificed that her admirer might be elevated has arisen from the -inference, contradicted by her language, that she felt the disgrace of -her illicit connection. Nothing could be more remote from her thoughts. -She was proud of the distinction. - -At the date of her letters Heloisa had been leading for years a monastic -life, which she embraced against her will at the command of her husband. -She had not been refined by misfortune, time, and religion. She -continued to bewail her sensual deprivations, and the picture she draws -of her subjection to her voluptuous imagination, exceeds anything which -could have been expected from the most dissolute libertine. But none of -these things repel the partisans of historic romance, and the frail -unhappy woman seduced by Abelard is held up as a signal example of -feminine excellence. "This noble creature," says M. Cousin, "loved as -Saint Theresa, and sometimes wrote as Seneca."[572] "Her -contemporaries," says M. Remusat, "placed her above all women, and I do -not know that posterity has belied her contemporaries"[573] "France," -says M. Henri Martin, "has always felt the grandeur of Heloisa, and the -just instinct of the public has numbered the mistress of Abelard among -our national glories."[574] Her admirers would be puzzled to explain in -what her pre-eminence consists. Her devotion to her lover is a quality -which she shares with myriads of women, bad as well as good, and her -distinctive moral traits are those in which she differs from the -majority of her sex by being vastly worse instead of better. A modern -Heloisa who pursued the same conduct and avowed the same principles and -passions would be branded with infamy. - -The Epistle of Pope purports to be Heloisa's reply to Abelard's letter -to his friend; but the poet has blended in his composition whatever -topics were suited to his purpose, and ascribed sentiments to the wife -which he had copied from the husband. There is nothing in the work to -indicate that the author had read the Latin text, since he always -adheres to the English rendering of the corrupted French version. Bishop -Horne held that the original prose was finer than Pope's verse.[575] I -cannot assent to this judgment. The poem has the superiority in every -particular--in the beauty of the language, in the picturesqueness of the -descriptions, in the fervour of the contrasted passions, in the -animation of the transitions, in the solemnity of the accompaniments, -and above all, in the pathos. The singularity of Horne's estimate may be -explained by his imperfect recollection of the productions he -criticised. To the allegation of Sir John Hawkins, that matrimony was -depreciated and concubinage justified in the poetical epistle, he -replies, that the censure "is founded on a false fact, because Abelard -was married." The observation is a proof that Horne had forgotten the -argument in favour of concubinage which occurs alike in the English -verse and the Latin prose. Hallam accuses Pope of having "done great -injustice to Eloisa by putting the sentiments of a coarse and abandoned -woman into her mouth." But the licentious doctrines which Pope utters in -her name are in the original Latin, except that when she asserts that -love is inconsistent with marriage, she speaks of her individual case, -and does not avowedly lay down a general maxim. Nor can Pope be charged -with misrepresentation because the language in which he expresses her -sensual cravings is not always borrowed from her pretended confessions. -As he has not exaggerated the dominion of her appetite, nor the -plainness with which she avows it, he cannot be said to have degraded -the copy below the model by an occasional variation in the forms of -speech. In fact the increased fervour he has imparted to her religious -aspirations renders his portrait the more elevated of the two. The -censure to which he lies open is not for deviating from his text but for -following it too faithfully. - -"The Epistle of Heloisa," says Wordsworth, "may be considered as a -species of monodrama," and he classes it under the head of dramatic -poetry. The painter of an ideal countenance omits the subordinate -details which do not contribute to the special expression he desires to -convey. By isolating he intensifies it. The holy calm of Raphael's -Madonnas would be marred by the introduction of all those minutiae in the -living face which are not concerned in the dominant sentiment. A -monodramatic poem which turns upon a single conflict of feeling -possesses a kindred advantage. The one absorbing struggle has undivided -sway, and there is nothing to distract attention from the pervading -emotion. This unity of purpose was present to Pope's mind with absolute -distinctness, and he has executed his conception with wonderful force. -The combat between Heloisa's earthly inclinations and heavenly -convictions, the impetuosity with which she passes from one to the -other, the tempest in her soul whichever mood prevails, deep alternately -calling to deep, are depicted with concentrated energy, and continuous -pathos. Her glowing thoughts are vehement without exaggeration, and the -natural outbursts are untainted by spurious artifice. - -"Mr. Pope's Eloisa to Abelard is," says Mason, "such a _chef-d'oeuvre_ -that nothing of the kind can be relished after it. Yet it is not the -story itself, nor the sympathy it excites in us, as Dr. Johnson would -have us think, that constitutes the principal merit in that incomparable -poem. It is the happy use he has made of the monastic gloom of the -Paraclete, and of what I will call papistical machinery, which gives it -its capital charm, so that I am almost inclined to wonder (if I could -wonder at any of that writer's criticisms) that he did not take notice -of this beauty, as his own superstitious turn certainly must have given -him more than a sufficient relish for it."[577] The buildings and -scenery, solemn and sombre, undoubtedly heighten the effect. There is an -impressive harmony between the over-cast mind of Heloisa, and the -objects around her, which deepens the sadness. But the comment of Mason -is unfounded. Johnson _did_ "notice" the "beauty" derived from the gloom -of the convent, while the assertion that this is the "principal merit" -of the poem is an extravagant subordination of the human interest, which -is the main subject of the Epistle, to the comparatively brief though -exquisite description of the local accompaniments. Mason disliked and -dreaded Johnson, and avenged himself when Johnson was dead, by feeble -expressions of contempt. - -The Rape of the Lock and the Epistle to Eloisa stand alone in Pope's -works. He produced nothing else which resembled them. They have the -merit of being master-pieces in opposite styles. The first is -remarkable for its delicious fancy and sportive satire; the second for -its fervid passion and tender melancholy. Two poems of such rare and -such different excellence would alone entitle Pope to his fame. Like -most great authors he published not a little which is mediocre, but he -is to be estimated by the qualities in which he soared above the herd, -and not by the lower range of mind he possessed in common with inferior -men. The Rape of the Lock is a higher effort of genius than the Epistle. -Pope's adaptation of his aery, refulgent sylphs to the ephemeral -trivialities of fashionable life, the admirable art with which he fitted -his fairy machinery to the follies and common-places of a giddy London -day, the poetic grace which he threw around his sarcastic narrative, and -which unites with it as naturally as does the rose with its thorny stem, -are all unborrowed beauties, and consummate in their kind. The story and -sentiments of Heloisa were prepared to his hand, and the power is -limited to the strength and sweetness of his language and versification, -and to the vigour with which he appropriated and expanded a single -leading idea. His imagination was not prolific, and his thoughts seldom -sprung from within. Sir William Napier said to Moore, "You are a poet by -force of will; Byron by force of nature," which Moore acknowledged to be -true. Pope, like Moore, was a poet because from his childhood he had -assiduously cultivated poetry. The bulk of his works are either direct -translations, or freer renderings under the name of imitations, and -putting aside the Rape of the Lock, and parts of his satires, the -materials of his original pieces, such as the Essay on Criticism, and -Essay on Man, are mostly taken from other authors. The thoughts in the -Epistle of Eloisa are not more his own than his critical rules, and -ethical philosophy, but the passionate emotions are more poetical, and -the execution more finished. Of Pope's better qualities the chief -appears to have been a certain tenderness of heart, and this enabled him -to enter into the feelings of Heloisa. He employed all the resources of -his choicest verse to perfect the picture, and though the details he -transferred from the letters deprived him of the credit of invention, -the supposed historic truth of the representation increased the effect. -The difference between legitimate and worthless imitation could not be -more forcibly illustrated than by comparing the tame landscape, and -affected love-babble of his Pastorals with the local descriptions and -impassioned strains in his Epistle of Eloisa. - - - - - THE ARGUMENT. - - -Abelard and Eloisa flourished in the twelfth century. They were two of -the most distinguished persons of their age in learning and beauty, but -for nothing more famous than for their unfortunate passion. After a long -course of calamities, they retired each to a several convent, and -consecrated the remainder of their days to religion. It was many years -after this separation, that a letter of Abelard's to a friend, which -contained the history of his misfortune, fell into the hands of Eloisa. -This, awakening all her tenderness, occasioned those celebrated letters -(out of which the following is partly extracted) which give so lively a -picture of the struggles of grace and nature, virtue and passion. - - - ELOISA TO ABELARD. - - In these deep solitudes and awful cells, - Where heav'nly-pensive contemplation dwells, - And ever-musing melancholy reigns, - What means this tumult in a vestal's veins? - Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat? 5 - Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat? - Yet, yet I love!--From Abelard it came,[578] - And Eloisa yet must kiss the name.[579] - Dear fatal name! rest ever unrevealed, - Nor pass these lips in holy silence sealed: 10 - Hide it, my heart, within that close disguise, - Where, mixed with God's, his loved idea[580] lies: - O write it not, my hand--the name appears - Already written[581]--wash it out, my tears![582] - In vain lost Eloisa weeps and prays, 15 - Her heart still dictates, and her hand obeys. - Relentless walls! whose darksome round contains[583] - Repentant sighs, and voluntary pains: - Ye rugged rocks, which holy knees have worn; - Ye grots and caverns, shagged with horrid thorn![584] 20 - Shrines! where their vigils pale-eyed virgins keep,[585] - And pitying saints, whose statues learn to weep![586] - Though cold like you, unmoved and silent grown, - I have not yet forgot myself to stone.[587] - All is not heaven's while Abelard has part;[588] 25 - Still rebel nature holds out half my heart; - Nor pray'rs nor fasts its stubborn pulse restrain, - Nor tears, for ages taught to flow in vain. - Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose, - That well-known name awakens all my woes.[589] 30 - Oh name for ever sad! for ever dear![590] - Still breathed in sighs, still ushered with a tear.[591] - I tremble too, where'er my own I find, - Some dire misfortune follows close behind.[592] - Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow, 35 - Led through a sad variety of woe:[593] - Now warm in love, now with'ring in my bloom,[594] - Lost in a convent's solitary gloom! - There stern religion quenched th' unwilling flame, - There died the best of passions, love and fame.[595] 40 - Yet write, oh write me all, that I may join - Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine.[596] - Nor foes nor fortune take this pow'r away;[597] - And is my Abelard less kind than they? - Tears still are mine, and those I need not spare; 45 - Love but demands what else were shed in pray'r;[598] - No happier task these faded eyes pursue; - To read and weep is all they now can do.[599] - Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief; - Ah, more than share it, give me all thy grief.[600] 50 - Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid,[601] - Some banished lover, or some captive maid; - They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires, - Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires, - The virgin's wish without her fears impart, 55 - Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart,[602] - Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, - And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.[603] - Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame,[604] - When love approached me under friendship's name;[605] 60 - My fancy formed thee of angelic kind, - Some emanation of th' all-beauteous Mind,[606] - Those smiling eyes, attemp'ring ev'ry ray, - Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day;[607] - Guiltless I gazed; heav'n listened while you sung;[608] 65 - And truths divine came mended from that tongue.[609] - From lips like those, what precept failed to move? - Too soon they taught me 'twas no sin to love: - Back through the paths of pleasing sense I ran,[610] - Nor wished an angel whom I loved a man.[611] 70 - Dim and remote the joys of saints I see: - Nor envy them that heav'n I lose for thee. - How oft, when pressed to marriage, have I said, - Curse on all laws but those which love has made![612] - Love, free as air, at sight of human ties, 75 - Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.[613] - Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame, - August her deed, and sacred be her fame;[614] - Before true passion all those views remove; - Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to love? 80 - The jealous god, when we profane his fires, - Those restless passions in revenge inspires, - And bids them make mistaken mortals groan, - Who seek in love for aught but love alone.[615] - Should at my feet the world's great master fall, 85 - Himself, his throne, his world, I'd scorn them all; - Not Caesar's empress would I deign to prove;[616] - No, make me mistress to the man I love; - If there be yet another name more free,[617] - More fond than mistress,[618] make me that to thee. 90 - Oh! happy state! when souls each other draw, - When love is liberty, and nature, law:[619] - All then is full, possessing and possessed, - No craving void left aching in the breast:[620] - Ev'n thought meets thought, ere from the lips it part, 95 - And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart. - This sure is bliss, if bliss on earth there be, - And once the lot of Abelard and me.[621] - Alas, how changed! what sudden horrors rise! - A naked lover bound and bleeding lies![622] 100 - Where, where was Eloise? her voice, her hand, - Her poniard, had opposed the dire command.[623] - Barbarian, stay! that bloody stroke[624] restrain; - The crime was common, common be the pain.[625] - I can no more; by shame, by rage suppressed,[626] 105 - Let tears, and burning blushes speak the rest.[627] - Canst thou forget that sad, that solemn day, - When victims at yon[628] altar's foot we lay? - Canst thou forget what tears that moment fell, - When, warm in youth, I bade the world farewell?[629] 110 - As with cold lips I kissed the sacred veil,[630] - The shrines all trembled, and the lamps grew pale:[631] - Heav'n scarce believed the conquest it surveyed, - And saints with wonder heard the vows I made. - Yet then, to those dread altars as I drew, 115 - Not on the cross my eyes were fixed, but you;[632] - Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call, - And if I lose thy love, I lose my all. - Come! with thy looks, thy words, relieve my woe;[633] - Those still at least are left thee to bestow.[634] 120 - Still on that breast enamoured let me lie, - Still drink delicious poison from thy eye,[635] - Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be pressed; - Give all thou canst--and let me dream the rest. - Ah no! instruct me other joys to prize, 125 - With other beauties charm my partial eyes, - Full in my view set all the bright abode, - And make my soul quit Abelard for God. - Ah, think at least thy flock deserves thy care,[636] - Plants of thy hand, and children of thy pray'r; 130 - From the false world in early youth they fled, - By thee to mountains, wilds, and deserts led.[637] - You raised these hallowed walls;[638] the desert smiled, - And Paradise was opened in the wild.[639] - No weeping orphan saw his father's stores 135 - Our shrines irradiate, or emblaze the floors:[640] - No silver saints, by dying misers giv'n, - Here bribed the rage of ill-requited heav'n: - But such plain roofs as piety could raise,[641] - And only vocal with the Maker's praise.[642] 140 - In these lone walls (their day's eternal bound), - These moss-grown domes with spiry turrets crowned, - Where awful arches make a noon-day night, - And the dim windows shed a solemn light,[643] - Thy eyes diffused a reconciling ray,[644] 145 - And gleams of glory brightened all the day.[645] - But now no face divine contentment wears, - 'Tis all blank sadness, or continual tears. - See how the force of others' pray'rs I try,[646] - O pious fraud of am'rous charity! 150 - But why should I on others' pray'rs depend?[647] - Come thou, my father, brother, husband, friend! - Ah, let thy handmaid, sister, daughter, move,[648] - And all those tender names in one, thy love![649] - The darksome pines that, o'er yon rocks reclined,[650] 155 - Wave high, and murmur to the hollow wind,[651] - The wand'ring streams that shine between the hills,[652] - The grots that echo to the tinkling rills,[653] - The dying gales that pant upon the trees,[654] - The lakes that quiver to the curling breeze;[655] 160 - No more these scenes my meditation aid, - Or lull to rest the visionary maid.[656] - But o'er the twilight groves[657] and dusky caves, - Long-sounding aisles, and intermingled graves, - Black Melancholy sits, and round her throws 165 - A death-like silence, and a dread repose:[658] - Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene, - Shades ev'ry flow'r, and darkens ev'ry green,[659] - Deepens the murmur of the falling floods, - And breathes a browner horror on the woods.[660] 170 - Yet here for ever, ever must I stay; - Sad proof how well a lover can obey![661] - Death, only death, can break the lasting chain; - And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain;[662] - Here all its frailties, all its flames resign, 175 - And wait till 'tis no sin to mix with thine.[663] - Ah wretch! believed the spouse of God in vain, - Confessed within the slave of love and man. - Assist me, heav'n! but whence arose that pray'r? - Sprung it from piety, or from despair?[664] 180 - Ev'n here, where frozen chastity retires, - Love finds an altar for forbidden fires.[665] - I ought to grieve, but cannot what I ought; - I mourn the lover, not lament the fault;[666] - I view my crime, but kindle at the view, 185 - Repent old pleasures, and solicit new;[667] - Now turned to heav'n, I weep my past offence, - Now think of thee, and curse my innocence. - Of all affliction taught a lover yet, - 'Tis sure the hardest science to forget![668] 190 - How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, - And love th' offender, yet detest th' offence?[669] - How the dear object from the crime remove, - Or how distinguish penitence from love?[670] - Unequal task! a passion to resign, 195 - For hearts so touched, so pierced, so lost as mine. - Ere such a soul regains its peaceful state, - How often must it love, how often hate![671] - How often hope, despair, resent, regret, - Conceal, disdain,--do all things but forget. 200 - But let heav'n seize it, all at once 'tis fired; - Not touched, but rapt; not wakened, but inspired![672] - Oh come! oh teach me nature to subdue, - Renounce my love, my life, myself--and you.[673] - Fill my fond heart with God alone, for he 205 - Alone can rival, can succeed to thee.[674] - How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! - The world forgetting, by the world forgot:[675] - Eternal sun-shine of the spotless mind! - Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resigned; 210 - Labour and rest, that equal periods keep; - "Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;"[676] - Desires composed, affections ever even; - Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heav'n. - Grace shines around her, with serenest beams, 215 - And whisp'ring angels prompt her golden dreams. - For her, th' unfading rose of Eden blooms, - And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes, - For her the spouse prepares the bridal ring, - For her white virgins hymeneals sing, 220 - To sounds of heav'nly harps she dies away,[677] - And melts in visions of eternal day.[678] - Far other dreams my erring soul employ, - Far other raptures, of unholy joy: - When at the close of each sad, sorrowing day, 225 - Fancy restores what vengeance snatched away, - Then conscience sleeps, and leaving nature free, - All my loose soul unbounded springs to thee. - Oh cursed, dear horrors of all-conscious night! - How glowing guilt exalts the keen delight![679] 230 - Provoking demons all restraint remove, - And stir within me ev'ry source of love. - I hear thee, view thee, gaze o'er all thy charms, - And round thy phantom glue my clasping arms. - I wake:--no more I hear, no more I view, 235 - The phantom flies me, as unkind as you. - I call aloud; it hears not what I say: - I stretch my empty arms; it glides away. - To dream once more I close my willing eyes; - Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise;[680] 240 - Alas, no more!--methinks we wand'ring go - Through dreary wastes, and weep each other's woe,[681] - Where round some mould'ring tow'r pale ivy creeps, - And low-browed rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps. - Sudden you mount, you beckon from the skies; 245 - Clouds interpose, waves roar, and winds arise. - I shriek, start up, the same sad prospect find, - And wake to all the griefs I left behind. - For thee the fates, severely kind,[682] ordain - A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain; 250 - Thy life a long dead calm of fixed repose; - No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows;[683] - Still as the sea, ere winds were taught to blow, - Or moving spirit bade the waters flow;[684] - Soft as the slumbers of a saint forgiv'n, 255 - And mild as op'ning gleams of promised heav'n.[685] - Come, Abelard! for what hast thou to dread? - The torch of Venus burns not for the dead.[686] - Nature stands checked; religion disapproves; - Ev'n thou art cold--yet Eloisa loves. 260 - Ah hopeless, lasting flames! like those that burn - To light the dead, and warm th' unfruitful urn.[687] - What scenes appear where'er I turn my view? - The dear ideas, where I fly, pursue, - Rise in the grove, before the altar rise,[688] 265 - Stain all my soul, and wanton in my eyes. - I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee, - Thy image steals between my God and me,[689] - Thy voice I seem in ev'ry hymn to hear, - With ev'ry bead I drop too soft a tear.[690] 270 - When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll, - And swelling organs lift the rising soul, - One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight, - Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight;[691] - In seas of flame my plunging soul is drowned, 275 - While altars blaze, and angels tremble round.[692] - While prostrate here in humble grief I lie, - Kind, virtuous drops just gath'ring in my eye, - While praying, trembling, in the dust I roll, - And dawning grace is op'ning on my soul: 280 - Come, if thou dar'st, all charming as thou art! - Oppose thyself to heav'n; dispute my heart: - Come, with one glance of those deluding eyes - Blot out each bright idea of the skies; - Take back that grace, those sorrows, and those tears; 285 - Take back my fruitless penitence and pray'rs; - Snatch me, just mounting, from the bless'd abode; - Assist the fiends, and tear me from my God![693] - No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole;[694] - Rise alps between us! and whole oceans roll![695] 290 - Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me, - Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee. - Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign;[696] - Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine. - Fair eyes, and tempting looks, (which yet I view!) 295 - Long loved, adored ideas, all adieu! - Oh grace serene! oh virtue heav'nly fair![697] - Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care![698] - Fresh-blooming hope, gay daughter of the sky! - And faith, our early immortality![699] 300 - Enter, each mild, each amicable guest: - Receive, and wrap me in eternal rest. - See in her cell sad Eloisa spread, - Propped on some tomb, a neighbour of the dead.[700] - In each low wind methinks a spirit calls, 305 - And more than echoes talk along the walls.[701] - Here, as I watched the dying lamps around, - From yonder shrine I heard a hollow sound. - "Come, sister, come! (it said, or seemed to say).[702] - "Thy place is here, sad sister, come away;[703] 310 - "Once like thyself, I trembled, wept, and prayed, - Love's victim then, though now a sainted maid:[704] - But all is calm in this eternal sleep;[705] - Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep, - Ev'n superstition loses every fear: 315 - For God, not man, absolves our frailties here." - I come, I come![706] prepare your roseate bow'rs, - Celestial palms, and ever-blooming flow'rs; - Thither, where sinners may have rest, I go, - Where flames refined in breasts seraphic glow: 320 - Thou, Abelard! the last sad office pay,[707] - And smooth my passage to the realms of day:[708] - See my lips tremble, and my eye-balls roll, - Suck my last breath, and catch my flying soul![709] - Ah no--in sacred vestments may'st thou stand, 325 - The hallowed taper trembling in thy hand, - Present the cross before my lifted eye, - Teach me at once, and learn of me to die.[710] - Ah then, thy once-loved Eloisa see! - It will be then no crime to gaze on me. 330 - See from my cheek the transient roses fly![711] - See the last sparkle languish in my eye! - 'Till ev'ry motion, pulse, and breath be o'er; - And ev'n my Abelard be loved no more. - Oh death all-eloquent! you only prove 335 - What dust we doat on, when 'tis man we love.[712] - Then too, when fate shall thy fair fame destroy, - (That cause of all my guilt, and all my joy)[713] - In trance ecstatic may thy pangs be drowned, - Bright clouds descend, and angels watch thee round, 340 - From op'ning skies may streaming glories shine, - And saints embrace thee with a love like mine. - May one kind grave unite each hapless name,[714] - And graft my love immortal on thy fame! - Then, ages hence, when all my woes are o'er, 345 - When this rebellious heart shall beat no more; - If ever chance two wand'ring lovers brings - To Paraclete's white walls and silver springs, - O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads, - And drink the falling tears each other sheds;[715] 350 - Then sadly say, with mutual pity moved, - "Oh may we never love as these have loved!" - From the full choir[716] when loud hosannas rise, - And swell the pomp of dreadful sacrifice,[717] - Amid that scene if some relenting eye 355 - Glance on the stone where our cold relics lie, - Devotion's self shall steal a thought from heav'n, - One human tear shall drop, and be forgiv'n. - And sure if fate some future bard shall join - In sad similitude of griefs to mine, 360 - Condemned whole years in absence to deplore, - And image charms he must behold no more; - Such if there be, who loves so long, so well; - Let him our sad, our tender story tell; - The well-sung woes will sooth my pensive ghost;[718] 365 - He best can paint them who shall feel them most.[719] - - - - - AN - - ESSAY ON MAN, - - IN FOUR EPISTLES - - TO - - HENRY ST. JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE. - - WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1732. - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN.--ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND. Part I. - -London: Printed for J. WILFORD, at the Three Flower-de-luces, behind - the Chapter-house, St. Paul's. Price one shilling. Folio. - -This is the first edition of Epistle I. of the Essay on Man, which was -published anonymously, and without any date on the title-page, Feb. -1733. It was also printed in quarto and octavo. The octavo has not the -prefatory address "To the Reader." The right to print each epistle of -the Essay on Man for one year was bought by Gilliver for 50_l_. an -Epistle. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN.--IN EPISTLES TO A FRIEND. Epistle I. - - Corrected by the Author. London, etc. Folio. - -The rest of the title-page is the same as in the first edition. This -second edition has a table of Contents to the first three Epistles, -which were originally published without the table. The fourth Epistle -had the table prefixed from the outset. With the exception of the first -Epistle, I am not aware that there was a second edition of any part of -the Essay on Man till the whole was incorporated in the works of the -poet. An octavo edition, published by WILFORD in 1736, is called the -seventh; but he may have counted in the three sizes of the first -edition, together with the editions which had appeared in Pope's works. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN.--IN EPISTLES TO A FRIEND. Epistle II. - -London: Printed for J. WILFORD, at the Three Flower-de-luces, behind - the Chapter-house, St. Paul's. Price one shilling. Folio. - -The second Epistle appeared about April, 1733. - -The title of the third and fourth Epistle is the same as that of the -second. At the end of the third Epistle is this notice: "N.B. The rest -of the work will be published the next winter," and the promise was kept -by the publication of the fourth Epistle about the middle of January, -1734. The last three Epistles were printed like their precursor, in -quarto and octavo, as well as folio. The octavo edition of all four -Epistles differs from the rest in having the year on the -title-page,--the first three, 1733, the fourth Epistle, 1734. - - - * * * * * - - - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN: BEING THE FIRST BOOK OF ETHIC EPISTLES. - - To H. ST. JOHN L. BOLINGBROKE. With the Commentary and Notes of W. - WARBURTON, A.M. - -London: Printed by W. BOWYER for M. COOPER, at the Globe, in - Paternoster-Row, 1743. 4to. - -This is the first edition with Warburton's Commentary, and the last -which appeared during the life-time of Pope. The Essay on Criticism is -in the same volume, which was kept back for some months after it was -printed, and was not published till 1744. - -Warburton and Hurd have introduced a new kind of criticism, in which -they discover views and purposes the authors never had, and they -themselves never believed they had, but consider them as the refinements -of their own delicate conceptions, only taking hints from these authors, -to show how much higher they themselves would have carried the same -ideas. Warburton's discovering "the regularity" of Pope's Essay on -Criticism, and "the whole scheme" of his Essay on Man, I happen to know -to be mere absurd refinement in creating conformities, and that from -Pope himself, though he thought fit to adopt them afterwards. By this -method of overlooking the plain and simple meaning which presents itself -at first sight (as that of good authors always does, only that there is -no credit to be gained in discovering what any one else could discover) -it might clearly be shown that Pope's Art of Criticism, is, indeed, an -Essay on Man, and his Essay on Man was really designed by the deep -author for an Art of Criticism. I know that these would not be more -false than the assertion and sophistry in proving "the regularity" of -his Art of Criticism, since he, when often speaking of it, before he so -much as knew Warburton, spoke of it always, as an "irregular collection -of thoughts thrown together as they offered themselves, as Horace's Art -of Poetry was, and written in imitation of that irregularity," which he -even admired, and said was beautiful. As for his Essay on Man, as I was -witness to the whole conduct of it in writing, and actually have his -original MSS. for it from the first scratches of the four books, to the -several finished copies, all which, with the MS. of his Essay on -Criticism, and several of his other works, he gave me himself for the -pains I took in collating the whole with the printed editions, at his -request, on my having proposed to him the "making an edition of his -works in the manner of Boileau's,"--as to this noblest of his works, I -know that he never dreamed of the scheme he afterwards adopted, perhaps -for good reasons, for he had taken terror about the clergy, and -Warburton himself, at the general alarm of its fatalism, and deistical -tendency, of which however we talked with him (my father and I) -frequently at Twickenham, without his appearing to understand it -otherwise, or ever thinking to alter those passages, which we suggested -as what might seem the most exceptionable.[720]--RICHARDSON. - -The Essay on Man was at first given, as Mr. Pope told me, to Dr. Young, -to Dr. Desaguliers,[721] to Lord Bolingbroke, to Lord Paget,[722] and in -short to everybody but to him who was capable of writing it. While -several of his acquaintances read the Essay on Man as the work of an -unknown author, they fairly owned they did not understand it,[723] but -when the reputation of the poem became secured by the knowledge of the -writer, it soon grew so clear and intelligible, that, on the appearance -of the Comment on it, they told him they wondered the editor should -think a large and minute interpretation necessary.--WARBURTON. - -[In 1733] Pope published the first part of what he persuaded himself to -think a system of ethics, under the title of an Essay on Man, which, if -his letter to Swift of September 14, 1725, be rightly explained by the -commentator,[724] had been eight years under his consideration, and of -which he seems to have desired the success with great solicitude. He had -now many open and doubtless many secret enemies. The dunces were yet -smarting with the war; and the superiority which he publicly arrogated -disposed the world to wish his humiliation. All this he knew, and -against all this he provided. His own name, and that of his friend to -whom the work is inscribed,[725] were in the first editions carefully -suppressed, and the poem, being of a new kind, was ascribed to one or -another, as favour determined or conjecture wandered: it was given, says -Warburton, to every man except him only who could write it. Those who -like only when they like the author, and who are under the dominion of a -name, condemned it, and those admired it who are willing to scatter -praise at random, which while it is unappropriated excites no envy. -Those friends of Pope that were trusted with the secret went about -lavishing honours on the new-born poet, and hinting that Pope was never -so much in danger from any former rival. To those authors whom he had -personally offended, and to those whose opinion the world considered as -decisive, and whom he suspected of envy or malevolence, he sent his -Essay as a present before publication, that they might defeat their own -enmity by praises which they could not afterwards decently retract. With -these precautions, in 1732[3] was published the first part of the Essay -on Man. There had been for some time a report that Pope was busy upon a -system of morality; but this design was not discovered in the new poem, -which had a form and a title with which its readers were unacquainted. -Its reception was not uniform; some thought it a very imperfect piece, -though not without good lines. While the author was unknown, some, as -will always happen, favoured him as an adventurer, and some censured him -as an intruder, but all thought him above neglect: the sale increased, -and editions were multiplied. The second and third Epistles were -published, and Pope was, I believe, more and more suspected of writing -them. At last, in 1734, he avowed the fourth, and claimed the honour of -a moral poet. - -In the conclusion it is sufficiently acknowledged that the doctrine of -the Essay on Man was received from Bolingbroke, who is said to have -ridiculed Pope, among those who enjoyed his confidence, as having -adopted and advanced principles of which he did not perceive the -consequence, and as blindly propagating opinions contrary to his own. -That those communications had been consolidated into a scheme regularly -drawn, and delivered to Pope, from whom it returned only transformed -from prose to verse, has been reported, but hardly can be true.[726] The -Essay plainly appears the fabric of a poet: what Bolingbroke supplied -could be only the first principles; the order, illustration, and -embellishments must all be Pope's. These principles it is not my -business to clear from obscurity, dogmatism, or falsehood; but they were -not immediately examined: philosophy and poetry have not often the same -readers, and the Essay abounded in splendid amplifications and sparkling -sentences, which were read and admired with no great attention to their -ultimate purpose; its flowers caught the eye, which did not see what the -gay foliage concealed, and for a time flourished in the sunshine of -universal approbation. So little was any evil tendency discovered, that, -as innocence is unsuspicious, many read it for a manual of piety. - -Its reputation soon invited a translator. It was first turned into -French prose, and afterwards by Resnel into verse. Both translations -fell into the hands of Crousaz, who first, when he had the version in -prose, wrote a general censure, and afterwards reprinted Resnel's -version with particular remarks upon every paragraph.[727] Crousaz was a -professor of Switzerland, eminent for his treatise of Logic, and his -Examen de Pyrrhonisme, and, however little known or regarded here, was -no mean antagonist. His mind was one of those in which philosophy and -piety are happily united. He was accustomed to argument and -disquisition, and was perhaps grown too desirous of detecting faults; -but his intentions were always right, his opinions were solid, and his -religion pure. His incessant vigilance for the promotion of piety -disposed him to look with distrust upon all metaphysical systems of -theology, and all schemes of virtue and happiness purely rational; and -therefore it was not long before he was persuaded that the positions of -Pope, as they terminated for the most part in natural religion, were -intended to draw mankind away from revelation, and to represent the -whole course of things as a necessary concatenation of indissoluble -fatality; and it is undeniable that, in many passages, a religious eye -may easily discover expressions not very favourable to morals or -liberty. - -About this time Warburton began to make his appearance in the first -ranks of learning. He was a man of vigorous faculties, a mind fervid and -vehement, supplied, by incessant and unlimited inquiry, with wonderful -extent and variety of knowledge, which yet had not oppressed his -imagination nor clouded his perspicacity. To every work he brought a -memory full fraught, together with a fancy fertile of original -combinations, and at once exerted the powers of the scholar, the -reasoner, and the wit. But his knowledge was too multifarious to be -always exact, and his pursuits too eager to be always cautious. His -abilities gave him a haughty confidence, which he disdained to conceal -or mollify; and his impatience of opposition disposed him to treat his -adversaries with such contemptuous superiority as made his readers -commonly his enemies, and excited against the advocate the wishes of -some who favoured the cause. He seems to have adopted the Roman -emperor's determination, "oderint dum metuant;" he used no allurements -of gentle language, but wished to compel rather than persuade. His style -is copious without selection, and forcible without neatness; he took the -words that presented themselves; his diction is coarse and impure, and -his sentences are unmeasured. He had in the early part of his life -pleased himself with the notice of inferior wits, and corresponded with -the enemies of Pope. A letter was produced when he had perhaps himself -forgotten it, in which he tells Concanen, "Dryden, I observe, borrows -for want of leisure, and Pope for want of genius; Milton out of pride, -and Addison out of modesty." And when Theobald published Shakespeare, in -opposition to Pope, the best notes were supplied by Warburton.[728] But -the time was now come when Warburton was to change his opinion, and Pope -was to find a defender in him who had contributed so much to the -exaltation of his rival. The arrogance of Warburton excited against him -every artifice of offence, and therefore it may be supposed that his -union with Pope was censured as hypocritical inconstancy; but surely to -think differently at different times of poetical merit may be easily -allowed. Such opinions are often admitted and dismissed without nice -examination. Who is there that has not found reason for changing his -opinion about questions of greater importance? Warburton, whatever was -his motive, undertook, without solicitation, to rescue Pope from the -talons of Crousaz, by freeing him from the imputation of favouring -fatality or rejecting revelation; and from month to month continued a -vindication of the Essay on Man in the literary journal of that time, -called The Republic of Letters.[729] Pope, who probably began to doubt -the tendency of his own work, was glad that the positions, of which he -perceived himself not to know the full meaning, could by any mode of -interpretation be made to mean well. How much he was pleased with his -gratuitous defender the following letter evidently shows:-- - - - "APRIL 11, 1739. - - "SIR,--I have just received from Mr. R[obinson][730] two more of - your letters. It is in the greatest hurry imaginable that I write - this; but I cannot help thanking you in particular for your third - letter, which is so extremely clear, short, and full, that I think - Mr. Crousaz ought never to have another answer, and deserved not - so good an one. I can only say you do him too much honour, and me - too much right, so odd as the expression seems; for you have made - my system as clear as I ought to have done, and could not. It is - indeed the same system as mine, but illustrated with a ray of your - own, as they say our natural body is the same still when it is - glorified. I am sure I like it better than I did before, and so - will every man else. I know I meant just what you explain; but I - did not explain my own meaning so well as you. You understand me - as well as I do myself; but you express me better than I could - express myself. Pray accept the sincerest acknowledgments. I - cannot but wish these letters were put together in one book,[731] - and intend, with your leave, to procure a translation of part, at - least, or of all of them into French; but I shall not proceed a - step without your consent and opinion, etc." - -By this fond and eager acceptance of an exculpatory comment, Pope -testified that whatever might be the seeming or real import of the -principles which he had received from Bolingbroke, he had not -intentionally attacked religion; and Bolingbroke, if he meant to make -him, without his own consent, an instrument of mischief, found him now -engaged, with his eyes open, on the side of truth. It is known that -Bolingbroke concealed from Pope his real opinions. He once discovered -them to Mr. Hooke, who related them again to Pope, and was told by him -that he must have mistaken the meaning of what he heard; and -Bolingbroke, when Pope's uneasiness incited him to desire an -explanation, declared that Hooke had misunderstood him. Bolingbroke -hated Warburton, who had drawn his pupil from him; and a little before -Pope's death they had a dispute from which they parted with mutual -aversion.[732] From this time Pope lived in the closest intimacy with -his commentator, and amply rewarded his kindness and his zeal; for he -introduced him to Mr. Murray, by whose interest he became preacher at -Lincoln's Inn, and to Mr. Allen, who gave him his niece and his estate, -and by consequence a bishopric. When he died, he left him the property -of his works, a legacy which may be reasonably estimated at four -thousand pounds. - -Pope's fondness for the Essay on Man appeared by his desire of its -propagation. Dobson, who had gained reputation by his version of Prior's -Solomon, was employed by him to translate it into Latin verse, and was -for that purpose some time at Twickenham; but he left his work, whatever -was the reason, unfinished,[733] and, by Benson's invitation, undertook -the longer task of Paradise Lost. Pope then desired his friend[734] to -find a scholar who should turn his Essay into Latin prose, but no such -performance has ever appeared. - -The Essay on Man was a work of great labour and long consideration, but -certainly not the happiest of Pope's performances. The subject is -perhaps not very proper for poetry, and the poet was not sufficiently -master of his subject; metaphysical morality was to him a new study, he -was proud of his acquisitions, and, supposing himself master of great -secrets, was in haste to teach what he had not learned. Thus he tells -us, in the first epistle, that from the nature of the Supreme Being may -be deduced an order of beings such as mankind, because infinite -excellence can do only what is best. He finds out that these beings must -be "somewhere," and that "all the question is whether man be in a wrong -place." Surely if, according to the poet's Leibnitzian reasoning, we may -infer that man ought to be, only because he is, we may allow that his -place is the right place because he has it. Supreme Wisdom is not less -infallible in disposing than in creating. But what is meant by -"somewhere," and "place," and "wrong place," it had been vain to ask -Pope, who probably had never asked himself. - -Having exalted himself into the chair of wisdom, he tells us much that -every man knows, and much that he does not know himself: that we see -but little, and that the order of the universe is beyond our -comprehension--an opinion not very uncommon; and that there is a chain -of subordinate beings "from infinite to nothing," of which himself and -his readers are equally ignorant. But he gives us one comfort which, -without his help, he supposes unattainable, in the position "that though -we are fools, yet God is wise." - -This Essay affords an egregious instance of the predominance of genius, -the dazzling splendour of imagery, and the seductive powers of -eloquence. Never was penury of knowledge, and vulgarity of sentiment, so -happily disguised. The reader feels his mind full, though he learns -nothing, and when he meets it in its new array, no longer knows the talk -of his mother and his nurse. When these wonder-working sounds sink into -sense, and the doctrine of the Essay, disrobed of its ornaments, is left -to the powers of its naked excellence, what shall we discover? That we -are, in comparison with our Creator, very weak and ignorant,--that we do -not uphold the chain of existence--and that we could not make one -another with more skill than we are made. We may learn yet more,--that -the arts of human life were copied from the instinctive operations of -other animals,--that if the world be made for man, it may be said that -man was made for geese.[735] To these profound principles of natural -knowledge are added some moral instructions equally new,--that self -interest, well understood, will produce social concord--that men are -mutual gainers by mutual benefits--that evil is sometimes balanced by -good--that human advantages are unstable and fallacious, of uncertain -duration and doubtful effect--that our true honour is not to have a -great part, but to act it well--that virtue only is our own--and that -happiness is always in our power. Surely a man of no very comprehensive -search may venture to say that he has heard all this before; but it was -never till now recommended by such a blaze of embellishments, or such -sweetness of melody. The vigorous contraction of some thoughts, the -luxuriant amplification of others, the incidental illustrations, and -sometimes the dignity, sometimes the softness of the verse, enchain -philosophy, suspend criticism, and oppress judgment by overpowering -pleasure. This is true of many paragraphs, yet if I had undertaken to -exemplify Pope's felicity of composition before a rigid critic, I should -not select the Essay on Man; for it contains more lines unsuccessfully -laboured, more harshness of diction, more thoughts imperfectly -expressed, more levity without elegance, and more heaviness without -strength, than will easily be found in all his other works.--JOHNSON. - -Pope has not wandered into any useless digressions; has employed no -fictions, no tale or story, and has relied chiefly on the poetry of his -style for the purpose of interesting his readers. His style is concise -and figurative, forcible and elegant. He has many metaphors and images, -artfully interspersed in the driest passages, which stood most in need -of such ornaments. Nevertheless there are too many lines, in this -performance, plain and prosaic. If any beauty be uncommonly transcendent -and peculiar, it is brevity of diction, which, in a few instances, and -those perhaps pardonable, has occasioned obscurity. It is hardly to be -imagined how much sense, how much thinking, how much observation on -human life, is condensed together in a small compass. - -The late Lord Bathurst repeatedly assured me that he had read the whole -scheme of the Essay on Man, in the handwriting of Bolingbroke, and drawn -up in a series of propositions, which Pope was to amplify, versify, and -illustrate. It has been alleged that Pope did not fully comprehend the -drift of the system communicated to him by Bolingbroke, but the -remarkable words of his intimate friend, Mr. Jonathan Richardson, a man -of known integrity and honour, clearly evince that he did. To the -testimony of Richardson, which is decisive, I will now add that Lord -Lyttelton, with his usual frankness and ingenuity, assured me that he -had frequently talked with Pope on the subject, whose opinions were at -that time conformable to his own, when he and his friends were too much -inclined to deism. Mr. Harte more than once assured me, that he had seen -the pressing letter Dr. Young wrote to Pope, urging him to write -something on the side of revelation, to which he alluded in the first -Night Thought: - - O! had he pressed his theme, pursued the track - Which opens out of darkness into day! - O! had he mounted on his wing of fire, - Soared when I sink, and sung immortal man. - -And when Harte frequently made the same request, he used to answer, "No, -no! You have already done it," alluding to Harte's Essay on Reason, -which Harte thought a lame apology, and hardly serious.--WARTON. - -The ground of the Essay on Man is philosophy, not poetry. The poetry is -only the colouring, if I may say so, and to the colouring the eye is -chiefly attentive. We hardly think of the philosophy whether it is good -or bad; whether it is profound or specious; whether it evinces deep -thinking, or exhibits only in new and pompous array the "babble of the -nurse." Scarcely any one, till a controversy was raised, thought of the -doctrines, but a thousand must have been warmed by the pictures, the -addresses, the sublime interspersions of description, and the nice and -harmonious precision of every word, and of almost every line. Whether, -as a system of philosophy, it inculcated fate or not, no one paused to -inquire;[736] but every eye read a thousand times, and every lip, -perhaps, repeated, "Lo, the poor Indian," "The lamb thy riot," "Oh, -happiness," and many other passages. All these illustrative and -secondary images are painted from the source of genuine poetry; from -nature, not from art. They therefore, independent of powers displayed in -the versification, raise the Essay on Man, considered in the abstract, -into genuine poetry, although the poetical part is subservient to the -philosophical. - -It must be confessed, unfair as Johnson's criticism is, it is not -entirely destitute of truth. Many of Pope's conclusions in this Essay, -after a vast deal of fine verbiage and apparent argument, are such as -required very little proof,--"though man's a fool, yet God is -wise,"--and many other axioms equally true. But can we say the whole -exhibits only a train of tritenesses? "Materiam superabat opus," it is -acknowledged; and possibly, had it been more recondite, it could not -have been made the vehicle of so many acknowledged beauties of -expression, of imagery, and of poetic illustration. The more it is read -the more it will be relished, and the more will the nice precision of -every word, and the general beauty of its structure, be acknowledged. -Though the treasures of knowledge within be not, perhaps, either very -rich or rare, yet, to say it contains no striking sentiments, no truths -placed in a more advanced as well as a more pleasing light, would be a -manifest and palpable injustice. After all, poetry is not a good vehicle -for philosophy, but as a philosophical poem, take it altogether, it -would not be very easy, with the exception of Lucretius, to find its -equal.--BOWLES. - -Bolingbroke amused his unwelcome leisure during his exile in studying -the infidel philosophy which prevailed in France. The vices of his -nature are conspicuous in his metaphysical writings. He pretends to -abstruse learning, and it is apparent that he has done little more than -pick up fragments of systems at second-hand. He assumes a commanding -superiority over his illustrious predecessors, of whom he commonly -speaks with insane contempt, and he has not enunciated a single new -doctrine, or put one old doctrine in a novel light. He affects to soar -above sinister motives and prejudices, and writes with the rancour of a -bitter partisan who is the creature of passion. He denounces the -dishonesty of christian apologists, and perpetually misrepresents them; -he inveighs against their inconsistencies, and falls himself into -repeated contradictions. The characteristics of the old political -debater are preserved intact in the philosopher. He kept his -parliamentary style with the rest,--the diffuse rhetoric, the constant -repetitions, the lengthy preparation for ideas not worth the prelude. -The mind droops over the pretentious verbiage, and the magnificent -promise of results which never come. "Who," said Burke, "now reads -Bolingbroke? Who ever read him through?"[737] The cheat once detected, -no one wearies himself in the pursuit of a flying phantom. - -In 1723 Bolingbroke was permitted to return to England. After a short -visit he went back to France, and did not settle here till October, -1724. He soon contracted an intimacy with Pope, and imparted to him his -irreligious metaphysics. Bolingbroke's knowledge of philosophy, though -not profound, was respectable, and with the uninformed he could disguise -his want of depth by a flux of specious language. Pope, ignorant of -mental, moral, and theological science, mistook his oracular arrogance -for real supremacy, his discordant sophisms for demonstrations, his -hackneyed plagiarisms for originality. He thought him by much the -greatest man he had ever known, and of all his titles to fame the chief -he imagined was as a "writer and philosopher."[738] He ranked him among -the metaphysical luminaries of the world, and never suspected that the -moment his disquisitions were communicated to the public they would be -tossed aside with disdain, and consigned to lasting neglect. - -Bolingbroke persuaded Pope to versify portions of the philosophy he -admired so extravagantly.[739] A large scheme was drawn up, the outline -of which Pope repeated to Spence. "The first book, you know, of my ethic -work is on the Nature of Man. The second would have been on knowledge -and its limits. Here would have come in an essay on education, part of -which I have inserted in the Dunciad. The third was to have treated of -government, both ecclesiastical and civil. The fourth would have been on -morality in eight or nine of the most concerning branches of it, four of -which would have been the two extremes to each of the cardinal -virtues."[740] These four cardinal virtues,--justice, temperance, -prudence, and fortitude--would alone have required twelve epistles, -since every virtue was to be treated on the Aristotelian plan, and -divided into rational medium, deficiency, and excess. The cardinal -virtues were either to be again subdivided, or else supplemented by -subordinate virtues, and all were to be presented under the triple form. -"Each class," said Pope, speaking of the "eight or nine most concerning -branches" of morality, "may take up three epistles: one, for instance, -against Avarice; another against Prodigality: and the third on the -moderate use of Riches, and so of the rest."[741] A short trial -convinced Pope that the scheme was too vast for a slow composer. When -the first book, which forms the Essay on Man, was completed, he told -Spence that "he had drawn in the plan much narrower than it was at -first," and he attached to some copies of the Essay, which he circulated -among his particular friends, a table of this diminished frame-work. - - "INDEX TO THE ETHIC EPISTLES. - - BOOK I.--OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN. - - Epistle 1.--With respect to the Universe. - " 2.--As an Individual. - " 3.--With respect to Society. - " 4.--With respect to Happiness. - - BOOK II.--OF THE USE OF THINGS. - - Of the Limits of Human Reason. - Of the Use of Learning. - Of the Use of Wit. - Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men. - Of the Particular Characters of Women. - Of the Principles and Use of Civil and Ecclesiastical Polity. - Of the Use of Education. - A View of the Equality of Happiness in the several Conditions of Men. - Of the Use of Riches."[742] - -The cardinal virtues, with nearly all "the most concerning branches of -morality," were omitted from the abbreviated plan, which was still too -large for Pope's patience, and he left much of the work unexecuted. - -He commenced with some of the topics enumerated in the second book of -his "index." "Bid Pope talk to you of the work he is about," wrote -Bolingbroke to Swift, Nov. 19, 1729. "It is a fine one, and will be, in -his hands, an original. His sole complaint is that he finds it too easy -in the execution. This flatters his laziness. It flatters my judgment -who always thought that, universal as his talents are, this is -eminently and peculiarly his above all the writers I know, living or -dead. I do not except Horace." "The work," adds Pope, "which Lord -Bolingbroke speaks of with such abundant partiality is a system of -ethics in the Horatian way." Bolingbroke's comparison of the work to -Horace, and Pope's phrase "the Horatian way," show that they spoke of -the Moral Essays, which, with the Essay on Man, were at first included -under the general title of Ethic Epistles. The resemblance to Horace -would not apply to the Essay on Man in substance or style,--not in -style, for Pope says himself that the Essay was modelled on "the grave -march of Lucretius" in contradistinction to the familiar "gaieties of -Horace,"[743]; not in substance, for Horace did not write a -philosophical poem on natural religion, nor could he have been placed by -Bolingbroke at the head of a class of philosophical poets to which he in -no way belonged. Neither could Bolingbroke have said of Pope that "the -talent eminently and peculiarly his, above all writers living or dead," -was the power of sounding the depths of philosophy. The praise was -intended for the satiric sketches of men and manners which make up the -Moral Essays. These are truly in the "Horatian way," and in a vein -characteristic of the bent of Pope's mind. - -Bolingbroke furnished little or nothing to the Horatian epistles. His -services commenced with the Essay on Man. Pope was revolving this part -of the scheme in May, 1730, when he said to Spence, "The first epistle -is to be to the whole work what a scale is to a book of maps; and in -this, I reckon, lies my greatest difficulty: not only in settling and -ranging the parts of it aright, but in making them agreeable enough to -be read with pleasure."[744] A few months later Bolingbroke writes to -Lord Bathurst, Oct. 8, 1730, that he and Pope "are at present deep in -metaphysics." The matter intended for the first epistle was expanded -into four epistles as the work proceeded, and in August, 1731, -Bolingbroke announced to Swift that three of them were completed, and -that the fourth was in hand. Eighteen months more elapsed before any -portion of the poem was published; and Pope doubtless spent the interval -in repeated revisions. It was not his habit to go straight forward in -regular order, and leave no gaps or flaws as he went along. When he told -Caryll in December, 1730, that he was "writing on life and manners, not -exclusive of religious regards," he adds, "I have many fragments which I -am beginning to put together, but nothing perfect or finished, nor in -any condition to be shown, except to a friend at a fire-side." This -system of composing disjointed fragments, and methodising them -afterwards, was unfavourable to continuity and comprehension of thought, -and did not help to diminish the want of connection in his arguments, -and of consistency in his opinions. - -The project of the Essay on Man was kept a secret from all but a few of -Pope's friends. To others he only spoke of his ethic epistles in the -"Horatian way." Caryll, on hearing from him that he had taken to -religion and morals, recommended Pascal's Thoughts, and Pope answered, -Feb. 6, 1731, "I have been beforehand with you in it, but he will be of -little use to my design, which is rather to ridicule ill men than to -preach to them. I fear our age is past all other correction." The Essay -on Man was then in full progress, and Pope sent a false report that the -style and tenor of the work might not betray him when it was published. -The first epistle appeared anonymously in February, 1733, and to divert -suspicion, the poet put forth in January, with his name, his Epistle on -the Use of Riches, and a week or two afterwards one of his Imitations of -Horace. He had a subtler contrivance for misleading the public. He made -"lane" rhyme to "name" in his second epistle, and told Harte the bad -rhyme was a disguise to escape detection. "Harte remembered," says -Warton, "to have often heard it urged in enquiries about the author, -whilst he was unknown, that it was impossible it could be Pope's on -account of this very passage."[745] Along with "lane" and "name," the -first and second epistles contained the rhymes which follow: "here, -refer--pierce, universe,--above, Jove--plain, man--fault, ought--food, -blood--home, come--abodes, gods--appears, bears--alone, none--race, -grass--flood, wood--want, elephant--join, line--alone, one--mourns, -burns--sphere, bear--rest, beast--sphere, fair--boast, frost--road, -God--preferred, guard--tossed, coast--joined, mind--caprice, vice." -There must have been some strange peculiarity in the ears of a -generation which could be revolted by "lane" and "name," and welcome -such rhymes as these. The anecdote cannot be correct. A liberal -admixture of faulty rhymes is a common characteristic of Pope, and the -disguise would have been greater if all the rhymes had been good.[746] - -Johnson has told Pope's motive for publishing the Essay anonymously, -and the manoeuvres he practised to secure commendation. He had -previously, when speaking to Swift of the Essay, professed his usual -indifference to praise. "I agree with you," he said, Dec. 1, 1731, "in -my contempt of most popularity, fame, &c. Even as a writer I am cool in -it, and whenever you see what I am now writing, you will be convinced I -would please but a few, and, if I could, make mankind less admirers and -greater reasoners." After the little plot had been played out, he still -kept up the false pretence in a letter to Duncombe, Oct. 20, 1734. -"Truly, I had not the least thought of stealing applause by suppressing -my name to that Essay. I wanted only to hear truth, and was more afraid -of my partial friends than enemies."[747] He lifted up the mask with -Swift, and avowed that his object was to get his philosophy approved. -"The design of concealing myself was good," he said, Sept. 15, 1734, -"and had its full effect; I was thought a divine, a philosopher, and -what not, and my doctrine had a sanction I could not have given to it." -He knew that friend and foe were aware that philosophy and divinity were -not his strength, and he wished to obtain a fictitious authority for his -work. He said to Caryll, March 8, 1733, "It is attributed, I think with -reason, to a divine," and the poet had probably circulated the report he -affected to believe. "I perceive the divines have no objection to it," -he wrote again on March 20, "though now it is agreed not to be written -by one,--Dr. Croxall, Dr. Secker, and some others having solemnly denied -it." The first reports decided the popular judgment. The orthodoxy of -the poem was taken upon trust, and when Pope owned the work in 1734, no -one cared to commence a fresh inquisition. - -An infidel who hated divines and divinity with all his heart, had -dictated the doctrines of the Essay on Man. "He mentioned then, and at -several other times," says Spence, in his record of Pope's conversation -during the years 1734-36, "how much, or rather how wholly he was obliged -to Lord Bolingbroke for the thoughts and reasonings in his moral work; -and once in particular said, that beside their frequent talking over -that subject together, he had received, I think, seven or eight sheets -from Lord Bolingbroke in relation to it (as I apprehended by way of -letters), both to direct the plan in general, and to supply the matter -for the particular epistles."[748] Pope frankly informed the world, in -the Essay itself, that he echoed the lessons of Bolingbroke, who was his -"guide and philosopher,"--the "master of the poet and the song." The -prose sketch of the "master" was seen by Lord Bathurst at the time, and -he testified to Warton and Blair from personal knowledge, that Pope -versified the arguments set down for him by Bolingbroke. - -Warburton reversed the parts. The "seven or eight sheets," which -contained Bolingbroke's prose draught of the Essay on Man, have not been -preserved in their original form, and he did not reduce his published -philosophy to writing till after the poem was commenced. "If," said -Warburton, in allusion to the latter circumstance, "you will take his -lordship's word, or, indeed, attend to his argument, you will find that -Pope was so far from putting his prose into verse that he has put Pope's -verse into prose."[749] But when Bolingbroke mentioned that the Essay on -Man was begun before his published disquisitions were committed to -paper, he added that they were "nothing more than repetitions of -conversations" with Pope.[750] This statement Warburton was dishonest -enough to suppress, and deliberately turned a half truth into a -falsehood. The ungarbled expressions of Bolingbroke confirm the -assurances of Pope and Bathurst, that he was the principal author of the -philosophy in the Essay on Man. Warburton could not keep to his -misrepresentation. When it was convenient for his purpose he changed his -story, and Pope became "a pupil who had to be reasoned out of -Bolingbroke's hands,"--a dupe who adopted Bolingbroke's insidious -doctrines without perceiving the infidelity, and who had to thank his -deliverer that "the poem was put on the side of religion."[751] - -Mrs. Mallet told General Grimouard that Pope, Bolingbroke, and their -friends, who frequented her house, were "a society of pure deists."[752] -Bolingbroke was more of an infidel than Pope, for though he admitted -that a future state could not be disproved, he laboured passionately to -discredit the arguments in its favour. Pope held to the immortality of -the soul. "He was a deist," says Lord Chesterfield, "believing in a -future state; this he has often owned himself to me."[753] He frequently -avowed his deism to Lyttelton, and acquiesced in the deistical -interpretations which the Richardsons put on the Essay on Man. -Revelation he rejected entirely. Lord Chesterfield relates that he once -saw a bible on his table, and adds, "As I knew his way of thinking upon -that book, I asked him jocosely if he was going to write an answer to -it?" The evidence that he had renounced Christianity comes to us from -various independent sources, and some of the witnesses are above the -suspicion of misunderstanding or misrepresenting him. - -One of the articles of Bolingbroke's deistical creed is said by -Warburton to have been concealed from Pope. "A few days before his -death," says Warburton, in the statement he drew up for Ruffhead, "he -would be carried to London to dine with Mr. Murray in Lincoln's Inn -Fields, whom he loved with the fondness of a father. He was solicitous -that Lord Bolingbroke and Mr. Warburton should be of the party. Some -time before Mr. Warburton being with Mr. Pope at Twickenham, Mr. Hooke -came in, and told us he had supped the night before at Battersea with -Lord Bolingbroke, when his lordship in conversation advanced the -strangest notions concerning the moral attributes of the Deity, which -amounted to an express denial of them. This account gave Mr. Pope much -uneasiness, and he told Mr. Hooke with much peevish heat that he was -sure he was mistaken. The other replied as warmly that he thought he had -sense enough not to mistake a man who spoke plainly, and in a language -he understood. Here the matter dropped. But Mr. Pope was not easy till -he had seen Lord Bolingbroke, and told him what Mr. Hooke said of a late -conversation. Lord Bolingbroke assured him that Mr. Hooke misunderstood -him. This assurance Mr. Pope with great pleasure acquainted Mr. -Warburton with the next time he saw him. But Lord Bolingbroke and Mr. -Pope were both so full of this matter that at this dinner at Mr. -Murray's, the conversation, amongst other things, naturally turned on -this subject, when, from a very suspicious remark of his lordship, Mr. -Warburton took occasion to speak of the clearness of our notions -concerning the moral attributes. This occasioned some debate, which -ended in some warmth on his lordship's side. This anecdote is not -improper to be told in vindication of Mr. Pope's religious sentiments, -and the reflections on Mr. Warburton, as if he had not attacked his -lordship's impiety till after his death."[754] Warburton had previously -told the story in his View of Lord Bolingbroke's Philosophy, and there -he related that Bolingbroke "denied God's moral attributes as they are -commonly understood."[755] In the narrative he wrote for Ruffhead, -Warburton reports Hooke to have said, that Bolingbroke's "notions -concerning the moral attributes amounted to an express denial of -them."[756] The first statement Bolingbroke would have allowed to be -correct; the second he would have repudiated. The two versions are -treated by Warburton as one, and his charge against Bolingbroke, and his -"vindication of Mr. Pope's religious sentiments," are based upon this -presumed identity of propositions which were quite distinct to Pope and -Bolingbroke. - -Bolingbroke's views on the moral attributes of the Deity were the -result of his mania to get rid of the arguments for a future state. -Virtue is frequently oppressed and suffering in this world, and vice -prosperous; the wicked defraud, supplant, and persecute the upright; and -in manifold ways the felicities of life are not proportioned to the -behaviour of men. A righteous Deity, we may be sure, would not ordain a -constitution of things in which the good should repeatedly fare worse -than the bad, often in consequence of their persistence in goodness, and -then perish unrewarded in the midst of their self-denial. The inference -is plain that they will be finally compensated in a kingdom to come. The -struggle between sin and rectitude in good men continues all their days, -and when the battle has been fought out, and the victory won, they are -removed from the world. It is incredible that a benevolent ruler should -set us to maintain a painful conflict with evil, and when we are -disciplined to holiness should consign us to annihilation. The hope that -well-doing will not go unrewarded, the apprehension that wickedness will -not go unpunished, are sentiments engrained in the heart of man, and we -may be confident that the source of all truth would not direct us to -govern our conduct by false anticipations. The supposition that there is -no future life is therefore inconsistent with the moral attributes of -God, and to avoid this deduction Bolingbroke took up the theory of one -of the worst class of deists, and contended that the moral attributes of -the Creator were not the same as in our ideas, and could not be judged -by our notions. He said he "ascribed all conceivable perfections to -God," and that he was as "far from denying his justice and goodness as -his wisdom and power," but insisted that his justice and goodness -differed from ours in kind as well as in degree.[757] Wherever this -hypothesis was brought in, the epithets "just and good" either ceased to -have any meaning for us, or they meant exactly the reverse of "just and -good." The object of the theory was, indeed, to set up the maxim that -conduct which would be thought immoral among men might be the morality -of God. Bolingbroke's philosophic vision was limited to a single point -at a time. He abounds in astounding contradictions from his inability to -keep his most emphatic principles before his mind, and he might be -answered, without a word of comment, by ranging in parallel columns the -passages of his writings which are mutually destructive. His hypothesis -on the moral attributes of the Deity shared the usual fate of his -dogmas. He denounced the doctrine of predestination, and called it -"blasphemous," "impious," "devilish," because it was "scandalously -repugnant to our ideas of God's moral perfections," and supposed "a God -such as no one could acknowledge."[758] The moment he had to deal with -an opinion he disliked, he thought it impious to imagine that the -morality of God was not in conformity with our ideas, and he loudly -appealed to the immutability of those innate moral convictions which -alike defy the corrupt morality of libertines who labour to justify -evil, and the artificial morality of metaphysicians who strive to prop -up fanciful systems. - -Warburton might fairly argue, that the theory which maintained that the -morality of the Deity was radically different in kind from the moral -conceptions of men, "amounted to an express denial of God's moral -attributes." He was not entitled to charge upon Bolingbroke an inference -he had vehemently disclaimed in his writings, and which was so far from -seeming necessary to all pious thinkers that some distinguished -christian divines had held the obnoxious hypothesis. No two of them -might have been of a mind in the application of a principle the limits -of which they could none of them pretend to define, but they would all -have concurred with Bolingbroke that to deny the moral attributes of -God, and to assert that they were not the same as in our ideas, were -distinct propositions. The false turn which Warburton gave to his story -is clear from the sequel of his narrative. Pope brought him and -Bolingbroke together. The philosopher and his pupil, full of Hooke's -accusation, introduced the subject of their own accord. Bolingbroke -advanced opinions on the moral attributes which Warburton combated, and -the debate ended, as it began, in a total disagreement. The views which -Bolingbroke volunteered could not, for shame, be those which he had just -disclaimed to Pope, and they were notwithstanding quite unorthodox in -the estimation of Warburton. The case is simple. Bolingbroke protested -to Pope, what he had protested all along, that he did not deny the moral -attributes of God, and he maintained against Warburton in Pope's -presence, what he had all along avowed, that they were not the same as -in our ideas. - -There is more, and conclusive evidence, that Bolingbroke had not -concealed his hypothesis from Pope. The incidents narrated by Warburton -occurred a few days before the poet's death. The philosophical papers of -Bolingbroke were "all communicated to him in scraps as they were -occasionally written,"[759] and the whole must already have passed -through his hands. In these disquisitions Bolingbroke enforced his view -of the divine attributes with tedious diffuseness, incessant -reiteration, and unmeasured warmth. No opinion is brought out into -stronger relief. A glance at the manuscript must have revealed the -hypothesis to Pope, and the Essay on Man proves that he had actually -adopted it. All who believed that justice, goodness, and truth were -immutable, thought that our primary duty was to contemplate them in the -Deity, and endeavour to imitate his perfections. Pope followed -Bolingbroke in rejecting the idea. Man, he said, could "just find a -God" and nothing more; consequently man was to be the only study of -man.[760] Master and pupil agreed that every perfection was to be -ascribed to God, and that he was to be loved, worshipped, and obeyed. -But the pupil, like the master, held that "God did not show his own -nature in his laws, because though they proceed from the divine -intelligence they are adapted to the human,"[761] and the last line of -the Essay on Man, the emphatic summary of a leading article in Pope's -creed, is that "all our knowledge is ourselves to know." - -In a subsequent passage Warburton extended his assertion, and alleged -that Bolingbroke concealed the whole purpose of his theology from Pope. -"The poet," says Warburton, "directs his argument against atheists and -libertines in support of religion; the philosopher against divines in -support of naturalism. But his lordship thought fit to keep this a -secret from his friend as well as from the public."[762] The poet and -the philosopher were both deists. The philosopher, Warburton tells us, -communicated his principles to associates "who gave him to understand -how much they detested them."[763] The poet professed deism before -Chesterfield, Lyttelton, the Richardsons and the Mallets. Yet Warburton -would have us believe that Bolingbroke disclosed his infidelity to -unsympathising friends, and kept it a secret from his chief -philosophical intimate, who frankly avowed his own deism in the -Bolingbroke circle. The statement, incredible in itself, is opposed to -the positive testimony of Bolingbroke when he says that all his written -opinions were only the record of his conversations with Pope, and is -even contradicted by the unconscious testimony of Warburton. He tells us -that when Pope took refuge under his shield the circumstance which most -exasperated Bolingbroke was that "he saw a great number of lines appear -which, out of complaisance, had been struck out of the MS., and which, -at the commentator's request, being now restored to their places, no -longer left the religious sentiments of the poet equivocal."[764] The -restored lines which modified any "religious sentiment" were barely half -a dozen, and were confined to the single tenet of a future state. When -Pope allowed his belief in a future state to seem "equivocal, out of -complaisance" to his "guide," the infidelity of Bolingbroke could not -have been unknown to him. - -Still the plea of Warburton remains, that Bolingbroke was for deism and -Pope for Christianity. Bolingbroke, says Warburton, argued for natural -religion in opposition to revealed; Pope for revealed religion as a -necessary supplement to natural. Warburton refuted his own position in -the attempt to establish it. He appealed to three passages in the Essay -on Man. The first, which he calls the chief, is Epist. ii. ver. 149-160, -where Pope terms "reason a weak queen," which obeys the ruling passion. -"The poet," says Warburton, "leaves reason unrelieved. What is this but -an intimation that we ought to seek for a cure in that religion, which -only dares profess to give it?"[765] The poet, on the contrary, -immediately proceeds to show how reason can "rectify" the ruling -passion, and finally concludes, ver. 197, that "reason the bias turns to -good from ill." He insists that there is not a virtue under heaven which -"pride" or "shame," rectified by reason, will not produce, ver. 193, and -he informs us, ver. 183, that they are the "surest virtues" known to -man. The second passage is Epist. iii. ver. 287, where, "speaking," says -Warburton, "of the great restorers of the religion of nature, the poet -intimates that they could only draw God's shadow, not his image: - - Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new, - If not God's image, yet his shadow drew: - -as reverencing that truth which telleth us this discovery was reserved -for the 'glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.'"[766] Pope -was careful to show in his poem that his meaning was the reverse of what -Warburton pretends. He conceives that God's image was hidden from our -view, and that man, not God, was our proper study: - - Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, - The proper study of mankind is man. - -He did not believe that the religion of nature, in this particular, was -under any disadvantage, for he said, Epist. iii. ver. 148, that "the -state of nature was the reign of God," and to "relume the ancient light" -was, to his apprehension, the perfection of theology. The third passage -is Epist. iv. 341-344, where Pope says, that "hope lengthened on to -faith pours the bliss that fills up all the mind." "But natural -religion," says Warburton, "never lengthened hope on to faith, nor did -any religion, but the christian, ever conceive that faith could fill the -mind with happiness."[767] Pope was of a different opinion. Hope and -faith, according to his creed, and that of many deists, were part of the -religion of nature.[768] He could not think otherwise when he "was a -deist believing in a future state," and he was so far from supposing -that the christian's faith had any superiority over the deist's in -filling the mind with bliss, that all who "fought for modes of faith" -were, in his estimation, "graceless zealots."[769] The searching acumen -of Warburton, who never had his equal in forcing false meanings from his -text, could not discover another allusion to christianity. His -interpretations, strained at best, are directly opposed to the context, -and this failure to detect one word which could honestly support his -construction, leaves no doubt that the Essay on Man was intended for a -system of natural religion to the exclusion of revealed. - -The poet and his "guide" agreed in repudiating christianity. They -differed on the question of a future state, but Pope, while rejecting -Bolingbroke's conclusion, adopted his premises. "The fourth epistle he -is now intent upon," wrote Bolingbroke to Swift, Aug. 2, 1731. "It is a -noble subject. He pleads the cause of God, I use Seneca's expression, -against that famous charge which atheists in all ages have brought, the -supposed unequal dispensations of Providence,--a charge which I cannot -heartily forgive your divines for admitting. You admit it, indeed, for -an extreme good purpose, and you build on this admission the necessity -of a future state of rewards and punishments. But what if you should -find that this future state will not account, in opposition to the -atheist, for God's justice in the present state which you give up? Would -it not have been better to defend God's justice in this world, against -these daring men, by irrefragable reasons, and to have rested the proof -of the other point on revelation? You will not understand by what I have -said that Pope will go so deep into the argument, or carry it so far as -I have hinted." To rest the proof of a future state on revelation, was -in Bolingbroke's estimation to build upon a fable. To abandon the proof -from reason was therefore with him to relinquish the doctrine. Pope, who -had accepted the theory that the justice of God could not be judged by -our ideas, embraced the second and superfluous paradox, that the -dispensations of God in this world were never unequal. On either ground, -said Bolingbroke, the justice of God did not require a future state. The -poet had rejected the witness of revelation to the immortality of the -soul, and, under the pretext of "pleading the cause of God against -atheists," his "guide" had persuaded him to give up the popular proof -from reason. He stopped short of the inference that reason did not -countenance a future state, or, in Bolingbroke's phrase, "he did not go -so deep into the argument." His "guide" laughed at his inconsequence, -and "could not," says Warburton, "forbear making the poet, then alive -and at his devotion, the frequent topic of his ridicule amongst their -common acquaintance as a man who understood nothing of his own -principles, nor saw to what they naturally tended."[770] - -Bolingbroke was not entitled to ridicule Pope. The docile pupil was not -more blind to the reach of the principles instilled into him than was -the arrogant master who imposed them. He said the notion that a future -world could be essential to vindicate this world was not only needless, -but blasphemous. He was never weary of railing at the impiety of the -doctrine, and he pretended that the divines who held it "renounced God -as much as the rankest of the atheistical tribe."[771] He did not see -that the alleged impiety was the identical principle he adopted for the -foundation of his philosophy, when, admitting the evils on our globe, he -contended that they were linked to a larger scheme which would explain -and justify them. "The universe," he said, "is an immense aggregate of -systems. Atheists and divines cannot, or will not conceive, that the -seeming imperfection of the parts is necessary to the real perfection of -the whole."[772] He wronged the divines. They could, and did "conceive -that the fitness of the particular portions of a scheme must depend upon -their relation to the entire plan," and it was precisely because they -argued that the justice of God in this world would be incomprehensible -unless we extended our view to the world to come, that Bolingbroke -charged them with accusing the Deity of injustice, and ranked them with -atheists. The incapacity to understand his own principles could not be -carried further. - -Pope did not intend to proclaim openly to the world the deism he -disclosed to his sceptical companions. "I know," wrote Bolingbroke, -"your precaution enough to know that you will screen yourself against -any direct charge of heterodoxy."[773] His plan was to put forth a -scheme of natural religion without repudiating christianity in terms, -that he might be able to give his poem any interpretation he pleased. He -soon manifested his double design. Before he avowed himself the author -of the Essay on Man, he was anxious that Caryll should be convinced of -its orthodoxy. "Out of complaisance" to Bolingbroke, he had left -undecided the question of the immortality of the soul: - - _If_ to be perfect in a certain state, - What matter, here or there, or soon or late? - -He feared that this dubious language would be distasteful to Caryll, and -thus wrote to him on March 8, 1733. "The town is now very full of a new -poem, entitled an Essay on Man. It has merit, in my opinion, but not so -much as they give it. At least, it is incorrect, and has some -inaccuracies in the expressions,--one or two of an unhappy kind, for -they may cause the author's sense to be turned, contrary to what I think -his intention, a little unorthodoxically. Nothing is so plain, as that -he quits his proper subject, this present world, to assert his belief of -a future state, and, yet there is an _if_ instead of a _since_ that -would overthrow his meaning."[774] Pope several times reprinted the poem -with corrections, but never altered the word which misrepresented his -creed on the question whether death was annihilation or immortality. He -had a public version, which he adopted "out of complaisance to -Bolingbroke," overborne by his showy rhetoric and imperious dogmatism, -and a private version for his pious friend, to whom he professed that -his conditional language was an "inaccuracy of expression which -overthrew his meaning." - -Pope's private profession of his belief in a future state was his real -conviction. He proceeded to belie his true opinions, by standing up for -the christianity of the Essay on Man. "The author," he says, "uses the -words 'God the soul of the world,' which, at the first glance, may be -taken for heathenism, while his whole paragraph proves him quite -christian in his system, from man up to seraphim." Caryll was not -convinced, and on October 23 Pope wrote to reassure him. "I believe the -author of the Essay on Man will end his poem in such a manner as will -satisfy your scruple. I think it impossible for him, with any congruity -to his confined and strictly philosophical subject, to mention our -Saviour directly; but he may magnify the christian doctrine as the -perfection of all moral; nay, and even, I fancy, quote the very words of -the Gospel precept, that includes all the law and the precepts, _Thou -shalt love God above all things_, &c., and I conclude that will remove -all possible occasion of scandal." He wrote again to the same effect on -January 1, 1734:--"To the best of my judgment the author shows himself a -christian at last in the assertion, that all earthly happiness, as well -as future felicity, depends upon the doctrine of the Gospel,--love of -God and man,--and that the whole aim of our being is to attain happiness -here and hereafter by the practice of universal charity to man, and -entire resignation to God. More particular than this he could not be -with any regard to the subject, or manner in which he treated it." From -the next letter of the poet, on February 28, it would appear that the -"scruple" of Caryll was removed, influenced, perhaps, by the discovery -that the work was Pope's own production. "Your candid opinion," says -Pope, "not only on the Essay on Man, but its author, pleases me truly. I -think verily he is as honest, and as religious a man as myself, and one -that will never forfeit justly your kind character of him. It is not -directly owned, and I do assure you never was whilst you were kept in -ignorance of it."[775] The explanations which satisfied Caryll should -have increased his suspicions, for Pope's language was plainly evasive. -He rested the whole of his christianity on the doctrines which were held -by a large class of deists. He neither avowed his faith in Christ, nor -declared his belief that the Gospels were a revelation from God. He had -drawn upon Wollaston's admirable work, The Religion of Nature -Delineated, and there he had seen how inevitably a christian, who -presses the arguments for natural religion, must sometimes refer to the -fuller evidence of Scripture, and adopt a tone which would make it -impossible that he could be mistaken for a deist. With this model under -his eyes, and with the professed desire "to show himself a christian," -and "remove all possible occasion of scandal," the ingenuity of the poet -was insufficient to devise a single phrase which the majority of English -deists would not have subscribed. Even the bare term "christian," which -he flourished before Caryll, did not appear in the poem. He kept the -word for the ear of the simple country squire, and imposed upon him by -the transparent artifice of privately calling the doctrines of deism -christianity. The "address," which he told Spence he had "written to our -Saviour," would not have contributed to vindicate his orthodoxy, as we -may judge from his statement, that it was "imitated from Lucretius's -compliment to Epicurus, and omitted by the advice of Berkeley."[776] The -application to our Lord of the compliment to Epicurus must have been -shocking to Berkeley, and could never have entered into the mind of any -one who believed that Jesus Christ was "God manifest in the flesh." - -A few persons, not in the secret of Pope's deism, had the discernment to -share the first impressions of Caryll. The celebrated David Hartley is -said, by his son, to have "regarded the Essay on Man as tending to -insinuate that the Divine revelation of the christian religion was -superfluous," and to substitute for it "the plagiarisms of modern ethics -from christian doctrines." But readers in general were more attentive to -the poetry than the philosophy, and did not detect the lurking heresies -of the poem till Crousaz published his _Examen de l'Essai de Mr. Pope_ -in 1737, which he enforced by his more elaborate _Commentaire_ in the -following year. "Mr. Pope's name, and not his own, spread them," says -Dr. Middleton, "into everybody's hands."[777] Hitherto the poet had not -been far wrong in his calculation, that his deism would pass -unsuspected, because not directly professed, and the tenets he taught -explicitly he believed to be so unanswerable, that, in a suppressed -passage of the fourth Epistle, he raised a shout of triumph over the -"scattered fools who would fly trembling from the heels" of his Pegasus. -The comments of Crousaz, often founded upon mistranslations and -misconceptions, laid bare sufficient sophistries, inconsistencies, and -irreligion, to open the eyes of the public. Pope's confidence -immediately changed to fright. "He took terror," says Richardson, "about -the clergy, and Warburton himself, at the general alarm of its fatalism -and deistical tendency." The poet had a dread of incurring the obloquy -of any class or profession. "I know," Bolingbroke wrote to him, "how -desirous you are to keep fair with orders, whatever liberties you take -with particular men,"[778] and he confessed that this motive "was what -chiefly stopped his going on" with his ethical scheme. "I could not have -said what I would have said without provoking every church on the face -of the earth, and I did not care for living always in boiling -water."[779] He had never intended at any time to risk an attack from -the clergy, and when the danger came unexpectedly, it was he himself -that "fled trembling from the heels" of threatening foes. - -His special fear of Warburton was not without cause. Warburton was the -friend of Pope's enemies, Concannen and Theobald, and held Pope cheap -both as a man and a poet. Of the poet he wrote to Concannen, Jan. 2, -1727, that Pope "borrowed for want of genius."[780] Of the man he wrote -to Hurd, Jan. 2, 1757, "Till his letters were published, I had as -indifferent an opinion of his morals as the gentlemen of the Dunciad -pretended to have. Mr. Pope knew this, and had the justice to own to me -that I fairly followed appearances when I thought well of them, and ill -of him."[781] The Essay on Man was especially obnoxious to Warburton. He -said that it was collected "from the worst passages of the worst -authors,"[782] and that the doctrines were "rank atheism."[783] He did -not confine his denunciation of the poem to conversation, but refuted -its vicious principles in some formal dissertations which he read at a -literary club in Newark.[784] The Dunciad faction, we may be certain, -were careful to circulate his asperities, and Pope assisted the -malignity of the Dunces by keeping his ears open to all the ill they -reported. Warburton had now shown his quality by his treatise on the -Alliance between Church and State, and the first books of the Divine -Legation. The poet, who was quailing under the assaults of Crousaz, -might well be alarmed lest a more formidable enemy should speak to the -world the criticisms he propagated in conversation, and in his addresses -to the Newark Club. In theology and metaphysics he was far beyond -Pope's "philosopher and guide." He was even more dictatorial and -abusive, more over-bearing and contemptuous, more ingenious in his -sophistries, and not more scrupulous in the use of his weapons. His -moral obliquities, which have half-ruined his reputation with posterity, -were of a kind to increase the apprehensions of Pope, who must have -submitted in helpless silence to the sweeping, haughty, scornful -exposure of the Essay on Man. - -When the storm had begun to burst on the defenceless head of Pope, -Warburton saw reason to go over to his side, and in December, 1738, -commenced an anonymous reply to Crousaz in a monthly publication called -the Works of the Learned. An equitable judgment was not among the merits -of Warburton. His dogmatic violence could not brook the least concession -to an opposing view, and he was always in extremes. While he herded with -"the gentlemen of the Dunciad" he was uncompromising in his censure of -Pope. He suddenly transferred his advocacy to the enemy, and indulged, -with a daring defiance of consistency, in a wild exaggeration of Pope's -powers, and a hardy denial of his errors and defects. The man who -"borrowed for want of genius," became "the last of the poetic line -amongst us, on whom, the large patrimony of his whole race is -devolved."[785] He had not only inherited the entire gifts of all poets -of all times, "he was the maker of a new species of the sublime, so new -that we have yet no name for it, though of a nature distinct from every -other known beauty of poetry." "The two great perfections in works of -genius," Warburton goes on, "are wit and sublimity. Many writers have -been witty; some have been sublime; and a few have even possessed both -these qualities separately. But none, that I know of, besides our poet, -hath had the art to incorporate them. This seems to be the last effort -of the imagination to poetical perfection."[786] A single example of -Pope's witty sublime is specified by Warburton,--the comparison of -Newton to the ape. Unfortunately, this instance of the "new species of -the sublime,"--"so new that we have yet no name for it,"--was copied -from a Latin poet of the sixteenth century, and was a false conceit -without a spark of sublimity or wit. - -With the change in his view of Pope's genius, there was a complete -revolution in Warburton's estimate of the Essay on Man. The work ceased -to be made up "from the worst passages of the worst authors." A -superlative originality took the place of ignorant plagiarism, and "he -uttered heavy menaces," says Bishop Law, "against those who presumed to -insinuate that Pope borrowed anything from any man whatsoever."[787] The -"rank atheism," in like manner, was converted into the purest -orthodoxy, and every line breathed forth piety and sound philosophy. "He -follows truth," said his advocate, "uniformly throughout."[788] The -strain of sickening adulation in which Warburton conveyed his newly-born -admiration showed that arrogance was not more congenial to his nature -than servility, and both were rivalled by the effrontery with which he -spoke of those who shared his old opinions. He and the "gentlemen of the -Dunciad" had agreed in thinking ill of Pope's morals, but the conviction -was genuine with Warburton, and "pretence" in them.[789] He declaimed -against the "rank atheism" of the Essay on Man, but the freethinkers who -had believed that Pope was of "their party" had "affectedly embraced the -delusion."[790] - -Warburton's accusations of insincerity were the more unblushing that his -recantation was partly feigned. When he published his defence of three -epistles of the Essay on Man, he said that Pope's "strong and delicate -reasoning ran equally through all" the poem, but that "the turn of the -fourth epistle being more popular seemed to need no comment."[791] His -real motive for passing over the fourth epistle was very different, and -comes out in a letter to Dr. Birch, Oct. 25, 1739. "I have been looking -over, _inter nos_, the fourth epistle of the Essay on Man; for I have a -great inclination to make an analysis of that to complete the whole. I -find this part of my defence of Mr. Pope as difficult as a confutation -of Mr. Crousaz's nonsense, and a detection of the translator's blunders, -are easy. I do not know whether I can do it to my mind, or whether I -shall do it at all, so beg you would keep it secret."[792] He left the -fourth epistle undefended because it was almost beyond his powers of -sophistry to devise a defence, and professed to the world that "the -strong and delicate reasoning was too popular to need a comment." Having -undertaken the "difficult" task, he kept up the dissimulation, justified -every doctrine the epistle contained, and lauded it, in common with the -rest of the work, for its "exact reasoning," and for "a precision, -force, and closeness of connection rarely to be met with, even in the -most formal treatises of philosophy."[793] His want of sincerity would -be self-evident without the contradiction between his confidential -confessions, and his public praise. No one, with his knowledge of -philosophical divinity, could possibly have magnified Pope in good faith -for the qualities in which he was deplorably deficient. - -Dodsley, the bookseller, was present at the first interview between -Pope and Warburton, and was astonished at the compliments the poet paid -to his commentator.[794] There was no occasion for astonishment. Pope's -despiser had turned idolater, "the gentlemen of the Dunciad" had lost -their ablest ally, the thrust of Crousaz had been parried, and the -champion was the dreaded man who was expected to be a fatal foe. The -sensitive novice in philosophy, who was incompetent to fight, and could -not endure defeat, was relieved from future as well as present fears. He -would not henceforward be answerable to theological and metaphysical -assailants. Warburton had assumed the responsibility of the poem, and -his irascible, pugnacious vanity was a pledge that he would defend his -certificate of orthodoxy with his usual violence, disdain, and ability. -The relief to the mind of the anxious poet was immense, and fully -explains his headlong gratitude. He immediately renounced his deistical -interpretation of the Essay, and adopted all the views of his thundering -advocate. "I know I meant just what you explain," wrote the obsequious -poet, April 11, 1739, "but I did not explain my own meaning as well as -you." He was too eager to live under Warburton's protection to retain a -particle of independence. No matter how incredible might be the -interpretations which his commentator often fathered upon him, he -hastened to accept every one of them without reserve. The public were -not deluded, and a letter of Dr. Middleton to Warburton, Jan. 7, 1740, -is a fair specimen, expressed in friendly terms, of the common opinion. -"You have evinced the orthodoxy of Mr. Pope's principles, but, like the -old commentators on his Homer, will be thought, perhaps, in some places -to have provided a meaning for him that he himself never dreamed of. -However, if you did not find him a philosopher, you will make him one, -for he will be wise enough to take the benefit of your reading, and make -his future essays more clear and consistent." Pope's moral laxity was -not the only cause of the facility with which he changed his creed. The -shallowness of his convictions had a share in the event. He had no real -insight into theology, natural or revealed. He rejected christianity -because his associates sneered at it, and because the age was -irreligious. Ignorant of the right road, he was sometimes persuaded that -all roads led to a common goal, or he adopted the road which was pointed -out to him by his guides. The Essay on Man would never have been written -unless Bolingbroke had dictated the subject, and supplied the materials, -and Pope was subdued by his dogmatism rather than enlightened by his -arguments. The speculations the poet versified had not proceeded from -his own mind; he believed as he was prompted; and he had not any rooted -convictions to sacrifice when a second dogmatist provided him with more -convenient opinions. - -Pope would have been glad "to dwell in ambiguities for ever." In -accepting the advocacy of Warburton he was obliged to abandon his -equivocal attitude, and disavow the deistical creed. "The infidels and -libertines," Warburton wrote to Dr. Stukeley, January 1, 1740, "prided -themselves in thinking Mr. Pope of their party. I thought it of use to -religion to show so noble a genius was not; and I can have the pleasure -of telling you (and have Mr. Pope's own authority for it), that he is -not."[795] His chief difficulty must have been to cast off his -allegiance to his "philosopher and guide, the master of the poet and the -song." But his reputation was at stake, and he did not hesitate. His -anxiety to disclaim all sympathy with the theology of the teacher who -had furnished the arguments of his poem was shown by one of his habitual -frauds. He published, in 1741, his correspondence with Swift, and in the -printed letter of December, 1725, he says, "Lord B. is above trifling; -when he writes of anything in this world, he is more than mortal: if -ever he trifles it must be when he turns a divine." A copy of the letter -is among the Oxford papers at Longleat, and there we find that the words -he really used were, "Lord B. is above trifling; he is grown a great -divine." Pope reversed the language of the original passage that he -might seem to the world to have contemned the divinity of Bolingbroke -long before the Essay on Man appeared. The fraud had the intended effect -with Pope's friends. Lord Mansfield inferred from the fabricated version -that "Pope not only condemned but despised the futility of Bolingbroke's -reasoning against revelation;" and Warburton quoted the sentence for an -evidence of Pope's opinion "that no subject but religion could have sunk -his lordship so far below the class of reputable authors."[796] -Bolingbroke, ignorant of the trick, remained upon cordial terms with -Pope, and did not outwardly resent his defection. The discarded master -had a double motive for his forbearance. No man was more vulnerable, and -he would have feared to provoke the malignity of the satirist. He was -anxious in his life-time to conceal his infidelity from the outer world, -and he could not expose the inconsistencies of the poet without -revealing his own unbelief. "I have been a martyr of faction in -politics," he once wrote to Pope, "and have no vocation to be so in -philosophy."[797] Inwardly he was deeply mortified that "the song" he -had inspired should be wrested to a meaning he disowned, that his -admiring scholar should bow down no longer to his sceptical sophistries, -and that the idol who supplanted him should belong to that priestly -order of which he never spoke without scorn. His suppressed indignation, -inflamed by fresh offences, broke out after Pope was dead. - -When the orthodox meaning imposed on the Essay had once been accepted -by the poet, he was anxious to use the new interpretation to silence or -conciliate his opponents abroad. He immediately got Warburton's reply to -Crousaz translated into French,[798] and employed Ramsay, a Scotchman, -who had been Fenelon's secretary, to write to Louis Racine, April 28, -1742, and assure him that he was mistaken when he said in his poem _La -Religion_, - - Sans doute qu'a ces mots, des bords de la Tamise, - Quelque abstrait raisonneur, qui ne se plaint de rien, - Dans son flegme anglican repondra, "Tout est bien." - -Ramsay told the French poet that Pope did not think all was "right" in -mankind. He believed them fallen from their primitive condition, and his -life-long faith was evidence of his real convictions. "He is a very good -catholic," says his apologist, "and has always kept to the religion of -his forefathers in a country where he had many temptations to abandon -it." A letter addressed by Pope to Racine in the following September -upholds the statement that he was a "good catholic," for he declares -that his views are "conformable to those of Pascal and Fenelon, the -latter of whom," says he, "I would most readily imitate in submitting -all my opinions to the decision of the church."[799] His sincerity may -be doubted when he professed his readiness to accept the decisions of -the romish church for a law. The Essay on Man was already completed, or -far advanced, when Bolingbroke wrote to him, "I do not expect from you -the answer I should be sure to have from persons more orthodox than I -know you to be in the faith of the pretended catholic church. Such -persons would insist on the authority of the church."[800] Pope could -not, indeed, be a romanist when he had not yet emerged from deism, and -he was not a romanist some twelvemonth after his letter to Racine, when -he said to Warburton, "that he was convinced that the church of Rome had -all the marks of the anti-christian power predicted in the New -Testament." Warburton enquired why he did not publicly renounce a church -he allowed to be corrupt. "There were," he replied, "but two reasons -that kept him from it: one, that the doing so would make him a great -many enemies, and the other that it would do nobody else any good."[801] -Either his persuasion that an unconditional submission was due to the -decisions of the romish church, must have been a transitory belief which -commenced a short time before his letter to Racine, and ceased a short -time after, or else he used deceptive language in his letter that he -might convince Racine of his orthodoxy. His explanations did not alter -the French poet's opinion on the infidel tendency of the Essay on Man. -"After the letter he wrote me," says Racine, "I am far from suspecting -him of designing to preach deism, but I am obliged to confess that we -seem to detect it in the midst of all his abstract reasonings, and that -it even presents itself so naturally that we may attribute to it the -rapid spread of the poem in France."[802] - -Pope's letter was forwarded to Racine by Ramsay, who accompanied it with -a second letter of his own, in which he again dwelt on his friend's -continuous and disinterested adherence to romanism. "I am assured that a -princess who admired his works, wished, when she ruled over England, to -induce him not to abandon, but to dissimulate his religion. She was -desirous of procuring him considerable appointments, and promised that -the customary oaths should be dispensed with. He refused these offers -with immoveable firmness. Such a sacrifice was not the act of a sceptic -or a deist."[803] Ramsay does not say that he received the anecdote from -Pope, but he was writing in concert with him, and on his behalf, and -there is a strong presumption that the poet had sanctioned the fable. To -dispense with the customary oaths would have been a breach of the act of -settlement, and the assertion of the power would have cost Anne her -crown, and Pope his office. This immense and abortive sacrifice was to -have been made in the interests of a man whom the queen had never seen, -who was politically insignificant, and whose moderate wants she could -have supplied from her private purse. The ludicrous invention, which -could only pass current with a foreigner ignorant of the English -constitution, was a magnified version of Lord Oxford's hollow talk. "He -used often," said Pope, "to express his concern for my continuing -incapable of a place, which I could not make myself capable of without -giving a great deal of pain to my parents, such pain, indeed, as I would -not have given to either of them for all the places he could have -bestowed upon me."[804] Lord Oxford, who trusted chiefly to duplicity -and petty artifices for obtaining support, was accustomed to amuse every -one who came near him with hopes, and evade their fulfilment by paltry -excuses. His cheap lamentation that Pope was disqualified for an office -is a sad downfall from the magnanimous offer of the Queen to provide him -with a place in defiance of law, and at the risk of her throne. If the -anecdote had been true, Ramsay's inference that Pope was an orthodox -romanist would have been wrong. His reason for not "making himself -capable of a place" was the pain his abjuration of romanism would have -given his parents. He did not pretend to plead conscience. - -The system of philosophy set forth in the poem is now to be considered. -Few persons could have been less qualified than Bolingbroke and Pope to -write on natural religion. The desultory superficial investigations of -Bolingbroke were under the dominion of his passions, and Pope had barely -thought upon the subject at all. They both took for their motto a -sentence from Foster, a dissenting minister,--"Where mystery begins -religion ends,"[805]--and it did not occur to them that no mystery could -be greater than the first article of their own deistical creed,--the -necessary existence of God. Atheism magnifies the mystery, which is an -inherent ingredient in every system, religious or infidel. The least -reflection forces this fact upon the mind, and the blindness of Pope and -Bolingbroke to a truth which met them at the threshold of their -speculations, and recurred at every turn, is not an unjust measure of -their general incapacity for religious philosophy. - -The Essay on Man was framed on the old and obvious division of ethics, -which treated of man in his relation to God, his fellow-creatures, and -himself. Pope, who thought it presumption to study God,[806] passed over -the first of the three heads, and substituted an epistle on man in -relation to the universe. The leading arguments in this opening epistle -were taken from the Theodicee of Leibnitz, the Moralists of Shaftesbury, -and the Origin of Evil, by Archbishop King. The poet had read the essay -of Shaftesbury, and had possibly looked into King; but of Leibnitz he -was entirely ignorant. In reply to the charge of having adopted the -alleged fatalism of the illustrious German, he wrote to Warburton, Feb. -2, 1739, "It cannot be unpleasant to you to know that I never in my life -read a line of Leibnitz, nor understood there was such a term as -pre-established harmony till I found it in M. Crousaz's book." -Bolingbroke had instructed Pope that Leibnitz was "one of the vainest -and most chimerical men that ever got a name in philosophy, and that he -was so often unintelligible that no man ought to believe he understood -himself."[807] Naturally Pope had not the least suspicion that some of -the principal tenets instilled into him by his "guide" were filched -without acknowledgment from this vain, chimerical, unintelligible man. - -The optimism of Leibnitz has been a thousand times misrepresented, not -because his Theodicee is obscure, but because the scoffers had never -read the system they decried. He was supposed to have maintained that -our little globe, taken separately, was the best which could be -conceived, and that all the trials and crimes of men were in their own -independent nature a good. Voltaire was among the ignorant, and to -refute the doctrine that everything was good, he concocted a licentious -tale, in which everything is vice, injustice, and misery. His satire has -a double flaw. He gives a false representation of human life, and of the -optimism of Leibnitz. The world of Leibnitz is not our earth in its -present state, but the universe, unlimited in extent, and eternal in -duration. The final purpose of the Deity in his stupendous scheme is the -best that can be, and the means are the best for their end. The fitness -of the several parts can only be estimated in their relation to the -whole, and the whole is not creation at any moment of time, but the -evolution of the universe from everlasting to everlasting. It would be -folly to judge the evils of the hour in their isolation, when they are -incidents in an illimitable plan, and have reference to the greatest -ultimate good. To show in detail how all the evils we experience are -subservient to the best conceivable scheme of the universe, would -require that we should know the infinite design of God, that we should -be able to picture the infinity of other possible worlds, and to -institute a comparison between these infinite infinities. A morsel of -flesh, or a splinter of bone, bears an immeasurably larger proportion to -our frame than our existing globe to the existing universe, which is -itself but a link in the eternal chain, and yet a person ignorant of the -human structure would in vain attempt to explain the purpose and fitness -of some diminutive fragment of man.[808] - -Leibnitz took for granted, in their greatest latitude, the power, -wisdom, and goodness of God. Upon this supposition, Hume, personating -the character of a sceptic, allowed that there "might, perhaps, be a -plausible solution of the ill phenomena." But the sceptic objects that -"the Deity is known to us solely in his productions, that the universe -shows only a particular degree of wisdom and goodness, and that we can -never be authorised to infer a further degree of these attributes, which -would be adding something to the attributes of the cause beyond what -appears in the effects."[809] The objection would be sound if the whole -series of effects were unfolded to our view. They extend, on the -contrary, indefinitely beyond our capacity to follow them, and the -question is, whether the defects appertain to the attributes of God, or -whether the appearance of imperfection is the consequence of our -ignorance. The answer is not doubtful. There is superabundant proof that -our globe is framed upon a plan in which animals and things have a -mutual dependence. Our globe itself, again, is a portion of a larger -system, and we have an irresistible conviction that the boundless -universe is the work of one Author, and that a definite purpose pervades -the whole. With this first fact we couple a second, that the -appropriateness of the details in a complicated contrivance cannot be -understood, unless we comprehend the general principle of the -contrivance, and the relation of its parts. The optimism of Leibnitz is -the only just inference from these facts. A speck of creation is -submitted to our examination, and the evidences of power, wisdom, and -goodness are vast and overwhelming. Other parts seem defective, as -inevitably happens when our knowledge is miserably inadequate; and, in -accordance with experience, we conclude that our enormous ignorance is -at fault, and not that the superlative workman is inconsistent. The -explanation of the optimist is rational, while that of the sceptic -involves a gratuitous contradiction, and is wild, improbable, and -unsupported. - -Hume's spokesman enforces his view by an instance which was the -favourite argument of Bolingbroke. "A more impartial distribution of -rewards and punishments," says the sceptic, in allusion to a future -state, "must proceed from a greater regard to justice and equity."[810] -Admit that the justice of God's government on earth is, in a single -instance, imperfect, and it follows that the argument for the perfection -of His attributes is at an end. The fallacy is in the assumed fact, that -a greater regard would be shown to equity, if rewards in this life were -exactly proportioned to merits. The chief purpose of the present life is -clearly not happiness but excellence. The characters of good men are -disciplined and purified here to fit them for happiness hereafter, and -the trials which best prepare them for eternal felicity cannot be a -deviation from equity. "Every branch," says our Lord, "that beareth -fruit, my father purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit,"[811] -which is a stronger evidence of fatherly care than an injurious -distribution of rewards and punishments on the sceptical plan. Physical -evils become a blessing when they are the lasting corrective of sin. - -The moral evil itself can in part be explained. The mind and body of -human beings, and the world in which we live, have been fixed for us by -the Creator. The will alone is free, and it is the will which really -constitutes the man. Without freedom of will there could be no morality, -any more than a tree is moral when it flourishes, and immoral when it -withers. Freedom pre-supposes a power to do wrong, and without this -liberty there could be no individual worth. The frailty of man grows out -of his supremacy. Warburton denied that there was any force in the -explanation, since if "God had only brought those creatures into being -who would not have abused their freedom, evil had been prevented without -intrenching upon free will."[812] Two principles are here assumed to be -indisputable, neither of which are self-evident, or capable of proof. -Warburton supposes it to be intuitively certain that a picked race of -moral agents, who must be limited in their perfections because they are -inferior to God, may all be gifted with an infallible power of defying -sin, which for aught we know may be impossible. A christian divine must -admit that some of the angels fell, and for anything we can tell the -steadfast angels might have sinned without the warning example of their -apostate brethren. Warburton further supposes it to be intuitively -certain, that if perchance there may be a hierarchy too lofty to have -ever erred, the non-existence of the multitudinous lesser beings would -be preferable to their existence with an admixture of evil, which is not -the sentiment raised in human minds by the contemplation of the living -creatures of our globe. On the contrary, the deepest philosophers and -simplest peasants are alike lost in admiration at the spectacle, and -feel impotent to rise to a fitting height of love and praise. As the -latent premises of Warburton are not manifest facts, he has failed to -make good his position, that to all appearance God could have framed a -better world from which every semblance of evil might have been -excluded. The moral nature of man goes far to account for the evil of -man, and for his present probation. The comparative innocence of -children is lovely, but it is innocence which has not been tried, and -when it is tested it fails. The innocence of saints is the innocence -which has passed through the terrible experience of sin, which knows the -degradation of iniquity, which has fought against it and triumphed, and -hence it is the second and acquired innocence which endures. The -innocence of Adam in Paradise may have resembled the inexperience of the -child, and the only road to permanent victory may be through defeat. -Heaven itself may be a place of temptation unless an energy of -conquering will has been first developed, and we have grown strong by an -inherent homage to righteousness. In our world, at least, felicity is -not the securest situation for untried virtue. This is enough to justify -to our understandings the state of man upon earth, though much is -mysterious in the details from our imperfect knowledge of the ultimate -effect upon aggregate humanity of the discipline of life, and our -ignorance of the part which our race is to play in the eternal universe. - -Leibnitz divided evil into moral evil or sin, physical evil or -suffering, and metaphysical evil or the limitation of our endowments. He -addressed men who were satisfied from the evidence of their internal -nature and the external world that God was absolute in power, wisdom, -and goodness. Hence, whatever is, is right. "We judge," says Leibnitz, -"by the event; since God has so done it would not be possible to do -better."[813] Pope starts from the premise of Leibnitz. He assumes the -infinite wisdom of the Deity, and concludes that this wisdom must have -formed the best possible system. But to a great extent he differed from -Leibnitz with regard to the cause of the several kinds of evil, and his -optimism was of an adulterate, untenable kind. He did not allow that -moral evil was the pernicious abuse of a free will, with which we are -endowed because men are preferable to automatons, moral agents to -passive machines. He held that moral evil was in itself a good, and that -God was the author of it. He it is who "pours fierce ambition into -Caesar's mind," and nature no more requires "men for ever temperate, -calm, and wise," than "eternal springs and cloudless skies."[814] Since -the sin of men is imposed upon them by God they must be machines after -all, and of a debased and often devilish species. An inexorable fatalism -becomes the law of humanity, and Borgias, Catilines, and Caesars are -destructive wheels which simply obey the motion impressed upon them by -the omnipotent architect. God can do no wrong; man is the puppet of God; -and whatever is, is consequently right, the villanies of miscreants -included. The Essay swarms with contradictions, and in other passages -Pope treats man as an accountable being who departs from the commands of -his Maker. - -Of physical evil, or suffering, Pope notices only "plagues, earthquakes, -and tempests," which he justifies by the remark that God "acts not by -partial, but by general laws."[815] Bolingbroke gave the same -explanation. Either, he said, such visitations are "rational -chastisements," or they are "the mere effects, natural though -contingent, of matter and motion in a material system, put into motion -under certain general laws."[816] Individuals, that is, must suffer that -the laws of matter may not be infringed. Leibnitz rejected the -principle. "That which is an evil," he said, "for me would not cease to -be an evil because it would be good for some one else. The good which -pervades the universe consists, among other things, in this, that the -general good is the particular good of every one who loves the author of -all good." So, he says again, "we suffer often from the misdeeds of -others, but when we have no share in the crime we may hold it for -certain that the sufferings procure us a greater happiness."[817] The -system of Pope subordinates moral agents to physical, and he finds it a -sufficient vindication that the mechanical law is general, and the -injury to men only occasional. Whatever may be the worth of particular -persons, he believes that they are properly sacrificed to the regularity -of material laws, which roll on with undistinguishing, terrific might, -crushing any thinking, sentient, virtuous being who may happen to cross -their path. He supposes, nevertheless, that these unbending, -undiscerning laws have undergone a "change," and, what is singular, the -alteration has been from better to worse, whereby he accounts for a -portion of the prevalent physical evil.[818] Another portion he at one -time ascribed to "chance," which had intruded itself into the -arrangements of the Almighty, and overruled his designs.[819] The -optimism which represented man to be the sport of mechanical laws, of -deteriorating changes in the physical system, and of blind, ungovernable -chance, was not an optimism to clear away difficulties, and silence -objections. - -Metaphysical evil, or the limitation of endowments, is inevitable in -every being below the Godhead, and Pope contends that the best system -must manifestly consist in an infinite series of creatures, from the -greatest to the least. The notion is found in Locke and Leibnitz. There -are beings, said the latter, above and below us, or there would be a -void in the order of species.[820] The idea was more fully developed by -Archbishop King, and is simply an extension to the universe of the -terrestrial system, where a gradation of beings on a connected plan is -the law. Pope carried the principle to extravagance. He contends that -the omission of the smallest creature would break the chain, would throw -the universe into confusion, and involve all creation in a common -ruin.[821] To keep the universe from tumbling to pieces, "it is plain," -according to him, that "there must be somewhere such a rank as -man,"[822] and the rule holds equally of the minutest animalcule on the -globe. There is a flaw in his premises. It is not apparent that the -extinction of the flea would upset the universe, nor that the scale of -beings must necessarily be the same which at present prevails. The facts -are against the "must be" of Pope. There was a time when other creatures -were, and man was not, and when animated nature was able to dispense -with the human race. Infinite wisdom must form the best possible system -and a gradation of beings, which now includes man, is an actual part of -the scheme. Pope's argument breaks down when, to justify the creation -of man, he supposes that a chain of beings and an orderly universe could -not have existed unless man had been a link in the series. His argument -is equally weak when he maintains that the infinite wisdom of God is a -guarantee that there will not be a gap in the endless chain of -existences, but that it is a question whether infinite wisdom may not -have made a mistake with respect to man's proper place in the series, -and erred in the after sorting of the gradations which it had previously -conceived and created on an infallible plan.[823] The poet was -inconsistent to childishness. Johnson believed that when Pope talked of -man's place he did not attach any meaning to the term. The words would -seem to imply that it was a question whether man was placed in the -circumstances which were best adapted to his moral, mental, and physical -nature. But if Pope had thoroughly comprehended his borrowed phrases, he -would not have proposed the enquiry under a form which stultified his -premises. - -There were errors enough in Pope's doctrine without the -misinterpretations of Voltaire, who has falsified the views of the poet, -as he had previously misstated the profounder system of Leibnitz. -"Those," says Voltaire, "who exclaim that all is good are charlatans. -Shaftesbury, who brought the fable into fashion, was a very unhappy man. -I have seen Bolingbroke devoured with chagrin and rage, and Pope, whom -he induced to put the mockery into verse, was as much to be pitied as -any man I have ever known,--deformed in body, unequal in his temper, -always ill, a burthen to himself, and harassed by a hundred enemies to -his dying hour. Quote me at least some happy men who say that all is -good. Any one who had seen the beautiful Ann Boleyn, and the still more -beautiful Mary Stuart, in their youth, would have said that is good, but -would he have said it when he saw them perish by the hand of the -executioner? would he have said it when he saw the grandson of the -beautiful Mary die the same death in the midst of his capital? would he -have said it when he saw the great-grandson more unfortunate still, -since he lived longer?"[824] Pope, in his imperfect theory, did not deny -the existence of sorrow, but asserted, or implied, that the sorrow was -an advantage either to the sufferer or others. Voltaire looked singly at -the misery without heeding the gain. Mary Queen of Scots at the block -was superior to the radiant beauty who was starting on a profligate -career. Charles I., penitent for his murderous abandonment of Strafford, -and, perhaps, for his creed that duplicity is a virtue when employed by -kings to circumvent subjects, was a vastly better man on the scaffold -than on the throne. James II. was in a more advantageous position with -the inducement to repentance which his long exile supplied than if he -had succeeded in his fraudulent attempts to subvert the English church -and constitution. The rage of Bolingbroke, and Pope's fretful temper, -were certainly inexplicable on the pretence that they were poured into -the mind by the Deity. They did not militate against the truer optimism -which saw in them self-imposed vice and pain, rendered possible by the -free-will which is a privilege to mankind. - -Pope filled up the outline of his system with declamatory invectives -against objectors, and with reflections intended to prove that the -imperfections of man befitted his position in the universe. There is -little force in the poet's reasoning. He passes over difficulties, and -replies to cavils which no one worth answering ever urged. Some of his -remarks are obscure, some erroneous, some common-place. Such as they are -they have not been woven into a consecutive argument. M. Crousaz says he -knew persons who were persuaded that Pope had tacked together a number -of fragments he had composed at different times, before he had the idea -of an Essay on Man, which was a contrivance to work up his collection of -odds and ends. He understood, in fact, little beyond the separate -thoughts, and was insensible to the want of coherence, consistency and -purpose. It would be lost labour to search, like Warburton, for a -strength and closeness of reasoning which were not in the mind of the -author. - -The second epistle treats of man "with respect to himself as an -individual." The Bible is a revelation of God, and a perpetual summons -to mankind "to know and understand" him. "Thus saith the Lord, Let not -the wise man glory in his wisdom, but let him that glorieth glory in -this, that he understandeth and knoweth me."[825] The divinity at last -descended upon earth, and lived our life, acting and speaking under our -circumstances, that God might be clearly manifested to the world. "He -that hath seen me," says our Lord, "hath seen the Father."[826] The -divine light appeared darkness and imposture to Pope. He was even blind -to the light which his natural understanding would have furnished, and, -taught by Bolingbroke, he abjured all pretension to a knowledge of the -Almighty under the plea of reverencing his inscrutable grandeur. Man -must not venture to scan God; his only proper study is to learn to know -himself.[827] This second epistle exhibits the kind of self-knowledge to -which Pope attained, when, renouncing the knowledge of God, he -determined to limit his investigations to man. - -He draws a desolate picture. Man is in doubt whether he is a god or a -beast; whether he ought to prefer his body or his mind. He is a confused -chaos of thought and passion, he reasons only to err, and is only born -to die.[828] The general incapacity, we are told, extended to Newton, -and it might have occurred to the poet that it was a useless task to -study our nature when the deductions of reason in its highest estate are -uniformly wrong. He committed the oversight from his habit of borrowing -fragments he was not at the pains to understand. His caricature was a -partial and distorted copy from Pascal, who with wonderful energy of -language, amplified the helplessness of fallen man that he might insist -the more strongly on the necessity of his restoration through the -Gospel. He overcharged the evil to exalt the remedy. Pope had not any -remedy to suggest. He leaves the "confused chaos" in its primitive -impotence, and calls upon mankind to embark in a deceptive study, with -the warning that they will wander from error to error. - -Without tying Pope down to the rhetorical exaggerations in the opening -paragraph of his second epistle, we find from a passage in the first -epistle that he reduced to insignificance the self-knowledge attainable -by mankind. He said that when the proud horse and dull ox knew why man -put them to this use or that, then would proud and dull man comprehend -the end and use of his being, passions, sufferings, and actions.[829] -The amount of knowledge possessed by the horse and ox is not -discoverable by us. The only nature adequately known to man is his own, -and his nature reveals his end. The ideas which ought to govern him -proceed from his Maker. They are the voice of God speaking to him, and -telling him the purpose for which he lives. He learns, above all, that -he is the servant of the Almighty, that his passions are to be ruled by -his conscience, that duty is supreme, that his sufferings are the -discipline to perfect his character, that earth is the school for a -higher existence. He may be negligent and perverse; he may refuse to -look into his nature, and may, in part, defy it; may thence arrive at -false conclusions, and adopt a false course of conduct, which are the -abuses of a free-will that can sink or soar, but the grand outlines of -his nature are plain to every honest and earnest enquirer, and blank -ignorance on the end of his being, passions, sufferings, and actions is -not the inevitable condition of man. - -The conviction that we are ignorant of the use of our being and actions -did not keep Pope from acknowledging that "good" is the end to which we -aspire.[830] The nature of this good, and the means of obtaining it, is -the main subject of the second epistle, "which contains," says -Warburton, "the truest, clearest, shortest, and consequently the best -system of ethics that is anywhere to be met with."[831] The system which -Warburton thought "true and clear" appears to be eminently false and -contradictory. - -Man has certain implanted tendencies, physical, intellectual, and -sympathetic,--the craving for food, for knowledge, for society, etc. -None of our primitive endowments can be termed moral, since they are -bestowed upon us independently of our will, and it is not till will -interposes that morality begins, but in their purity they are all -advantageous, and many of them are directed to the identical end which -morality prescribes. They are part of the stock-in-trade with which man -starts in his career, and he is charged with the wise administration of -them. A brief experience teaches him that an instinctive tendency may be -carried to excess. His craving for food and drink may turn to gluttony -and drunkenness; his passion for knowledge may convert him into a -solitary student without any care for his kind; his love of society and -affection may unfit him for the business and drudgery of life. Or he may -yield to a propensity till satiety succeeds, and he is left listless and -jaded. Or he may indulge a lawful propensity by lawless methods. Or he -may be hurried away by successive impulses, and be too unstable to put -his gifts to a profitable use. In any of these ways his proper nature -becomes mutilated and degraded. His reason informs him that to enjoy the -full advantage of his tendencies he must not consent to be drifted along -by the current which is strongest for the moment. He must curb the lower -propensities, and foster the higher; he must regulate the several -unities in a manner to derive the greatest benefit from the whole; he -must substitute for the reign of impulse what moralists call his -interest well understood. He does not stop at self-interest. He rises -above his personal good into the impersonal sphere of good in itself. He -perceives that there is a law superior to his individual interests, a -law of universal obligation, and which is immutable and eternal. - -Of these three motives, the instinctive, the prudential, and the law of -independent morality, Pope rejects the last. He believes that self is -the single spring of action in men, and he seriously adopts the old -sarcastic saying, "Every man for himself, and God for us all."[832] He -divides this selfish nature into two parts,--self-love, which designates -the impulsive propensities, and reason, which governs them on the behalf -of interest well-understood.[833] Already there is an inconsistency in -his phraseology when he puts self-love in direct opposition to reason. -Reason in his theory is simply the selfishness of calculation; self-love -the selfishness of impulse. Self-love is absolute in both, and is not -the less self-love because we deliberate upon the means which are best -adapted to secure the selfish end. - -The erroneous phraseology signifies little. The important point is the -radical falsity of the system. The three grand duties of man,--his duty -to God, his neighbour, and himself,--are resolved by Pope into the -single duty of man to himself. In the first epistle the poet rebuked the -pride which supposed the heavens and the earth to be created for its -use.[834] In his second epistle he teaches us that they are totally -indifferent to us under any other aspect. He will tell us that the way -to promote our personal interest is to love God and our neighbour, but -the end and motive of the love must on his system be our individual -interest still. The gospel precepts must be set aside; for in place of -loving our neighbour equally with ourselves we are to love him simply -for the sake of ourselves; and in place of loving God with all our -hearts, and minds, and souls, we are to love him solely as a tributary -who ministers to our absorbing love of self. When we practically think -and act as though we were the centre of the universe; when, horrible to -say, we view the Deity merely as an instrument to promote our -selfishness; when we discover nothing in the Creator to adore, nothing -in his creation to admire, apart from their fitness to advance the -interests of one puny mortal, we invert the actual constitution of -things, we base our morality upon a lie, and we only cheat ourselves -with delusive terms when we talk of our duty to God and our neighbour. - -The test of the system is in the phenomena of consciousness which are -open to universal observation. When our moral principle is an unalloyed -selfishness we seek our private good alone, and there can be no -obligation to consult the interests of our neighbours. I pay a debt -because it is to my advantage, and not from any sense of what is due to -my debtor. I forbear to kill, and maim, and torture, not in the least -because I am bound to consider the rights and feelings of my -fellow-creatures, but because it would be present or future pain to -myself. Owning no law, except the law of selfishness, I should be -dishonest and cruel if I could believe that the balance of personal -pleasure was on the side of inhumanity and roguery. When I blame -murderers and thieves, I inconsiderately distinguish between the guilt -and folly of the crime, which is a vulgar mistake. The selfishness which -respects nothing beyond the requirements of self is the law of our race, -and the miscalled criminal has obeyed the governing principle of -mankind. He owed no duty to others, and his sole fault was not to have -judged wisely for his interests. I talk of patriotism and public spirit, -of sacrifice and disinterestedness, but they are words which convey a -false impression. Sacrifice and disinterestedness do not exist, and the -apparent devotion to country and public is at bottom a complete devotion -to self. - -Common experience is too powerful for bad philosophy, and it is plain -that this is not a true description of the moral man. Pope puts a part -for the whole. The Creator has endowed us with a desire for happiness, -which is inseparable from our being. The individual is a portion of the -universe, and though he is only an atom, his interests are cared for in -common with the rest. But he has a consciousness that the good of others -must be cared for likewise, that Providence has enjoined him to -contribute to the result, and that his refusal to recognise the duty he -owes to his neighbour would be guilt. He has a conviction that the great -source of all being and all good is to be adored for his infinite -perfections, and that to love him solely for the sake of the blessings -he communicates to ourselves is a maimed, derogatory, and impious idea. -Man has been constructed to perceive things as they are, and to act in -conformity with his knowledge. He is the creature of his Maker, a unit -in a multitude, and could not be permitted to consider Maker and -multitude subordinate to the creature and unit, without a complete -perversion of the facts. With the desire for our own good there has been -instilled into us that law of good in itself which embraces the -universe,--a law which, while it includes our individual concerns, -extends infinitely beyond them, and to which we do homage under its -aspect of good in itself, as well as under its aspect that it is good -for me. Our personal pleasure is not therefore, as Pope asserts, "the -whole employ of body and mind."[835] Happiness in the long run is -dependent upon well-doing, and we consult our interest when we adhere to -duty. But our rule of duty must not be bounded by our self-interest, -which, reducing our motives to a petty egotism, corrupts the nature of -man, and contaminates duty at its source. - -The prevalent habit of abandoning duty for personal pleasure begets the -mistaken idea that where there is pleasure there is absolute -selfishness. The degree of selfishness must be determined by our -motives, and not by the feelings which accompany our acts. Whatever is -done for self-gratification is selfish; and everything in which our end -is external to ourselves is disinterested, in so far as the accompanying -gratification is not the motive to the deed. Although the benevolent man -has a satisfaction in reflecting that the sufferings of the needy are -removed, his predominant motive to benevolence is the relief of the -wretched, and not his own personal pleasure. His intention terminates in -the objects of his charity, with little return upon himself, and unless -his sympathy with them was real the gratification would not be felt. -Happiness is the proper effect of pure goodness, and if the junction of -perfect happiness and perfect goodness was incompatible with -disinterestedness, the celestial spirits would be more selfish than men. -Men, in turn, would grow selfish in the same proportion that -perseverance in well-doing rendered duty delightful. "I find a pleasure -in serving my friends," said Schiller in refutation of the doctrine; "it -is agreeable to me to fulfil my duties. This troubles me, for then I am -no longer virtuous."[836] The love which is capable of the utmost -sacrifice is not less generous because no sacrifice may chance to be -required, any more than a man who is proof against all temptations to -steal, is less honest because he is not exposed to temptation. From our -proneness to self-deceit we are accustomed to estimate disinterestedness -by actual sacrifices, which both test our motives, and inure us to -self-denying love, but disinterestedness is the cause of self-denial and -must precede it, and the disposition remains when the call for -self-denial may have ceased. Qualities are what they are, whatever may -happen to be the surrounding circumstances. Grant that a man can love -his neighbour and himself with an equal love, and the same proportion -will be preserved whether his love procures him unadulterated pleasure, -or entails on him a vast amount of pain. Happiness and disinterestedness -are not in their essence mutually destructive; they co-exist and -coalesce. - -A close scrutiny into the motives of moral men will satisfy us that the -love of our neighbour is not wholly or chiefly a disguised love of self; -that we love God for what he is, transcendent in goodness and wisdom, as -well as for what he is to us; that we do not bow down to duty solely -because it is our interest well understood, but much more because it has -an illimitable authority independent of our individual interests, and -binds the conscience by its right to supreme dominion. God, man, duty -are external objects which, over and above the consideration of -self-interest, are served by morality as an end. Bishop Butler even -maintained that all our instinctive impulses "are particular movements -towards particular external objects," and cannot be ascribed to -self-love. He instances the desire produced by hunger, of which "the -object and end," he says, "is merely food."[837] But there is a further -object for which alone the food is desired,--the removal of painful -sensations, or the gratification of the palate, or the prolongation of -life. All these objects are often purely selfish, and always in their -ordinary unreflecting state.[838] The uneasy sensation of hunger begins -and ends with the individual; the single purpose for which he covets the -food is to allay his particular physical craving; outside self there is -no object left to attract the mind,--no over-plus to which our thoughts -can be directed. There is not, as in the case of God, man, and law, an -object which has a claim upon our hearts and understandings distinct -from the special benefit to ourselves. The desire for food is a -selfish, but not an evil instinct, for self-love is part of the duty and -constitution of man. Pope's error was in putting a fragment for the -whole, and merging duty in selfishness. - -There is a second part to Pope's system. He has told us that the -function of reason is to "advise and check" the instinctive impulses; -that she "mixes the passions with art, and confines them to due bounds;" -that she "compounds and subjects, tempers and employs them;" and that -her "well-accorded" combination of jarring elements "gives all the -strength and colour to our life."[839] The instant after he lays down a -directly opposite theory. He says that every man brings into the world a -"ruling passion," which is "cast and mingled with his very frame;" that -this master passion "grows with our growth," and "swallows up" all the -other passions; that whatever "warms the heart or fills the head" goes -to feed the one despotic desire. When we fancy we curb a passion we are -deceived; we have only resigned a lesser passion in favour of a -greater.[840] Reason, which lately mixed the passions in their proper -proportions, and confined them to due bounds, is suddenly stripped of -her prerogative, and becomes the slave of the master passion. - - The ruling passion, be it what it will, - The ruling passion conquers reason still. - -Reason in this new theory is worse than helpless; she deserts to the -side of her enemy, gives the monster propensity "edge and power," and -exerts herself to exasperate the "mind's disease."[841] Such -contradictions were the natural consequence of the perfunctory manner in -which Pope had picked up his scraps of philosophy. - -The slightest acquaintance with the world is fatal to the hypothesis -that an exclusive ruling passion is the universal characteristic of -mankind. Each person has various appetites, desires, and affections, and -it is rare to see a man in whom "one master passion has swallowed up the -rest." Propensities intermingle and take their turn. Characters are -notoriously complex, and every individual is not the incarnation of a -single unattended passion. A desire for power may be joined with -sensuality, a love of fame with covetousness, an eagerness for knowledge -with affection. In the play of passions one may preponderate, but all -the rest are not reduced to nullity. Allow the existence of the ruling -passion, and Pope's account of its origin could not be correct. A -passion which is cast in our frame from our birth, and continues -thenceforward to grow with our growth, must be permanent and -unalterable. The individual must be governed by the same passion in -childhood and age, in the season of thoughtlessness and of wisdom, in -dissoluteness and virtue, in all the possible changes of condition. This -is not the scene which life presents. "Every observer," says Johnson, -"has remarked, that in many men the love of pleasure is the ruling -passion of their youth, and the love of money that of their advanced -years."[842] - -With an inherited ruling passion, and reason helpless to restrain it, we -should be altogether the creatures of fate on Pope's hypothesis, if he -had not furnished reason with a last resource, which, as is evident from -several parallel passages, was chiefly suggested to him by the works of -his contemporary, Mandeville. This shallow thinker put forth a system of -morality and political economy in his Fable of the Bees, or Private -Vices, Public Benefits. The book, which was philosophically weak, -attracted much notice at the time from the liveliness of his coarse -illustrations, the vigorous ease of his inaccurate style, and the -cynical parade of his licentious doctrines. He had the folly to imagine -that commerce could only flourish when the wealth of a nation was -consumed by the idle, the sensual, the luxurious. Hence, he argued that -their wasteful vices were a national gain. This was his political -economy. His morality consisted in denying the reality of virtue. He -held that every apparent virtue was prompted by an underlying frailty, -and that all ostensible goodness was the false mask worn over inward -weaknesses. The indignation his system provoked induced him subsequently -to throw in some qualifying phrases, but his faint, and always equivocal -concessions, are forms of speech, and did not prevent his repeated -avowal that genuine virtue had no existence on earth. "I often," he -says, "compare the virtues of good men to your large China jars; they -make a fine show, but look into a thousand of them, and you will find -nothing in them but dust and cobwebs."[843] - -Pope, like Mandeville, founds virtue upon vice. The ruling passion is -evil, but reason gives it a bias towards good.[844] "Spleen, obstinacy, -hate, and fear," each produce "crops of wit and honesty;" "anger" is the -parent of "zeal and fortitude;" "avarice" of "prudence;" "sloth" of -"philosophy;" and every virtue under heaven may issue from "pride or -shame."[845] The ruling passion having engulphed the whole family of -affections and desires, this individual is a personification of anger, -that individual of hate; a third of fear; a fourth of sloth; a fifth of -pride. The sole moving principle of man is his giant passion.[846] The -function of reason is only to foster it,[847] and select the means for -its gratification. Whatever these means may be, the motive of the -incarnate monster lust, is to feed sensuality; of the monster sloth to -secure ease; of the monster pride to inflate self-importance. "The same -ambition," says Pope, "may make a patriot, as it makes a knave."[848] -But the incarnation of an all-pervading ambition can be only a patriot -in appearance, and uses patriotism to serve the ends of ambition. Let -the two diverge, and by the law of his nature he must fling the -patriotism to the winds. "Either," says our Lord, "make the tree good, -and his fruit good; or else, make the tree corrupt and his fruit -corrupt."[849] On Pope's theory, to make the tree good is impossible. -Man has no escape from the ruling passion he brings into the world. He -must be angry, avaricious, or slothful, according to the seed which was -sown in him at his birth, and the tree must remain corrupt to the last. - -The fruit would inevitably betray the taint of its origin, and Pope was -mistaken in supposing that a vitiated motive could keep steady to -outward virtue. "Hate," to which Pope ascribes the singular power of -producing "crops of wit and honesty," must repudiate love, or whatever -else did not subserve the one unamiable passion; and a man all hate,--a -frantic enemy to every kind and tender emotion,--would be hateful, -however honest and witty. "Anger" would renounce the meek and -charitable, "pride" the humble virtues, together with any other virtue -which did not minister to inordinate anger and pride. Neither passion -would assume a moral aspect. "I observe," says Baxter, "that almost all -men, good and bad, do loathe the proud, and love the humble." "Zeal" is -the prerogative ascribed to "anger," and the zealot who was urged on by -fierce unflagging anger would be a terror and a scourge. Pope himself -has drawn a horrible picture of the miseries inflicted upon humanity -when "zeal, not charity, became the guide" of the teachers of -religion.[850] "Sloth" supplies us with "philosophy," or the apathetic -submission to evils we are too lazy to correct, which is the virtue that -induces thousands to live in dirt and ignorance, because cleanliness and -knowledge are not to be had without industry. "Avarice" is credited with -the faculty of "supplying prudence," which is as true as to say that a -burning fever supplies a moderate, healthy temperature. The moral system -which confines man to the counterfeit "virtue nearest allied to his -vice," or ruling passion, is an extravagant libel upon the virtuous, and -outrageous flattery of the vicious.[851] - -Mandeville took his morality from La Rochefoucauld, and Pope took hints -from both. The principle common to the three is the motto which La -Rochefoucauld placed at the head of his Maxims, "Our virtues are usually -vices in disguise." The doctrine, when expressed in La Rochefoucauld's -language, was condemned by Pope. - -"As L'Esprit," he said, "La Rochefoucauld, and that sort of people, -prove that all virtues are disguised vices, I would engage to prove all -vices to be disguised virtues. Neither, indeed, is true: but this would -be a more agreeable subject; and would overturn their whole -scheme."[852] He repeated the criticism in a suppressed passage of the -Essay on Man,[853] with a complete unconsciousness that the "scheme" he -fancied he could "overturn," was the very soul of his system. "Heaven," -he said, "can raise virtue's ends from the vanity which seeks no reward -but praise,"[854] and for man to be virtuous solely out of vanity was -exactly the virtue which La Rochefoucauld called "vice in disguise." He -who feeds the hungry from vanity alone is not moved by sympathy for -suffering. Charity is merely the pretence which his vanity pleads. Each -of the other ruling passions acts according to its own exclusive nature, -and the virtue which is adopted to humour anger, hate, sloth, and -avarice, is by general consent called delusion or imposture. La -Rochefoucauld has the advantage over Pope. The succession of selfish -passions he discovered too uniformly in man is less odious than the -concentrated anger, hate, or sloth which never pauses or turns aside; -and the satirist who lashes the deceptive vices of mankind is to be -preferred to the moralist who teaches that vice in disguise is virtue. - -The contradictions are not at an end. Pride, folly, "even mean -self-love," have all, says Pope, some good in them.[855] He forgot that -self-love is, with him, the principle of every virtue and vice, their -essence and life, their origin and end, and to call self-love meaner -than pride and folly is either to assert that self-love is meaner than -itself, or to abandon the foundation of his moral systems. He goes on to -ascribe an influence to self-love which is incompatible with his second -system, or theory of the ruling passion. "Self-love," he says, "is the -scale to measure others' wants by thine," or, as he remarked to Spence, -"self-love would be a necessary principle in every one, if it were only -to serve each as a scale for his love to his neighbour."[856] On Pope's -second system this love of each for his neighbour must be extinct, -unless love chanced to be the ruling passion. Unmixed anger, hate, and -sloth retain no trace of affection. When we are reduced to a single -passion, and for selfish purposes "measure others' wants by our own," -anger can but have an intellectual, unsympathising perception of rival -passions, and will only assist them in the degree which will serve its -irritable instincts. Sloth, anger, hate, and the rest will act according -to their kind, and to call upon them to love their neighbours as -themselves is to enjoin the deaf to hear, and the blind to see. - -An evil fatalism, therefore, remains the leading principle of Pope's -second system. A man must be avaricious, slothful, or angry as nature -appoints. He cannot select his passion, or divert, or repress it. The -sole power reserved to his will is a certain latitude in choosing the -diet upon which the passion feeds. This meagre and polluted freedom -dwindles to nothing with such passions as sloth and avarice, and if -there was room for prayer, when our nature is fixed for us by an -irreversible decree, we ought to petition for the "pride and vainglory" -against which we pray in the Litany, since, if Pope is right, they -permit more variety of specious virtue than the griping prudence of -avarice, and the corrupting philosophy of sloth. - -The poet passes from his review of individual man to the designs of God, -and his degenerate morality sinks lower as he proceeds. "The ends of -Providence," he says, "and general good are answered in our passions and -imperfections," and he goes on to show "how usefully" the Deity, acting -in the interests of the "whole,"[857] has "distributed" imperfections to -"orders of men, to individuals, and to every state and age of -life."[858] Pope refuses to ascribe our evil passions to the abuse of -that freedom of will which is inseparable from the idea of a moral -being. He retains the doctrine laid down in his first epistle, and -involved in his ruling-passion hypothesis, that our evil passions are -the immediate gift of God. "Heaven applies" what Pope calls "happy -frailties to all ranks,--fear to statesmen, rashness to commanders, and -presumption to kings."[859] "Pride is bestowed on all, a common -friend,"[860] which overthrows his theory that the ruling is our only -passion, and pride incompatible with avarice, sloth, &c. The blessing he -imputes to pride is that it takes possession of the "vacuities of -sense," and prevents self-knowledge.[861] "The proper study of mankind -is man," but the desirable effect of the study is that man should be -self-deceived,--that he should be soothed into complacency by ignorance -of his individual defects, and by a conceited dream of imaginary -excellence. The "bubble joy" is ordained by Providence "to laugh in the -cup of folly," that folly may be cheered in its career, and fast as "one -prospect is lost" may be lured on by "another."[862] The poet had -already furnished an illustration of his doctrine, in the consolatory -fact that "the sot" fancies himself "a hero!"[863] "Pleasure," says -Pope, is "our greatest evil or our greatest good," and these were among -his good pleasures,--the contrivances of a beneficent Deity for the -comfort and encouragement of vice and folly. Bolingbroke was better -informed. "The man," he says, "who neglects the duties of natural -religion, and the obligations of morality, acts against his nature, and -lives in open defiance to the author of it. God declares for one order -of things, he for another. God blends together the duty and interest of -his creature; his creature separates them, despises the duty, and -proposes to himself another interest."[864] - -Pope is not satisfied with applauding moral imperfections. He degrades -and ridicules religious aspirations. Every period, he says, of life is -provided with "some fit passion,"[865] and as a "rattle, by nature's -kindly law," is the "plaything" of the "child," so "beads and -prayer-books are the toys of age." The new toy, like the old, is but a -"bauble," which "pleases," as the rattle had done before, till "tired" -of the game we "sleep, and life's poor play is over."[866] The whole is -an idle entertainment arranged by the Deity, who has "usefully -distributed" the "fit" and frivolous passions which amuse our hollow -existence. The worst writer has never given a more debased description -of the moral government of God, and of the nature and ends of rational -man. Ignorant of our Creator, presumptuous when we dare to study him, -involved in a whirl of endless error when we study ourselves, the -victims of a pre-ordained and irresistible passion, prayer is but a -beguiling "toy," and not the reasonable, elevated language of belief, -trust, and repentance. The goal of morality is the discovery that "life -is a poor play," a paltry mimic scene, which leaves us only this barren -consolation--that though we, the actors, are "fools," "God," who has -cast our empty part for us, "is wise."[867] The wisdom is not apparent -in Pope's deplorable travestie of man's moral nature. Happily, true -morality teaches that life is a grand school in which, knowing the -adorable perfections of God, we learn to imitate his goodness. The moral -man is occupied with noble realities, and not with mimic shows. He -fights against destroying passions, struggles to conform to immutable -verities, and finds, amid many bitter failures, that human weakness and -littleness can continuously approximate to the divine exemplar. The -life, which seemed to Pope a "poor play," is to the moral and religious -man a mighty privilege, an awful responsibility, a sublime -preparation,--the prelude to a holy and happy eternity. - -The third epistle treats "of the nature and state of man with respect to -society." The details of our duty to our neighbour were kept for the -portion of the Essay which was never written. In the present epistle -Pope discusses the general relation of man to man, or the foundation of -society and government. A third of his dissertation is a renewal of the -argument in the previous epistles that all things have a mutual -dependence, that every creature is made both for others and for itself. -This desultory introduction is succeeded by the remark that "self-love -and social love began with the state of nature,"[868] which is an -allusion to the argument of Hobbes, much canvassed in Pope's day, that -"the state of nature was a state of war." Pope and Hobbes agreed that -human motives were entirely selfish. They differed in their opinion of -the direction which the selfishness took. Hobbes contended that each -would desire all things for himself, and would endeavour to despoil his -neighbour; Pope, that self-love would seek its gratification in social -love. But the poet says and unsays, and is soon involved in a labyrinth -of inconsistencies. He tells us that in the patriarchal period, "before -the name of king was known,"[869] "man, like his Maker, saw that all was -right;" "trod to virtue in the paths of pleasure;" and recognised no -"allegiance" or "policy" except "love."[870] A few lines earlier he -asserted that in the same patriarchal period, before monarchy was known, -and when all was love and virtue, some states were compelled to join -others through "fear;" and "foes," tempted by trees laden with fruit, -went forth "to ravish" the orchards of their neighbours. And when the -robbers desisted from their intended spoliation, it was not out of love -or compassion, but only because they were persuaded by the proprietors -that "commerce" would prove as profitable as "war."[871] - -Both these clashing theories are espoused by Pope with equal confidence, -but the greatest prominence is given to the theory that social love was -perfect in the patriarchal times. The whole of the sentient world was -included in the happy brotherhood. The human race were the companions of -the beasts, and walked, fed, and slept with them. The disastrous -circumstance which broke up the reign of universal love was the craving -of man for animal food. He yielded to the temptation to eat flesh, and -from a meek, was changed into a pugnacious, sanguinary creature. The -inflammatory diet generated the "fury passions," till then unknown, and -"turned man on man."[872] "Force" was now employed to make "conquests," -and war and rapine were introduced.[873] Pope once more lapses into his -habitual contradictions. He represents the patriarchs as teaching their -families to "draw monsters from the abyss," and "fetch the eagle to the -ground" during the innocent era when the lives of beasts were held -sacred.[874] He has thus adopted two opposite versions of the -patriarchal treatment of the animal creation, and the later version, -which teaches that the slaughter of animals was prevalent under the -reign of love and virtue, is inconsistent with his genealogy of the -"fury passions." He has likewise two opposite opinions on the -destruction of brutes,--the one, that to take their lives was murder; -the other, that the art of killing them was among the laudable -discoveries which entitled the patriarchs to be esteemed "a second -Providence" by their children.[875] Pope has not done with his -contradictions. "It might, perhaps," he says in his first epistle, -"appear better for us that all were harmony and virtue, and that never -passion discomposed the mind." "But all," he replies, "subsists by -elemental strife, and passions are the elements of life," which, he -urges to show the necessity for the "fierce ambition" of Caesar, and the -misdeeds of Borgia and Catiline.[876] In the third epistle we are told -that "the virtue and harmony" actually lasted for many generations, that -the strife of bad passions was not in the slightest degree requisite for -sustaining the system established on earth, and that the aggressive -vices of Caesars, Catilines, and Borgias were only the pernicious -consequence of eating meat. - -The hypothesis is puerile, that force, conquest, and rapine originated -in a meat diet. Equally puerile is the theory that the arts of -government, navigation, agriculture, and manufactures were copied from -animals.[877] Man is specially distinguished by his inventive capacity. -Through this gift the arts and sciences are continuously progressive, -and there is no plausibility in the supposition that his characteristic -power was originally in abeyance. The gratuitous fancy that the arts of -human civilisation were acquired from the brutes, could not be supported -by less appropriate examples. Mankind are said by Pope to have been -pre-eminently social, and he would have us believe that neither -sociality nor convenience could teach them to construct their dwellings -in proximity, till "reason late" suggested to them the reflection, that -some birds, such as rooks, built their nests in clusters.[878] He -acknowledges that a community of families perceived it would be for -their interest to have a single ruler; but the principle that the -subjects under a monarchy should retain their right to their houses and -property, was discovered by observing that every bee in a hive had its -separate cell, and separate honey,[879] which was a fiction of some -unobservant naturalist, who credited bees with our usages. From the -silk-worm we learn to "weave," and from, the mole to "plough," -notwithstanding that the silk-worm only spins silk, and never weaves it, -and that the subterranean scratchings of the mole have no resemblance to -our contrivance, the plough. The remaining instances cited by Pope are -just as absurd. He strung together fragments of ancient fables, which, -in a modern copy, are neither poetry nor philosophy. - -When families spread, patriarchal government is said by Pope to have -been invariably merged in monarchical. He makes no mention of another -elementary system which prevailed among the ancient Germans, and which -was too natural to have been unfrequent. The tribe was composed of -contiguous families, or clans, each of which had its separate territory. -The head of every clan was ruler within his own domain, and the affairs -which concerned the entire tribe were managed by a general assembly of -the heads of clans. Under this arrangement the representative of the -clan preserved his patriarchal power, and had an equal voice with his -brother chiefs in regulating the common interests of the tribe. Pope -completed his single genealogical principle of government by a rapid -summary of the transitions through which monarchy passed. Conquest led -to tyranny. An ambitious priesthood first threatened the despot with -spiritual terrors, then went shares with him, and the double yoke of -secular and ecclesiastical tyranny was fastened on the necks of mankind. -The oppressed subjects at last rebelled against their rulers, kings were -"forced into virtue by self-defence," and the world returned to the -dominant principle of the state of nature, that "self-love and social -are the same." These meagre doctrines were derived from Bolingbroke, -whose political philosophy was hardly more profound than his moral and -metaphysical; but Pope shows, here and there, that he had read Locke's -treatise on Civil Government, and the passages from Hooker which Locke -quoted, and with such masters to guide him the flimsiness of his views -is without excuse. - -The investigations of Pope conducted him to the final conclusion that -"the true end of all government" is unity among mankind, and he -prescribes the methods by which harmony is to be preserved both in -politics and religion. The panacea which was to cure political divisions -is contained in the couplet, - - For forms of government let fools contest, - Whate'er is best administered is best.[880] - -Good government, that is, depends on good administration; the form of -government is immaterial, and those who battle for one form in -preference to another, are fools. The accusation of folly was thrown -back upon the poet, who grew ashamed of his maxim, and in 1740 he gave -an interpretation to his verses which they cannot be made to bear. "The -author of these lines," he said, "was far from meaning that no one form -of government is, in itself, better than another (as that mixed or -limited monarchy, for example, is not preferable to absolute), but that -no form of government, however excellent or preferable in itself, can be -sufficient to make a people happy unless it be administered with -integrity. On the contrary, the best sort of government, when the form -of it is preserved, and the administration corrupt, is most dangerous." -The concord which was to have been produced by indifference to forms of -government, vanishes with the admission that the form is important. The -qualifying remark, that forms are insufficient when their spirit is -violated, was a truism denied by no one. A corrupt legislature, a -corrupt executive, and corrupt tribunals, would neutralise the benefit -of any constitution with which they could subsist. - -Pope retracted his maxim under the pretence of explaining it. His new -version showed that he did not yet understand the value of forms of -government, or he would not have said that when the administration is -corrupt the best form of government is the most detrimental to the -public. A slight reflection on the History of England, and the nature of -man, must have convinced him that a chief virtue of good forms of -government is the security they afford for the prevention, limitation, -and cure of corruption,--for the subordination of private selfishness to -the common weal. His own epistle would have informed him that when -governors have absolute dominion they "drive through just and unjust" to -gratify their "ambition, lust, and lucre;" and when the power is with -the governed, they will not suffer their rights to be extensively -invaded, but will oblige kings and ministers to "learn justice."[881] -There was a stage of feudalism when the territorial, legislative, and -judicial functions were centered in the lord of the fief. He taxed and -punished his serfs and vassals at pleasure. His covetousness, his -cruelty, his passionate caprices, all developed by uncontrolled habit -and the spirit of the age, could only be resisted by rebellion, and -rebellions he quenched in blood. The sufferings of his people were -atrocious. Pope lived under a vastly superior constitution, which he -believed was corruptly administered, and the detriment to the public -should have been greater, on his principle, than the despotism of feudal -times. The fact was signally the other way. The mediaeval enormities were -no longer possible; person and property were safe, and loyal citizens -lived in peace and security. Laws were not always just, religious and -civil liberty was incomplete, purity in ministers and legislators was -often defective. But there was a limit to corruption, or ministers and -legislators would have been indignantly discarded. They were compelled -in the main to consult the supposed interests of the country, that they -might preserve the power to gratify their private aims. Many of the -evils which existed kept their ground through remaining imperfections in -the constitution. The popular element was too restricted, and the abuses -were diminished when the form of government was improved. - -Pope's receipt for putting an end to political rancour was that the -public should accept his assurance that only fools troubled their heads -about forms of government. His remedy for religious discord was that the -world should receive his dictum that only bad men could attach -importance to religious beliefs: - - For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; - His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.[882] - -Since no one, he says, can have a wrong faith whose life is in the -right, all who fight for modes of faith must be graceless zealots. Two -conclusions are involved in his principle,--the first, that religious -belief and worship are not any necessary part of a life in the right; -the second, that the mode of faith has not the faintest influence upon -moral practice. Without stopping to consider the first point, we have -only to glance at the history of christianity for a decisive refutation -of the second. Thousands upon thousands of "graceless zealots" -contended, at the cost of their lives, for a mode of faith which changed -the face of the world. Pope must have argued that the effect would have -been equal, nay, superior, if christian ethics had been divorced from -christian theology. Apostles and martyrs, then martyrs no more, should -have said to pagans, "Accept our moral precepts, and it matters not -whether you believe that there is one god, or many gods, or no god. It -does not signify whether you believe that the divine nature, and divine -mission of Jesus Christ, was a truth or a pretence, his resurrection a -fact or a fable. It does not even signify whether you believe that there -is any resurrection at all, whether you are convinced that there is an -everlasting reward for the righteous, or are persuaded that wicked and -righteous will both be annihilated. These are only 'modes of faith' -which do not affect morality, and we should be 'graceless zealots' to -insist upon them." Pope produces an additional reason in support of his -principle. "The world," he says, "will disagree in their religious hopes -and faith, but charity is the concern of everybody. Everything which -thwarts this charity must be false, and all things must be of God which -bless or mend mankind."[883] Consequently, Pope's idea of charity was -never to struggle for a doctrine which would provoke disagreement; and -whoever roused opposition by warring against ignorance and error, -proclaimed himself a false teacher by his very zeal to disseminate the -truth. The christian who exposed polytheism could not be a minister of -God, nor could any doctrine "bless and mend" heathens which did not -leave their idolatrous superstitions undisturbed. The principle cannot -be limited to religion. The world disagree in their conceptions of a -"life in the right;" the charity which is "all mankind's concern," would -be violated by questioning the lax ideas which abound; and the -moralists who "fight" for a pure system of ethics, must be classed, in -turn, with "graceless zealots." The triumph of Pope's system would be -the destruction of morality, religion, and charity; for religion and -morality must be dead already when it is acknowledged that zeal for -their purity and propagation is a sin, and the check of religion and -morality being withdrawn, the charity which remained would be that of -the savage and felon. - -Pope set at nought his own maxims. In the name of charity he demanded -that men should not contend for their faith, and he declined to exercise -the charity he enjoined. Everyone with him was a "graceless zealot" who -ventured to dissent from his private decree. This decree, which was to -bind the rest of the world, was not to bind Bolingbroke and himself. -They were both privileged to "fight for modes of faith." Bolingbroke, a -scurrilous deist, whose writings are stuffed with frenzied invectives -against the religious "faith and hope" of the vast majority of the -English people, and who was the true type, in the worst sense, of a -"graceless zealot," is lauded by Pope to the skies for his philosophic -wisdom. Pope, on his own part, maintained in the Essay a controversial -discussion on the origin of evil, and other mysterious topics, which -most of the "zealots" he upbraided were content to leave undetermined. -He laid down the law with dictatorial self-sufficiency, treated the -difficulties of humbler inquirers with scorn, and denounced, in -taunting, contumelious language, the impugners of the government of God. -He offered no reason for excepting the deistical "mode of faith" from -his law, unless we suppose him to have tacitly relied on his assertion -that those who shared his deism were "slaves to no sect, took no private -road, but looked through Nature up to Nature's God."[884] The plea -avails nothing. All who are honest in their opinions believe that they -hold the truth, and that they are not bigoted slaves to private -delusions. Few men could urge the claim with less plausibility than -Pope. His tenets discredited his pretensions. If he looked up to -Nature's God, he, nevertheless, stigmatised those who presumed to study -the God they adored. He believed that God infused wicked passions into -men, that his physical laws were deteriorated by change, and overruled -by chance.[885] He held that the same wicked passions which God poured -into the human mind were originally generated by animal food; his theory -of morals was licentious and contradictory; his opinions in general -incoherent and irreconcileable. He had little cause to boast that he -"took no private road" when there probably did not live a second person -who would have subscribed to his creed. - -The fourth epistle treats of Happiness, and was a supplement imposed on -the poet by Bolingbroke. The professed object was to refute the atheist, -who maintained that the condition of mankind was not regulated by the -rules of justice, and thence inferred that there could be no -superintending Providence. The real intention of the "guide, -philosopher, and friend" was to deprive divines of the argument for the -immortality of the soul which they built upon the want of proportion -between men's conduct and happiness. Pope was partly the dupe of -Bolingbroke, and partly his accomplice. He may not have seen the full -scope of his instructor's lessons, but he knew that they favoured -annihilation, and, to please "the master of the poet and the song," the -poet forbore to assert the opposite belief. His orthodox friends -complained of the omission, and Pope was driven to deny that there was -any connection between the purpose of his Essay and the doctrine of a -future state. After mentioning to Spence that he had omitted the address -to our Saviour by the advice of Berkeley, he added, "One of our priests, -who are more narrow-minded than yours, made a less sensible objection to -the epistle on Happiness. He was very angry that there was nothing said -in it of our eternal happiness hereafter, though my subject was -expressly to treat only of the state of man here."[886] He subsequently -extended the remark to the entire poem. "Some wonder why I did not take -in the fall of man in my Essay, and others how the immortality of the -soul came to be omitted. The reason is plain: they both lay out of my -subject, which was only to consider man as he is in his present state, -not in his past or future."[887] When Pope told Spence that he could not -discuss the fall of man in his Essay, because the "past state" of man -was foreign to his subject, he had forgotten the contents of his third -epistle, which treats of primitive man, the age of innocence, and the -depravation of mankind through eating meat. When he said that a future -state "lay out of his subject," he did not perceive the true bearings of -his promise to "vindicate the ways of God to man,"[888] nor the force of -his own admission that to pronounce upon the fitness of man's nature, to -judge "the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is -necessary first to know what relation it is placed in, and what is the -proper end and purpose of its being."[889] This is the language of -common sense. Man's condition on earth is adapted to his destiny, which -can alone explain and justify his position in the world. The justice and -goodness of the Deity wear a totally different aspect according as we -discover evidence that life is a discipline for immortality, or a -sorrowful transit to annihilation. The first epistle, again, is on the -"nature and state of man with respect to the universe;" and in this -relation of man to the universe, the one inquiry which gives importance -to the rest, is whether we are to have a share in the eternal system of -things, or whether, as the poet says of vegetables, we are mere "bubbles -which rise from the sea of matter, break, and return to it."[890] The -destiny of man was at the root of Pope's subject, and he could not have -thought otherwise unless he had been bent upon accommodating his -philosophy to the infidelity of Bolingbroke. - -The weak attempt to use language which would fit both infidelity and -belief, led to sorry conclusions. Pope allowed that it was God who -instilled into man a hope of immortality, with the object of soothing -him during his earthly career; but the poet was careful to employ -expressions which implied that the hope might be a delusion.[891] He -thus vindicated the ways of God by acknowledging that the Creator of the -universe might be a deceiver. As the hope, which he confessed to be a -promise engraved on the heart of man by the finger of God, might be -false, the fears of future punishment imprinted on the conscience could -not be more trustworthy. The christian who died, exulting, at the stake, -in the flower of his age, a martyr to conscience, and the miscreant, who -went terrified to execution, oppressed by the sense of his crimes, might -both be mocked by the lying voice which spoke through the nature -bestowed on them by their Maker. The poet could see no objection to the -supposition that the Governor of the world might rule by promises he -never intended to keep, and by threats he never intended to enforce. - -The more we look into the nature which the Deity has conferred upon man, -the more untenable Pope's alternative appears. All our best aims,--the -efforts after holiness, love, knowledge, and rational happiness,--are a -progressive work in which the mind is increasingly fitted for the -enjoyment of its aspirations, without once attaining to a satisfactory -realisation of its desires. Especially the Deity is hidden from our -sight; and devout souls would be baulked of the primary purpose of their -existence unless they were to behold him at last. The legitimate -deduction is strengthened when we consider the afflictive methods by -which we advance towards the appointed ends of our being. The toils of -virtuous men, their pangs of body, their anguish of mind, their -sacrifices to duty, their heroic martyrdoms, are irreconcileable with -the wisdom and goodness of the Deity if total extinction is the meed of -victory to the suffering soldier. The painful education of the soul, -which is unintelligible as an abortive preliminary to annihilation, -becomes plain as a preparation to a higher state, in which the purified -spirit enters upon the enjoyment of its regenerated faculties. Pope -disregarded the fundamental principle of his Essay. The burthen of his -argument in his first epistle is that the evils of the world are -explained by the hypothesis that they have an ulterior end. The moral -life of man is the sphere in which we can best perceive the necessity -for the principle, and follow its wise operation; and it was just this -instance of a clear exemplification of his law which Pope was willing to -reject. He admitted that the life of the saint upon earth might require -no sequel, that his brief and self-denying history might properly begin -and end with his passage from the cradle to the grave, that his -implanted hopes and fears might be a deception, the objects proposed to -his faculties a vain enticement, his sufferings a fruitless discipline, -his conquest over sin a barren triumph, his growth in holiness the -signal for resolving him into dust. - -These considerations are not affected by the question of the -distribution of happiness. Rewards and punishments might be meted out -with an even hand, and this life singly would still be quite incompetent -to fulfil the conditions of man's nature. But the pretext of Bolingbroke -is itself unfounded, and he yielded to the exigencies of his infidelity -when he maintained that the world had never furnished examples of -unequal happiness which could call for future redress. Pope's efforts to -prove the paradox are a continuous series of contradictions, -sophistries, and misstatements. "Virtue alone," he says, "is happiness -below," and "God intends happiness to be equal."[892] It follows, from -these premises, that Pope did not mean that all the world were equally -happy. Happiness he holds to be proportioned to virtue; the best men are -the richest in earthly felicity. The supposition is repugnant to -innumerable appearances, and Pope endeavoured to evade them by -contending that happiness is not placed in "externals."[893] "Virtue's -prize," he says, "is the soul's calm sunshine which nothing can -destroy;" and he justly calls men "weak and foolish" who imagine that a -better reward would be "a crown, a coach-and-six, a conqueror's sword," -or the gown which is the badge of official dignity.[894] The fallacy is -upon the surface. "The soul's calm sunshine" may mean peace of -conscience or complete felicity. In the first sense it cannot be -"destroyed" by physical torture; in the second sense, physical torture -overclouds the "sunshine" and disturbs the "calm." It is vain to pretend -that a virtuous man upon the rack has the same amount of mental ease as -when he is in bodily comfort. "Externals" are one element in human -happiness, or the worst persecutions which have desolated the world -could not have occasioned the smallest exceptional sufferings to the -good. "If pain," says Mackintosh, "were not an evil, cruelty would not -be a vice."[895] Pope, in his luxurious retirement at Twickenham, might -exclaim, "Condition, circumstance, is not the thing."[896] He would have -thought differently if he had been the slave of a brutal master, or had -been immured in one of the dungeons called "little-ease," where a -prisoner of stout frame and sturdy principles was sometimes maimed in -the process of squeezing him into a space too small for his coffin. - -Pope's reason for his opinion is weaker than the opinion itself. -"Present ill," he says, "is not a curse, nor present joy a good," since -joy and misery depend on our "future views of better or worse," and "the -balance of happiness" is kept even while the seemingly fortunate are -"placed in fear," and the unfortunate in "hope."[897] "Pope's sylphs," -remarked Fox to Rogers, "are the prettiest invention in the world. He -failed most, I think, in sense; he seldom knew what he meant to -say."[898] Here we have an instance of the failing. His proposition is -that present happiness is independent of "externals," and his argument -asserts that it is not. If "fortune's gifts" invariably fill the -virtuous with "fear," and unfortunate circumstances buoy them up with -"hope," if happiness depends exclusively on "future views of better," -and misery on apprehensions of "worse," it follows that virtue -imprisoned and persecuted is "in joy," and when free and prosperous is -distressed. "Externals" are not, as Pope pretends, indifferent; he has -merely transferred the preponderating weight to the opposite scale. -Adversity is a more exhilarating state than prosperity; the inmate of -"little-ease" was happier than his brethren of kindred virtue who were -at large. Rewards and punishments should be interchanged. Criminals -should be condemned to a life of luxury, and public benefactors should -be sent to jail. The feelings Pope ascribed to the human mind are -fictitious. Fear of reverses which do not appear to be impending, has -little influence in marring enjoyment, and hope alleviates torments -without depriving them of their sting. - -The poet proceeds to unfold more particularly "what the happiness of -individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this -world."[899] All the good that God meant for mankind, "all the joys of -sense, all the pleasures of reason, lie in three words,--health, peace, -and competence."[900] The passage was versified from Bolingbroke, who -for "health" has "health of body," for "peace" has "tranquillity of -mind," and for "competence" has "competency of wealth."[901] Social -intercourse and liberty must be added to the list, or "all the joys of -sense," and all "the pleasures of reason" are compatible with solitary -confinement. Pope flings aside his previous doctrines. Four lines -earlier every individual who had the misfortune to possess "all the joys -of sense" was the slave of fear. Now these accompaniments are pronounced -essential to happiness. Lately happiness was independent of externals, -and now health of body and competency of wealth are declared to be -indispensable. Pope's change of front did not strengthen his position. -As health, peace, and competence are necessary to happiness they must be -constant attendants on worth, or his paradox that happiness is -proportioned to virtue falls to the ground. He accordingly affirmed, in -a suppressed couplet, that "the blessings were only denied to error, -pride, or vice," and the language in the text, to have any pertinency, -must bear the same construction. But will virtue secure health? Yes, -replies Pope, for "health consists with temperance alone," which, for -the purpose of his argument, must mean that all the temperate are -healthy. Safe from casualties, infection, and every other disorder, they -bear about with them a charmed life, and die at last in a good old age. -The poet passes over "competence," and in a subsequent part of his -epistle allows that "virtue sometimes starves."[902] - -He had no sooner resolved happiness into "health, peace, and -competence," and claimed them for virtue, than he admits that vice may -be "blessed" and virtue "cursed," or afflicted. A fresh assumption is -introduced to restore the balance. "Contempt," he says, dogs "vice;" -"compassion" attends upon "virtue."[903] The new powers are not more -competent to the task assigned them than the hope and fear he had -invoked before. Men who are not truly virtuous, and yet not infamous for -vice, have frequently troops of friends, and meet with none of the -contempt which is to bring down their happiness to the standard of their -worth. Virtue, on the other hand, instead of rousing the compassion of -those who could protect it, has, in numberless instances, provoked -persecution, bonds, and death. Where the virtue is not the cause of the -misery the sufferers are often not in contact with the compassion, or -the sympathy is far from being an equivalent for the sorrow. Heaping -fallacy upon fallacy Pope falls back upon the plea that "virtue disdains -the advantages of prosperous vice."[904] Disdains the vicious means but -constantly longs for the prosperous end. The martyr to conscience when -shut up in "little-ease" was not indifferent to liberty. His compressed -body, his cramped limbs, the deprivation of light, fresh air, books, and -friends were horrible torture. There could be no stronger proof that -happiness was not proportioned to virtue than that his "disdain of -vice" should have compelled him to accept the alternative of a dungeon. - -Hitherto Pope has argued that our virtue is the measure of our -happiness. He next descends to the subsidiary proposition that "no man -is unhappy through virtue," which means that the disasters of the -virtuous are never the consequences of their virtue; they are the "ills -and accidents that chance to all."[905] The proposition contains two -assertions,--the first that virtue never brings upon us "ills and -accidents," the second that it cannot protect us from them. Under the -first head Pope points to the heroes who perished fighting for their -country, and tells us that they did not meet their fate from "virtue," -but from "contempt of life."[906] The martyrs to conscience may be -reckoned by hundreds of thousands, and Pope would have us understand -that none of them braved death in obedience to duty; they were simply -weary of existence. He would deprive humanity of its noblest triumphs -that virtue may be absolved from its manifest effects. He glides lightly -over the absurd pretence that virtue has never entailed suffering, and -dwells upon the second half of his proposition,--his admission that -virtuous and wicked are equally exposed to "ills and accidents." Good -and bad men, he says, are alike subjected to the laws of nature, and God -will not "reverse these laws for his favourites." A falling wall crushes -passengers without regard to virtue or vice;[907] blind forces take no -cognisance of morality. The doctrine is inadmissible; the laws of nature -cannot supersede the providence of God. Man's welfare and very existence -are at the mercy of many human and material agencies which man is unable -to anticipate or control. The Almighty preserves a glorious order in his -physical laws, and it is incredible that he should permit a chaos in the -highest department of our globe. He would not guard against -irregularities in the action of insensate matter, and allow good men to -be the sport of the endless hazards of life. The conclusions of reason -are confirmed by revelation. "Are not two sparrows," says our Lord, -"sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground -without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. -Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."[908] He -who sees from the beginning the entire chain of causes and effects, can -devise laws which will provide for particular cases without any -subsequent interference. Or a man may be protected from a falling wall -by a sudden impulse to his mind whereby he may forget to go, or have a -motive to loiter, or to hasten forward, or to take another road.[909] Or -there may be a temporary interference with mechanical laws; or the -Almighty may use methods inconceivable by us. Not that his -superintendence implies that his servants are safe from any of the -ordinary operations of natural laws. Habitually to exempt the good would -be to abolish prudence in their dealings with physical forces, and to -engender presumption in the region of morals. The insecurity which keeps -virtue vigilant and faithful, the hardy discipline which draws out -ennobling energies, and corrects baser properties, would be turned to -carelessness and corruption. The interests of the virtuous will not -permit that they should be constant and conspicuous exceptions to the -common lot. But the "ills and accidents" never strike at random. The -human race is not with the Deity an abstract conception. He beholds -every creature in its individuality, and shields and chastens each by -the rules of a wisdom which can never be suspended. The idea we frame of -his attributes negatives the hypothesis of Pope. God cannot fail to -establish a harmony between physical laws, and the dispensation which -befits each particular man. - -In admitting that calamities befall mankind without reference to virtue -and vice, Pope was drawn into statements which completely upset his -principle that happiness is always proportioned to desert. He asks if -virtue "made Digby, the son, expire, why his father lives full of days -and honour?"[910] He might be asked in turn, why, if good men in this -life have an equal share of happiness, the father should have lived -fifty years longer than the son? For happiness to be equal there must be -an equality of duration as well as of degree. He grants that "virtue -sometimes starves," and thinks it enough to answer, in the face of -historical facts, that virtue does not occasion the destitution. -"Bread," he says, "is the price of toil, not of virtue, and the good man -may be weak, be indolent."[911] Indolence is a vice, and irrelevant to -the discussion. The weakness may be a misfortune, and Lazarus is not -less deserving because he is covered with sores. Or the "good man" may -be neither "indolent" nor "weak," and yet be starved, which happened to -thousands of protestants who were driven from their homes and -employments by the callous bigotry of Louis XIV. Whatever the cause of -the starvation, the balance of happiness is disturbed, and Pope, to mask -the flaw in his argument, added that the "claim" of starving virtue was -not "to plenty, but content."[912] Now contentment is of two kinds. -There is a contentment of happiness which is incompatible with excessive -suffering, and a contentment of resignation which acquiesces in the -severest dispensations of Providence. St. Paul said in the latter sense, -"I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,"[913] -which does not prevent his speaking repeatedly of the afflictions he -endured, or keep him from asserting that "no chastening for the present -seemeth to be joyous, but grievous."[914] Of this type is the -contentment of starving virtue,--a patient submission to trial, and not -the contentment which is required to produce equality of happiness. -Human nature has been denied the capacity for neutralising all degrees -of anguish. Pope straightway slides off into the subterfuge that the -craving for bread is "a demand for riches." He inveighs against the -rapacious desire, and insists that nothing will satisfy man.[915] He -undertook to prove that happiness is proportioned to virtue, and finding -his text too hard for him he substitutes an invective against insane -discontent. - -A few undoubted truths are appended to the main argument of Pope. He -says that only a fool will think a man with health, and a clear -conscience, hated by God because he lacks a thousand a year.[916] He -tells us that genuine honour and shame are dependent on conduct, and not -on high or low station,[917] and that titles, power, fame, etc., are -insufficient to make bad men happy.[918] He comes to the instance of -"superior parts," and the inconsistency recommences. He supposes the -great intellect to be combined with learning, wisdom, and patriotic -virtue.[919] Out of compliment to his "guide, philosopher, and friend," -Pope takes Bolingbroke for the typical example of this imposing union of -lofty qualities. In him we are to behold the universal fate of generous, -philanthropic wisdom. He "is condemned to drudge in business or in arts" -without any one to "second" him, or "judge" him rightly. He aspires "to -teach truths, and save a sinking land; few understand, all fear, and -none aid him." When he "drudged in arts" the world received coldly his -wordy rhetoric. When he "drudged in business" the country only saw in -him an intriguer for power. Novel ideas in politics, signal originality -in literature, often work their way slowly. Genius and patriotism have -faith in their conceptions, and are not daunted by opposition. The -public spirit which has to battle at all can seldom be placed under -softer conditions than Bolingbroke enjoyed. He had every luxury of a -civilised age; he had health and energy; he had unbroken leisure; he had -books at will; he had freedom to say and write what he pleased; he was -safe from every injury to person and property. Virtuous patriotism, -sitting at ease in a delightful library, and surrounded by blessings, -might be expected to exert itself with cheerful hope to enlighten a -tasteless and misguided nation. Quite the reverse. "Painful -pre-eminence!" exclaims Pope, and he declares that Bolingbroke by being -"above life's weakness" is above "its comforts too." The moral is that -wisdom is not to be desired; the pain exceeds the benefit. Happiness is -proportioned to virtue under the worst conditions of brutal persecution, -and yet wise and virtuous patriots, in the midst of the comforts of -life, are deprived of every comfort in life by the lamentable -circumstance that they are "above life's weakness." - -There are many more contradictions in Pope's epistle, which is a tissue -of inconsistency and incoherence. He might have maintained a less -absolute doctrine with complete success. He might have shown that the -inequalities are less than they appear on a superficial view. He might -have pointed out that ultimate happiness can only arise from the conduct -which puts us at peace with ourselves and with God. He might have dwelt -on the satisfaction which lifts up the mind when conscience asserts its -majesty, and refuses to make the least concession to suffering. The -remaining disproportion between happiness and virtue is vindicated by -the moral blessing of affliction, which by fitting man for happiness -prepares the way for perfect harmony between happiness and virtue in a -blessed immortality. Trials, in the magnificent phrase of Shakespeare, -are "our outward consciences."[920] The pains of the last sickness which -precedes death are the consistent termination to the scheme. Good men -die as they have lived, in more or less suffering, that the work of life -may be completed,--that their better qualities may be developed and -strengthened, the remains of evil laid bare and extinguished. And though -all men are not submitted to the same tests either in their lives or -their deaths, the endless variety in their dispositions accounts for the -diversity in their circumstances. The Almighty Being who alone knows the -secrets of the heart adapts the "outward conscience" to the inward. - -There is a weightier question than the distribution of happiness. Of the -innumerable discussions on the theory of morals by far the most -important is whether the end we propose to ourselves should be -self-interest or virtue. Pope adopted the selfish system without -reserve. The two principles, he says, which govern man, "self-love and -reason, aspire to one end, pleasure," and since their end is the same, -he accused the schoolmen of being "at war about a name" when they -refused to confound them.[921] He apparently had not a suspicion that -schoolmen, or any one else, had ever imagined that reason could reveal -another end to man than interest well understood. He reverts to his -selfish system in the epistle on Happiness, and proclaims in the first -line that "happiness is our being's end and aim." Virtue, the love of -God and man, are only means to promote our individual happiness, and -selfishness is, and ought to be, the supreme end of every creature. The -doctrine, as we have seen, when discussing Pope's second epistle, -contradicts the universal human conscience. The theoretical falsehood is -fruitful in disastrous results. The moral law, the law of good in -itself, is greater than the individual, and he bows down before its -inviolable sanctity, its absolute right to dominion. He is raised above -personal consequences. He knows that the universal law of good embraces -his good, and the reflection helps to sustain him in his trials, but his -main end is to fulfil a law which is superior to his individual -happiness, and which binds him by its intrinsic sacredness, and -independent authority. He dares not overrule it by his passing -inclinations, and endures all things rather than be guilty of a -sacrilegious encroachment on its integrity. The man, on the contrary, -whose one end is happiness, and who considers virtue to be simply the -means for compassing the end, has nothing outside himself which is of -the least importance to him, except in so far as it can be made -subservient to his personal felicity. Creator and creation are only -viewed as ministers to his unmitigated selfishness. Governed by this -single self-indulgent idea, and deriving no strength from the separate -supremacy of the moral law, he is ill prepared for a life of sacrifice. -He cannot forego in the present the happiness which he conceives to be -the sole end of his being, and he prefers immediate ease to interest -well-understood. The system of Pope was the doctrine of Epicurus. He, -too, taught that pleasure was "the end and aim" of man, and virtue the -only effectual means. His followers soon disregarded the means in their -impatience to reach the end, and epicureanism became synonymous with -grovelling sensuality. In vain we oppose the selfishness of a -long-sighted prudence to the selfishness of the hour. "Prudence," as -Kant says, only "counsels," and the steady ascendency over temptation is -reserved for the virtue which "commands." Common language proclaims the -intuitive principle of the mind. No man, not lost to shame, could -venture to say, "I must tell truth because it is prudent;" he says, "I -must be truthful because it is right." - -Pope had not the remotest idea that he was an epicurean. He believed -that his system of ethics, with happiness for an end and virtue for the -means, was new to philosophy, and he did not hesitate to state that all -"the learned" who preceded him had been "blind."[922] He exemplified his -assertion by the instance of the epicureans and stoics. The stoics -reversed the terms of the epicurean formula; virtue alone was their end, -and happiness, the spontaneous, unsought consequence. The real -characteristics of these great rival schools were unknown to Pope. He -described them by false contrasts, and ignorantly charged them with the -folly of defining "happiness to be happiness." Greatest wonder of all, -he alleged against the epicurean doctrine, which was his own, that it -"sunk men to beasts."[923] He would naturally expound the systems he -understood the best, and hence we may estimate the extent of his -qualifications for dismissing every previous ethical theory with -compendious contempt. A sentence from Bolingbroke bears witness to the -scanty knowledge of Pope, and discloses the source of his scorn. "I -think," writes Bolingbroke, "you are not extremely conversant in the -works of Plato, and you may suspect therefore that I aggravate the -impertinence of his doctrines."[924] The impertinent doctrines were a -portion of the divine platonic ethics, and Pope, uninstructed in the -most famous systems of the ancients, did but reiterate the superficial -contempt of his master. - -In place of the "mad opinions" of learned moralists, Pope enjoins us to -"take nature's path,"[925] little dreaming that he was repeating the -maxim of the sects he despised. "The perfection of man," says Diogenes -Laertius, quoting Zeno, the founder of the stoic school, "is to follow -nature, and that is to live virtuously, for nature leads us to that." -All the moralists accepted nature for their oracle; but the scholars -gave different versions of her responses. Pope in his second epistle -insisted that man was too weak to interpret them. A Newton, he said, who -could "climb from art to art" would inevitably be baffled in morals, for -whatever "reason wove, passion would undo."[926] In the fourth epistle -the difficulty has vanished; "all states can reach, all heads conceive" -happiness, and its parent morality; "there needs but thinking right, and -meaning well."[927] To think rightly and do rightly, which was before -impossible for even the lords of human kind, is declared to be within -easy reach of all the world. Nature spoke with two voices to Pope, and -what one voice affirmed the other denied. - -Able writers have sometimes ridiculed the precept, "Follow nature," -which means the laws of human nature, not perceiving that they were the -necessary foundation of morals. "The way to be happy," says the -philosopher in Rasselas, "is to live according to nature, in obedience -to that universal, and unalterable law, with which every heart is -originally impressed." "Sir," answers the prince, "I doubt not the truth -of a position which a man so learned has so confidently advanced. Let me -only know what it is to live according to nature." The philosopher -replies in unintelligible jargon, and Johnson adds, "The prince soon -found that this was one of the sages whom he should understand less as -he heard him longer."[928] The unreflecting disdain shows poorly by the -side of Butler's comment on the maxim. "The ancient moralists," he -said, "had some inward feeling or other, which they chose to express in -this manner, that man is born to virtue, that it consists in following -nature, and that vice is more contrary to this nature than tortures or -death. They had a perception that injustice was contrary to their -nature, and that pain was so also. They observed these two perceptions -totally different, not in degree, but in kind, and the reflecting upon -each of them, as they thus stood in their nature, wrought a full -intuitive conviction that more was due, and of right belonged to one of -these inward perceptions than to the other; that it demanded in all -cases to govern such a creature as man."[929] Apart from revelation we -can have no other knowledge of morality than nature affords. Honestly -interrogated nature does not put us off with unmeaning ambiguities. As -we learn through our appetites that we are intended to eat and drink, so -a higher faculty informs us that we are to govern our appetites, and the -whole of our being, by the supreme principles we call duty. Every time -we have a consciousness that our conduct is right or wrong, every time -we condemn or applaud the vice and virtue of our fellow men, every time -the law enforces justice and punishes injustice, we confess that duty is -in accordance with nature. The precept, "follow nature," is the rational -injunction to contemplate virtue in its inner source that we may see it -in its purity, and recognise its right to supremacy. If Pope had kept to -the precept, and remembered that for parents intentionally to train up -children in iniquity is the height of infamy, he would hardly have -imagined that "the Deity poured fierce ambition into Caesar's mind." If -he had reflected that we condemn follies and vanities, he would not have -supposed that they were a provision of the Deity for our comfort. If he -had consulted conscience, and noticed that it instructs us to love good -in itself as well as our own good, to love God and our neighbour as an -end as well as a means, he would not have taught that the motive to -virtue was unmingled selfishness. If he had been at the trouble to -remark that duty takes in the whole circle of existence, and imposes -immutable laws, he would not have embraced the doctrine that moral -government was carried on by ruling passions which set up different -principles of action in different individuals, and in every instance -narrow life to an exclusive, and usually vicious propensity. The -observation of nature would have saved Pope from these, and many other -errors, which were the consequence of his piecing together bits of -theories from books without submitting them to the test he recommended -to his readers. - -The deepest ethical thinkers have seldom, in all things, been faithful -interpreters of nature. Their errors, often momentous, had a different -origin from those of Pope. Few persons trace back moral impressions to -the principles from which they flow. They act on the intuitive -conceptions which precede philosophy, and which, not being pared and -twisted to fit a theory, are as comprehensive as nature. The philosopher -classifies the implanted propensities and convictions, describes them -with precision, and brings them into stronger relief. But what he gains -in distinctness he is apt to lose in breadth; he curtails while he -elucidates. His ambition is to discover simplicity in complexity, unity -in variety, and he dismembers nature that he may reduce the phenomena -within the limits of a general law. Zeno and Epicurus are examples of -the tendency. They agreed that man had properly only a single end to -which his whole being should be directed. The epicureans said that this -end, or chief good, was pleasure, which depends on personal feeling; the -stoic said it was virtue, the submission to the universal rule of right, -which is above personal preferences. An ordinary mortal who does not -philosophise, and has no care to force nature into the mould of an -hypothesis, never questions that he is constituted for the double end of -happiness and virtue. The two often clash, and he is not perplexed by -the impossibility of satisfying both. When one must yield he knows that -virtue is paramount, and he usually believes that the present sacrifice -of happiness to virtue will be succeeded by a kingdom in which they will -be finally reconciled. The partial doctrine set up by the stoic kept -virtue on her high, heroic throne; the doctrine of the epicurean -degraded her into the slave of pleasure: the first school ennobled, the -second debased human nature, but both mutilated it. Each system came -into contact with facts which compelled its adherents to be inconsistent -or absurd, and enlightened disciples preferred inconsistency to -absurdity. This passion for general laws at the expense of truth is -conspicuous throughout the whole history of philosophy. The profoundest -investigators have been prone to select single aspects of many-sided -nature, and make the part the law for the whole. The false -generalisation impels the theorist to suppress and distort refractory -phenomena, or he endeavours to hide under transparent evasions his -deviations from his hypothesis, or he lapses into contradictions from -which he turns away his eyes, not wishing to perceive them. The spurious -unity, which is the infirmity of philosophers, was not the vice of Pope. -He adopted, on the contrary, a chaos of principles which were mutually -destructive. He accepted contributions from any school, because he -understood none. He was so unversed in philosophy that in the account -which he drew up of his "Design," he asserted that the science of human -nature was reduced to "a few clear points," and that the "disputes" were -all on the details. His "design" was to keep to the "few clear points" -which alone, in his opinion, were of much importance to mankind. They -were principally the origin of evil, the theory of morals, the origin of -government and society. The "clear points" had produced whole libraries -of controversy, the "disputes" had descended in full vigour to Pope's -day, and they have continued undiminished on to ours. His own solutions -of the problems were contradictory, and he was hopelessly at war with -himself on the very topics for which he claimed universal peace. He did -not depart in his "Design" from his habit of self-contradiction, and the -moment he had stated that there were no disputes on the general -principles, he took credit for "steering betwixt the extremes of -doctrines seemingly opposite." He at the same time arrogated for his -"system of ethics" the special "merit" that it was "not inconsistent." -He had just enough knowledge to seduce him into an unconscious exposure -of his ignorance. His delusions are intelligible when we learn the -nature of his philosophical training. "I write to you, and for you," -says Bolingbroke, "and you would think yourself little obliged to me if -I took the pains of explaining in prose what you would not think it -necessary to explain in verse, and in the character of a poetical -philosopher who may dwell in generalities."[930] Bolingbroke wrote to -instruct Pope, and Pope only cared to learn the "generalities" he was to -put into verse. He never acquired the elements of philosophy; he had -merely been furnished with materials for a philosophical poem. The few -ideas he gleaned at random from other sources served no better end than -to increase the confusion. He said "he chose verse" because it was more -concise and impressive than prose.[931] The alleged choice was -necessity. His meagre knowledge would have been ludicrous in a formal -treatise. The ceremonious robe of verse was essential to conceal the -deformed and diminutive body. - -De Quincey thought that the "formal exposure of Pope's -hollow-heartedness" would be most profitably accomplished by laying open -thoroughly the ethical argument of the Essay on Man. He declined the -task as too long and polemical for an article in a journal, but he -stated his views in general terms. He said that the poem "sinned chiefly -by want of central principle, and by want therefore of all coherency -amongst the separate thoughts." He objects that the sense will vary with -the nature of the connecting links we supply, and he ascribes the -opposite interpretations of Crousaz and Warburton to the ambiguity which -leaves readers the choice of "a loyal or treasonable meaning."[932] He -imputes the fault to the impossibility of completing the argument -without spoiling the poetry, and to the superficial nature of Pope's -studies, "if study we can call a style of reading so desultory as his." -This vagrant habit of mind he attributes to "luxurious indolence." "The -poet," he says, "fastidiously retreated from all that threatened labour. -He fluttered among the flower-beds of literature or philosophy far more -in the character of a libertine butterfly for casual enjoyment, than of -a hard-working bee pursuing a premeditated purpose."[933] Indolence -cannot justly be charged upon Pope. He plodded at his art with the -steadiness of a man who follows a regular calling.[934] His ignorance of -philosophy, his want of due preparation for his Essay, arose from -defects of understanding, and not from a moral infirmity of will. He was -self-educated, and had never penetrated in his youth by regular and -sustained approaches to the heart of any difficult science. He skimmed -literature to pick up sentiments which could be versified, and to learn -attractive forms of composition. His mind took the set of his early -habits, and he appears in manhood to have had no conception of -philosophical thought, no glimmer of the combination of philosophical -details into an integral design. His works abound in isolated ideas -which are marked by sound sense, and side by side with them are many -idle or extravagant notions, and glaring contradictions. The pieces were -not struck off at a heat. They were built up slowly, composed patiently, -and corrected repeatedly. He never spared pains, and the want of -reflection his works discover was the fault of an intellect unconscious -of its weaknesses. To him the disjointed bits of philosophy presented no -gaps. He says in his "Design" that the system "was short yet not -imperfect." He believed that the conciseness added to "the force as well -as grace of his arguments," and that he had nowhere "sacrificed -perspicuity to ornament, wandered from precision, or broken the chain of -the reasoning." His love of fame would have prevented his sending forth -knowingly a weak and fragmentary poem. His moral apathy did not -therefore consist in the self-indulgent negligence which refuses to put -itself to a strain. The moral offence was in another direction,--in the -ambiguities which were intended to pass off the Essay for anti-christian -with infidels, and for christian with believers, and which resulted in -Pope's adoption of the first interpretation under Bolingbroke, and of -the second under Warburton. The dereliction of principle was worse than -De Quincey supposed. He has equally underrated the blots in the -philosophy when he imagined that Pope erred only by omissions. The -"chasms" in his ethics are trifling compared to the radical vice of his -doctrines, and the repeated conflict of jarring systems. The "audacious -dogmatism and insolent quibbles"[935] of Warburton would not have been -needed in expanding an abbreviated argument. He had to distort the -obvious meaning of Pope in order to produce a semblance of consistency, -and he has still oftener left the language of the text without comment -because it was beyond the power of shameless misinterpretation to effect -an ostensible harmony. - -The judgments on the Essay on Man have been very various. "It appears to -me," says Voltaire, "the most beautiful, the most useful, the most -sublime didactic poem that has ever been written in any language." He -said on another occasion that Pope "carried the torch into the abyss of -being, and that the art of poetry, sometimes frivolous, and sometimes -divine, was in him useful to the human race."[936] Voltaire had a -twofold reason for his admiration. As a hater of christianity he hailed -in the Essay the championship of natural religion against revealed, and -as an author he delighted in the rhymed philosophy which was the staple -of his own prosaic verse. Marmontel joined in the praise of the poet, -but formed a juster estimate of the moralist. "Pope has shown," he said, -"how high poetry could soar on the wings of philosophy. But he had -adopted a system which presented terrible difficulties, and in reply to -the complaints of man on the misery of his condition he usually offers -images for proofs, and abuse for reasons."[937] The censure is just. -Pope loves to silence objections by vilifying mankind, and calling his -adversaries impious, proud, and fools. Dugald Stewart agreed with -Voltaire. "The Essay on Man," he says, "is the noblest specimen of -philosophical poetry which our language affords; and, with the exception -of a very few passages, contains a valuable summary of all that human -reason has been able hitherto to advance in justification of the moral -government of God."[938] The "few faulty passages" were subsequently -specified by Stewart, and such is the power of sound to withdraw the -mind from the sense that this able metaphysician overlooked the -fundamental errors of the poem, albeit they contradicted his own ethical -views. Hazlitt differs as much from Stewart as Marmontel did from -Voltaire. "The Essay on Man," he tells us, "is not Pope's best work. All -that he says, 'the very words and to the self-same tune,' would prove -just as well that whatever is is wrong, as that whatever is is -right."[939] The remark is but a slight exaggeration of the truth. The -logic of assertion, and often of vituperative assertion, in which Pope -abounded, is available for every system, and his admission that God is -the instigator of evil was a fit foundation for a pessimist philosophy. -De Quincey's opinion is the most unfavourable of all. "If the question," -he says, "were asked, What ought to have been the best among Pope's -poems? most people would answer, the Essay on Man. If the question were -asked, What is the worst? all people of judgment would say, the Essay on -Man. Whilst yet in its rudiments this poem claimed the first place by -the promise of its subject; when finished, by the utter failure of its -execution, it fell into the last."[940] "Execution" is used by De -Quincey in its widest sense, and includes the philosophy of the Essay. -This we have endeavoured to estimate, and have now to speak of the -poetry. - -"In my mind," says Lord Byron, writing of Pope, "the highest of all -poetry is ethical poetry, as the highest of all earthly objects must be -moral truth," and he adds that "ethical or didactic poetry requires more -mind, more wisdom, more power" than all the "descriptions" of natural -scenery that were ever penned, "and all the epics that ever were founded -upon fields of battle."[941] To the assertion that ethical poets -transcended all other poets in genius, Hazlitt answered, that the "mind, -wisdom, and power" is displayed in the "philosophic invention," and as -this "rests with the first author of a moral truth," or moral theory, a -copyist is not great because he gives a metrical form to an ethical -common-place. "The decalogue," he says, "as a practical prose -composition, or as a body of moral laws and precepts, is of sufficient -weight and authority, but we should not regard the putting of this into -heroic verse as an effort of the highest poetry."[942] To the assertion -that ethical poetry must take precedence of all other poetry, "because -moral truth and moral conduct are of such vast and paramount concernment -in human life," Hazlitt answered, that "it did not follow that they were -the better for being put into rhyme." "This reasoning," he continues, -"reminds us of the critic who said that the only poetry he knew of, good -for anything, was the four lines beginning 'Thirty days hath September,' -for that these were really of some use in finding out the number of days -in the different months of the year. The rules of arithmetic are -important in many respects, but we do not know that they are the fittest -subjects of poetry."[943] The reply of Hazlitt is conclusive. Lord Byron -had confounded the importance of facts with their fitness for poetry, -the repetition of a truth with the genius which discovers it. He was "in -a great passion," says De Quincey, "and wrote up Pope by way of writing -down others," the others being Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge.[944] -He had taken a false measure of his men. They were too strong in their -own poetical convictions to be mortified by the absurdities of an -intemperate rival. - -The error of Byron was akin to the misconception of the office of -didactic poems, which De Quincey exposed in his criticism on Pope's -Essay on Man. "As a term of convenience," he says, "didactic may serve -to discriminate one class of poetry, but didactic it cannot be in -philosophic rigour without ceasing to be poetry." If the object of -Armstrong had been to teach Medicine, of Dyer to produce a manual for -shepherds and cloth manufacturers, of Philips to write a treatise for -gardeners and makers of cider, he maintains that it would have been -idiotcy to begin by putting on the fetters of metre. He remarks that a -worse restriction is the necessity of omitting a vast variety of -details, and capital sections of the subject, and that in the constant -need to forego either poetry or instruction the poet never hesitates to -abandon the instruction. The true object, he conceives, of a didactic -poem is to bring out the "circumstances of beautiful form, feeling, -incident, or any other interest" which lurk in didactic topics. The -sentiment which the tutor neglects the poet evolves, and he introduces -utilitarian knowledge for the sole purpose of eliciting an element -distinct from its bare, prosaic utility.[945] This is the rational -theory. In Pope's generation, and for some years afterwards, a different -idea was widely prevalent. "The end of the didactic poem," says -Marmontel, "is to instruct. It were to be wished that the principles of -the most important arts should all be reduced to verse. It is thus that -at the birth of letters all useful truths were consigned to memory. To -bring back the didactic poem to its primitive utility ought to be the -object of emulation to the poets of an age of light."[946] The system -which Marmontel recommended for an age of light was only fitted for an -age of darkness. The utility of a didactic work depends on its lucidity, -its precision, and its fullness. The use is defeated if the instruction -is fragmentary, incoherent, circuitous, and cumbrous. When men emerge -from ignorance, and when knowledge begins to grow systematic and exact, -the employment of verse for expounding arts, sciences, philosophy, and -history becomes puerile and impotent. The moment they are brought under -the dominion of the enlightened understanding the freedom of prose is -essential to unfold them with clearness, completeness, and accuracy. The -suggestion of Marmontel for restoring didactic poetry to its primitive -use was the way to reduce it to imbecility. The events of English -history are of greater moment than the cutting off Miss Fermor's curl, -and an English history in verse would be "higher poetry" according to -Byron, more "useful poetry" according to Marmontel, than the Rape of the -Lock. In reality it would not be high or useful, poetry or history, but -simply a folly. The didactic poets who had a truer comprehension of the -nature of poetry, and who endeavoured to render the rules of an art or -science subservient to poetic effect, have seldom succeeded. The -inherent, prosaic element preponderated, and the Arts of Poetry, -Criticism, Translating Verse, etc. are for the most part dreary -compositions which afford as little delight as instruction. - -Bolingbroke had right conceptions of the characteristics of didactic -poetry, and he imparted his views to Pope. "Should the poet," he says, -"make syllogisms in verse, or pursue a long process of reasoning in the -didactic style, he would be sure to tire his reader on the whole, like -Lucretius, though he reasoned better than the Roman, and put into some -parts of his work the same poetical fire. He must contract, he may -shadow, he has a right to omit whatever will not be cast in the poetic -mould, and when he cannot instruct he may hope to please. In short, it -seems to me, that the business of the philosopher is to dilate, to -press, to prove, to convince, and that of the poet to hint, to touch his -subject with short and spirited strokes, to warm the affections, and to -speak to the heart."[947] Bolingbroke's theory of poetry was superior to -his practical taste. He said that all Pope's writings were pre-eminent -for "the happy association of great coolness of judgment with great heat -of imagination." "Pope's Essay on Criticism," he says again, "was the -work of his childhood almost; but is such a monument of good sense and -poetry as no other, that I know, has raised in his riper years."[948] -The man who could discover transcendent poetry in the Essay on -Criticism, and great heat of imagination in all Pope's writings, could -have had but a faint, diluted perception of the imaginative and poetic. -His belief that the ethical philosophy of the Essay on Man could be -brought under his law of didactic poetry was a fresh instance of his -want of insight into the demands both of poetry and philosophy. A system -of philosophy cannot be conveyed in elegant extracts. "Every part," says -de Quincey, "depends upon every other part: in such a nexus of truths, -to insulate is to annihilate. Severed from each other the parts lose -their support, their coherence, their very meaning; you have no liberty -to reject or choose." It was not enough for Pope to detail his system. -He had to vindicate, and establish it. "In his theme," continues De -Quincey, "everything is polemic; you move only through dispute, you -prosper only by argument and never-ending controversy. There is not -positively one capital proposition or doctrine about man, about his -origin, his nature, his relations to God, or his prospects, but must be -fought for with energy, watched at every turn with vigilance, and -followed into endless mazes, not under the choice of the writer, but -under the inexorable dictation of the argument. Here lay the -impracticable dilemma for Pope's Essay on Man. To satisfy the demands of -the subject was to defeat the objects of poetry. To evade the demands in -the way that Pope has done, is to offer us a ruin for a palace."[949] - -The poetry could not escape without injury. The philosophic pretensions -Pope advanced at the outset compelled him to embark in prosaic -arguments; the philosophy and the poetry were mutually destructive. Left -to himself he would have kept to his "ethics in the Horatian way," to -the sketches of character, and reflections upon human conduct, which -constitute his Moral Essays. His "guide" dictated to him a more -ambitious philosophy,--not the "divine philosophy which is musical as -Apollo's lute,"[950] which touches tender feelings, and appeals to the -intuitive moral emotions, but a hybrid philosophy too scholastic to move -the heart, and too meagre and perplexed to satisfy the understanding. - -The false scheme of embodying scientific philosophy in verse determined -in advance the failure of the Essay on its poetic side. There might be -passages of good poetry, but not a good poem. "The episodes in the Essay -on Man," says Hazlitt, "the description of the poor Indian, and the lamb -doomed to death, are all the unsophisticated reader ever remembers of -that much talked of production."[951] The remark which Hazlitt employed -to condemn the Essay, was used by Bowles in its favour. The ethics, in -his eyes, were only the groundwork for poetical embroidery. "We hardly," -he said, "think of the philosophy, whether it is good or bad," and he -represented the reader hurried away by the finished and touching -pictures of the Indian and the lamb, which are exceptions to the -didactic tenor of the poem, and speak to the sympathies of mankind. -Hazlitt's application of the criticism was correct, and the eulogy, or -apology, put forward by Bowles, was really censure. The happy episodes -are but a fragment of the four epistles. The rest is designed for -philosophical reasoning, and if we hardly think of the philosophy, there -is little left except sound. The philosophy is not dimmed by the blaze -of poetry. There is no splendour of imagery, no brilliancy of idea to -overshadow the argument, and the sole reason the philosophy fails to -take hold of the mind is because it is vague and disconnected, because -the whole, as De Quincey says, "is the realisation of anarchy."[952] The -want of philosophic unity might have been largely compensated by the -personal unity of strong conviction; the earnest faith and feelings of -the man might have stood in the place of the scientific completeness of -the subject. In nothing was Pope more deficient. For personal -convictions he substituted any discordant notion which he fancied would -look well in verse, and the Essay is no more bound together by the -pervading spirit of individual sentiment than by logical connection. The -languid inattention which the poem invites is seen in the statement of -Bowles that there is "a nice precision in every word." No one could -attempt to get at Pope's meaning without being frequently tormented by -the difficulty, and sometimes the impossibility, of interpreting his -lax, indeterminate language. "Hardly thinking of the philosophy," Bowles -did not observe that there was often a lamentable want of precision in -Pope's conceptions, and when these are misty and confused, the -expression of them cannot be rigorous and definite. Loose and ambiguous -phraseology was not the only fault of style. The use of inversions, and -of unlicensed, elliptical modes of speech, was a cardinal blemish in -Pope's poetry. The failing reached its height in the Essay on Man. Many -of the contortions are barbarous, and were enough of themselves to -dispel the delusion that Pope was distinguished by correctness of -composition. His grammatical faults, when not deliberate to force a -rhyme, are comparatively venial. Such oversights are found in all -authors, and proceed from inadvertence; they are little more than -clerical errors. The deformities of vicious construction are of a -different order. They arose from defect of literary power, from the -incapacity to reconcile the requirements of verse with the rules of -English. The maimed and distorted language obscures the sense, destroys -or debases the poetry, and lessens the general impression of his genius. -The Essay was altogether a mistake. A slip from a neighbour's tree was -planted in an uncongenial soil, and the cultivation bestowed upon it -produced little more than feeble rootlets, and sickly shoots. - -M. Taine asserts that from the Restoration to the French Revolution, -from Waller to Johnson, from Hobbes and Temple to Robertson and Hume, -all our literature, both prose and verse, bears the impress of classic -art. The mode, he says, culminated in the reign of Queen Anne, and Pope, -he considers, was the extreme example of it. The characteristics which -M. Taine ascribes to the classic era are, in the matter, common-place -truths, and, in the manner, a style finished and artificial,--noble -language, oratorical pomp, and studied correctness. Poetry ceased to be -inventive; the very composition is uniform, and the obvious or borrowed -thoughts are all cast in one mould. Verse is nothing more than cold, -rational prose, a species of superior conversation measured off into -lengths, and fringed with rhyme; the form predominates over the matter; -the ostentatious exterior is the mask to impoverished, colourless -ideas.[953] The habit of M. Taine is to generalise a partial truth into -extravagance. Many of the most eminent authors who flourished between -the English Restoration and the French Revolution wrote in a style far -removed from that which M. Taine calls classical,--in an inelegant, -uncondensed style as Locke, in a crude, clumsy style as Bishop Butler, -in a vigorous, colloquial style as Bentley, in a homely, straightforward -style as Swift, in an unpretentious, narrative style as De Foe, in a -loose, familiar style as Burnet. The verse differs like the prose, -though in a less degree, and is not "of a uniform make as if fabricated -by a machine."[954] The witty and grotesque Hudibras of Butler, the -tales, and many short poems of Prior, the humourous, satiric verses of -Swift, the Songs and Fables of Gay, the Seasons of Thomson, the heroics -of Pope, are all in dissimilar styles. Neither is the substance of the -prose and verse, from the Restoration to the French Revolution, an -invariable common-sense mediocrity. There is a great display of genius -in political philosophy and political economy, in moral, metaphysical, -and natural science, in manifold species of satire and fiction, and, -omitting Milton, who was formed under earlier influences, in various -kinds of poetry, short of the highest. M. Taine was partly conscious of -the facts, as may be seen in his individual criticisms, which are a -refutation of his general theory. There is this much truth in his view, -that there was a growing tendency to cultivate style, and in some -writers the art degenerated into the artificial. Among the numerous -varieties of the defect one is a monotonous structure of verse and -sentence, another the attempt to disguise the commonness of the thoughts -by the elaboration of the workmanship. These are frequent faults in the -poetry of Pope, and the mannerism remains when the execution is a -failure. His style is admirable in parts, but he falls far below Dryden -in the general elasticity of his composition, in the wealth of his -language, and in the subtle intricacies of metrical harmony. His -thoughts are often gems rendered lustrous by the skill of the cutter, -but intermingling with them are counterfeit stones which impose by their -glitter on the superficial observer, and when examined are found -worthless. - - * * * * * - - - - - TO THE READER.[955] - - -As the epistolary way of writing hath prevailed much of late, we have -ventured to publish this piece composed some time since, and whose[956] -author chose this manner, notwithstanding his subject was high and of -dignity, because of its being mixed with argument, which of its nature -approacheth to prose. This, which we first give the reader, treats of -the nature and state of man with respect to the universal system. The -rest will treat of him with respect to his own system, as an individual, -and as a member of society, under one or other of which heads all ethics -are included. - -As he imitates no man, so he would be thought to vie with no man in -these epistles, particularly with the noted author of two lately -published;[957] but this he may most surely say, that the matter of them -is such as is of importance to all in general, and of offence to none in -particular.[958] - - - - - THE DESIGN.[959] - - -Having proposed to write some pieces on human life and manners, such as, -to use my Lord Bacon's expression, come home to men's business and -bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to begin with considering man in -the abstract, his nature and his state; since to prove any moral duty, -to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or -imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know -what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end -and purpose of its being. - -The science of human nature is, like all other sciences, reduced to a -few clear points. There are not many certain truths in this world. It is -therefore in the anatomy of the mind as in that of the body, more good -will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible -parts, than by studying too much such finer nerves and vessels, the -conformations and uses of which will for ever escape our observation. -The disputes are all upon these last, and, I will venture to say, they -have less sharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other, -and have diminished the practice, more than advanced the theory of -morality. If I could flatter myself that this Essay has any merit, it is -in steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite, in -passing over terms utterly unintelligible, and in forming[960] a -temperate, yet not inconsistent, and a short, yet not imperfect, system -of ethics. - -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 wandering 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 connexion, but 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. - - - ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE I. - - OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO THE UNIVERSE. - -Of man in the abstract--I. That we can judge only with regard to our own -system, being ignorant of the relation of systems and things, ver. 17, -&c. II. 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, ver. 35, -&c. III. 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, ver. 77, &c. IV. The pride of aiming at more knowledge, -and pretending to more perfection, 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, ver. 113, &c. V. 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, ver. 131, &c. VI. The -unreasonableness of his complaints against Providence, while on the one -hand he demands the perfections of the angels, and on the other the -bodily qualifications of the brutes, though, to possess any of the -sensitive faculties in a higher degree, would render him miserable, ver. -173, &c. VII. That throughout the whole visible world, an universal -order and gradation in the sensual and mental faculties is observed, -which causes a subordination of creature to creature, and of all -creatures to man. The gradations of sense, instinct, thought, -reflection, reason; that reason alone countervails all the other -faculties, ver. 207. VIII. How much further this order and subordination -of living creatures may extend, above and below us; were any part of -which broken, not that part only, but the whole connected creation, must -be destroyed, ver. 233. IX. The extravagance, madness, and pride of such -a desire, ver. 259. X. The consequence of all, the absolute submission -due to Providence, both as to our present and future state, ver. 281, -&c., to the end. - - - AN ESSAY ON MAN. - - IN FOUR EPISTLES. - - - EPISTLE I. - - Awake, my St. John![961] leave all meaner things - To low ambition, and the pride of kings.[962] - Let us, since life can[963] little more supply - Than just to look about us and to die,[964] - Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;[965] 5 - A mighty maze![966] but not without a plan;[967] - A wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot;[968] - Or garden tempting with forbidden fruit.[969] - Together let us beat this ample field, - Try what the open, what the covert yield;[970] 10 - The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore,[971] - Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;[972] - Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,[973] - And catch the manners living as they rise;[974] - Laugh where we must, be candid[975] where we can; 15 - But vindicate the ways of God to man.[976] - -[Sidenote: Man can reason only from things known, and judge only with -regard to his own system.] - - I. 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?[977] 20 - Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known,[978] - 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. - He, who through vast immensity can pierce, - See worlds on worlds compose one universe,[979] - Observe how system into system runs, 25 - What other planets circle[980] other suns, - What varied being peoples ev'ry star,[981] - May tell why heav'n has made us as we are.[982] - But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, - The strong connections, nice dependencies, 30 - Gradations[983] just, has thy pervading soul - Looked through,[984] or can a part contain the whole?[985] - Is the great chain that draws all to agree,[986] - And drawn supports,[987] upheld by God or thee? - -[Sidenote: Man is not therefore a judge of his own perfection or -imperfection, but is certainly such a being as is suited to his place -and rank in creation.] - - II. Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find, 35 - Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind? - First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, - Why formed no weaker, blinder, and no less?[988] - Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made - Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade! 40 - Or ask of yonder argent fields[989] above - Why Jove's satellites[990] are less than Jove![991] - Of systems possible, if 'tis confessed - That wisdom infinite[992] must form the best,[993] - Where all must full or not coherent be,[994] 45 - And all that rises rise in due degree, - Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain, - There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man:[995] - And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) - Is only this, if God has placed him wrong.[996] 50 - Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, - May, must be right, as relative to all.[997] - In human works, though laboured on with pain, - A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; - In God's, one single can its end produce; 55 - Yet serves to second too some other use.[998] - So man, who here seems principal alone, - Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown, - Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal;[999] - 'Tis but a part we see,[1000] and not a whole.[1001] 60 - When the proud steed shall know why man restrains - His fiery course, or[1002] drives him o'er the plains; - When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod, - Is now a victim, and now Egypt's god;[1003] - Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend 65 - His actions', passions', being's, use and end; - Why doing, suff'ring, checked, impelled; and why - This hour a slave, the next a deity.[1004] - Then say not man's imperfect, heav'n in fault; - Say rather man's as perfect as he ought:[1005] 70 - His knowledge measured to his state and place,[1006] - His time a moment, and a point his space.[1007] - If to be perfect in a certain sphere, - What matter, soon or late, or here or there?[1008] - The bless'd to-day is as completely so, 75 - As who began a thousand years ago.[1009] - -[Sidenote: His happiness depends on his ignorance to a certain degree.] - - III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate, - All but the page prescribed, their present state; - From brutes what men, from men what spirits know; - Or who could suffer being here below?[1010] 80 - The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, - Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? - Pleased to the last he crops the flow'ry food, - And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.[1011] - O blindness to the future! kindly giv'n, 85 - That each may fill the circle marked by heav'n: - Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, - A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,[1012] - Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,[1013] - And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 90 - -[Sidenote: And on his hope of a relation to a future state.] - - Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; - Wait the great teacher death, and God adore. - What future bliss he gives not thee to know, - But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.[1014] - Hope springs eternal in the human breast; 95 - Man never is, but always to be blessed.[1015] - The soul, uneasy, and confined from[1016] home, - Rests and expatiates in a life to come. - Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind - Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;[1017] 100 - His soul proud science never taught to stray - Far as the solar walk[1018] or milky way;[1019] - Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n, - Behind the cloud-topped hill,[1020] an humbler heav'n; - Some safer world in depth of woods embraced, 105 - Some happier island in the wat'ry waste,[1021] - Where slaves once more their native land behold, - No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.[1022] - To be, contents his natural desire; - He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire; 110 - But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, - His faithful dog shall bear him company.[1023] - -[Sidenote: The pride of aiming at more knowledge and perfection, and the -impiety of pretending to judge of the dispensations of Providence, the -causes of man's error and misery.] - - IV. Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense,[1024] - Weigh thy opinion against Providence;[1025] - Call imperfection what thou fanci'st such, 115 - Say, Here he gives too little, there too much![1026] - Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,[1027] - Yet cry, If man's unhappy, God's unjust;[1028] - If man alone ingross not heav'n's high care, - Alone made perfect here, immortal there:[1029] 120 - Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,[1030] - Re-judge his justice, be the god of God.[1031] - In pride, in reas'ning pride,[1032] our error lies; - All quit their sphere and rush into the skies! - Pride still is aiming at the bless'd abodes, 125 - Men would be angels, angels would be gods.[1033] - Aspiring to be gods if angels fell, - Aspiring to be angels men rebel:[1034] - And who but wishes to invert the laws - Of order, sins against th' Eternal Cause. 130 - -[Sidenote: The absurdity of conceiting himself the final cause of -creation, or expecting that perfection in the moral world which is not -in the natural.] - - V. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, - Earth for whose use, Pride answers,[1035] "'Tis for mine! - For me kind nature wakes her genial pow'r, - Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flow'r;[1036] - Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew 135 - The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; - For me the mine a thousand treasures brings; - For me health gushes from a thousand springs; - Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; - My footstool earth, my canopy the skies!"[1037] 140 - But errs not nature from this gracious end, - From burning suns when livid deaths descend, - When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep[1038] - Towns to one grave, whole nations[1039] to the deep?[1040] - "No," 'tis replied, "the first Almighty Cause 145 - Acts not by partial but by gen'ral laws:[1041] - Th' exceptions few; some change since all began;[1042] - And what created perfect?"--Why then man? - If the great end be human happiness, - Then nature deviates;[1043] and can man do less?[1044] 150 - As much that end a constant course requires - Of show'rs and sunshine, as of man's desires: - As much eternal springs and cloudless skies, - As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise.[1045] - If plagues or earthquakes break not heaven's design, 155 - Why then a Borgia or a Catiline?[1046] - Who knows but He, whose hand the lightning forms, - Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms; - Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar's mind,[1047] - Or turns young Ammon[1048] loose to scourge mankind?[1049] 160 - From pride, from pride our very reas'ning springs; - Account for moral, as for nat'ral things:[1050] - Why charge we heav'n in those, in these acquit? - In both to reason right is to submit. - Better for us, perhaps, it might appear, 165 - Were there all harmony, all virtue here; - That never air or ocean felt the wind; - That never passion discomposed the mind. - But all subsists by elemental strife; - And passions are the elements of life.[1051] 170 - The gen'ral order,[1052] since the whole began, - Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.[1053] - -[Sidenote: The unreasonableness of the complaints against Providence, -and that to possess more faculties would make us miserable.] - - VI. What would this Man? now upward will he soar, - And little less than angel, would be more![1054] - Now looking downwards, just as grieved appears 175 - To want the strength[1055] of bulls, the fur of bears.[1056] - Made for his use, all creatures if he call,[1057] - Say what their use, had he the pow'rs of all: - Nature to these without profusion kind,[1058] - The proper organs, proper pow'rs assigned; 180 - Each seeming want compensated of course, - Here with degrees of swiftness, there of force:[1059] - All in exact proportion to the state;[1060] - Nothing to add, and nothing to abate.[1061] - Each beast, each insect, happy in its own:[1062] 185 - Is Heav'n unkind to man, and man alone? - Shall he alone, whom rational we call, - Be pleased with nothing, if not blessed with all?[1063] - The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find) - Is not to act or think beyond mankind; 190 - No pow'rs of body or of soul to share, - But what his nature and his state can bear.[1064] - Why has not man a microscopic eye? - For this plain reason, man is not a fly. - Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, 195 - T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n?[1065] - Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, - To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore? - Or quick effluvia darting through the brain, - Die of a rose in aromatic pain?[1066] 200 - If nature thundered in his op'ning ears, - And stunned him with the music of the spheres,[1067] - How would he wish that heav'n had left him still - The whisp'ring zephyr, and the purling rill? - Who finds not Providence all good and wise, 205 - Alike in what it gives, and what denies? - -[Sidenote: There is an universal order and gradation through the whole -visible world, of the sensible and mental faculties, which causes the -subordination of creature to creature, and of all creatures to man, -whose reason alone countervails all the other faculties.] - - VII. Far as creation's ample range extends, - The scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends: - Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race,[1068] - From the green myriads in the peopled grass; 210 - What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, - The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam: - Of smell, the headlong lioness between,[1069] - And hound sagacious on the tainted green: - Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,[1070] 215 - To that which warbles through the vernal wood! - The spider's touch how exquisitely fine![1071] - Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:[1072] - In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true - From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?[1073] 220 - How instinct varies in the grov'ling swine, - Compared, half-reas'ning elephant, with thine![1074] - 'Twixt that and reason, what a nice barrier! - For ever sep'rate, yet for ever near! - Remembrance and reflection how allied; 225 - What thin partitions sense from thought divide;[1075] - And middle natures, how they long to join, - Yet never pass th' insuperable line![1076] - Without this just gradation could they be - Subjected, these to those, or all to thee? 230 - The pow'rs of all subdued by thee alone, - Is not thy reason all these pow'rs in one? - -[Sidenote: How much further this gradation and subordination may extend, -were any part of which broken the whole connected creation must be -destroyed.] - - VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth, - All matter quick, and bursting into birth. - Above, how high progressive life may go! 235 - Around, how wide! how deep extend below![1077] - Vast chain of being! which from God began, - Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,[1078] - Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, - No glass can reach; from infinite to thee, 240 - From thee to nothing.[1079] On superior pow'rs - Were we to press, inferior might on ours:[1080] - Or in the full creation leave a void,[1081] - Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroyed:[1082] - From nature's chain whatever link you strike, 245 - Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.[1083] - And if each system in gradation roll[1084] - Alike essential to th' amazing whole,[1085] - The least confusion but in one, not all - That system only, but the whole must fall. 250 - Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly,[1086] - Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;[1087] - Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled, - Being on being wrecked, and world on world; - Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod, 255 - And nature tremble[1088] to the throne of God![1089] - All this dread order break--for whom? for thee? - Vile-worm!--O madness! pride! impiety![1090] - -[Sidenote: The extravagance, impiety, and pride of such a desire.] - - IX. What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread, - Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head? 260 - What if the head, the eye, or ear repined - To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?[1091] - Just as absurd for any part to claim - To be another, in this gen'ral frame:[1092] - Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains 265 - The great directing Mind of all ordains.[1093] - All are but parts of one stupendous whole, - Whose body nature is, and God the soul;[1094] - That, changed through all, and yet in all the same, - Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame, 270 - Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, - Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,[1095] - Lives thro' all life, extends through all extent, - Spreads undivided, operates unspent;[1096] - Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,[1097] 275 - As full, as perfect in a hair as heart;[1098] - As full, as perfect in vile man that mourns, - As the rapt seraph that adores and burns:[1099] - To him no high, no low, no great, no small; - He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.[1100] 280 - -[Sidenote: The consequence of all, the absolute submission due to -Providence, both as to our present and future state.] - - X. Cease then, nor order imperfection name: - Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.[1101] - Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree[1102] - Of blindness, weakness, heav'n bestows on thee. - Submit: in this, or any other sphere, 285 - Secure to be as blessed as thou canst bear;[1103] - Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,[1104] - Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. - All nature is but art[1105] unknown to thee,[1106] - All chance, direction which thou canst not see;[1107] 290 - All discord, harmony not understood;[1108] - All partial evil, universal good; - And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,[1109] - One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right. - - - - - ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE II. - - OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HIMSELF, AS AN - INDIVIDUAL. - - I. The business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself. - His middle nature: his powers and frailties, ver. 1 to 19. The - limits of his capacity, ver. 19, &c. II. The two principles of man, - self-love and reason, both necessary, ver. 53, &c. Self-love the - stronger, and why, ver. 67, &c. Their end the same, ver. 81, &c. - III. The passions, and their use, ver. 93 to 130. The predominant - passion, and its force, ver. 132 to 160. Its necessity, in - directing men to different purposes, ver. 165, &c. Its providential - use, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue, ver. - 177. IV. Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits - near, yet the things separate and evident: what is the office of - reason, ver. 202 to 216. V. How odious vice in itself, and how we - deceive ourselves into it, ver. 217. VI. That, however, the ends of - Providence and general good are answered in our passions and - imperfections, ver. 238, &c. How usefully these are distributed to - all orders of men, ver. 241. How useful they are to society, ver. - 251. And to individuals, ver. 263. In every state, and every age of - life, ver. 273, &c. - - - EPISTLE II. - - -[Sidenote: The business of man not to pry into God, but to study -himself. His middle nature, his power, frailties, and the limits of his -capacity.] - - I. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,[1110] - The proper study of mankind is man.[1111] - Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,[1112] - A being darkly wise, and rudely great: - With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,[1113] 5 - With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,[1114] - He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;[1115] - In doubt to deem himself a god or beast;[1116] - In doubt his mind or body to prefer; - Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;[1117] 10 - Alike in ignorance, his reason such,[1118] - Whether he thinks too little or too much;[1119] - Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;[1120] - Still by himself abused,[1121] or disabused; - Created half to rise, and half to fall;[1122] 15 - Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; - Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled; - The glory, jest, and riddle of the world![1123] - [1124]Go, wondrous creature! mount[1125] where science guides, - Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; 20 - Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,[1126] - Correct old Time,[1127] and regulate the sun;[1128] - Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere, - To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;[1129] - Or tread the mazy round his follow'rs trod; 25 - And quitting sense call imitating God;[1130] - As eastern priests in giddy circles run,[1131] - And turn their heads to imitate the sun.[1132] - Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule[1133]-- - Then drop into thyself, and be a fool! 30 - Superior beings, when of late they saw - A mortal man[1134] unfold all nature's law, - Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape,[1135] - And showed a Newton, as we show an ape.[1136] - Could he, whose rules the rapid comet[1137] bind,[1138] 35 - Describe or fix one movement of his mind?[1139] - Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,[1140] - Explain his own beginning or his end?[1141] - Alas! what wonder![1142] man's superior part[1143] - Unchecked may rise, and climb from art to art;[1144] 40 - But when his own great work is but begun, - What reason weaves, by passion is undone,[1145] - Trace science then, with modesty thy guide; - First strip off all her equipage of pride; - Deduct what is but vanity or dress, 45 - Or learning's luxury, or idleness; - Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain, - Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain; - Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts - Of all[1146] our vices have created arts; 50 - Then see how little the remaining sum, - Which served the past, and must the times to come![1147] - -[Sidenote: The two principles of man, self-love and reason, both -necessary.] - - II. Two principles in human nature reign; - Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain;[1148] - Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call, 55 - Each works its end to move or govern all:[1149] - And to their proper operation still[1150] - Ascribe all good; to their improper, ill. - -[Sidenote: Self-love the stronger, and why.] - - Self-love, the spring of motion, acts[1151] the soul; - Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.[1152] 60 - Man, but for that, no action could attend, - And, but for this, were active to no end: - Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, - To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot;[1153] - Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void,[1154] 65 - Destroying others, by himself destroyed. - Most strength the moving principle requires; - Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires; - Sedate and quiet, the comparing lies, - Formed but to check, delib'rate, and advise. 70 - Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh: - Reason's at distance, and in prospect lie:[1155] - That sees immediate good by present sense; - Reason, the future and the consequence.[1156] - -[Sidenote: Their end the same.] - - Thicker than arguments, temptations throng, 75 - At best more watchful this, but that more strong. - The action of the stronger to suspend, - Reason still use, to reason still attend. - Attention, habit and experience gains;[1157] - Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains. 80 - Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight, - More studious to divide than to unite; - And grace and virtue,[1158] sense[1159] and reason split,[1160] - With all the rash dexterity of wit. - Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, 85 - Have full as oft no meaning, or the same.[1161] - Self-love and reason to one end aspire, - Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire;[1162] - -[Sidenote: The passions and their use.] - - But greedy that, its object would devour, - This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r: 90 - Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood, - Our greatest evil, or our greatest good. - III. Modes of self-love the passions we may call; - 'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all:[1163] - But since not ev'ry good we can divide, 95 - And reason bids us for our own provide, - Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair,[1164] - List[1165] under reason, and deserve her care; - Those, that imparted, court[1166] a nobler aim, - Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name.[1167] 100 - In lazy apathy let stoics boast - Their virtue fixed;[1168] 'tis fixed as in a frost;[1169] - Contracted all, retiring to the breast;[1170] - But strength of mind is exercise, not rest:[1171] - The rising tempest puts in act the soul,[1172] 105 - Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.[1173] - On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,[1174] - Reason the card,[1175] but passion is the gale;[1176] - Nor God alone in the still calm we find, - He mounts the storms, and walks upon the wind.[1177] 110 - -[Sidenote: The predominant passion and its force.] - - Passions, like elements, though born to fight, - Yet, mixed and softened, in his work unite:[1178] - These, 'tis enough to temper and employ; - But what composes man, can man destroy?[1179] - Suffice that reason keep to nature's road, 115 - Subject, compound them, follow her and God.[1180] - Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, - Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain,[1181] - These mixed with art,[1182] and to due bounds confined, - Make and maintain the balance of the mind: 120 - The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife[1183] - Gives all the strength and colour of our life. - Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes; - And when in act they cease, in prospect rise: - Present to grasp, and future still to find,[1184] 125 - The whole employ of body and of mind.[1185] - All spread their charms, but charm not all alike; - On diff'rent senses diff'rent objects strike;[1186] - Hence diff'rent passions more or less inflame, - As strong or weak the organs of the frame;[1187] 130 - And hence one master passion in the breast, - Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.[1188] - As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, - Receives the lurking principle of death; - The young disease, that must subdue at length, 135 - Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength: - So, cast and mingled with his very frame,[1189] - The mind's disease, its ruling passion, came; - Each vital humour which should feed the whole, - Soon flows to this, in body and in soul: 140 - Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head, - As the mind opens, and its functions spread, - Imagination plies her dang'rous art, - And pours it all upon the peccant part.[1190] - Nature its mother, habit is its nurse; 145 - Wit, spirit, faculties,[1191] but make it worse; - Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r;[1192] - As heav'n's bless'd beam turns vinegar more sour.[1193] - We, wretched subjects, though to lawful sway,[1194] - In this weak queen some fav'rite still obey; 150 - Ah! if she lend not arms as well as rules, - What can she more[1195] than tell us we are fools? - Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend, - A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend! - Or from a judge turn pleader, to persuade 155 - The choice we make, or justify it made;[1196] - Proud of an easy conquest all along, - She but removes weak passions for the strong.[1197] - So when small humours gather to a gout, - The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out.[1198] 160 - Yes, nature's road must ever be preferred; - Reason is here no guide, but still a guard; - 'Tis hers to rectify, not overthrow, - And treat this passion more as friend than foe: - -[Sidenote: Its necessity in directing men to different purposes.] - - A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends,[1199] 165 - And sev'ral men impels to sev'ral ends:[1200] - Like varying winds, by other passions tossed, - This drives them constant to a certain coast.[1201] - Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please, - Or (oft more strong than all) the love of ease;[1202] 170 - Through life 'tis followed, ev'en at life's expense; - The merchant's toil, the sage's indolence, - The monk's humility, the hero's pride, - All, all alike find reason on their side. - -[Sidenote: Its providential use in fixing our principle, and -ascertaining our virtue.] - - Th' Eternal Art, educing good from ill,[1203] 175 - Grafts on this passion our best principle: - 'Tis thus the mercury of man is fixed,[1204] - Strong grows the virtue with his nature mixed; - The dross cements what else were too refined, - And in one int'rest body acts with mind. 180 - As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care, - On savage stocks inserted learn to bear,[1205] - The surest virtues thus from passions shoot,[1206] - Wild nature's vigour working at the root.[1207] - What crops of wit and honesty appear 185 - From spleen, from obstinacy, hate or fear![1208] - See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;[1209] - Ev'n av'rice, prudence; sloth, philosophy; - Lust, through some certain strainers well refined, - Is gentle love, and charms all womankind; 190 - Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, - Is emulation in the learn'd or brave;[1210] - Nor virtue, male or female, can we name, - But what will grow on pride,[1211] or grow on shame.[1212] - -[Sidenote: Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, -yet the things separate and evident. The office of reason.] - - [1213]Thus nature gives us (let it check our pride)[1214] 195 - The virtue nearest to our vice allied;[1215] - Reason the bias turns to good from ill,[1216] - And Nero reigns a Titus if he will.[1217] - The fiery soul abhorred in Catiline, - In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:[1218] 200 - The same ambition can destroy or save, - And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.[1219] - This light and darkness in our chaos joined, - What shall divide? The god within the mind.[1220] - Extremes in nature equal ends produce, 205 - In man they join to some mysterious use;[1221] - Though each by turns the other's bound invade, - As, in some well-wrought picture, light and shade,[1222] - And oft so mix, the diff'rence is too nice[1223] - Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. 210 - Fools! who from hence into the notion fall, - That vice or virtue there is none at all. - If white and black blend, soften, and unite - A thousand ways, is there no black or white?[1224] - Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; 215 - 'Tis to mistake them costs the time and pain.[1225] - -[Sidenote: Vice odious in itself and how we deceive ourselves into it.] - - Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, - As to be hated needs but to be seen;[1226] - Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, - We first endure, then pity,[1227] then embrace.[1228] 220 - But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed: - Ask where's the North? at York, 'tis on the Tweed; - In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there, - At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where. - No creature owns it in the first degree, 225 - But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he;[1229] - Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,[1230] - Or never feel the rage, or never own;[1231] - What happier natures shrink at with affright, - The hard inhabitant contends is right.[1232] 230 - -[Sidenote: The ends of Providence, and general good, answered in our -passions and imperfections. How usefully these are distributed to all -orders of men.] - - Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be, - Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree:[1233] - The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise; - And ev'n the best, by fits, what they despise.[1234] - 'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill; 235 - For, vice or virtue, self directs it still;[1235] - Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal; - But heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole. - That counterworks each folly and caprice; - That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;[1236] 240 - That, happy frailties to all ranks applied,[1237] - Shame to the virgin,[1238] to the matron pride, - Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief, - To kings presumption, and to crowds belief: - That virtue's ends from vanity can raise, 245 - Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise;[1239] - And build[1240] on wants, and on defects of mind, - The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind. - -[Sidenote: How useful these are to society in general:] - - Heav'n forming each on other to depend, - A master, or a servant, or a friend, 250 - Bids each on other for assistance call, - Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. - Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally - The common int'rest, or endear the tie. - To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 255 - Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;[1241] - Yet from the same we learn, in its decline, - Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign:[1242] - Taught half by reason, half by mere decay, - To welcome death, and calmly pass away. 260 - -[Sidenote: And to individuals in particular in every state:] - - Whate'er the passion,--knowledge, fame, or pelf,-- - Not one will change his neighbour with himself.[1243] - The learn'd is happy nature to explore,[1244] - The fool is happy that he knows no more; - The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n, 265 - The poor contents him with the care of heav'n. - See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing, - The sot a hero, lunatic a king; - The starving chemist in his golden views - Supremely blessed,[1245] the poet in his muse.[1246] 270 - -[Sidenote: And in every age of life.] - - See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend, - And pride bestowed on all, a common friend:[1247] - See some fit passion ev'ry age supply, - Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.[1248] - Behold the child, by nature's kindly law[1249] 275 - Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw: - Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, - A little louder,[1250] but as empty quite: - Scarfs, garters,[1251] gold, amuse his riper stage,[1252] - And beads[1253] and pray'r-books are the toys of age: 280 - Pleased with this bauble still, as that before; - Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.[1254] - Mean while[1255] opinion gilds with varying rays - Those painted clouds that beautify our days;[1256] - Each want of happiness by hope supplied, 285 - And each vacuity of sense by pride:[1257] - These build as fast as knowledge can destroy;[1258] - In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy; - One prospect lost, another still we gain;[1259] - And not a vanity is giv'n in vain;[1260] 290 - Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine, - The scale to measure others' wants by thine.[1261] - See, and confess, one comfort still must rise;[1262] - 'Tis this, though man's a fool, yet God is wise![1263] - - - - - ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE III. - - OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY. - -I. The whole universe one system of society, ver. 7, &c. Nothing made -wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, ver. 27. The happiness of -animals mutual, ver. 49. II. Reason or instinct operate alike to the -good of each individual, ver. 79. III. Reason or instinct operate also -to society in all animals, ver. 109. How far society carried by -instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by reason, ver. 131. IV. Of that -which is called the state of nature, ver. 144. Reason instructed by -instinct in the invention of arts, ver. 169, and in the forms of -society, ver. 179. V. Origin of political societies, ver. 199. Origin of -monarchy, ver. 207. VI. Patriarchal government, ver. 215. Origin of true -religion and government, from the same principle of love, 231, &c. -Origin of superstition and tyranny, from the same principle of fear, -ver. 241, &c. The influence of self-love operating to the social and -public good, ver. 269. Restoration of true religion and government on -their first principle, ver. 283. Mixed government, ver. 288. Various -forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 303, &c. EPISTLE III. - - -[Sidenote: The whole universe one system of society.] - - I. Here then we rest: "The Universal Cause[1264] - Acts to one end,[1265] but acts by various laws."[1266] - In all the madness of superfluous health, - The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth,[1267] - Let this great truth be present night and day: 5 - But most be present if we preach or pray. - Look round our world, behold the chain of love[1268] - Combining all below and all above. - See plastic nature working to this end,[1269] - The single atoms each to other tend, 10 - Attract, attracted to, the next in place - Formed and impelled its neighbour to embrace.[1270] - See matter next with various life endued, - Press to one centre still, the gen'ral good.[1271] - See dying vegetables life sustain, 15 - See life dissolving vegetate again:[1272] - All forms that perish other forms supply, - (By turns we catch the vital breath and die[1273]) - Like bubbles on the sea of matter born, - They rise, they break, and to that sea return. 20 - Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole; - One all-extending, all-preserving soul - Connects each being, greatest with the least;[1274] - Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;[1275] - All served, all serving: nothing stands alone; 25 - The chain holds on, and where it ends unknown. - -[Sidenote: Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, -but the happiness of all animals mutual.] - - Has God, thou fool! worked solely for thy good, - Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food? - Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, - For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry lawn:[1276] 30 - Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings? - Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings. - Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat? - Loves of his own and raptures[1277] swell the note. - The bounding steed you pompously[1278] bestride, 35 - Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride. - Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain? - The birds of heav'n shall vindicate their grain. - Thine the full harvest of the golden year? - Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer; 40 - The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call, - Lives on the labours of this lord of all.[1279] - Know, nature's children all divide her care; - The fur that warms a monarch[1280] warmed a bear.[1281] - While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!" 45 - "See man for mine!" replies a pampered goose:[1282] - And just as short of reason he must fall, - Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.[1283] - Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control; - Be man the wit,[1284] and tyrant of the whole: 50 - Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows,[1285] - And helps, another creature's wants and woes.[1286] - Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, - Smit with her varying[1287] plumage, spare the dove? - Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? 55 - Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?[1288] - Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods, - To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods. - For some his int'rest prompts him to provide, - For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride: 60 - All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy - Th' extensive blessing of his luxury.[1289] - That very life his learned hunger craves, - He saves from famine, from the savage saves; - Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast, 65 - And, till he ends the being, makes it blessed, - Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain, - Than favoured man by touch ethereal[1290] slain.[1291] - The creature had his feast of life before; - Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er! 70 - To each unthinking being, heav'n, a friend, - Gives not the useless knowledge of its end: - To man imparts it; but with such a view[1292] - As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too; - The hour concealed, and so remote the fear, 75 - Death still draws nearer, never seeming near. - Great standing miracle! that heav'n assigned - Its only thinking thing[1293] this turn of mind.[1294] - -[Sidenote: Reason or instinct alike operate to the good of each -individual.] - - II. Whether with reason, or with instinct blessed, - Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best:[1295] 80 - To bliss alike by that direction tend, - And find the means proportion'd to their end. - Say, where full instinct is th' unerring guide, - What pope or council[1296] can they need beside?[1297] - Reason, however able, cool at best, 85 - Cares not for service, or but serves when pressed, - Stays till we call, and then not often near;[1298] - But honest instinct comes a volunteer, - Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit, - While still too wide or short is human wit; 90 - Sure by quick nature happiness to gain, - Which heavier reason labours at in vain.[1299] - This too serves always, reason never long; - One must go right,[1300] the other may go wrong. - See then the acting and comparing pow'rs 95 - One in their nature, which are two in ours;[1301] - And reason raise o'er instinct as you can,[1302] - In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man.[1303] - Who taught the nations of the field and flood[1304] - To shun their poison,[1305] and to choose their food?[1306] 100 - Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand, - Build on the wave,[1307] or arch beneath the sand? - Who made the spider parallels design,[1308] - Sure as Demoivre,[1309] without rule or line?[1310] - Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore 105 - Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before?[1311] - Who calls the council, states the certain day,[1312] - Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?[1313] - - -[Sidenote: Reason or instinct operate also to society in all animals.] - - III. God, in the nature of each being, founds - Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds: 110 - But as he framed a whole, the whole to bless, - On mutual wants built mutual happiness:[1314] - So from the first, eternal order ran, - And creature linked to creature, man to man. - -[Sidenote: How far society carried by instinct.] - - Whate'er of life all-quick'ning ether[1315] keeps, 115 - Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps, - Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds - The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds. - Not man alone, but all that roam the wood, - Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood, 120 - Each loves itself, but not itself alone, - Each sex desires alike, till two are one. - Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace: - They love themselves a third time in their race.[1316] - Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 125 - The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend;[1317] - The young dismissed to wander earth or air, - There stops the instinct, and there ends the care:[1318] - The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace, - Another love succeeds, another race. 130 - -[Sidenote: How much farther society is carried by reason.] - - A longer care man's helpless kind demands; - That longer care contracts more lasting bands:[1319] - Reflection, reason, still the ties improve, - At once extend the int'rest, and the love;[1320] - With choice we fix,[1321] with sympathy we burn; 135 - Each virtue in each passion takes its turn;[1322] - And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise, - That graft benevolence on charities.[1323] - Still as one brood, and as another rose, - These nat'ral love maintained, habitual those:[1324] 140 - The last scarce ripened into perfect man, - Saw helpless him from whom their life began:[1325] - Mem'ry and forecast just returns engage, - That pointed back to youth, this on to age; - While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combined, 145 - Still spread the int'rest, and preserved the kind.[1326] - -[Sidenote: Of the state of nature that it was social.] - - IV. Nor think in nature's state they blindly trod; - The state of nature was the reign of God:[1327] - Self-love and social at her birth[1328] began, - Union[1329] the bond of all things, and of man. 150 - Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid; - Man walked with beast joint tenant of the shade;[1330] - The same his table, and the same his bed; - No murder clothed him,[1331] and no murder fed. - In the same temple, the resounding wood,[1332] 155 - All vocal beings hymned their equal God:[1333] - The shrine with gore unstained, with gold undressed, - Unbribed, unbloody, stood the blameless priest:[1334] - Heav'n's attribute was universal care, - And man's prerogative to rule, but spare. 160 - Ah! how unlike the man of times to come![1335] - Of half that live the butcher and the tomb;[1336] - Who, foe to nature, hears the gen'ral groan, - Murders their species, and betrays his own.[1337] - But just disease to luxury succeeds, 165 - And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds; - The fury-passions from that blood began, - And turned on man a fiercer savage,[1338] man.[1339] - -[Sidenote: Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of arts, and -in the forms of society.] - - See him from nature rising slow to art![1340] - To copy instinct then was reason's part; 170 - Thus then to man the voice of nature spake[1341]-- - "Go, from the creatures thy instructions take: - Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;[1342] - Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;[1343] - Thy arts of building from the bee receive;[1344] 175 - Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave;[1345] - Learn of the little nautilus to sail, - Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.[1346] - Here too all forms of social union find, - And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind:[1347] 180 - Here subterranean works and cities see; - There towns aerial on the waving tree. - Learn each small people's genius, policies, - The ants' republic, and the realm of bees: - How those in common all their wealth bestow,[1348] 185 - And anarchy without confusion know;[1349] - And these for ever, though a monarch reign, - Their sep'rate cells and properties maintain.[1350] - Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state, - Laws wise as nature, and as fixed as fate. 190 - In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw, - Entangle justice in her net of law, - And right, too rigid, harden into wrong;[1351] - Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.[1352] - Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 195 - Thus let the wiser make the rest obey; - And for those arts mere instinct could afford, - Be crowned as monarchs, or as gods adored."[1353] - -[Sidenote: Origin of political societies.] - - V. Great nature spoke; observant man obeyed; - Cities were built, societies were made:[1354] 200 - Here rose one little state; another near[1355] - Grew by like means, and joined through love or fear. - Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, - And there the streams in purer rills descend? - What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, 205 - And he returned a friend who came a foe. - Converse and love mankind might strongly draw,[1356] - When love was liberty, and nature law.[1357] - -[Sidenote: Origin of monarchy.] - - Thus states were formed: the name of king unknown, - Till common int'rest placed the sway in one.[1358] 210 - 'Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms, - Diffusing blessings, or averting harms), - The same which in a sire the sons obeyed,[1359] - A prince the father of a people made.[1360] - -[Sidenote: Origin of patriarchal government.] - - VI. Till then, by nature crowned, each patriarch sat, 215 - King, priest, and parent of his growing state;[1361] - On him, their second Providence, they hung, - Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. - He from the wond'ring furrow called the food,[1362] - Taught to command the fire, control the flood, 220 - Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound, - Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground,[1363] - Till drooping, sick'ning, dying they began[1364] - Whom they revered as god to mourn as man: - Then, looking up from sire to sire, explored 225 - One great first Father, and that first adored;[1365] - Or plain tradition, that this all begun,[1366] - Conveyed unbroken faith from sire to son; - The worker from the work distinct was known, - And simple reason never sought but one.[1367] 230 - Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light,[1368] - Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right;[1369] - To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, - And owned a father when he owned a God.[1370] - -[Sidenote: Origin of true religion and government from the principle of -love; and of superstition and tyranny from that of fear.] - - Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then, 235 - For nature knew no right divine in men,[1371] - No ill could fear in God; and understood - A sov'reign being but a sov'reign good. - True faith, true policy, united ran, - That was but love of God, and this of man. 240 - Who first taught souls enslaved, and realms undone, - Th' enormous[1372] faith of many made for one; - That proud exception to all nature's laws, - T' invert the world, and counterwork its cause?[1373] - Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law; 245 - Till superstition taught the tyrant awe,[1374] - Then shared the tyranny, then lent it aid, - And gods of conqu'rors, slaves of subjects made: - She, midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's sound, - When rocked the mountains, and when groaned the ground,[1375] - She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, 251 - To pow'r unseen, and mightier far than they: - She, from the rending earth and bursting skies, - Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise:[1376] - Here fixed the dreadful, there the bless'd abodes; 255 - Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods; - Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, - Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust;[1377] - Such as the souls of cowards might conceive, - And, formed like tyrants, tyrants would believe.[1378] 260 - Zeal then, not charity, became the guide; - And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride. - Then sacred seemed th' ethereal vault no more;[1379] - Altars grew marble then, and reeked with gore:[1380] - Then first the Flamen[1381] tasted living food;[1382] 265 - Next his grim idol smeared with human blood;[1383] - With heav'n's own thunders shook the world below, - And played the god an engine on his foe.[1384] - -[Sidenote: The influence of self-love operating to the social and public -good.] - - So drives self-love, through just, and through unjust, - To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust: 270 - The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause - Of what restrains him, government and laws.[1385] - For what one likes, if others like as well, - What serves one will, when many wills rebel? - How shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake, 275 - A weaker may surprise, a stronger take?[1386] - His safety must his liberty restrain: - All join to guard what each desires to gain. - Forced into virtue thus by self-defence, - Ev'n kings learned justice and benevolence: 280 - Self-love forsook the path it first pursued, - And found the private in the public good.[1387] - -[Sidenote: Restoration of true religion and government on their first -principle.] - - 'Twas then the studious head or gen'rous mind, - Foll'wer of God, or friend of human-kind, - Poet or patriot[1388], rose but to restore - The faith and moral nature gave before; 285 - Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new; - If not God's image, yet his shadow drew: - Taught pow'r's due use to people and to kings; - Taught not to slack, nor strain its tender strings, 290 - -[Sidenote: Mixed government.] - - The less, or greater, set so justly true, - That touching one must strike the other too;[1389] - Till jarring int'rests of themselves create - Th' according music[1390] of a well-mixed state.[1391] - Such is the world's great harmony, that springs 295 - From order, union, full consent[1392] of things;[1393] - Where small and great, where weak and mighty made - To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade;[1394] - More pow'rful each as needful to the rest, - And in proportion as it blesses, bless'd; 300 - Draw to one point, and to one centre bring - Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king. - -[Sidenote: Various forms of each, and the true use of all.] - - For forms of government let fools contest; - Whate'er is best administered is best;[1395] - For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; 305 - His can't be wrong whose life is in the right:[1396] - In faith and hope the world will disagree,[1397] - But all mankind's concern is charity:[1398] - All must be false that thwart this one great end; - And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend. 310 - Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives; - The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.[1399] - On their own axis as the planets run, - Yet make at once[1400] their circle round the sun,[1401] - So two consistent motions act the soul, 315 - And one regards itself, and one the whole. - Thus God and nature[1402] linked the gen'ral frame, - And bade self-love and social be the same.[1403] - - - ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV. - - OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HAPPINESS. - -I. False notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered from -ver. 19 to 26. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, ver. -29. God intends happiness to be equal; and, to be so, it must be social, -since all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs -by general, not particular laws, ver. 35. As it is necessary for order, -and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods should be -unequal, happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 49. But -notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind -is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, ver. -67. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent -with the constitution of this world; and that the good man has here the -advantage, ver. 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the -calamities of nature, or of fortune, ver. 93. IV. The folly of expecting -that God should alter his general laws in favour of particulars, ver. -121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that whoever they are, -they must be happiest, ver. 131, &c. VI. That external goods are not the -proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of virtue, -ver. 167. That even these can make no man happy without virtue: -instanced in riches, ver. 185. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205. -Greatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior talents, ver. 259, &c. -With pictures of human infelicity in men possessed of them all, ver. -269, &c. VII. That virtue only constitutes a happiness whose object is -universal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 309. That the perfection of -virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence -here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 327, &c. - - - EPISTLE IV. - - O Happiness! our being's end and aim,[1404] - Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name: - That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh, - For which we bear to live, or dare to die; - Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 5 - O'erlooked, seen double by the fool and wise:[1405] - Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below,[1406] - Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?[1407] - Fair op'ning to some court's propitious shine,[1408] - Or deep with diamonds in the flaming[1409] mine? 10 - Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, - Or reaped in iron harvests of the field?[1410] - Where grows!--where grows it not?[1411] If vain our toil, - We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:[1412] - Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere,[1413] 15 - 'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where: - 'Tis never to be bought, but always free; - And, fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.[1414] - Ask of the learn'd the way! The learn'd are blind; - This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; 20 - Some place the bliss in action,[1415] some in ease,[1416] - Those call it pleasure, and contentment these; - Some sunk to beasts find pleasure end in pain;[1417] - Some swelled to gods confess e'en virtue vain;[1418] - Or indolent, to each extreme they fall, 25 - To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.[1419] - Who thus define it, say they more or less - Than this, that happiness is happiness?[1420] - -[Sidenote: Happiness is the end of all men, and attainable by all.] - - Take nature's path,[1421] and mad opinion's leave; - All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; 30 - Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;[1422] - There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;[1423] - And mourn our various portions as we please, - Equal is common sense,[1424] and common ease.[1425] - -[Sidenote: God governs by general not particular laws; intends happiness -to be equal, and to be so it must be social, since all particular -happiness depends on general.] - - Remember, man, "the Universal Cause 35 - Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;" - And makes what happiness we justly call,[1426] - Subsist, not in the good of one, but all. - There's not a blessing individuals find, - But some way leans and hearkens[1427] to the kind;[1428] 40 - No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, - No caverned hermit rests self-satisfied: - Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, - Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend. - Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45 - All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink: - Each has his share; and who would more obtain, - Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain.[1429] - -[Sidenote: It is necessary for order, and the common peace, that -external goods be unequal, therefore happiness is not constituted in -these.] - - Order is heav'n's first law; and this confessed, - Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 50 - More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence - That such are happier, shocks all common sense.[1430] - Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess, - If all are equal in their happiness: - But mutual wants this happiness increase; 55 - All nature's diff'rence keeps all nature's peace. - Condition, circumstance is not the thing; - Bliss is the same in subject or in king, - In who obtain defence, or who defend, - In him who is, or him who finds a friend: 60 - Heav'n breathes through ev'ry member of the whole - One common blessing, as one common soul. - But fortune's gifts if each alike possessed, - And each were equal, must not all contest? - If then to all men happiness was meant, 65 - God in externals could not place content.[1431] - -[Sidenote: The balance of human happiness kept equal, notwithstanding -externals, by hope and fear.] - - Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, - And these be happy called, unhappy those; - But heav'n's just balance equal will appear, - While those are placed in hope, and these in fear:[1432] 70 - Not present good or ill, the joy or curse, - But future views of better, or of worse.[1433] - O sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise, - By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies?[1434] - Heav'n still[1435] with laughter the vain toil surveys,[1436] 75 - And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.[1437] - -[Sidenote: In what the happiness of individuals consists, and that the -good man has the advantage even in this world.] - - Know, all the good that individuals find, - Or God and nature[1438] meant to mere mankind,[1439] - Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, - Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.[1440] 80 - But health consists with temperance alone; - And peace! O virtue! peace is all thy own.[1441] - The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain; - But these less taste them, as they worse obtain.[1442] - Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, 85 - Who risk the most, that[1443] take wrong means or right? - Of vice or virtue, whether blessed or cursed, - Which meets contempt, or which compassion first?[1444] - Count all th' advantage prosp'rous vice attains, - 'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains: 90 - And grant the bad what happiness they would, - One they must want,[1445] which is to pass for good.[1446] - -[Sidenote: That no man is unhappy through virtue.] - - O blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below, - Who fancy bliss to vice,[1447] to virtue woe! - Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, 95 - Best knows the blessing, and will most be blessed. - But fools the good alone unhappy call, - For ills or accidents that chance to all. - See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just! - See god-like Turenne prostrate on the dust! 100 - See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife! - Was this their virtue, or contempt of life?[1448] - Say, was it virtue, more though heav'n ne'er gave, - Lamented Digby![1449] sunk thee to the grave?[1450] - Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, 105 - Why, full of days and honour, lives the sire?[1451] - Why drew Marseilles' good bishop[1452] purer breath, - When nature sickened, and each gale was death?[1453] - Or why so long (in life if long can be)[1454] - Lent heav'n a parent to the poor and me?[1455] 110 - What makes all physical or moral ill? - There deviates nature, and here wanders will. - God sends not ill, if rightly understood, - Or partial ill is universal good, - Or change admits, or nature lets it fall 115 - Short, and but rare, till man improved it all.[1456] - We just as wisely might of heav'n complain, - That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain, - As that the virtuous son is ill at ease - When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 120 - Think we, like some weak prince, th' Eternal Cause, - Prone for his fav'rites to reverse his laws?[1457] - Shall burning AEtna, if a sage requires,[1458] - Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?[1459] - On air or sea new motions be impressed,[1460] 125 - O blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast?[1461] - When the loose mountain trembles from on high, - Shall gravitation cease if you go by?[1462] - Or some old temple nodding to its fall, - For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall?[1463] 130 - But still this world, so fitted for the knave, - Contents us not. A better shall we have? - A kingdom of the just then let it be:[1464] - But first consider how those just agree. - The good must merit God's peculiar care; 135 - But who, but God, can tell us who they are? - One thinks on Calvin heav'n's own Spirit fell; - Another deems him instrument of hell; - If Calvin feel heav'n's blessing, or its rod, - This cries there is, and that, there is no God.[1465] 140 - What shocks one part will edify the rest,[1466] - Nor with one system can they all be blessed.[1467] - The very best will variously incline,[1468] - And what rewards your virtue, punish mine. - Whatever is, is right.[1469] This world, 'tis true, 145 - Was made for Caesar, but for Titus too:[1470] - And which more bless'd? who chained his country, say, - Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day?[1471] - "But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed." - What then? Is the reward of virtue bread?[1472] 150 - That vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;[1473] - The knave deserves it when he tills the soil, - The knave deserves it when he tempts the main, - Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.[1474] - The good man may be weak, be indolent; 155 - Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. - But grant him riches, your demand is o'er? - "No--shall the good want health, the good want pow'r?" - Add health, and pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing: - "Why bounded pow'r? why private? why no king?[1475] 160 - Nay, why external for internal giv'n? - Why is not man a god, and earth a heav'n?"[1476] - Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive - God gives enough while he has more to give:[1477] - Immense the pow'r, immense were the demand; 165 - Say, at what part of nature will they stand? - -[Sidenote: That external goods are not the proper rewards of virtue, -often inconsistent with, or destructive of it; but that all these can -make no man happy without virtue. Instances in each of them.] - - What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, - The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy, - Is virtue's prize. A better would you fix? - Then give humility a coach and six,[1478] 170 - Justice a conqu'ror's sword, or truth a gown,[1479] - Or public spirit its great cure,[1480] a crown.[1481] - Weak, foolish man! will heav'n[1482] reward us there,[1483] - With the same trash mad mortals wish for here? - The boy and man an individual makes,[1484] 175 - Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes? - Go, like the Indian, in another life - Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife, - As well as dream such trifles are assigned, - As toys and empires, for a god-like mind: 180 - Rewards, that either would to virtue bring - No joy, or be destructive of the thing: - How oft by these at sixty are undone - The virtues of a saint at twenty-one! - -[Sidenote: 1. Riches.] - - To whom can riches give repute or trust,[1485] 185 - Content, or pleasure, but the good and just?[1486] - Judges and senates have been bought for gold, - Esteem and love were never to be sold.[1487] - O fool! to think God hates the worthy mind, - The lover and the love of human kind,[1488] 190 - Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, - Because he wants a thousand pounds a year.[1489] - -[Sidenote: 2. Honours.] - - Honour and shame from no condition rise; - Act well your part, there all the honour lies. - Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made, 195 - One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;[1490] - The cobbler aproned,[1491] and the parson gowned, - The friar hooded, and the monarch crowned. - "What differ more," you cry, "than crown and cowl?" - I'll tell you, friend; a wise man and a fool.[1492] 200 - You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,[1493] - Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk, - Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; - The rest is all but leather or prunella.[1494] - -[Sidenote: 3. Titles.] - - Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with strings,[1495] 205 - That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings.[1496] - -[Sidenote: 4. Birth.] - - Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,[1497] - In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece:[1498] - But by your fathers' worth if yours you rate, - Count me those only who were good and great. 210 - Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood - Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood,[1499] - Go! and pretend your family is young; - Nor own your fathers have been fools so long. - What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards? 215 - Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.[1500] - -[Sidenote: 5. Greatness.] - - Look next on greatness; say where greatness lies. - "Where but among the heroes and the wise!" - Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed, - From Macedonia's madman[1501] to the Swede; 220 - The whole strange purpose of their lives to find, - Or make, an enemy of all mankind![1502] - Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,[1503] - Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.[1504] - No less alike[1505] the politic and wise; 225 - All sly slow things,[1506] with circumspective eyes: - Men in their loose unguarded hours they take, - Not that themselves are wise, but others weak. - But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat, - 'Tis phrase absurd[1507] to call a villain great:[1508] 230 - Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, - Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. - Who noble ends by noble means obtains, - Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains, - Like good Aurelius let him reign,[1509] or bleed 235 - Like Socrates,[1510] that man is great indeed. - -[Sidenote: 6. Fame.] - - What's fame? a fancied life in others' breath,[1511] - A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.[1512] - Just what you hear, you have, and what's unknown - The same, my lord,[1513] if Tully's, or your own. 240 - All that we feel of it begins and ends - In the small circle of our foes or friends;[1514] - To all beside as much an empty shade[1515] - An Eugene living,[1516] as a Caesar dead; - Alike, or when or where they shone or shine, 245 - Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine. - A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;[1517] - An honest man's[1518] the noblest work of God. - Fame but from death a villain's name can save,[1519] - As justice tears his body from the grave; 250 - When what t' oblivion better were resigned, - Is hung on high, to poison half mankind.[1520] - All fame is foreign, but of true desert; - Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart: - One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 255 - Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas; - And more true joy Marcellus[1521] exiled feels, - Than Caesar with a senate at his heels.[1522] - -[Sidenote: 7. Superior parts.] - - In parts superior[1523] what advantage lies? - Tell, for you can, what is it to be wise? 260 - 'Tis but to know how little can be known;[1524] - To see all others' faults, and feel our own;[1525] - Condemned in bus'ness or in arts to drudge, - Without a second or without a judge:[1526] - Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land? 265 - All fear, none aid you, and few understand.[1527] - Painful pre-eminence![1528] yourself to view - Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.[1529] - Bring then these blessings to a strict account; - Make fair deductions; see to what they 'mount: 270 - How much of other each is sure to cost; - How each for other oft is wholly lost; - How inconsistent greater goods with these; - How sometimes life is risked, and always ease. - Think, and if still the things thy envy call,[1530] 275 - Say would'st thou be the man to whom they fall? - To sigh for ribbons if thou art so silly, - Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.[1531] - Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life? - Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife.[1532] 280 - If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, - The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind:[1533] - Or ravished with the whistling of a name,[1534] - See Cromwell, damned to everlasting fame![1535] - If all, united, thy ambition call, 285 - From ancient story learn to scorn them all.[1536] - There, in the rich, the honoured, famed, and great, - See the false scale of happiness complete! - In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay, - How happy those to ruin,[1537] these betray! 290 - Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows,[1538] - From dirt and sea-weed as proud Venice rose; - In each how guilt and greatness equal ran,[1539] - And all that raised the hero sunk the man:[1540] - Now Europe's laurel on their brows behold, 295 - But stained with blood, or ill-exchanged for gold: - Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease, - Or infamous for plundered provinces.[1541] - O wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame[1542] - E'er taught to shine,[1543] or sanctified from shame![1544] 300 - What greater bliss attends their close of life? - Some greedy minion,[1545] or imperious wife, - The trophied arches, storied halls[1546] invade, - And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade.[1547] - Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray, 305 - Compute the morn and ev'ning to the day; - The whole amount of that enormous fame, - A tale, that blends their glory with their shame! - Know then this truth, enough for man to know, - -[Sidenote: That virtue only constitutes a happiness whose object is -universal, and whose prospect eternal.] - - "Virtue alone is happiness below."[1548] 310 - The only point where human bliss stands still,[1549] - And tastes the good without the fall to ill; - Where only merit constant pay receives, - Is blessed in what it takes,[1550] and what it gives;[1551] - The joy unequalled, if its end it gain,[1552] 315 - And if it lose, attended with no pain:[1553] - Without satiety, though e'er so blessed, - And but more relished as the more distressed: - The broadest mirth[1554] unfeeling folly wears, - Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears:[1555] 320 - Good, from each object, from each place acquired, - For ever exercised, yet never tired;[1556] - Never elated, while one man's oppressed; - Never dejected, while another's blessed; - And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325 - Since but to wish more virtue is to gain.[1557] - -[Sidenote: That the perfection of happiness consists in a conformity to -the order of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and -hereafter.] - - See the sole bliss heav'n could on all bestow! - Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know; - Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind, - The bad must miss; the good,[1558] untaught, will find; 330 - Slave to no sect,[1559] who takes no private road, - But looks through nature up to nature's God;[1560] - Pursues that chain which links th' immense design, - Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine; - Sees, that no being any bliss can know, 335 - But touches some above and some below; - Learns from this union of the rising whole, - The first, last purpose of the human soul; - And knows where faith, law, morals, all began, - All end, in love of God, and love of man.[1561] 340 - For him alone hope leads from goal to goal, - And opens still, and opens on his soul; - Till lengthened on to faith, and unconfined, - It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind.[1562] - He sees why nature plants in man alone 345 - Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown: - (Nature, whose dictates to no other kind - Are giv'n in vain,[1563] but what they seek they find;)[1564] - Wise is her present: she connects in this - His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss;[1565] 350 - At once his own bright prospect to be blessed, - And strongest motive to assist the rest. - Self-love thus pushed to social, to divine, - Gives thee to make thy neighbour's blessing thine. - Is this too little for the boundless heart? 355 - Extend it, let thy enemies have part: - Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense, - In one close system of benevolence:[1566] - Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree, - And height of bliss but height of charity. 360 - God loves from whole to parts: but human soul - Must rise from individual to the whole. - Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, - As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;[1567] - The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, 365 - Another still, and still another spreads; - Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace; - His country next; and next all human race;[1568] - Wide and more wide th' o'erflowings of the mind - Take ev'ry creature in, of ev'ry kind; 370 - Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blessed, - And heav'n beholds its image in his breast.[1569] - Come then, my friend![1570] my genius! come along, - O master of the poet and the song! - And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends, 375 - To man's low passions, or their glorious ends,[1571] - Teach me, like thee in various nature wise, - To fall with dignity, with temper rise;[1572] - Formed by thy converse, happily to steer - From grave to gay, from lively to severe;[1573] 380 - Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, - Intent to reason, or polite to please.[1574] - Oh! while along the stream of time thy name - Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame; - Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, 385 - Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?[1575] - When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose, - Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,[1576] - Shall then this verse to future age pretend[1577] - Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend? 390 - That, urged by thee, I turned the tuneful art - From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;[1578] - For wit's false mirror held up nature's light; - Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right; - That reason, passion, answer one great aim; 395 - That true self-love and social are the same; - That virtue only makes our bliss below; - And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know.[1579] - - - - - THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. - - DEO OPT. MAX. - - - THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. - - BY THE AUTHOR OF THE "ESSAY ON MAN." - - London: Printed for R. DODSLEY, at Tully's-Head, in Pall-Mall, 1738, - Price Sixpence. - -This pamphlet, which came out in folio, and octavo, and probably in -quarto, was the only separate edition of the Universal Prayer. - - -For closeness and comprehension of thought, and for brevity and energy -of expression, few pieces of poetry in our language can be compared with -this Prayer. I am surprised Johnson should not make any mention of it. -When it was first published many orthodox persons were, I remember, -offended at it, and called it the Deist's Prayer. It were to be wished -the deists would make use of so good a one.--WARTON. - -How extraordinary it is that Warton should be ever accused as if he -wished to decry Pope! No one has borne such willing and ample testimony -to his excellence as a poet, when he truly deserves it. In this place -Warton gives the poetry more praise than it appears entitled to, though -this composition is beautiful, and the two last stanzas sublime; but I -fear, if we were to examine the greater part by the Horatian rule, which -Warton recommends, that is, altering the rhyme and measure,[1580] we -should not find the "disjecti membra poetae."--BOWLES. - -Warburton says that "some passages in the Essay on Man having been -unjustly suspected of a tendency towards fate and naturalism, the author -composed this prayer as the sum of all, to show that his system was -founded in free-will, and terminated in piety." The prayer was written -shortly before Warburton stretched out his helping hand to Pope, and -therefore before the poet had renounced the system and assistance of -Bolingbroke, in reliance on a more serviceable defender. He did not yet -venture, as Warburton pretends, to abjure "naturalism," but kept to it -in every line, and even in the title of his poem. A "universal" could -not be a christian prayer. He avowedly set aside the distinguishing -characteristics of the gospel, and professed to exclude all language -which could not be adopted by the votaries of "every age and clime," by -"savage" as well as "saint," by the idolaters of "Jupiter" as well as by -the worshippers of "Jehovah." No wonder that many persons in England -should have called the Universal, the Deist's Prayer, or that when -translated into French it should have gone by the title of _Priere du -Deiste_.[1581] Warton "wished the deists would make use of so good a -one." There was nothing in their creed which could require them to use a -worse. - -On the question of "free-will," Pope taught discordant doctrines. In -the Universal Prayer it is said that the "human will is left free," and -in the Essay on Man "moral ill" is ascribed to its "wanderings."[1582] -But in other parts of the Essay we are told that Caesar's fierce ambition -is inspired by God, and that man is born with a single ruling passion -which, do all he can, engulfs every sentiment of his soul. Neither this, -nor any other discrepancy, is cleared up in the Universal Prayer. The -contradictions are only multiplied. According to the Prayer "nature is -bound fast in fate," and according to the Essay "nature deviates," which -is asserted to account for the "physical ill" that God does "not -send."[1583] The Essay teaches us that the moral law of mankind is -selfishness, and that we are to be virtuous solely because it promotes -our individual happiness. The fourth stanza of the Prayer reverses the -relation in which virtue stands to happiness, and bids us shun evil more -than hell or pain, pursue good more than heaven or felicity. Pope's view -of Providence in the Essay is that God will not interpose to protect his -servants.[1584] The Prayer contains a petition for "bread and peace," -which is either a delusive form or a confession that the Almighty adapts -events to the pious dispositions of particular men. Reason concurs with -revelation in this conclusion. The necessary inference from the -perfection of God's attributes is that his government takes in every -circumstance, and as mind is superior to matter, physical laws cannot be -framed without a special regard to the fervent prayers of faithful -hearts. - -The Universal Prayer failed to fulfil Pope's main design, and increased -the confusion it was meant to remove. His defective material is cast in -an unsuitable form, and, wanting to expound his opinions, he has -introduced comments which are misplaced or offensive in a prayer. No -worshipper of Jehovah would blasphemously address him as "Jehovah or -Jove," and no one, except the persons who preach while they pray, would -introduce such reflections as that "God is paid when man receives," and -that "binding nature fast in fate he had left free the human will." The -faulty conception is not redeemed by the exquisiteness of the poetry. -The composition is tame and prosaic, and never rises above the level of -a second rate hymn. - - - - - THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. - - DEO OPT. MAX. - - Father of all! in ev'ry age, - In ev'ry clime adored, - By saint, by savage, and by sage, - Jehovah, Jove, or Lord![1585] - - Thou Great First Cause, least understood! 5 - Who all my sense confined[1586] - To know but this, that thou art good,[1587] - And that myself am blind; - - Yet gave me in this dark estate, - To see the good from ill: 10 - And binding nature fast in fate, - Left free the human will.[1588] - - What conscience dictates to be done, - Or warns me not to do, - This teach me more than hell to shun, 15 - That, more than heav'n pursue. - - What blessings thy free bounty gives - Let me not cast away; - For God is paid when man receives: - T' enjoy is to obey.[1589] 20 - - Yet not to earth's contracted span - The goodness let me bound, - Or think Thee Lord alone of man, - When thousand worlds are round: - - Let not this weak, unknowing hand 25 - Presume thy bolts to throw, - And deal damnation round the land[1590] - On each I judge thy foe.[1591] - - If I am right, thy grace impart - Still in the right to stay: 30 - If I am wrong, oh teach my heart - To find that better way. - - Save me alike from foolish pride, - Or impious discontent, - At aught thy wisdom has denied, 35 - Or aught thy goodness lent. - - Teach me to feel another's woe, - To hide the fault I see; - That mercy I to others show, - That mercy show to me.[1592] 40 - Mean though I am, not wholly so, - Since quickened by thy breath: - Oh lead me wheresoe'er I go, - Through this day's life or death. - - This day be bread and peace my lot: 45 - All else beneath the sun, - Thou know'st if best bestowed or not, - And let thy will be done. - - To Thee, whose temple is all space, - Whose altar, earth, sea, skies,[1593] 50 - One chorus let all being raise; - All nature's incense rise! - - - - - APPENDIX. - - THE COMMENTARY AND NOTES OF - WILLIAM WARBURTON, D.D. - ON THE - ESSAY ON MAN.[1594] - - - COMMENTARY ON EPISTLE I. - -The opening of this Poem, in fifteen lines, is taken up in giving an -account of the subject; which, agreeably to the title, is an Essay on -Man, or a philosophical inquiry into his nature and end, his passions -and pursuits. The exordium relates to the whole work, of which the Essay -on Man was only the first book. The sixth, seventh, and eighth lines -allude to the subjects of this Essay, viz. the general order and design -of Providence; the constitution of the human mind; the origin, use, and -end of the passions and affections, both selfish and social; and the -wrong pursuits of happiness in power, pleasure, &c. The tenth, eleventh, -twelfth, &c. have relation to the subjects of the books intended to -follow, viz. the characters and capacities of men, and the limits of -science, which once transgressed, ignorance begins, and errors without -end succeed. The thirteenth and fourteenth, to the knowledge of mankind, -and the various manners of the age. - -The poet tells us next, line 16, with what design he wrote, viz. - - To vindicate the ways of God to man. - -The men he writes against, he frequently informs us, are such as weigh -their opinions against Providence, ver. 114, such as cry, if man's -unhappy, God's unjust, ver. 118, or such as fall into the notion, that -vice and virtue there is none at all, Epistle ii. ver. 212. This -occasions the poet to divide his vindication of the ways of God into two -parts; in the first of which he gives direct answers to those objections -which libertine men, on a view of the disorders arising from the -perversity of the human will, have intended against Providence; and in -the second, he obviates all those objections, by a true delineation of -human nature, or a general, but exact, map of man. The first Epistle is -employed in the management of the first part of this dispute; and the -three following, in the discussion of the second. So that this whole -book constitutes a complete Essay on Man, written for the best purpose, -to vindicate the ways of God. - -Ver. 17. _Say first, of God above, or man below, &c._] The poet having -declared his subject; his end of writing; and the quality of his -adversaries, proceeds, from ver. 16 to 23, to instruct us, from whence -he intends to draw his arguments; namely, from the visible things of God -in this system, to demonstrate the invisible things of God, his eternal -power and godhead. And why? Because we can reason only from what we -know; and as we know no more of man than what we see of his station -here, so we know no more of God than what we see of his dispensations in -this station; being able to trace him no further than to the limits of -our own system. This naturally leads the poet to exprobrate the -miserable folly and impiety of pretending to pry into, and call in -question, the profound dispensations of Providence: which reproof -contains, from ver. 22 to 43, a sublime description of the omniscience -of God, and the miserable blindness and presumption of man. - -Ver. 43. _Of systems possible, &c._] So far the poet's modest and sober -introduction: in which he truly observes, that no wisdom less than -omniscient - - Can tell why heav'n has made us as we are. - -Yet though we be unable to discover the particular reasons for this mode -of our existence, we may be assured in general that it is right. For -now, entering upon his argument, he lays down this evident proposition -as the foundation of his thesis, which he reasonably supposes will be -allowed him, That, of all possible systems, infinite wisdom hath formed -the best, ver. 43, 44. From whence he draws two consequences: - -1. The first, from ver. 44 to 51, is, that as the best system cannot but -be such a one as hath no unconnected void; such a one in which there is -a perfect coherence and gradual subordination in all its parts; there -must needs be, in some part or other of the scale of reasoning life, -such a creature as man, which reduces the dispute to this absurd -question, Whether God has placed him wrong? - -Ver. 51. _Respecting man, &c._] It being shown that man, the subject of -this inquiry, has a necessary place in such a system as this is -confessed to be; and it being evident, that the abuse of free-will, from -whence proceeds all moral evil, is the certain effect of such a -creature's existence; the next question will be, how these evils can be -accounted for, consistently with the idea we have of God's moral -attributes? Therefore, - -2. The second consequence he draws from his principle, That of all -possible systems, infinite wisdom has formed the best, is, that whatever -is wrong in our private system, is right as relative to the whole: - - Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, - May, must be right, as relative to all. - -That it may, he proves, from ver. 52 to 61, by showing in what consists -the difference between the systematic works of God, and those of man; -viz. that, in the latter, a thousand movements scarce gain one purpose; -in the former, one movement gains many purposes. So that - - Man, who here seems principal alone, - Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown. - -And acting thus, the appearance of wrong in the partial system may be -right in the universal; for - - 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. - -That it must, the whole body of this epistle is employed to illustrate -and enforce. Thus partial evil is universal good, and thus Providence is -fairly acquitted. - -Ver. 61. _When the proud steed, &c._] From all this the poet draws a -general conclusion, from ver. 60 to 91, that, as what has been said is -sufficient to vindicate the ways of Providence, man should rest -submissive and content, and own everything to be disposed for the best; -that to think of discovering the manner how God conducts this wonderful -scheme to its completion, is as absurd as to imagine that the horse and -ox shall ever be able to comprehend why they undergo such different -treatment in the hand of man: nay, that such knowledge, if communicated, -would be even pernicious, and make us neglect or desert our duty here. -This he illustrates by the case of the lamb, which is happy in not -knowing the fate that attends it from the butcher; and from thence takes -occasion to observe, that God is the equal master of all his creatures, -and provides for the proper happiness of each and every of them. - -Ver. 91. _Hope humbly then; &c._] But now an objector is supposed to put -in, and say, "You tell us, indeed, that all things shall terminate in -good; but we see ourselves surrounded with present evil; yet you forbid -us all inquiry into the manner how we are to be extricated from it, and, -in a word, leave us in a very disconsolate condition." Not so, replies -the poet; you may reasonably, if you please, receive much comfort from -the hope of a happy futurity; a hope implanted in the human breast by -God himself for this very purpose, as an earnest of that bliss, which, -always flying from us here, is reserved for the good man hereafter. The -reason why the poet chooses to insist on this proof of a future state, -in preference to others, is in order to give his system (which is -founded in a sublime and improved Platonism) the greater grace of -uniformity. For hope was Plato's peculiar argument for a future state; -and the words here employed, The soul uneasy, &c. his peculiar -expression. The poet in this place, therefore, says in express terms, -that God gave us hope to supply that future bliss, which he at present -keeps hid from us. In his second Epistle, ver. 274, he goes still -further, and says, this hope quits us not even at death, when every -thing mortal drops from us: - - Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. - -And in the fourth Epistle he shows how the same hope is a proof of a -future state, from the consideration of God's giving his creatures no -appetite in vain, or what he did not intend should be satisfied: - - He sees, why nature plants in man alone - Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown: - Nature, whose dictates to no other kind - Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find. - -It is only for the good man, he tells us, that hope leads from goal to -goal, &c. It would then be strange indeed, if it should prove an -illusion. - -Ver. 99. _Lo! the poor Indian, &c._] The poet, as we said, having bid -man comfort himself with expectation of future happiness; having shown -him that this hope is an earnest of it, and put in one very necessary -caution, - - Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar; - -provoked at those miscreants whom he afterwards, Ep. iii. ver. 263, -describes as building hell on spite, and heaven on pride, he upbraids -them, from ver. 98 to 112, with the example of the poor Indian, to whom -also nature hath given this common hope of mankind: but though his -untutored mind had betrayed him into many childish fancies concerning -the nature of that future state, yet he is so far from excluding any -part of his own species (a vice which could proceed only from the pride -of false science), that he humanely, though simply, admits even his -faithful dog to bear him company. - -Ver. 113. _Go, wiser thou! &c._] He proceeds with these accusers of -Providence, from ver. 112 to 122, and shows them, that complaints -against the established order of things begin in the highest absurdity, -from misapplied reason and power; and end in the highest impiety, in an -attempt to degrade the God of heaven, and to assume his place: - - Alone made perfect here, immortal there: - -That is, be made God, who only is perfect, and hath immortality: to -which sense the lines immediately following confine us: - - Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, - Re-judge his justice, be the God of God. - -Ver. 123. _In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; &c._] From -these men, the poet now turns to his friend; and, from ver. 122 to 130, -remarks, that the ground of all this extravagance is pride; which, more -or less, infects the whole reasoning tribe; shows the ill effects of it, -in the case of the fallen angels; and observes, that even wishing to -invert the laws of order, is a lower species of their crime. He then -brings an instance of one of the effects of pride, which is the folly of -thinking everything made solely for the use of man, without the least -regard to any other of the creatures of God. - - Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, &c. - -The ridicule of imagining the greater portions of the material system to -be solely for the use of man, true philosophy has sufficiently exposed: -and common sense, as the poet observes, instructs us to conclude, that -our fellow-creatures, placed by Providence as the joint inhabitants of -this globe, are designed to be joint sharers with us of its blessings: - - Has God, thou fool! worked solely for thy good, - Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food? - Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, - For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry lawn. - -Ver. 141. _But errs not nature from this gracious end,_] The author -comes next to the confirmation of his thesis, That partial moral evil is -universal good; but introduceth it with an allowed instance in the -natural world, to abate our wonder at the phenomenon of moral evil; -which he forms into an argument on a concession of his adversaries. If -we ask you, says he, from ver. 140 to 150, whether nature doth not err -from the gracious purpose of its Creator, when plagues, earthquakes, -and tempests unpeople whole regions at a time; you readily answer, No: -for that God acts by general, and not by particular laws; and that the -course of matter and motion must be necessarily subject to some -irregularities, because nothing is created perfect. I then ask, why you -should expect this perfection in man? If you own that the great end of -God (notwithstanding all this deviation) be general happiness, then it -is nature and not God that deviates; do you expect greater constancy in -man? - - Then nature deviates; and can man do less? - -That is, if nature, or the inanimate system (on which God hath imposed -his laws, which it obeys, as a machine obeys the hand of the workman), -may in course of time deviate from its first direction, as the best -philosophy shows it may; where is the wonder that man, who was created a -free agent, and hath it in his power every moment to transgress the -eternal rule of right, should sometimes go out of order? - -Ver. 151. _As much that end, &c._] Having thus shown how moral evil came -into the world, namely, by man's abuse of his own free-will, our poet -comes to the point, the confirmation of his thesis, by showing how moral -evil promotes good; and employs the same concessions of his adversaries, -concerning natural evil, to illustrate it. - -1. He shows it tends to the good of the whole, or universe, from ver. -151 to 164, and this by analogy. You own, says he, that storms and -tempests, clouds, rain, heat, and variety of seasons, are necessary -(notwithstanding the accidental evil they bring with them) to the health -and plenty of this globe; why then should you suppose there is not the -same use, with regard to the universe, in a Borgia or a Catiline? But -you say you can see the one, and not the other. You say right: one -terminates in this system, the other refers to the whole: which whole -can be comprehended by none but the great Author himself. For, says the -poet in another place, - - Of this frame, the bearings and the ties, - The strong connexions, nice dependencies, - Gradations just, has thy pervading soul - Look'd through? or can a part contain the whole? - -Own therefore, says he, that - - From pride, from pride, our very reas'ning springs; - Account for moral, as for nat'ral things: - Why charge we heav'n in those, in these acquit? - In both, to reason right, is to submit. - -Ver. 165. _Better for us, &c._] But, secondly, to strengthen the -foregoing analogical argument, and to make the wisdom and goodness of -God still more apparent, he observes, from ver. 165 to 172, that moral -evil is not only productive of good to the whole, but is even productive -of good in our own system. It might, says he, perhaps appear better to -us, that there were nothing in this world but peace and virtue; - - That never air or ocean felt the wind; - That never passion discomposed the mind. - -But then consider, that as our material system is supported by the -strife of its elementary particles, so is our intellectual system, by -the conflict of our passions, which are the elements of human action. In -a word, as without the benefit of tempestuous winds, both air and ocean -would stagnate, corrupt, and spread universal contagion throughout all -the ranks of animals that inhabit, or are supported by, them; so, -without the benefit of the passions, such virtue as was merely the -effect of the absence of those passions, would be a lifeless calm, a -stoical apathy. - - Contracted all, retiring to the breast: - But health of mind is exercise, not rest. - -Therefore, instead of regarding the conflicts of the elements, and the -passions of the mind, as disorders, you ought to consider them as part -of the general order of Providence: and that they are so, appears from -their always preserving the same unvaried course, throughout all ages, -from the creation to the present time: - - The gen'ral order, since the whole began, - Is kept in nature, and is kept in man. - -We see, therefore, it would be doing great injustice to our author to -suspect that he intended by this to give any encouragement to vice. His -system, as all his Ethic Epistles show, is this: That the passions, for -the reasons given above, are necessary to the support of virtue: that, -indeed, the passions in excess produce vice, which is, in its own -nature, the greatest of all evils, and comes into the world from the -abuse of man's free-will; but that God, in his infinite wisdom and -goodness, deviously turns the natural bias of its malignity to the -advancement of human happiness, and makes it productive of general good: - - Th' eternal art educes good from all. - -This, set against what we have observed of the poet's doctrine of a -future state, will furnish us with an instance of his steering (as he -well expresses it in his preface) "between doctrines seemingly opposite: -if his Essay has any merit, he thinks it is in this." And doubtless it -is uncommon merit to reject the visions and absurdities of every system, -and take in only what is rational and real. The Characteristics and the -Fable of the Bees are two seemingly inconsistent systems; the folly of -the first is in giving a scheme of virtue without religion; and the -knavery of the latter, in giving a scheme of religion without virtue. -These our poet leaves to any that will take them up; but agrees, -however, so far with the first, that "virtue would be worth having, -though itself was its only reward;" and so far with the latter, that -"God makes evil, against its nature, productive of good." - -Ver. 173. _What would this man? &c._] Having thus justified Providence -in its permission of partial moral evil, our author employs the -remaining part of his Epistle in vindicating it from the imputation of -certain supposed natural evils. For now he shows, from ver. 172 to 207, -that though the complaint of his adversaries against Providence be on -pretence of real moral evils; yet, at bottom, it all proceeds from their -impatience under imaginary natural ones, the issue of a depraved -appetite for visionary advantages, which if man had, they would be -either useless or pernicious to him, as repugnant to his state, or -unsuitable to his condition. Though God, says he, hath so bountifully -bestowed on man faculties little less than angelic, yet he ungratefully -grasps at higher; and then, extravagant in another extreme, with a -passion as ridiculous as that is impious, envies, as what would be -advantages to himself, even the peculiar accommodations of brutes. But -here his own false principles expose the folly of his falser appetites. -He supposes them all made for his use: now what use could he have of -them, when he had robbed them of all their qualities? Qualities -distributed with the highest wisdom, as they are divided at present; but -which, if bestowed according to the froward humour of these childish -complainers, would be everywhere found to be either wanting or -superfluous. But even though endowed with these brutal qualities, man -would not only be no gainer, but a considerable loser; as the poet shows -in explaining the consequences which would follow from his having his -sensations in that exquisite degree in which this or the other animal is -observed to possess them. - -Ver. 207. _Far as creation's ample range extends,_] He tells us next, -from ver. 206 to 233, that the complying with such extravagant desires -would not only be useless and pernicious to man, but would be breaking -into the order, and deforming the beauty of God's creation, in which -this animal is subject to that, and every one to man, who, by his -reason, enjoys the sum of all their powers. - -Ver. 233. _See, through this air, &c._] And further, from ver. 232 to -267, that this breaking the order of things, which, as a link or chain, -connects all beings, from the highest to the lowest, would unavoidably -be attended with the destruction of the universe; for that the several -parts of it must at least compose as entire and harmonious a whole as -the parts of a human body, can be doubted of by no one. Yet we see what -confusion it would make upon our frame, if the members were set upon -invading each other's office: - - What if the foot, &c. - -Who will not acknowledge, therefore, that a connexion in the disposition -of things, so harmonious as here described, is transcendently beautiful? -But the fatalists suppose such an one. What then? Is the First Free -Agent, the great Cause of all things, debarred a contrivance infinitely -exquisite, because some men, to set up their idol, fate, absurdly -represent it as presiding over such a system? - -Ver. 267. _All are but parts of one stupendous whole,_] Our author -having thus given a representation of God's work, as one entire whole, -where all the parts have a necessary dependence on, and relation to each -other, and where each particular part works and concurs to the -perfection of the whole, as such a system transcends vulgar ideas, to -reconcile it to common conceptions he shows, from ver. 266 to 281, that -God is equally and intimately present to every sort of substance, to -every particle of matter, and in every instant of being; which eases the -labouring imagination, and makes us expect no less from such a presence, -than such a dispensation. - -Ver. 281. _Cease then, nor order imperfection name:_] And now the poet, -as he had promised, having vindicated the ways of God to man, concludes, -from ver. 280 to the end, that, from what had been said, it appears, -that the very things we blame contribute to our happiness, either as -unrelated particulars, or at least as parts of the universal system; -that our state of ignorance was allotted to us out of compassion; that -yet we have as much knowledge as is sufficient to show us, that we are, -and always shall be, as blessed as we can bear; for that nature is -neither a Stratonic chain of blind causes and effects, - - (All nature is but art, unknown to thee,) - -nor yet the fortuitous result of Epicurean atoms, - - (All chance, direction, which thou canst not see): - -as those two speeches of atheism supposed it; but the wonderful art and -contrivance, unknown indeed to man, of an all-powerful, all-wise, -all-good, and free Being. And therefore we may be assured, that the -arguments brought above, to prove partial moral evil productive of -universal good, are conclusive; from whence one certain truth results, -in spite of all the pride and cavils of vain reason, That whatever is, -is right. - -That the reader may see in one view the exactness of the method, as well -as force of the argument, I shall here draw up a short synopsis of this -Epistle. The poet begins by telling us, his subject is an Essay on Man: -that his end of writing is to vindicate Providence: that he intends to -derive his arguments from the visible things of God seen in his system: -lays down this proposition, that of all possible systems, infinite -wisdom has formed the best: draws from thence two consequences; 1. That -there must needs be somewhere such a creature as man; 2. That the moral -evil, which he is the author of, is productive of the good of the whole. -This is his general thesis; from whence he forms this conclusion, that -man should rest submissive and content, and make the hopes of futurity -his comfort; but not suffer this to be the occasion of pride, which is -the cause of all his impious complaints. He proceeds to confirm his -thesis. Previously endeavours to abate our wonder at the phenomenon of -moral evil; shows, first, its use to the perfection of the universe, by -analogy, from the use of physical evil in this particular system. -Secondly, its use in this system, where it is turned, providentially, -from its natural bias, to promote virtue. Then goes on to vindicate -Providence from the imputation of certain supposed natural evils, as he -had before justified it for the permission of real moral evil, in -showing that, though the atheist's complaint against Providence be on -pretence of real moral evil, yet the true cause is his impatience under -imaginary natural evil; the issue of a depraved appetite for fantastical -advantages, which, if obtained, would be useless or hurtful to man, and -deforming of, and destructive to, the universe, as breaking into that -order by which it is supported. He describes that order, harmony, and -close connexion of the parts; and by showing the intimate presence of -God to his whole creation, gives a reason for an universe so amazingly -beautiful and perfect. From all this he deduces his general conclusion, -That nature being neither a blind chain of causes and effects, nor yet -the fortuitous result of wandering atoms, but the wonderful art and -direction of an all-wise, all-good, and free Being, Whatever is, is -right, with regard to the disposition of God, and its ultimate tendency; -which, once granted, all complaints against Providence are at an end. - - - COMMENTARY ON EPISTLE II. - -Ver. 2. _The proper study, &c._] The poet having shown, in the first -Epistle, that the ways of God are too high for our comprehension, -rightly draws this conclusion, and methodically makes it the subject of -his introduction to the second, which treats of the nature of man. But -here presently the accusers of Providence would be apt to object, and -say, "Admit that we ran into an excess, when we pretended to censure or -penetrate the designs of Providence, a matter, perhaps, too high for us, -yet have not you gone as far into the opposite extreme, while you only -send us to the knowledge of ourselves? You must mock us when you talk of -this as a study; for who can doubt but we are intimately acquainted with -our own nature? The proper conclusion, therefore, from your proof of our -inability to comprehend the ways of God, is, that we should turn -ourselves to the study of the frame of general nature." Thus, I say, -would they be apt to object; for, of all men, those who call themselves -freethinkers are most given up to pride; especially to that kind which -consists in a boasted knowledge of man, the effects of which pride are -so well exposed in the first Epistle. The poet, therefore, to convince -them that this study is less easy than they imagine, replies, from ver. -2 to 19, to the first part of the objection, by describing the dark and -feeble state of the human understanding, with regard to the knowledge of -ourselves. And further to strengthen this argument, he shows, in answer -to the second part of the objection, from ver. 18 to 31, that the -highest advances in natural knowledge may be easily acquired, and yet -we, all the while, continue very ignorant of ourselves. For that neither -the clearest science, which results from the Newtonian philosophy, nor -the most sublime, which is taught by the Platonic, will at all assist us -in this self-study; nay, what is more, that religion itself, when grown -fanatical and enthusiastic, will be equally useless, though pure and -sober religion will best instruct us in man's nature; that knowledge -being necessary to religion, whose subject is man, considered in all his -relations, and consequently, whose object is God. - -Ver. 31. _Superior beings, &c._] To give this second argument its full -force, he illustrates it, from ver. 30 to 43, by the noblest example -that ever was in science, the incomparable Newton, who, although he -penetrated so far beyond others into the works of God, yet could go no -further in the knowledge of his own nature than the generality of his -fellows. Of which the poet assigns this very just and adequate -reason,--in all other sciences the understanding is unchecked and -uncontrolled by any opposite principle; but in the science of man, the -passions overturn as fast as reason can build up. - -Ver. 43. _Trace science then, &c._] The conclusion, therefore, from the -whole is, from ver. 42 to 53, that as on the one hand, we should persist -in the study of nature, so, on the other, in order to arrive at science, -we should proceed in the simplicity of truth; and then the produce, -though small, will yet be real. - -Ver. 53. _Two principles, &c._] The poet having shown the difficulty -which attends the study of man, proceeds to remove it, by laying before -us the elements or true principles of this science, in an account of the -origin, use, and end of the passions; which, in my opinion, contains the -truest, clearest, shortest, and consequently the best system of ethics -that is anywhere to be met with. He begins, from ver. 52 to 59, with -pointing out the two grand principles in human nature, self-love and -reason. Describes their general nature: the first sets man upon acting, -the other regulates his action. However, these principles are natural, -not moral; and, therefore, in themselves, neither good nor evil, but so -only as they are directed. This observation is made with great judgment, -in opposition to the desperate folly of those fanatics, who, as the -ascetic, vainly pretend to eradicate self-love; or, as the mystic, are -more successful in stifling reason; and both, on the absurd fancy of -their being moral, not natural, principles. - -Ver. 59. _Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul;_] The poet -proceeds, from ver. 58 to 67, more minutely to mark out the distinct -offices of these two principles, which offices he had before assigned -only in general; and here he shows their necessity; for without -self-love, as the spring, man would be unactive; and without reason as -the balance, active to no purpose. - -Ver. 67. _Most strength the moving principle requires:_] Having thus -explained the ends and offices of each principle, he goes on, from ver. -66 to 79, to speak of their qualities; and shows how they are fitted to -discharge those functions, and answer their respective intentions. The -business of self-love being to excite to action, it is quick and -impetuous; and moving instinctively, has, like attraction, its force -prodigiously increased as the object approaches, and proportionably -lessened as it recedes. On the contrary, reason, like the Author of -attraction, is always calm and sedate, and equally preserves itself -whether the object be near or far off. Hence the moving principle is -made more strong, though the restraining be more quick-sighted. The -consequence he draws from this is, that if we would not be carried away -to our destruction, we must always keep reason upon guard. - -Ver. 79. _Attention, &c._] But it would be objected, that if this -account be true, human life would be most miserable; and even in the -wisest, a perpetual conflict between reason and the passions. To this, -therefore, the poet replies, from ver. 78 to 81, first, that Providence -has so graciously contrived, that even in the voluntary exercise of -reason, as in the mechanic motion of a limb, habit makes what was at -first done with pain, easy and natural. And secondly, that the -experience gained by the long exercise of reason, goes a great way -towards eluding the force of self-love. Now the attending to reason, as -here recommended, will gain us this habit and experience. Hence it -appears, that our station, in which reason is to be kept constantly upon -guard, is not so uneasy a one as may be at first imagined. - -Ver. 81. _Let subtle schoolmen, &c._] From this description of self-love -and reason, it follows, as the poet observes, from ver. 80 to 93, that -both conspire to one end, namely, human happiness, though they be not -equally expert in the choice of the means; the difference being this, -that the first hastily seizes every thing which has the appearance of -good; the other weighs and examines whether it be indeed what it -appears. This shows, as he next observes, the folly of the schoolmen, -who consider them as two opposite principles, the one good and the other -evil. The observation is seasonable and judicious; for this dangerous -school-opinion gives great support to the Manichean or Zoroastrian -error, the confutation of which was one of the author's chief ends in -writing. For if there be two principles in man, a good and evil, it is -natural to think him the joint product of the two Manichean Deities (the -first of which contributed to his reason, the other to his passions), -rather than the creature of one Individual Cause. This was Plutarch's -opinion, and as we may see in him, of some of the more ancient -theistical philosophers. It was of importance, therefore, to reprobate -and subvert a notion that served to the support of so dangerous an -error; and this the poet hath done with more force and clearness than is -often to be found in whole volumes written against that heretical -opinion. - -Ver. 93. _Modes of self-love, &c._] Having given this account of the -nature of self-love in general, he comes now to anatomize it, in a -discourse on the passions, which he aptly names the modes of self-love. -The object of all these, he shows, from ver. 92 to 101, is good; and -when under the guidance of reason, real good, either of ourselves or of -another; for some goods, not being capable of division, or -communication, and reason at the same time directing us to provide for -ourselves, we therefore, in pursuit of these objects, sometimes aim at -our own good, sometimes at the good of others. When fairly aiming at -our own, the quality is called prudence; when at another's, virtue. -Hence as he shows, from ver. 100 to 105, appears the folly of the -stoics, who would eradicate the passions, things so necessary both to -the good of the individual and of the kind. Which preposterous method of -promoting virtue he therefore very reasonably reproves. - -Ver. 105. _The rising tempest puts in act the soul,_] But as it was from -observation of the evils occasioned by the passions, that the stoics -thus extravagantly projected their extirpation, the poet recurs, from -ver. 104 to 111, to his grand principle, so often before, and to so good -purpose, insisted on, that partial ill is universal good; and shows, -that though the tempest of the passions, like that of the air, may tear -and ravage some few parts of nature in its passage, yet the salutary -agitation produced by it preserves the whole in life and vigour. This is -his first argument against the stoics, which he illustrates by a very -beautiful similitude, on a hint taken from Scripture: - - Nor God alone in the still calm we find; - He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. - -Ver. 111. _Passions, like elements, &c._] His second argument against -the stoics, from ver. 110 to 133, is, that passions go to the -composition of a moral character, just as elementary particles go to the -composition of an organized body. Therefore, for man to project the -destruction of what composes his very being is the height of -extravagance. It is true, he tells us, that these passions, which, in -their natural state, like elements, are in perpetual jar, must be -tempered, softened, and united, in order to perfect the work of the -great plastic Artist; who, in this office, employs human reason; whose -business it is to follow the road of nature, and to observe the dictates -of the Deity; follow her and God. The use and importance of this precept -is evident: for in doing the first, she will discover the absurdity of -attempting to eradicate the passions; in doing the second, she will -learn how to make them subservient to the interests of virtue. - -Ver. 123. _Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;_] His third argument -against the stoics, from ver. 122 to 127, is, that the passions are a -continual spur to the pursuit of happiness; which, without these -powerful inciters, we should neglect, and sink into a senseless -indolence. Now happiness is the end of our creation; and this -excitement, the means to that end; therefore, these movers, the -passions, are the instruments of God, which he hath put into the hands -of reason to work withal. - -Ver. 127. _All spread their charms, &c._] The poet now proceeds in his -subject; and this last observation leads him naturally to the discussion -of his next principle. He shows then, that though all the passions have -their turn in swaying the determinations of the mind, yet every man hath -one master passion, that at length stifles or absorbs all the rest. The -fact he illustrates at large in his Epistle to Lord Cobham. Here, from -ver. 126 to 149, he giveth us the cause of it. Those pleasures or goods, -which are the objects of the passions, affect the mind by striking on -the senses; but as, through the formation of the organs of our frame, -every man hath some one sense stronger and more acute than others, the -object which strikes the stronger or acuter sense, whatever it be, will -be the object most desired; and consequently, the pursuit of that will -be the ruling passion: That the difference of force in this ruling -passion shall at first, perhaps, be very small, or even imperceptible; -but nature, habit, imagination, wit, nay, even reason itself, shall -assist its growth, till it hath at length drawn and converted every -other into itself. All which is delivered in a strain of poetry so -wonderfully sublime, as suspends, for a while, the ruling passion in -every reader, and engrosses his whole admiration. This naturally leads -the poet to lament the weakness and insufficiency of human reason, from -ver. 148 to 161, and the purpose he had in so doing, was plainly to -intimate the necessity of a more perfect dispensation to mankind. - -Ver. 161. _Yes, nature's road, &c._] Now as it appears from the account -here given of the ruling passion and its cause, which results from the -structure of the organs, that it is the road of nature, the poet shows, -from ver. 160 to 167, that this road is to be followed. So that the -office of reason is not to direct us what passion to exercise, but to -assist us in rectifying, and keeping within due bounds, that which -nature hath so strongly impressed; because - - A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends, - And sev'ral men impels to several ends. - -Ver. 167. _Like varying winds, &c._] The poet, having proved that the -ruling passion (since nature hath given it us) is not to be overthrown, -but rectified; the next inquiry will be, of what use the ruling passion -is; for an use it must have, if reason be to treat it thus mildly. This -use he shows us, from ver. 166 to 197, is twofold, natural and moral. - -1. Its natural use is to conduct men steadily to one certain end, who -would otherwise be eternally fluctuating between the equal violence of -various and discordant passions, driving them up and down at random; -and, by that means, to enable them to promote the good of society, by -making each a contributor to the common stock: - - Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please, &c. - -2. Its moral use is to ingraft our ruling virtue upon it; and by that -means to enable us to promote our own good, by turning the exorbitancy -of the ruling passion into its neighbouring virtue: - - See anger, zeal and fortitude supply, &c. - -The wisdom of the Divine Artist is, as the poet finely observes, very -illustrious in this contrivance; for the mind and body having now one -common interest, the efforts of virtue will have their force infinitely -augmented: - - 'Tis thus the mercury, &c. - -Ver. 197. _Reason the bias, &c._] But lest it should be objected that -this account favours the doctrine of necessity, and would insinuate that -men are only acted upon, in the production of good out of evil; the poet -teacheth, from ver. 196 to 203, that man is a free agent, and hath it in -his power to turn the natural passions into virtues or into vices, -properly so called: - - Reason the bias turns to good from ill, - And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will. - -Secondly, if it should be objected, that though he doth, indeed, tell us -some actions are beneficial and some hurtful, yet he could not call -those virtuous, nor these vicious, because, as he hath described things, -the motive appears to be only the gratification of some passion, give me -leave to answer for him, that this would be mistaking the argument, -which, to ver. 249 of this epistle, considers the passions only with -regard to society, that is, with regard to their effects rather than -their motives: That, however, it is his design to teach that actions are -properly virtuous and vicious; and though it be difficult to distinguish -genuine virtue from spurious, they having both the same appearance, and -both the same public effects, yet that they may be disentangled. If it -be asked, by what means? he replies, from ver. 202 to 205, by -conscience;--the God within the mind;--and this is to the purpose; for -it is a man's own concern, and no one's else, to know whether his virtue -be pure and solid; for what is it to others, whether this virtue (while, -as to them, the effect of it is the same) be real or imaginary? - -Ver. 205. _Extremes in nature equal ends produce, &c._] But still it -will be said, Why all this difficulty to distinguish true virtue from -false? The poet shows why, from ver. 204 to 211, that though indeed vice -and virtue so invade each other's bounds, that sometimes we can scarce -tell where one ends and the other begins, yet great purposes are served -thereby, no less than the perfecting the constitution of the whole, as -lights and shades, which run into one another insensibly in a -well-wrought picture, make the harmony and spirit of the composition. -But on this account to say there is neither vice nor virtue, the poet -shows, from ver. 211 to 217, would be just as wise as to say, there is -neither black nor white, because the shade of that, and the light of -this, often run into one another, and are mutually lost: - - Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; - 'Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain. - -This is an error of speculation, which leads men so foolishly to -conclude, that there is neither vice nor virtue. - -Ver. 217. _Vice is a monster, &c._] There is another error, an error of -practice, which hath more general and hurtful effects; and is next -considered, from ver. 216 to 221. It is this, that though, at the first -aspect, vice be so horrible as to fright the beholder, yet, when by -habit we are once grown familiar with her, we first suffer, and in time -begin to lose the memory of her nature, which necessarily implies an -equal ignorance in the nature of virtue. Hence men conclude that there -is neither one nor the other. - -Ver. 221. _But where th' extreme of vice, &c._] But it is not only that -extreme of vice which stands next to virtue, which betrays us into these -mistakes. We are deceived too, as he shows us, from ver. 220 to 231, by -our observations concerning the other extreme. For, from the extreme of -vice being unsettled, men conclude that vice itself is only nominal, at -least rather comparative than real. - -Ver. 231. _Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be,_] There is yet a -third cause of this error of no vice, no virtue, composed of the other -two, _i.e._ partly speculative, and partly practical. And this also the -poet considers, from ver. 230 to 239, showing it ariseth from the -imperfection of the best characters, and the inequality of all; whence -it happens that no man is extremely virtuous or vicious, nor extremely -constant in the pursuit of either. Why it so happens, the poet informs -us, who with admirable sagacity assigns the cause in this line: - - For, vice or virtue, self directs it still. - -An adherence or regard to what is, in the sense of the world, a man's -own interest, making an extreme, in either, almost impossible. Its -effect in keeping a good man from the extreme of virtue needs no -explanation; and, in an ill man, self-interest showing him the necessity -of some kind of reputation, the procuring and preserving that will -necessarily keep him from the extreme of vice. - -Ver. 239. _That counterworks each folly and caprice;_] The mention of -this principle, that self directs vice and virtue, and its consequence, -which is, that - - Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal, - -leads the author to observe, - - That heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole. - -And this brings him naturally round again to his main subject, namely, -God's producing good out of ill, which he prosecutes from ver. 238 to -249. - -Ver. 249. _Heav'n forming each on other to depend,_] I. Hitherto the -poet hath been employed in discoursing of the use of the passions, with -regard to society at large; and in freeing his doctrine from objections. -This is the first general division of the subject of this epistle. - -II. He comes now to show, from ver. 248 to 261, the use of these -passions, with regard to the more confined circle of our friends, -relations, and acquaintance; and this is the second general division. - -Ver. 261. _Whate'er the passion, &c._] III. The poet having thus shown -the use of the passions in society and in domestic life, comes, in the -last place, from ver. 260 to the end, to show their use to the -individual, even in their illusions; the imaginary happiness they -present, helping to make the real miseries of life less insupportable: -and this is his third general division: - - Opinion gilds with varying rays - Those painted clouds that beautify our days, &c. - One prospect lost, another still we gain; - And not a vanity is giv'n in vain. - -Which must needs vastly raise our idea of God's goodness; who hath not -only provided more than a counterbalance of real happiness to human -miseries, but hath even, in his infinite compassion, bestowed on those -who were so foolish as not to have made this provision, an imaginary -happiness, that they may not be quite overborne with the load of human -miseries. This is the poet's great and noble thought, as strong and -solid as it is new and ingenious. It teaches, that these illusions are -the faults and follies of men, which they wilfully fall into, and -thereby deprive themselves of much happiness, and expose themselves to -equal misery; but that still, God, according to his universal way of -working, graciously turns these faults and follies so far to the -advantage of his miserable creatures, as to become, for a time, the -solace and support of their distresses: - - Though man's a fool, yet God is wise. - - - COMMENTARY ON EPISTLE III. - -We are now come to the third Epistle of the Essay on Man. It having been -shown, in explaining the origin, use, and end of the passions, in the -second Epistle, that man hath social as well as selfish passions, that -doctrine naturally introduceth the third, which treats of man as a -social animal, and connects it with the second, which considered him as -an individual. And as the conclusion from the subject of the first -Epistle made the introduction to the second, so here again, the -conclusion of the second - - Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine, - The scale to measure others' wants by thine, - -maketh the introduction to the third: - - Here then we rest: 'The Universal Cause - Acts to one end, but acts by various laws.' - -The reason of variety in those laws, which tend to one and the same end, -the good of the whole generally, is, because the good of the individual -is likewise to be provided for; both which together make up the good of -the whole universally. And this is the cause, as the poet says -elsewhere, that - - Each individual seeks a several goal. - -But to prevent our resting there, God hath made each need the assistance -of another; and so - - On mutual wants built mutual happiness. - -It was necessary to explain the two first lines, the better to see the -pertinency and force of what followeth, from ver. 2 to 7, where the poet -warns such to take notice of this truth, whose circumstances placing -them in an imaginary station of independence, and inducing a real habit -of insensibility to mutual wants (from which wants general happiness -results), make them but too apt to overlook the true system of things; -viz. the men in full health and opulence. This caution was necessary -with respect to society; but still more necessary with respect to -religion. Therefore he especially recommends the memory of it as well to -the clergy as laity when they preach or pray; because the preacher who -doth not consider the First Cause under this view, as a Being consulting -the good of the whole, must needs give a very unworthy idea of him; and -the supplicant, who prayeth as one not related to a whole, or -indifferent to the happiness of it, will not only pray in vain, but -offend his Maker by neglecting the interest of his dispensation. - -Ver. 7. _Look round our world; &c._] He now introduceth his system of -human sociability, ver. 7, 8, by showing it to be the dictate of the -Creator; and that man, in this, did but follow the example of general -nature, which is united in one close system of benevolence. - -Ver. 9. _See plastic nature working to this end_,] This he proveth, -first, from ver. 8 to 13, on the noble theory of attraction, from the -economy of the material world, where there is a general conspiracy in -all the particles of matter to work for one end, the use, beauty, and -harmony of the whole mass. - -Ver. 13. _See matter next, &c._] The second argument, from ver. 12 to -27, is taken from the vegetable and animal world, whose parts serve -mutually for the production, support, and sustentation of each other. -But the observation, that God - - Connects each being, greatest with the least; - Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast; - All served, all serving, - -awaking again the pride of his impious adversaries, who cannot bear that -man should be thought to be serving as well as served, he takes this -occasion again to humble them, from ver. 26 to 49, by the same kind of -argument he had so successfully employed in the first Epistle, and which -the comment on that epistle hath considered at large. - -Ver. 49. _Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control;_] However, his -adversaries, loth to give up the question, will reason upon the matter; -and we are now to suppose them objecting against Providence in this -manner. "We grant," they say, "that in the irrational, as in the -inanimate creation, all is served, and all is serving: but with regard -to man, the case is different: he standeth single: for his reason hath -endowed him both with power and address sufficient to make all things -serve him; and his self-love, of which you have so largely provided for -him, will indispose him, in his turn, to serve any: therefore your -theory is imperfect." Not so, replies the poet, from ver. 48 to 79. I -grant that man, indeed, affects to be the wit and tyrant of the whole, -and would fain shake off - - that chain of love - Combining all below and all above: - -But nature, even by the very gift of reason, checks this tyrant. For -reason, endowing man with the ability of setting together the memory of -the past with his conjectures about the future, and past misfortunes -making him apprehensive of more to come, this disposeth him to pity and -relieve others in a state of suffering. And the passion growing -habitual, naturally extendeth its effects to all that have a sense of -suffering. Now as brutes have neither man's reason, nor his inordinate -self-love, to draw them from the system of beneficence, so they wanted -not, and therefore have not, this human sympathy of another's misery, by -which passion, we see, those qualities, in man, balance one another, and -so retain him in that orderly connexion, in which Providence hath placed -its whole creation. But this is not all: man's interest and amusement, -his vanity and luxury, tie him still closer to the system of -beneficence, by obliging him to provide for the support of other -animals, and though it be, for the most part, only to devour them with -the greater gust, yet this does not abate the proper happiness of the -animals so preserved, to whom Providence hath not imparted the useless -knowledge of their end. From all which it appears, that the theory is -yet uniform and perfect. - -Ver. 79. _Whether with reason, &c._] But even to this as a caviller -would still object, we must suppose he does so. "Admit," says he, "that -nature hath endowed all animals, whether human or brutal, with such -faculties as admirably fit them to promote the general good, yet, in its -care for this, hath not nature neglected to provide for the private good -of the individual? We have cause to think she hath; and we suppose, it -was on exclusive consideration, that she kept back from brutes the gift -of reason (so necessary a means of private happiness), because reason, -as we find in the case of man, where there is occasion for all the -complicated contrivance you have described above, to make the effects of -his passions counterwork the immediate powers of his reason, in order to -keep him subservient to the general system; reason, we say, naturally -tendeth to draw beings into a private independent system." This the poet -answers, by showing, from ver. 78 to 109, that the happiness of animal -and that of human life are widely different: the happiness of human life -consisting in the improvement of the mind, can be procured by reason -only; but the happiness of animal life consisting in the gratifications -of sense, is best promoted by instinct. And, with regard to the regular -and constant operation of each, in that, instinct hath plainly the -advantage; for here God directs immediately; there only mediately -through man. - -Ver. 109. _God, in the nature of each being, &c._] The author now cometh -to the main subject of his epistle, the proof of man's sociability, from -the two general societies composed by him; the natural, subject to -paternal authority; and the civil, subject to that of a magistrate. This -he hath the address to introduce, from what had preceded, in so easy and -natural a manner, as showeth him to have the art of giving all the grace -to the dryness and severity of method, as well as wit to the strength -and depth of reason. The philosophic nature of his work requiring he -should show by what reason those societies were introduced, this affords -him an opportunity of sliding gracefully and easily from the -preliminaries into the main subject; and so of giving his work that -perfection of method, which we find only in the compositions of great -writers. For having just before, though to a different purpose, -described the power of bestial instinct to attain the happiness of the -individual, he goeth on, in speaking of instinct as it is serviceable -both to that, and to the kind, from ver. 108 to 147, to illustrate the -original of society. He showeth, that though, as he had before observed, -God had founded the proper bliss of each creature in the nature of its -own existence, yet these not being independent individuals, but parts of -a whole, God, to bless that whole, built mutual happiness on mutual -wants. Now, for the supply of mutual wants, creatures must necessarily -come together, which is the first ground of society amongst men. He then -proceeds to that called natural, subject to paternal authority, and -arising from the union of the two sexes; describes the imperfect image -of it in brutes; then explains it at large in all its causes and -effects. And lastly shows, that, as in fact, like mere animal society, -it is founded and preserved by mutual wants, the supplial of which -causeth mutual happiness, so it is likewise in right, as a rational -society, by equity, gratitude, and the observance of the relation of -things in general. - -Ver. 147. _Nor think in nature's state they blindly trod;_] But the -atheist and Hobbist, against whom Mr. Pope argueth, deny the principle -of right, or of natural justice, before the invention of civil compact, -which, they say, gave being to it; and accordingly have had the -effrontery publicly to declare, that a state of nature was a state of -war. This quite subverteth the poet's natural society; therefore, after -this account of that state, he proceedeth to support the reality of it, -by overthrowing the opponent principle of no natural justice; which he -doth, from ver. 146 to 169, by showing in a fine description of the -state of innocence, as represented in Scripture, that a state of nature -was so far from being without natural justice, that it was, at first, -the reign of God, where right and truth universally prevailed. - -Ver. 169. _See him from nature rising slow to art!_] Strict method (in -which, by this time, the reader finds the poet to be more conversant, -than some were aware of) leads him next to speak of that society, which -succeeded the natural, namely, the civil. He first explains, from ver. -169 to 199, the intermediate means which led mankind from natural to -civil society. These were the invention and improvement of arts. For -while men lived in a mere state of nature, there was no need of any -other government than the paternal; but when arts were found out and -improved, then that more perfect form, under the direction of a -magistrate, became necessary. And for these reasons; first, to bring -those arts, already found, to perfection; and, secondly, to secure the -product of them to their rightful proprietors. The poet, therefore, -comes now, as we say, to the invention of arts; but being always intent -on the great end for which he wrote his Essay, namely, to mortify that -pride which occasions all the impious complaints against Providence, he -speaks of these inventions as only lessons learned of mere animals -guided by instinct, and thus, at the same time, gives a new instance of -the wonderful Providence of God, who hath continued to teach mankind in -a way, not only proper to humble human pride, but to raise our idea of -divine wisdom to the highest pitch. This he does in a prosopopoeia the -most sublime that ever entered into the human imagination: - - Thus then to man the voice of nature spake: - "Go, from the creatures thy instructions take, &c., - And for those arts mere instinct could afford, - Be crowned as monarchs, or as Gods adored." - -The delicacy of the poet's address in the first part of the last line is -very remarkable. In this paragraph he hath given an account of those -intermediate means which led men from natural to civil society, that is -to say, the invention and improvement of arts. Now here, on his -conclusion of this account, and on his entry upon the description of -civil society itself, he connects the two parts the most gracefully that -can be conceived, by this true historical circumstance, that it was the -invention of those arts which raised to the magistracy, in this new -society formed for the perfecting of them. - -Ver. 199. _Great nature spoke;_] After all this necessary preparation, -the poet shows, from ver. 198 to 209, how civil society followed, and -the advantages it produced. - -Ver. 209. _Thus states were formed;_] Having thus explained the original -of civil society, he shows us next, from ver. 208 to 215, that to this -society a civil magistrate, properly so called, did belong. And this in -confutation of that idle hypothesis, which pretends that God conferred -the regal title on the fathers of families; from whence men, when they -had instituted society, were to fetch their governors. On the contrary, -our author shows that a king was unknown till common interest, which led -men to institute civil government, led them at the same time to -institute a governor. However, that it is true that the same wisdom or -valour, which gained regal obedience from sons to the sire, procured -kings a paternal authority, and made them considered as fathers of their -people, which probably was the original (and, while mistaken, continues -to be the chief support) of that slavish error, antiquity representing -its earliest monarchs under the idea of a common father, [Greek: pater -andron]. Afterwards, indeed, they became a kind of foster-fathers, -[Greek: poimena laon], Homer calls one of them, till at length they -began to devour that flock they had been so long accustomed to shear; -and, as Plutarch says of Cecrops, [Greek: ek chrestou basileos agrion -kai drakontode genomenon turannon]. - -Ver. 215. _Till then, by nature crowned, &c._] The poet now returns, at -ver. 215 to 241, to what he had left unfinished in his description of -natural society. This, which appears irregular, is, indeed, a fine -instance of his thorough knowledge of method. I will explain it. This -third epistle, we see, considers man with respect to society; the -second, with respect to himself; and the fourth, with respect to -happiness. But in none of these relations does the poet ever lose sight -of him under that in which he stands to God. It will follow, therefore, -that speaking of him with respect to society, the account would be most -imperfect, were he not at the same time considered with respect to his -religion; for between these two there is a close, and, while things -continue in order, a most interesting connexion: - - True faith, true policy united ran; - That was but love of God, and this of man. - -Now religion suffering no change or depravation when man first entered -into civil society, but continuing the same as in the state of nature, -the author, to avoid repetition, and to bring the account of true and -false religion nearer to one another, in order to contrast them by the -advantage of that situation, deferred giving an account of his religion -till he had spoken of the origin of civil society. Thence it is, that he -here resumes the account of the state of nature, that is, so much of it -as he had left untouched, which was only the religion of it. This -consisting in the knowledge of the one God, the Creator of all things, -he shows how men came by that knowledge: that it was either found out by -reason, which giving to every effect a cause, instructed them to go from -cause to cause, till they came to the first, who, being causeless, would -necessarily be judged self-existent; or else that it was taught by -tradition, which preserved the memory of the creation. He then tells us -what these men, undebauched by false science, understood by God's nature -and attributes: first, of God's nature, that they easily distinguished -between the worker and the work; saw the substance of the Creator to be -distinct and different from that of the creature, and so were in no -danger of falling into the horrid opinion of the Greek philosophers, and -their follower, Spinoza. And simple reason teaching them that the -Creator was but one, they easily saw that all was right, and so were in -as little danger of falling into the Manichean error, which, when -oblique wit had broken the steady light of reason, imagined all was not -right, having before imagined that all was not the work of One. -Secondly, he shows, what they understood of God's attributes; that they -easily acknowledged a Father where they found a Deity, and could not -conceive a sovereign Being to be any other than a sovereign Good. - -Ver. 241. _Who first taught souls enslaved, &c._] Order leadeth the poet -to speak, from ver. 240 to 245, of the corruption of civil society into -tyranny, and its causes; and here, with all the dexterity of address, as -well as force of truth, he observes, it arose from the violation of that -great principle, which he so much insists upon throughout his Essay, -that each was made for the use of all. We may be sure, that in this -corruption, where right or natural justice was cast aside, and violence, -the atheist's justice, presided in its stead, religion would follow the -fate of civil society. We know, from ancient history, it did so. -Accordingly Mr. Pope, from ver. 244 to 269, together with corrupt -politics, describes corrupt religion and its causes. He first informs -us, agreeable to his exact knowledge of antiquity, that it was the -politician, and not the priest (as the illiterate tribe of freethinkers -would make us believe), who first corrupted religion. Secondly, that the -superstition he brought in was not invented by him, as an engine to -play upon others (as the dreaming atheist feigns, who would thus account -for the origin of religion), but was a trap he first fell into himself: - - Superstition taught the tyrant awe. - -Ver. 269. _So drives self-love, &c._] The inference our author draws -from all this, from ver. 268 to 283, is, that self-love driveth through -right and wrong; it causeth the tyrant to violate the rights of mankind; -and it causeth the people to vindicate that violation. For self-love -being common to the whole species, and setting each individual in -pursuit of the same objects, it became necessary for each, if he would -secure his own, to provide for the safety of another's. And thus equity -and benevolence arose from that same self-love which had given birth to -avarice and injustice: - - His safety must his liberty restrain; - All join to guard what each desires to gain. - -The poet hath not anywhere shown greater address, in the disposition of -this work, than with regard to the inference before us, which not only -giveth a proper and timely support to what had been advanced in the -second Epistle concerning the nature and effects of self-love, but is a -necessary introduction to what follows, concerning the reformation of -religion and society; as we shall see presently. - -Ver. 283. _'Twas then, the studious head, &c._] The poet hath now -described the rise, perfection, and decay of civil policy and religion -in the more early times. But the design had been imperfect, had he -dropped his discourse here. There was, in after-ages, a recovery of -these from their several corruptions. Accordingly, he hath chosen that -happy era for the conclusion of his song. But as good and ill -governments and religions succeed one another without ceasing, he now -leaveth facts, and turneth his discourse, from ver. 282 to 295, to speak -of a more lasting reform of mankind, in the invention of those -philosophic principles, by whose observance a policy and a religion may -be for ever kept from sinking into tyranny and superstition: - - 'Twas then, the studious head, or generous mind, - Follow'r of God, or friend of human kind, - Poet or patriot, rose but to restore - The faith and moral, nature gave before; &c. - -The easy and just transition into this subject from the foregoing is -admirable. In the foregoing he had described the effects of self-love; -and now, with great art and high probability, he maketh men's -observations on these effects the occasion of those discoveries which -they have made of the true principles of policy and religion, described -in the present paragraph; and this he evidently hinteth at in that fine -transition: - - 'Twas then, the studious head, &c. - -Ver. 295. _Such is the world's great harmony, &c._] Having thus -described the true principles of civil and ecclesiastical policy, he -proceedeth, from ver. 294 to 303, to illustrate the harmony between the -two policies, by the universal harmony of nature: - - Such is the world's great harmony, that springs - From order, union, full consent of things. - -Thus, as in the beginning of this epistle he supported the general -principle of mutual love or association, by considerations drawn from -the particular properties of matter, and the mutual dependence between -vegetable and animal life, so, in the conclusion, he hath enforced the -particular principles of civil and religious society, from that general -harmony, which springs, in part, from those properties and dependencies. - -Ver. 303. _For forms of government let fools contest; &c._] But now the -poet, having so much commended the invention and inventors of the -philosophic principles of religion and government, lest an evil use -should be made of this, by men's resting in theory and speculation, as -they have been always apt to do in matters where practice makes their -happiness, he cautions his reader, from ver. 302 to 311, against this -error. The seasonableness of this reproof will appear evident enough to -those who know that mad disputes about liberty and prerogative had once -well nigh overturned our constitution; while others about mystery and -church authority had almost destroyed the very spirit of our religion. - -Ver. 311. _Man, like the generous vine, &c._] Having thus largely -considered man in his social capacity, the poet, in order to fix a -momentous truth in the mind of his reader, concludes the Epistle in -recapitulating the two principles which concur to the support of this -part of his character, namely, self-love and social, and in showing that -they are only two different motions of the appetite to good, by which -the Author of Nature hath enabled man to find his own happiness in the -happiness of the whole. This he illustrates with a thought as sublime as -that general harmony which he describes: - - On their own axis as the planets run, - Yet make at once their circle round the sun; - So two consistent motions act the soul; - And one regards itself, and one the whole. - Thus God and nature linked the general frame, - And bade self-love and social be the same. - -For he hath the art of converting poetical ornament into philosophic -reasoning; and of improving a simile into an analogical argument; of -which, more in our next. - - - COMMENTARY ON EPISTLE IV. - -The two foregoing Epistles having considered man with regard to the -means (that is, in all his relations, whether as an individual, or a -member of society), this last comes to consider him with regard to the -end, that is, happiness. It opens with an invocation to happiness, in -the manner of the ancient poets; who, when destitute of a patron god, -applied to the muse; and if she was not at leisure, took up with any -simple virtue next at hand, to inspire and prosper their undertakings. -This was the ancient invocation, which few modern poets have had the art -to imitate with any degree either of spirit or decorum: but our author -has contrived to make his subservient to the method and reasoning of his -philosophic composition. I will endeavour to explain so uncommon a -beauty. It is to be observed, that the pagan deities had each their -several names and places of abode, with some of which they were supposed -to be more delighted than others, and consequently to be then most -propitious when invoked by the favourite name and place. Hence we find -the hymns of Homer, Orpheus, and Callimachus to be chiefly employed in -reckoning up the several titles and habitations by which the patron god -was known and distinguished. Our poet hath made these two circumstances -serve to introduce his subject. His purpose is to write of happiness: -method, therefore, requires that he first define what men mean by -happiness, and this he does in the ornament of a poetic invocation, in -which the several names that happiness goes by are enumerated: - - Oh happiness! our being's end and aim! - Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name. - -After the definition, that which follows next is the proposition, which -is, that human happiness consists not in external advantages, but in -virtue. For the subject of this Epistle is to detect the false notions -of happiness, and to settle and explain the true; and this the poet lays -down in the next sixteen lines. Now the enumeration of the several -situations where happiness is supposed to reside, is a summary of false -happiness placed in externals: - - Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below, - Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow? - Fair op'ning to some court's propitious shrine, - Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? - Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, - Or reaped in from harvests of the field? - -The six remaining lines deliver the true notion of happiness, and show -that it is rightly placed in virtue, which is summed up in these two: - - Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere - 'Tis no where to be found, or every where. - -The poet, having thus defined his terms, and laid down his proposition, -proceeds to the support of his thesis, the various arguments of which -make up the body of the epistle. - -Ver. 19. _Ask for the learn'd, &c._] He begins, from ver. 18 to 29, with -detecting the false notions of happiness. These are of two kinds, the -philosophical and popular. The popular he had recapitulated in the -invocation, when happiness was called upon, at her several supposed -places of abode: the philosophical only remained to be delivered: - - Ask of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are blind; - This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind: - Some place the bliss in action, some in ease; - Those call it pleasure, and contentment these. - -They differed as well in the means, as in the nature of the end. Some -placed happiness in action, some in contemplation; the first called it -pleasure, the second ease. Of those who placed it in action and called -it pleasure, the route they pursued either sunk them into sensual -pleasures, which ended in pain; or led them in search of imaginary -perfections, unsuitable to their nature and station, see Ep. i., which -ended in vanity. Of those who placed it in ease, the contemplative -station they were fixed in made some, for their quiet, find truth in -every thing; others, in nothing: - - Who thus define it, say they more or less - Than this, that happiness is happiness? - -The confutation of these philosophic errors he shows to be very easy, -one common fallacy running through them all, namely this, that instead -of telling us in what the happiness of human nature consists, which was -what was asked of them, each busies himself in explaining in what he -placed his own. - -Ver. 29. _Take natures path, &c._] The poet then proceeds, from ver. 28 -to 35, to reform their mistakes; and shows them that, if they will but -take the road of nature, and leave that of mad opinion, they will soon -find happiness to be a good of the species, and, like common sense, -equally distributed to all mankind. - -Ver. 35. _Remember, man, &c._] Having exposed the two false species of -happiness, the philosophical and popular, and announced the true; in -order to establish the last, he goes on to a confutation of the two -former. - -I. He first, from ver. 34 to 49, confutes the philosophical, which, as -we said, makes happiness a particular, not a general good. And this two -ways; 1. From his grand principle, that God acts by general laws; the -consequence of which is, that happiness, which supports the well-being -of every system, must needs be universal, and not partial, as the -philosophers conceived. 2. From fact, that man instinctively concurs -with this designation of Providence, to make happiness universal, by his -having no delight in any thing uncommunicated or uncommunicable. - -Ver. 49. _Order is heaven's first law;_] II. In the second place, from -ver. 48 to 67, he confutes the popular error concerning happiness, -namely, that it consists in externals. This he does, first, by inquiring -into the reasons of the present providential disposition of external -goods,--a topic of confutation chosen with the greatest accuracy and -penetration. For, if it appears they were given in the manner we see -them distributed, for reasons different from the happiness of -individuals, it is absurd to think that they should make part of that -happiness. He shows, therefore, that disparity of external possessions -among men was for the sake of society: 1. To promote the harmony and -happiness of a system; because the want of external goods in some, and -the abundance in others, increase general harmony in the obligor and -obliged. Yet here, says he, mark the impartial wisdom of heaven; this -very inequality of externals, by contributing to general harmony and -order, produceth an equality of happiness amongst individuals. 2. To -prevent perpetual discord amongst men equal in power, which an equal -distribution of external goods would necessarily occasion. From hence he -concludes, that as external goods were not given for the reward of -virtue, but for many different purposes, God could not, if he intended -happiness for all, place it in the enjoyment of externals. - -Ver. 67. _Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, &c._] His second -argument, from ver. 66 to 73, against the popular error of happiness -being placed in externals, is, that the possession of them is -inseparably attended with fear; the want of them with hope; which -directly crossing all their pretensions to making happy, evidently shows -that God had placed happiness elsewhere. And hence, in concluding this -argument, he takes occasion, from ver. 72 to 77, to upbraid the -desperate folly and impiety of those who, in spite of God and nature, -will yet attempt to place happiness in externals: - - Oh sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise, - By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies? - Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, - And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. - -Ver. 77. _Know, all the good, &c._] The poet having thus confuted the -two errors concerning happiness, the philosophical and popular, and -proved that true happiness was neither solitary and partial, nor yet -placed in externals, goes on, from ver. 76 to 83, to show in what it -doth consist. He had before said in general, and repeated it, that -happiness lay in common to the whole species. He now brings us better -acquainted with it, in a more explicit account of its nature, and tells -us, it is all contained in health, peace, and competence; but that these -are to be gained only by virtue, namely, by temperance, innocence, and -industry. - -Ver. 83. _The good or bad, &c._] Hitherto the poet hath only considered -health and peace: - - But health consists with temperance alone; - And peace, oh virtue! peace is all thy own. - -One head yet remained to be spoken to, namely, competence. In the -pursuit of health and peace there is no danger of running into excess; -but the case is different with regard to competence: here wealth and -affluence would be apt to be mistaken for it, in men's passionate -pursuit after external goods. To obviate this mistake, therefore, the -poet shows, from ver. 82 to 93, that, as exorbitant wealth adds nothing -to the happiness arising from a competence, so, as it is generally -ill-gotten, it is attended with circumstances which weaken another part -of this triple cord, namely, peace. - - Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, - Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. - But health consists with temperance alone; - And peace, oh virtue! peace is all thy own. - -Ver. 93. _Oh blind to truth, &c._] Our author having thus largely -confuted the mistake, that happiness consists in externals, proceeds to -expose the terrible consequences of such an opinion, on the sentiments -and practice of all sorts of men; making the dissolute, impious and -atheistical; the religious, uncharitable and intolerant; and the good, -restless and discontent. For when it is once taken for granted, that -happiness consists in externals, it is immediately seen that ill men are -often more happy than the good, which sets all conditions on objecting -to the ways of Providence, and some even on rashly attempting to rectify -his dispensations, though by the violation of all laws, divine and -human. Now this being the most important part of the subject under -consideration, is deservedly treated most at large. And here it will be -proper to take notice of the art of the poet in making this confutation -serve, at the same time, for a full solution of all objections which -might be made to his main proposition, that happiness consists not in -externals. - -1. He begins, first of all, with the atheistical complainers; and -pursues their impiety from ver. 93 to 131. - - Oh blind to truth! and God's whole scheme below, &c. - -Ver. 97. _But fools, the good alone unhappy call, &c._] He exposes their -folly, even in their own notions of external goods. 1. By examples, from -ver. 98 to 111, where he shows, first, that if good men have been -untimely cut off, this is not to be ascribed to their virtue, but to a -contempt of life, which hurried them into dangers. Secondly, That if -they will still persist in ascribing untimely death to virtue, they must -needs, on the same principle, ascribe long life to it also; -consequently, as the argument, in fact, concludes both ways, in logic it -concludes neither. - - Say, was it virtue, more though heav'n ne'er gave, - Lamented Digby! sunk thee to the grave? - Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, - Why, full of days and honour, lives the sire? - -Ver. 111. _What makes all physical or moral ill?_] 2. He exposes their -folly, from ver. 110 to 131, by considerations drawn from the system of -nature: and these twofold, natural and moral. You accuse God, says he, -because the good man is subject to natural and moral evil. Let us see -whence these proceed. Natural evil is the necessary consequence of a -material world so constituted. But that this constitution was best, we -have proved in the first Epistle. Moral evil ariseth from the depraved -will of man. Therefore neither one nor the other from God. But you say, -adds the poet, to these impious complainers, that though it be fit man -should suffer the miseries which he brings upon himself, by the -commission of moral evil; yet it seems unfit that his innocent posterity -should bear a share of the burden. To this, says he, I reply, - - We just as wisely might of heav'n complain - That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain, - As that the righteous son is ill at ease, - When his lewd father gave the dire disease. - -But you will still say, Why doth not God either prevent or immediately -repair these evils? You may as well ask, why he doth not work continual -miracles, and every moment reverse the established laws of nature: - - Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires, &c. - -This is the force of the poet's reasoning, and these the men to whom he -addresseth it, namely, the libertine cavillers against Providence. - -Ver. 131. _But still this world, &c._] II. But now, so unhappy is the -condition of our corrupt nature, that these are not the only -complainers. Religious men are but too apt, if not to speak out, yet -sometimes secretly to murmur against Providence, and say, its ways are -not equal. Those especially, who are more inordinately devoted to a sect -or party, are scandalised, that the just, (for such they esteem -themselves,) the just, who are to judge the world, have no better a -portion in their own inheritance and dominion. The poet, therefore, now -leaves those more professedly impious, and turns to these less -profligate complainers, from ver. 130 to 149: - - But still this world, so fitted for the knave, &c. - -As the former wanted external goods to be the reward of virtue for the -moral man, so these want them for the pious, in order to have a kingdom -of the just. To this the poet holds it sufficient to answer: Pray first -agree among yourselves who those just are. As they are not likely to do -this, he bids them to rest satisfied; to remember his fundamental -principle, that whatever is, is right; and to content themselves (as -their religion teaches them to profess a more than ordinary submission -to the will of Providence) with that common answer which he, with so -much reason and piety, gives to every kind of complainer. However, -though there be yet no kingdom of the just, there is still no kingdom of -the unjust; both the virtuous and the vicious (whatsoever becomes of -those whom every sect calls the faithful) have their share in external -goods; and what is more, the virtuous have infinitely the most enjoyment -of their share: - - This world, 'tis true, - Was made for Caesar, but for Titus too: - And which more bless'd? who chained his country? say! - Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day? - -I have been the more solicitous to explain this last argument, and to -show against whom it is directed, because a great deal depends upon it -for the illustration of the sense, and the defence of the poet's -reasoning. For if we suppose him to be still addressing himself to those -impious complainers, confuted in the forty preceding lines, we should -make him guilty of a paralogism, in the argument about the just; and in -the illustration of it by the case of Calvin. For then the libertine -asks, Why the just, that is, the moral man, is not rewarded? The answer -is, that none but God can tell, who the just, that is, the faithful man, -is. Where the term is changed, in order to support the argument; for -about the truly moral man there is no dispute; about the truly faithful -or the orthodox, a great deal. But take the poet right, as arguing here -against religious complainers, and the reasoning is strict and logical. -They ask, why the truly faithful are not rewarded? He answereth, they -may be for aught you know; for none but God can tell who they are. - -Ver. 149. _"But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed."_] III. The -poet, having dispatched these two species of murmurers, comes now to the -third, and still more pardonable sort, the discontented good men, who -lament only that virtue starves, while vice riots. To these he replies, -from ver. 148 to 157, that, admit this to be the case, yet they have no -reason to complain, either of the good man's lot in particular, or of -the dispensation of Providence in general. Not of the former, because -happiness, the reward of virtue, consisteth not in externals; nor of the -latter, because ill men may gain wealth by commendable industry; good -men want necessaries through indolence or ill conduct. - -Ver. 157. _But grant him riches, &c._] But as modest as this complaint -seemeth at first view, the poet next shows, from ver. 156 to 167, that -it is founded on a principle of the highest extravagance, which will -never let the discontented good man rest, till he becomes as vain and -foolish in his imagination as the very worst sort of complainers. For -that when once he begins to think he wants what is his due, he will -never know where to stop, while God hath any thing to give. - -Ver. 167. _What nothing earthly gives, &c._] But this is not all; the -poet showeth next, from ver. 166 to 185, that these demands are not only -unreasonable, but in the highest degree absurd likewise. For that those -very goods, if granted, would be the destruction of that virtue for -which they are demanded as a reward. He concludes, therefore, on the -whole, that - - What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, - The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy, - Is virtue's prize, - -And that to aim at other, which not only is of no use to us here, but, -what is more, will be of none hereafter, is a passion like that of an -infant or a savage, where the one is impatient for what he will soon -despise, and the other makes a provision for what he can never want. - -Ver. 185. _To whom can riches give repute, or trust,_] The poet now -enters more at large upon the matter; and still continuing his discourse -to this third sort of complainers (whom he indulgeth, as much more -pardonable than the first or second, in rectifying all their doubts and -mistakes), he proves, both from reason and example, how unable any of -those things are, which the world most admires, to make a good man -happy. For as to the philosophic mistakes concerning happiness, there -being little danger of their making a general impression, he had, after -a short confutation, dismissed them altogether. But external goods are -those syrens, which so bewitch the world with dreams of happiness, that -it is of all things the most difficult to awaken it out of its -delusions; though, as he proves in an exact review of the most -pretending, they dishonour bad men, and add no lustre to the good. That -it is only this third, and least criminal sort of complainers, against -whom the remaining part of the discourse is directed, appeareth from the -poet's so frequently addressing himself, henceforward, to his friend. - -I. He beginneth therefore, from ver. 184 to 205, with considering -riches. 1. He examines first, what there is of real use or enjoyment in -them; and showeth, they can give the good man only that very contentment -in himself, and that very esteem and love from others, which he had -before; and scornfully cries out to those of a different opinion: - - Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind, - The lover and the love of human-kind, - Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, - Because he wants a thousand pounds a year! - -2. He next examines the imaginary value of riches, as the fountain of -honour. For the objection of his adversaries standeth thus: As honour is -the genuine claim of virtue, and shame the just retribution of vice; and -as honour, in their opinion, follows riches, and shame, poverty, -therefore the good man should be rich. He tells them in this they are -much mistaken: - - Honour and shame from no condition rise; - Act well your part; there all the honour lies. - -What power then has fortune over the man? None at all; for as her -favours can confer neither worth nor wisdom; so neither can her -displeasure cure him of any of his follies. On his garb, indeed, she -hath some little influence; but his heart still remains the same: - - Fortune in men has some small difference made; - One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade. - -So that this difference extends no further than to the habit; the pride -of heart is the same both in the flaunter and the flutterer, as it is -the poet's intention to insinuate by the use of those terms. - -Ver. 205. _Stuck o'er with titles, &c._] II. Then, as to nobility, by -creation or birth; this too the poet shows, from ver. 204 to 217, is in -itself as devoid of all real worth as the rest; because, in the first -case, the honour is generally gained by no merit at all; in the second, -by the merit of the first founder of the family, which, when well -considered, is generally the subject rather of humiliation than of -glory. - -Ver. 217. _Look next on greatness; &c._] III. The poet now unmasks, from -ver. 216 to 237, the false pretences of greatness, whereby it is seen -that the hero and the politician (the two characters which would -monopolize that quality) do, after all their bustle, if they want -virtue, effect only this, that the one proves himself a fool, and the -other a knave: and virtue they but too generally want; the art of -heroism being understood to consist in ravage and desolation; and the -art of politics, in circumvention. It is not success, therefore, that -constitutes true greatness; but the end aimed at, and the means which -are employed. And if these be right, glory will follow as the reward, -whatever happens to be the issue: - - Who noble ends by noble means obtains, - Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains, - Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed - Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. - -Ver. 237. _What's fame?_] IV. With regard to fame, that still more -fantastic blessing, he showeth, from ver. 236 to 259, that all of it, -besides what we hear ourselves, is merely nothing; and that, even of -this small portion, no more of it giveth the possessor a real -satisfaction, than what is the fruit of virtue. Thus he shows, that -honour, nobility, greatness, glory, so far as they have any thing real -and substantial, that is, so far as they contribute to the happiness of -the possessor, are the sole issue of virtue; and that neither riches, -courts, armies, nor the populace, are capable of conferring them. - -Ver. 259. _In parts superior what advantage lies?_] V. But lastly, the -poet shows, from ver. 258 to 269, that as no external goods can make man -happy, so neither is it in the power of all internal. For that even -superior parts bring no more real happiness to the possessor than the -rest; nay, that they put him into a worse condition; for that the -quickness of apprehension and depth of penetration do but sharpen the -miseries of life. - -Ver. 269. _Bring then these blessings to a strict account; &c._] Having -thus proved how empty and unsatisfactory all these greatest external -goods are, from an examination of their nature; he proceeds to -strengthen his argument, from ver. 268 to 309, by these three further -considerations: - -1. That the acquirement of these goods is made with the loss of one -another, or of greater, either as inconsistent with them, or as spent in -attaining them. - -2. That the possessors of each of these goods are generally such, as are -so far from raising envy in a good man, that he would refuse to take -their persons, though, accompanied with their possessions: and this the -poet illustrates by examples. - -3. That even the possession of them altogether, where they have excluded -virtue, only terminates in more enormous misery. - -Ver. 309. _Know then this truth, &c._] Having thus at length shown that -happiness consists neither in external goods of any kind, nor in all -kinds of internal (that is, in such of them as are not of our own -acquirement), nor yet in the visionary pursuits of the philosophers, he -concludes, from ver. 308 to 311, that it is to be found in virtue alone. - -Ver. 311. _The only point when human bliss stands still, &c._] Hitherto -the poet had proved, negatively, that happiness consists in virtue, by -showing, that it did not consist in anything else. He now, from ver. 310 -to 327, proves the same positively, by an enumeration of the qualities -of virtue, all naturally adapted to give and to increase human -happiness; as its constancy, capacity, vigour, efficacy, activity, -moderation, and self-sufficiency. - -Ver. 327. _See the sole bliss heav'n could on all bestow!_] Having thus -proved that happiness is placed in virtue; he proves next, from ver. 326 -to 329, that it is rightly placed there; for that then, and then only, -all may partake of it, and all be capable of relishing it. - -Ver. 329. _Yet poor with fortune, &c._] The poet then, with some -indignation, observeth, from ver. 328 to 341, that as obvious and as -evident as this truth was, yet riches and false philosophy had so -blinded the discernment even of improved minds, that the possessors of -the first placed happiness in externals, unsuitable to man's nature; and -the followers of the latter, in refined visions, unsuitable to his -situation: while the simple-minded man, with nature only for his guide, -found plainly in what it should be placed. - -Ver. 341. _For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal,_] But this is -not all; the author shows further, from ver. 340 to 353, that when the -simple-minded man, on his first setting out in the pursuit of truth in -order to happiness, hath had the wisdom - - To look through nature up to nature's God, - -(instead of adhering to any sect or party, where there was so great odds -of his choosing wrong), that then the benefit of gaining the knowledge -of God's will written in the mind, is not confined there; for standing -on this sure foundation, he is now no longer in danger of choosing -wrong, amidst such diversities of religions; but by pursuing this grand -scheme of universal benevolence, in practice as well as theory, he -arrives at length to the knowledge of the revealed will of God, which is -the consummation of the system of benevolence: - - For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal, - And opens still, and opens on his soul; - Till lengthened on to faith, and unconfined, - It pours thy bliss that fills up all the mind. - -Ver. 353. _Self-love, thus pushed to social, &c._] The poet, in the last -place, marks out, from ver. 352 to 373, the progress of his good man's -benevolence, pushed through natural religion to revealed, till it -arrives to that height which the sacred writers describe as the very -summit of Christian perfection; and shows how the progress of human -differs from the progress of divine benevolence. That the divine -descends from whole to parts; but that the human must rise from -individual to universal. His argument for this extended benevolence is, -that, as God has made a whole, whose parts have a perfect relation to, -and an entire dependency on each other, man, by extending his -benevolence throughout that whole, acts in conformity to the will of his -Creator; and therefore this enlargement of his affection becomes a duty. -But the poet hath not only shown his piety in this observation, but the -utmost art and address likewise in the disposition of it. The Essay on -Man opens with exposing the murmurs and impious conclusions of foolish -men against the present constitution of things. As it proceeds, it -occasionally detects all those false principles and opinions, which led -them to conclude thus perversely. Having now done all that was necessary -in speculation, the author turns to practice, and ends his Essay with -the recommendation of an acknowledged virtue, charity,--which, if -exercised in that extent which conformity to the will of God requireth, -would effectually prevent all complaints against the present order of -nature,--such complaints being made with a total disregard to everything -but their own private system, and seeking remedy in the disorder, and at -the expense of all the rest. This observation, - - Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, - -is important. Rochefoucault, Esprit, and their coarse and wordy -disciple, Mandeville, had observed, that self-love was the origin of -all those virtues which mankind most admire, and therefore foolishly -supposed it was the end likewise, and so taught that the highest -pretences to disinterestedness were only the more artful disguises of -self-love. But our author, who says somewhere or other, - - Of human nature, wit its worst may write; - We all revere it in our own despite, - -saw, as well as they, and everybody else, that the passions began in -self-love; yet he understood human nature better than to imagine that -they ended there. He knew that reason and religion could convert -selfishness into its very opposite; and therefore teacheth that - - Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake: - -and thus hath vindicated the dignity of human nature, and the -philosophic truth of the christian doctrine. - -Ver. 394. _Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right;_] The poet's -address to his friend, which concludeth this Epistle so nobly, and -endeth with a recapitulation of the general argument, affords me the -following observation, with which I shall conclude these remarks. There -is one great beauty that shines through the whole Essay. The poet, -whether he speaks of man as an individual, a member of society, or the -subject of happiness, never misseth an opportunity, while he is -explaining his state under any of these capacities, to illustrate it in -the most artful manner by the enforcement of his grand principle, that -every thing tendeth to the good of the whole, from whence his system -gaineth the reciprocal advantage of having that grand theorem realized -by facts, and his facts justified on a principle of right or nature. - -Thus I have endeavoured to analyse and explain the exact reasoning of -these four Epistles. Enough, I presume, to convince every one, that it -hath a precision, force, and closeness of connection rarely to be met -with, even in the most formal treatises of philosophy. Yet in doing -this, it is but too evident I have destroyed that grace and energy which -animates the original. And now let the reader believe, if he be so -disposed, what M. de Crousaz, in his critique upon this work, insinuates -to be his own opinion, as well as that of his friends: "Some persons," -says he, "have conjectured that Mr. Pope did not compose this Essay at -once, and in a regular order; but that after he had written several -fragments of poetry, all finished in their kind, (one, for example, on -the parallel between reason and instinct, another upon man's groundless -pride, another on the prerogatives of human nature, another on religion -and superstition, another on the original of society, and several -fragments besides on self-love and the passions), he tacked these -together as he could, and divided them into four epistles; as, it is -said, was the fortune of Homer's Rhapsodies." I suppose this -extravagance will be believed just as soon of one as of the other. But -M. Du Resnel, our poet's translator, is not behind-hand with the critic, -in his judgment on the work. "The only reason," says he, "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 -admitted." And again: "I was, by the unanimous opinion of all those whom -I have consulted on this occasion, and, amongst these, of several -Englishmen completely skilled in both languages, obliged to follow a -different method. The French are not satisfied with sentiments, however -beautiful, unless they be methodically disposed. Method being the -characteristic that distinguishes our performances from those of our -neighbours," &c. After having given many examples of the critical skill -of this wonderful man of method, in the foregoing notes, it is enough -just to have quoted this flourish of self-applause, and so to leave him -to the laughter of the world. - - - - - NOTES. - - - NOTES ON EPISTLE I. - -Ver. 7, 8. _A wild,--Or garden,_] The wild relates to the human -passions, productive, as he explains in the second epistle, both of good -and evil. The garden to human reason, so often tempting us to transgress -the bounds God has set to it, and wander in fruitless enquiries. - -Ver. 12. _Of all who blindly creep, &c._] _i.e._ Those who only follow -the blind guidance of their passions; or those who leave behind them -common sense and sober reason, in their high flights through the regions -of metaphysics. Both which follies are exposed in the fourth Epistle, -where the popular and philosophical errors concerning happiness are -detected. The figure is taken from animal life. - -Ver. 15. _Laugh where we must, &c._] Intimating, that human follies are -so strangely absurd, that it is not in the power of the most -compassionate, on some occasions, to restrain their mirth; and that its -crimes are so flagitious, that the most candid have seldom an -opportunity, on this subject, to exercise their virtue. - -Ver. 16. _Vindicate the ways of God to man._] Milton's phrase, -judiciously altered, who says, justify the ways of God to man. Milton -was addressing himself to believers, and delivering reasons or -explaining the ways of God; this idea, the word justify precisely -conveys. Pope was addressing himself to unbelievers, and exposing such -of their objections whose ridicule and absurdity arises from the -judicial blindness of the objectors; he, therefore, more fitly employs -the word vindicate, which conveys the idea of a confutation attended -with punishment. Thus suscipere vindictam legis, to undertake the -defence of the law, implies punishing the violators of it. - -Ver. 19, 20. _Of man, what see we but his station here, - From which to reason, or to which refer?_] - -The sense is, "we see nothing of man but as he stands at present in his -station here; from which station, all our reasonings on his nature and -end must be drawn; and to this station they must all be referred." The -consequence is, that our reasonings on his nature and end must needs be -very imperfect. - -Ver. 21. _Through worlds unnumbered, &c._] Hunc cognoscimus solummodo -per proprietates suas et attributa, et per sapientissimas et optimas -rerum structuras et causas finales. _Newtoni Princ. Schol. gen. sub. -fin._ - -Ver. 30. _The strong connexions, nice dependencies,_] The thought is -very noble, and expressed with great beauty and philosophic exactness. -The system of the universe is a combination of natural and moral -fitnesses, as the human system is of body and spirit. By the strong -connexions, therefore, the poet alluded to the natural part; and by the -nice dependencies, to the moral. For the Essay on Man is not a system -of naturalism, on the philosophy of Bolingbroke, but a system of natural -religion, on the philosophy of Newton. Hence it is, that where he -supposes disorders may tend to some greater good in the natural world, -he supposes they may tend likewise to some greater good in the moral, as -appears from these sublime images in the following lines: - - If plagues and earthquakes break not heav'n's design, - Why then a Borgia or a Catiline? - Who knows, but he whose hand the lightning forms, - Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, - Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar's mind, - Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind? - -Ver. 35 to 42.] In these lines the poet has joined the beauty of -argumentation to the sublimity of thought; where the similar instances, -proposed for his adversaries' examination, show as well the absurdity of -their complaints against order, as the fruitlessness of their inquiries -into the arcana of the Godhead. - -Ver. 41. _Or ask of yonder, &c._] On these lines M. Voltaire thus -descants: "Pope dit que l'homme ne peut savoir pourquoi les lunes de -Jupiter sont moins grandes que Jupiter. Il se trompe en cela; c'est une -erreur pardonnable. Il n'y a point de mathematicien qui n'eut fait -voir," &c. And so goes on to show, like a great mathematician as he is, -that it would be very inconvenient for the page to be as big as his lord -and master. It is pity all this fine reasoning should proceed on a -ridiculous blunder. The poet thus reproves the impious complainer of the -order of Providence: You are dissatisfied with the weakness of your -condition. But, in your situation, the nature of things requires just -such a creature as you are: in a different situation, it might have -required that you should be still weaker. And though you see not the -reason of this in your own case, yet, that reasons there are, you may -see in the case of other of God's creatures: - - Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made - Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade; - Or ask of yonder argent fields above, - Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove. - -Here, says the poet, the ridicule of the weeds' and the satellites' -complaint, had they the faculties of speech and reasoning, would be -obvious to all; because their very situation and office might have -convinced them of their folly. Your folly, says the poet to his -complainers, is as great, though not so evident, because the reason is -more out of sight; but that a reason there is, may be demonstrated from -the attributes of the Deity. This is the poet's clear and strong -reasoning; from whence, we see, he was so far from saying, that man -could not know the cause why Jove's satellites were less than Jove, that -all the force of his reasoning turns upon this, that man did see and -know it, and should from thence conclude, that there was a cause of this -inferiority as well in the rational as in the material creation. - -Ver. 64. _Egypt's God:_] Called so, because the god Apis was worshipped -universally over the whole land of Egypt. - -Ver. 87. _Who sees with equal eye, &c._] Matt. x. 29. - -Ver. 93. _What future bliss, &c._] It hath been objected, that "the -system of the best weakens the other natural arguments for a future -state; because, if the evils which good men suffer, promote the benefit -of the whole, then every thing is here in order, and nothing amiss that -wants to be set right, nor has the good man any reason to expect amends, -when the evils he suffered had such a tendency." To this it may be -replied, 1. That the poet tells us, Ep. iv. ver. 361, that God loves -from whole to parts. Therefore, if, in the beginning and progress of the -moral system, the good of the whole be principally consulted, yet, on -the completion of it, the good of particulars will be equally provided -for. 2. The system of the best is so far from weakening those natural -arguments, that it strengthens and supports them. For if those evils, to -which good men are subject, be mere disorders, without any tendency to -the greater good of the whole, then, though we must, indeed, conclude -that they will hereafter be set right, yet this view of things, -representing God as suffering disorders for no other end than to set -them right, gives us too low an idea of the divine wisdom. But if those -evils (according to the system of the best) contribute to the greater -perfection of the whole, such a reason may be then given for their -permission, as supports our idea of divine wisdom to the highest -religious purposes. Then, as to the good man's hopes of retribution, -these still remain in their original force: for our idea of God's -justice, and how far that justice is engaged to a retribution, is -exactly and invariably the same on either hypothesis. For though the -system of the best supposes that the evils themselves will be fully -compensated by the good they produce to the whole, yet this is so far -from supposing that particulars shall suffer for a general good, that it -is essential to this system, that, at the completion of things, when the -whole is arrived to the state of utmost perfection, particular and -universal good shall coincide; - - Such is the world's great harmony, that springs - From order, union, full consent of things: - Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made - To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade, &c.--Ep. iii. ver. 295. - -Which coincidence can never be, without a retribution to each good man -for the evils he has suffered here below. - -Ver. 97. _from home,_] The construction is,--The soul, uneasy and -confined, being from home, expatiates, etc. By which words, it was the -poet's purpose to teach, that the present life is only a state of -probation for another, more suitable to the essence of the soul, and to -the free exercise of its qualities. - -Ver. 110. _He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;_] The French -translator, M. l'Abbe du Resnel, has turned the line thus: - - Il ne desire point cette celeste flamme - Qui des purs Seraphins devore, et nourrit l'ame. - -_i.e._ The savage does not desire that heavenly flame, which at the same -time that it devours the souls of pure seraphim, nourishes them. On -which M. de Crousaz (who, by the assistance of a translation abounding -in these absurdities, writ a Commentary on the Essay on Man, in which we -find nothing but greater absurdities) remarks, "Mr. Pope, in exalting -the fire of his poetry by an antithesis, throws occasionally his -ridicule on those heavenly spirits. The Indian, says the poet, contents -himself without any thing of that flame, which devours at the same time -that it nourisheth." _Comm._ p. 77. But the poet is clear of this -imputation. Nothing can be more grave or sober than his English, on this -occasion; nor, I dare say, to do the translator justice, did he aim to -be ridiculous. It is the sober, solid theology of the Sorbonne. Indeed, -had such a writer as Mr. Pope used this school-jargon, we might have -suspected he was not so serious as he should be. The reader, as he goes -along, will see more of this translator's peculiarities. And the -conclusion of the commentary on the fourth Epistle will show why I have -been so careful to preserve them. - -Ver. 131. _Ask for what end, &c._] If there be any fault in these lines, -it is not in the general sentiment, but in the ill choice of instances -made use of in illustrating it. It is the highest absurdity to think -that earth is man's footstool, his canopy the skies, and the heavenly -bodies lighted up principally for his use; yet surely, it is very -excusable to suppose fruits and minerals given for this end. - -Ver. 150. _Then Nature deviates; &c._] "While comets move in very -eccentric orbs, in all manner of positions, blind fate could never make -all the planets move one and the same way in orbs concentric; some -inconsiderable irregularities excepted, which may have risen from the -mutual actions of comets and planets upon one another, and which will be -apt to increase, till this system wants a reformation." _Sir Isaac -Newton's Optics, Quaest. ult._ - -Ver. 155. _If plagues, &c._] What hath misled M. de Crousaz in his -censure of this passage, is his supposing the comparison to be between -the effects of two things in this sublunary world; when not only the -elegancy, but the justness of it, consists in its being between the -effects of a thing in the universe at large, and the familiar, known -effects of one in this sublunary world. For the position enforced in -these lines is this, that partial evil tends to the good of the whole: - - Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, - May, must be right, as relative to all.--Ver. 51. - -How does the poet enforce it? If you will believe this critic, in -illustrating the effects of partial moral evil in a particular system, -by that of partial natural evil in the same system, and so he leaves his -position in the lurch. But the poet reasons at another rate. The way to -prove his point, he knew, was to illustrate the effect of partial moral -evil in the universe, by partial natural evil in a particular system. -Whether partial moral evil tend to the good of the universe, being a -question which, by reason of our ignorance of many parts of that -universe, we cannot decide but from known effects, the rules of good -reasoning require that it be proved by analogy, _i.e._ setting it by, -and comparing it with, a thing clear and certain; and it is a thing -clear and certain, that partial natural evil tends to the good of our -particular system. - -Ver. 157. _Who knows but He, &c._] The sublimity with which the great -Author of Nature is here characterized, is but the second beauty of this -fine passage. The greatest is the making the very dispensation objected -to, the periphrasis of his title. - -Ver. 174. _And little less than angels, &c._] "Thou hast made him a -little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and -honour." Psalm viii. 5. - -Ver. 202. _And stunned him, &c._] This instance is poetical, and even -sublime, but misplaced. He is arguing philosophically in a case that -required him to employ the real objects of sense only: and, what is -worse, he speaks of this as a real object, If nature thundered, &c. The -case is different where, in ver. 253, he speaks of the motion of the -heavenly bodies, under the sublime conception of ruling angels: for -whether there be ruling angels or no, there is real motion, which was -all his argument wanted; but if there be no music of the spheres, there -was no real sound, which his argument was obliged to find. - -Ver. 209. _Mark how it mounts, to man's imperial race,_] M. du Resnel -has turned the latter part of the line thus, - - Jusqu'a l'homme, ce chef, ce roi de l'univers. - -"Even to man, this head, this king of the universe," which is so sad a -blunder, that it contradicts the poet's peculiar system; who, although -he allows man to be king of this inferior world, yet he thinks it -madness to make him king of the universe. If the philosophy and argument -of the poem could not teach him this, yet methinks the poet's own words, -in this very Epistle, might have prevented his mistake: - - So man; who here seems principal alone, - Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown. - -If the translator imagined that Mr. Pope was speaking ironically where -he talks of man's imperial race, and so would heighten the ridicule of -the original by _ce roi de l'univers_, the mistake is still worse; for -the force of the argument depends upon its being said seriously; the -poet being here speaking of a scale from the highest to the lowest in -the mundane system. - -Ver. 224. _For ever separate, &c._] Near, by the similitude of the -operation; separate, by the immense difference in the nature of the -powers. - -Ver. 226. _What thin partitions, &c._] So thin, that the atheistic -philosophers, as Protagoras, held that thought was only sense: and from -thence concluded, that every imagination or opinion of every man was -true; [Greek: Pasa phantasia estin alethes]. But the poet determines -more philosophically that they are really and essentially different, -how thin soever the partition be by which they are divided. Thus (to -illustrate the truth of this observation) when a geometer considers a -triangle, in order to demonstrate the equality of its three angles to -two right ones, he has the picture or image of some sensible triangle -in his mind, which is sense; yet, notwithstanding, he must needs have -the notion or idea of an intellectual triangle likewise, which is -thought; for this plain reason, because every image or picture of a -triangle must needs be obtusangular, or rectangular, or acutangular; -but that which, in his mind, is the subject of his proposition, is the -ratio of a triangle, undetermined to any of these species. On this -account it was that Aristotle said, [Greek: Noemata tini dioisei, -tou me phantasmata einai, e oude tauta phantasmata, all' ouk aneu -phantasmaton]. "The conceptions of the mind differ somewhat from -sensible images; they are not sensible images, and yet not quite free -or disengaged from sensible images." - -Ver. 243. _Or in the full creation leave a void, &c._] This is only an -illustrating allusion to the Aristotelian doctrines of _plenum_ and -_vacuum_, the full and void here meant relating not to matter but to -life. - -Ver. 247. _And if each system in gradation roll,_] Alluding to the -motion of the planetary bodies of each system, and to the figures -described by that motion. - -Ver. 251. _Let earth unbalanced_] _i.e._ Being no longer kept within its -orbit by the different directions of its progressive and attractive -motions,--which, like equal weights in a balance, keep it in an -equilibre. - -Ver. 253. _Let ruling angels, &c._] The poet, throughout this work, has, -with great art, used an advantage which his employing a Platonic -principle for the foundation of his Essay, had afforded him; and that -is, the expressing himself, as here, in Platonic language, which, -luckily for his purpose, is highly poetical, at the same time that it -adds a grace to the uniformity of his reasoning. - -Ver. 259. _What if the foot, &c._] This fine illustration in defence of -the system of nature, is taken from St. Paul, who employed it to defend -the system of grace. - -Ver. 266. _The great directing_ MIND, _&c._] "Veneramur autem et colimus -ob dominium. Deus enim sine dominio, providentia, et causis finalibus, -nihil aliud est quam fatum et natura." _Newtoni Princip. Schol. gener. -sub finem._ - -Ver. 268. _Whose body nature is, &c._] M. de Crousaz remarks, on this -line, that "A Spinozist would express himself in this manner." I believe -he would; for so the infamous Toland has done, in his atheist's liturgy, -called Pantheisticon. But so would St. Paul likewise, who, writing on -this subject, the omnipresence of God in his Providence, and in his -Substance, says, in the words of a pantheistical Greek poet, _In him we -live, and move, and have our being_; _i.e._ we are parts of him, _his -offspring_: And the reason is, because a religious theist and an impious -pantheist both profess to believe the omnipresence of God. But would -Spinoza, as Mr. Pope does, call God the great directing mind of all, who -hath intentionally created a perfect universe? Or would a Spinozist have -told us, - - The workman from the work distinct was known? - -a line that overturns all Spinozism from its very foundations. But this -sublime description of the Godhead contains not only the divinity of St. -Paul; but, if that will not satisfy the men he writes against, the -philosophy likewise of Sir Isaac Newton. The poet says, - - All are but parts of one stupendous whole, - Whose body nature is, and God the soul; &c. - -The philosopher:--"In ipso continentur et moventur universa, sed absque -mutua passione. Deus nihil patitur ex corporum motibus; illa nullam -sentiunt resistentiam ex omnipraesentia Dei.--Corpore omni et figura -corporea destituitur.--Omnia regit et omnia cognoscit.--Cum unaquaeque -spatii, particula sit semper, et unumquodque durationis indivisibile -momentum, ubique certe rerum omnium Fabricator ac Dominus non erit -nunquam, nusquam." - -Mr. Pope: - - Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, - As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; - As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, - As the rapt seraph that adores and burns: - To him, no high, no low, no great, no small; - He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. - -Sir Isaac Newton:--"Annon ex phaenomenis constat esse entem incorporeum, -viventem, intelligentem, omnipraesentem, qui in spatio infinito, tanquam -sensorio suo, res ipsas intime cernat, penitusque perspiciat, totasque -intra se praesens praesentes complectatur?" - -But now, admitting there were an ambiguity in these expressions, so -great that a Spinozist might employ them to express his own particular -principles; and such a thing might well be, because the Spinozists, in -order to hide the impiety of their principle, are wont to express the -omnipresence of God in terms that any religious theist might employ; in -this case, I say, how are we to judge of the poet's meaning? Surely by -the whole tenor of his argument. Now, take the words in the sense of the -Spinozists, and he is made, in the conclusion of the epistle, to -overthrow all he had been advancing throughout the body of it: for -Spinozism is the destruction of an universe, where every thing tends, by -a foreseen contrivance in all its parts, to the perfection of the whole. -But allow him to employ the passage in the sense of St. Paul, That we, -and all creatures, live, and move, and have our being in God; and then -it will be seen to be the most logical support of all that had preceded. -For the poet, having, as we say, laboured through his epistle to prove, -that every thing in the universe tends, by a foreseen contrivance, and a -present direction of all its parts, to the perfection of the whole, it -might be objected, that such a disposition of things, implying in God a -painful, operose, and inconceivable extent of Providence, it could not -be supposed that such care extended to all, but was confined to the more -noble parts of the creation. This gross conception of the First Cause -the poet exposes, by showing that God is equally and intimately present -to every particle of matter, to every sort of substance, and in every -instant of being. - -Ver. 277. _As full, as perfect, &c._] Which M. du Resnel translates -thus, - - Dans un homme ignore sous une humble chaumiere, - Que dans le seraphin, rayonnant de lumiere. - -_i.e._ "As well in the ignorant man, who inhabits a humble cottage, as -in the seraph encompassed with rays of light." The translator, in good -earnest thought, that a vile man that mourned could be no other than -some poor country cottager. Which has betrayed M. de Crousaz into this -important remark: "For all that, we sometimes find in persons of the -lowest rank, a fund of probity and resignation which preserves them from -contempt; their minds are, indeed, but narrow, yet fitted to their -station," &c. _Comm._ p. 120. But Mr. Pope had no such childish idea in -his head. He was here opposing the human species to the angelic; and so -spoke of the first, when compared to the latter, as vile and -disconsolate. The force and beauty of the reflection depend upon this -sense; and, what is more, the propriety of it. - -Ver. 278. _As the rapt seraph, &c._] Alluding to the name seraphim, -signifying burners. - -Ver. 294. _One truth is clear, whatever is, is right._] It will be -difficult to think any caviller should have objected to this conclusion; -especially when the author, in this very epistle, has himself thus -explained it: - - Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, - May, must be right, as relative to all. - So man, who here seems principal alone, - Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown; - Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal: - 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. - -But without any regard to the evidence of this illustration, M. de -Crousaz exclaims: "See the general conclusion, All that is, is right. So -that at the sight of Charles the First losing his head on the scaffold, -we must have said, this is right; at the sight too of his judges -condemning him, we must have said, this is right; at the sight of some -of these judges, taken and condemned for the action which he had owned -to be right, we must have cried out, this is doubly right." Never was -any thing more amazing than that the absurdities arising from the sense -in which this critic takes the great principle, of whatever is, is -right, did not show him his mistake. For could any one in his senses -employ a proposition in a meaning from whence such evident absurdities -immediately arise? I have observed, that this conclusion, whatever is, -is right, is a consequence of these premises, that partial evil tends to -universal good; which the author employs as a principle to humble the -pride of man, who would impiously make God accountable for his creation. -What then does common sense teach us to understand by whatever is, is -right? Did the poet mean right with regard to man, or right with regard -to God; right with regard to itself, or right with regard to its -ultimate tendency? Surely with regard to God; for he tells us his design -is to vindicate the ways of God to man. Surely with regard to its -ultimate tendency; for he tells us again, all partial ill is universal -good. Ver. 291. Now is this any encouragement to vice? Or does it take -off from the crime of him who commits it, that God providentially -produces good out of evil? Had Mr. Pope abruptly said in his conclusion, -the result of all is, that whatever is, is right, the objector had even -then been inexcusable for putting so absurd a sense upon the words, when -he might have seen that it was a conclusion from the general principle -above-mentioned; and therefore must necessarily have another meaning. -But what must we think of him, when the poet, to prevent mistakes, had -delivered, in this very place, the principle itself, together with this -conclusion as the consequence of it? - - All discord, harmony not understood; - All partial evil, universal good; - And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, - One truth is clear, whatever is, is right. - -He could not have told his reader plainer that his conclusion was the -consequence of that principle, unless he had written therefore in great -church letters. - - - NOTES ON EPISTLE II. - -Ver. 3. _Placed on this isthmus, &c._] As the poet hath given us this -sublime description of man for the very contrary purpose to what -sceptics are wont to employ such kind of paintings, namely, not to deter -men from the search, but to excite them to the discovery of truth; he -hath, with great judgment, represented men as doubting and wavering -between the right and wrong object; from which state it is allowable to -hope he may be relieved by a careful and circumspect use of reason. On -the contrary, had he supposed man so blind as to be busied in choosing, -or doubtful in his choice, between two objects equally wrong, the case -had appeared desperate, and all study of man had been effectually -discouraged. But M. du Resnel, not seeing the reason and beauty of this -conduct, hath run into the very absurdity, which I have here shown Mr. -Pope so artfully avoided. Of which the learned reader may take the -following proofs. The poet says, - - Man hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest. - -Now he tells us it is man's duty to act, not rest, as the stoics -thought; and, to this their principle, the latter word alludes, whose -virtue, as he says afterwards, is - - Fixed as in a frost, - Contracted all, retiring to the breast: - But strength of mind is exercise, not rest. - -Now hear the translator, who is not for mincing matters: - - Seroit-il en naissant au travail condamne? - Aux douceurs du repos seroit-il destine? - -and these are both wrong, for man is neither condemned to slavish toil -and labour, nor yet indulged in the luxury of repose. The poet says, - - In doubt to deem himself a God, or beast. - -_i.e._ He doubts, as appears from the very next line, whether his soul -be mortal or immortal; one of which is the truth, namely, its -immortality, as the poet himself teaches, when he speaks of the -omnipresence of God: - - Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part.--Epist. i. 275. - -The translator, as we say, unconscious of the poet's purpose, rambles as -before: - - Tantot de son esprit admirant l'excellence, - Il pense qu'il est Dieu, qu'il en a la puissance; - Et tantot gemissant des besoins de son corps, - Il croit que de la brute, il n'a que les ressorts. - -Here his head, turned to a sceptical view, was running on the different -extravagances of Plato in his theology, and of Descartes in his -physiology. Sometimes, says he, man believes himself a real God; and -sometimes again, a mere machine: things quite out of the poet's thought -in this place. Again, the poet, in a beautiful allusion to Scripture -sentiments, breaks out into this just and moral reflection on man's -condition here, - - Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err. - -The translator turns this fine and sober thought into the most -outrageous scepticism: - - Ce n'est que pour mourir, qu'il est ne, qu'il respire; - Et toute sa raison n'est presque qu'un delire. - -and so make his author directly contradict himself, where he says of -man, that he hath - - Too much knowledge for the sceptic side. - -Ver. 10. _Born but to die, &c._] The author's meaning is, that as we are -born to die, and yet do enjoy some small portion of life, so, though we -reason to err, yet we comprehend some few truths. This is the weak state -of reason, in which error mixes itself with all its true conclusions -concerning man's nature. - -Ver. 11. _Alike in ignorance, &c._] _i.e._ The proper sphere of his -reason is so narrow, and the exercise of it so nice, that the too -immoderate use of it is attended with the same ignorance that proceeds -from the not using it at all. Yet though, in both these cases, he is -abused by himself, he has it still in his own power to disabuse himself, -in making his passions subservient to the means, and regulating his -reason by the end of life. - -Ver. 12. _Whether he thinks too little or too much:_] It is so true, -that ignorance arises as well from pushing our inquiries too far, as -from not carrying them far enough, that we may observe, when -speculations, even in science, are carried beyond a certain point,--that -point where use is reasonably supposed to end, and mere curiosity to -begin,--they conclude in the most extravagant and senseless inferences, -such as the unreality of matter; the reality of space; the servility of -the will, &c. The cause of this sudden fall out of full light into utter -darkness, seems not to arise from the natural condition of things, but -to be the arbitrary decree of infinite wisdom and goodness, which -imposed a barrier to the extravagances of its giddy, lawless creature, -always inclined to pursue truths of less importance too far, and to -neglect those which are more necessary for his improvement in his -station here. - -Ver. 17. _Sole judge of Truth, in endless error hurled:_] Some have -imagined that the author, by, in endless error hurled, meant, cast into -endless error, or into the regions of endless error, and therefore have -taken notice of it as an incongruity of speech. But they neither -understood the poet's language, nor his sense. To hurl and cast are not -synonymous; but related only as the genus and species; for to hurl -signifies not simply to cast, but to cast backward and forward, and is -taken from the rural game called hurling. So that, into endless error -hurled, as these critics would have it, would have been a barbarism. His -words therefore signify tossed about in endless error; and this he -intended they should signify, as appears from the antithesis, sole judge -of truth. So that the sense of the whole is, "Though, as sole judge of -truth, he is now fixed and stable; yet, as involved in endless error, he -is now again hurled, or tossed up and down in it." This shows us how -cautious we ought to be in censuring the expressions of a writer, one of -whose characteristic qualities was correctness of expression and -propriety of sentiment. - -Ver. 20. _Go, measure earth, &c._] Alluding to the noble and useful -labours of the modern mathematicians, in measuring a degree at the -equator and the polar circle, in order to determine the true figure of -the earth; of great importance to astronomy and navigation; and which -proved of equal honour to the wonderful sagacity of Newton. - -Ver. 22. _Correct old Time, &c._] This alludes to Newton's Grecian -Chronology, which he reformed on those two sublime conceptions, the -difference between the reigns of kings, and the generations of men; and -the position of the colures of the equinoxes and solstices at the time -of the Argonautic expedition. - -Ver. 29, 30. _Go, teach Eternal Wisdom, &c._] These two lines are a -conclusion from all that had been said from ver. 18 to this effect: "Go -now, vain man, elated with thy acquirements in real science, and -imaginary intimacy with God; go, and run into all the extravagances I -have exploded in the first Epistle, where thou pretendest to teach -Providence how to govern; then drop into the obscurities of thy own -nature, and thereby manifest thy ignorance and folly." - -Ver. 31. _Superior beings, &c._] In these lines the poet speaks to this -effect: "But to make you fully sensible of the difficulty of this study, -I shall instance in the great Newton himself, whom, when superior -beings, not long since, saw capable of unfolding the whole law of -nature, they were in doubt whether the owner of such prodigious sagacity -should not be reckoned of their order, just as men, when they see the -surprising marks of reason in an ape, are almost tempted to rank him -with their own kind." And yet this wondrous man could go no further in -the knowledge of himself than the generality of his species. M. du -Resnel, who understood nothing of all this, translates these four -celebrated lines thus: - - Des celestes esprits la vive intelligence - Regarde avec pitie notre foible science; - Newton, le grand Newton, que nous admirons tous, - Est peut-etre pour eux, ce qu'un singe est pour nous. - -But it is not the pity, but the admiration of the celestial spirits -which is here spoken of. And it was for no slight cause they admired; it -was, to see a mortal man unfold the whole law of nature. By which we see -it was not Mr. Pope's intention to bring any of the ape's qualities, but -its sagacity, into the comparison. But why the ape's, it may be said, -rather than the sagacity of some more decent animal, particularly the -half-reasoning elephant, as the poet calls it; which, as well on account -of this its excellence, as for its having no ridiculous side, like the -ape, on which it could be viewed, seems better to have deserved this -honour? I reply, because, as a shape resembling human (which only the -ape has) must be joined with great sagacity, to raise a suspicion that -the animal, thus endowed, is related to man, so the spirituality, which -Newton had in common with angels, joined to a penetration superior to -man, made those beings suspect he might be one of their order. On this -ground of relation, we see the whole beauty of the thought depends. And -here let me take notice of a new species of the sublime, of which our -poet may be justly said to be the maker; so new, that we have yet no -name for it, though of a nature distinct from every other known beauty -of poetry. The two great perfections in works of genius are wit and -sublimity. Many writers have been witty; some have been sublime; and a -few have even possessed both these qualities separately. But none, that -I know of, besides our poet, hath had the art to incorporate them; of -which he hath given many examples, both in this Essay, and his other -poems; one of the noblest being the passage in question. This seems to -be the last effort of the imagination to poetical perfection; and in -this compounded excellence, the wit receives a dignity from the sublime, -and the sublime a splendour from the wit, which, in their state of -separate existence, they neither of them had. Yet a late critic, who -writes with the decision of a Lord of Session on Parnassus, thinks -otherwise: "It may be gathered," says he, "from what is said above, that -wit and ridicule make not an agreeable mixture with grandeur. Dissimilar -emotions have a fine effect in a slow succession; but in a rapid -succession which approaches to co-existence, they will not be -relished."[1595] What pity is it, that the poet should here confute the -critic, by doing what the critic, with his rules, teaches us cannot be -done. Boileau, who was both poet and critic, had a clear view of this -excellence in idea; while the mere critic had no idea of what had been -clearly set before his eyes. - - On peut etre a la fois et pompeux et plaisant; - Et je hais un sublime ennuyeux et pesant. - -Ver. 37. _Who saw its fires here rise, &c._] Sir Isaac Newton, in -calculating the velocity of a comet's motion, and the course it -describes, when it becomes visible in its descent to, and ascent from, -the sun, conjectured, with the highest appearance of truth, that comets -revolve perpetually round the sun, in ellipses vastly eccentrical, and -very nearly approaching to parabolas. In which he was greatly confirmed, -in observing between two comets a coincidence in their perihelions, and -a perfect agreement in their velocities. - -Ver. 45. _vanity, or dress,_] These are the first parts of what the -poet, in the preceding line, calls the scholar's equipage of pride. By -vanity, is meant that luxuriancy of thought and expression in which a -writer indulges himself, to show the fruitfulness of his fancy or -invention. By dress, is to be understood a lower degree of that -practice, in amplification of thought and ornamental expression, to give -force to what the writer would convey: but even this, the poet, in a -severe search after truth, condemns; and with great judgment, -conciseness of thought, and simplicity of expression, being as well the -best instruments, as the best vehicles of truth. Shakespeare touches -upon this latter advantage with great force and humour. The flatterer -says to Timon in distress, "I cannot cover the monstrous bulk of their -ingratitude with any size of words." The other replies, "Let it go -naked; men may see't the better." - -Ver. 46. _Or learning's luxury, or idleness;_] The luxury of learning -consists in dressing up and disguising old notions in a new way, so as -to make them more fashionable and palatable; instead of examining and -scrutinizing their truth. As this is often done for pomp and show, it is -called luxury; as it is often done too to save pains and labour, it is -called idleness. - -Ver. 47. _Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain,_] Such as the -mathematical demonstration concerning the small quantity of matter; the -endless divisibility of it, &c. - -Ver. 48. _Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;_] _i.e._ when -admiration has set the mind on the rack. - -Ver. 49. _Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts - Of all our vices have created arts;_] - -_i.e._ Those parts of Natural Philosophy, Logic, Rhetoric, Poetry, &c., -which administer to luxury, deceit, ambition, effeminacy, &c. - -Ver. 74. _Reason, the future, &c._] _i.e._ by experience, reason -collects the future; and by argumentation, the consequence. - -Ver. 109. _Nor God alone, &c._ - -The translator turns it thus: - - Dieu lui-meme, Dieu sort de son profond repos. - -And so, makes an epicurean God, of the Governor of the universe. M. de -Crousaz does not spare this expression of God's coming out of his -profound repose. "It is," says he, "excessively poetical, and presents -us with ideas which we ought not to dwell upon," &c. and then, as usual, -blames the author for the blunder of his translator. _Comm._ p. 158. - -Ver. 109. _Nor God alone, &c._] These words are only a simple -affirmation in the poetic dress of a similitude, to this purpose: "Good -is not only produced by the subdual of the passions, but by the -turbulent exercise of them,"--a truth conveyed under the most sublime -imagery that poetry could conceive or paint. For the author is here only -showing the providential issue of the passions, and how, by God's -gracious disposition, they are turned away from their natural -destructive bias, to promote the happiness of mankind. As to the method -in which they are to be treated by man, in whom they are found, all that -he contends for, in favour of them, is only this, that they should not -be quite rooted up and destroyed, as the stoics, and their followers, in -all religions, foolishly attempted. For the rest, he constantly repeats -this advice, - - The action of the stronger to suspend, - Reason still use, to reason still attend. - -Ver. 133. _As man, perhaps, &c._] "Antipater Sidonius Poeta omnibus -annis uno die natali tantum corripiebatur febre, et eo consumptus est -satis longa senecta." _Plin._ 1. vii. _N. H._ This Antipater was in the -times of Crassus, and is celebrated for the quickness of his parts by -Cicero. - -Ver. 147. _Reason itself, &c._] The Poet, in some other of his epistles, -gives examples of the doctrines and precepts here delivered. Thus, in -that Of the Use of Riches, he has illustrated this truth in the -character of Cotta: - - Old Cotta shamed his fortune and his birth, - Yet was not Cotta void of wit or worth. - What though (the use of barb'rous spits forgot) - His kitchen vied in coolness with his grot? - If Cotta lived on pulse, it was no more - Than bramins, saints, and sages did before. - -Ver. 149. _We, wretched subjects, &c._] St. Paul himself did not choose -to employ other arguments, when disposed to give us the highest idea of -the usefulness of christianity (Rom. vii.) But it may be, the poet finds -a remedy in natural religion. Far from it. He here leaves reason -unrelieved. What is this, then, but an intimation that we ought to seek -for a cure in that religion, which only dares profess to give it? - -Ver. 163. _'Tis hers to rectify, &c._] The meaning of this precept is, -That as the ruling passion is implanted by nature, it is reason's office -to regulate, direct, and restrain, but not to overthrow it. To reform -the passion of avarice, for instance, into a parsimonious dispensation -of the public revenues: to direct the passion of love, whose object is -worth and beauty, - - To the first good, first perfect, and first fair, - -the [Greek: to kalon t' agathon], as his master Plato advises; and to -restrain spleen to a contempt and hatred of vice. This is what the poet -meant, and what every unprejudiced man could not but see he must needs -mean, by rectifying the master passion, though he had not confined us -to this sense, in the reason he gives of his precept in these words: - - A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends, - And several men impels to several ends; - -for what ends are they which God impels to, but the ends of virtue? - -Ver. 175. _Th' eternal art, &c._] The author has, throughout these -epistles, explained his meaning to be that vice is, in its own nature, -the greatest of evils, and produced through the abuse of man's free -will: - - What makes all physical and moral ill? - There deviates nature, and here wanders will: - -but that God in his infinite goodness, deviously turns the natural bias -of its malignity to the advancement of human happiness. A doctrine very -different from the Fable of the Bees, which impiously and foolishly -supposes it to have that natural tendency. - -Ver. 204. _The god within the mind._] A Platonic phrase for conscience; -and here employed with great judgment and propriety. For conscience -either signifies, speculatively, the judgment we pass of things upon -whatever principles we chance to have, and then it is only opinion, a -very unable judge and divider; or else it signifies, practically, the -application of the eternal rule of right (received by us as the law of -God) to the regulation of our actions; and then it is properly -conscience, the god (or the law of God) within the mind, of power to -divide the light from the darkness in this Chaos of the passions. - - Ver. 253. _Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally - The common interest, &c._] - -As these lines have been misunderstood, I shall give the reader their -plain and obvious meaning. To these frailties, says he, we owe all the -endearments of private life; yet when we come to that age, which -generally disposes men to think more seriously of the true value of -things, and consequently of their provision for a future state, the -consideration, that the grounds of those joys, loves, and friendships, -are wants, frailties, and passions, proves the best expedient to wean us -from the world; a disengagement so friendly to that provision we are now -making for another state. The observation is new, and would in any place -be extremely beautiful, but has here an infinite grace and propriety, as -it so well confirms, by an instance of great moment, the general thesis, -that God makes ill, at every step, productive of good. - -Ver. 270. _the poet in his muse._] The author having said, that no one -could change his own profession or views for those of another, intended -to carry his observations still further, and show that men were -unwilling to exchange their own acquirements even for those of the same -kind, confessedly larger, and infinitely more eminent in another. To -this end he wrote, - - What partly pleases, totally will shock: - I question much, if Toland would be Locke. - -But wanting another proper instance of this truth, he reserved the lines -above for some following edition of this Essay, which he did not live to -give. - -Ver. 280. _And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age:_] A satire on -what is called, in popery, the _Opus operatum_. As this is a description -of the circle of human life returning into itself by a second childhood, -the poet has with great elegance concluded his description with the same -image with which he set out, "And life's poor play is o'er." - -Ver. 286. _And each vacuity of sense by pride:_] An eminent casuist, -Father Francis Garasse, in his Somme Theologique, has drawn a very -charitable conclusion from this principle, which he hath well -illustrated: "Selon la justice," says this equitable divine, "tout -travail honnete doit etre recompense de louange ou de satisfaction. -Quand les bons esprits font un ouvrage excellent, ils sont justement -recompenses par les suffrages du public. Quand un pauvre esprit -travaille beaucoup, pour faire un mauvais ouvrage, il n'est pas juste ni -raisonnable, qu'il attende des louanges publiques; car elles ne lui sont -pas dues. Mais afin que ses travaux ne demeurent pas sans recompense, -Dieu lui donne une satisfaction personelle, que personne ne lui peut -envier sans une injustice plus que barbare; tout ainsi que Dieu, qui est -juste, donne de la satisfaction aux grenouilles de leur chant. Autrement -la blame public, joint a leur mecontentement, seroit suffisant pour les -reduire au desespoir." - - - NOTES ON EPISTLE III. - -Ver. 3. _superfluous health,_] Immoderate labour and immoderate study -are equally the impairers of health. They whose station sets them above -both, must needs have an abundance of it, which not being employed in -the common service, but wasted in luxury and folly, the post properly -calls a superfluity. - -Ver. 4. _impudence of wealth,_] Because wealth pretends to be wisdom, -wit, learning, honesty, and, in short, all the virtues in their turns. - -Ver. 3-6.] M. du Resnel, not seeing into the admirable purpose of the -caution contained in these four lines, hath quite dropped the most -material circumstances contained in the last of them; and what is worse, -for the sake of a foolish antithesis, hath destroyed the whole propriety -of the thought in the two first; and so, between both, hath left his -author neither sense nor system. - - Dans le sein du bonheur, ou de l'adversite. - -Now, of all men, those in adversity have least needs of this caution, as -being least apt to forget, that God consults the good of the whole, and -provides for it by procuring mutual happiness by means of mutual wants; -it being seen that such who yet retain the smart of any fresh calamity, -are most compassionate to others labouring under distresses, and most -prompt and ready to relieve them. - -Ver. 9. _See plastic nature, &c._] M. du Resnel mistook this description -of the preservation of the material universe, by the quality of -attraction, for a description of its creation; and so translates it - - Vois du sein du Chaos eclater la lumiere, - Chaque atome ebranle courir pour s'embrasser, &c. - -This destroys the poet's fine analogical argument, by which he proves, -from the circumstance of mutual attraction in matter, that man, while he -seeks society, and thereby promotes the good of his species, co-operates -with God's general dispensation; whereas the circumstance of a creation -proves nothing but a Creator. - -Ver. 12. _Formed and impelled, &c._] Formed and impelled are not words -of a loose, undistinguishable meaning thrown in to fill up the verse. -This is not our author's way; they are full of sense, and of the most -philosophical precision. For to make matter so cohere as to fit it for -the uses intended by its Creator, a proper configuration of its -insensible parts is as necessary as that quality so equally and -universally conferred upon it, called attraction. To express the first -part of this thought, our author says formed; and to express the latter, -impelled. - -Ver. 19, 20. _Like bubbles, &c._] M. du Resnel translates these two -lines thus: - - Sort du neant, y rentre, et reparoit au jour. - -He is here, indeed, consistently wrong: for having, as we said, mistaken -the poet's account of the preservation of matter for the creation of it, -he commits the very same mistake with regard to the vegetable and -animal systems; and so talks now, though with the latest, of the -production of things out of nothing. Indeed, by his speaking of their -returning into nothing, he has subjected his author to M. de Crousaz's -censure: "Mr. Pope descends to the most vulgar prejudices, when he tells -us that each being returns to nothing: the vulgar think that what -disappears is annihilated," &c. _Comm._ p. 221. - -Ver. 22. _One all-extending, all-preserving soul,_] Which, in the -language of Sir Isaac Newton, is "Deus omnipraesens est, non per virtutem -solam, sed etiam per substantiam: nam virtus sine substantia subsistere -non potest." _Newt. Princ. Schol. gen. sub fin._ - -Ver. 23. _greatest with the least;_] As acting more strongly and -immediately in beasts, whose instinct is plainly an external reason; -which made an old school-man say, with great elegance, "Deus est anima -brutorum:" - - In this 'tis God directs. - -Ver. 45. _See all things for my use!_] On the contrary, the wise man -hath said, "The Lord hath made all things for himself." Prov. xvi. 4. - -Ver. 50. _Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole:_] Alluding to the -witty system of that philosopher,[1596] which made animals mere -machines, insensible of pain or pleasure; and so encouraged men in the -exercise of that tyranny over their fellow-creatures, consequent on such -a principle. - -Ver. 152. _Man walked with beast, joint tenant of the shade;_] The poet -still takes his imagery from Platonic ideas, for the reason given above. -Plato had said, from old tradition, that, during the golden age, and -under the reign of Saturn, the primitive language then in use was common -to man and beasts. Moral instructors took advantage of the popular sense -of this tradition, to convey their precepts under those fables which -gave speech to the whole brute creation. The naturalists understood the -tradition in the contrary sense, to signify, that, in the first ages, -men used inarticulate sounds, like beasts, to express their wants and -sensations; and that it was by slow degrees they came to the use of -speech. This opinion was afterwards held by Lucretius, Diodorus Sic., -and Gregory of Nyss. - -Ver. 156. _All vocal beings, &c._] This may be well explained by a -sublime passage of the Psalmist, who, calling to mind the age of -innocence, and full of the great ideas of those - - Chains of love - Combining all below and all above, - Which to one point, and to one centre bring, - Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king; - -breaks out into this rapturous and divine apostrophe, to call back the -devious creation to its pristine rectitude; that very state our author -describes above: "Praise the Lord, all his angels; praise ye him, all -his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon; praise him, all ye stars of -light," &c. Psalm cxlviii. - -Ver. 158. _Unbribed, unbloody, &c._] _i.e._ the state described from -ver. 263 to 269 was not yet arrived. For then, when superstition was -become so extreme as to bribe the gods with human sacrifices, tyranny -became necessitated to woo the priest for a favourable answer. - -Ver. 159. _Heav'n's attribute, &c._] The poet supposeth the truth of the -Scripture account, that man was created lord of this inferior world (Ep. -i. ver. 230). - - Subjected these to those, and all to thee. - -What hath misled some to imagine that our author hath here fallen into a -contradiction, was, I suppose, such passages as these, "Ask for what end -the heav'nly bodies shine," &c.; and again, "Has God, thou fool! worked -solely for thy good," &c. But, in truth, this is so far from -contradicting what he had said of man's prerogative, that it greatly -confirms it, and the Scripture account concerning it. And because the -licentious manner in which this subject has been treated, has made some -readers jealous and mistrustful of the author's sober meaning, I shall -endeavour to explain it. Scripture says, that man was made lord of this -sublunary world. But intoxicated with pride, the common effect of -sovereignty, he erected himself, like little partial monarchs, into a -tyrant. And as tyranny consists in supposing all made for the use of -one, he took those freedoms with all, which are the consequence of such -a principle. He soon began to consider the whole animal creation as his -slaves rather than his subjects, as created for no use of their own, but -for his use only, and therefore treated them with the utmost cruelty; -and not content, to add insult to his cruelty, he endeavoured to -philosophize himself into an opinion that these animals were mere -machines, insensible of pain or pleasure. Thus man affected to be the -wit as well as tyrant of the whole. So that it became one who adhered to -the Scripture account of man's dominion to reprove this abuse of it, and -to show that - - Heav'n's attribute was universal care, - And man's prerogative to rule, but spare. - -Ver. 171. _Thus then to man, &c._] - -M. du Resnel has translated the lines thus: - - La nature indignee alors se fit entendre; - Va, malheureux mortel, va, lui dit-elle, apprendre; - -One would wonder what should make the translator represent nature in -such a passion with man, and calling him names, at a time when Mr. Pope -supposed her in her best good-humour. But what led him into this mistake -was another as gross. His author having described the state of innocence -which ends at these lines, - - Heav'n's attribute was universal care, - And man's prerogative to rule, but spare, - -turns from those times, to a view of these latter ages, and breaks out -into this tender and humane complaint, - - Ah! how unlike the man of times to come, - Of half that live the butcher and the tomb, &c. - -Unluckily, M. du Resnel took this man of times to come for the corrupter -of that first age, and so imagined the poet had introduced nature only -to set things right: he then supposed, of course, she was to be very -angry; and not finding the author had represented her in any great -emotion, he was willing to improve upon his original. - -Ver. 174. _Learn from the beasts, &c._] See Pliny's _Nat. Hist._ 1. -viii. c. 27, where several instances are given of animals discovering -the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own use of them; and pointing -out to some operations in the art of healing, by their own practice. - -Ver. 199. _observant men obeyed;_] The epithet is beautiful, as -signifying both obedience to the voice of nature, and attention to the -lessons of the animal creation. But M. l'Abbe, who has a strange -fatality of contradicting his original, whenever he attempts to -paraphrase, as he calls it, the sense, turns the lines in this manner: - - Par ces mots la nature excita l'industrie, - Et de l'homme feroce enchaina la furie. - -"Chained up the fury of savage man"; and so contradicts the author's -whole system of benevolence, and goes over to the atheist's, who -supposes the state of nature to be a state of war. What seems to have -misled him was these lines: - - What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, - And he returned a friend who came a foe. - -But M. du Resnel should have considered, that though the author holds a -state of nature to be a state of peace, yet he never imagined it -impossible that there should be quarrels in it. He had said, - - So drives self-love through just and through unjust. - -He pushes no system to an extravagance, but steers (as he says in his -preface) through doctrines seemingly opposite, or, in other words, -follows truth uniformly throughout. - -Ver. 208. _When love was liberty,_] _i.e._ When men had no need to guard -their native liberty from their governors by civil pactions, the love -which each master of a family had for those under his care being their -best security. - -Ver. 211. _'Twas virtue only, &c._] Our author hath good authority for -this account of the origin of kingship. Aristotle assures us, that it -was virtue only, or in arts or arms: [Greek: Kathistatai basileus ek ton -epieikon kath' hyperochen aretes, e praxeon ton apo tes aretes, e kath' -hyperochen toioutou genous]. - -Ver. 219. _He from the wond'ring furrow, &c._] _i.e._ He subdued the -intractability of all the four elements, and made them subservient to -the use of man. - -Ver. 225. _Then, looking up, &c._] The poet here maketh their more -serious attention to religion to have arisen, not from their gratitude -amidst abundance, but from their inability in distress, by showing that, -in prosperity, they rested in second causes, the immediate authors of -their blessings, whom they revered as God; but that, in adversity, they -reasoned up to the First: - - Then, looking up from sire to sire, &c. - -This, I am afraid, is but too true a representation of humanity. - -Ver. 225 to 240.] M. du Resnel, not apprehending that the poet was here -returned to finish his description of the state of nature, has fallen -into one of the grossest errors that ever was committed. He has mistaken -this account of true religion for an account of the origin of idolatry, -and thus he fatally embellishes his own blunder: - - Jaloux d'en conserver les traits et la figure, - Leur zele industrieux inventa la peinture. - Leurs neveux, attentifs a ces hommes fameux, - Qui par le droit du sang avoient regne sur eux, - Trouvent-ils dans leur suite un grand, un premier pere, - Leur aveugle respect l'adore et le revere. - -Here you have one of the finest pieces of reasoning turned at once into -a heap of nonsense. The unlucky term of "Great first Father," was -mistaken by our translator to signify a "great grandfather." But he -should have considered, that Mr. Pope always represents God under the -idea of a Father. He should have observed, that the poet is here -describing those men who - - To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, - And owned a father, where they own'd a God! - -Ver. 231. _Ere wit oblique, &c._] A beautiful allusion to the effects of -the prismatic glass on the rays of light. - -Ver. 242. _Th' enormous faith, &c._] In this Aristotle placeth the -difference between a king and a tyrant, that the first supposeth himself -made for the people; the other, that the people are made for him: -[Greek: Bouletai d' ho basileus einai phulax, hopos hoi men kektemenoi -tas ousias methen adikon paschosin, ho de demos me hubrizetai methen; -he de tyrannis pros ouden apoblepei koinon, ei me tes idias opheleias -charin]. Pol. lib. V. cap. 10. - -Ver. 245. _Force first made conquest, &c._] All this is agreeable to -fact, and shows our author's knowledge of human nature. For that -impotency of mind, as the Latin writers call it, which gives birth to -the enormous crimes necessary to support a tyranny, naturally subjects -its owner to all the vain, as well as real, terrors of conscience. Hence -the whole machinery of superstition. It is true, the poet observes, that -afterwards, when the tyrant's fright was over, he had cunning enough, -from the experience of the effect of superstition upon himself, to turn -it, by the assistance of the priest (who for his reward went shares with -him in the tyranny) against the justly dreaded resentment of his -subjects. For a tyrant naturally and reasonably supposeth all his slaves -to be his enemies. Having given the causes of superstition, he next -describeth its objects: - - Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, &c. - -The ancient pagan gods are here very exactly described. This fact -evinceth the truth of that original, which the poet gives to -superstition; for if these phantasms were first raised in the -imagination of tyrants, they must needs have the qualities here assigned -to them. For force being the tyrant's virtue, and luxury his happiness, -the attributes of his god would of course be revenge and lust; in a -word, the antitype of himself. But there was another, and more -substantial cause, of the resemblance between a tyrant and a pagan god; -and that was the making gods of conquerors, as the poet says, and so -canonizing a tyrant's vices with his person. That these gods should suit -a people humbled to the stroke of a master will be no wonder, if we -recollect a generous saying of the ancients,--"that day which sees a man -a slave takes away half his virtue." - -Ver. 262. _and heav'n on pride._] This might be very well said of those -times when no one was content to go to heaven without being received -there on the footing of a god, with a ceremony of an [Greek: -Apotheosis]. - -Ver. 283. _'Twas then, the studious head, &c._] The poet seemeth here to -mean the polite and nourishing age of Greece; and those benefactors to -mankind, which he had principally in view, were Socrates and Aristotle; -who, of all the pagan world, spoke best of God, and wrote best of -government. - -Ver. 295. _Such is the world's great harmony, &c._] A harmony very -different from the pre-established harmony of the celebrated Leibnitz, -which introduceth a fatality destructive of all religion and morality. -Yet hath the learned M. de Crousaz ventured to accuse our poet of -espousing that dangerous whimsy. The pre-established harmony was built -upon, and is an outrageous extension of a conception of Plato, who, -combating the atheistical objections about the origin of evil, employs -this argument in defence of Providence: "That amongst an infinite number -of possible worlds in God's idea, this which he hath created and brought -into being, and which admits of a mixture of evil, is the best. But if -the best, then evil consequently is partial, comparatively small, and -tendeth to the greater perfection of the whole." This principle is -espoused and supported by Mr. Pope with all the power of reason and -poetry. But neither was Plato a fatalist, nor is there any fatalism in -the argument. As to the truth of the notion, that is another question; -and how far it cleareth up the very difficult controversy about the -origin of evil, is still another. That it is a full solution of the -difficulty, I cannot think, for reasons too long to be given in this -place. Perhaps we shall never have a full solution here, and it may be -no great matter though we have not, as we are demonstrably certain of -the moral attributes of the Deity. Yet this will never hinder writers -from exposing themselves on this subject. A late author[1597] thinks he -can account for the origin of evil, and therefore he will write: he -thinks too, that the clearing up this difficulty is necessary to secure -the foundation of religion, and therefore he will print. But he is -doubly mistaken: he must know little of philosophy to fancy that he has -found the solution; and still less of religion, to imagine that the want -of his solution can affect our belief in God. Such writers - - Amuse th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile. - -However, Mr. Pope may be justified in receiving and enforcing this -Platonic notion, as it hath been adopted by the most celebrated and -orthodox divines both of the ancient and modern church. This doctrine -was taken up by Leibnitz; but it was to ingraft upon it a most -pernicious fatalism. Plato said, God chose the best: Leibnitz said, he -could not but choose the best, as he could not act without, what this -philosopher called, a sufficient reason. Plato supposed freedom in God -to choose one of two things equally good: Leibnitz held the supposition -to be absurd: but, however, admitting the case, he still held that God -could not choose one of two things equally good. Thus it appears, the -first went on the system of freedom; and that the latter, -notwithstanding the most artful disguises of his principles, in his -Theodicee, was a thorough fatalist: for we cannot well suppose he would -give that freedom to man which he had taken away from God. The truth of -the matter seems to be this: he saw, on the one hand, the monstrous -absurdity of supposing, with Spinoza, that blind fate was the author of -a coherent universe; but yet, on the other, he could not conceive with -Plato, how God could foresee and conduct, according to an archetypal -idea, a world, of all possible worlds the best, inhabited by free -agents. This difficulty, therefore, which made the socinians take -prescience from God, disposed Leibnitz to take free-will from man: and -thus he fashioned his fantastical hypothesis; he supposed that when God -made the body, he impressed on his new-created machine a certain series -or suite of motions; and that when he made the fellow soul, he impressed -a correspondent series of ideas; whose operations, throughout the whole -duration of the union, were so exactly timed, that whenever an idea was -excited, a correspondent motion was ever ready to satisfy the volition. -Thus, for instance, when the mind had the will to raise the arm to the -head, the body was so pre-contrived, as to raise, at that very moment, -the part required. This he called the pre-established harmony; and with -this he promised to do wonders. "Yet after all," says an excellent -philosopher and best interpreter of Newton, "he owned to his friends, -that this extraordinary notion was only a lusus ingenii (un jeu -d'esprit) to try his parts, and laugh at the credulity of philosophers; -who are as fond of a new paradox, as enthusiasts of a new light. If at -other times he was so pleased with his own notions in his Theodicee, as -to defend them seriously against the learned Dr. Clarke, that shows only -that he angled for two different sorts of reputation, from the same -performance; and unluckily he lost both. The subject was too serious to -pass for a romance; and the principles too absurd to be admitted for -truth." _Mr. Baxter's Appendix to the Inquiry into the Nature of the -Human Soul_, p. 162. As this was the case, none would have thought it -amiss in M. Voltaire to oppose one romance to another, had he rested -there. But his tale of Candide, which professes to ridicule the optimism -of Leibnitz, was apparently composed in favour of an irreligious -naturalism, which he makes the solution of all the difficulties in the -story. - -Ver. 303. _For forms of government, &c._] Such as Harrington, Wildman, -Neville,[1598] &c. about the several forms of a legitimate policy. These -fine lines have been strangely misunderstood. The author, against his -own express words, against the plain sense of his system, hath been -conceived to mean, that all governments and all religions were, as to -their forms and objects, indifferent. But as this wrong judgment -proceeded from ignorance of the reason of the reproof, as explained -above,[1599] that explanation is alone sufficient to rectify the -mistake. However, not to leave him under the least suspicion in a matter -of so much importance, I shall justify the sense here given to this -passage, more at large: - -I. And first, as to society: Let us consider the words themselves; and -then compare this mistaken sense with the context. The poet, we may -observe, is here speaking, not of civil society at large, but of a just -legitimate policy: - - Th' according music of a well-mixed state. - -Now mixed states are of various kinds; in some of which the democratic, -in others the aristocratic, and in others the monarchic form prevails. -Now, as each of these mixed forms is equally legitimate, as being -founded on the principles of natural liberty, that man is guilty of the -highest folly, who chooseth rather to employ himself in a speculative -contest for the superior excellence of one of these forms to the rest, -than in promoting the good administration of that settled form to which -he is subject. And yet most of our warm disputes about government have -been of this kind. Again, if by forms of government must needs be meant -legitimate government, because that is the subject under debate, then by -modes of faith, which is the correspondent idea, must needs be meant the -modes or explanations of the true faith, because the author is here too -on the subject of true religion: - - Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new. - -Besides, the very expression (than which nothing can be more precise) -confineth us to understand by modes of faith, those human explanations -of christian mysteries, in contending about which zeal and ignorance -have so perpetually violated charity. Secondly, If we consider the -context; to suppose him to mean, that all forms of government are -indifferent, is making him directly contradict the preceding paragraph, -where he extols the patriot for discriminating the true from the false -modes of government. He, says the poet, - - Taught pow'r's due use to people and to kings, - Taught not to slack, nor strain its tender strings; - The less, or greater, set so justly true, - That touching one must strike the other too; - Till jarring interests of themselves create - Th' according music of a well mixed state. - -Here he recommendeth the true form of government, which is the mixed. In -another place he as strongly condemneth the false, or the absolute _jure -divino_ form: - - For nature knew no right divine in men. - -But the reader will not be displeased to see the poet's own apology, as -I find it written in the year 1740, in his own hand, in the margin of a -pamphlet, where he found these two celebrated lines very much -misapplied: "The author of these lines was far from meaning that no one -form of government is, in itself, better than another, (as, that mixed -or limited monarchy, for example, is not preferable to absolute), but -that no form of government, however excellent or preferable, in itself, -can be sufficient to make a people happy, unless it be administered with -integrity. On the contrary, the best sort of government, when the form -of it is preserved, and the administration corrupt, is most dangerous." - -II. Again, to suppose the poet to mean, that all religions are -indifferent, is an equally wrong, as well as uncharitable suspicion. Mr. -Pope, though his subject, in this Essay on Man, confineth him to natural -religion, his purpose being to vindicate God's natural dispensations to -mankind against the atheist, yet he giveth frequent intimations of a -more sublime dispensation, and even of the necessity of it, particularly -in his second Epistle, ver. 149, &c., where he confesseth the weakness -and insufficiency of human reason. And likewise in his fourth Epistle, -where, speaking of the good man, the favourite of heaven, he saith, - - For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal, - And opens still, and opens on his soul: - Till, lengthened on to faith, and unconfined, - It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. - -But natural religion never lengthened hope on to faith; nor did any -religion, but the christian, ever conceive that faith could fill the -mind with happiness. Lastly, In this very Epistle, and in this very -place, speaking of the great restorers of the religion of nature, he -intimates that they could only draw God's shadow, not his image: - - Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new, - If not God's image, yet his shadow drew: - -as reverencing that truth, which telleth us, this discovery was reserved -for the "glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God." 2 Cor. iv. -4. - -Ver. 305. _For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;_] These -latter ages have seen so many scandalous contentions for modes of faith, -to the violation of Christian charity, and dishonour of sacred -Scripture, that it is not at all strange they should become the object -of so benevolent and wise an author's resentment. But that which he here -seemed to have more particularly in his eye, was the long and -mischievous squabble between Waterland and Jackson,[1600] on a point -confessedly above reason, and amongst those adorable mysteries, which it -is the honour of our religion to find unfathomable. In this, by the -weight of answers and replies, redoubled upon one another without mercy, -they made so profound a progress, that the one proved, nothing hindered -in nature, but that the Son might have been the Father; and the other, -that nothing hindered in grace, but that the Son may be a mere creature. -But if, instead of throwing so many Greek Fathers at one another's -heads, they had but chanced to reflect on the sense of one Greek word, -[Greek: apeiria], that it signifies both infinity and ignorance, this -single equivocation might have saved them ten thousand, which they -expended in carrying on the controversy. However, those mists that -magnified the scene enlarged the character of the combatants, and -nobody expecting common sense on a subject where we have no ideas, the -defects of dulness disappeared, and its advantages (for, advantages -it has) were all provided for. The worst is, such kind of writers -seldom know when to have done. For writing themselves up into the same -delusion with their readers, they are apt to venture out into the more -open paths of literature, where their reputation, made out of that -stuff which Lucian calls [Greek: skotos holochroos], presently falls -from them, and their nakedness appears. And thus it fared with our two -worthies. The world, which must have always something to amuse it, -was now, and it was time, grown weary of its playthings; and catched -at a new object, that promised them more agreeable entertainment. -Tindal, a kind of bastard Socrates, had brought our speculations from -heaven to earth, and, under the pretence of advancing the antiquity -of christianity, laboured to undermine its original. This was a -controversy that required another management. Clear sense, severe -reasoning, a thorough knowledge of prophane and sacred antiquity, and -an intimate acquaintance with human nature, were the qualities proper -for such as engaged in this subject. A very unpromising adventure for -these metaphysical nurslings, bred up under the shade of chimeras. Yet -they would needs venture out.[1601] What they got by it was only to be -once well laughed at, and then, forgotten. - -But one odd circumstance deserves to be remembered; though they wrote -not, we may be sure, in concert, yet each attacked his adversary at the -same time; fastened upon him in the same place; and mumbled him with -just the same toothless rage. But the ill success of this escape soon -brought them to themselves. The one made a fruitless effort to revive -the old game, in a discourse on The Importance of the Doctrine of the -Trinity; and the other has been ever since rambling in Space and -Time.[1602] This short history, as insignificant as the subjects of it -are, may not be altogether unuseful to posterity. Divines may learn by -these examples to avoid the mischiefs done to religion and literature, -through the affectation of being wise above what is written, and knowing -beyond what can be understood. - -Ver. 318. _And bade self-love and social be the same._] True self-love -is an appetite for that proper good, for the enjoyment of which we were -made as we are. Now that good is commensurate with all other good, and a -part and portion of universal good: it is, therefore, the same with -social, which hath these properties. - - - NOTES ON EPISTLE IV. - -Ver. 6. _O'erlooked, seen double, &c._] O'erlooked by those who place -happiness in any thing exclusive of virtue; seen double by those who -admit any thing else to have a share with virtue in procuring happiness, -these being the two general mistakes which this Epistle is employed to -confute. - -Ver. 21, 23. _Some place the bliss in action,-- - Some sunk to beasts, &c._] - -1. Those who place happiness, or the _summum bonum_, in pleasure, -[Greek: Hedone]; such as the Cyrenaic sect, called, on that account, -the Hedonic. 2. Those who place it in a certain tranquillity or -calmness of mind, which they call [Greek: Euthymia]; such as the -Democritic sect. 3. The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The Protagorean, -which held that Man was [Greek: panton chrematon metron], the measure -of all things; for that all things which appear to him, are, and those -things which appear not to any man, are not; so that every imagination -or opinion of every man was true. 6. The Sceptic; whose absolute doubt -is, with great judgment, said to be the effect of indolence, as well -as the absolute trust of the Protagorean. For the same dread of labour -attending the search of truth, which makes the Protagorean presume it -is always at hand, makes the Sceptic conclude it is never to be found. -The only difference is, that the laziness of the one is desponding, and -the laziness of the other sanguine; yet both can give it a good name, -and call it happiness. - -Ver. 23. _Some sunk to beasts, &c._] These four lines added in the last -edition, as necessary to complete the summary of the false pursuits -after happiness among the Greek philosophers. - -Ver. 35. _Remember, man, "the Universal Cause - "Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws:"_] - -I reckon it for nothing that M. du Resnel saw none of the fine reasoning -from these two lines to ver. 73, in which the poet confutes both the -philosophic and popular errors concerning happiness. What I can least -bear is his perverting these two lines to a horrid and senseless -fatalism, foreign to the argument in hand, and directly contrary to the -poet's general principles: - - Une loi generale - Determine toujours la cause principale; - -_i.e._ a general law always determines the first cause: which is the -very Fate of the ancient pagans; who supposed that the destinies gave -law to the father of gods and men. The poet says again, soon after, ver. -49, "Order is heaven's first law," _i. e._ the first law made by God -relates to order, which is a beautiful allusion to the Scripture history -of the creation, when God first appeased the disorders of chaos, and -separated the light from the darkness. Let us now hear his translator: - - L'ordre, cet inflexible et grand legislateur, - Qui des decrets du ciel est le premier auteur. - -Order, that inflexible and grand legislator, who is the first author of -the law of heaven. A proposition abominable in most senses; absurd in -all. - -Ver. 79. _Reason's whole pleasure, &c._] This is a beautiful periphrasis -for happiness; for all we feel of good is by sensation and reflection. -But the translator, who seemed little to concern himself with the poet's -philosophy or argument, mistook this description of happiness for a -description of the intellectual and sensitive faculties, opposed to one -another, and therefore turns it thus, - - Le charme seducteur, dont s'enivrant les sens, - Les plaisirs de l'esprit, encore plus ravissans; - -And so, with the highest absurdity, not only makes the poet constitute -_sensual excesses_ a part of human happiness, but likewise the product -of virtue. - -Ver. 82. _And peace, &c._] Conscious innocence, says the poet, is the -only source of internal peace; and known innocence, of external; -therefore, peace is the sole issue of virtue, or, in his own emphatic -words, peace is all thy own; a conclusive observation in his argument; -which stands thus: Is happiness rightly placed in externals? No; for it -consists in health, peace, and competence; health and competence are the -product of temperance; and peace, of perfect innocence. - -Ver. 100. _See god-like Turenne_] This epithet has a peculiar justness, -the great man to whom it is applied not being distinguished from other -generals, for any of his superior qualities, so much as for his -providential care of those whom he led to war, in which he was so -intent, that his chief purpose in taking on himself the command of -armies, seems to have been the preservation of mankind. In this god-like -care he was more remarkably employed throughout the whole course of that -famous campaign in which he lost his life. - -Ver. 110. _Lent heav'n a parent, &c._] This last instance of the poet's -illustration of the ways of Providence, the reader sees has a peculiar -elegance, where a tribute of piety to a parent is paid in return of -thanks to, and made subservient of his vindication of, the great Giver -and Father of all things. The mother of the author, a person of great -piety and charity, died the year this poem was finished, viz. 1733. - -Ver. 121. _Think we, like some weak prince, &c._] Agreeable hereunto, -Holy Scripture, in its account of things under the common Providence of -heaven, never represents miracles as wrought for the sake of him who is -the object of them, but in order to give credit to some of God's -extraordinary dispensations to mankind. - -Ver. 123. _Shall burning Etna, &c._] Alluding to the fate of those two -great naturalists, Empedocles and Pliny, who both perished by too near -an approach to Etna and Vesuvius, while they were exploring the cause of -their eruptions. - -Ver. 142. After ver. 142 in some editions: - - Give each a system, all must be at strife; - What different systems for a man and wife! - -The joke, though lively, was ill placed, and therefore struck out of the -text. - -Ver. 177. _Go, like the Indian, &c._] Alluding to the example of the -Indian, in Epist. i. ver. 99, which shows, that that example was not -given to discredit any rational hopes of future happiness, but only to -reprove the folly of separating them from charity, as when - - Zeal, not charity, became the guide, - And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride. - -Ver. 219. _Heroes are much the same, &c._] This character might have -been drawn with greater force; and deserved the poet's care. But Milton -supplies what is here wanting. - - They err who count it glorious to subdue - By conquest far and wide, to over-run - Large countries, and in field great battles win, - Great cities by assault. What do these worthies, - But rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave - Peaceable nations, neighb'ring or remote, - Made captive, yet deserving freedom more - Than those their conqu'rors; who leave behind - Nothing but ruin wheresoe'er they rove, - And all the flourishing works of peace destroy? - Then swell with pride, and must be titled gods; - Till conqu'ror death discovers them scarce men, - Rolling in brutish vices and deformed, - Violent or shameful death their due reward.--Par. Reg. b. iii. - -Ver. 222. _an enemy of all mankind!_] Had all nations, with regard to -their heroes, been of the humour with the Normans, who called Robert -II., the greatest of their Dukes, by the name of Robert the Devil, the -races of heroes might have been less numerous, or, however, less -mischievous. - -Ver. 267. _Painful pre-eminence, &c._] This, to his friend, nor does it -at all contradict what he had said to him concerning happiness, in the -beginning of the Epistle: - - 'Tis never to be bought, but always free, - And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee. - -For there he compliments his virtue; here he estimates the value of his -politics, which he calls wisdom. He is now proving that nothing either -external to man, or what is not in man's power, and of his own -acquirement, can make him happy here. The most plausible rival of -virtue is human wisdom: yet even this is so far from giving any degree -of real happiness, that it deprives us of those common comforts of life, -which are a kind of support, under the want of happiness. Such as the -more innocent of those delusions which he speaks of in the second -Epistle, - - Those painted clouds that beautify our days, &c. - -Now knowledge destroyeth all those comforts, by setting man above life's -weaknesses; so that in him, who thinketh to attain happiness by -knowledge alone, independent of virtue, the fable is reversed, and in a -preposterous attempt to gain the substance, he loseth even the shadow. -This I take to be the sense of this fine stroke of satire on the wrong -pursuits after happiness. - -Ver. 281, 283. _If parts allure thee,-- - Or ravished with the whistling of a name,_] - -These two instances are chosen with great judgment. The world, perhaps, -doth not afford two such other. Bacon discovered and laid down those -true principles of science, by whose assistance Newton was enabled to -unfold the whole law of nature. He was no less eminent for the creative -power of his imagination, the brightness of his conceptions, and the -force of his expression; yet being convicted on his own confession for -bribery and corruption in the administration of justice, while he -presided in the supreme court of equity, he endeavoured to repair his -ruined fortunes by the most profligate flattery to the court, which, -indeed, from his very first entrance into it, he had accustomed himself -to practise with a prostitution that disgraceth the very profession of -letters or of science. - -Cromwell seemeth to be distinguished in the most eminent manner, with -regard to his abilities, from all other great and wicked men, who have -overturned the liberties of their country. The times in which others -have succeeded in this attempt, were such as saw the spirit of liberty -suppressed and stifled by a general luxury and venality; but Cromwell -subdued his country, when this spirit was at its height, by a successful -struggle against court-oppression; and while it was conducted and -supported by a set of the greatest geniuses for government the world -ever saw embarked together in one common cause. - -Ver. 283. _Or ravished with the whistling of a name,_] And even this -fantastic glory sometimes sutlers a terrible reverse. Sacheverel, in his -Voyage to Icolm-kill, describing the church there, tells us, that "in -one corner is a peculiar enclosure, in which were the monuments of the -kings of many different nations, as Scotland, Ireland, Norway, and the -Isle of Man. This (said the person who showed me the place, pointing to -a plain stone) was the monument of the great Teague, king of Ireland. I -had never heard of him, and could not but reflect of how little value is -greatness, that has barely left a name scandalous to a nation, and a -grave which the meanest of mankind would never envy." - -Ver. 309. _Know then this truth, enough for man to know, - "Virtue alone is happiness below."_] - -M. du Resnel translates the line thus: - - Apprend donc, qu'il n'est point ici bas de bonheur, - Si la vertu no regle et l'esprit et le coeur. - -_i.e._ Learn then, that there is no happiness here below, unless virtue -regulates the heart and the understanding, which destroys all the force -of his author's conclusion. He had proved, that happiness consists -neither in external goods, as the vulgar imagined, nor yet in the -visions of the philosophers: he concludes, therefore, that it consists -in virtue alone. His translator says, that without virtue, there can be -no happiness. And so say the men whom his author is here confuting. For -though they supposed external goods requisite to happiness, it was when -in conjunction with virtue. Mr. Pope says, - - Virtue alone is happiness below: - -And so ought a faithful translator to have said after him. - -Ver. 316. After ver. 316, in the MS. - - Ev'n while it seems unequal to dispose, - And chequers all the good man's joys with woes, - 'Tis but to teach him to support each state, - With patience this, with moderation that; - And raise his base on that one solid joy, - Which conscience gives, and nothing can destroy. - -These lines are extremely finished. In which there is such a soothing -sweetness in the melancholy harmony of the versification, as if the poet -was then in that tender office in which he was most officious, and in -which all his soul came out, the condoling with some good man in -affliction. - -Ver. 341. _For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal, &c._] Plato, in -his first book of a Republic, hath a remarkable passage to this purpose: -"He whose conscience does not reproach him, has cheerful hope for his -companion, and the support and comfort of his old age, according to -Pindar. For this great poet, O Socrates, very elegantly says, That he -who leads a just and holy life, has always amiable hope for his -companion, which fills his heart with joy, and is the support and -comfort of his old age. Hope, the most powerful of the divinities, in -governing the ever-changing and inconstant temper of mortal men." In the -same manner Euripides speaks in his Hercules Furens: "He is the good man -in whose breast hope springs eternally. But to be without hope in the -world, is the portion of the wicked." - -Ver. 373. _Come then, my friend! &c._] This noble apostrophe, by which -the poet concludes the Essay in an address to his friend, will furnish a -critic with examples of every one of those five species of elocution, -from which, as from its sources, Longinus deduceth the sublime. - -1. The first and chief is a grandeur and sublimity of conception: - - Come then, my friend! my genius! come along; - O master of the poet, and the song! - And while the muse now stoops, and now ascends, - To man's low passions, or their glorious ends. - -2. The second, that pathetic enthusiasm, which, at the same time, melts -and inflames: - - Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise, - To fall with dignity, with temper rise; - Formed by thy converse, happily to steer - From grave to gay, from lively to severe; - Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, - Intent to reason, or polite to please. - -3. A certain elegant formation and ordonance of figures: - - Oh! while along the stream of time thy name - Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame, - Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, - Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale? - -4. A splendid diction: - - When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose - Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes, - Shall then this verse to future age pretend - Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend? - That urged by thee, I turned the tuneful art, - From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart; - For wit's false mirror held up nature's light. - -5. And fifthly, which includes in itself all the rest, a weight and -dignity in the composition: - - Shew'd erring pride, whatever is, is right; - That reason, passion, answer one great aim; - That true self-love and social are the same; - That virtue only makes our bliss below; - And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know.[1603] - - - - - NOTES OF W. WARBURTON ON THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. - - -_Universal Prayer._] It may be proper to observe, that some passages in -the preceding Essay, having been unjustly suspected of a tendency -towards fate and naturalism, the author composed this prayer as the sum -of all, to show that his system 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 submission to his will (the -great principle enforced throughout the Essay), was not meant suffering -ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination, but resting in a -religious acquiescence, and confidence full of hope and immortality. To -give all this the greater weight, the poet chose for his model the -Lord's Prayer, which, of all others, best deserves the title prefixed to -his paraphrase. - -Ver. 29. _If I am right, thy grace impart,-- - I am wrong, O teach my heart_] - -As the imparting of grace, on the Christian system, is a stronger -exertion of the divine power than the natural illumination of the heart, -one would expect that right and wrong should change places, more aid -being required to restore men to right, than to keep them in it. But as -it was the poet's purpose to insinuate that revelation was the right, -nothing could better express his purpose, than making the right secured -by the guards of grace. - - - END OF VOL. II. - - - BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] This language, held by Warton in his Essay on the Genius of Pope, -was subsequently reversed by him in his edition of Pope's Works. He then -acknowledged that the notion of "a methodical regularity" in the Essay -on Criticism was a "groundless opinion." - -[2] Singer's Spence, p. 107. - -[3] Johnson's Works, ed. Murphy, vol. ii. p. 354. - -[4] Spence, p. 128. - -[5] Spence, p. 147. - -[6] Spence, p. 205. - -[7] Warton's Pope, vol. i. p. xviii. - -[8] Dennis's Reflections, Critical and Satyrical, upon a late Rhapsody -called An Essay upon Criticism, was advertised as "this day published" -in _The Daily Courant_ of June 20, 1711. Pope sent the pamphlet to -Caryll on June 25, and in a letter to Cromwell of the same date, he says -"Mr. Lintot favoured me with a sight of Mr. Dennis's piece of fine -satire before it was published." - -[9] Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Dunciad, p. 39. - -[10] Ver. 147. - -[11] Dennis's Reflections, p. 29. - -[12] Pope to Caryll, June 25, 1711. - -[13] Spence, p. 208. - -[14] Ver. 158. - -[15] Imitations of Horace, bk. ii. Sat. 1, ver. 75. - -[16] Dennis's Reflections, p. 22. - -[17] Pope to Caryll, June 25, 1711; Pope to Trumbull, Aug. 10, 1711. - -[18] Biographia Literaria, ed. 1847, vol. i. p. 3. - -[19] Wakefield's Works of Pope, p. 168. - -[20] Spectator, No. 253, Dec. 20, 1711. - -[21] Pope to Steele, Dec. 30, 1711. - -[22] Essay on the Genius of Pope, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 108. - -[23] Lectures on the English Poets, 3rd ed. p. 142. - -[24] De Quincey's Works, ed. 1862, vol. vii. p. 64; xv. p. 142. - -[25] Spence, p. 176. - -[26] Spence, p. 147, 211. - -[27] Dryden's Virgil, ed. Carey, vol. ii. p. xxxii., lxxxviii. - -[28] Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 5th ed. vol. iv. -p. 228. - -[29] Pope's Poetical Works, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 9. - -[30] Ver. 68, 130-140, 146-157, 161-166. - -[31] Ver. 715-730. - -[32] Spence, p. 195. - -[33] Ver. 719. - -[34] Poetical Works of Dryden, ed. Robert Bell, vol. i. p. 75. - -[35] Ver. 395, 406. - -[36] Ver. 480. - -[37] Temple of Fame, ver. 505. - -[38] Jortin's Works, vol. xiii. p. 124. - -[39] Ver. 511, 514, 100, 629-644, 107. - -[40] Ver. 524, 526. - -[41] Ver. 596-610. - -[42] Religio Laici. - -[43] Ver. 600-603. - -[44] Spence, p. 212. - -[45] Essay on the Genius of Pope, vol. i. p. 195. - -[46] Works of Edward Young, ed. Doran, vol. ii. p. 578. - -[47] Moore's Life of Byron, 1 vol. ed., p. 699. - -[48] Hazlitt's Lectures on the English Poets, p. 145. - -[49] De Quincey's Works, vol. xv. p. 141: xii. p. 58. - -[50] De Quincey's Works, vol. xv. p. 142. - -[51] De Quincey's Works, vol. viii. p. 14. - -[52] De Quincey's Works, vol. viii. p. 15-17. - -[53] Pope's Poetical Works, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 7. - -[54] Dryden's Epilogue to All for Love: - - This difference grows, - Betwixt our fools in verse, and yours in prose. - -[55] An extravagant assertion. Those who can appreciate, are beyond -comparison more numerous than those who can produce, a work of genius. - -[56] Qui scribit artificiose, ab aliis commode scripta facile -intelligere proterit. Cic. ad Herenn. lib. iv. De pictore, sculptore, -fictore, nisi artifex, judicare non potest. Pliny.--POPE. - -Poets and painters must appeal to the world at large. Wretched indeed -would be their fate, if their merits were to be decided only by their -rivals. It is on the general opinion of persons of taste that their -individual estimation must ultimately rest, and if the public were -excluded from judging, poets might write and painters paint for each -other.--ROSCOE. - -The execution of a work and the appreciation of it when executed are -separate operations, and all experience has shown that numbers pronounce -justly upon literature, architecture, and pictures, though they may not -be able to write like Shakespeare, design like Wren, or paint like -Reynolds. Taste is acquired by studying good models as well as by -emulating them. Pope, perhaps, copied Addison, Tatler, Oct. 19, 1710: -"It is ridiculous for any man to criticise on the works of another who -has not distinguished himself by his own performances." - -[57] Omnes tacito quodam sensu, sine ulla arte aut ratione, quae sint in -artibus ac rationibus, recta et prava dijudicant. Cic. de Orat. lib. -iii.--POPE. - -[58] The phrase "_more_ disgraced" implies that slight sketches "justly -traced" are a disgrace at best, whereas they have often a high degree of -merit. - -[59] Plus sine doctrina prudentia, quam sine prudentia valet doctrina. -Quint.--POPE. - -[60] Between ver. 25 and 26 were these lines, since omitted by the -author: - - Many are spoiled by that pedantic throng, - Who with great pains teach youth to reason wrong. - Tutors, like virtuosos, oft inclined - By strange transfusion to improve the mind, - Draw off the sense we have, to pour in new; - Which yet, with all their skill, they ne'er could do.--POPE. - -The transfusion spoken of in the fourth verse of this variation is the -transfusion of one animal's blood into another.--WAKEFIELD. - -[61] "Nature," it is said in the Spectator, No. 404, "has sometimes made -a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making, by applying his -talents otherwise than nature designed." The idea is expressed more -happily by Dryden in his Hind and Panther: - - For fools are doubly fools endeav'ring to be wise. - -Pope contradicts himself when he says in the text that the men made -coxcombs by study were meant by nature but for fools, since they are -among his instances of persons upon whom nature had bestowed the "seeds -of judgment," and who possessed "good sense" till it was "defaced by -false learning." - -[62] Dryden's Medal: - - The wretch turned loyal in his own defence. - -[63] The couplet ran thus in the first edition, with less neatness and -perspicuity: - - Those hate as rivals all that write; and others - But envy wits as eunuchs envy lovers. - -The inaccuracy of the rhymes excited him to alteration, which occasioned -a fresh inconvenience, that of similar rhymes in the next couplet but -one.--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden's Prologue to the Second Part of the Conquest of Granada: - - They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write, - Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite. - -[64] In the manuscript there are two more lines, of which the second was -afterwards introduced into the Dunciad: - - Though such with reason men of sense abhor; - Fool against fool is barb'rous civil war. - Though Maevius scribble and the city knight, &c. - -The city knight was Sir Richard Blackmore, who resided in Cheapside. "In -the early part of Blackmore's time," says Johnson, "a citizen was a term -of reproach, and his place of abode was a topic to which his adversaries -had recourse in the penury of scandal." - -[65] Dryden's Persius, Sat. i. 100: - - Who would be poets in Apollo's spite. - -[66] "The simile of the mule," says Warton, "heightens the satire, and -is new," but the comparison fails in the essential point. Pope's -"half-learn'd witlings," who aim at being wit and critic, are inferior -to both, whereas the mule, to which he likens the literary pretender, is -in speed and strength superior to the ass. - -[67] "I am confident," says Dryden in the dedication of his Virgil, -"that you will look on those half-lines hereafter as the imperfect -products of a hasty muse, like the frogs and serpents in the Nile, part -of them kindled into life, and part a lump of unformed, unanimated mud." - -[68] The diction of this line is coarse, and the construction -defective.--WAKEFIELD. - -The omission of "them" after "call" exceeds the bounds of poetic -licence. - -[69] Equivocal generation is the production of animals without parents. -Many of the creatures on the Nile were supposed to be of this class, and -it was believed that they were fashioned by the action of the sun upon -the slime. The notion was purely fanciful, as was the idea that the -insects were half-formed--a compound of mud and organisation. - -[70] Dryden's Persius, v. 36: - - For this a hundred voices I desire - To tell thee what an hundred tongues would tire. - -"I have often thought," says the author of the Supplement to the -Profound, speaking of Pope's couplet, "that one pert fellow's tongue -might tire a hundred pair of attending ears; but I never conceived that -it could communicate any lassitude to the tongues of the bystanders -before." The evident meaning of Pope is that it would tire a hundred -ordinary tongues to talk as much as one vain wit, but the construction -is faulty. - -[71] This is a palpable imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 38: - - Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, aequam - Viribus; et versate diu, quid ferre recusent, - Quid valeant humeri.--WAKEFIELD. - -[72] Pope is unfortunate in his selection of instances to illustrate his -position that the various mental faculties are never concentrated in the -same individual. Men of great intellect have sometimes bad memories, and -a good memory is sometimes found in persons of a feeble intellect; but -it is a monstrous paradox to assert that a retentive memory and a -powerful understanding cannot go together. No one will deny that Dr. -Johnson and Lord Macaulay were gifted with vigorous, brilliant minds; -yet the memory of the first was extraordinary, and that of the second -prodigious. In general, men of transcendent abilities have been -remarkable for their knowledge. - -[73] Dryden, in his Character of a Good Parson: - - But when the milder beams of mercy play.--WAKEFIELD. - -[74] From the second couplet, apparently meant to be the converse of the -first, one would suppose that he considered the understanding and -imagination as the same faculty, else the counterpart is -defective.--WARTON. - -The structure of the passage requires the interpretation put upon it by -Warton, in which case the language is incorrect. The statement is not -even true of the imagination proper, as the example of Milton would -alone suffice to prove. His imagination was grand, and the numberless -phrases he adopted from preceding writers evince that it was combined -with a memory unusually tenacious. - -[75] This position seems formed from the well-known maxim of -Hippocrates, which is found at the entrance of his aphorisms, "Life is -short, but art is long."--WAKEFIELD. - -The standard of excellence in any art or science, must always be that -which is attained by the persons who follow it with the greatest -success; and those who give themselves up to a particular pursuit will, -with equal talents, eclipse the rivals who devote to it only fragments -of time. For this reason men can rarely attain to the highest skill in -more than one department, however many accomplishments they may possess -in a minor degree. The native power to shine in various callings may -exist, but the practice which can alone make perfect, is wanting. - -[76] These are the words of Lord Shaftesbury in his Advice to an Author: -"Frame taste by the just standard of nature." The principle is as old as -poetry, and has been laid down by multitudes of writers; but the -difficulty, as Bowles remarks, is to determine what is "nature," and -what is "her just standard." "Nature" with Pope meant Homer. - -[77] Roscommon's Essay: - - Truth still is one: Truth is divinely bright; - No cloudy doubts obscure her native light.--WAKEFIELD. - -[78] Translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry by Sir William Soame and -Dryden, canto i. - - Love reason then, and let whate'er you write - Borrow from her its beauty, force, and light. - -[79] In the early editions, - - That art is best which most resembles her, - Which still presides, yet never does appear. - -[80] Dryden's Virgil, AEn. vi. 982: - - ------one common soul - Inspires, and feeds, and animates the whole.--WAKEFIELD. - -[81] So Ovid, exactly, Metam. iv. 287: - - causa latet; vis est notissima.--WAKEFIELD. - -Duke of Buckingham's Essay on Poetry: - - A spirit which inspires the work throughout, - As that of nature moves the world about; - Itself unseen, yet all things by it shown. - -[82] In all editions before the quarto of 1743, it was, - - There are whom heav'n has blest with store of wit, - Yet want as much again to manage it. - -The idea was suggested by a sentence in Sprat's Account of Cowley: "His -fancy flowed with great speed, and therefore it was very fortunate to -him that his judgment was equal to manage it." Pope gave a false sparkle -to his couplet by first using "wit" in one sense and then in another. -"Wit to manage wit," says the author of the Supplement to the Profound, -"is full as good as one tongue's tiring another. Any one may perceive -that the writer meant that judgment should manage wit; but as it stands -it is pert." Warburton observes that Pope's later version magnified the -contradiction; for he who had already "a profusion of wit," was the last -person to need more. - -[83] "Ever are at strife," was the reading till the quarto of 1743. - -[84] We shall destroy the beauty of the passage by introducing a most -insipid parallel of perfect sameness, if we understand the word "like" -as introducing a simile. It is merely as if he had said: "Pegasus, as a -generous horse is accustomed to do, shows his spirit most under -restraint." Our author might have in view a couplet of Waller's, in his -verses on Roscommon's Poetry: - - Direct us how to back the winged horse, - Favour his flight, and moderate his force.--WAKEFIELD. - -[85] Dryden's preface to Troilus and Cressida: "If the rules be well -considered, we shall find them to be made only to reduce nature into -method." - -[86] It was "monarchy" until the edition of 1743. - -[87] Translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry, by Dryden and Soame: - - And afar off hold up the glorious prize.--WAKEFIELD. - -[88] Nec enim artibus editis factum est ut argumenta inveniremus, sed -dicta sunt omnia antequam praeciperentur; mox ea scriptores observata et -collecta ediderunt. Quintil.--POPE. - -[89] This seems to have been suggested by a couplet in the Court -Prospect of Hopkins: - - How are these blessings thus dispensed and giv'n? - To us from William, and to him from heav'n. - -[90] After this verse followed another, to complete the triplet, in the -first impressions: - - Set up themselves, and drove a sep'rate trade.--WAKEFIELD. - -[91] A feeble line of monosyllables, consisting of ten low -words.--WARTON. - -The entire passage seems to be constructed on some remarks of Dryden in -his Dedication to Ovid: "Formerly the critics were quite another species -of men. They were defenders of poets, and commentators on their works, -to illustrate obscure beauties, to place some passages in a better -light, to redeem others from malicious interpretations. Are our -auxiliary forces turned our enemies? Are they from our seconds become -principals against us?" The truth of Pope's assertion, as to the matter -of fact, will not bear a rigorous inquisition, as I believe these -critical persecutors of good poets to have been extremely few, both in -ancient and modern times.--WAKEFIELD. - -[92] The prescription of the physician was formerly called his bill. -Johnson, in his Dictionary, quotes from L'Estrange, "The medicine was -prepared according to the bill," and Butler, in Hudibras, speaks of - - him who took the doctor's bill, - And swallowed it instead of the pill. - -The story ran that a physician handed a prescription to his patient, -saying, "Take this," and the man immediately swallowed it. - -[93] This is a quibble. Time and moths spoil books by destroying them. -The commentators only spoiled them by explaining them badly. The editors -were so far from spoiling books in the same sense as time, that by -multiplying copies they assisted to preserve them. - -[94] Soame and Dryden's Translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry: - - Keep to each man his proper character; - Of countries and of times the humours know; - From diff'rent climates diff'ring customs grow. - -The principle here is general. Pope, in terms and in fact, applied it -only to the ancients. Had he extended the precept to modern literature -he would have been cured of his delusion that every deviation from the -antique type arose from unlettered tastelessness. - -[95] In the first edition, - - You may confound, but never criticise, - -which was an adaptation of a line from Lord Roscommon: - - You may confound, but never can translate. - -[96] The author, after this verse, originally inserted the following, -which he has however omitted in all the editions: - - Zoilus, had these been known, without a name - Had died, and Perrault ne'er been damned to fame; - The sense of sound antiquity had reigned, - And sacred Homer yet been unprophaned. - None e'er had thought his comprehensive mind } - To modern customs, modern rules confined;} - Who for all ages writ, and all mankind. } - Be his great works, &c.--POPE. - -Perrault, in his Parallel between the ancients and the moderns, carped -at Homer in the same spirit that Zoilus had done of old. - -[97] Horace, Ars Poet., ver. 268: - - vos exemplaria Graeca - Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna. - -Tate and Brady's version of the first psalm: - - But makes the perfect law of God - His business and delight; - Devoutly reads therein by day, - And meditates by night.--WAKEFIELD. - -[98] Dryden, Virg. Geor. iv. 408: - - And upward follow Fame's immortal spring.--WAKEFIELD. - -[99] Lord Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse: - - Consult your author with himself compared. - -[100] The word outlast is improper; for Virgil, like a true Roman, never -dreamt of the mortality of the city.--WAKEFIELD. - -[101] Variation: - - When first young Maro sung of kings and wars, - Ere warning Phoebus touched his trembling ears. - - Cum canerem reges et praelia, Cynthius aurem - Vellit. Virg. Ecl. vi. 3. - -It is a tradition preserved by Servius, that Virgil began with writing a -poem of the Alban and Roman affairs, which he found above his years, and -descended, first to imitate Theocritus on rural subjects, and afterwards -to copy Homer in heroic poetry.--POPE. - -The second line of the couplet in the note was copied, as Mr. Carruthers -points out, from Milton's Lycidas: - - Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears. - -The couplet in the text, with the variation of "great Maro" for "young -Maro," was Pope's original version, but Dennis having asked whether he -intended "to put that figure called a bull upon Virgil" by saying that -he designed a work "to outlast immortality," the poet wrote in the -margin of his manuscript "alter the seeming inconsistency," which he -did, by substituting the lines in the note. In the last edition, he -reinstated the "bull." The objection of Dennis was hypercritical. The -phrase only expresses the double fact that the city was destroyed, and -that its fame was durable. The manuscript supplies another various -reading, which avoids both the alleged bull in the text, and the bad -rhyme of the couplet in the note: - - When first his voice the youthful Maro tried, - Ere Phoebus touched his ear and checked his pride. - -[102] - - And did his work to rules as strict confine.--POPE. - -[103] Aristotle, born at _Stagyra_, B.C. 384.--CROKER. - -[104] In the manuscript a couplet follows which was added by Pope in the -margin, when he erased the expression "a work t' outlast immortal Rome:" - - "Arms and the Man," then rung the world around, - And Rome commenced immortal at the sound - -[105] When Pope supposes Virgil to have properly "checked in his bold -design of drawing from nature's fountain," and in consequence to have -confined his work within rules as strict, - - As if the Stagyrite o'erlooked each line, - -how can he avoid the force of his own ridicule, where a little further, -in this very piece, he laughs at Dennis for - - Concluding all were desp'rate sots and fools, - Who durst depart from Aristotle's rules.--DR. AIKIN. - -The argument of Pope is sophistical and inconsistent. It is -inconsistent, because if Virgil found Homer and nature the same, his -work would not have been confined within stricter rules when he copied -Homer than when he copied nature. It is sophistical, because though -Homer may be always natural, all nature is not contained in his works. - -[106] Rapin's Critical Works, vol. ii. p. 173: "There are no precepts to -teach the hidden graces, and all that secret power of poetry which -passes to the heart." - -[107] Neque enim rogationibus plebisve scitis sancta sunt ista praecepta, -sed hoc, quicquid est, utilitas excogitavit. Non negabo autem sic utile -esse plerumque; verum si eadem illa nobis aliud suadebit utilitas, hanc, -relictis magistrorum auctoritatibus, sequemur. Quintil. lib. ii. cap. -13.--POPE. - -[108] Dryden's Aurengzebe: - - Mean soul, and dar'st not gloriously offend!--STEEVENS. - -[109] This couplet, in the quarto of 1743, was for the first time placed -immediately after the triplet which ends at ver. 160. The effect of this -arrangement was that "Pegasus," instead of the "great wits," became the -antecedent to the lines, "From vulgar bounds," &c., and the poetic steed -was said to "snatch a grace." Warton commented upon the absurdity of -using such language of a horse, and since it is evident that Pope must -have overlooked the incongruity, when he adopted the transposition, the -lines were restored to their original order in the editions of Warton, -Bowles, and Roscoe. - -[110] So Soame and Dryden of the Ode, in the Translation of Boileau's -Art of Poetry: - - Her generous style at random oft will part, - And by a brave disorder shows her art. - -And again: - - A generous Muse, - When too much fettered with the rules of art, - May from her stricter bounds and limits part.--WAKEFIELD. - -[111] This allusion is perhaps inaccurate. The shapeless rock, and -hanging precipice do not rise out of nature's common order. These -objects are characteristic of some of the features of nature, of those -especially that are picturesque. If he had said that amid cultivated -scenery we are pleased with a hanging rock, the allusion would have been -accurate.--BOWLES. - -The criticism of Bowles does not apply to the passage in Sprat's Account -of Cowley, from which Pope borrowed his comparison: "He knew that in -diverting men's minds there should be the same variety observed as in -the prospects of their eyes, where a rock, a precipice, or a rising wave -is often more delightful than a smooth even ground, or a calm sea." - -[112] Another couplet originally followed here: - - But care in poetry must still be had; - It asks discretion ev'n in running mad: - And though, &c. - -which is the _insanire cum ratione_ taken from Terence by Horace, at -Sat. ii. 3, 271.--WAKEFIELD. - -[113] "Their" means "their own."--WARTON. - -[114] Dryden in his dedication to the AEneis: "Virgil might make this -anachronism by superseding the mechanic rules of poetry, for the same -reason that a monarch may dispense with or suspend his own laws." - -[115] Pope's manuscript supplies two omitted lines: - - The boldest strokes of art we may despise, - Viewed in false lights with undiscerning eyes. - -[116] A violation of grammatical propriety, into which many of our first -and most accurate writers have fallen. "Mishapen" is doubtless the true -participle.--WAKEFIELD. - -[117] Pope took his imagery from Horace, Ars Poet., 361: - - Ut pictura, poesis erit: quae, si propius stes, - Te capiat magis; et quaedam, si longius abstes: - Haec amat obscurum; volet haec sub luce videri. - -He was also indebted to the translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry by -Dryden and Soame: - - Each object must be fixed in the due place, - And diff'ring parts have corresponding grace. - -[118] [Greek: Oiun ti poiousin oi phronimoi stratelatai kata tas tazeis -ton strateumaton]. Dion. Hal. De Struct. Orat.--WARBURTON. - -[119] It may be pertinent to subjoin Roscommon's remark on the same -subject: - - ----Far the greatest part - Of what some call neglect is studied art. - When Virgil seems to trifle in a line, - 'Tis but a warning piece which gives the sign, - To wake your fancy and prepare your sight - To reach the noble height of some unusual flight.--WARTON. - -Variety and contrast are necessary, and it is impossible all parts -should be equally excellent. Yet it would be too much to recommend -introducing trivial or dull passages to enhance the merit of those in -which the whole effort of genius might be employed.--BOWLES. - -[120] Modeste, et circumspecto judicio de tantis viris pronunciandum -est, ne (quod plerisque accidit) damnent quod non intelligunt. Ac si -necesse est in alteram errare partem, omnia eorum legentibus placere, -quam multa displicere maluerim. Quint.--POPE. - -Lord Roscommon was not disposed to be so diffident in those excellent -verses of his Essay: - - For who, without a qualm, hath ever looked - On holy garbage, though by Homer cooked? - Whose railing heroes, and whose wounded gods, - Make some suspect he snores as well as nods.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope originally wrote in his manuscript, - - Nor Homer nods so often as we dream, - -which was followed by this couplet: - - In sacred writ where difficulties rise, - 'Tis safer far to fear than criticise. - -[121] So Roscommon's epilogue to Alexander the Great: - - Secured by higher pow'rs exalted stands - Above the reach of sacrilegious hands.--WAKEFIELD. - -[122] The poet here alludes to the four great causes of the ravage -amongst ancient writings. The destruction of the Alexandrine and -Palatine libraries by fire; the fiercer rage of Zoilus, Maevius, and -their followers, against wit; the irruption of the barbarians into the -empire; and the long reign of ignorance and superstition in the -cloisters.--WARBURTON. - -I like the original verse better-- - -Destructive war, and all-devouring age,-- - -as a metaphor much more perspicuous and specific.--WAKEFIELD. - -In his epistle to Addison, Pope has "all-devouring age," but the epithet -here is more original and striking, and admirably suited to the subject. -This shows a nice discrimination. "All-involving" would be as improper -in the Essay on Medals as "all-devouring" would be in this -place.--BOWLES. - -A couplet in Cooper's Hill suggested the couplet of Pope: - - Now shalt thou stand, though sword, or time, or fire, - Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall conspire. - -[123] Thus in a poem on the Fear of Death, ascribed to the Duke of -Wharton: - - ----There rival chiefs combine - To fill the gen'ral chorus of her reign.--WAKEFIELD. - -[124] Cowley on the death of Crashaw: - - Hail, bard triumphant. - -Virg. AEn. vi. 649: - - Magnanimi heroes! nati melioribus annis.--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden's Religio Laici: - - Those giant wits in happier ages born. - -From Pope's manuscript it appears that he had originally written: - - Hail, happy heroes, born in better days. - -In a note he gave the line from Virgil of which his own was a -translation. - -[125] An imitation of Cowley, David. ii. 833: - - Round the whole earth his dreaded name shall sound - And reach to worlds that must not yet be found.--WAKEFIELD. - -[126] Oldham's Elegies: - - What nature has in bulk to me denied. - -[127] "Everybody allows," says Malebranche, "that the animal spirits are -the most subtle and agitated parts of the blood. These spirits are -carried with the rest of the blood to the brain, and are there separated -by some organ destined to the purpose." Pope adopted the doctrine -"allowed by everybody," but which consisted of assumptions without -proof. The very existence of these fluid spirits had never been -ascertained. The remaining physiology of Pope's couplet was erroneous. -When there is a deficiency of blood, its place is not supplied by wind. -The grammatical construction, again, is vicious, and ascribes "blood and -spirits" to souls as well as to bodies. The moral reflection illustrated -by the simile is but little more correct. Men in general are not proud -in proportion as they have nothing to be proud of. - -[128] Pope is commonly considered to have laid down the general -proposition that total ignorance was preferable to imperfect knowledge. -The context shows that he was speaking only of conceited critics, who -were presumptuous because they were ill-informed. He tells such persons -that the more enlightened they become the humbler they will grow. - -[129] In the early editions, - - Fired with the charms fair science does impart. - -Though "does" is removed, "with what" is less dignified and graceful -than "with the charms." The diction of the couplet is prosaic and devoid -of elegance.--WAKEFIELD. - -[130] Dryden, in the State of Innocence, Act i. Sc. i.: - - Nor need we tempt those heights which angels keep.--WAKEFIELD. - -[131] The proper word would have been "beyond." - -[132] - - [Much we begin to doubt and much to fear - Our sight less trusting as we see more clear.] - So pleased at first the tow'ring Alps to try, - Filled with ideas of fair Italy, - The traveller beholds with cheerful eyes - The less'ning vales, and seems to tread the skies.--POPE. - -The couplet between brackets is from the manuscript. The next couplet, -with a variation in the first line, was transferred to the epistle to -Jervas. - -[133] This is, perhaps, the best simile in our language--that in which -the most exact resemblance is traced between things in appearance -utterly unrelated to each other.--JOHNSON. - -I will own I am not of this opinion. The simile appears evidently to -have been suggested by the following one in the works of Drummond: - - All as a pilgrim who the Alps doth pass, - Or Atlas' temples crowned with winter's glass, - The airy Caucasus, the Apennine, - Pyrene's cliffs where sun doth never shine, - When he some heaps of hills hath overwent, - Begins to think on rest, his journey spent, - Till mounting some tall mountain he doth find - More heights before him than he left behind.--WARTON. - -The simile is undoubtedly appropriate, illustrative, and eminently -beautiful, but evidently copied.--BOWLES. - -[134] Diligenter legendum est ac paene ad scribendi solicitudinem: nec -per partes modo scrutanda sunt omnia, sed perlectus liber utique ex -integro resumendus. Quint.--POPE. - -[135] The Bible never descends to the mean colloquial preterites of -"chid" for "did chide," or "writ" for "did write," but always uses the -full-dress word "chode" and "wrote." Pope might have been happier had he -read his Bible more, but assuredly he would have improved his -English.--DE QUINCEY. - -[136] Boileau's Art of Poetry by Dryden and Soame, canto i.: - - A frozen style, that neither ebbs or flows, - Instead of pleasing makes us gape and doze. - -[137] Much in the same strain Garth's Dispensary, iv. 24: - - So nicely tasteless, so correctly dull.--WAKEFIELD. - -[138] This is an adaptation of a couplet in Dryden's Eleonora: - - Nor this part musk, or civet can we call, - Or amber, but a rich result of all. - -[139] It is impossible to determine whether he refers to St. Peter's or -the Pantheon. - -[140] An impropriety of the grossest kind is here committed. Grammar -requires "appears."--WAKEFIELD. - -[141] Dryden's translation of Ovid's Met. book xv. - - Greater than whate'er was, or is, or e'er shall be.--HOLT WHITE. - -Epilogue to Suckling's Goblins: - - Things that ne'er were, nor are, nor ne'er will be.--ISAAC REED. - -[142] Horace, Ars Poet. 351: - - Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis - Offendar maculis. - -[143] _Lays_ for _lays down_, but, as Warton remarks, the word thus used -is very objectionable. - -[144] To the same effect Quintilian, lib. i. Ex quo mihi inter virtutes -grammatici habebitur, aliqua nescire.--WAKEFIELD. - -[145] The incident is taken from the Second Part of Don Quixote, first -written by Don Alonzo Fernandez de Avellanada, and afterwards -translated, or rather imitated and new-modelled, by no less an Author -than the celebrated Le Sage. "But, Sir, quoth the Bachelor, if you would -have me adhere to Aristotle's rules, I must omit the combat. Aristotle, -replied the Knight, I grant was a man of some parts; but his capacity -was not unbounded; and, give me leave to tell you, his authority does -not extend over combats in the list, which are far above his narrow -rules. Believe me the combat will add such grace to your play, that all -the rules in the universe must not stand in competition with it. Well, -Sir Knight, replied the Bachelor, for your sake, and for the honour of -chivalry, I will not leave out the combat. But still one difficulty -remains, which is, that our common theatres are not large enough for it. -There must be one erected on purpose, answered the Knight; and in a -word, rather than leave out the combat, the play had better be acted in -a field or plain."--WARTON. - -[146] In all editions till the quarto of 1743, - - As e'er could D----s of the laws o' th' stage. - -[147] In the manuscript the reply of the knight is continued through -another couplet: - - In all besides let Aristotle sway, - But knighthood's sacred, and he must give way. - -[148] The phrase "curious not knowing," is from Petronius, and Pope has -written the words of his original on the margin of the manuscript: Est -et alter, non quidem doctus, sed curiosus, qui plus docet quam scit. - -[149] The conventionalities of foppery and ceremony are always changing, -and what Pope says of manners may have been extensively true of his own -generation. At present bad manners commonly proceed either from -defective sensibility, or from men having more regard to themselves than -to their company. - -[150] This had been the practice of some artists. "Their heroes," says -Reynolds, speaking of the French painters in 1752, "are decked out so -nice and fine that they look like knights-errant just entering the lists -at a tournament in gilt armour, and loaded most unmercifully with silk, -satin, velvet, gold, jewels, &c." Pope had in his mind a passage of -Cowley's Ode on Wit: - - Yet 'tis not to adorn, and gild each part; - That shows more cost than art. - Jewels at nose and lips but ill appear; - Rather than all things wit, let none be there. - -[151] Naturam intueamur, hanc sequamur: id facillime accipiunt animi -quod agnoscunt. Quint. lib. 8, c. 3.--POPE. - -Dryden's preface to the State of Innocence: "The definition of wit, -which has been so often attempted, and ever unsuccessfully, by many -poets, is only this, that it is a propriety of thoughts and words." - -[152] Pope's account of wit is undoubtedly erroneous; he depresses it -below its natural dignity, and reduces it from strength of thought to -happiness of language.--JOHNSON. - -The error was in stating a partial as an universal truth; for the second -line of the couplet correctly describes the quality which gives the -charm to numberless passages both in prose and verse. Instead of "ne'er -so well," the reading of the first edition was "ne'er before," which was -not equally true. But Pope followed the passage in Boileau, from which -the line in the Essay on Criticism was derived: "Qu'est-ce qu'une pensee -neuve, brillante, extraordinaire? Ce n'est point, comme se le persuadent -les ignorants, une pensee que personne n'a jamais eu, ni du avoir. C'est -au contraire une pensee qui a du venir a tout le monde, et que quelqu'un -s'avise le premier d'exprimer. Un bon mot n'est bon mot qu'en ce qu'il -dit une chose que chacun pensoit, et qu'il la dit d'une maniere vive, -fine et nouvelle." - -[153] Light "sweetly recommended" by shades, is an affected form of -speech. "Does 'em good," in the next couplet, offends in the opposite -direction, and is meanly colloquial. - -[154] Two lines, which follow in the manuscript, are, from such a poet, -worth quoting as a curiosity, since in the ruggedness of the metre, the -badness of the rhyme, and the grossness of the metaphor, they are among -the worst that were ever written: - - Justly to think, and readily express, - A full conception, and brought forth with ease. - -[155] "Let us," says Mr. Webb, in a passage quoted by Warton, -"substitute the definition in the place of the thing, and it will stand -thus: 'A work may have more of nature dressed to advantage than will do -it good.' This is impossible, and it is evident that the confusion -arises from the poet having annexed different ideas to the same word." - -[156] "Take upon content" for "take upon trust" was a form of speech -sanctioned by usage in Pope's day. Thus Rymer says of Hart the actor, -"What he delivers every one takes upon content. Their eyes are -prepossessed and charmed by his action." - -[157] Nothing can be more just, or more ably and eloquently expressed -than this observation and illustration respecting the character of false -eloquence. Fine words do not make fine poems, and there cannot be a -stronger proof of the want of real genius than those high colours and -meretricious embellishments of language, which, while they hide the -poverty of ideas, impose on the unpractised eye with a gaudy semblance -of beauty.--BOWLES. - -[158] "Decent" has not here the signification of modest, but is used in -the once common sense of becoming, attractive. - -[159] Dryden's preface to All for Love: "Expressions are a modest -clothing of our thoughts, as breeches and petticoats are for our -bodies." Pope's couplet should have been more in accordance with his -precept. "Still" is an expletive to piece out the line, and upon this -superfluous word, he has thrown the emphasis of the rhyme, which, in its -turn, is mean and imperfect. - -[160] Abolita et abrogata retinere, insolentiae cujusdam est, et frivolae -in parvis jactantiae. Quint. lib. i. c. 6. - -Opus est, ut verba a vetustate repetita neque crebra sint, neque -manifesta, quia nil est odiosius affectatione, nec utique ab ultimis -repetita temporibus. Oratio cujus summa virtus est perspicuitas, quam -sit vitiosa, si egeat interprete? Ergo ut novorum optima erunt maxime -vetera, ita veterum maxime nova. Idem.--POPE. - -[161] See Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour.--POPE. - -Dryden's Dedication to the Assignation: "He is only like Fungoso in the -play, who follows the fashion at a distance." - -[162] If Pope's maxim was universally obeyed no new word could be -introduced. Dryden was more judicious. "When I find," he said, "an -English word significant and sounding, I neither borrow from the Latin -nor any other language; but when I want at home I must seek abroad." - -[163] - - Quis populi sermo est? quis enim? nisi carmina molli - Nunc demum numero fluere, ut per laeve severos - Effundat junctura ungues: scit tendere versum - Non secus ac si oculo rubricam dirigat uno.--Pers., Sat. i.--POPE. - -Garth in the Dispensary: - - Harsh words, though pertinent, uncouth appear; - None please the fancy who offend the ear. - -[164] "There" is a feeble excrescence to force a rhyme. - -[165] Fugiemus crebras vocalium concursiones, quae vastam atque hiantem -orationem reddunt. Cic. ad Heren. lib. iv. Vide etiam Quintil. lib. ix. -c. 4.--POPE. - -Vowels were said to open on each other when two words came together of -which the first ended, and the second commenced with a vowel. Pope has -illustrated the fault by crowding three consecutive instances into his -verse. The poets diminished the conflict of vowels by a free recourse to -elisions. The most usual were the cutting off the "e" in "the," as "th' -unlearned," ver. 327; and the "o" in "to," as "t' outlast," ver. 131, -"t' examine," ver. 134, "t' admire," ver. 200. The two words were thus -fused into one, and the old authors combined them in writing as well as -in the pronunciation. The manuscripts of Chaucer have "texcuse," not "t' -excuse;" "thapostle," not "th' apostle." The custom has not kept its -ground. Whatever might be supposed to be gained in harmony by the -conversion of "to examine" into "texamine," or of "the unlearned" into -"thunlearned" was more than lost by the departure from the common forms -of speech. - -[166] "The characters of bad critic and bad poet are grossly confounded; -for though it be true that vulgar readers of poetry are chiefly -attentive to the melody of the verse, yet it is not they who admire, but -the paltry versifier who employs monotonous syllables, feeble -expletives, and a dull routine of unvaried rhymes." Essays Historical -and Critical.--WARTON. - -[167] "Low" in contradistinction to lofty. The phrase would now mean -coarse and vulgar words. - -[168] From Dryden. "He creeps along with ten little words in every line, -and helps out his numbers with _for_, _to_, and _unto_, and all the -pretty expletives he can find, while the sense is left half-tired behind -it." Essay on Dram. Poetry.--WARBURTON. - -A collection of monosyllables when it arises from a correspondence of -subject is highly meritorious. Let a single example from Milton suffice: - - O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, - Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens and shades of death. - -How successfully does this range of little words represent to our -imaginations, - - The growing labours of the lengthened way.--WAKEFIELD. - -"It is pronounced by Dryden," says Johnson, "that a line of -monosyllables is almost always harsh. This is evidently true, because -our monosyllables commonly begin and end with consonants." As Dryden -expressed it, "they are clogged with consonants," and "it seldom," he -says, "happens but a monosyllable line turns verse to prose, and even -that prose is rugged and inharmonious." The authority of Dryden has led -many persons to mistrust their own ears, and imagine, like Johnson and -Wakefield, that monosyllables were only fitted at best to produce some -special effect. Numerous examples in Dryden's poetry contradict his -criticism, and Milton abounds in sweet and sonorous monosyllabic lines, -as Par. Lost, v. 193: - - His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow - Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines, - With ev'ry plant, in sign of worship wave. - -And ver. 199: - - ye birds, - That singing up to heaven gate ascend, - Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise. - -Melodious lines, such as the first verse in the first of these passages, -which have the monosyllables relieved but by a single dissyllable, are -past counting up. Addison praised Pope for exemplifying the faults in -the language which condemned them. "The gaping of the vowels in the -second line, the expletive 'do' in the third line, and the ten -monosyllables in the fourth, give such a beauty to this passage, as -would have been very much admired in an ancient poet." The feat was too -easy to call for much admiration. There was more difficulty in eschewing -than in mimicking the vicious style of bad versifiers. Pope himself has -not avoided the frequent use of "low words" and "feeble expletives." - -[169] Atterbury's Preface to Waller's Poems: "He had a fine ear, and -knew how quickly that sense was cloyed by the same round of chiming -words still returning upon it." - -[170] Hopkins's translation of Ovid's Met., book xi.: - - No tame nor savage beast dwells there; no breeze - Shakes the still boughs, or whispers thro' the trees: - Here easy streams with pleasing murmurs creep, - At once inviting and assisting sleep.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope uses these trite ideas and "unvaried chimes" himself. In the fourth -Pastoral we have "gentle breeze, trembling trees, whispering breeze, -dies upon the trees," and in Eloisa we have "the curling breeze, panting -on the trees."--CROKER. - -Pope took the idea from Boileau: - - Si je louois Philis "en miracles feconde," - Je trouverois bientot, "a nulle autre seconde;" - Si je voulois vanter un objet "nonpareil," - Je mettrois a l'instant, "plus beau que le soleil;" - Enfin, parlant toujours d' "astres" et de "merveilles," - De "chefs-d'oeuvres des cieux," de "beautes sans pareilles." - -[171] Dryden in his Annus Mirabilis, stanza 123: - - So glides the trodden serpent on the grass, - And long behind his wounded volume trails.--WAKEFIELD. - -[172] Boileau's Art of Poetry translated by Soame and Dryden: - - Those tuneful readers of their own dull rhymes. - -[173] The construction might be for anything that the composition shows -to the contrary, "leave such to praise," which is subversive of the -poet's meaning.--WAKEFIELD. - -[174] Sufficient justice is not done to Sandys, who did more to polish -and tune the English versification by his Psalms and his Job, than those -two writers, who are usually applauded on this subject.--WARTON. - -Bowles adds his testimony to "the extraordinary melody and vigour" of -the versification of Sandys. Ruffhead, in his life of Pope, having -called the Ovid of Sandys an "indifferent translation," Warburton has -written on the margin, "He was not an indifferent, but a very fine -translator and versifier." - -[175] Writers who seem to have composed with the greatest ease have -exerted much labour in attaining this facility. It is well known that -the writings of La Fontaine were laboured into that facility for which -they are so famous, with repeated alterations and many erasures. Moliere -is reported to have passed whole days in fixing upon a proper epithet or -rhyme, although his verses have all the flow and freedom of -conversation. I have been informed that Addison was so extremely nice in -polishing his prose compositions that when almost a whole impression of -a Spectator was worked off he would stop the press to insert a new -preposition or conjunction.--WARTON. - -[176] Lord Roscommon says: - - The sound is still a comment to the sense.--WARBURTON. - -The whole of this passage on the adaptation of the sound to the sense is -imitated, and, as may be seen by the references of Warburton, is in part -translated, from Vida's Art of Poetry. - -[177] - - Tum is laeta canunt, &c. Vida, Poet. 1. iii. ver. 403.--WARBURTON. - -[178] - - Tum longe sale saxa sonant, &c. Vida, Poet. 1. iii. v. 388.--WARBURTON. - -[179] - - Atque ideo si quid geritur molimine magno, - Adde moram et pariter tecum quoque verba laborent - Segnia. Vida, ib. 417.--WARBURTON. - -[180] - - At mora si fuerit damno, properare jubebo, &c. Vida, ib. - 420.--WARBURTON. - -[181] Our poet here endeavours to fasten on Virgil a most insufferable -absurdity, which no poetical hyperbole will justify, namely, the reality -of these wonderful performances, a flight over the unbending corn, and -across the sea with unbathed feet. Virgil only puts the supposition, and -speaks of her extraordinary velocity in the way of comparison, that she -seemed capable of accomplishing so much had she made the attempt. She -could fly, if she had chosen, nor would have injured, in that case, the -tender blades of corn.--WAKEFIELD. - -[182] The verse intended to represent the whisper of the vernal breeze -must surely be confessed not much to excel in softness or volubility; -and the smooth stream runs with a perpetual clash of jarring consonants. -The noise and turbulence of the torrent is, indeed, distinctly imaged; -for it requires very little skill to make our language rough. But in the -lines which mention the effort of Ajax, there is no particular heaviness -or delay. The swiftness of Camilla is rather contrasted than -exemplified. Why the verse should be lengthened to express speed, will -not easily be discovered. In the dactyls, used for that purpose by the -ancients, two short syllables were pronounced with such rapidity, as to -be equal only to one long; they therefore naturally exhibit the act of -passing through a long space in a short time. But the Alexandrine, by -its pause in the midst, is a tardy and stately measure; and the word -"unbending," one of the most sluggish and slow which our language -affords, cannot much accelerate its motion.--JOHNSON. - -Wakefield says that "the tripping word _labours_, in ver. 371, is -unhappy," and Aaron Hill contended that three at least of the five -concluding words of the line "danced away upon the tongue with a -tripping and lyrical lightness." - -[183] See Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Music; an Ode by Mr. -Dryden.--POPE. - -[184] This resembles a line in Hughes's Court of Neptune: - - Beholds th' alternate billows all and rise.--WAKEFIELD. - -[185] - - And now and then, a sigh he stole, - And tears began to flow. Dryden.--WAKEFIELD. - -[186] Pope confounds vocal and instrumental with poetical harmony. -Timotheus owed his celebrity to his music, and Dryden never wrote a -note. - -[187] Creech's translation of Horace's Art of Poetry: - - men of sense retire, - The boys abuse, and only fools admire. - -Aaron Hill says, that Pope was very fond of the line in the text, and -often repeated it. Hill, who "abhorred the sentiment," once asked him if -he still adhered to the opinion of Longinus, that the true sublime -thrilled and transported the reader. On Pope replying in the -affirmative, his interrogator pressed him with the contradiction, and -the perplexed poet, according to Hill's report, took refuge in nonsense, -and made this unintelligible answer,--"that Longinus's remark was truth, -but that, like certain truths of more importance, it required assent -from faith, without the evidence of demonstration." It must be evident -that Shakespeare, Milton, and scores besides, are worthy of admiration; -and no man would show his sense by protesting that he did not admire but -only approved of them. Pope is inconsistent, for at ver. 236 he speaks -of "_rapture_ warming the mind," and of "the generous pleasure to be -_charmed_ with wit." - -[188] In all editions before the quarto of 1743, "Some the French -writers." - -[189] This was directed against Pope's co-religionists, and greatly -annoyed them. The offence was not that he had misrepresented their -views, but that he had denounced a doctrine which all zealous papists -maintained. "Nothing," he said, when writing in vindication of the -passage to Caryll, "has been so much a scarecrow to our opponents as -that too peremptory and uncharitable assertion of an utter impossibility -of salvation to all but ourselves. I own to you I was glad of any -opportunity to express my dislike of so shocking a sentiment as those of -the religion I profess are commonly charged with, and I hoped a slight -insinuation, introduced by a casual similitude only, could never have -given offence, but on the contrary, must needs have done good in a -nation wherein we are the smaller party, and consequently most -misrepresented, and most in need of vindication." The Roman Catholics -took to themselves the couplet "Meanly they seek," which followed the -simile, but Pope pointed out that the plural "some," and not the -singular "each man," was the antecedent to "they." The comparison was -not kept up throughout the paragraph, and the lines after ver. 397 refer -solely to the critics. - -[190] The word "enlights" is, I believe, of our poet's coinage, -analogically formed from "light," as "enlighten" from -"lighten."--WAKEFIELD. - -[191] Sir Robert Howard's poem against the Fear of Death: - - And neither gives increase, nor brings decay. - -[192] There is very little poetical expression from this line to ver. -450. It is only mere prose fringed with rhyme. Good sense in a very -prosaic style; reasoning, not poetry.--WARTON. - -[193] "Joins with quality" for "joins with men of rank" is a vulgar -colloquialism. - -[194] - - In sing-song Durfey, Oldmixon or me, - -was the original reading of the manuscript. - -[195] This couplet is succeeded by two more lines in the manuscript: - - And while to thoughts refined they make pretence, - Hate all that's common, ev'n to common sense. - -[196] In the first edition the reading was "dull believers," which Pope -in the second edition altered to "plain." The change was occasioned by -the outcry against the couplet. "An ordinary man," he wrote to Caryll, -"would imagine the author plainly declared against these schismatics for -quitting the true faith out of contempt of the understanding of some few -of its believers. But these believers are called 'dull,' and because I -say that these schismatics think some believers dull, therefore these -charitable well-disposed interpreters of my meaning say that I think all -believers dull." There is a culpable levity in the language of Pope's -lines, but he could not intend to espouse the cause of the sceptics when -he selects them as an instance of people who "purposely go wrong" -because "the crowd go right." - -[197] If this couplet is interpreted by the grammatical construction, -the "unfortified towns daily changed their sides" in consequence of -vacillating "betwixt sense and nonsense." Of course Pope only meant that -in war weak towns frequently changed sides, but not for the same reason -that weak heads changed their opinions. - -[198] The Book of Sentences was a work of Peter Lombard, which consisted -of subtle disquisitions on theology. Thomas Aquinas wrote a commentary -upon it. - -[199] St. Thomas Aquinas died in 1274. Scotus, who died in 1308, -disputed the doctrines of his predecessor, and their respective -disciples divided for a century the theological world.--CROKER. - -[200] Cowley speaks of "the cobwebs of the schoolmen's trade," and says -in a note, "the distinctions of the schoolmen may be likened to cobwebs -either because of the too much fineness of the work, or because they -take not the materials from nature, but spin it out of themselves." - -[201] A place where old and second-hand books were sold formerly, near -Smithfield.--POPE. - -[202] Between this and verse 448: - - The rhyming clowns that gladded Shakespear's age, - No more with crambo entertain the stage. - Who now in anagrams their patron praise, - Or sing their mistress in acrostic lays? - Ev'n pulpits pleased with merry puns of yore; - Now all are banished to th' Hibernian shore! - [And thither soon soft op'ra shall repair, - Conveyed by Sw----y to his native air. - There, languishing awhile, prolong its breath, - Till like a swan it sings itself to death.] - Thus leaving what was natural and fit, - The current folly proved their ready wit: - And authors thought their reputation safe, - Which lived as long as fools were pleased to laugh.--POPE. - -The lines between brackets are from the manuscript, and were not printed -by Pope. The whole passage was probably written after the poem was first -published, since the topics seem to have been suggested by Addison's -papers upon false wit in the Spectator of May, 1711, where the anagrams, -acrostics, and punning sermons of the reign of James I. are all -enumerated. Swiney was the director of the Italian opera, which, at the -commencement of 1712, failed to meet with adequate support, and he -withdrew, not to Ireland, but to the continent. "He remained there," -says Cibber, "twenty years, an exile from his friends and country." - -[203] An additional couplet follows in the manuscript: - - To be spoke ill of, may good works befall, - But those are bad of which none speak at all. - -[204] The parson alluded to was Jeremy Collier; the critic was the Duke -of Buckingham; the first of whom very powerfully attacked the -profligacy, and the latter the irregularity and bombast of some of -Dryden's plays. These attacks were much more than merry jests.--WARTON. - -[205] Dryden himself, Virg. Geor. iv. 729: - - But she returned no more to bless his longing eyes.--WAKEFIELD. - -[206] Blackmore's attack upon Dryden occurs in a poem which appeared in -1700, called a Satire against Wit. The author treats wit as money, and -proposes that the whole should be recoined for the purpose of separating -the base metal from the pure. - - Into the melting pot when Dryden comes - What horrid stench will rise, what noisome fumes! - How will he shrink when all his lewd allay - And wicked mixture shall be purged away! - When once his boasted heaps are melted down, - A chestful scarce will yield one sterling crown. - -This is exaggerated, but the censure is directed against the indecency -which was really infamous. The invectives of Milbourne in his Notes on -Dryden's Virgil, 1698, had not the same excuse. The strictures are -confined to the translation of the Eclogues and Georgics, and are -throughout rabid, insolent, coarse, and contemptible. To demonstrate his -own superiority, Milbourne inserted specimens of a rival translation, -which is on a par with his criticisms. He was in orders, and -acknowledges that one of his reasons for not sparing Dryden was that -Dryden never spared a clergyman. "I am only," replied the poet, with -exquisite sarcasm, "to ask pardon of good priests, and am afraid his -part of the reparation will come to little." Dryden retaliated upon both -antagonists together in the couplet, - - Wouldst thou be soon dispatched, and perish whole? - Trust Maurus with thy life, and Milbourne with thy soul. - -Pope's line in the first edition was - - New Bl----s and new M----s must arise. - -In the second edition he substituted S----s, which meant Shadwells, for -Bl----s, but in the quarto of 1717 he again coupled Blackmore with -Milbourne, and printed both names at full length. Blackmore was living, -and the changes indicate Pope's varying feelings towards him. - -[207] In the fifth book of Vitruvius is an account of Zoilus's coming to -the court of Ptolemy at Alexandria, and presenting to him his virulent -and brutal censures of Homer, and begging to be rewarded for his work; -instead of which, it is said, the king ordered him to be crucified, or, -as some said, stoned. His person is minutely described in the eleventh -book of AElian's various History.--WARTON. - -Boileau's Art of Poetry, translated by Soame and Dryden: - - Let mighty Spenser raise his reverend head, - Cowley and Denham start up from the dead. - -[208] A beautiful and poetical illustration. Pope has the art of -enlivening his subject continually by images and illustrations drawn -from nature, which by contrast have a particularly pleasing effect, and -which are indeed absolutely necessary in a didactic poem.--BOWLES. - -The passage originally stood thus in the manuscript: - - Wit, as the sun, such pow'rful beams displays, - It draws up vapours that obscures its rays, - But, like the sun eclipsed, makes only known - The shadowing body's grossness, not its own; - And all those clouds that did at first invade - The rising light, and interposed a shade, - When once transpierced with its prevailing ray - Reflect its glories, and augment the day. - -[209] His instance refuted his position that "bare threescore" was the -duration of modern fame. "It is now a hundred years," said Dennis in -1712, "since Shakespeare began to write, more since Spenser flourished, -and above three hundred years since Chaucer died. And yet the fame of -none of these is extinguished." Another century and a half has elapsed, -and the reputation of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare is greater than -ever. The notion of the "failing language" is not more sound. Though it -is a hundred and fifty years since the Essay on Criticism was published, -there is not a line which has an antiquated air. - -[210] - - The treach'rous colours in few years decay.--POPE. - -The next line is from Addison: - - And all the pleasing landscape fades away. - -[211] That is, of which those, who do not possess it, form an erroneous -estimate, as productive of more happiness and enjoyment to the owner, -than he really receives from it.--WAKEFIELD. - -[212] In the previous paragraph Pope admitted that the fame of a modern -might last three-score years. Here, contradicting himself and the facts, -he limits its duration to the youth of the author. He applies to poets -in general what was only true of inferior writers. The ephemeral -versifiers were examples of deficient "wit," and not of the unhappy -consequences of genuine poetic power. - -[213] - - Like some fair flow'r that in the spring does rise.--POPE. - -This line was an example both of the "feeble expletive" and of the "ten -low words." "Supplies" in the amended version is, as Wakefield observes, -a poor expression. - -[214] The Duke of Buckingham's Vision: - - The dearest care that all my thought employs. - -[215] Wakefield objects to the "slovenly superfluity of words," and asks -"to whom can a wife possibly belong but the owner?" He misunderstood -Pope, who, by "the wife of the owner," meant the wife of the owner of -the wit. The metaphor is coarse, and out of keeping with the theme. - -[216] Thus in the first edition: - - The more his trouble as the more admired, - Where wanted scorned, and envied where acquired. - -Against this Pope wrote, "To be altered. See Dennis, p. 20." "How," said -Dennis, "can wit be scorned where it is not? The person who wants this -wit may indeed be scorned, but such a contempt declares the honour that -the contemner has for wit." Pope, in a letter to Caryll, admitted that -he had been guilty of a bull, and the reading in the second edition was, - - 'Tis most our trouble when 'tis most admired, - The more we give, the more is still required. - -[217] In the first edition, - - Maintained with pains, but forfeited with ease; - -and in the second edition, - - The fame with pains we gain, but lose with ease. - -The original version appears better than the readings which successively -replaced it. - -[218] Another couplet follows in the manuscript: - - Learning and wit were friends designed by heav'n; - Those arms to guard it, not to wound, were giv'n. - -[219] Dryden's Prologue to the University of Oxford: - - Be kind to wit, which but endeavours well, - And, where you judge, presumes not to excel. - -The feelings of antiquity were doubtless represented truly by Horace -when he said that indifferent poets were not tolerated by anybody. There -is not the least foundation for Pope's statement that it was the habit -of old to praise bad authors for endeavouring well, and if it had been, -the authors would not have cared for commendations on their abortive -industry to the disparagement of their intellect. - -[220] Wakefield remarks upon the unhappy effect of "crowns" and "crown" -in consecutive lines, and thinks the phrase "some others" in the next -verse too mean and elliptical. Soame and Dryden, in their translation of -Boileau's Art of Poetry, speak of the "base rivals" who - - aspire to gain renown - By standing up and pulling others down. - -[221] Mr. Harte related to me, that being with Mr. Pope when he received -the news of Swift's death, Harte said to him, he thought it a fortunate -circumstance for their friendship, that they had lived so distant from -each other. Pope resented the reflection, but yet, said Harte, I am -convinced it was true.--WARTON. - -[222] That is, all the unsuccessful authors maligned the successful. The -unsuccessful writers never said anything more slanderous. - -[223] Boileau's Art of Poetry, translated by Soame and Dryden: - - Never debase yourself by treach'rous ways - Nor by such abject methods seek for praise. - -Pope's own life is the strongest example upon record of the degradation -he deplores. - -[224] In the margin of the manuscript Pope has written the passages of -Virgil from which he took his expressions. AEn. iii. 56: - - quid non mortalia pectora cogis - Auri sacra fames? - -Geor. i. 37: - - Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido, - -which Dryden translates, - - Nor let so dire a thirst of empire move. - -[225] Such a manly and ingenuous censure from a culprit in this way, as -in the case of Pope, is entitled to great praise.--WAKEFIELD. - -If his indecorums had been the failing of youth and thoughtlessness, and -he had publicly recanted his errors, his self-condemnation would be -meritorious. The larger portion of his offences were, on the contrary, -committed after he had declared indecency to be unpardonable. Any man, -however persistently reprobate, might earn "great praise" on terms like -these. - -[226] No one has expressed himself upon this subject so pithily as -Cowley: - - 'tis just - The author blush, there where the reader must. - -[227] Hamlet: - - And duller shoulds't thou be than the fat weed.--BOWLES. - -[228] Wits, says he, in Charles the Second's reign had pensions, when -all the world knows that it was one of the faults of that reign that -none of the politer arts were then encouraged. Butler was starved at the -same time that the king had his book in his pocket. Another great wit -[Wycherley] lay seven years in prison for an inconsiderable debt, and -Otway dared not to show his head for fear of the same fate.--DENNIS. - -[229] "The young lords who had wit in the court of Charles II. were," -says Dennis, "Villiers Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Mulgrave, -afterwards Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, Lord Buckhurst afterwards Earl -of Dorset, the Marquess of Halifax, the Earl of Rochester, Lord Vaughan, -and several others." The jilts who ruled the state were the mistresses -of the king. The Duke of Buckingham and his Rehearsal are chiefly aimed -at in the expression "statesmen farces writ."--CROKER. - -[230] Pepys, under the date of June 12, 1663, notices that wearing masks -at the theatre had "of late become a great fashion among the ladies." -Cibber states that the immorality of the plays was the cause of the -usage. When he wrote in 1739 the custom had been abolished for many -years in consequence of the ill effects which attended it. - -[231] He must mean in everyday life. There was no use for the "modest -fan" at the theatre after the ladies had adopted the more effectual plan -of wearing masks. Pope, ver. 535, ascribes the introduction of -"obscenity" to the Restoration. In the theatre the grossness was a -legacy from the older drama, and particularly from the plays of Beaumont -and Fletcher, which were the most popular pieces on the stage. - -[232] The author has omitted two lines which stood here as containing a -national reflection, which in his stricter judgment he could not but -disapprove, on any people whatever.--POPE. - -The cancelled couplet was as follows: - - Then first the Belgian morals were extolled, - We their religion had, and they our gold. - -This sneer was dictated by the poet's dislike to William III. and the -Dutch, for displacing the popish king James II.--CROKER. - -This ingenious and religious author seems to have had two particular -antipathies--one to grammatical and verbal criticism, the other to false -doctrine and heresy. To the first we may ascribe his treating Bentley, -Burman, Kuster, and Wasse with a contempt which recoiled upon himself. -To the second we will impute his pious zeal against those divines of -king William, whom he supposed to be infected with the infidel, or the -socinian, or the latitudinarian spirit, and not so orthodox as himself, -and his friends Swift, Bolingbroke, etc. Thus he laid about him, and -censured men of whose literary, or of whose theological merits or -defects, he was no more a judge than his footman John Searle.--DR. -JORTIN. - -[233] Jortin asserted that by the "unbelieving priests" Pope alluded to -Burnet. If Jortin is right, the passage was not satire but falsehood. -That there was, however, much infidelity and socinianism during the -reign of William III. is proved by an address of the House of Commons to -the king, quoted by Bowles, "beseeching his majesty to give effectual -orders for suppressing all pernicious books and pamphlets which -contained impious doctrines against the Holy Trinity, and other -fundamental articles of the protestant faith, tending to the subversion -of the christian religion." This address was presented in February 1698. - -[234] In this line he had Kennet in view, who was accused of having -said, in a funeral sermon on some nobleman, that converted sinners, if -they were men of parts, repented more speedily and effectually than dull -rascals.--JORTIN. - -[235] The published sermons of the reign of William III. do not answer -to this description, which is certainly a calumny. - -[236] So Lucretius, iv. 333: - - Lurida praeterea fiunt quaecunque tuentur - Arquati. - - Besides, whatever jaundice-eyes do view, - Looks pale as well as those, and yellow too.--Creech. - -This notion of the transfusion of the colour to the object from a -jaundiced eye, though current in all our authors, is, I believe, a mere -vulgar error.--WAKEFIELD. - -It is still a disputed point whether jaundice ever affects the eye in a -degree to permit only the passage of the yellow rays. The instances are -at least very rare; but popular belief is a sufficient ground for a -poetical comparison. Pope had just exemplified his simile; for -everything looked yellow to him in the reign of William III. - -[237] In the first edition, - - Speak when you're sure, yet speak with diffidence. - -Dennis objected that a man when sure should speak "with a modest -assurance," and Pope wrote on the margin of the manuscript, "Dennis, p. -21. Alter the inconsistency." - -Pope's maxim was commended by Franklin. He found that his overbearing, -dictatorial manner roused needless opposition, and he resolved never "to -use a word that imported a fixed opinion," but he employed instead the -qualifying phrases, "I conceive," "I imagine," or "it so appears to me -at present." "To this," he says, "after my character of integrity, I -think it principally owing that I had early so much weight with my -fellow citizens when I proposed new institutions or alterations in the -old; for I was but a bad speaker, subject to much hesitation, and yet I -generally carried my point." He admits that his humility was feigned. -Had it been real there would have been no need for "I conceive," "I -imagine," which are implied without a tiresome, superfluous repetition. -Unless the dogmatism is in the mind opinions have not the tone of -decrees. - -[238] Warton praises Pope for practising the precept in correcting the -poems of Wycherley, and condemned Wycherley for ungenerously resenting -the candour of his critic. Bowles extenuates the conduct of Wycherley, -and says that "the superannuated bard" bore the corrections with "great -temper till Pope seriously advised him to turn the whole into prose." -Warton and Bowles were deceived by the printed correspondence of Pope -and Wycherley, and were not aware that the letters were garbled in the -very particulars which relate to the cause of the quarrel,--a quarrel so -discreditable to Pope that he had recourse to forgery to shield himself -and throw the blame upon Wycherley. It is certain that "the -superannuated bard" did not take offence at the advice to turn his works -into prose, and there is no reason to doubt the contemporaneous report -that his anger arose from discovering that Pope, while professing -unlimited friendship, had made him the subject of some satirical verses. - -[239] This picture was taken to himself by John Dennis, a furious old -critic by profession, who, upon no other provocation, wrote against this -Essay and its author in a manner perfectly lunatic: for, as to the -mention made of him in ver. 270, he took it as a compliment, and said it -was treacherously meant to cause him to overlook this abuse of his -person.--POPE. - -Pope's acrimonious note on his early antagonist first appeared in the -edition of 1743, when Dennis had been some years dead. "His book against -me," the poet wrote to Caryll, Nov. 19, 1712, "made me very heartily -merry in two minutes' time," and here we find him still smarting with -resentment after thirty years and upwards had gone by, and his enemy was -in the grave. The original reading in the manuscript of ver. 585 was -"But D---- reddens." The substituted name is taken from Dennis's tragedy -of "Appius and Virginia," which appeared in 1709. The stare was one of -his characteristics. "He starts, stares, and looks round him at every -jerk of his person forward," says Sir Richard Steele, when describing -his walk. The "tremendous" was not only a sarcasm on his appearance, but -on his partiality for the epithet, which was an old topic of ridicule. -"If," said Gildon, in 1702, "there is anything of tragedy in the piece, -it lies in the word 'tremendous,' for he is so fond of it he had rather -use it in every page than slay his beloved Iphigenia." Gay, in 1712, -jeeringly dedicated his Mohocks to Mr. D[ennis], and assigned, among the -reasons for the selection, that his theme was "horrid and tremendous." - -[240] This thought occurs also in Donne's fourth Satire, which our poet -has modernised: - - And though his face be as ill - As theirs, which in old hangings whip Christ, still - He strives to look worse.--WAKEFIELD. - -[241] It may not be known to every reader that noblemen and the sons of -noblemen are admitted of course at our universities to the degree of -M.A., after keeping the terms of two years.--WAKEFIELD. - -The privilege is now abolished. - -[242] If Cibber was the dull fellow Pope would have had him thought, no -conduct could have been more proper towards him than that which Pope -here recommends. Pope seems to have anticipated Colley's subsequent -resolution "to write as long" as Pope "could rail."--BOWLES. - -[243] Duke of Buckingham's Essay on Satire, - - But who can rail so long as he can sleep? - -[244] Pope may have derived this comparison from the "Epilogue, written -by a person of honour," to Dryden's Secret Love: - - But t'other day I heard this rhyming fop - Say critics were the whips, and he the top: - For as a top spins best the more you baste her, - So ev'ry lash you give, he writes the faster, - -The author of the Epilogue was more exact than Pope, whose application -of the simile is inaccurate, for the top is in full spin when it is -popularly said to be asleep. - -[245] Dryden's Aurengzebe: - - The dregs and droppings of enervate love.--STEEVENS. - -It has been suggested that he alludes to Wycherley.--WARTON. - -Whom else could the lines suit at that period, when Pope says, "Such -bards we _have_?" If Wycherley was intended, what must we think of Pope, -who could wound, in this manner, his old friend, for whom he professed -so much kindness, and who first introduced him to notice and -patronage.--BOWLES. - -The application was too obvious for Pope to have ventured on the lines -unless he had designed to expose his former ally. The original reading -of ver. 610 in the manuscript was, - - But if incorrigible bards we view, - Know there are mad, &c. - -And the alteration turned an unappropriated description into a -particular censure on living men. Wycherley would be the last person to -detect the likeness, and relaxing, some months after the Essay appeared, -in his indignation against Pope, "he praised the poem," according to a -letter of Cromwell, dated Oct. 26, 1711, but which rests on the -authority of Pope alone. - -[246] In allusion to this class of pedants Gray said, "Learning never -should be encouraged; it only draws out fools from their obscurity." - -[247] A common slander at that time in prejudice of that deserving -author. Our poet did him this justice, when that slander most prevailed; -and it is now (perhaps the sooner for this very verse) dead and -forgotten.--POPE. - -The accusation from which he defended Garth was brought against Pope -himself. "This poem," says Johnson, of Cooper's Hill, "had such -reputation as to excite the common artifice by which envy degrades -excellence. A report was spread that the performance was not Denham's -own, but that he had bought it of a vicar for forty pounds. The same -attempt was made to rob Addison of his Cato and Pope of his Essay on -Criticism." The story told was that Wycherley sent the Essay to Pope for -his revision, and that Pope published it as his own. Authors are not the -only persons who are exposed to such calumnies. The victories of a great -general are almost invariably imputed to some subordinate officer, and -it was long a favourite theory of the malignant that Napoleon owed his -successes to Berthier, and the Duke of Wellington to Sir George Murray. - -[248] There is an ellipse of "that" after "sacred," and of "it" after -"fops," or the line is not English, and when the omitted words are -supplied the inversion is intolerable. - -[249] The propriety of the specification in this proverbial remark is -founded on a circumstance no longer existing in our poet's time, and -derived, therefore, by him from older writers. "In the reigns of James -I. and Charles I.," says Pennant, "the body of St. Paul's cathedral was -the common resort of the politicians, the newsmongers, and the idle in -general. It was called Paul's Walk, and the frequenters known by the -name of Paul's walkers."--WAKEFIELD. - -[250] Between this and ver. 624-- - - In vain you shrug and sweat and strive to fly: - These know no manners but in poetry. - They'll stop a hungry chaplain in his grace, - To treat of unities of time and place.--POPE. - -[251] This stroke of satire is literally taken from Boileau: - - Gardez-vous d'imiter ce rimeur furieux, - Qui, de ses vains ecrits, lecteur harmonieux, - Aborde en recitant quiconque le salue, - Et poursuit de ses vers les passants dans la rue. - Il n'est temple si saint, des anges respecte, - Qui soit contre sa muse un lieu de surete. - -Which lines allude to the impertinence of a French poet called Du -Perrier, who finding Boileau one day at church, insisted upon repeating -to him an ode during the elevation of the host.--WARTON. - -Boileau tells the incident of an individual poetaster. Pope generalises -the exceptional trait, and represents it to have been the usual practice -of foppish critics to talk criticism at the altar. The probability is -that he had never known an instance. The line "For fools rush in," is -certainly fashioned, says Bishop Hurd, on Shakespeare, Richard iii. Act -1, Sc. 3: - - Wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch. - -[252] Virgil, Geo. iv. 194: - - Excursusque breves tentant. - Nor forage far, but short excursions make. Dryden.--WAKEFIELD. - -[253] "Humanly" is improperly put for humanely. The only authorised -sense of the former is belonging to man; of the latter, kindly, -compassionately.--DR. GEORGE CAMPBELL. - -[254] "Love to praise" means "a love of bestowing praise," but, as -Wakefield says, it is an "obscure expression, and repugnant to usage." - -[255] This is followed by two additional lines in the manuscript: - - Such did of old poetic laws impart, - And what till then was fury turned to art. - -[256] Between ver. 646 and 647, I have found the following lines, since -suppressed by the author: - - That bold Columbus of the realms of wit, - Whose first discovery's not exceeded yet. - Led by the light of the Maeonian star, - He steered securely, and discovered far. - He, when all nature was subdued before, - Like his great pupil, sighed and longed for more; - Fancy's wild regions yet unvanquished lay, - A boundless empire, and that owned no sway. - Poets, &c.--WARBURTON. - -[257] Dr. Knightly Chetwood to Lord Roscommon: - - Hoist sail, bold writers! search, discover far; - You have a compass for a polar star.--WAKEFIELD. - -[258] After ver. 648, in the first edition, came this couplet: - - Not only nature did his laws obey, - But fancy's boundless empire owned his sway. - -Dennis denied that nature obeyed the laws of Aristotle. "The laws of -nature," he said, "are unalterable but by God himself." Pope's language -is inaccurate. - -[259] The obvious interpretation of this passage would be that poets, -Homer excepted, indulged in "savage liberty" till they were restrained -by the laws of Aristotle, which is inconsistent with ver. 92-99, where -Pope says that the Greek critics framed their laws from the practice of -the poets. - -[260] He presided over wit by his Rhetoric and Poetics, and gave proofs -by his Physics that he had "conquered nature." Pope's panegyric on the -dominion exercised by Aristotle is far inferior to Dryden's celebration -of the deliverance from it. - - The longest tyranny that ever swayed - Was that wherein our ancestors betrayed - Their free-born reason to the Stagyrite, - And made his torch their universal light. - Had we still paid that homage to a name, - Which only God and nature justly claim, - The western seas had been our utmost bound, - Where poets still might dream the sun was drowned, - And all the stars that shine in southern skies - Had been admired by none but savage eyes. - -[261] Oldham-- - - Each strain a graceful negligence does wear.--WAKEFIELD. - -[262] "Before he goes ten lines further," said Dennis, "he forgets -himself, and commends Longinus for the very contrary quality for which -he commended Horace. He commends Horace for judging coolly in verse, and -extols Longinus for criticising with fire in prose." With very little -faith in the traits he had ascribed to Horace, Pope was tempted in the -manuscript to reverse the characteristic, and write - - He judged with spirit as he sung with fire. - -He subsequently affixed to the original reading the note, "Not to be -altered. Horace judged with coolness as Longinus with fire." - -[263] Dennis notices that this couplet is borrowed from Roscommon's -Essay on Translated Verse: - - Thus make the proper use of each extreme, - And write with fury, but correct with phlegm. - -[264] In all Pope's works there cannot be found a couplet so paltry and -impertinent as this.--WAKEFIELD. - -The construction of the last line is deplorably faulty. "Horace does not -suffer more by wits than he suffers by critics" is Pope's meaning, but -interpreted by his language, he would be read as asserting that Horace -did not suffer more by wrong translations than critics suffered by wrong -quotations. - -[265] Dionysius of Halicarnassus.--POPE. - -These prosaic lines, this spiritless eulogy, are much below the merit of -the critic whom they are intended to celebrate.--WARTON. - -A most meagre account of a very excellent and judicious critic. But what -can we expect when men overstep the limit of their enquiries, and rush -in where learning has not authorised them to tread.--WAKEFIELD. - -The lines first appeared in the second edition. In a pretended letter to -Addison, dated October 10, 1714, Pope speaks of having found a -particular remark in one of the treatises of the Greek critic, but he -had probably never looked into the original when this couplet was -written, and seems to have falsely inferred from chance quotations that -the comments upon Homer were the special characteristic of the works of -Dionysius. Pope was indebted for the leading phrase in his couplet to a -passage of Rochester, quoted by Wakefield: - - Compare each phrase, examine ev'ry line, - Weigh ev'ry word, and ev'ry thought refine. - -[266] This dissolute and effeminate writer little deserved a place among -good critics for only two or three pages on the subject of -criticism.--WARTON. - -It is to be suspected that Pope had never read Petronius, and mentioned -him on the credit of two or three sentences which he had often seen -quoted, imagining that where there was so much, there must necessarily -be more. Young men, in haste to be renowned, too frequently talk of -books which they have scarcely seen.--JOHNSON. - -If Pope had been acquainted with the general tenor of the fragments -which remain of Petronius, he would not have celebrated the most corrupt -and disgusting writer of antiquity for an unalloyed combination of -charming qualities. - -[267] To commend Quintilian barely for his method, and to insist merely -on this excellence, is below the merit of one of the most rational and -elegant of Roman writers. Considering the nature of Quintilian's -subject, he afforded copious matter for a more appropriate and poetical -character. No author ever adorned a scientifical treatise with so many -beautiful metaphors.--WARTON. - -[268] In the early editions, - - Nor thus alone the curious eye to please, - But to be found, when need requires, with ease. - -[269] - - The Muses sure Longinus did inspire.--POPE. - -The taste and sensibility of Longinus were exquisite; but his -observations are too general, and his method too loose. The precision of -the true philosophical critic is lost in the declamation of the florid -rhetorician. Instead of showing for what reason a sentiment or image is -sublime, and discovering the secret power by which they affect a reader -with pleasure, he is ever intent on producing something sublime himself, -and strokes of his own eloquence.--WARTON. - -[270] This verse is ungrammatical. With respect to the thought, Boileau, -whose translation of Longinus our poet had most probably read, has said, -in his preface to that work, exactly the same thing: "Souvent il fait la -figure qu'il enseigne; et, en parlant du sublime, il est lui-meme -tres-sublime." Pope's couplet seems indebted also to the Prologue of -Dryden's Tempest, speaking of Shakespeare: - - He, monarch-like, gave those his subjects law; - And is that nature, which they paint and draw.--WAKEFIELD. - -Wakefield calls ver. 680 "ungrammatical," because, literally construed, -it reads, "And whose own example is himself, etc." - -[271] "Felt" is a flat, insipid word in this place.--WAKEFIELD. - -[272] "Rome," as invariably pronounced by Pope's contemporaries had the -same sound with "doom," and the pronunciation is not quite obsolete in -our own time among persons who were born in the last century. In the -previous part of the poem he had made Rome rhyme to "dome," which itself -was often pronounced like "doom." - -[273] "The superstition of some ages after the subversion of the Roman -Empire," wrote Pope to Caryll, July 19, 1711, "is too manifest a truth -to be denied, and does in no sort reflect upon the present catholics, -who are free from it. Our silence on these points may, with some reason, -make our adversaries think we allow and persist in those bigotries, -which in reality all good and sensible men despise, though they are -persuaded not to speak against them." Most of Pope's associates were men -of letters or men of the world, and he could know little of the spirit -of the church to which he nominally belonged, when he was simple enough -to believe that the Romanists of his day would sanction a sweeping -denunciation of the ignorance and superstition of the monks. - -[274] - - All was believed, but nothing understood.--POPE. - -[275] Between ver. 690 and 691, the author omitted these two: - - Vain wits and critics were no more allowed, - When none but saints had licence to be proud.--POPE. - -[276] Here he forms the tenses wrong.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope told Caryll that he did not speak in this couplet "of learning in -general, but of polite learning,--criticism, poetry, etc.--which was the -only learning concerned in the subject of the Essay." He at the same -time confessed his belief that the learning which the monks possessed -"was barely kept alive by them." The explanation would not contribute to -conciliate the offended catholics. - -[277] The "glory" from his own greatness, the "shame" from the rancour -with which some of his brother priests assailed him.--CROKER. - -Oldham in his Satire: - - On Butler, who can think without just rage, - The glory and the scandal of the age.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope avowed his conviction to Caryll that the priests had openly accused -him of heterodoxy in other passages of his poem, because they were -secretly exasperated at his eulogy upon Erasmus. "What in their own -opinion," he said, "they are really angry at is that a man whom their -tribe oppressed and persecuted should be vindicated after a whole age of -obloquy by one of their own people, who is free and bold enough to utter -a generous truth in behalf of the dead, whom no man sure will flatter, -and few do justice to." - -[278] If the restoration of learning consisted in recovering the works -and reviving the spirit of the ancients, it had been in a great degree -accomplished before the time of Erasmus.--ROSCOE. - -[279] Genius is here personified, and this person is said by Pope to -have been "spread over the ruins of Rome." The poet has evidently mixed -up genius considered as a quality of the remains of antiquity with -genius considered as a presiding being. - -[280] For the expression in the last half of this verse, Wakefield -quotes Addison on sculpture in the letter from Italy, - - Or teach their animated rocks to live. - -And for the expression in the first half, he quotes Dryden's Religio -Laici: - - Or various atoms, interfering dance, - Leaped into form. - -Wakefield ascribes the origin of the phrase to the fable that the stones -of Thebes moved into their places at the music of Amphion, and it is -thus used by Waller in his poem upon his Majesty's Repairing of St. -Paul's: - - He like Amphion makes those quarries leap - Into fair figures from a confused heap. - -[281] Leo was not only an admirer of music, but a skilful performer, and -we are informed by Pietro Aaron that "though he had acquired a -consummate knowledge in most arts and sciences, he seemed to love, -encourage, and exalt music more than any other." To sacred music he paid -a more particular attention, and sought throughout Europe for the most -celebrated performers, both vocal and instrumental.--ROSCOE. - -[282] M. Hieronymus Vida, an excellent Latin poet, who writ an Art of -Poetry in verse. He flourished in the time of Leo X.--POPE. - -But Vida was by no means the most celebrated poet that adorned the age -of Leo X. His merits seem not to have been particularly attended to in -England till Pope had bestowed this commendation upon him, although the -Poetics had been correctly published at Oxford by Basil Kennet some time -before. They are perhaps the most perfect of his compositions; they are -excellently translated by Pitt.--WARTON. - -[283] "The ancients," says the writer of the Supplement to the Profound, -"always gave ivy to the poets, as may appear from numberless places in -the classics, nor was it ever applied to patrons or critics, in -contradistinction to poets, by any but this ingenious author." - -[284] Alluding to - - "Mantua, vae miserae, nimium vicina Cremonae." Virg.--WARBURTON. - -This application is made in Kennet's edition of Vida.--WARTON. - -To say that the birth-place of Vida would be next in fame to the -birth-place of Virgil was to rank him before all the other poets that -Italy had produced--before Dante, Petrarch, Tasso, and Ariosto. The -antithesis is marred by its want of truth. - -[285] This, Warburton says, refers to the sack of Rome by the Duke of -Bourbon, which Pope assumed had driven poetry out of Italy. The assigned -cause is inadequate to account for the effect. - -[286] The "born to serve" is a sarcasm on the readiness with which the -French submitted to the despotism of Louis XIV. - -[287] May I be pardoned for declaring it as my opinion, that Boileau's -is the best Art of Poetry extant? The brevity of his precepts, the -justness of his metaphors, the harmony of his numbers, as far as -Alexandrine lines will admit, the exactness of his method, the -perspicacity of his remarks, and the energy of his style, all duly -considered, may render this opinion not unreasonable. It is scarcely to -be conceived, how much is comprehended in four short cantos. He that has -well digested these, cannot be said to be ignorant of any important rule -of poetry.--WARTON. - -Boileau is said by Pope to sway in right of Horace because the Frenchman -avowed that he based his Art of Poetry on that of the Roman. The English -poet has been indebted to both. - -[288] The comparison fails. The Romans of old subdued the Britons, and -ruled over them for centuries. - -[289] Essay on Poetry, by the Duke of Buckingham. Our poet is not the -only one of his time who complimented this Essay and its noble author. -Mr. Dryden had done it very largely in the Dedication to his Translation -of the AEneid; and Dr. Garth, in the first edition of his Dispensary, -says: - - The Tyber now no courtly Gallus sees, - But smiling Thames enjoys his Normanbys; - -though afterwards omitted, when parties were carried so high in the -reign of Queen Anne, as to allow no commendation to an opposite in -politics. The duke was all his life a steady adherent to the church of -England party, yet an enemy to the extravagant measures of the court in -the reign of Charles II. On which account, after having strongly -patronized Mr. Dryden, a coolness succeeded between them on that poet's -absolute attachment to the court, which carried him some length beyond -what the duke could approve of. This nobleman's true character had been -very well marked by Mr. Dryden before: - - The muse's friend, - Himself a muse. In Sanadrin's debate - True to his prince, but not a slave of state. - Abs. and Achit. - -Our author was more happy; he was honoured very young with his -friendship, and it continued till his death in all the circumstances of -a familiar esteem.--POPE. - -The Duke of Buckingham, in his Essay, has followed the method of -Boileau, in discoursing on the various species of poetry in their -different gradations, to no other purpose than to manifest his own -inferiority. His reputation was owing to his rank. In reading his poems -one is apt to exclaim with our author, "What woeful stuff this madrigal -would be," &c.--WARTON. - -Pope must have been well aware that, amongst all the poetic triflers of -the day, there was not one more ripe for the Dunciad. The fact, I fear, -is that Pope admired him, in spite of his verses, as a man rich and -prosperous.--DE QUINCEY. - -The couplet in which the duke is mentioned was first inserted in the -quarto of 1717, and the note on him in the edition of 1743. In the -original manuscript Pope had made the same character serve for him and -Lord Roscommon: - - Such learn'd and modest, not more great than good, - With manners gen'rous as his noble blood, - E'er saints impatient snatched him to the sky, - Roscommon was, and such is Normanby. - -[290] An Essay on translated Verse seems, at first sight, to be a barren -subject; yet Roscommon has decorated it with many precepts of utility -and taste. It is indisputably better written, in a closer and more -vigorous style, than the last-mentioned essay.--WARTON. - -When Warton wrote, some traditional reputation still lingered round the -poems of Roscommon. His feeble platitudes are now forgotten. - -[291] Rochester's Poems: - - to her was known - Every one's fault or merit but her own.--CUNNINGHAM. - -[292] Walsh was in general a flimsy and frigid writer. The Rambler calls -his works pages of inanity. His three letters to Pope, however, are well -written. His remarks on the nature of pastoral poetry, on borrowing from -the ancients, and against florid conceits, are worthy perusal.--WARTON. - -In the manuscript, the eulogy on Walsh was at first somewhat different: - - Such late was Walsh--nor can'st thou, Muse, offend, - Next these to name the Muse's judge and friend; - Who free from envious censure, partial praise, - Showed ancient candour in malicious days - To frailties mild, &c. - -The Muse did offend notwithstanding. After speaking of the irritation he -excited by his commendations of Erasmus, Pope thus continued in his -letter to Caryll of July 19, 1711:--"Others, you know, were as angry -that I mentioned Mr. Walsh with honour, who as he never refused to any -one of merit of any party the praise due to him, so honestly deserved it -from all others of never so different interests or sentiments." The -objections seem to have come from the Roman Catholics, and to have been -made on religious or political grounds, from which it may be inferred -that Walsh was an active opponent of the exiled family. Neither the -laudation of Dryden, who said he was "the best critic of our nation," -nor the poetical tribute of Pope, could do more than preserve the bare -name of an author whose literary qualifications were of the most trivial -kind. Dennis, who was acquainted with him, and who admits that he was an -indifferent poet, adds that "he was learned, candid and judicious, and a -man of a very good understanding in spite of his being a beau." He was a -country gentlemen of fortune, and a member of parliament, which were the -principal circumstances that conferred lustre upon his small talents in -the eyes of the wits. - -[293] Pope fell into the prevalent vice of uttering extravagant, -insincere compliments; for it is impossible to believe that he "no more -attempted to rise" in verse because he had lost the guidance of Walsh. -The guide had not done much towards directing Pope's flight, and -"teaching him to sing." The Pastorals were his only work, antecedent to -the Essay on Criticism, which had a nominal originality, and three of -these Pastorals were written before he and Walsh were acquainted. - -[294] The hint for the first verse in this couplet seems to have been -supplied by Dryden's conclusion of the Religio Laici: - - Yet neither praise expect, nor censure fear. - -The second verse of the couplet seems to be an adaptation of a line in -Prior's Henry and Emma: - - Joyful to live yet not afraid to die. - -[295] These concluding lines bear a great resemblance to Boileau's -conclusion of his Art of Poetry, but are perhaps superior: - - Censeur un peu facheux, mais souvent necessaire; - Plus enclin a blamer, que savant a bien faire.--WARTON. - -[296] By Bishop Hurd. - -[297] Warburton's remarks on the quotation from Addison's paper in the -Spectator, originally ran thus: "Whereas nothing can be more unlike, in -this respect, than these two poems--the Essay on Criticism having, as we -shall show, all the regularity that method can demand, and the Art of -Poetry all the looseness and inconnection that a familiar conversation -would indulge. Neither, were it otherwise, would this excellent author's -observation excuse our poet, who, writing in the formal way of a -discourse, was obliged to observe the method of such compositions, while -Horace in an easy epistle needed no apology for want of it. For it is -the nature of the composition that makes method proper or unnecessary." -The passage was altered out of compliment to the commentary of his -friend Hurd on the Art of Poetry, and Warburton, who had previously -contended that method was needless in Horace, now maintained that there -was no "prerogative in verse to dispense with regularity." It was common -with him to regulate his critical opinions by his personal partialities -or aversions. - -[298] The author of this work, in which some of Warburton's opinions -were attacked, was John Gilbert Cooper. He was a vain man, with a slight -tincture of learning, and very small abilities. Burke called him an -insufferable coxcomb. - -[299] Upton published Critical Observations upon Shakespeare, and says -that he offended Warburton by omitting to mention him. After Warburton -had attacked him Upton retaliated. - -[300] When Warburton published his Shakespeare in 1747, Edwards exposed, -in his Canons of Criticism, the dogmatism and absurdity of many of the -comments and conjectures. His book was unanswerable, and Warburton was -reduced to display his spleen in such sneers as the present. - -[301] The work which Warburton vaunts as the only honest piece of modern -criticism, was by his friend and flatterer Hurd. Personal partiality -might excuse the undue exaltation of a feeble production, but is no -apology for calumniating men who were quite as candid and far more able. - -[302] The objector was Warton. He justly intimated that the character -which Pope had given of Petronius, conveyed an erroneous idea of the -nature of his writings. - -[303] Dennis's Remarks on the Rape of the Lock were written in 1714, and -published in 1728. "To cure the little gentleman of his wretched -conceitedness, by giving him a view of his ignorance, his folly, and his -natural impotence," Dennis, in 1717, brought out a critical pamphlet on -three of his works, and kept back the exposure of the Rape of the Lock -"_in terrorem_, which had so good an effect, that the author endeavoured -for a time to counterfeit humility, and a sincere repentance, but no -sooner did he believe that time had caused these things to be forgot, -than he relapsed into ten times the folly and the madness that ever he -had shown before." The fresh provocation was the Dunciad, and the -treatise on the Profound, and poor Dennis printed his awe-inspiring -Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, to give "the little gentleman" another -lesson in humility. - -[304] Joseph Warton. - -[305] In his Observations on the Poetic character of Pope, Bowles -reiterates that the Rape of the Lock is "a composition to which it will -be in vain to compare anything of the kind,--that it stands alone, -unrivalled, and possibly never to be rivalled." "The Muse," he adds, -"has no longer her great characteristic attributes, pathos or sublimity; -but she appears so interesting that we almost doubt whether the garb of -elegant refinement is not as captivating, as the most beautiful -appearances of nature." - -[306] "The small edition of Pope," writes Warburton to Hurd, June 30, -1753, "is the correctest of all; and I was willing you should always see -the best of me." Warburton refers to his 12mo. ed. 1753, and in this -corrected edition Pope's initial is omitted. - -[307] Rape of the Lock, cant. i. ver. 3; Singer's Spence, p. 147. - -[308] Johnson's Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, vol. iii., p. 19; -Boswell's Life of Johnson, I vol. ed., p. 462. Johnson's conversation -with the Abbess took place in 1775. "She knew Pope, and thought him -disagreeable." - -[309] Warburton's Pope, ed. 1760, vol. iv. p. 27. - -[310] Pope's Poetical Works, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 327. Pope told Spence -that he gave the advice, but this was a false pretence. He may have had -a two-fold motive for the misrepresentation,--first, the wish to exalt -his critical perspicacity, since it was then acknowledged that Cato was -unfitted for the stage, and had owed its success to party passion; -secondly, the desire of appearing to have adopted a manly tone towards -Addison in the infancy of their acquaintance. - -[311] Macaulay's Essays, 1 vol. ed., p. 717. - -[312] "In mock heroic poems," said Addison, Spectator, No. 523, "the use -of the heathen mythology is not only excusable but graceful, because it -is the design of such compositions to divert by adapting the fabulous -machines of the ancients to low subjects, and at the same time by -ridiculing such kinds of machinery in modern writers." Pope's projected -machinery was not to be burlesque, and did not come under Addison's -exception. - -[313] Warburton's Pope, vol. iv. p. 26. - -[314] Dennis's Remarks on Pope's Rape of the Lock, preface, p. ix.; -Dennis's Remarks upon the Dunciad, p. 41; Pope's Correspondence, ed. -Elwin, vol. i. p. 398, note. - -[315] Pope's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 400. The disclaimer of Addison -is in a letter which he directed Steele to write to Lintot. Steele says -that the pamphlet "was offered to be communicated" to Addison before it -was published, and Dennis concluded that the offer came from Pope. It -doubtless came from the bookseller, for Pope was anxious to preserve his -incognito. He assured Cromwell and Caryll, that he was not the author, -and to have avowed the satire would have betrayed his double-dealing to -Lintot, and proclaimed to the public that the rancour towards Dennis was -dictated by revenge. When the Narrative of Dennis's Frenzy was offered -to Addison, he answered, that "he could not in honour and conscience be -privy to such treatment, and was sorry to hear of it." If this reply was -communicated to Pope, zeal for Addison could not be the motive for -persevering in a publication which was thoroughly distasteful to him, -let alone the absurdity of the supposition that Addison's interests -could have weighed with the person who had instigated the attack. -Accordingly, Pope in his pamphlet scoffed at Dennis, but did not reply -to his criticisms upon Cato. - -[316] Pope's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 398. - -[317] Spence, p. 35. - -[318] Spence, p. 178. - -[319] De Quincey's Works, vol. vii. p. 66; xv. p. 98. - -[320] De Quincey's Works, vol. xv. p. 116. - -[321] Hazlitt's Lectures on the English Poets, 3rd ed., p. 140. - -[322] Remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock, p. 27. - -[323] Ruffhead's Life of Pope, p. 113. - -[324] Dennis's Remarks, p. 24. - -[325] Dennis's Remarks, p. 40. - -[326] Dennis's Remarks, p. 8, 9. - -[327] A fragment of Pope's writing has been cut away by the binder, and -the words in brackets are conjectural. - -[328] Dennis's Remarks, Preface, p. v. vii. - -[329] Memoirs of Wordsworth, vol. ii. p. 221. - -[330] Cowper's Works, ed. Southey, 1854, vol. i. p. 313. - -[331] Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, ed. 1847, vol. i. p. 39. - -[332] Cowper's Works, vol. ii. p. 399. - -[333] Dennis's Remarks, p. 33, 47. - -[334] Lives of the Poets, vol. i. p. 74. - -[335] Historical Rhapsody on Mr. Pope, 2nd ed., p. 89. - -[336] Lectures on the British Poets, by Henry Reed. Philadelphia, 1857, -vol. i. p. 314. - -[337] De Quincey's Works, vol. xii. p. 17. - -[338] Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii. sc. 1. - -[339] Moore's Life of Byron, 1 vol. ed., p. 695. - -[340] Bowles's Pope, vol. x. p. 364. - -[341] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 696. - -[342] Bowles's Pope, vol. x. p. 363; Bowles's Letters to Campbell, 2nd -ed., p. 22 - -[343] Campbell's Specimens of British Poets, 1 vol. ed., p. lxxxvii. - -[344] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 693. - -[345] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 693. - -[346] Lectures on the English Poets, p. 389. - -[347] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 694. - -[348] Moore's Life of Byron, p. 697. - -[349] Bowles's Pope, vol. x. p. 371. - -[350] Warburton's Pope, vol. iv. p. 16. - -[351] Warton's Essay on the Genius of Pope, 5th ed., vol. ii. p. 404; -Bowles's Letters to T. Campbell, 2nd ed., p. 28. - -[352] Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. p. 116; Cowper to Unwin, -Jan. 5, 1782. - -[353] Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. p. 137; Hazlitt's Lectures -on the English Poets, p. 133. - -[354] Byron's Works, 1 vol. ed., p. 804. - -[355] Memoirs of Wordsworth, vol. ii. p. 215, 225, 470. - -[356] Lectures on the English Poets, p. 137. - -[357] Pope's Poetical Works, vol. i. p. 4. - -[358] Prologue to the Satires, ver. 28, 342; Essay on Man, Ep. i. ver. -16. - -[359] Hurd's Horace, 5th ed., vol. iii. p. 148. - -[360] Memoirs of Wordsworth, vol. i. p. 339, 342. - -[361] The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, chap. 3. - -[362] Advancement of Learning, ed. Montagu, p. 127. A sentence from the -passage is quoted by Hurd, who concludes that "pleasure in the idea of -Lord Bacon is the ultimate and appropriate end of poetry." Hurd could -not have looked into the original, and must have been deceived by -trusting to second-hand extracts. - -[363] Advancement of Learning, p. 127. - -[364] The Recluse, Book v. - -[365] The title of Mrs. continued in Pope's early time to be applied -indifferently to all grown up ladies, whether married or single. The -contracted form Miss was appropriated to young girls and women of loose -character. - -[366] Pope never, I think, is so unsuccessful as when he is writing to -the ladies. He talks of the impropriety of using hard words before a -lady. He must bring "her acquainted with the Rosicrucians," and explain -what is meant by "machinery." This is done with such an air of conceited -superiority, and of affected condescension, that it appears to me as -pedantic as the pedantry he pretended to despise. The latter part of the -epistle is certainly urbane, elegant and unaffected.--BOWLES. - -[367] C---- or C----l in all the impressions which appeared in Pope's -lifetime. "In this more solemn edition," Pope wrote to Caryll, Feb. 25, -1714, when the poem was about to be published in its enlarged shape, "I -was strangely tempted to have set your name at length, as well as I have -my own; but I remembered the desire you formerly expressed to the -contrary, besides that it may better become me to appear as the offerer -of an ill present, than you as the receiver of it." - -[368] Roscommon in his Essay: - - Or Gallus song, so tender and so true, - As e'en Lycoris might with pity view.--WAKEFIELD. - -[369] This is formed from Virgil, Geor. iv. 6. Sedley's version of the -passage imitated: - - The subject's humble, but not so the praise, - If any muse assists the poet's lays. - -Dryden's Translation: - - Slight is the subject, but the praise not small - If heav'n assist, and Phoebus hear my call.--WAKEFIELD. - -[370] "_Compel_," says Dennis, "is a botch for the sake of the rhyme. -The word that should naturally have been used was either _induce_ or -_provoke_." _Impel_ would have fitted both the rhyme and the sense. - -[371] "Belinda was Mrs. Arabella Fermor; the Baron was Lord Petre, of -small stature, who soon after married a great heiress, Mrs. Warmsley, -and died, leaving a posthumous son; Thalestris was Mrs. Morley; Sir -Plume was her brother, Sir George Brown, of Berkshire." Copied from a -MS. in a book presented by R. Lord Burlington, to Mr. William -Sherwin.--WARTON. - -All these persons were Roman Catholics. The marriage of Lord Petre to -Miss Warmsley took place in March, 1712, and he died the year after in -March, 1713, at the age of 22. Miss Fermor married Mr. Perkins, of Ufton -Court, near Reading, in 1714. Her husband died in 1736, and she herself -in 1738.--CROKER. - -[372] This passage is a palpable imitation of the exordium of the AEneis, -and particularly the last line. - - ----tantaene animis coelestibus irae? - - And dwell such passions in coelestial minds?--WAKEFIELD. - -It was in the first editions: - - And dwells such rage in softest bosoms then, - And lodge such daring souls in little men?--POPE. - -The second line of the rejected reading was from Addison's translation -of the fourth Georgic: - - Their little bodies lodge a mighty soul. - -Pope probably altered the couplet in consequence of an objection of the -author of the Supplement to the Profound, who remarked upon the mean -effect which resulted from throwing the rhyme upon "then;" "for the -rhyme," says Dr. Trapp, "draws out the sound of little and ignoble -words, and makes them observed." - -[373] By _timorous_ I understand _feeble_, from the medium through which -it passed.--WAKEFIELD. - -[374] Verse 13, &c., stood thus in the first edition: - - Sol through white curtains did his beams display, - And ope'd those eyes which brighter shine than they: - Shock just had giv'n himself the rousing shake, - And nymphs prepared their chocolate to take; - Thrice the wrought slipper knocked against the ground, - And striking watches the tenth hour resound.--POPE. - -[375] Belinda rung a hand-bell, which not being answered, she knocked -with her slipper. Bell-hanging was not introduced into our domestic -apartments till long after the date of the Rape of the Lock. There are -no bells at Hampton Court, nor were there any in the first quarter of -the present century at Chatsworth and Holkham. I myself, about the year -1790, remember that it was still the practice for ladies to summon their -attendants to their bedchambers by knocking with a high-heeled shoe. -Servants, too, were accustomed to wait in ante-rooms, whence they were -summoned by hand-bells, and this explains the extraordinary number of -such rooms in the houses of the last century.--CROKER. - -[376] All the verses from hence to the end of this canto were added -afterwards.--POPE. - -And, as Mr. Croker observes, Pope, in adding them, did not perceive that -he introduced an inconsistency. At ver. 14 Belinda is represented as -waking, and at ver. 20 we have her still sleeping. - -[377] The frequenters of the court appeared in clothes of unusual -splendour on the birth-day of King, Queen, Prince or Princess of Wales. -There are innumerable allusions in the writings of the time to the -magnificence of the dresses at the birth-night balls. - -[378] "The silver token" alludes to the silver pennies which fairies -were said to drop at night into the shoes of maids who kept the house -clean and tidy. "The circled green" refers to those rings of grass of a -deeper hue than the surrounding pasture, which were formerly believed to -be caused by the midnight dances "of airy elves." This was the lore -taught by the nurse. The priest infused the legends of "virgins visited -by angel-powers."--CROKER. - -[379] The drive in Hyde Park is still called the ring, though the site -and shape have been changed.--CROKER. - -The box at the theatre, and the ring in Hyde Park, are frequently -mentioned as the two principal places for the public display of beauty -and fashion. Thus Lord Dorset, in his lines on Lady Dorchester: - - Wilt thou still sparkle in the box - Or ogle in the ring. - -And Garth, in the Dispensary, speaking of a deceased young lady, says: - - How lately did this celebrated thing - Blaze in the box, and sparkle in the ring. - -[380] Epilogue to Dryden's Tyrannick Love: - - For after death we sprites have just such natures - We had, for all the world, when human creatures.--STEEVENS. - -[381] - - Quae gratia currum - Armorumque fuit vivis, quae cura nitentes - Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos. - Virg. AEneid, vi.--POPE. - -To Dryden's version of which passage our poet was indebted: - - The love of horses which they had alive, - And care of chariots, after death survive.--WAKEFIELD. - -[382] Dryden, AEn. i. 196: - - The realms of ocean and the fields of air.--WAKEFIELD. - -In Le Comte de Gabalis the salamanders who dwelt in fire, the nymphs who -peopled the seas and rivers, the gnomes who filled the earth almost to -the centre, and the sylphs who in countless multitudes floated in the -air, are said to be formed of the purest portion of the elements they -respectively inhabit. But their moral and mental natures are not, as in -the Rape of the Lock, the counter-part of their corporeal qualities, and -they are a race of beings distinct from man, and not deceased mortals, -as with Pope, who was indebted for this circumstance to the account of -the fairy train in Dryden's Flower and Leaf: - - And all those airy shapes you now behold - Were human bodies once, and clothed with earthly mould. - -[383] The idea and the phraseology are both from Paradise Lost, i. 423: - - For spirits when they please - Can either sex assume, or both.... - ... In what shape they choose, - Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, - Can execute their aery purposes, - And works of love or enmity fulfill. - -[384] Parody of Homer.--WARBURTON. - -Dryden, Hind and Panther, 3rd part: - - Immortal pow'rs the term of conscience know, - But int'rest is her name with men below.--HOLT WHITE. - -[385] That is, too sensible of their beauty.--WARBURTON. - -[386] The gnomes who prompt the disdain of the nymphs predestined to -disappointment.--CROKER. - -[387] - - Jam clypeus clypeis, umbone repellitur umbo. - Ense minax ensis, pede pes, et cuspide cuspis, &c. - Statius.--WARBURTON. - -To drive a coach has an exclusive technical meaning, which renders -Pope's phrase improper for expressing that the thought of a second coach -obliterates from the minds of belles the thought of a previous coach. - -[388] "Claim thy protection" signifies "I claim to be protected by -thee," whereas the sense here is, "I claim to protect thee." - -[389] The language of the Platonists, the writers of the intelligible -world of Spirits, &c.--POPE. - -[390] It cannot be that Belinda then saw for the first time a -billet-doux. The meaning no doubt is that a billet-doux was the first -thing she saw that morning.--CROKER. - -[391] Evidently from Addison's Spectator, No. 69, May, 1711. "The single -dress of a woman of quality is often the product of an hundred climates. -The muff and the fan come together from the different ends of the earth. -The scarf is sent from the torrid zone, and the tippet from beneath the -pole. The brocade petticoat arises out of the mines of Peru, and the -diamond necklace out of the bowels of Indostan."--WARTON. - -[392] Ancient traditions of the Rabbis relate, that several of the -fallen angels became amorous of women, and particularize some; among the -rest Asael, who lay with Naamah, the wife of Noah, or of Ham; and who, -continuing impenitent, still presides over the women's toilets. Bereshi -Rabbi, in Genes, vi. 2.--POPE. - -[393] A comparison pressed too far loses its beauty in departing from -truth. When Pope makes Belinda equal, in the glory of her appearance, to -the sun,--"the rival of his beams" who was "of this great world both eye -and soul," he falls into an insipid hyperbole. When Chaucer, in his -Knight's Tale, says, - - Up rose the sun, and up rose Emily, - -everyone feels the matchless charm of the allusion. - -[394] From hence the poem continues, in the first edition, to ver. 46: - - "The rest, the winds dispersed in empty air;" - -all after, to the end of this Canto, being additional.--POPE. - -[395] Wakefield remarks, that this line is marred by the abbreviation, -_you'll_, and he suggests that a better reading would be, - - Look on her face and _you_ forget them all. - -[396] Sandys's Paraphrase of the Song of Solomon, 1641: - - One hair of thine in fetters ties. - -Buchanan, Epigram, lib. i. xiv.: - - Et modo membra pilo vinctus miser abstrahoruno.--STEEVENS. - -Dryden's Persius, v. 247: - - She knows her man, and when you rant and swear, - Can draw you to her with a single hair. - -[397] An imitation, or a translation rather, of AEneid, ii. 390: - - ----dolus, an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?--WAKEFIELD. - -[398] Virgil, AEneid, xi. 798.--POPE. - -Dryden's Translation: - - Apollo heard, and granting half his pray'r, - Shuffled in winds the rest, and tossed in empty air. - -So Dryden's version of Ceyx & Alcyone, Ovid. _Met._ x.: - - This last petition heard of all her pray'r - The rest dispersed by winds were lost in air.--WAKEFIELD. - -[399] Dryden, AEn. vii. 10: - - the moon was bright - And the sea trembled with her silver light.--HOLT WHITE. - -Pope, says Wakefield, has put "tides" in the plural "merely to -accommodate the rhyme." The tides are the ebb and the flow, and cannot -be applied to only one of the two. - -[400] Dryden's Virgin Martyr: - - And music dying in remoter sounds.--STEEVENS. - -[401] A parody on the beginning of the second and tenth books of the -Iliad.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope's own translation of the commencement of the tenth book has a close -resemblance to the lines in the Rape of the Lock: - - All night the chiefs before their vessels lay, - And lost in sleep the labours of the day: - All but the king; with various thoughts oppressed - His country's cares lay rolling in his breast. - -[402] The gossamer, which is spun in autumn by a species of spider that -has the power of sailing in the air, was formerly supposed to be the -product of sun-burnt dew. Thus Spenser speaks of - - ----The fine nets which oft we woven see - Of scorched dew. - -[403] Milton of the wings of Raphael, Par. Lost, v. 283: - - And colours dipped in heav'n; - Sky-tinctured grain.--WAKEFIELD. - -[404] The comets. - -[405] "Did you ever," says Dennis, "hear before that the planets were -rolled by the _aerial_ kind?" and Pope writes on the margin "expressly -otherwise." He states that the "ethereal" kind are described down to -ver. 80, and that the "aerial kind" are the "less refined" beings who -dwell "beneath the moon." Clearly the distinction had not occurred to -him when he wrote the poem, for he calls both kinds "aerial" at ver. 76. - -[406] In the first edition: - - Hover, and catch the shooting stars by night. - -Dryden's Flower and Leaf: - - At other times we reign by night alone, - And posting through the skies pursue the moon. - -[407] A compliment to Queen Anne, whom he lavishly commends in his -Windsor Forest.--WAKEFIELD. - -The angel in Addison's Rosamond, Act 3, says, - - In hours of peace, unseen, unknown - I hover o'er the British throne. - -[408] Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med. Part I. 31; "I do think that many -mysteries ascribed to our own inventions have been the courteous -revelations of spirits; for those noble essences in heaven bear a -friendly regard unto their fellow natures on earth." The comparative -inferiority of Pope's mimic subject is strongly felt when we bring the -diminutive ideas into immediate contrast with their elevated originals. - -[409] That is, her ear-drops set with brilliants.--WAKEFIELD. - -[410] To crisp in our earlier writers is a common word for curl, from -the Latin _crispo_.--WAKEFIELD. - -[411] "This," says Warburton, in a manuscript note, "was a fine stroke -of satire to insinuate that the lapdog is often the concern of the fair, -superior to all the charities, as Milton calls them, of parental -relation." - -[412] Ovid, Met. xiii, 2: Clypei dominus _septemplicis_ -Ajax.--WARBURTON. - -Sandys's Translation: - - Uprose the master of the seven-fold Shield. - -[413] The hoop petticoat, in spite of the notion of Addison, that "a -touch of his pen would make it contract itself like the sensitive -plant," continued in fashion as an ordinary dress for upwards of -threescore years, and remained the court costume till the death of Queen -Charlotte.--CROKER. - -[414] Many modern editions read _shrivelled_, but Pope took his epithet, -now obsolete, from Dryden's Flower and Leaf: - - Then drooped the fading flow'rs, their beauty fled, - And rivelled up with heat, lay dying in their bed.--WAKEFIELD. - -[415] Chocolate was made in a kind of mill.--CROKER. - -[416] The anonymous translator of Ariadne to Theseus: - - And trembling at the waves which roll below.--WAKEFIELD. - -[417] The first edition continues from this line to ver. 24 of this -Canto.--POPE. - -[418] The modern portion of Hampton Court, and the East and South -fronts, were built by William III., who frequently resided there. Queen -Anne only went there occasionally.--CROKER. - -[419] Originally in the first edition, - - In various talk the cheerful hours they passed, - Of who was bit, or who capotted last.--POPE. - -When one party has won all the tricks of cards at picquet, he is said to -have _capotted_ his antagonist.--JOHNSON. - -Dryden's AEn. vi. 720: - - While thus in talk the flying hours they pass. - -[420] Japan screens, as appears from the Spectator, were then the rage, -and in the Woman of Taste, 1733, we have the couplet, - - Ne'er chuse a screen, and never touch a fan, - Till it has sailed from India or Japan. - -[421] The snuff-box of the beau, and the fan of the woman of fashion, -are frequent subjects of ridicule in the Spectator. The fan was employed -to execute so many little coquettish manoeuvres, that Addison ironically -proposed that ladies should be drilled in the use of it, as soldiers -were trained to the exercise of arms. - -[422] The fifth Pastoral of A. Philips: - - The sun now mounted to the noon of day - Began to shoot direct his burning ray. - -[423] From Congreve.--WARTON. - -A repulsive and unfounded couplet. Judges never sign sentences, and if a -juryman is in haste to dine it is at least as easy to acquit as to -condemn.--CROKER. - -[424] Dryden's AEn. vii. 170: - - And the long labours of your voyage end.--WAKEFIELD. - -Owing to the change of fashion the particulars in the text no longer -serve to mark the time of the day. From Swift's Journal of a Modern -Lady, written in 1728, we learn that the fashionable dinner-hour, when -"the long labours of the toilet ceased," was four o'clock. Cards were -reserved for after tea; but the holiday-makers, who in the Rape of the -Lock, go by water to Hampton Court, are represented as playing from the -usual dinner-hour till coffee is brought in, which may have been a -common arrangement in these pleasure-parties. - -[425] All that follows of the game at ombre, was added since the first -edition, till ver. 105, which connected thus, - - Sudden the board with cups and spoons is crowned.--POPE. - -[426] Ombre was invented in Spain, and owed its name to the phrase which -was to be used by the person who undertook to stand the game,--"_Yo soy -l'hombre_, I am the man." In the Rape of the Lock Belinda was the ombre, -and hence she is described as encountering singly her two antagonists. - -[427] The game could be played with two, three, or five; but three was -the usual number, and nine cards were dealt to each. - -[428] From the Spanish _matador_, a murderer, because the matadors in -ombre were the three best cards, and the slayers of all that came into -competition with them. - -[429] Knave was the old term for a servant, and Wakefield remarks that -they are represented "in garbs succinct," because, among the ancients, -domestics, when at work, had their flowing robes gathered up to the -girdle about the waist. - -[430] The ombre had the privilege of deciding which suit should be -trumps. - -[431] The whole idea of this description of a game at ombre is taken -from Vida's description of a game at Chess in his poem intitled -_Scacchia Ludus_.--WARBURTON. - -Pope not only borrowed the general conception of representing the game -under the guise of a battle, but he has imitated particular passages of -his Latin prototype. Vida's poem is a triumph of ingenuity, when the -intricacy of chess is considered, and the difficulty of expressing the -moves in a dead language. Yet the original is eclipsed by Pope's more -consummate copy. - -[432] Spadillio is from _Espadilla_, the Spanish term for the ace of -spades; and _Basto_ is the Spanish name for the ace of clubs. Whatever -suit was trumps the ace of spades was the first card in power, and the -ace of clubs the third. Manillio, the second in power of the three -Matadores, varied with the trumps. When spades or clubs were trumps -Manillio was the two of trumps, and when hearts or diamonds were trumps -Manillio was the seven of trumps. - -[433] Dryden's MacFlecknoe: - - The hoary prince in majesty appeared. - -[434] Pam, the highest card in loo, is the knave of clubs. - -[435] These lines are a parody of several passages in -Virgil.--WAKEFIELD. - -[436] Dryden's AEn. vi. 384: - - Just in the gate, and in the jaws of hell.--WAKEFIELD. - -If either of the antagonists made more tricks than the ombre, the winner -took the pool, and the ombre had to replace it for the next game. This -was called codille. - -[437] Unless hearts were trumps the ace of hearts ranked after king, -queen, and knave. - -[438] Dryden's AEn. xii. 1344: - - With groans the Latins rend the vaulted sky, - Woods, hills, and valleys to the voice reply. - -[439] - - Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurae; - Et servare modum, rebus sublata secundis! - Turno tempus erit magno cum optaverit emptum - Intactum Pallanta; et cum spolia ista diemque - Oderit. Virg.--WARBURTON. - -Dryden's Translation, x. 698: - - O mortals! blind of fate; who never know - To bear high fortune, or endure the low! - The time shall come, when Turnus, but in vain, - Shall wish untouched the trophies of the slain: - Shall wish the fatal belt were far away; - And curse the dire remembrance of the day.--WAKEFIELD. - -[440] From hence the first edition continues to ver. 134.--POPE. - -[441] Coffee it seems was then not only made but ground by the ladies, -and from the expression "the berries crackle" it might almost be -supposed that they roasted it also.--CROKER. - -"There was a side-board of coffee," says Pope, in his letter describing -Swift's mode of life at Letcombe in 1714, "which the Dean roasted with -his own hands in an engine for that purpose." - -[442] A sarcastic allusion to the pretentious talk of the would-be -politicians who frequented coffee-houses. These oracles were a standing -topic of ridicule. - -[443] Vide Ovid's Metamorphoses, viii.--POPE. - -Nisus had a purple hair on which depended the safety of himself and his -kingdom. When the Cretans made war upon him, his daughter Scylla fell in -love with their leader Minos, whom she saw from a high tower. Hurried -away by her passion, she plucked out her father's hair as he slept, and -carried it to Minos, who was victorious in consequence, and Scylla was -turned for her crime into a bird. The line of Pope is made up from a -passage in Dryden's translation of the first Georgic, where, having -applied the epithet "injured" to Nisus, he adds, - - And thus the purple hair is dearly paid. - -[444] Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel: - - But when to sin our blessed nature leans - The careful devil is still at hand with means. - -[445] In the first edition it was thus, - - As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.--Ver. 134. - - First he expands the glitt'ring forfex wide - T' inclose the lock; then joins it to divide; - The meeting points the sacred hair dissever, - From the fair head, for ever, and for ever.--Ver. 154. - -All that is between was added afterwards.--POPE. - -[446] This repetition is formed on similar passages in -Virgil.--WAKEFIELD. - -As, for instance, Dryden's AEn. vi. 950: - - Then thrice around his neck his arms he threw; - And thrice the flitting shadow slipped away. - -[447] See Milton, lib. vi. 330, of Satan cut asunder by the Angel -Michael.--POPE. - - But th' ethereal substance closed - Not long divisible. - -[448] - - Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit, - Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt. Virg.--POPE. - -[449] A famous book written about that time by a woman: full of court -and party scandal; and in a loose effeminacy of style and sentiment, -which well-suited the debauched taste of the better vulgar.--WARBURTON. - -Mrs. Manley, the author of it, was the daughter of Sir Roger Manley, -Governor of Guernsey, and the author of the first volume of the famous -Turkish Spy, published from his papers, by Dr. Midgley. She was known -and admired by all the wits of the times. She died in the house of -Alderman Barber, Swift's friend; and was said to have been the mistress -of the alderman.--WARTON. - -Her actions were even more infamous than her writings. One Mary Thompson -had been kept by a person named Pheasant, and at his death, in 1705, she -endeavoured to pass herself off for his wife, that she might have a -right of dower out of his estate. According to Mr. Nichols, in a note to -Steele's Letters, Mrs. Manley was bribed by the promise of 100_l._ -a-year for life, to aid Mrs. Thompson in getting a forged entry of the -marriage inserted in a register. The case was heard in Doctors' Commons, -and Mrs. Manley's guilt was proved. But neither her profligacy nor her -frauds could deprive her of the countenance of political partisans like -Swift and Prior, or of good-natured men of pleasure like Steele. - -[450] Ladies in those days sometimes received visits in their -bed-chambers, when the bed was covered with a richer counterpane, and -"graced" by a small pillow with a worked case and lace edging. Of the -female fashions which Pope pleasantly assumes will be as lasting as the -swimming of fishes or the flight of birds, the greater part have passed -away.--CROKER. - -[451] Ogilby, Virg. Ecl. v.: - - So long thy honoured name and praise shall last. - -Dryden, AEn. i. 857: - - Your honour, name, and praise shall never die!--WAKEFIELD. - -[452] So Juvenal exactly, x. 146: - - Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris.--WAKEFIELD. - -[453] Addison of Troy in his poem to the king: - - And laid the labour of the gods in dust.--WAKEFIELD. - -[454] Addison's translation of Horace, Ode iii. 3: - - Thrice should my favourite Greeks his works confound, - And hew the shining fabric to the ground.--WAKEFIELD. - -[455] - - Ille quoque eversus mons est, &c. - Quid faciant crines, cum ferro talia cedant? - Catull. de Com. Berenices.--POPE. - -[456] - - At regina gravi, &c.--Virg. AEn. iv. 1.--POPE. - - But anxious cares already seized the queen; - She fed within her veins a flame unseen. - Dryden's Transl.--WAKEFIELD. - -[457] The thought and turn of these lines is imitated from the -Dispensary, Canto iii.: - - Not beauties fret so much if freckles come, - Or nose should redden in the drawing-room. - -[458] All the lines from hence to the 94th verse, that describe the -house of Spleen, are not in the first edition; instead of them followed -only these: - - While her racked soul repose and peace requires, - The fierce Thalestris fans the rising fires. - -And continued at the 94th verse of this Canto.--POPE. - -[459] Garth in the Dispensary, canto iv.: - - The bat with sooty wings flits through the grove. - -[460] Spleen was thought to be engendered by the east wind. Cowper, in -the Task, Bk. iv. ver. 363, speaks of - - the unhealthful east - That breathes the spleen. - -[461] In this description our poet seems to have had before him the Cave -of Envy in Ovid, Met. ii. 760: - - Protinus Invidiae nigro squallentia tabo - Tecta petit. Domus est imis in vallibus antri - Abdita, sole carens, non ulli pervia vento. - - Shut from the winds and from the wholesome skies, - In a deep vale the gloomy dungeon lies; - Dismal and cold, where not a beam of light - Invades the winter, or disturbs the night. - Addison's Trans.--WAKEFIELD. - -[462] For "Megrim," the first edition has "Languor." - -[463] "Wait" for "wait on" or "by" is a very harsh ellipse, though it -has the sanction of Dryden. - -[464] Hypochondriacal disorders, under the name of vapours or spleen, -were then the fashionable complaint, and as they often presented no -definite bodily symptoms they could be readily feigned. The "gown" and -"night-dress" of Pope are the "dressing-gown" of our day. - -[465] Oldham had expressed the same idea in The Dream: - - Not dying saints enjoy such ecstacies - When they in visions antedate their bliss. - -The ancients believed the spleen to be the seat of mirth, and hence a -disordered spleen was supposed to produce melancholy and moroseness. The -second sense, in modern usage, has driven out the first, and spleen has -become synonymous with surliness and gloom, but Pope in prose as well as -verse gave it a wider range, and appears to ascribe to it those -creations of the imagination which are mistaken for realities. -"Methinks," he writes to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, "I am imitating in -my ravings the _dreams of splenetic_ enthusiasts and solitaires, who -fall in love with saints and fancy themselves in favour of angels and -spirits." - -[466] Snakes erect on the "rolling spires," or coils of their bodies, as -Milton says that the neck of the serpent was "erect amidst his circling -spires." - -[467] In the last century the word "machine" was currently employed to -designate the supernatural agents in a fiction, and their proceedings -when acting in human affairs. Thus, by the expression "angels in -machines" is meant angels interposing on behalf of mankind. - -[468] Ovid, Met. i. 1: - - In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas - Corpora. - - Of bodies changed to various forms I sing. - --Dryden's Trans.--WAKEFIELD. - -[469] See Hom. Iliad, xviii., of Vulcan's walking tripods.--POPE. - -Van Swieten, in his Commentaries on Boerhaave, relates that he knew a -man who had studied till he fancied his legs to be of glass. His maid -bringing wood to his fire threw it carelessly down. Our sage was -terrified for his legs of glass. The girl, out of patience with his -megrims, gave him a blow with a log on the parts affected. He started up -in a rage, and from that moment recovered the use of his glass -legs.--WARTON. - -[470] Alludes to a real fact; a lady of distinction imagined herself in -this condition.--POPE. - -[471] The fanciful person, here alluded to, was Dr. Edward Pelling, -chaplain to several successive monarchs. Having studied himself into -hypochondriasis between the age of forty and fifty, he imagined himself -to be pregnant, and forbore all manner of exercise lest motion should -prove injurious to his ideal burden.--STEEVENS. - -[472] This is adopted from the Loyal Subject of Beaumont and -Fletcher.--STEEVENS. - -[473] In imitation of the golden branch which AEneas carried as a -passport when he visited the infernal regions. Spleenwort is a species -of fern. "Its virtues," says Cowley, "are told in its name." He makes it -compare itself with "painted flowers," and exclaim, - - They're fair, 'tis true, they're cheerful, and they're green, - But I, though sad, procure a gladsome mien. - -The plant has lost the little credit it once possessed as a remedy for -hypochondriacal affections. - -[474] Bishop Lowth notices Pope's frequent violation of grammar in -joining a pronoun in the singular to a verb in the plural. Thus when he -says in the Messiah, - - O thou my voice inspire - Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire, - -either "thou" should be "you," or else "touched" should be "touchedst, -didst touch." Pope has committed the same error in this speech to the -Queen of Spleen; for that "thou," and not "you," is, or ought to be, the -pronoun understood follows from the expression "_thy_ power" at ver. 65. -Hence "who rule" should be "who rulest," or "who dost rule," and so with -the other verbs in the second person. - -[475] The disease was probably named from the atmospheric vapours which -were reputed to be a principal cause of English melancholy. Cowper says -of England in his Task, Bk. v. ver. 462, - - Thy clime is rude, - Replete with vapours, and disposes much - All hearts to sadness, and none more than mine. - -[476] Citron-water was a cordial distilled from a mixture of spirit of -wine with the rind of citrons and lemons. There are numerous allusions -in the literature of Pope's day to the fondness of women of fashion for -this drink, as in Swift's Journal of a Modern Lady, where he says that -"to cool her heated brains" when she wakes at noon she - - Takes a large dram of citron-water. - -[477] The curl papers of ladies' hair used to be fastened with strips of -pliant lead.--CROKER. - -[478] That is, at whose shrine all our sex resign ease, pleasure, and -virtue. "Honour" means female reputation. - -[479] A parody of Virgil, Ecl. i. 60.--WAKEFIELD. - -Garth, Dispensary, Canto iii.: - - The tow'ring Alps shall sooner sink to vales, - And leeches in our glasses swell to whales; - Or Norwich trade in instruments of steel, - And Bromingham in stuffs and druggets deal. - -[480] Sir George Brown. He was angry that the poet should make him talk -nothing but nonsense: and in truth one could not well blame -him.--WARBURTON. - -This is one instance out of many in which Pope took unwarrantable -liberties with private character. Spence had been told that the -description "was the very picture of the man." - -[481] A cane diversified with darker spots.--WAKEFIELD. - -The "nice conduct" of canes is ridiculed by Addison in No. 103 of the -Tatler. A man of fashion, with "a cane very curiously clouded, and a -blue ribbon to hang it on his wrist," protests that the "knocking it -upon his shoe, leaning one leg upon it, or whistling with it on his -mouth are such great reliefs to him in conversation that he does not -know how to be good company without it." A second beau is warned that -his cane must be forfeited if "he walks with it under his arm, -brandishes it in the air, or hangs it on a button." - -[482] In allusion to Achilles's oath in Homer, Il. i.--POPE. - - But by this scepter solemnly I swear - Which never more green leaf or growing branch shall bear. - Dryden's Trans.--WAKEFIELD. - -[483] Dryden's AEn. i. 770: - - If yet he lives and draws this vital air. - -[484] Borrowed from Dryden's Epistle to Mr. Granville: - - The long contended honours of the field.--HOLT WHITE. - -[485] These two lines are additional; and assign the cause of the -different operation on the passions of the two ladies. The poem went on -before without that distinction, as without any machinery, to the end of -the Canto.--POPE. - -At ver. 91, Umbriel empties the bag which contains the angry passions -over the heads of Thalestris and Belinda. At ver. 142 he breaks the -phial of sorrow over Belinda alone, whence Belinda's anger is turned to -grief, and Thalestris remains indignant. - -[486] A parody of Virg. AEn. iv. 657: - - Felix heu nimium felix! si litora tantum - Nunquam Dardaniae tetigissent nostra carinae.--WAKEFIELD. - -[487] Pope originally wrote: - - 'Twas this the morning omens did foretell. - -He altered the verse, together with one or two others of the same kind, -to get rid of the "did". - -[488] Butler, the poet, says that the object of black patches was to -make the complexion look fairer by the contrast. Dryden has a similar -idea in Palamon and Arcite: - - Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen - Whose dusk set off the whiteness of his skin. - -[489] Prior's Henry and Emma: - - No longer shall thy comely tresses break - In flowing ringlets on thy snowy neck.--WAKEFIELD. - -[490] Sir William Bowles on the Death of Charles II.: - - And in their rulers fate bewail their own. - -[491] Translated from Virgil, AEn. iv. 440: - - Fata obstant, placidasque viri deus obstruit aures. - Fate and great Jove had stopped his gentle tears.--Waller.--WAKEFIELD. - -[492] The entreaties to stay which Dido's sister, Anna, addressed to -AEneas.--CROKER. - -Virgil says that the pathetic entreaties to stay sent a thrill of grief -through the mighty breast of AEneas, but that his resolution was -unshaken. Pope's couplet supposes that he inwardly wavered. - -[493] A new character introduced in the subsequent editions, to open -more clearly the moral of the poem, in a parody of the speech of -Sarpedon to Glaucus in Homer.--POPE. - -The parody first appeared when the Rape of the Lock was inserted in the -quarto of 1717. In the previous enlarged editions, which contained the -machinery, the sixth verse was followed by what is now verse -thirty-seven: - - To arms, to arms! the bold Thalestris cries. - -[494] Homer. - - Why boast we, Glaucus! our extended reign, - Where Xanthus' streams enrich the Lycian plain; - Our num'rous herds that range each fruitful field, - And hills where vines their purple harvest yield; - Our foaming bowls with gen'rous nectar crowned, - Our feasts enhanced with music's sprightly sound; - Why on those shores are we with joy surveyed, - Admired as heroes, and as gods obeyed; - Unless great acts superior merit prove, - And vindicate the bounteous pow'rs above? - 'Tis ours, the dignity they give, to grace; - The first in valour, as the first in place: - That while with wond'ring eyes our martial bands - Behold our deeds transcending our commands, - Such, they may cry, deserve the sov'reign state, - Whom those that envy, dare not imitate. - Could all our care elude the greedy grave, - Which claims no less the fearful than the brave, - For lust of fame I should not vainly dare - In fighting fields, nor urge thy soul to war. - But since, alas! ignoble age must come, - Disease, and death's inexorable doom; - The life which others pay, let us bestow, - And give to fame what we to nature owe; - Brave though we fall, and honoured if we live, - Or let us glory gain, or glory give.--WARBURTON. - -The passage quoted by Warburton is from Pope's own translation of the -Episode of Sarpedon, which appeared in Dryden's Miscellany, in 1710. - -[495] Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel: - - The young men's vision, and the old men's dream.--WAKEFIELD. - -[496] Denham, in his version of the speech of Homer parodied by our -poet: - - Why all the tributes land and sea affords?-- - As gods behold us, and as gods adore.--WAKEFIELD. - -[497] Gay, in the Toilette: - - Nor shall side-boxes watch my restless eyes, - And, as they catch the glance in rows arise - With humble bows; nor white-gloved beaux approach - In crowds behind to guard me to my coach.--WAKEFIELD. - -[498] The ladies at this time always sat in the front, the gentlemen in -the side-boxes.--NICHOLS. - -In Steele's Theatre, No. 3, January 9, 1720, his "representatives of a -British audience" are "three of the fair sex for the front boxes, two -gentlemen of wit and pleasure for the side-boxes, and three substantial -citizens for the pit." "The virgin ladies," he said, in the Guardian, -No. 29, April 14, 1713, "usually dispose themselves in the front of the -boxes, the young married women compose the second row, while the rear is -generally made up of mothers of long standing, undesigning maids, and -contented widows."--CUNNINGHAM. - -[499] It is a verse frequently repeated in Homer after any speech, - - ----So spoke--and all the heroes applauded.--POPE. - -[500] From hence the first edition goes on to the conclusion, except a -very few short insertions added to keep the machinery in view to the end -of the poem.--POPE. - -[501] AEneid. v. 140: - - ----ferit aethera clamor. - Their shouting strikes the skies.--WAKEFIELD. - -[502] Homer, Il. xx.--POPE. - -[503] This verse is an improvement on the original, AEneid. viii. 246: - - ----trebidentque immisse lumine manes. - And the ghosts tremble at intruding light.--WAKEFIELD. - -The concluding line of the paragraph is from Addison's translation of a -passage in Silius Italicus: - - Who pale with fear the rending earth survey - And startle at the sudden flash of day. - -There is more of bathos than of humour from ver. 43 to ver. 52. The -exaggeration is carried so far that even the similitude of caricature is -lost. - -[504] These four lines added, for the reason before mentioned.--POPE. - -[505] Minerva in like manner, during the battle of Ulysses with the -suitors in the Odyssey, perches on a beam of the roof to behold -it.--POPE. - -[506] Like the heroes in Homer when they are spectators of a -combat.--WARTON. - -[507] This idea is borrowed from a couplet in the Duke of Buckingham's -Essay on Poetry where he ridicules the poetical dialogues of the -_dramatis personae_ in the reign of Charles II. - - Or else like bells, eternally they chime - They sigh in simile, and die in rhyme. - -[508] Wakefield quotes passages from Sir Philip Sidney, Drummond, and -Milton, in which the phrase "living death" occurs. - -[509] The words of a song in the Opera of Camilla.--POPE. - -"Here," said Dennis, speaking of the death of the beau and witling, "we -have a real combat, and a metaphorical dying," and he did the lines no -injustice when he added that they were but a "miserable pleasantry." - -[510] - - Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abjectus in herbis, - Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor. - Ov. Ep.--POPE. - -[511] Vid. Homer, Il. viii. and Virg. AEn. xii.--POPE. - -The passage in Homer to which the poet refers is where Jupiter, before -the conflict between Hector and Achilles, weighs the issue in a pair of -scales. - -[512] These two lines added for the above reason.--POPE. - -[513] In imitation of the progress of Agamemnon's sceptre in Homer, Il. -ii.--POPE. - -[514] Pins to adorn the hair were then called bodkins, and Sir George -Etherege, in Tonson's Second Miscellany, traces the genealogy of some -jewels through the successive stages of the ornament of a cap, the -handle of a fan, and ear-rings, till they became, like the gold seal -rings, in the Rape of the Lock, - - A diamond bodkin in each tress, - The badges of her nobleness, - For every stone, as well as she, - Can boast an ancient pedigree. - -[515] "Who," asked Dennis, "ever heard of a dead man that burnt in -Cupid's flames?" Pope had originally written, - - And still burn on, in Cupid's flames, alive. - -[516] Dryden's Alexander's Feast: - - A present deity! they shout around: - A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound.--STEEVENS. - -[517] Vide Ariosto, Canto xxxiv.--POPE. - -From the catalogue which follows it appears that, by "_all_ things lost -on earth," Pope meant only such things as, in his opinion, were -hypocritical, foolish, and frivolous. These mounted to the lunar sphere -when they had finished their course here below,--a career very short in -instances like the "tears of heirs," and, perhaps, very long in -instances like the butterflies preserved in the cabinets of collectors. - -[518] Apparently Pope had the erroneous idea that distinguished soldiers -were men of dull and ponderous minds. - -[519] The alms would not be "lost on earth," however unprofitable they -might be to the alms-givers, from whom they had been extorted by fear -instead of proceeding from a benevolent disposition. - -[520] Dryden's Oedipus, act 2: - - The smiles of courtiers, and the harlot's tears, - The tradesman's oaths, and mourning of an heir, - Are truths, to what priests tell.--HOLT WHITE. - -[521] Denham, in Cooper's Hill, gave him a hint: - - their airy shape - All but a quick poetic sight escape.--WAKEFIELD. - -[522] - - Flammiferumque trahens spatioso limite crinem - Stella micat. Ovid.--POPE. - -Dryden, AEneis, v. 1092: - - Descends, and draws behind a trail of light.--WAKEFIELD. - -[523] These two lines added, for the same reason, to keep in view the -machinery of the poem.--POPE. - -Dryden's AEneis, v. 691: - - And as it flew - A train of following flames ascending drew; - Kindling they mount, and mark the shiny way - Across the skies, as falling meteors play. - -[524] The promenades in the Mall lasted till the middle of the reign of -George III., and it would appear from this line that they were enlivened -by music.--CROKER. - -[525] Rosamond's lake was a small oblong piece of water near the Pimlico -Gate of St. James's Park. When it was done away with, about the middle -of the last century, the public, unwilling to lose the romantic name, -transferred it to the dirty pond in the Green Park, which has, in its -turn, been filled up.--CROKER. - -[526] John Partridge was a ridiculous stargazer, who in his almanacks -every year never failed to predict the downfall of the Pope, and the -King of France, then at war with the English.--POPE. - -He had been made the subject of ridicule by Swift, Steele, Addison and -others.--CROKER. - -[527] Milton, Par. Lost, v. ver. 261, calls the telescope "the glass of -Galileo," who first employed it to observe the heavens. - -[528] Phebe in As You Like It, Act iii. Sc. 5, says to her despised and -despairing lover, - - Thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye. - -[529] The compliment was meant to be serious, but is marred by its -extravagance. "Millions" is too hyperbolical. - -[530] Spenser in his 75th Sonnet: - - Not so, quoth I: let baser things devise - To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: - My verse your virtues rare shall eternise, - And in the heavens write your glorious name. - -And Cowley, in his imitation of Horace, Ode iv. 2: - - He bids him live and grow in fame - Among the stars he sticks his name.--WAKEFIELD. - -[531] Wakefield says "there is an affectation and ambiguity in this -account which he does not comprehend." The uncertainty with which Pope -speaks, refers to his doubt of the identity of the lady celebrated by -the duke. Enough of "ambiguity and affectation" remains, which would -have been no mystery to Wakefield if he had been aware that Pope's -object was to deceive. - -[532] The Memoirs by Ayre appeared in 1745, without the name of the -publisher. In a pamphlet which was printed the same year, under the -title of Remarks on Squire Ayre's Memoirs, it is stated that the work -was put together, and published by Curll, who being notorious for the -manufacture of vapid, lying biographies, suppressed a name which would -have been fatal to the sale of his trash. - -[533] Warton's Essay, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 329. - -[534] Pope's Correspondence, ed. Elwin, vol. i., pp. 144, 158-160, 162. - -[535] "Pray in your next," writes Caryll to Pope, July 16, 1717, "tell -me who was the unfortunate lady you address a copy of verses to. I think -you once gave me her history, but it is now quite out of my head." Pope, -in his reply does not allude to the subject, and Caryll says to him on -Aug. 18, "You answer not my question who the unfortunate lady was that -you inscribe a copy of verses to in your book. I long to be re-told her -story, for I believe you already told me formerly; but I shall refer -that, and a thousand other things more, to chat over at our next -meeting, which I hope draws near." This letter was answered by Pope on -Aug. 22, but there is still not a word on the unfortunate lady. - -[536] Dr. Morell, in his notes to Seneca's Epistles, says, "I remember -when I was a boy at Eton that an old almswoman, Mrs. Pain, having been -cut down alive, gave this reason for hanging herself, that she was -afraid of dying." To rush into death from the fear of death is not -uncommon, and shows how far suicide is from being an evidence of -superior courage. Acute philosophers have not always reasoned better -than Pope. M. Lerminier, a French writer of repute, eulogises, in his -Philosophie du Droit, the suicide of Cato for "a pure and majestic act." -"In the Memoirs of the Emperor's Valet," he says in the next sentence, -"we learn that Napoleon tried to destroy himself at Fontainebleau in -1814. He took poison; remedies were applied, and he recovered. He was -not to die thus. Would you wish that Napoleon's end should have been -that of an amorous sub-lieutenant, or a ruined banker?" But this was the -veritable end of Cato. He died the death of "amorous sub-lieutenants and -ruined bankers." The question of M. Lerminier revealed his consciousness -that suicide was not heroism, or, in justification of the attempt of the -Emperor, he would have asked, "Would you not have wished that Napoleon's -end should have been the pure and majestic end of Cato?" - -[537] Comus, ver. 205. - -[538] I Viaggi di Marco Polo, ed. Pasini, 1847, p. 45. - -[539] A belief akin to that which grew up in deserts prevailed in -England. Hamlet doubts whether his father's ghost is a "spirit of health -or goblin damned," and Horatio attempts to dissuade Hamlet from -following it lest it should prove to be an impostor. A "goblin damned" -may have put on the "fair and warlike form" of the King of Denmark, may -"tempt" Hamlet to the "dreadful summit of the cliff," may "there assume -some other horrible form which might draw him into madness," and impel -him to commit suicide. The radical idea is the same in Shakespeare and -Marco Polo. Fiends personate the relations or friends of an intended -victim that they may decoy him to his death. - -[540] - - And beck'ning woos me, from the fatal tree - To pluck a garland for herself or me. - -[541] Elements of Criticism, 6th ed., vol. i. p. 477. - -[542] Ben Jonson's Elegy on the Marchioness of Winchester: - - What gentle ghost besprent with April dew, - Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew? - And beck'ning woos me?--WARTON. - -[543] Johnson gives two meanings for "to gore,"--"to stab," "to pierce;" -and "to pierce with a horn." The second, or special signification, has -since superseded the general sense in popular usage, though, as with -many other words, a sense which has become obsolete in conversation is -occasionally revived in books. Formerly, the general sense of "to -pierce," without reference to the mode of piercing, was the predominant -meaning, and Milton, Par. Lost, vi. 386, employed the word to denote the -gaps made in the ranks of a defeated army: - - the battle swerved - With many an inroad gored. - -[544] The third Elegy of Crashaw: - - And I, what is my crime, I cannot tell, - Unless it be a crime t' have loved too well.--STEEVENS. - -[545] Shakespeare, Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2: - - Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; - By that sin fell the angels. - -[546] Dryden, To the Duchess of Ormond: - - And where imprisoned in so sweet a cage - A soul might well be pleased to pass an age. - -[547] Cowley has a couplet not unlike his, Davideis, i. 80: - - Where their vast court the mother-waters keep, - And undisturbed by moons in silence sleep.--WAKEFIELD. - -[548] Duke's translation of Juvenal, Sat. iv.: - - Without one virtue to redeem his fame.--WAKEFIELD. - -[549] Dryden, Ovid's Amor. ii. 19: - - But thou dull husband of a wife too fair.--WAKEFIELD. - -[550] Lord Kames objects to the false antithesis between cold flesh and -mental warmth. - -[551] Milton, Comus, ver. 753: - - Love-darting eyes or tresses like the morn.--WAKEFIELD. - -[552] Rolling eyes are contrary to the English idea of feminine -refinement. Pope admired them. He had previously said in the Rape of the -Lock, Cant. v. 33, - - Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll. - -[553] Wakefield mentions that the phrase "unknowing how to yield" is -used by Dryden, AEneis, xi. 472, and that the entire couplet is almost -identical with two passages in Pope's own translation of the Iliad. The -first is at Book ix. 749. The second is at Book xxii. 447, and runs -thus: - - The furies that relentless breast have steeled - And cursed thee with a heart that cannot yield. - -[554] From a fragment of Sir Edward Hungerford, according to a writer in -the Gentleman's Magazine for 1764: - - The soul by pure religion taught to glow - At others' good, or melt at others' woe.--WAKEFIELD. - -[555] Dryden, AEneis, ix. 647, where the mother of Euryalus laments her -son, whose body remains with the enemy: - - Nor was I near to close his dying eyes, - To wash his wounds, to weep his obsequies.--WAKEFIELD. - -The cruelties of the lady's relations, the desolation of the family, the -being deprived of the rights of sepulture, the circumstance of dying in -a country remote from her relations, are all touched with great -tenderness and pathos, particularly the four lines from the 51st, "By -foreign hands," &c.--WARTON. - -[556] The anonymous translator of Ariadne to Theseus: - - Poor Ariadne! thou must perish here, - Breathe out thy soul in strange and hated air, - Nor see thy pitying mother shed one tear; - Want a kind hand, which thy fixed eyes may close, - And thy stiff limbs may decently compose. - -So Gay in his Dione, Act ii. Sc. 1: - - What pious care my ghastful lid shall close? - What decent hand my frozen limbs compose.--WAKEFIELD. - -De Quincey assumes that the term "decent limbs" refers to the lady's -shape, and he remarks that the language "does not imply much enthusiasm -of praise." Pope had perhaps the same idea in his mind as the translator -he imitated, and "thy decent limbs were composed" may be put -inaccurately for "thy limbs were composed decently." - -[557] The poet in the previous couplet has employed the word "mourn" to -signify genuine regret. In this verse it is put for the act of wearing -mourning,--the appearing in the "sable weeds," which are, "the mockery -of woe" when the sorrow is not real. - -[558] Dryden, Virg. Ecl. x. 51: - - How light would lie the turf upon my breast. - -A. Philips in his third Pastoral: - - The flow'ry turf lie light upon thy breast. - -This thought was common with the ancients.--WAKEFIELD. - -[559] Tasso's description of an angel in the translation of Fairfax, i. -14: - - Of silver wings he took a shining pair - Fringed with gold.--WAKEFIELD. - -[560] The expression has reference to ver. 61. "No sacred earth allowed -her room," but her remains have "made sacred" the common earth in which -she was buried. - -[561] Such a poem as Pope's Elegy, deeply serious and pathetic, rejects -with disdain all fiction. Upon that account the passage from ver. 59 to -ver. 68 deserves no quarter; for it is not the language of the heart, -but of the imagination indulging its flights at ease, and by that means -is eminently discordant with the subject. It would be a still more -severe censure if it should be ascribed to imitation, copying -indiscreetly what has been said by others.--LORD KAMES. - -The ghost of the injured person appears to excite the poet to revenge -her wrongs. He describes her character, execrates the author of her -misfortunes, expatiates on the severity of her fate, the rites of -sepulture denied her in a foreign land. Then follows, "What though no -weeping," &c. Can anything be more naturally pathetic? Yet the critic -tells us he can give no quarter to this part of the poem. Well might our -poet's last wish be to commit his writings to the candour of a sensible -and reflecting judge, rather than to the malice of every short-sighted -and malevolent critic.--WARBURTON. - -[562] When Pope describes the retribution which is to fall upon the -imperious relatives of the unfortunate lady, he says, - - Thus unlamented pass the proud away; - -and it is to these same relations, whose pride was their vice, that he -reverts in the line, - - 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be. - -The persecutors who have hunted you into the grave, shall one day share -your fate. - -[563] R. Herrick, in a Meditation for his Mistress: - - You are the queen all flow'rs among, - But die you must, fair maid, ere long, - As he, the maker of this song.--WAKEFIELD. - -[564] Dean Milman, in his History of Latin Christianity, says that -Heloisa "was distinguished for her surpassing beauty." There is no -authority for this assertion, which is one of the embellishments of -later romancers. - -[565] "She knew Latin," says M. Remusat, "and wrote it with facility and -talent. As to Greek and Hebrew I can hardly believe that she was -acquainted with more than the alphabet, and a few words which were -quoted habitually in theology or in philosophy." The treatises of -Abelard prove that he could read neither Greek nor Hebrew, and it is not -likely that Heloisa was more learned than her master. Latin was the -literary language of the day. - -[566] The sentiments which Warton imagined to be borrowed from Madame -Guion and Fenelon were taken from the English translation of the Letters -of Heloisa and Abelard. Kindred thoughts may be found in the works of -almost any devotional writer. - -[567] M. Remusat, who accepts the letters without misgiving, -acknowledges that the form of the _Historia Calamitatum_ "appears to be -an artificial frame to the picture." He assumes that the avowed purpose -is a pretext, and that the repentant philosopher commences his narrative -with a misstatement. The fiction which M. Remusat is obliged to admit, -does not ward off the strongest objection to the genuineness of the -letters, and is the hypothesis least favourable to the reputation of -Abelard; for his treachery to Heloisa is immensely aggravated by the -admission that his narrative was meant for the public, and not for the -eye alone of a friend. - -[568] Essai Historique sur Abailard et Heloise, ed. 1861, p. xxvi. - -[569] Essai Historique, p. lxiii. - -[570] As You Like It, Act iv. sc. 3. - -[571] History of Latin Christianity, vol. iii. p. 363. - -[572] Philosophie du Moyen Age, ed. 1856, p. 3. - -[573] Vie d'Abelard, Tome 1. p. 262. - -[574] Hist. de France, tom. iii. 317. - -[575] Horne's Works, vol. i. p. 248. - -[576] Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 33. -Fox, the statesman, was one of those who thought "Eloisa much greater in -her letters than Pope had made her." - -[577] Mason's Life of Whitehead, p. 35. - -[578] The letter which Abelard addressed to his friend, and which had -fallen into the hands of Eloisa. - -[579] Dryden's Don Sebastian: - - And when I say Sebastian, dear Sebastian! - I kiss the name I speak.--STEEVENS. - -[580] That is, a lively representation of his person was retained in her -mind. So Drayton where he speaks of his departed love: - - Clear Ankor, on whose silver-sanded shore - My soul-shrined saint, my fair idea lies.--WAKEFIELD. - -[581] Claudian, De Nupt. Honor. et Mar. ver. 9: - - Nomenque beatum - Injussae scripsere manus.--WAKEFIELD. - -[582] Drayton's Heroical Epistle of Rosamond to Henry: - - My hapless name with Henry's name I found-- - Then do I strive to wash it out with tears, - But then the same more evident appears.--HOLT WHITE. - -[583] Some of these circumstances have perhaps a little impropriety when -introduced into a place so lately founded as was the Paraclete; but are -so well imagined and so highly painted, that they demand -excuse.--WARTON. - -[584] This is borrowed from Milton's Comus, ver. 428: - - By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades.--WAKEFIELD. - -[585] A suspected poem of the Duke of Wharton on the Fear of Death: - - Where feeble tapers shed a gloomy ray - And statues pity feign; - Where pale-eyed griefs their wasting vigils keep.--WAKEFIELD. - -[586] A puerile conceit from the dew which runs down stone and metals in -damp weather.--WAKEFIELD. - -A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1836, quotes a -parallel couplet from a poem by the Duke of Wharton: - - Where kneeling statues constant vigils keep, - And round the tombs the marble cherubs weep. - -[587] He followed Milton in the Penseroso: - - Forget thyself to marble.--WAKEFIELD. - -Heloisa to Abelard: "O vows! O convent! I have not lost my humanity -under your inexorable discipline. You have not made me marble by -changing my habit." With the exception of a passage or two quoted by -Wakefield, all the extracts in the notes are from Pope's chief -text-book, the English work of Hughes, which is very unfaithful to the -Latin original. - -[588] In every edition till that of Warburton the reading was, - - Heav'n claims me all in vain while he has part. - -[589] Heloisa to Abelard: "By that melancholy relation to your friend -you have awakened all my sorrows." - -[590] Dryden's AEneis, v. 64: - - A day for ever sad, for ever dear.--WAKEFIELD. - -[591] Heloisa to Abelard: "Shall my Abelard be never mentioned without -tears? Shall the dear name be never spoken but with sighs?" - -[592] Heloisa to Abelard: "I met with my name a hundred times. I never -saw it without fear; some heavy calamity always followed it. I saw yours -too equally unhappy." - -[593] Pomfret in his Vision: - - For sure that flame is kindled from below - Which breeds such sad variety of woe.--WAKEFIELD. - -Steevens quotes from Dryden's State of Innocence the expression "sad -variety of hell," and the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes from -Yalden's Force of Jealousy the expression "a large variety of woe." - -[594] Dryden, Palamon and Arcite: - - Now warm in love, now with'ring in the grave.--WAKEFIELD. - -[595] Fame is not a passion.--WARTON. - -Ambition is the passion, and fame is the object of the passion. - -[596] Heloisa to Abelard: "Let me have a faithful account of all that -concerns you. I would know everything, be it ever so unfortunate. -Perhaps by mingling my sighs with yours I may make your sorrows less." - -[597] Heloisa to Abelard: "We may write to each other. Let us not lose -through negligence the only happiness which is left us, and the only one -perhaps which the malice of our enemies can never ravish from us." - -[598] Heloisa to Abelard: "Tell me not by way of excuse you will spare -our tears; the tears of women shut up in a melancholy place, and devoted -to penitence, are not to be spared." - -[599] Denham of Prudence: - - To live and die is all we have to do.--WAKEFIELD. - -Prior's Celia to Damon: - - And these poor eyes - No longer shall their little lustre keep, - And only be of use to read and weep. - -[600] Heloisa to Abelard: "Be not then unkind, nor deny me that little -relief. All sorrows divided are made lighter." - -[601] Heloisa to Abelard: "Letters were first invented for comforting -such solitary wretches as myself." - -[602] Heloisa to Abelard: "What cannot letters inspire? They have souls; -they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the -transports of the heart; they have all the fire of our passions; they -can raise them as much as if the persons themselves were present; they -have all the softness and delicacy of speech, and sometimes a boldness -of expression even beyond it." - -[603] Otway's translation of Phaedra to Hippolytus: - - Thus secrets safe to farthest shores may move: - By letters foes converse, and learn to love.--WAKEFIELD. - -[604] This is the most exquisite description of the first commencement -of passion that our language, or perhaps any other, affords.--BOWLES. - -[605] Prior's Celia to Damon: - - In vain I strove to check my growing flame, - Or shelter passion under friendship's name. - -[606] The Divinity himself. Dryden, in his 12th Elegy: - - So faultless was the frame, as if the whole - Had been an emanation of the soul.--WAKEFIELD. - -[607] Heloisa to Abelard: "That life in your eyes which so admirably -expressed the vivacity of your mind; your conversation, which gave -everything you spoke such an agreeable and insinuating turn; in short, -everything spoke for you." - -[608] She says herself, "You had, I confess, two qualities in great -perfection with which you could instantly captivate the heart of any -woman,--a graceful manner of reading and singing." She mentions in -another place also the excellence of his singing.--WAKEFIELD. - -[609] He was her preceptor in philosophy and divinity.--POPE. - -Dryden, Epistle, 14: - - The fair themselves go mended from thy hand.--WAKEFIELD. - -[610] Dryden's Oedipus, end of Act iii.: - - And backward trod the paths I sought to shun. - -[611] Thy holy precepts and the sanctity of thy character had made me -conceive of thee as of a being more venerable than man, and approaching -the nature of superior existences. But thy personal allurements soon -inspired those tender feelings which gradually conducted me from a -veneration of the angel to a less pure and dignified sensation--love for -the man.--WAKEFIELD. - -[612] Dryden, Ovid's Met. x.: - - And own no laws but those which love ordains.--WAKEFIELD. - -Heloisa to Abelard: "The bonds of matrimony, however honourable, still -bear with them a necessary engagement, and I was very unwilling to be -necessitated to love always a man who perhaps would not always love me." - -[613] - - Love will not be confined by maisterie: - When maisterie comes, the lord of Love anon - Flutters his wings, and forthwith is he gone. - Chaucer.--POPE. - -Hudibras, Part iii. Cant. i. 553: - - Love that's too generous to abide - To be against its nature tied, - Disdains against its will to stay, - But struggles out and flies away.--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden's Aurengezebe: - - 'Tis true of marriage bands I'm weary grown, - Love scorns all ties but those that are his own.--STEEVENS. - -The passage cited by Pope from Chaucer is in the Franklin's Tale. -Spenser copied and altered the lines, which led Wakefield to imagine -that Pope had committed the double error of falsely imputing them to -Chaucer, and quoting them incorrectly. - -[614] Heloisa to Abelard: "It is not love but the desire of riches and -honour which makes women run into the embraces of an indolent husband: -ambition, not affection, forms such marriages. I believe indeed they may -be followed with some honours and advantages, but I can never think that -this is the way to enjoy the pleasures of an affectionate union." - -[615] Heloisa to Abelard: "This restless tormenting -passion"--ambition--"punishes them for aiming at other advantages by -love than love itself." - -[616] Heloisa to Abelard: "How often I have made protestations that it -was infinitely preferable to me to live with Abelard as his mistress -than with any other as empress of the world, and that I was more happy -in obeying you than I should have been in lawfully captivating the lord -of the universe." - -[617] Heloisa to Abelard: "Though I knew that the name of wife was -honourable in the world, and holy in religion, yet the name of your -mistress had greater charms because it was more free. I despised the -name of wife that I might live happy with that of mistress." - -[618] Heloisa to Abelard: "We are called your sisters, and if it were -possible to think of any expressions which would signify a dearer -relation we would use them." - -[619] Denham, Cooper's Hill: - - Happy when both to the same centre move, - When kings give liberty, and subjects love.--CUNNINGHAM. - -[620] Heloisa to Abelard: "If there is anything which may properly be -called happiness here below, I am persuaded it is in the union of two -persons who love each other with perfect liberty, who are united by a -secret inclination, and satisfied with each other's merit. Their hearts -are full, and leave no vacancy for any other passion." - -[621] Heloisa to Abelard: "If I could believe you as truly persuaded of -my merit as I am of yours, I might say there has been a time when we -were such a pair." - -[622] Mrs. Rowe in her Elegy: - - A dying lover pale and gasping lies.--WAKEFIELD. - -[623] Heloisa to Abelard: "Where was I? where was your Heloise then? -What joy should I have had in defending my lover. I would have guarded -you from violence, though at the expense of my life; my cries and -shrieks alone would have stopped the hand." - -[624] For "stroke" Pope, in all editions till that of 1736, read "hand," -the word in the translation. He had used "hand" in the rhyme of the -previous couplet, and it was probably to avoid the repetition that he -made the alteration. - -[625] Careless readers may misapprehend the sense. "Pain" here means -punishment, _poena_.--HOLT WHITE. - -Like a verse of Drummond's: - - The grief was common, common were the cries.--WAKEFIELD. - -Heloisa to Abelard: "You alone expiated the crime common to us both. You -only were punished though both of us were guilty." - -[626] Heloisa to Abelard: "Oh whither does the excess of passion hurry -me! Here love is shocked, and modesty joined with despair deprive me of -speech." - -[627] A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Settle's Empress of -Morocco: - - _Muly Hamet._--Speak. - _Empress._--Let my tears and blushes speak the rest. - -[628] The altar of Paraclete, says Mr. Berrington, did not then exist. -They were not professed at the same time or place; one was at -Argenteuil, the other at St. Denys.---WARTON. - -[629] Abelard to Heloisa: "I accompanied you with terror to the foot of -the altar, and while you stretched out your hand to touch the sacred -cloth, I heard you pronounce distinctly those fatal words which for ever -separated you from all men." - -[630] Her kissing the veil with "cold lips" strongly marks her want of -that fervent zeal and devotion which should influence those votaries who -renounce the world. The presages, likewise, which attended the rites are -finely imagined,--the trembling of the shrines, and the pallid hue of -the lamps as if they were conscious of the reluctant sacrifice she was -making.--RUFFHEAD. - -[631] Prior, in Henry and Emma, has a verse of similar pauses, and -similar phraseology: - - Thy lips all trembling, and thy cheeks all pale.--WAKEFIELD. - -[632] Abelard to Heloisa: "I saw your eyes when you spoke your last -farewell fixed upon the cross." Heloisa to Abelard: "It was your command -only, and not a sincere vocation, as is imagined, that shut me up in -these cloisters." The two passages combined suggested the line in the -text. - -[633] Heloisa to Abelard: "You may see me, hear my sighs, and be a -witness of all my sorrows, without incurring any danger, since you can -only relieve me with tears and words." - -[634] Roscoe remarks that the lines which follow cannot be justified by -anything in the letters of Eloisa. Sentiments equally gross are however -expressed both in the original Latin and in the adulterated translation -which was Pope's authority. - -[635] Concannen's Match at Football, Canto iii.: - - And drank in poison from her lovely eye. - -Creech, at the beginning of his Lucretius: - - Where on thy bosom he supinely lies, - And greedily drinks love at both his eyes.--WAKEFIELD. - -Smith's Phaedra and Hippolytus, Act i.: - - Drank gorging in the dear delicious poison.--STEEVENS. - -[636] "If thou canst forget me, think at least upon thy flock," says -Wakefield, in explanation of the train of thought; and he adds a passage -from a letter of Eloisa in which she terms the monastery Abelard's "new -plantation," and assures him that frequent watering is essential to the -tender plants. - -[637] Heloisa to Abelard: "The innocent sheep, tender as they are, would -yet follow you through deserts and mountains." - -[638] He founded the monastery.--POPE. - -Heloisa to Abelard: "You only are the founder of this house. You by -inhabiting here have given fame and sanctity to a place known before -only for robbers and murderers." - -[639] So Dryden says of Absalom, - - And Paradise was opened in his face. - -The original of the image in the text is in Isaiah li. 3: - - He will make her wilderness like Eden, - And her desert like the garden of Jehovah. - -Whence Milton derived it, Par. Reg. i. 7: - - And Eden raised in the waste wilderness.--WAKEFIELD. - -[640] The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Boileau, Le Moine: - - La les salons sont peints, les meubles sont dores - Des larmes et du sang des pauvres devores. - -[641] Heloisa to Abelard: "These cloisters owe nothing to public -charities; our walls were not raised by the usury of publicans, nor -their foundations laid on base extortion. The God whom we serve sees -nothing but innocent riches, and harmless votaries whom you have placed -here." - -[642] There were no benefactors whose praises were celebrated in the -services, but the building was vocal only with the praise of the Deity. - -[643] Our author imitates Milton: - - And storied windows richly dight - Casting a dim religious light.--WAKEFIELD. - -[644] Dryden had said of his Good Parson: - - His eyes diffused a venerable grace.--WAKEFIELD. - -[645] Mrs. Rowe on the Creation: - - And kindling glories brighten all the skies.--WAKEFIELD. - -[646] By pretending that she desires Abelard to visit the Paraclete in -obedience to the call of her sister nuns. - -[647] Heloisa to Abelard: "But why should I entreat you in the name of -your children? Is it possible I should fear obtaining anything of you -when I ask in my own name? And must I use any other prayers than my own -to prevail upon you?" - -[648] From the superscription of Heloisa's letter to Abelard: "To her -lord, her father, her husband, her brother; his servant, his child, his -wife, his sister, and to express all that is humble, respectful, and -loving to her Abelard, Heloisa writes this." - -[649] Our poet is indebted to a translation of the Virgilian cento of -Ausonius in Dryden's Miscellanies, vi. p. 143: - - My love, my life, - And every tender name in one, my wife.--WAKEFIELD. - -[650] Mr. Mills, a clergyman, who visited the Paraclete about the year -1765, says, "Mr. Pope's description is ideal. I saw neither rocks, nor -pines, nor was it a kind of ground which ever seemed to encourage such -objects." - -[651] Addison's translation of book iii, of the AEneis: - - The hollow murmurs of the winds that blow. - -[652] The little river Ardusson glittered along the valley of the -Paraclete.--MILLS. - -[653] Philips, in his fourth Pastoral: - - Nor dropping waters which from rocks distil, - And welly grots with tinkling echoes fill.--WAKEFIELD. - -[654] Milton's Penseroso: - - When the gust hath blown his fill - Ending on the rustling leaves.--WAKEFIELD. - -[655] Dryden, Virg. Geo. iv. 432: - - When western winds on curling waters play. - -[656] Dryden, Virg. AEn. iii. 575: - - Most upbraid - The madness of the visionary maid.--WAKEFIELD. - -[657] Milton's Penseroso: - - To arched walks of twilight groves.--WAKEFIELD. - -[658] Waller's version of AEneid iv.: - - A death-like quiet, and deep silence fell. - -Dryden's Astraea Redux: - - A dreadful quiet felt.--WAKEFIELD. - -Charles Bainbrigg on the death of Edward King: - - Abyssum - Terribilis requies et vasta silentia cingant.--STEEVENS. - -[659] Fenton in his version of Sappho to Phaon: - - With him the caves were cool, the grove was green, - But now his absence withers all the scene.--WAKEFIELD. - -[660] Dryden's Theodore and Honoria: - - With deeper brown the grove was overspread.--STEEVENS. - -Dryden, AEn. vii. 40: - - The Trojan from the main beheld a wood, - Which thick with shades and a brown horror stood.--WAKEFIELD. - -[661] In allusion to this sacrifice of herself at his will she says in -her first letter: "You are of all mankind most abundantly indebted to -me; and particularly for that proof of absolute submission to your -commands in thus destroying myself at your injunction."--WAKEFIELD. - -[662] Heloisa to Abelard: "Death only can make me leave the place where -you have fixed me, and then too my ashes shall rest there, and wait for -yours." - -[663] Abelard to Heloisa: "I hope you will be contented when you have -finished this mortal life to be buried near me. Your cold ashes need -then fear nothing." - -[664] Heloisa to Abelard: "Among those who are wedded to God I serve a -man. What a prodigy am I! Enlighten me, O Lord! Does thy grace or my -despair draw these words from me?" - -[665] Heloisa to Abelard: "I am sensible I am in the temple of chastity -only with the ashes of that fire which has consumed us." - -[666] This couplet, and its wretched rhymes, seem derived from an elegy -of Walsh in Dryden's Miscellanies: - - I know I ought to hate you for the fault; - But oh! I cannot do the thing I ought.--WAKEFIELD. - -[667] Heloisa to Abelard: "I am here a sinner, but one, who far from -weeping for her sins, weeps only for her lover; far from abhorring her -crimes endeavours only to add to them, and then who pleases herself -continually with the remembrance of past actions when it is impossible -to renew them." And again: "I, who have experienced so many pleasures in -loving you feel, in spite of myself, that I cannot repent of them, nor -forbear enjoying them over again as much as is possible by recollecting -them in my memory." Abelard, in the translation of the letters, -expresses the same sentiment: "Love still preserves its dominion in my -fancy, and entertains itself with past pleasures." - -[668] Abelard to Heloisa: "To forget in the case of love is the most -necessary penitence, and the most difficult." - -[669] Dryden's Cymon and Iphigenia: - - Then impotent of mind, with altered sense - She hugged th' offender, and forgave th' offence.--WAKEFIELD. - -[670] Abelard to Heloisa: "How can I separate from the person I love the -passion I must detest? Will the tears I shed be sufficient to render it -odious to me? It is difficult in our sorrow to distinguish penitence -from love." - -[671] Heloisa to Abelard: "A heart which has been so sensibly affected -as mine cannot soon be indifferent. We fluctuate long between love and -hatred before we can arrive at a happy tranquillity." Abelard to -Heloisa: "In such different disquietudes I contradict myself; I hate -you; I love you." - -[672] Heloisa to Abelard: "God has a peculiar right over the hearts of -great men. When he pleases to touch them he ravishes them, and lets them -not speak nor breathe but for his glory." - -[673] Heloisa to Abelard: "Yes, Abelard, I conjure you teach me the -maxims of divine love. Oh! for pity's sake help a wretch to renounce her -desires, herself, and, if it be possible, even to renounce you." - -[674] Heloisa to Abelard: "When I shall have told you what rival hath -ravished my heart from you, you will praise my inconstancy, and will -pray this rival to fix it. By this you may judge that it is God alone -that takes Heloise from you. What other rival could take me from you? -Could you think me guilty of sacrificing the virtuous and learned -Abelard to any other but God?" - -[675] Horace, Epist. Lib. i. xi. 9: - - Oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis. - - My friends forgetting, by my friends forgot.--WAKEFIELD. - -[676] Taken from Crashaw.--POPE. - -Wakefield gives the complete couplet from Crashaw's Description of a -religious House: - - A hasty portion of prescribed sleep; - Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep. - -[677] The idea of the "wings of seraphs shedding perfumes" is from -Milton, Par. Lost, v. 286, where Raphael "shakes heavenly fragrance" -from "his plumes," and Dryden in his Tyrannic Love, Act v., mentions the -perfumes, the spousals, and the celestial music as accompaniments of the -death of St. Catherine: - - AEthereal music did her death prepare, - Like joyful sounds of spousals in the air; - A radiant light did her crowned temple gild, - And all the place with fragrant scents was filled; - Of charming notes we heard the last rebounds, - And music dying in remoter sounds. - -[678] Adapted from Dryden's Britannia Redivivus: - - As star-light is dissolved away - And melts into the brightness of the day. - -[679] Dryden's Cinyras and Myrrha, translated from Ovid: - - For guilty pleasure gives a double gust. - -[680] Heloisa to Abelard: "I will own to you what makes the greatest -pleasure I have in my retirement. After having passed the day in -thinking of you, full of the dear idea I give myself up at night to -sleep. Then it is that Heloise, who dares not without trembling think of -you by day, resigns herself entirely to the pleasure of hearing you, and -speaking to you. I see you Abelard, and glut my eyes with the sight. -Sometimes forgetting the perpetual obstacles to our desires, you press -me to make you happy, and I easily yield to your transports. Sleep gives -me what your enemies' rage has deprived you of, and our souls, animated -with the same passion, are sensible of the same pleasure. But, oh, you -delightful illusions, soft errors, how soon do you vanish away! At my -awaking I open my eyes, and see no Abelard; I stretch out my arms to -take hold of him, but he is not there; I call upon him, he hears me -not." - -[681] Dryden, AEneis, iv. 677, supplied the idea: - - She seems, alone, - To wander in her sleep through ways unknown, - Guideless and dark; or in a desert plain - To seek her subjects, and to seek in vain. - -[682] The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes the same expression -from Steele's Miscellanies: - - No more severely kind affect to put - That lovely anger on. - -[683] Heloisa to Abelard: "You are happy, Abelard, and your misfortunes -have been the occasion of your finding rest. The punishment of your body -has cured the deadly wounds of your soul. I am a thousand times more to -be lamented than you; I must resist those fires which love kindles in a -young heart." - -[684] Dryden's Ovid, Met. i.: - - Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow, - And bade the congregated waters flow.--WAKEFIELD. - -[685] Sir William Davenant's Address to the Queen: - - Smooth as the face of waters first appeared, - Ere tides began to strive, or winds were heard; - Kind as the willing saints, and calmer far - Than in their sleeps forgiven hermits are.--WAKEFIELD. - -[686] Heloisa to Abelard: "When we love pleasures we love the living and -not the dead." In all editions till that of 1736 this couplet followed: - - Cut from the root my perished joys I see, - And love's warm tide for ever stopped in thee. - -[687] Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. 309: - - Love in your heart as idly burns - As fire in antique Roman urns - To warm the dead, and vainly light - Those only that see nothing by 't.--WAKEFIELD. - -[688] Heloisa to Abelard: "Whatever endeavours I use, on whatever side I -turn me, the sweet idea still pursues me, and every object brings to my -mind what I ought to forget. Even into holy places before the altar, I -carry with me the memory of our guilty loves. They are my whole -business." - -[689] Abelard to Heloisa: "In spite of severe fasts your image appears -to me, and confounds all my resolutions." - -[690] Sedley's verses on Don Alonzo: - - The gentle nymph, - Drops tears with every bead.--WAKEFIELD. - -The force of the line is, however, in the phrase "too soft" which Pope -has added. "With every bead I drop a tear of tender love instead of a -tear of bitter repentance." - -[691] Smith's Phaedra and Hippolytus, Act i.: - - All the idle pomp, - Priests, altars, victims swam before my sight.--STEEVENS. - -[692] How finely does this glowing imagery introduce the transition, - - While prostrate here, &c.--BOWLES. - -[693] The whole of this paragraph is from Abelard's letter to Heloisa: - -"I am a miserable sinner prostrate before my judge, and with my face -pressed to the earth I mix my tears and sighs in the dust when the beams -of grace and reason enlighten me. Come, see me in this posture and -solicit me to love you! Come, if you think fit, and in your holy habit -thrust yourself between God and me, and be a wall of separation! Come -and force from me those sighs, thoughts, and vows which I owe to him -only! Assist the evil spirits and be the instrument of their malice! But -rather withdraw yourself and contribute to my salvation." - -[694] Abelard to Heloisa: "Let me remove far from you, and obey the -apostle who hath said, fly." - -[695] Wakefield quotes the lines of Hopkins to a lady, where, speaking -of her beauties, he entreats that she will - - Drive 'em somewhere, as far as pole from pole; - Let winds between us rage, and waters roll. - -[696] Abelard to Heloisa: "It will always be the highest love to show -none: I here release you of all your oaths and engagements to me." - -[697] The combination "heavenly-fair" is also found in Sandys, Congreve, -and Tickell.--WAKEFIELD. - -[698] "Low-thoughted care" is from Milton's Comus.--WARTON. - -[699] This resembles a passage in Crashaw: - - Fair hope! our earlier heaven.--WAKEFIELD. - -[700] "It should," says Mr. Mills, "be _near_ her cell. The doors of all -cells open into the common cloister. In that cloister are often tombs." -Steevens adds the frivolous objection that the "Paraclete had been too -recently founded for monuments of the dead to be expected there." -Heloisa had been five years abbess when she wrote her first letter to -Abelard, and it is certainly not an extravagant supposition that a death -might have occurred among the nuns in that space of time. - -[701] Dryden's Palamon and Arcite: - - And issuing sighs that smoked along the wall.--WAKEFIELD. - -Addison's translation of a passage from Claudian: - - Oft in the winds is heard a plaintive sound - Of melancholy ghosts that hover round. - -[702] Fenton's translation of Sappho to Phaon: - - Here, while by sorrow lulled to sleep I lay, - Thus said the guardian nymph, or seemed to say.--WAKEFIELD. - -Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 4: - - Hark! you are called: some say, the Genius so - Cries, "Come!" to him that instantly must die. - -[703] Pope owes much throughout this poem to the character of Dido as -drawn by Virgil, and this passage seems directly formed upon one in -Dryden, AEn. iv. 667: - - Oft when she visited this lonely dome - Strange voices issued from her husband's tomb: - She thought she heard him summon her away, - Invite her to his grave, and chide her stay. - -The imitation of the passage in Ovid, Epist. vii. 101, similar to this -from Virgil, is still more palpable: - - Hinc ego me sensi noto quater ore citari: - Ipse sono tenui dixit, "Elissa, veni!" - Nulla mora est; venio; venio, tibi debita conjux.--WAKEFIELD. - -[704] It is well contrived that this invisible speaker should be a -person that had been under the very same kind of misfortunes with -Eloisa.--WARTON. - -[705] Dryden's version of the latter part of the third book of -Lucretius: - - But all is there serene in that eternal sleep.--WAKEFIELD. - -[706] In the first edition: - - I come ye ghosts.--WAKEFIELD. - -[707] Ogilby, Virg. AEn. xi.: - - And to the dead our last sad duties pay. - -Dryden, AEn. xi. 322: - - Perform the last sad office to the slain.--WAKEFIELD. - -[708] Dryden's Aurengezebe at the commencement of Act iv.: - - I thought before you drew your latest breath, - To sooth your passage, and to soften death. - -[709] Oldham's translation of Bion on the death of Adonis: - - Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eye-balls roll, - Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul. - -Dryden's Virg. AEn. iv. 984: - - While I in death - Lay close my lips to hers, and catch the flying breath. - -And in his Cleomenes, the end of Act iv.: - - ----sucking in each other's latest breath.--WAKEFIELD. - -[710] Rowe's ode to Delia: - - When e'er it comes, may'st thou be by, - Support my sinking frame, and teach me how to die.--WAKEFIELD. - -[711] Dryden AEn., xi. 1194: - - And from her cheeks the rosy colour flies. - -[712] Abelard to Heloisa: "You shall see me to strengthen your piety by -the horror of this carcase, and my death, then more eloquent than I can -be, will tell you what you love when you love a man." - -[713] Spenser, Faerie Queen, i. 4, 45: - - Cause of my new grief, cause of new joy.--WAKEFIELD. - -[714] Abelard and Eloisa were interred in the same grave, or in -monuments adjoining, in the monastery of the Paraclete. He died in the -year 1142, she in 1163 [4].--POPE. - -Abelard and Heloisa are said to have been both sixty-three when they -died. They were buried in the same crypt, but it was not till 1630, or -near five hundred years after the death of Heloisa, that their remains -were consigned to the same grave. Then their bones are reported to have -been put into a double coffin, divided by a partition of lead. They -subsequently underwent various disinterments and removals, till in 1817 -the alleged relics were transferred to the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise, at -Paris, and have not since been disturbed. - -[715] Dryden, in his translation of Canace to Macareus: - - I restrained my cries - And drunk the tears that trickled from my eyes.--WAKEFIELD. - -[716] Milton, Il Penseroso: - - There let the pealing organ blow - To the full-voiced choir below. - -[717] "Dreadful sacrifice" is the ritual term. So in the History of -Loretto, 1608, ch. 20, p. 278, "The priest, as the use is, assisted the -cardinal in the time of the dreadful sacrifice."--STEEVENS. - -[718] Warton says that the eight concluding lines of the Epistle "are -rather flat and languid." It is indeed an absurd supposition that a -woman who had been speaking the fervid language of christianity should -imagine that her state in the world beyond the grave would be that of a -"pensive ghost," and that her consolation would consist in having her -woes "well-sung" on earth. And it is in the tremendous conflict between -piety and passion, while divine and human love are contending fiercely -for the mastery, that she finds relief in this unsubstantial idea that -some future lover would make her the subject of a poem. - -[719] The last line is imitated from Addison's Campaign. - - Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright-- - Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast, - And those who paint them truest, praise them most. - -This Pope had in his thoughts; but not knowing how to use what was not -his own, he spoiled the thought when he had borrowed it. Martial -exploits may be painted; perhaps woes may be painted; but they are -surely not painted by being well sung: it is not easy to paint in song, -or to sing in colours.--JOHNSON. - -[720] Roscoe supposes Richardson to have asserted that there was an -"entire discrepancy between the Essay on Man as published, and the -original manuscripts," and to have implied that the change was from -"infidelity" to its opposite. This is not the statement of Richardson. -He says, on the contrary, that when the "exceptionable passages" were -pointed out Pope "did not think of altering them," and "never dreamed of -adopting" a more orthodox "scheme" for his Essay till after "its -fatalism and deistical tendency" had excited that "general alarm" which -could not precede the publication of the poem, and which only, in fact, -commenced some three years later. Richardson is enforcing his charge -against Warburton of inventing forced meanings, and the instance would -contradict the accusation if Pope had altered his language from deism to -orthodoxy before he printed the work. The commentary would then have -expressed the natural sense of the text. The change of which Richardson -speaks was not in the Essay itself, but in the interpretation Pope put -upon it. While he was composing the poem he accepted the deistical -construction of the Richardsons; and when he was terrified at the -"general alarm" he endorsed the christian construction of Warburton. - -[721] Dr. Desaguliers, the son of a French refugee, was born at Rochelle -in 1683, and died, Feb. 29, 1744, at the Bedford Coffee-house, Covent -Garden. He was a clergyman of the church of England, a great lover of -science, and a friend of Newton. He delivered lectures for many years on -Experimental Philosophy, and published an excellent work on the subject -in 2 vols. 4to. He does not appear to have shown any turn for poetry, -and those who ascribed to him the Essay on Man may have had no better -ground for their opinion than that the poem treated of one kind of -philosophy, and Desaguliers was learned in another. - -[722] Thomas Catesby, Lord Paget, son of the Earl of Uxbridge, died -before his father in Jan. 1742. He published in 1734, a poem called An -Essay on Human Life; and in 1737 An Epistle to Mr. Pope, in -Anti-heroics. "The former," says Horace Walpole, "is written in -imitation of Pope's ethic epistles, and has good lines, but not much -poetry." - -[723] In the Life of Pope by the pretended Squire Ayre, it is said that -"a certain gentleman," meaning Mallet, was at Pope's house shortly after -the first Epistle was published, and in answer to the question "What new -pieces were brought to light?" replied, "That there was a thing come out -called an Essay on Man, and it was a most abominable piece of stuff; -shocking poetry, insufferable philosophy, no coherence, no connection at -all." Pope confessed he was the author, which, says Ayre, "was like a -clap of thunder to the mistaken bard; with a blush and a bow he took his -leave of Pope, and never ventured to show his unlucky face there again." -The final statement is contradicted by the letters of Pope and Mallet, -which prove that they carried on a cordial intercourse to the last. The -rest of the story is improbable, for it is not likely that Pope, who was -bent at this early period upon keeping the authorship a secret, would -have unmasked himself in a manner to preclude confidence, and provoke -Mallet to divulge the truth to the world. Ayre's authority is good for -nothing, and Ruffhead only copied Ayre, but his repetition of the -anecdote gave it currency, and it has ever since passed unquestioned -from writer to writer. - -[724] Warburton. "Your Travels I hear much of," says Pope in the letter -to Swift; "my own I promise you shall never more be in a strange land, -but a diligent, I hope, useful investigation of my own territories. I -mean no more translations, but something domestic, fit for my own -country, and my own time." The allusion is obscure, and it may be -doubted whether Pope referred to his ethical scheme, which he did not -commence till four years later. - -[725] Bolingbroke. - -[726] The authority was Lord Bathurst. Dr. Hugh Blair dined with him in -1763, and says in a letter to Boswell, that "the conversation turning on -Mr. Pope, Lord Bathurst told us that the Essay on Man was originally -composed by Lord Bolingbroke in prose, and that Mr. Pope did no more -than put it into verse: that he had read Lord Bolingbroke's manuscript -in his own handwriting, and remembered well that he was at a loss -whether most to admire the elegance of Lord Bolingbroke's prose, or the -beauty of Mr. Pope's verse." Boswell read the account to Johnson, who -replied, "Depend upon it, sir, this is too strongly stated. Pope may -have had from Bolingbroke the philosophic stamina of his Essay, and -admitting this to be true, Lord Bathurst did not intentionally falsify. -But the thing is not true in the latitude that Blair seems to imagine; -we are sure that the poetical imagery, which makes a great part of the -poem, was Pope's own." - -[727] The first treatise of Crousaz was translated by Miss Carter, and -published in 1738, under the title of An Examination of Mr. Pope's Essay -on Man. The second treatise was translated by Johnson himself, and -published in 1742, with the title, A Commentary on Mr. Pope's Principles -of Morality. - -[728] Theobald's Shakespeare was published in 1733, the same year with -the first three epistles of the Essay on Man. - -[729] Warburton's first letter in vindication of Pope appeared in The -Works of the Learned, December 1738. The journal called The Present -State of the Republic of Letters, had come to an end in 1736. - -[730] Jacob Robinson, a bookseller in Fleet-street, was the publisher of -The Works of the Learned, to which Warburton sent his five letters in -reply to Crousaz. - -[731] This was done in 1740, when the five letters were expanded into -six. A seventh letter was added in a subsequent edition, and the whole -was re-arranged in four letters in the edition of 1742. - -[732] Ruffhead's Life of Pope, p. 219. - -[733] Warton states that Dobson relinquished the undertaking from the -impossibility of preserving in Latin verse the conciseness of the -English. He appears to have accomplished half his task; for when -Christopher Smart subsequently volunteered his services, Pope said in -his reply, Nov. 18, 1740, "The two first epistles are already well -done." A specimen from Dobson's translation of each of these epistles -was among the papers of Spence, and is printed in the appendix to Mr. -Singer's edition of the Anecdotes. A version of the Essay in Latin -hexameters appeared at Wirtemberg. This, Pope tells Smart, was "very -faithful but inelegant," and he adds that his reason for desiring a more -adequate rendering was that either the sense or the poetry was lost in -all the foreign translations. - -[734] By "his friend," Johnson means Warburton, not Dobson. - -[735] This sort of burlesque abstract, which may be so easily but so -unjustly made of any composition whatever, is exactly similar to the -imperfect and unfair representation which the same critic has given of -the beautiful imagery in Il Penseroso of Milton.--WARTON. - -Johnson's criticism of a poem like this, cannot be compared with his -futile declamation against the imagery of the Penseroso. For in speaking -of the Penseroso, Johnson spoke of what I do not hesitate to say he did -not understand. He had no congenial feelings properly to appreciate the -character of such poetry; but the case is different where he brings his -great mind to try, by the test of truth, arguments and doctrines which -appeal to the understanding. Johnson was not an inadequate judge of -Pope's philosophy, though he was certainly so of Milton's poetry. But no -composition could possibly stand before his contemptuous -declamation.--BOWLES. - -[736] Bowles himself had a low opinion of the "system of philosophy" -embodied in the Essay on Man. After stating that Pope was the pupil of -Bolingbroke, he adds, "But this poem will continue to charm from the -music of its verse, the splendour of its diction, and the beauty of its -illustrations, when the philosophy that gave rise to it, like the coarse -manure that fed the flowers, is perceived and remembered no more." - -[737] Burke's Works, ed. 1808, vol. v. p. 172. - -[738] Spence, p. 108, 127. - -[739] Essay on Man, Epist. iv. ver. 391. Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. -p. 40. "You have begun at my request the work which I have wished long -that you would undertake." - -[740] Spence, p. 238. - -[741] Spence, p. 36. - -[742] Spence, p. 103. - -[743] Pope to Swift, Sept. 15, 1734. - -[744] Spence, p. 12. - -[745] Warton's Essay on the Genius of Pope, 5th ed. vol. ii. p. 149. - -[746] "It may safely," says Lord Kames, "be pronounced a capital defect -in the composition of a verse, to put a low word, incapable of an -accent, in the place where this accent should be," and he instances the -last syllable of "dependencies," in Pope's Essay on Man, Epist. i. ver. -30: - - But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, - The strong connections, nice dependencies, - Gradations just, &c. - -What appeared a defect to Lord Kames will seem to many persons an -advantage. The want of accent softens the rhyme, and relieves the -monotonous, cloying effect of a full concord of sound. In most of Pope's -imperfect rhymes the similarity of sound is too slight, and the ear is -disappointed. - -[747] Letters by Eminent Persons, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 48. - -[748] Spence, p. 108. - -[749] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 335. - -[750] Bolingbroke's Works, Philadelphia, vol. iii. pp. 40, 45; vol. iv. -p. 111. - -[751] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 336. - -[752] Grimouard, Essai sur Bolingbroke, quoted by Cooke, Memoirs of -Bolingbroke, vol. ii. p. 96. - -[753] Chesterfield's Works, ed. Mahon, vol. ii. p. 445. - -[754] Ruffhead, Life of Pope, p. 219. The manuscript of this passage -exists in Warburton's handwriting. Ruffhead altered two or three words, -which are here restored from the original. - -[755] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 91. - -[756] Spence, who wrote down the anecdote from Warburton's conversation, -says that Hooke talked of "Lord Bolingbroke's disbelief of the moral -attributes of God," which agrees substantially with the language in -Ruffhead. - -[757] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 320. - -[758] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. pp. 23, 24; vol. iii. p. 430. - -[759] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 111. - -[760] Essay on Man, Epist. ii. ver. 1; iv. ver. 398, and the additional -couplet in the note. - -[761] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. pp. 175, 152. - -[762] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 335. - -[763] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 88. - -[764] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 336. - -[765] Warburton, Note on Epist. ii. ver. 149. - -[766] Warburton, Note on Epist. iii. ver. 303. - -[767] Warburton, Note on Epist. iii. ver. 303. - -[768] Epist. ii. ver. 274; Epist. iii. ver. 286. - -[769] Epist. iii. ver. 305. - -[770] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. p. 335. - -[771] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 436. - -[772] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. pp. 333, 366. "The imperfection of -the parts," says Leibnitz, Opera, p. 638, "produce a greater perfection -in the whole." According to his custom, Bolingbroke copied Leibnitz -without naming him. - -[773] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 41. - -[774] Pope's Correspondence, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 339. - -[775] Pope's Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 339, 345, 346, 348. - -[776] Spence, p. 107. - -[777] Middleton to Warburton, Jan. 7, 1740. - -[778] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 262. - -[779] Spence, p. 238. - -[780] Watson's Life of Warburton, p. 15. - -[781] Warburton's Letters to Hurd, p. 224. - -[782] Tyers, Historical Rhapsody, p. 78. - -[783] For this we have the authority of Dr. Law, the Bishop of Carlisle, -in the preface to his translation of King's Origin of Evil. - -[784] Prior's Life of Malone, p. 430. Warton's Pope, vol. i. p. xlv. - -[785] Warburton's Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, ed. 1742, p. -182. - -[786] Warburton's Pope, Essay on Man, Epist. ii. ver. 31. - -[787] Warton's Pope, vol. iii. p. 162. - -[788] Warburton's Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, p. 121. - -[789] Warburton's Letters to Hurd, p. 224. - -[790] Warburton to Dr. Doddridge, Feb. 12, 1739, in Nichols, -Illustrations of Literary History, vol. ii. p. 816. - -[791] Warburton's Vindication of Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, 1740, p. 83. - -[792] Nichols, Illustrations of Literary History, vol. ii. p. 113. - -[793] Warburton's Pope, Epist. iv. ver. 394. - -[794] Warton's Pope, vol. ix. p. 342. - -[795] Nichols, Illustrations of Lit. Hist., vol. ii. p. 53. - -[796] Warburton's Works, vol. xii. pp. 92, 185. - -[797] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 53. - -[798] Pope to Warburton, Sept. 20, 1739; Jan. 4, 1740. - -[799] Oeuvres de Louis Racine, ed. 1808, tom. i. p. 444. "If," said -Voltaire, "Pope wrote this letter to Racine, God must have given him at -the close of his life the gift of tongues." Voltaire repeats three times -over in his works, that he associated with Pope for a twelvemonth, and -knew, what was publicly notorious in England, that he could hardly read -French, and could not speak one word or write one line of the language. -The objection was founded on the mistaken assumption that the French -translation was the original letter. In the later editions of Racine's -poem the letter is printed from Pope's English. Voltaire was annoyed -that Pope should "retract" his deism, and wanted to have it believed -that Ramsay alone was responsible for the sentiments expressed in the -letter to Racine. - -[800] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 457. - -[801] Ruffhead, Life of Pope, p. 542. Spence, p. 277. - -[802] Oeuvres de Louis Racine, tom. i. p. 451. - -[803] Oeuvres de Louis Racine, tom. i. p. 442. - -[804] Spence, p. 231. - -[805] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 62. - -[806] Epist. ii. ver. i. - -[807] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 52. - -[808] Leibnitz, Opera Philosophica, ed. Erdmann, pp. 506, 544. - -[809] Hume's Essays, ed. 1809, vol. ii. pp. 146, 147, 152. - -[810] Hume's Essays, vol. ii. p. 153. - -[811] John, xv. 2. - -[812] Phillimore's Life of Lord Lyttelton, vol. i. p. 304. - -[813] Leibnitz, Opera, p. 628. - -[814] Epist. i. ver. 159, 151-4. - -[815] Epist. i. ver. 141-6. - -[816] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iv. p. 366. - -[817] Leibnitz, Opera, pp. 571, 577. - -[818] Epist. i. ver. 147, iv. ver. 115. - -[819] Epist. iv. ver. 116, note. - -[820] Leibnitz, Opera, pp. 312, 431, 507, 603. - -[821] Epist. i. ver. 241-258. - -[822] Epist. i. ver. 47-8. - -[823] Epist. i. ver. 43-50. - -[824] Voltaire, Oeuvres, tom. xlvii. p. 98. - -[825] Jeremiah, ix. 23, 24. - -[826] John, xiv. 9. - -[827] Epist. ii. ver. 1-2. - -[828] Epist. ii. ver. 3-18. - -[829] Epist. i. 61-8. - -[830] Epist. ii. ver. 53-8. - -[831] Warburton's Commentary, Epist. ii. ver. 53. - -[832] Epist. ii. ver. 235-8. - -[833] Epist. ii. ver. 53. - -[834] Epist. i. ver. 131. - -[835] Epist. ii. ver. 126. - -[836] Madame de Stael, De l'Allemagne, Part iii., Chap. 16. - -[837] Butler's Sermons, Oxford, 1835, pp. xx., 8, 161. - -[838] A man may eat from principle, which often happens with the sick -when they are wishing to die, and appetite is extinct. For the same -reason they may eat delicacies when the stomach rebels against common -fare. This was the case with Pascal in his illness, and, from a mistaken -asceticism, he endeavoured to swallow the choice food without tasting -it. - -[839] Epist. ii. ver. 70, 113, 116, 119-22. - -[840] Epist. ii. ver. 131-148, 157. - -[841] Epist. ii. ver. 138, 147. - -[842] Crousaz's Commentary on Pope's Essay, translated by Johnson, p. -109. - -[843] Fable of the Bees, ninth edition, vol. i. p. 137. - -[844] Epist. ii. ver. 175, 197. - -[845] Epist. ii. ver. 185-194. - -[846] Epist. ii. ver. 59, 67. - -[847] Epist. ii. ver. 147. - -[848] Epist. ii. ver. 201. - -[849] Matthew, xii. 33. - -[850] Epist. iii. ver. 261. - -[851] Epist. ii. ver. 185-194, 196. - -[852] Spence, p. 9. - -[853] Epist. ii. ver. 216, note. - -[854] Epist. ii. ver. 245. - -[855] Epist. ii. ver. 285-292. - -[856] Epist. ii. ver. 291. Spence, p. 109. - -[857] Epist. ii. ver. 238. - -[858] Argument of Epist. ii. - -[859] Epist. ii. ver. 241-4. - -[860] Epist. ii. ver. 272. - -[861] Epist. ii. ver. 286-7. - -[862] Epist. ii. ver. 288. - -[863] Epist. ii. ver. 268. - -[864] Bolingbroke, Works, vol. iv. p. 154. - -[865] Epist. ii. ver. 273. - -[866] Epist. ii. ver. 275-282. - -[867] Epist. ii. ver. 293-4. - -[868] Epist. iii. ver. 149. - -[869] Epist. iii. ver. 209. - -[870] Epist. iii. ver. 232-40. - -[871] Epist. iii. ver. 201-6. - -[872] Epist. iii. ver. 149-168. - -[873] Epist. iii. ver. 245. - -[874] Epist. iii. ver. 221. - -[875] Epist. iii. ver. 154, 217. - -[876] Epist. i. ver. 165-170. - -[877] Epist. iii. ver. 169-198. - -[878] Epist. iii. ver. 179-182. - -[879] Epist. iii. ver. 183-188, 210. - -[880] Epist. iii. ver. 303. - -[881] Epist. iii. ver. 269, 279. - -[882] Epist. iii. ver. 305. - -[883] Epist. iii. ver. 307-310. - -[884] Epist. iv. ver. 331. - -[885] Epist. iv. ver. 111-115. - -[886] Spence, p. 107. - -[887] Spence, p. 206. - -[888] Epist. i. ver. 16. - -[889] The Design, _post_, p. 343. - -[890] Epist. iii. ver. 19. - -[891] Epist. i. ver. 73, 93-4. - -[892] Epist. iv. ver. 310. Argument to Epist. iv. - -[893] Epist. iv. ver. 66. - -[894] Epist. iv. ver. 167-172. - -[895] Mackintosh, Miscellaneous Works, ed. 1851, p. 13. - -[896] Epist. iv. ver. 57. - -[897] Epist. iv. ver. 69-72. - -[898] Recollections by Samuel Rogers, pp. 31, 35. - -[899] Argument to Epist. iv. - -[900] Epist. iv. ver. 77-80. - -[901] Bolingbroke's Works, Vol. iv., p. 378. - -[902] Epist. iv. ver. 149. - -[903] Epist. iv. ver. 87. - -[904] Epist. iv. ver. 89. - -[905] Epist. iv. ver. 98. - -[906] Epist. iv. ver. 99-102. - -[907] Epist. iv. ver. 98, 121-130. - -[908] Matt. x. 29-31. - -[909] Wollaston, Religion of Nature Delineated, 7th ed., p. 192. - -[910] Epist. iv. ver. 105. - -[911] Epist. iv. ver. 149-155. - -[912] Epist. iv. ver. 156. - -[913] Philipp. iv. 11. - -[914] Heb. xii. 11. - -[915] Epist. iv. ver. 157-166. - -[916] Epist. iv. ver. 189-192. - -[917] Epist. iv. ver. 193-204. - -[918] Epist. iv. ver. 205-258. - -[919] Epist. iv. ver. 259-268. - -[920] Henry V., Act iv., Sc. 1. - -[921] Epist. ii. ver. 85. - -[922] Epist. iv. ver. 19. - -[923] Epist. iv. ver. 23, 28. - -[924] Bolingbroke's Works, vol. iii. p. 286. - -[925] Epist. iv. ver. 29. - -[926] Epist. ii. ver. 35-42. - -[927] Epist. iv. ver. 29-34. - -[928] Rasselas, chap. xxii. - -[929] Butler, Sermons, Preface, pp. vii., xi. - -[930] Bolingbroke, Works, vol. iv. p. 430. - -[931] The Design. See _post_, p. 344. - -[932] De Quincey, Works, ed. 1863, vol. viii. pp. 21, 51; xii. pp, 25, -33. - -[933] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. p. 44. - -[934] Johnson, Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. p. 105. - -[935] De Quincey, Works, vol. xii. p. 32. - -[936] Voltaire, Oeuvres, tom. xii. p. 156; xxxvii. p. 260. - -[937] Marmontel, Elements de Litterature, Art. Epitre. - -[938] Dugald Stewart, Works, ed. Hamilton, vol. vii. p. 133. - -[939] Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Poets, ed. 1841, p. 147. - -[940] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. p. 42. - -[941] Life of Byron by Moore, 1 vol. ed. p. 696. - -[942] Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Poets, pp. 375, 377-8. - -[943] Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Poets, p. 374. - -[944] De Quincey, Works, vol. xii. pp. 21, 22. - -[945] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. pp. 45-50; xii. 297-303. - -[946] Marmontel, Elements de Litterature, Art. Didactique. - -[947] Bolingbroke, Works, vol. iii. p. 44. - -[948] Bolingbroke, Works, vol. ii. p. 220; iii. p. 128. - -[949] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. p. 50. - -[950] Milton, Comus, ver. 476. - -[951] Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Poets, p. 378. - -[952] De Quincey, Works, vol. viii. p. 51. - -[953] Taine, Histoire de la Litterature Anglaise, 2nd ed. tom. iii. p. -91; iv. pp. 172-176, 203. - -[954] Taine, tom. iv. p. 175. - -[955] This prefatory notice only appeared in the first edition of the -first epistle. - -[956] "Whose" is by some authors made the possessive case of "which," -and applied to things as well as persons.--LOWTH. - -[957] Two "Epistles to Mr. Pope concerning the Authors of the Age," by -the poet Young. They were published in 1730. - -[958] The second Epistle of the Essay on Man had the brief preface which -follows: "The author has been induced to publish these Epistles -separately for two reasons, the one that he might not impose upon the -public too much at once of what he thinks incorrect; the other, that by -this method he might profit of its judgment on the parts, in order to -make the whole less unworthy of it." - -[959] "The Design" was prefixed in 1735, when Pope inserted the four -Epistles of the Essay on Man in his works. - -[960] The early editions have "forming out of all." - -[961] For "St. John" the manuscript has "Memmius," and the first edition -"Laelius." Memmius was an author and orator of no great distinction to -whom Lucretius dedicated his De Rerum Natura. Laelius was celebrated for -his statesmanship, his philosophical pursuits, and his friendship, and -is described by Horace as delighting, on his retirement from public -affairs, in the society of the poet Lucilius. Thus the name was fitted -to the functions of Bolingbroke, and the relation in which he stood to -Pope. - -[962] Pope's manuscript supplies various readings of this line: - - puzzled to flattered - puzzling to blustering - grovelling low-thoughted - To working statesmen and ambitious kings. - -In a letter to Swift, Dec. 19, 1734, Pope says that the couplet was a -monitory, and ineffectual hint to Bolingbroke, to give up politics for -philosophy. If the censure was directed against the party vices of the -man the reproof is inconsistent with the eulogy on his patriotism, -Epist. iv. ver. 265, and if against his pursuit in the abstract, it is -folly to say that statesmanship is one of the "meaner things" which -should be left to "low ambition," and empty "pride." - -[963] MS.: - - Since life, my friend, can, etc. - -[964] Denham, of Prudence: - - Learn to live well, that thou may'st die so too: - To live and die is all we have to do: - -the latter of which verses our poet has inserted without alteration in -his Prologue to the Satires, ver. 262.--WAKEFIELD. - -[965] This exordium relates to the whole work, first in general, then in -particular. The 6th, 7th, and 8th lines allude to the subjects of this -book,--the general order and design of Providence; the constitution of -the human mind, whose passions cultivated are virtues, neglected vices; -the temptations of misapplied self-love, and wrong pursuits of power, -pleasure, and false happiness.--POPE. - -"The whole work" was to have been in four books, and the phrase "this -book" means the four published Epistles of the Essay on Man, which were -to form the first book of the full design. - -[966] In the first edition, - - A mighty maze of walks without a plan. - -This Pope altered because, says Johnson, "if there was no plan it was -vain to describe or to trace the maze." - -[967] The 6th verse alludes to the subject of this first Epistle--the -state of man here and hereafter, disposed by Providence, though to him -unknown.--POPE. - -[968] Alludes to the subject of the second Epistle,--the passions, their -good or evil.--POPE. - -[969] Alludes to the subject of the fourth Epistle,--of man's various -pursuits of happiness or pleasure.--POPE. - -[970] The 10th, 13th, and 14th verses allude to the subject of the -second Epistle of the second book,--the characters of men and -manners.--POPE. - -The four published Moral Essays were a portion of the projected second -book. - -[971] The 11th and 12th verses allude to the subject of the first -Epistle of the second book,--the limits of reason, learning, and -ignorance.--POPE. - -This Epistle was never written, but some part of the matter was -incorporated into the fourth Book of the Dunciad. - -[972] MS.: - - Of all that blindly creep the tracts explore, - And all the dazzled race that blindly soar. - -Those who "blindly creep" are the ignorant and indifferent; those who -"sightless soar" are the presumptuous, who endeavour to transcend the -bounds prescribed to the intellect of man. - -[973] Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Part ii.: - - while he with watchful eye - Observes, and shoots their treasons as they fly.--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden, Aurengzebe, Act iii.: - - Youth should watch joys and shoot 'em as they fly. - -[974] These metaphors, drawn from the field sports of setting and -shooting, seem much below the dignity of the subject, and an unnatural -mixture of the ludicrous and serious.--WARTON. - -They are the more so as Pope is not content with barely touching the -metaphor of shooting _en passant_, but pursues it with so much -minuteness. Let us "_beat_ this ample field,"--"_try_ what the _covert_ -yields,"--"_eye_ nature's walks,"--"_shoot_ folly." An illustration, if -not at all dignified, or in correspondence with the theme, should not be -pursued so minutely that the mind must perforce observe its -meanness.--BOWLES. - -[975] "Candid" here bears the unusual sense of "lenient and favourable -in our judgment." - -[976] Alludes to the subject which runs through the whole design,--the -justification of the methods of Providence.--POPE. - -Milton, Par. Lost, i. 26: - - And justify the ways of God to men.--WARTON. - -[977] The last part of the verse is barbarously elliptical. The meaning -is that all our reasonings respecting the end of man must be drawn from -his station here, and to this station we must refer all that we learn -respecting him. Since we can know nothing but what relates to our -present condition, the doctrine of a future life is excluded. - -[978] MS.: - - Through endless worlds His endless works are known, - But ours, etc. - -[979] MS.: - - He who can all the flaming limits pierce, - Of worlds on worlds that form one universe. - -[980] "And what" was the reading of all editions till that of 1743. -Wollaston's Religion of Nature, ed. 1750, p. 143: "The fixed stars are -so many other suns with their several sets of planets about them." - -[981] MS.: - - What other habitants in ev'ry star. - -[982] This was the reading of the first edition which Pope ultimately -restored, but in the edition of 1735 the line stands thus: - - May tell why heav'n made all things as they are. - -Pope's assertion in the text that it is impossible for us to "tell why -heaven has made us as we are," unless we had a complete insight into the -plan of universal creation, contradicts ver. 48, where he says that "it -is plain there must be somewhere such a rank as man." - -[983] First edition: "And centres." - -[984] Bolingbroke, Fragment 43: "As distant as are the various systems, -and systems of systems that compose the universe, and different as we -may imagine them to be, they are all tied together by relations and -connections, by gradations and dependencies."--WAKEFIELD. - -[985] Pascal's Thoughts, translated by Dr. Kennet, 2nd ed., 1727, p. -288: "If a man did but begin with the study of himself he would soon -find how incapable he was of proceeding further. For what possibility is -there that the part should contain the whole?" - -[986] I should have pointed out the expression and great effect of this -line as illustrating the subject it describes; but Ruffhead says "it is -the most heavy, languid, and unpoetical of all Pope ever wrote, and that -the expletive 'to' before the verb is unpardonable."--BOWLES. - -[987] An allusion to the golden chain of Homer, which the poet -represents as sustained by Jove, with the whole creation appended to -it.--WAKEFIELD. - -[988] "Why one reason," says Wakefield, "should be harder than the other -I am unable to discern." The passage is taken, as Warton pointed out, -from Voltaire's remarks on Pascal's Thoughts, but Voltaire put the -questions on the same footing, and did not pretend that the second was -harder to solve than the first. "You are astonished," he says "that God -has made man so contracted, so ignorant, and so unhappy. Why are you not -astonished that he has not made him more contracted, more ignorant, and -more unhappy?" Neither question ought to have presented any difficulty -to Pope, since it was "plain" to him that "the best possible system" -required that "there should be somewhere such a rank as man." All who -admit the attributes of the Deity must allow that every portion of the -world, sentient or insensible, is the consummation of wisdom with -reference to its place in the infinite and eternal scheme. "God," says -Leibnitz, "does not even neglect inanimate things; they are unconscious, -but God is conscious for them. He would reproach himself with the least -real defect in the universe, although no one perceived it." - -[989] Wakefield quotes Milton, Par. Lost, iii. 460, where the phrase -"those argent fields" is applied to the heavens. - -[990] This word is commonly pronounced in prose with the e mute in the -plural, as in the singular, and is therefore only of three syllables; -but Pope has in the plural continued the Latin form and assigned it -four. I think, improperly.--JOHNSON. - -[991] Pope says that we cannot tell why Jupiter's satellites are less -than Jupiter. Any mathematician could have shown him that if Jupiter was -less than his satellites they would not revolve round him.--VOLTAIRE. - -Warburton, to evade Voltaire's criticism, put a strained and -paraphrastic interpretation upon Pope's lines. Their natural meaning is, -that man is too ignorant to comprehend why he is not less instead of -greater,--nay, that he cannot even tell why oaks are taller than weeds, -why Jupiter's satellites are less than Jupiter, and all his -investigations into the earth and the heavens will not supply him with -the answer. - -[992] Pope did not generally condescend to the artificial inversion -which places the adjective after the substantive. Here, in a passage -where simplicity was an object, we have "systems possible" followed by -"wisdom infinite,"--combinations, too, which have the effect of -producing a disagreeable monotony, occurring in the same part of the -lines to which they respectively belong.--CONINGTON. - -[993] Bolingbroke, Fragment 43: "Since infinite wisdom not only -established the end, but directed the means, the system of the universe -must necessarily be the best of all possible systems."--WAKEFIELD. - -[994] There must be no interval, that is, between the parts, or they -will not cohere. - -[995] Bolingbroke, Fragment 43: "It might be determined in the divine -ideas that there should be a gradation of life and intellect throughout -the universe. In this case it was necessary that there should be some -creatures at our pitch of rationality."--WAKEFIELD. - -The theory of a chain of beings was adopted by Bolingbroke and Pope from -Archbishop King's Essay on the Origin of Evil. Arguing from the analogy -of our own world, King contended that a universe fully peopled with -superior natures would leave room for an inferior grade, and these for -lower grades still, in a continuously descending scale. There must -either be inferior creatures, or else voids in creation, and we may -presume that the maximum of existence is most conducive to the ends of -benevolence and wisdom. - -[996] MS.: - - Is but if God has placed his creature wrong. - -[997] Bolingbroke, Fragment 50: "The seeming imperfection of the parts -is necessary to the real perfection of the whole."--WAKEFIELD. - -The sentence quoted by Wakefield was copied by Bolingbroke from -Leibnitz. Lord Shaftesbury adopted the same hypothesis in his Inquiry -concerning Virtue. If, he says, our earth is a part only of some other -system, and if what is ill in our system makes for the good of the -general system, then there is nothing ill with respect to the whole. -Rousseau, who heartily embraced the doctrine, remarks that "we cannot -give direct proofs for or against, because these proofs depend on a -complete knowledge of the constitution of the universe, and of the ends -of its author." - -[998] Bolingbroke, Fragments 43 and 63: "We labour hard, we complicate -various means to bring about some one paltry purpose.--In the works of -men the most complicated schemes produce very hardly and very -uncertainly one single effect: in the works of God one single scheme -produces a multitude of different effects, and answers an immense -variety of purposes."--WAKEFIELD. - -How clearly and closely is this sentiment expressed by Pope, and yet how -difficult to render into verse with precision and effect.--BOWLES. - -In the first line the phrase "one single," for "one single movement," is -especially inelegant. Bowles might have selected many couplets from the -Essay on Man more deserving of the commendation. The thought which Pope -owed to Bolingbroke, Bolingbroke owed to Leibnitz, who says in his -Theodicee, "Everything in nature is connected, and if a skilful artizan, -engineer, architect, statesman, often makes the same contrivance serve -for several purposes, we may affirm that God, whose wisdom and power are -perfect, does so always." Hence Pope contends that what is defective in -man considered separately, may be advantageous in relation to the hidden -ends he is intended to serve. - -[999] Bolingbroke, Fragments 43: "We ought to consider the world no -otherwise than as a little wheel in our solar system; nor our solar -system any otherwise than as a little but larger wheel in the immense -machine of the universe; and both the one and the other necessary -perhaps to the motion of the whole."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1000] MS.: - - We see but here a part, etc. - -[1001] Since the monarchy of the universe is a dominion unlimited in -extent, and everlasting in duration, the general system of it must -necessarily be quite beyond our comprehension. And since there appears -such a subordination, and reference of the several parts to each other, -as to constitute it properly one administration or government, we cannot -have a thorough knowledge of any part without knowing the whole. This -surely should convince us that we are much less competent judges of the -very small part which comes under our notice in this world than we are -apt to imagine.--BISHOP BUTLER. - -[1002] MS.: - - When the proud steed shall know why man now reins - His stubborn neck, now drives, etc. - -[1003] In the former editions, - - Now wears a garland an Egyptian god.--WARBURTON. - -A bull was kept at Memphis by the Egyptians, and worshipped, under the -name of Apis, as a god. Other oxen were sacrificed to him, which brought -the bovine "victims" and the bovine "god" into direct contrast. - -[1004] Pope may mean that we cannot tell with respect to the general -scheme of Providence why we are made what we are, in which case he -unsays what he had said just before, that "it is plain there must be -somewhere such a rank as man." Or he may mean that we cannot tell with -respect to ourselves the use and end of our being and its vicissitudes, -in which case the doctrine would debase every person who received it, by -diverting him from his true end, which is to imitate and adore the -perfections of God. - -[1005] The expression, "as he ought," is imperfect for "ought to -be."--WARTON. - -[1006] Bolingbroke, Frag. 50: "The nature of every creature is adapted -to his state here, to the place he is to inhabit." - -[1007] This line is the application to man of the language which the -schoolmen applied to the Deity,--that his eternity was a moment, and his -immensity a point. The couplet in the MS. was at first as follows: - - Lord of a span, and hero of a day, - In one short scene to strut and pass away, - -[1008] MS.: - - What then, imports it whether here or there? - -[1009] Ed. 1: - - If to be perfect in a certain state, - What matter here or there, or soon or late? - And he that's bless'd to-day as fully so, - As who began ten thousand years ago. - -Omitted in the subsequent editions.--POPE. - -This note appeared, 1735, in vol. 2 of the quarto edition of Pope's -Poetical Works. The lines originally followed ver. 98, and when they -re-appeared in the text in 1743 they were shifted to their present -position. They are especially bad,--elliptical and prosaic in -expression, and sophistical in argument. The suffering which matters -nothing when it is over is not unimportant while it lasts. A prolonged -imprisonment in a noisome dungeon does not cease to be a penalty because -the captive will one day be free. The Bible recognises the bitterness of -human misery, but teaches that christians are to be reconciled to it on -account of the moral purposes it subserves, and the endless felicity -which ensues. Pope notes in his MS. that ver. 76 is "reversed from -Lucretius on death," and Wakefield quotes the translation of Dryden -which Pope copied: - - The man as much to all intents is dead - Who dies to-day, and will as long be so, - As he who died a thousand years ago. - -[1010] See this pursued in Epist. iii. ver. 66, etc., ver. 79, -etc.--POPE. - -[1011] This resembles Phaedrus, Fab. v. 15: - - Ipsi principes - Illam osculantur, qua sunt oppressi, manum.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1012] Matt. x. 29.--WARBURTON. - -Pope, in the MS., had expanded the idea, and added this couplet: - - No great, no little; 'tis as much decreed - That Virgil's Gnat should die as Caesar bleed. - -It is doubtful whether Virgil was the author of the Culex or Gnat, -which, says Mr. Long, "is a kind of Bucolic poem in 413 hexameters, -often very obscure." Pope's assertion that there is "no great, no -little," is contradicted by the passage in St. Matthew to which -Warburton refers. Our Lord there assures us that "we are of more value -than many sparrows," and the ruin of a world, with its myriad of -sentient beings, must be of infinitely greater moment in the sight of -the Deity than the bursting of a bubble. Pope repeats, ver. 279, a -statement which is repugnant to reason, to revelation, and to his own -system of a scale of beings. - -[1013] MS.: - - Systems like atoms into ruin hurled. - -[1014] Edit. 1. Fol. and Quart.: - - What bliss above he gives not thee to know, - But gives that hope to be thy bliss below. - -Further opened in Epist. ii. ver. 283. Epist. iii. ver. 74. Epist. iv. -ver. 346, etc.--POPE. - -[1015] Pope has frequently contradicted this line, and allowed that men -who place their happiness in right objects, and use the recognised -means, enjoy a present pleasure, in addition to the hope of an equal or -greater pleasure in the future. This hope in turn is constantly -realised, in contradiction to the lively saying ascribed to Lord Bacon, -that "hope makes a good breakfast, but a bad supper." - -[1016] All editions till that of 1743 had "at" for "from." The home of -the soul was this world according to the first reading, and the next -world according to the second. The alteration was made under the -auspices of Warburton to get rid of the imputation that Pope doubted or -disbelieved the immortality of the soul. - -[1017] MS.: - - Seeks God in clouds or on the wings of wind. - -The savage, that is, being ignorant of scientific laws, supposes the -wind and the rain to be produced directly by the Deity without the -interposition of secondary causes. - -[1018] Dryden, Threnod. August. Stanza 12: - - Out of the solar walk and heaven's highway.--HURD. - -[1019] The ancient opinion that the souls of the just went thither. See -Tully, Som. Scipion. and Manilius i. [ver. 733-799.]--POPE. - -Virtue is in Cicero the title of admission into the milky way, but the -version which Manilius gives of the popular creed assumes that the milky -way is the general receptacle for earthly celebrities, without any -special regard to their morals. - -[1020] Shakespeare, Tempest, Act iv. Sc. 1. "The cloud-capped towers." - -[1021] Dryden, AEn. vii. 310: - - From that dire deluge through the wat'ry waste.--WAKEFIELD. - -MS.: - - This hope kind nature's flattery has giv'n, - Behind his cloud-topp'd hills he builds a heav'n; - Some happier world which woods on woods infold, - Where never christian pierced for thirst of gold. - -Pope must have assumed that the Indian's hope of a blissful immortality -was an unsubstantial dream, or he would not have called it "nature's -_flattery_." - -[1022] MS.: - - Where gold ne'er grows, and never Spaniards come, - Where trees bear maize, and rivers flow with rum. - Exiled or chained he lets you understand - Death but returns him to his native land; - Or firm as martyrs, smiling yields the ghost, - Rich of a life that is not to be lost. - But does he say the Maker is not good, - Till he's exalted to what state he would: - Himself alone high heav'n's peculiar care, - Alone made happy when he will and where? - -There is an earlier form of the last couplet: - - He waits for bliss in a remoter sphere - Nor proudly claims it when he will and where. - -[1023] So in Homer, at the funeral of Patroclus, xxiii. 212, of our -poet's translation: - - Of nine large dogs, domestic at his board, - Fall two, selected to attend their lord.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1024] "Sense" is put for "the senses," and Pope exclaims against the -folly of censuring the government of God on the strength of the -imperfect information which the senses supply. - -[1025] Bolingbroke, Fragment 25: "This is to weigh his own opinion -against Providence." Pope adduces the contented faith of the savage to -rebuke the dissatisfaction of certain civilised men. The contrast -completely fails. The contentment and dissatisfaction are applied by -Pope to different objects, the contentment of the savage being limited -to his idea of a future life, whereas the dissatisfaction of civilised -man is said to be chiefly with his present condition, about which the -savage is often dissatisfied likewise. The imperfect information of -missionaries is not even sufficient warrant for asserting that all -Indians believed in a future state, and if there were dissentients among -them their case did not differ from that of civilised men. Above all the -contentment of the Indian is the result of grovelling views, and -uninquiring ignorance, and whatever may be the errors of infidels among -ourselves they cannot be remedied by an appeal to those blind -conceptions of the savage, which Pope supposed to be false. "Our -flattering ourselves here," he said to Spence, "with the thoughts of -enjoying the company of our friends when in the other world may be but -too like the Indians thinking that they shall have their dogs and horses -there." - -[1026] First edition: - - Pronounce He acts too little or too much. - -[1027] "Gust," or the relish for anything, is the opposite of "disgust," -and is applied by Pope to the pleasures of the palate. The word is found -in Dryden, and several other writers, but never came into general use. - -[1028] MS.: - - Yet if unhappy think tis He's unjust, - -which is the reading of the first edition, except that "thou" is -substituted for "if." - -[1029] The meaning cannot be that the caviller complained that other -creatures were made perfect as well as himself, because nobody supposed -that either men or animals were perfect. Pope apparently means that -these persons complained that man was not an exception to the general -law of imperfection and mortality, although he "alone" would then have -been "perfect" in this world, and immortal in the next. It follows that -the objectors disbelieved in the immortality of the soul, and that Pope -thought their demand for immortality unreasonable. - -[1030] The "balance" in which qualities are weighed; the "rod" with -which offences are chastised. - -[1031] Divines maintained that there must be a future state, or that -many of the phenomena of this life would be inexplicable. Bolingbroke -rejected a future state, and argued that this life was a scheme complete -in itself. All who did not concur in his view "joined," he said, "in a -clamour against Providence," and "murmured against his justice." Not -that they had ever uttered a syllable against Providence, for they were -devout and humble adorers of his perfections, but they denied that -Bolingbroke's scheme was God's scheme, and Bolingbroke in his arrogance -and passion insisted that whoever repudiated his philosophy set himself -up against God. Pope versified the declamation of Bolingbroke, without -pointing it to the class against whom it was originally directed. - -[1032] The first edition reads "In pride, my friend, in pride," and the -edition of 1735, "In reas'ning pride, my friend." - -[1033] Verbatim from Bolingbroke: "Men would be angels, and we see in -Milton that angels would be gods."--WARTON. - -Sir Fulk Greville, "Works, 1633, p. 73: - - Men would be tyrants, tyrants would be gods."--HURD. - -[1034] Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ed. Montagu, p. 267: -"Aspiring to be like God in power, the angels transgressed and fell; -aspiring to be like God in knowledge, man transgressed and fell." - -[1035] Piety must equally answer with grateful adoration that all these -things have been created for the use of man. The error of pride is in -the assumption that they have been created for man alone, who is only -one out of an infinity of creatures on our globe, as our globe again is -only a portion of a larger system. Hence Pope intends us to infer, that -it is folly for us to test all things by the consequences to ourselves. -The language, however, which he puts into the mouth of pride is -extravagant, and "can hardly," says M. Crousaz, "have been ever uttered -by any one, unless it were in jest." - -[1036] MS.: - - For me young nature decks her vernal bow'r, - Suckles each bud, and pencils ev'ry flow'r. - -[1037] Garth, Dispensary, i. 175: - - His couch a trench, his canopy the skies.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope remembered Isaiah lxvi. 1: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my -throne, and the earth is my footstool." No sane man could ever pretend -that "earth was his footstool," and Pope alone is responsible for the -unbecoming misapplication of the prophet's language. - -[1038] MS.: - - or when oceans - When earth quick swallows, inundations sweep. - -[1039] "A nation" in the first edition. The expression is hyperbolical. -Pope alludes to such catastrophes as the inundation of Jutland when the -sea broke down the dykes in 1634, and fifteen thousand people were -drowned. Irruptions on a smaller scale have sometimes been occasioned by -the rising of the sea during an earthquake. In that of 1783 the -inhabitants of Scilla, in the kingdom of Naples, deserted their city to -avoid being crushed by the falling houses, and fled to the shore. A -mighty wave, which swept three miles inland, carried back with it 2473 -persons, and their prince among the number. Cowper, The Task, ii. 117, -has recorded the tragedy in his grandest verse: - - Where now the throng - That pressed the beach, and hasty to depart, - Looked to the sea for safety? They are gone, - Gone with the refluent wave into the deep, - A prince with half his people. - -[1040] Pope says, that "earthquakes swallow towns _to_ one grave, whole -nations _to_ the deep," where "to" should be "in." But this would not -have suited the phrase "tempests sweep," and the poet preferred brevity -to correctness. - -[1041] First edition: - - Blame we for this the wise Almighty Cause; - No, 'tis replied, he acts by gen'ral laws. - -The government by general laws, we are told, has "a few exceptions," -which must either refer to the scripture miracles, which Pope did not -believe when he wrote the Essay on Man, or to the doctrine of a special -providence, which he opposes in the fourth epistle. - -[1042] "Some change" for "there has been some change," is bad English. -The argument is not superior to the language. Plagues, earthquakes, and -tempests, say the vindicators of nature, may in part be explained by the -changes which have taken place since the creation of the world. Pope, -Epist. iv. ver. 115, repeats that "evil" has been "admitted" through -"change." As no reason is assigned for this conversion of physical good -into physical evil, the supposition does not diminish the difficulty. - -[1043] On a cursory reading we might understand Pope to mean that nature -sometimes deviates from her stated course for the purpose of promoting -human happiness. This sense does not agree with the context, and the -true interpretation is, that if the great end of terrestrial creation is -allowed to be human happiness, then it is clear that nature sometimes -deviates from that end, as in the instance of plagues and earthquakes. - -[1044] The assertion is monstrous that we cannot be expected to control -our evil passions because nature has her storms, diseases, and -earthquakes. This is not to justify the ways of God, but the ways of -wicked men. The physical evil ordained by the ruler of the world, cannot -be put upon the same foundation with the moral evil which reason and -revelation condemn. Sin is permitted because it is better that offences -should exist than that free will should be destroyed, but it is -lamentable that we should will to do evil in preference to good. The -justification of the abuses of free will is a distinct proposition from -the argument into which Pope glides, that it is not harder to understand -why man should be allowed to be a scourge to man than why suffering -should be inflicted through the agency of earthquakes and pestilence. - -[1045] To draw a parallel between things of a nature entirely different -is mere sophistry. A continual spring would be fatal to the earth and -its inhabitants, but how would the world suffer if men were always wise, -calm, and temperate?--CROUSAZ. - -[1046] Shortly after his father, Alexander VI., ascended the papal -throne in 1492, Caesar Borgia commenced the career of war, massacre, and -murder which made him the scourge and terror of Italy. He was killed by -a musket-ball at a petty siege in 1507. The conspiracy of Catiline -against the Roman government was terminated by his death at the head of -his banditti, B.C. 62, but from his depraved and desperate character -there was every reason to believe that he would have used a victory to -plunder with insatiable greediness, and to destroy with remorseless -cruelty. - -[1047] God does not "pour ambition into Caesar's mind," or the -all-perfect being would be the author of sin. The aberrations of -ambition are the acts of the ambitious man. - -[1048] Alexander the Great. He made a pilgrimage to the temple of -Jupiter Ammon, in Africa, and the priests styled him son of their god. -Upon the faith of the oracle his flatterers believed, or affected to -believe, that he was of divine descent. - -[1049] The four lines, ver. 157-160, first appeared in the edition of -1743. - -[1050] MS.: - - From whence all physical or moral ill? - 'Tis nature wand'ring from the eternal will. - -Pope plainly avows that physical evil is the disobedience of inanimate -nature to the Creator, as moral evil arose from the disobedience of man. -The couplet, in an altered form, was transferred to Epist. iv. ver. 111, -where the context confirms the interpretation which the present version -appears to require. - -[1051] See this subject extended in Epist. ii. from ver. 100 to ver. -122; ver. 165, etc.--POPE. - -Pope is answering the objections to moral evil. The passions for which -he has undertaken to account are vicious in kind or in degree--they are -the passions which are contrary to "virtue," ver. 166,--the passions of -Borgia, Catiline, Caesar, and Alexander,--and these are not elements -essential to human life. - -[1052] Pope uses almost the very words of Bolingbroke: "To think -worthily of God we must think that the natural order of things has been -always the same; and that a being of infinite wisdom and knowledge, to -whom the past and the future are like the present, and who wants no -experience to inform him, can have no reason to alter what infinite -wisdom and knowledge have once done."--WARTON. - -In saying that the "general order" had been "kept," Pope did not mean -that there were no exceptions, for he held that there had been "some -change" since the beginning of things, which was to reject the fanciful -principle of Bolingbroke. Infinite wisdom cannot err, but change is not -necessarily the reparation of error, and a progressive may be preferable -to a stationary system. - -[1053] This is Pope's summary of his weak defence of moral evil. Moral -and physical irregularities, he says in effect, have always prevailed, -and both are indispensable. He denies this in his third epistle, and -asserts that universal innocence endured for several generations to the -great advantage of man. - -[1054] Psalm viii. 5: "Thou hast made him a little lower than the -angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour."--WARBURTON. - -[1055] MS.: "Brawn." - -[1056] Pope, in these lines, diverts himself with drawing the picture of -a fool, that he may remark upon him, and extend the remarks to mankind -in general. But such fools are rarely to be met with, and I question -whether one can be found infatuated to a degree like this.--CROUSAZ. - -Bishop Butler, like Crousaz, did not believe that such "fools" existed. -"Who," he asked, "ever felt uneasiness upon observing any of the -advantages brute creatures have over us?" Pope's authority was The -Moralists of Lord Shaftesbury. "Why, says one, was I not made by nature -strong as a horse? Why not hardy and robust as this brute creature? or -nimble and active as that other?" - -[1057] The inversion is harsh; and when the words are ranged in their -proper order, "If he call all creatures made for his use," is but -uncouth English. - -[1058] Shaftesbury's Moralists, Part ii. Sect. 4: "Nature has managed -all for the best, with perfect frugality and just reserve; profuse to -none, but bountiful to all." - -[1059] It is a certain axiom in the anatomy of creatures, that in -proportion as they are formed for strength their swiftness is lessened; -or as they are formed for swiftness their strength is abated.--POPE. - -This is an error. The most powerful race-horses are often the fleetest. - -[1060] First edition: - - So justly all proportioned to each state. - -[1061] Vid. Epist. iii. ver. 79, etc., and ver. 109, etc.--POPE. - -[1062] That is, in its own state or condition. - -[1063] First edition: - - Each beast, each insect, happy as it can, - Is heav'n unkind to nothing but to man? - Shall man, shall reasonable man alone - Be or endowed with all, or pleased with none? - -[1064] First edition: - - No self-confounding faculties to share, - No senses stronger than his brain can bear. - -This rejected couplet embodied a fancy from Lord Shaftesbury's Moralists -that the leading qualities in any being are always provided at the -expense of other organs, and that if man had been endowed with greater -and more numerous bodily capacities his brain would have been starved. - -[1065] 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." - -[1066] The abbreviated language of the last four lines, which are not -legitimate composition, makes it difficult to follow the construction: -"Say what the use were finer touch given if, trembingly alive all o'er, -we were to smart and agonise at ev'ry pore? Or what the use of quick -effluvia darting through the brain, if we were to die of a rose in -aromatic pain?" - -[1067] Locke, Essay on the Human Understanding, bk. ii. chap. 23, sect. -12: "If our sense of hearing were but one thousand times quicker than it -is, how would a perpetual noise distract us. And we should in the -quietest retirement be less able to sleep or meditate than in the middle -of a sea-fight."--WARTON. - -Butler, Hudibras, ii. 1, 617. - - Her voice, the music of the spheres, - So loud, it deafens mortal ears.--WAKEFIELD. - -It was an ancient fancy that the planets rolled along spheres, emitting -music as they went. Pope's supposition that the music would stun us, -alludes to the remarks of Cicero, Somnium Scipionis, that the crash of -harmony is so tremendous that human ears cannot receive it, just as -human eyes cannot gaze at the sun. Warburton remarks that Pope should -not have illustrated a philosophical argument by the example of an -unreal sound. - -[1068] First edition: - - Through gen'ral life, behold the scale arise - Of sensual and of mental faculties! - Vast range of sense from man's imperial race - To the green myriads, etc. - -A very little observation would have satisfied Pope that "green" is not -the prevailing hue of the "myriads in the peopled grass." Wakefield says -that the expression "man's imperial race," in ver. 209, is from Dryden's -Virg. Geo. iii. 377, and that the general argument is from Bolingbroke's -Fragments: "There is a gradation of sense and intelligence here from -animal beings imperceptible to us for their minuteness, without the help -of microscopes, and even with them, up to man." This is what Leibnitz -called "the law of continuity." "Nature," he said, "never proceeds by -leaps." - -[1069] The manner of the lions hunting their prey in the deserts of -Africa is this; at their first going out in the night-time they set up a -loud roar, and then listen to the noise made by the beasts in their -flight, pursuing them by the ear, and not by the nostril. It is -probable, the story of the jackal's hunting for the lion was occasioned -by observation of this defect of scent in that terrible animal.--POPE. - -Pope was mistaken in his notion that the lion hunted by ear alone, and -that his sense of smell was obtuse. His scenting powers are very acute. -The account which Pope gives would not, if it were true, explain why the -jackal should have been singled out for the office of lion's provider. -The real reason is told by Livingstone. When the lion is devouring his -prey, "the jackal comes sniffing about, and sometimes suffers for his -temerity by a stroke from the lion's paw laying him dead." The -persevering attempt of the lesser animal to share the spoils with the -greater, led to the belief that the two worked in concert--that the -jackal was the pioneer, and the lion the executioner. There are two -other readings of ver. 213 in the MS.: - - smell the stupid ass - Degrees of scent the vulgar brute between. - -All the versions are deformed by the license of putting the preposition -"between" after its noun. - -[1070] It was formerly a common belief that fish were deaf; but Pope -ascribes to them some capacity of hearing, and this is now known to be -correct. - -[1071] Dryden, Marriage-a-la-mode, Act ii.: - - And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such, - That, spider-like, we feel the tender'st touch.--WAKEFIELD. - -These lines are admirable patterns of forcible diction. The peculiar and -discriminating expressiveness of the epithets ought to be particularly -regarded. Perhaps we have no image in the language more lively than that -of ver. 218. "To live along the line," is equally bold and beautiful. In -this part of the epistle the poet seems to have remarkably laboured his -style, which abounds in various figures, and is much elevated. Pope has -practised the great secret of Virgil's art, which was to discover the -very single epithet that precisely suited each occasion. If Pope must -yield to other poets in point of fertility of fancy, or harmony of -numbers, yet in point of propriety, closeness, and elegance of diction, -he can yield to none.--WARTON. - -[1072] The house-spider conceals itself in a cell, which is constructed -below the web, and at a distance from it. The threads which are spun -from the edge of the web to the spider's lurking-hole, vibrate when a -fly comes in contact with the web, and are at once a telegraph to give -information to the spider, and a bridge along which it can rush forward -to secure its prey. - -[1073] When the nectar of flowers is poisonous, the bee has not the -power of separating its noxious from its wholesome properties, nor do -bees always avoid the flowers which are hurtful to them. Some honey -which is fatal to man may not be injurious to the insects collecting it. - -[1074] At first it ran, - - How instinct varies! What a hog may want - Compared with thine, half-reasoning elephant.--WARTON. - -[1075] Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel: - - Great wits are sure to madness near allied - And thin partitions do their bounds divide. - -Pope is illustrating his proposition that there must be grades of -capacity for animal to be subject to animal, and all animals to man. The -application of the couplet to his argument is obscure, and the couplet -itself very vague. The "remembrance" closely "allied to reflection" -appears to be the effort of attention by which we recall the dormant -stores of memory. "Thought" is a dubious term, but seems to be put by -Pope for the acts of mind which take their rise in the mind itself, as -willing, imagining, reasoning, etc., in contradistinction to seeing, -feeling, taste, etc., which are produced by the operation of external -things upon the senses. - -[1076] A two-fold or mixed nature was sometimes in old language called a -"middle nature," such as a compound of mind and matter, or an amphibious -animal, and Pope perhaps meant that the double nature "longs to join" in -a more intimate union. Or he may have meant by "middle," an intermediate -nature, such as any creature which has an order of beings above and -below it, but then to satisfy Pope's phraseology there must be two of -these middle natures which are longing to unite with each other, and the -higher would not desire to be "joined" to the lower. The couplet seems -at best to be mere mystical jargon. - -[1077] The idea is in Locke's Essay, bk. iii. chap. 6, sect. 12, which -Warton quotes. Bolingbroke, Fragment 49, copied Locke and others, and -Pope copied Bolingbroke. - -[1078] Ed. 1st: - - Ethereal essence, spirit, substance, man.--POPE. - -[1079] This is a magnificent passage. Thomson had before said in Summer, -ver. 333: - - Has any seen - The mighty chain of beings, lessening down - From infinite perfection, to the brink - Of dreary nothing.--WARTON. - -Kennet's Pascal, p. 166: "He will find himself hanging, in the material -scale, between the two vast abysses of infinite and nothing." - -[1080] All that can be said of a scale of beings is to be found in the -third chapter of King's Origin of Evil, and in a note ending with these -emphatic words: "Whatever system God had chosen, there could have been -but a determinate multitude of the most perfect creatures, and when that -was completed there would have been a station for creatures less -perfect, and it would still have been an instance of goodness to give -them a being as well as others."--WARTON. - -[1081] Suffer men, says Pope, to encroach upon superior powers, and -either inferior powers must rise to the rank we have vacated, or by not -moving forward into the gap, they will leave a void in creation. - -[1082] MS.: - - in nature what it hates, a void; - Or leave a gap in the creation void; - The scale is broken if a step destroyed. - -[1083] Dryden, Love Triumphant, Act iv. Sc. 1: - - Great nature, break thy chain, that links together - The fabric of this globe, and make a chaos. - -[1084] MS.: - - Yet more ev'n systems in gradation roll. - -[1085] Bolingbroke, Fragment 42: "We cannot doubt that numberless -worlds, and systems of worlds, compose this amazing whole, the -universe." - -[1086] Milton, Par. Lost, vii. 242: - - And earth self-balanced on her centre hung. - -The tendency of the earth to move in a straight line is balanced by the -attraction of the sun, and Pope supposes this attraction to cease. - -[1087] I like the reading of earlier editions better; - - Planets and suns _rush_ lawless through the sky.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1088] After Pope's death "tremble" was misprinted "trembles," and the -error has been retained in most editions. The construction is, "Let -planets and suns run lawless through the sky, let being be wrecked on -being, world on world, let heaven's whole foundations nod to their -centre, and let nature tremble to the throne of God!" - -[1089] These six lines, ver. 251-256, are added since the first -edition.--POPE. - -Ruffhead says "there is no reading these lines without being struck with -a momentary apprehension." Without quite allowing this, we cannot but -feel their great beauty and force. Line rises upon line, with greater -effect and nobler imagery, and in the conclusion the poet has touched -the idea with propriety, as well as dignity and sublimity. If he had -been more particular, the passage would have been unworthy the grandeur -of the subject; had he been less it would have been obscure. He has at -once evinced judgment and poetry. If there be a word or two not quite -suitable, perhaps it is "run," and "foundations nod." I could have -wished such a word as "rushed lawless," or "flamed lawless through the -sky."--BOWLES. - -[1090] The chief problem which Pope undertook to solve was the existence -of moral evil. Yet, if man, in obedience to God's commands, became -morally perfect, none of the disastrous effects the poet describes would -ensue. Angels would not be hurled from their spheres; worlds would not -be wrecked; nor would heaven's foundations nod to their centre. Reason -and revelation unite in the conclusion that moral perfection would, on -the contrary, be an unmitigated blessing. Consequently Pope's hypothesis -explains nothing unless he had shown how it is that a system which -rendered evil impossible would be inferior to our own. - -[1091] Plotinus, translated by Cudworth, Intellectual System, ed. -Harrison, vol. iii., p. 479: "Some things in me partake only of being, -some of life also, some of sense, some of reason, and some of intellect -above reason. But no man ought to require equal things from unequal; nor -that the finger should see, but the eye; it being enough for the finger -to be a finger, and to perform its own office."--WARTON. - -[1092] Bolingbroke, Fragment 66: "Nothing can be more absurd than the -complaints of creatures who are in one of these orders, that they are -not in another." - -[1093] Vid. the prosecution and application of this in Epist. iv. ver. -162.--POPE. - -[1094] "Soul," says Samuel Clarke, "signifies a part of a whole, whereof -body is the other part, and they, being united, mutually affect each -other as parts of the same whole. But God is present to every part of -the universe, not as a soul, but as a governor, so as to act upon -everything in what manner he pleases, himself being acted upon by -nothing." Warburton quotes some passages from Sir Isaac Newton asserting -the omnipresence of the Deity, and the commentator affirms that the poet -expressed the identical doctrine of the philosopher. This is a -misrepresentation. The extracts of Warbuton are from the scholium to the -Principia, where Newton adds, "God governs all things, not as a soul of -the world, but as the Lord of the universe. The Godhead of God is his -dominion, a dominion not like that of a soul over its own body, but that -of a Lord over his servants." The doctrine which Pope held in common -with Sir Isaac Newton was the omnipresence of the Deity. The doctrine -which Sir Isaac Newton repudiated, and which Pope maintained, was that -the world was the body of God as the human frame is of man. The world in -this sense was not the work of the Deity, but a portion of him. Pope -abandoned his present creed, Epist. iii. ver. 229, where he says, - - The worker from the work distinct was known. - -[1095] Every ear must feel the ill effect of the monotony in these -lines. The cause is obvious. When the pause falls on the fourth -syllable, we shall find that we pronounce the six last in the same time -that we do the four first, so that the couplet is not only divided into -two equal lines, but each line, with respect to time, is divided into -two equal parts.--WEBB. - -[1096] Our poet is certainly indebted to the following verses of Mrs. -Chandler on Solitude: - - He's all in all: his wisdom, goodness, pow'r, - Spring in each blade, and bloom in ev'ry flow'r; - Smile o'er the meads, and bend in ev'ry hill, } - Glide in the stream, and murmur in the rill: } - All nature moves obedient to his will. } - -Dryden, in the State of Innocence, Act v., was probably also in our -poet's recollection: - - Where'er thou art, he is: th' eternal mind - Acts through all places, is to none confined; - Fills ocean, earth, and air, and all above, - And through the universal mass does move.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1097] "Our mortal part," is put in opposition to "soul," and the -antithesis is a recognition of the soul's immortality. The allusion was -too slight to offend Bolingbroke, or, perhaps, to attract his notice. - -[1098] Dugald Stewart observes that everyone must be displeased with -this line, because the triviality of the alliteration is at variance -with the sublimity of the subject. - -[1099] First edition: - - As the rapt Seraphim that sings and burns. - -The name Seraphim, says Warburton, signifies burners, and Wakefield -quotes, in illustration, from Spenser's Hymn of Heavenly Beauty, stanza -14: - - And those eternal burning Seraphims - Which from their faces dart out fiery light. - -[1100] These are lines of a marvellous energy and closeness of -expression.--WARTON. - -The concluding lines appear to be a false jingle of words which -neutralise the whole of Pope's argument. If there is to Providence "no -high, no low, no great, no small," the gradation of beings is a -delusion. What things are in the sight of God, that they are in reality, -and since no one thing in creation is superior or inferior to any other -thing, Pope's language throughout this epistle is unmeaning. The final -phrase of the couplet is bathos. God is not only the "equal" of "all" -his works, he is immeasurably beyond them. - -[1101] The "order" is the gradation of beings, and "what we blame" is -our own rank in the scale of creation, whereas, says Pope, our "proper -bliss depends upon it." - -[1102] MS.: - - Cease then, nor order imperfection call - On which depends the happiness of all. - Reason, to think of God when she pretends, - Begins a censor, an adorer ends. - See and confess, this just, this kind degree - Of blindness, etc. - -[1103] Pope would not express a "sure and certain hope in a blessed -resurrection." He used the same equivocal language as his "guide," who -had no faith that "another sphere" existed for man. "Let the -tranquillity of my mind," said Bolingbroke, Frag. 51, "rest on this -immovable rock, that my future, as well as my present state, are ordered -by an almighty and all-wise Creator." - -[1104] MS.: - - In the same hand, the same all-plastic pow'r. - -[1105] "Nature is the art whereby God governs the world," says -Hobbes.--WARTON. - -Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med. Part i. 16: "In brief all things are -artificial; for nature is the art of God." - -[1106] Art, in the sense of design, is manifest in nature, and has been -traced in endless particulars. Pope must mean by "unknown art" the -ultimate principles to which the laws of nature owe their efficiency. - -[1107] From Fontenelle: "Everything is chance, provided we give this -name to an order unknown to us."--WARTON. - -[1108] Feltham's Resolves: "The world is kept in order by discord, and -every part of it is but a more particular composed jar. And in all these -it makes greatly for the Maker's glory that such an admirable harmony -should be produced out of such an infinite discord."--WARTON. - -[1109] This line ran thus in the first edition: - - And spite of pride, and in thy reason's spite. - -Pope afterwards, says Johnson, discovered, or was shown, that the -"truth" which subsisted "in spite of reason" could not be very "clear." - -[1110] MS.: - - Learn we ourselves, not God presume to scan, - But know the study, etc. - -[1111] Ed. 1.: - - The only science of mankind is man. - -Ed. 2.: - - The proper study, etc.--POPE. - -"The true science and true study of man is man," says Charron in his -treatise on Wisdom; and Pascal, in his thoughts translated by Dr. -Kennet, 1727, p. 248, says, "The study of man is the proper employment -and exercise of mankind." But Pascal is maintaining that man should -study himself in preference to mathematics, and not to the exclusion of -God, which is a doctrine that would have filled him with horror. - -[1112] From Cowley, who says of life, in his ode on Life and Fame: - - Vain, weak-built isthmus, which dost proudly rise - Up betwixt two eternities.--WARTON. - -[1113] Kennet's Pascal, p. 160: "We have an idea of truth, not to be -effaced by all the wiles of the sceptic." - -[1114] The stoic took his stand upon virtue, and with a stern faith in -the all-sufficiency of moral excellence he calmly defied the trials of -life. - -[1115] Johnson, in his translation of Crousaz, says he cannot determine -whether any one has discovered the true meaning of the words "in doubt -to act or rest." The language is vague, and incapable of an -interpretation which is generally true; but the probable sense seems to -be that man is in doubt whether to embrace an active belief, or whether -to resign himself to a passive, inert scepticism. - -[1116] First edition: - - To deem himself a part of God or beast. - -Kennet's Pascal, p. 30, furnished the hint for the line: "What, then, is -to be the fate of man? Shall he be equal to God, or shall he not be -superior to the beasts?" - -[1117] Man is not born only to die, but death has the present life on -one side of it, and immortality on the other. Man does not reason only -to err, but to establish a multitude of mighty truths. - -[1118] "Such is the reason of man that he is equally ignorant whether, -etc." - -[1119] From Kennet's Pascal, p. 180: "If we think too little of a thing -or too much, our head turns giddy, and we are at a loss to find out our -way to truth." - -[1120] Kennet's Pascal, p. 162: "What a chimaera then is man! What a -confused chaos! What a subject of contradiction!" - -[1121] "Abused" here means "deceived," a sense of the word which was -once common. Lord Bacon, Essay on Cunning: "Some build upon the abusing -of others, and, as we now say, putting tricks upon them." Bishop Hall, -Contemplations upon the New Testament, bk. ii. cont. 6: "Crafty men and -lying spirits agreed to abuse the credulous world." - -[1122] Kennet's Pascal, p. 162: "If he is too aspiring we can lower him; -if too mean we can raise him." - -[1123] From Kennet's Pascal, p. 162: "A professed judge of all things, -and yet a feeble worm of the earth; the great depositary and guardian of -truth, and yet a mere huddle of uncertainty; the glory and the scandal -of the universe." - -[1124] After ver. 18 in the MS.: - - For more perfection than this state can bear - In vain we sigh; heav'n made us as we are. - [If gods we _must_ because we _would_ be, then - Pray hard ye monkies, and ye may be men.] - As wisely sure a modest ape might aim - To be like man, whose faculties and frame - He sees, he feels, as you or I to be - An angel thing we neither know nor see. - Observe how near he edges on our race; - What human tricks! how risible of face! - "It must be so--why else have I the sense - Of more than monkey charms and excellence? - Why else to walk on two so oft essayed? - And why this ardent longing for a maid?" - So Pug might plead, and call his gods unkind, - Till set on end, and married to his mind. - Go, reas'ning thing! assume the Doctor's chair, - As Plato deep, as Seneca severe: - Fix moral fitness, and to God give rule, - Then drop, etc.--WARBURTON. - -The couplet between brackets was omitted by Warburton. There is still -another reading in the MS. of the couplet, "Observe how near," etc. - - Observe his love of tricks, his laughing face; - An elder brother, too, to human race. - -[1125] MS.: - - Go, reas'ning man, go mount, etc. - -[1126] MS.: - - Instruct erratic planets where to run. - -[1127] Warburton says that the phrase "correct old Time" refers to Sir -Isaac Newton's Chronology of Antient Kingdoms Amended, in which one of -the main positions was based upon astronomical science. More probably -Pope alluded to the familiar fact of the Gregorian reformation of the -calendar by substituting new style for old. The change was adopted -towards the close of the sixteenth century through the greater part of -Europe, but the old style was retained in England till 1752. By -"regulate the sun," Wakefield understands the use of equal mean for -unequal apparent time. - -[1128] Ed. 4, 5.: - - Show by what rules the wand'ring planets stray, - Correct old Time, and teach the sun his way.--POPE. - -"Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule," exclaims Pope, ver. 29, and -Warburton correctly remarks that the sarcastic summary is "a conclusion -from all that had been said before from ver. 18 to this effect." The -illustrations which go before should consequently be examples of the -wild attempts to show how the world might have been better contrived, -and Pope points to such schemes when he says, "_Instruct_ the planets in -what orbs to run." But he has perplexed his meaning by improperly mixing -up with instances of ignorant presumption, those real discoveries in -science, which are the result of a patient investigation of God's works, -and have no connection with the pretence of "teaching Eternal Wisdom how -to rule." - -[1129] Bolingbroke, Fragment 58: "They soar up on Platonic wings to the -first good and the first just." Plato taught that there was a good in -itself, a just in itself, a beautiful in itself, etc. These ideas, as he -called them, these faultless archetypes of earthly qualities, were not -mere abstractions of the mind. They had a real existence, and all that -was good, beautiful, and just in this world, was derived from them. The -"empyreal sphere" was the outermost of the nine fictitious spheres of -the ancients, and is "inhabited," says Cicero in his Vision of Scipio, -"by that all-powerful God who controls the other spheres." Pope learned -his contempt of Plato from Bolingbroke, who said of him with his usual -intemperance, and more than his usual ignorance, that he was the "father -of philosophical lying, and treated every subject like a bombast poet, -and a mad theologian." - -[1130] MS.: - - And proudly rave of imitating God. - -Bolingbroke, Fragment 2: "I dare not use theological familiarity and -talk of imitating God." Frag. 4: "I hold it to be worse than absurd to -assert that man can imitate God." The Platonists taught that if we would -know and imitate God we must withdraw the mind from the things of sense, -and contemplate the spiritual and the perfect. Pope's object was to -ridicule those who thought that the perfections of the Deity were to be -the model for the imperfect efforts of man. The notion, he says, is not -less preposterous than the Eastern absurdity of twisting in a circle to -imitate the apparent revolution of the sun. - -[1131] MS.: - - So Eastern madmen in a circle run. - -[1132] Plutarch tells us, in his Life of Numa, that the followers of -Pythagoras were enjoined to turn themselves round during the performance -of their religious worship; and that this circumrotation was intended to -imitate the revolution of the world. Pliny, in his Natural History, -xxviii. 5, mentions the same practice.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope referred to the sacred dance of the Mahometan monks. "They turn on -their left foot," says Thevenot, "like a wind-mill driven by a strong -wind," and Lady Mary W. Montagu, who witnessed the ceremony, states that -they whirled round with an amazing swiftness for above an hour without -any of them showing the least appearance of giddiness, which, she adds, -is not to be wondered at when it is considered they are all used to it -from their infancy. - -[1133] MS.: - - Of moral fitness fix th' unerring rule. - -[1134] MS.: - - Angels themselves, I grant it, when they saw - One mighty man, etc. - -[1135] MS.: - - Admired an angel in a human shape. - -[1136] From the Zodiac of Palingenius: - - Simia coelicolum, risusque jocusque deorum est - Tunc homo, cum temere ingenio confidit, et audet - Abdita naturae scrutari, arcanaque divum.--WARTON. - -This image gives an air of burlesque to the passage, notwithstanding all -that can be said. It is degrading to the subject, to the idea of the -"superior beings," and to the character on whom it is meant as a -panegyric.--BOWLES. - -The author of a Letter to Mr. Pope, 1735, says that the lines on Newton -had been "generally admired and repeated." From this praise he justly -dissents. Either the angels could not have "admired" Newton in the -proper sense of the word, or they could not have "shown him as we show -an ape," when he would have appeared a grotesque and ludicrous object. -The idea is altogether a poor conceit, and was not worth borrowing. In -the MS. an additional couplet followed ver. 34: - - Ah, turn the glass! it shows thee all along - As weak in conduct, as in science strong. - -[1137] Ed. 4: The whirling comet.--POPE. - -[1138] Ed. 1: - - Could he who taught each planet where to roll, - Describe or fix one movement of the soul? - Who marked their points to rise or to descend, - Explain his own beginning or his end?--POPE. - -[1139] Sir Isaac Newton showed the probability, converted into certainty -by later observations, that comets travelled in elongated curves, and -were subjected to the identical law of attraction which governed the -motions of the planets. The laws of gravitation were the "rules" which -"bound" the comets, and Pope contrasts these definite laws of matter -with the variable "movements" of the human mind, which cannot be "fixed" -or reduced to rule. The mind, however, has also its laws, which, -notwithstanding the disturbing force of free-will, are sufficiently -understood for the practical purposes of life. - -[1140] Ed. 4: - - Who saw the stars here rise, and here descend?--POPE. - -[1141] The comparison is pointless. Newton knew far more of his end,--of -his mission and ultimate destiny,--than of the purpose and fate of -comets, and did not know less of his own beginning than of the origin of -the heavenly bodies. Man is incapable of conceiving the mode by which a -single atom of the universe was called into being, nor can he penetrate -to the essence of a single law or particle of matter any better than to -the essence of mind. After ver. 38 there is this couplet in the MS.: - - Or more of God, or more of man can find, - Than this that one is good, and one is blind? - -There is a kindred antithesis in the last verse of the Epistle, but the -exaggeration of the statement is less strongly marked. - -[1142] "Alas," says Pope, "what wonder" that Newton should be unable to -"explain his own beginning and end," since "what reason weaves is undone -by passion." But this cannot be the cause of our inability to unfold the -creative process, for when passion is not permitted to interfere with -reason we make no advance towards an explanation of our "own beginning." -Passion does often interfere with the just perception of our proper -"end," and with the practice of the duties we perceive, only Pope should -have known that to rise superior to passion is the daily discipline of -hosts of men. "It seems," says Pascal, "to be the divine intention to -perfect the will rather than the understanding," and of the two we can -approximate nearer to moral perfection than to universal science. - -[1143] MS.: - - Unchecked may mount thy intellectual part - From whim to whim,--at best from art to art. - -[1144] MS.: - - Joins truth to truth, or mounts - There mounts unchecked, and soars from art to art. - -[1145] An allusion to the web of Penelope in Homer's -Odyssey.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1146] That is, of all the studies which are dictated by the vices of -pride and vanity. He followed Bolingbroke, who wrote long tirades -against moralists, divines, and metaphysicians, for indulging, from hope -of fame, in barren, chimerical speculations. - -[1147] This paragraph first appeared in the edition of 1743. In the -preceding paragraph, we are told that, in physical science, man "may -rise unchecked from art to art." Unless, therefore, Pope reckoned -physical science among the worthless departments of knowledge, there -was, by his own statement, one vast and important scientific region -which was destined to unlimited extension, and of which it was not -correct to say that a "little sum" must serve the future, as it had -served the past. - -[1148] MS.: - - Two different principles our nature move; - One spurs, one reins; this reason, that self-love. - -Cicero's Offices, i. 28: "The powers of the mind are twofold; one -consists in appetite, by the Greeks called [Greek: horme] (impulse), -which hurries man hither and thither; the other in reason, which -teaches and explains what we are to do, and what we are to avoid." - -[1149] The MS. goes on thus: - - Of good and evil gods what frighted fools, - Of good and evil, reason puzzled schools, - Deceived, deceiving taught, to these refer; - Know both must operate, or both must err.--WARBURTON. - -[1150] "Still" is thrust in to supply a rhyme. "Ascribe" is "we ascribe" -carried on from "we call" at ver. 55. - -[1151] "Acts," in the signification of "incites to action" was formerly -common. "Most men," says Barrow, "are greatly tainted with self-love; -some are wholly possessed and _acted_ by it." - -[1152] MS.: - - Self-love the spring of action lends the force; - Reason's comparing balance states the course: - The primal impulse, and controlling weight - To give the motion, and to regulate. - -Bolingbroke, Fragment 3, says that "appetite and passion are the spring -of human nature; reason the balance to control and regulate it." The -image is borrowed from the works of the watch, where the spring is the -moving power, and the balance regulates the motion. - -[1153] Without self-love, that is, man would be like "a plant," and -without reason like "a meteor,"--the slave of destructive passions. The -first comparison is inconsiderate. The man who had no self-love, which -means no moving principle, no affections or desires, would not even -"draw nutrition, and propagate." The appetite for food, the sexual -appetite, and the care for life, would all be wanting, and he would -"rot" at once. Or if reason, without desires, could induce him to foster -an existence to which he was totally indifferent, reason might equally -impel him to other acts besides the preservation of himself, and the -perpetuation of his race. - -[1154] Meteors may flame lawless through empty space, but man could not -be flaming through a "void" when he was "destroying others." - -[1155] The objects, that is, of reason lie at a distance. MS.: - - Self-love yet stronger as its objects near; - Reason's diminished as remote appear. - -[1156] From Lord Bacon: "The affections carry ever an appetite to good -as reason doth. The difference is, that the affection beholdeth merely -the present, reason beholdeth the future and sum of time."--RUFFHEAD. - -"The sensual man," says Crousaz in illustration of the principle, -"indulges in the pleasures of a luxurious table regardless of the -diseases that may be the consequence of his gluttony, but the reasoner -prefers a lasting tranquillity to transient enjoyment." - -[1157] Bolingbroke, Fragment 6: "Self-love is the original spring of -human actions. Experience and observation require time; and reason that -collects from them comes slowly to our assistance." Experience -enlightens reason by showing us what is hurtful in practice, and what -beneficial. Pope's line is badly expressed. "Attention gains habit," for -"habits are acquired by attention," is barely English. - -[1158] MS.: "nature." "Grace" here signifies the Divine assistance -vouchsafed to the natural powers of man in his efforts after goodness. -Pope's original reading,--"grace and nature"--was a censure of the -attempts to define the respective influences exerted by the nature of -man, and the grace or intervention of God. The substitute of "virtue" -for "nature," obscures the meaning, but the poet apparently had still in -his mind the long controversies on the share which appertained to -"grace" in the production of "virtue." He may have thought that it was -needless to try and settle the precise part which belonged to grace, -since nature and grace are both gifts of the same Almighty Being. - -[1159] Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato divided the faculties into "sense -and reason," and the classification passed from the ancients to the -schoolmen. "Sense" comprised the five senses, with every act of the mind -which was supposed to depend on bodily sensations. Under this head were -included the passions and desires, and "sense," in its moral -signification, was the equivalent of what Pope calls "self-love." - -[1160] MS.: - - Let metaphysics common reason split. - -[1161] In the MS. this couplet follows: - - Too nice distinctions honest sense will shun, - Know pleasure, good, and happiness are one. - -[1162] MS.: - - Both fly from pain, to pleasure both aspire, - With one aversion, and with one desire. - -Pope charges the schoolmen with being at war about a name when they -distinguished between "sense" and "reason," and the distinction is a -capital article in his own moral creed. He charges them with maintaining -that sense and reason were not merely separate, but contending powers, -and he too has insisted on the universality of the strife. "Sense," or, -in his language, "self-love," "looks," ver. 73, to "immediate," "reason" -to "future good," and in this difference of view the "temptations" of -self-love "throng thicker than the arguments" of reason. The contest is -the subject of a long disquisition further on, and Pope laments, ver. -149-160, that passion should conquer in the fight. When he interjected -the paragraph, in which he contradicted himself, he rested his case on -the proposition that reason, which pursues interest well-understood, and -self-love, which gratifies present passion, "aspire to one -end,--pleasure." But the pleasure sought by reason and self-love -respectively is not the same pleasure, and so incompatible were the two -pleasures in his estimation that he calls one, ver. 92, "our greatest -evil," the other "our greatest good." - -[1163] MS.: - - Reason itself more nicely shares in all. - -[1164] MS.: - - Passions whose ends are honest, means are fair. - -[1165] "List," which would probably now be thought a vulgarism, was in -Pope's day the established word. Our form, "enlist," was apparently -unknown to Johnson, who did not insert it in his Dictionary. - -[1166] "Passions that court an aim" is surely a strange -expression.--WARTON. - -For "court" Pope had at first written "boast." - -[1167] The "imparted" or sympathetic passions are the benevolent -impulses and affections. As to their "kind," or nature, they are, says -Pope, "modes of self-love," but when the self-love assumes the form of -loving others the passion is "exalted, and takes the name of some -virtue." He passes the affections over here with this slight allusion, -and returns to them at ver. 255, and more at length in Epistle iii. - -[1168] What says old Epictetus, who knew stoicism better than these men? -"I am not to be apathetic or void of passions, like a statue. I am to -discharge all the relations of a social and friendly life,--the parent, -the husband, the brother, the magistrate." The stoic apathy was no more -than a freedom from irrational and excessive agitations of the -soul.--JAMES HARRIS. - -[1169] That is, in cold insensibility. Lady Chudleigh's dialogue on the -death of her daughter: - - Honour is ever the reward of pain: - A lazy virtue no applause will gain.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1170] The stoic aimed at inner perfection, and trusted to the serenity -of virtue to sustain him in all the trials of life. Pope erroneously -imagined that stoics were selfish and inactive because they were calm -and self-contained. Seneca, De Ot. i. 4, says, they insisted that we -must never cease labouring for the common good, and Cicero, De Fin. iii. -19, says they placed their force of character at the service of mankind, -and thought it their duty to live, and if need were to die, for the -benefit of the public. - -[1171] A couplet is added in the MS.: - - Virtue dispassioned naked meets the fight, - Comes without arms, and conquers but by flight. - -[1172] MS.: - - Passions like tempests put in act the soul. - -[1173] Spectator, June 18, 1712. No. 408: "Passions are to the mind as -winds to a ship; they only can move it, and they too often destroy it. -Reason must then take the place of pilot, and can never fail of securing -her charge if she be not wanting to herself." - -[1174] Tate's paraphrase from Simonides, Dryden's Miscellanies, vol. v. -p. 55: - - On life's wide ocean diversely launched out, - Our minds alike are tossed on waves of doubt, - Holding no steady course, or constant sail, - But shift and tack with ev'ry veering gale.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1175] In the mariner's compass the paper on which the points of the -compass are marked is called "the card." - -[1176] Carew's Poems: - - A troop of deities came down to guide - Our steerless barks in passion's swelling tide, - By virtue's card.--WAKEFIELD. - -After ver. 108 in the MS.: - - A tedious voyage! where how useless lies - The compass, if no pow'rful gusts arise!--WARBURTON. - -[1177] Psalm civ. 3: "Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the -waters, and walketh upon the wings of the wind."--BOWLES. - -Dryden's Ceyx and Alcyone: - - And now sublime she rides upon the wind.--WARTON. - -Pope held that "fierce ambition" was instigated by the Almighty, Epist. -i. ver. 159, and compared his inspiration of such tumultuous passions to -his "heaving old ocean, and winging the storm." The poet must be -understood as upholding the same extended and licentious doctrine when -he returns to the comparison, and talks of "God mounting the storm" of -the passions, and "walking upon the wind." - -[1178] After ver. 112 in the MS.: - - The soft, reward the virtuous or invite; - The fierce, the vicious punish or affright.--WARBURTON. - -[1179] How, that is, can the stoic succeed in destroying passions which -enter into the very composition of man? The stoic made no such -pretension. What he laboured to "destroy" were those "perturbations of -mind" which Zeno, Tusc. iv. 6, maintained to be "repugnant to reason, -and against nature," and for which the stoical remedy, Tusc. iv. 28, was -the demonstration that they "were vicious, and had nothing natural or -necessary in them." The principle for which Pope contended was the very -maxim of the stoics,--they insisted that "reason should keep to nature's -road." The real question was, whether they did not sometimes go too far, -and condemn natural emotions under the name of prohibited perturbations. - -[1180] All he means is, that the intentions of God are manifested in the -nature of man. - -[1181] Dryden, State of Innocence, Act v.: - - With all the num'rous family of death. - -Garth, Dispensary, vi. 138: - - And all the faded family of care.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1182] Warton remarks that the group of allegorical personages are here -suddenly changed to things which are to be "mixed with art." - -[1183] MS.: - - To blend them well, and harmonise their strife - Makes all etc. - -[1184] In plain prose thus: "To grasp present pleasures and to find -future pleasures is the whole employ of body and mind." Pope's line is -rendered intolerable by its elliptical and inverted language, and the -unmeaning expletive "still." - -[1185] MS.: - - Present to seize, or future to obtain - The whole employ of body and of brain. - -[1186] MS.: - - On stronger senses stronger passions strike. - -[1187] MS.: - - Hence passions rise, and more or less inflame, - Proportioned to each organ of the frame, - Nor here internal faculties control, - Nor soul on body acts, but that on soul. - -Pope derived the notion from Mandeville, who says that the diversity of -passions in different men "depend only upon the different frame,--the -inward formation of either the solids or the fluids." According to Pope -the strongest organ gives rise to some passion of corresponding -strength, which finally absorbs all other passions. - -[1188] The use of this doctrine, as applied to the knowledge of mankind, -is one of the subjects of the second book.--POPE. - -Pope refers to Moral Essays, Epist. 1. Of the Knowledge and Characters -of Men. - -[1189] The metaphor is taken from the casting of metal. The "mind's -disease," says Pope, is in the original casting, and is not a defect -which arises subsequently. - -[1190] Dryden's Juvenal, Sat. x. 489: - - One, with cruel art, - Makes Colon suffer for the peccant part.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1191] The "faculties" are not a class of powers distinct from "wit, -spirit, reason," but these last are among the faculties, and we must -understand the passage as if Pope had written that wit and spirit, with -all the other faculties, including reason itself, contribute to the -growth of the ruling passion. - -[1192] By inventing arguments in its justification, as Pope explains at -ver. 156. - -[1193] Taken from Bacon, De Calore.--WARTON. - -This comparison, which might be very proper in philosophy, has a mean -effect in poetry.--BOWLES. - -In the MS. this couplet is added: - - Its own best forces lead the mind astray, - Just as with Teague his own legs ran away. - -Two lines, which do not appear in the subsequent editions, were inserted -after ver. 148 in the quarto of 1735: - - The ruling passion, be it what it will, - The ruling passion conquers reason still. - -[1194] MS.: - - And we who vainly boast her rightful sway - In our weak etc. - -[1195] M.S.: - - Can reason more etc. - -[1196] From La Rochefoucauld: "Reason frequently puts itself on the side -of the strongest passion; there is no violent passion which has not its -reason to justify it."--WARTON. - -[1197] Pope copied Mandeville: "Man's strong habits and inclinations can -only be subdued by passions of greater violence." - -[1198] Cowley's poem on the late civil war: - - The plague, we know, drives all diseases out.--WAKEFIELD. - -Ruffhead and Bowles unite in condemning the colloquial familiarity of -Pope's simile. - -[1199] MS.: - - This bias nature to our temper lends. - -The couplet was not in the first edition. - -[1200] The particular application of this to the several pursuits of -men, and the general good resulting thence, falls also into the -succeeding book.--POPE. - -The "succeeding book" is the Moral Essays, which are almost entirely -made up of satiric sketches. Pope dilated upon the evil resulting from -"the mind's disease, the ruling passion," but barely touched upon "the -general good." - -[1201] Man can only be driven from passion to passion during the infancy -of the ruling passion, which continues to grow, Pope tells us, till it -has overspread the entire mind, and obliterated every subordinate -desire. - -[1202] From Rochefoucauld, Maxim 266: "It is a mistake to believe that -none but the violent passions, such as ambition and love, are able to -triumph over the other passions. Laziness, languid as it is, often gets -the mastery of them all, usurps over all the designs and actions of -life, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and -virtues."--WARTON. - -[1203] MS.: - - Th' Eternal Art that mingles good with ill. - -[1204] Caryll's Hypocrite in Dryden's Miscellanies, iv. p. 312: - - Hypocrisy at last should enter in, - And fix this floating mercury of sin.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1205] MS.: - - The noblest fruits the planter's hope may mock, - Which thrive inserted on the savage stock. - -[1206] He argues that our primitive tendencies are too various to be -steady. Man is mercurial and fickle till his numerous passions are lost -in the ruling passion, which converts our changeable propensities into a -single desire. Under the government of reason this "savage" and vicious -"stock" sends forth a healthy shoot of virtue which is rendered strong -and stable by the vigour of the ruling passion, or parent stem. The -theory is wrong throughout. People are not composed of only one passion, -virtue cannot be the product of a vice, and the simulated virtue which -proceeds from a solitary passion will be as contracted as its cause. -Pope's catalogue of the ruling passions, and their attendant virtues, -exhibits a counterfeit dismembered virtue,--a single false limb in the -place of a complete and living body. An unmaimed virtue requires the -cultivation of our nature in its complexity, and virtues are grafted on -lawful tendencies, and not on lawless passions. - -[1207] Ver. 184 is followed by this couplet in the MS.: - - As dulcet pippins from the crabtree come, - As sloes' rough juices melt into a plum. - -[1208] Pope probably alluded to Swift when he spoke of the "crops of wit -and honesty" which were the product of "spleen, obstinacy, and hate." -The spleen and hate engendered wit by prompting satiric effusions; but -wit is not in itself a virtue, and when Pope inserted it in his -catalogue he must have been thinking of the moral ends it might -subserve. - -[1209] MS.: - - Vain-glory, courage, justice can supply. - -[1210] MS.: - - Envy, in critics and old maids the devil, - Is emulation in the learn'd and civil. - -"Emulation," says Bishop Butler, "is merely the desire of equality with, -or superiority over others, with whom we compare ourselves. To desire -the attainment of this equality, or superiority, by the particular means -of others being brought down to our level, or below it, is, I think, the -distinct notion of envy." A man who was made up of rivalry, which is -Pope's supposition, would be an odious character, even without the -additional taint of envy, from which, nevertheless, he could hardly be -free. - -[1211] Pope speaks after Mandeville, who says that shame and pride are -the "two passions in which the seeds of most virtues are contained." -Pride he defined to be the faculty by which men overvalued themselves, -and were led to do what would win them applause. "There is not," he -says, "a duty to others or ourselves that may not be counterfeited by -it." No quality, he admits, is more detested, and it would defeat its -own end if it did not disguise itself in the garb of virtue. - -[1212] As Pope supposes shame to be "a disease of the mind," he could -not apply the term to the self-reproaches of an enlightened conscience, -but must mean the humiliation produced by censure. This species of shame -can only bind us to average decency of conduct, is a feeble protection -against secret vice, and often an incentive to baseness. Spurious shame, -as Mandeville remarks, induces women to murder their illegitimate -children, drives many to tell falsehoods to conceal their faults, -changes with the company and public opinion, and begets a degrading -compliance with the evil habits of associates, and with the lax customs -of the age. - -[1213] After ver. 194 in the MS.: - - How oft with passion, virtue points her charms! - Then shines the hero, then the patriot warms. - Peleus' great son, or Brutus who had known - Had Lucrece been a whore, or Helen none? - But virtues opposite to make agree, - That, reason, is thy task, and worthy thee. - Hard task, cries Bibulus, and reason weak, - "Make it a point, dear Marquess, or a pique. - Once for a whim, persuade yourself to pay - A debt to reason, like a debt at play. - For right or wrong have mortals suffered more? - B[lount] for his prince, or B** for his whore? - Whose self-denials nature most control? - His who would save a sixpence, or his soul. - Web for his health, a Chartreux for his sin, - Contend they not which soonest shall grow thin? - What we resolve we can: but here's the fault, - We ne'er resolve to do the thing we ought."--WARBURTON. - -There is another version of the last couplet but one in the MS.: - - Which will become more exemplary thin, - W[eb] for his health, De Rance for his sin? - -Web may have been the General Webb who got considerable reputation for -his defeat of the French at Wynendale in 1708. Swift in his Journal to -Stella, April 19, 1711, speaks of him as "going with a crutch and a -stick." Rance was born at Paris in 1626, and died in 1700. In 1662 he -assumed the government of the monastery of La Trappe, and was noted for -the austerities he imposed and practised. Mr. Croker thinks that "B." -who "suffered for his prince" was Edward Blount, the Roman Catholic -Devonshire squire. He went into voluntary exile after the rebellion of -1715, but did not remain abroad many years. - -[1214] Yet in the previous couplet we are informed that there is hardly -a virtue which will not grow on the "pride" we are here enjoined to -"check." - -[1215] MS.: - - Thus every ruling passion of the mind - Stands to some virtue and some vice inclined. - -[1216] The MS. has two other versions of this line: - - Check but its force or compass short of ill. - Turn but the bias from the side of ill. - -[1217] But not by grafting temperance and humanity upon his ruling -passions--sensuality and cruelty. He must have torn up his evil passions -by the roots, and cultivated virtues in their stead. - -[1218] Catiline hemmed in by superior forces died fighting with the -courage of despair. Unless he was greatly maligned his conspiracies were -prompted by profligate selfishness without any mixture of patriotism. -Decius, instructed by a vision on the eve of the battle of Vesuvius, -B.C. 340, that the general on the one side, and the army on the other -was doomed, rushed into the thick of the fight to ensure by his own -death the destruction of the enemy. The story of Decius may be fabulous, -like that of Pope's next example, Curtius, who when informed, B.C. 362, -that a chasm which had opened in the Roman forum could never be filled -up till the basis of the Roman greatness had been committed to it, was -alleged to have mounted on horseback clad in armour, and to have leaped -into the gulf. Courage, the quality common to Catiline, Decius, and -Curtius, is never a ruling passion, but is the effect of some antecedent -motive, which may be vanity or duty, lofty patriotism or criminal -ambition. - -[1219] MS.: - - And either makes a patriot or a knave. - -[1220] MS.: - - Divide, before the genius of the mind. - -or, - - 'Tis reason's task to sep'rate in the mind. - -The idea expressed in the couplet is an adaptation of a passage in the -first chapter of Genesis. As God in the chaos of the world "divided the -light from the darkness," so the God within us, which is our reason, -does the same with the chaos of the mind. The chaos, on Pope's system, -was in the actions, and not in the motives. The sweet water and the -bitter flowed from the same tainted fountain,--from ambition, pride, -sloth, etc. - -[1221] MS.: - - Extremes in man concur to gen'ral use. - -Pope's meaning seems to be that in all terrestrial things, except man, -extremes or contraries produce opposite and uncompounded effects. In -man, extremes, in the shape of virtue and vice, join and mix together. -There is no force in the distinction. Hot water, for instance, mixes -with cold, and a mean temperature is the result. - -[1222] "Great purposes," says Warburton in explanation of this passage, -"are served by vice and virtue invading each other's bounds, no less -than the perfecting the constitution of the whole, as lights and shades, -in a well wrought picture, make the harmony and spirit of the -composition." By this rule virtue dashed with vice is more "spirited and -harmonious" than virtue without alloy. Warburton allowed himself to be -deluded by a metaphor. Black paint has no resemblance to black -morals,--shadows in a picture to hatred, avarice, and so on. - -[1223] Too nice, that is, to permit us to distinguish where ends, etc. -The ellipse goes beyond any poetical licence which is consistent with -writing English. - -[1224] The lines from ver. 207 to 214 are versified from Clarke's -Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, 10th ed., p. 184: "As in -painting two very different colours may, from the highest intenseness in -either extreme, terminate in the midst insensibly, so that it shall not -be possible to determine exactly where the one ends, and the other -begins, and yet the colours may differ as much as can be, not in degree -only but in kind, so, though it may, perhaps, be very difficult in some -nice cases to define exactly the bounds of right and wrong, yet right -and wrong are totally different, even altogether as much as white and -black, light and darkness." The argument of Clarke was directed against -Hobbes, and his disciples, who denied that there was any inherent -difference between good and evil, and supported their paradox by -pleading the impossibility of drawing a line between the two. - -[1225] Here follows in the MS.: - - To strangle in its birth each rising crime - Requires but little,--just to think in time. - In ev'ry vice, at first, in some degree - We see some virtue, or we think we see. - Our vices thus are virtues in disguise, - Wicked but by degrees, or by surprise. - -Of the last couplet there is a second version: - - Thus spite of all the Frenchman's witty lies - Most vices are but virtues in disguise. - -The witty Frenchman was La Rochefoucauld. Pope's counter-maxim is only a -form of La Rochefoucald's principle, converted into an apparent -contradiction by an equivocal use of the phrase "virtues in disguise." -Those who pursue vicious objects are reluctant to allow that they are -the slaves of vice. "Hence," says Hutcheson, in a passage quoted by -Warton, "the basest actions are dressed in some tolerable mask. What -others call avarice, appears to the agent a prudent care of a family or -friends; fraud, artful conduct; malice and revenge, a just sense of -honour; fire and sword and desolation among enemies, a just defence of -our country; persecution, a zeal for truth." Pope assumes that the vice -is inspired by genuine virtue, whereas the virtue is a pretence, a -flimsy pretext to excuse wrong-doing. The vice is real, the virtue -fictitious, and this is the principle of La Rochefoucauld. - -[1226] Dryden's Hind and Panther, Part i.: - - For truth has such a face and such a mien, - As to be loved needs only to be seen.--WAKEFIELD. - -The lines from ver. 217 to 221 are thus varied in the MS.: - - Vice all abhor, the monster is too foul; - Naked, indeed, she shocks us to the soul; - But dressed too well, with tempting time and place, - That but to pity her is to embrace. - Where art thou, Vice? 'twas never yet agreed, etc. - -[1227] The word is inappropriate. Men do not become sensual out of pity -to the miseries of sensuality, or envious from compassion for the pangs -of envy. Pity may be felt for the evils which vice entails, but this is -not pity for the vice, nor a temptation to practise it. - -[1228] After ver. 220 in ed. 1: - - A cheat, a whore, who starts not at the name, - In all the Inns of Court, or Drury Lane? - -These two omitted in the subsequent editions.--POPE. - -The dishonest lawyer, and woman of the town, applied soft names to their -vices, and were startled to be called by their proper appellations. The -couplet was followed in the MS. by some further illustrations:-- - - B[lun]t but does - K---- brings matters on; - Rogues but do business; spies but serve the crown; - Sid has the secret, Chartres - H[e]r[ve]y the court, and Huggins knows the town; - Kind-hearted Peter helps the rich in want, - Nero's a wag, and Messaline gallant. - -The last couplet assumed a second form: - - Nero's a wag, Faustina some suspect - Of gallantry, and Sutton of neglect. - -Sutton, Peter Walter, Hervey, Huggins, Chartres, and Blunt will reappear -in connection with the offences for which they are satirised here. Sid -was Lord Godophin, who was lampooned under the name of Sid Hamet by -Swift. Pope, in his Moral Essays, Epist. 1, ver. 86, speaks of his - - Newmarket fame, and judgment in a bet; - -and the phrase, "Sid has the secret" is an insinuation that his -"judgment in a bet" sometimes arose from his being privy to the tricks -of the turf. - -[1229] After ver. 226 in the MS.: - - The Col'nel swears the agent is a dog; - The scriv'ner vows th' attorney is a rogue; - Against the thief th' attorney loud inveighs, - For whose ten pound the county twenty pays; - The thief damns judges, and the knaves of state, - And dying mourns small villains hanged by great.--WARBURTON. - -The agent of whom the Colonel complained was the army agent. The -scrivener, who drew contracts, and invested money, hated the attorneys -because they were in part competitors for the same class of business. -Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, says, that Mr. Ellis, who died in 1791, -aged 93, was the last of the scriveners. Their occupation had gradually -lapsed to other professions, legal or monetary. Pope's remaining -instances are forced. The attorney did not pay more than his neighbours -to the county expenditure for prosecuting thieves, and as the trials -were much to his own profit, he was the last person who had an interest -in inveighing against thievery. As little did the thief at his execution -denounce "the knaves of state," of whom he commonly knew nothing. Pope -has put the satire of the Beggar's Opera into the mouth of the veritable -pick-pockets and highwaymen. - -[1230] MS.: - - Ev'n those who dwell in Vice's very zone. - -[1231] From moral insensibility, that is, they are either unconscious of -their vice, or, being conscious, pretend ignorance. - -[1232] Pope goes too far. The worst men acknowledge that some things are -crimes. - -[1233] Addison, Spectator, No. 183: "There was no person so vicious who -had not some good in him, nor any person so virtuous who had not in him -some evil." - -[1234] This couplet follows ver. 234 in the MS.: - - Some virtue in a lawyer has been known, - Nay in a minister, or on a throne. - -[1235] Complete virtue, and complete vice, says Pope, are both hostile -to self-interest, a plain confession that his selfish system was -incompatible with thorough virtue. He assures us, Epist. iv. ver. 310, -that "virtue alone is happiness below," but to be consistent he must -have meant virtue seasoned with vice. - -[1236] He is far from saying that good effects naturally rise from vice -or folly, and affirms nothing but that God superintends the world in -such a manner that they do not produce all those destructive -consequences that might reasonably be expected from them.--JOHNSON. - -MS.: - - That draws a virtue out of ev'ry vice. - -Or, - - And public good extracts from private vice. - -The last version is taken from the title of Mandeville's work, "The -Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices, Public Benefits." Johnson's -interpretation of the text does not agree with Pope's assertion, that -"imperfections are usefully distributed to all orders of men." - -[1237] MS.: - - Each frailty wisely to each rank applied. - -The line is disfigured by the clumsy transition from the present tense -to the past for the sake of the rhyme, which is a trifle in comparison -with the doctrine that "heaven applies happy frailties to all ranks." If -the "frailties" specified by Pope are "happy," fear must be a -recommendation in a statesman, rashness in a general, presumption in a -king, and a credulous faith in the presumption the best condition for -the people. - -[1238] The sense of shame in virgins is not a frailty to be ranked with -pride, rashness, and presumption. - -[1239] There is another side to the picture. The ends of vice are also -raised from vanity, which begets wastefulness, debt, slander, and a -multitude of evils. - -[1240] That is, "heaven can build," the "can" being supplied from "can -raise," ver. 245. - -[1241] Shaftesbury's Moralists: "Is not both conjugal affection and -natural affection to parents, love of a common city, community, or -country, with the other duties and social parts of life, founded in -these very wants?"--WARTON. - -[1242] Men, says Pope, are reconciled to death from growing weary of the -"wants, frailties, and passions" of life. "The observation," says -Warburton, "is new, and would in any place be extremely beautiful, but -has here an _infinite_ grace and propriety." This is one of the stock -forms of Warburton's adulation. Pope's remark was stale, and from the -nature of the case could not be new if, as he asserted, it was generally -true, since all men in their declining years could not, through all -time, have left unexpressed the feeling which made them all willing to -die. What all men think many men will say. - -[1243] The MS. adds this couplet: - - What partly pleases, totally will shock; - Nor Ross would be Argyle, nor Toland - I question much if Toland would be Locke. - -The Duke of Argyle and General Ross were both soldiers, both -politicians, and both Scotchmen. Ross was a member of the House of -Commons. Toland introduced metaphysics into his infidel works, and Pope -signifies by his couplet that the inferior in a particular department -would not desire on the whole to change characters with a superior in -the same department. - -[1244] MS.: - - The learn'd are blessed such wonders to explore. - -[1245] Buoyed up by the expectation that he would hit upon the secret of -transmuting the baser metals into gold. - -[1246] MS.: - - The chemist's happy in his golden views, - Payn in his madness, Welsted in his muse. - -[1247] From La Rochefoucauld, Maxim 36: "Nature seems to have bestowed -pride on us, on purpose to save us the pain of knowing our own -imperfections."--WARTON. - -[1248] Bolingbroke, Frag. 50: "Hope, that cordial drop, which sweetens -every bitter potion, even the last."--WAKEFIELD. - -MS.: - - With ev'ry age of man new passions rise, - Hope travels through nor quits him when he dies. - -[1249] The lines, ver. 275-282, first appeared in the edition of 1743. -They were evidently suggested by a passage in Garth's Dispensary, Canto -v.: - - Children at toys as men at titles aim, - And in effect both covet but the same, - This Philip's son proved in revolving years, - And first for rattles, then for worlds shed tears. - -[1250] When Pope used the phrase "a little louder," he was thinking of -the "rattle," and forgot the "straw." - -[1251] The "garters" refer to the badge of the order of the garter. -"Scarf," in the sense of a badge of honour, was in Pope's day -appropriated to the nobleman's chaplain. "His sister," says Swift, -speaking of a clerical time-server in his Essay on the Fates of -Clergymen, "procured him a scarf from my lord." Addison in the -Spectator, No. 21, compares bishops, deans, and archdeacons to generals; -doctors of divinity, prebendaries, and "all that wear scarves" to -field-officers; and the rest of the clergy to subalterns. "There has -been," he says, "a great exceeding of late years in the second division, -several brevets having been granted for the converting of subalterns -into scarf-officers, insomuch that within my memory the price of -lute-string"--the material of which the scarf was made--"is raised above -twopence in a yard." The number of chaplains a nobleman could "qualify" -varied with his rank. A duke might nominate six, a baron three. The -distinction, when Pope wrote his Essay, was too slight to be fitly -classed with orders of knighthood. - -[1252] The infant's pleasure in trifles may be the kindly work of nature -providing for the enjoyments of an age incapable of better things; but -the maturer delight in the "scarfs, garters, gold," is not the work of -nature, but of folly. The first is a harmless instinct; the other a -culpable vanity.--CROLY. - -[1253] Small balls of glass or pearl, or other substance, strung upon a -thread, and used by the Romanists to count their prayers; from whence -the phrase "to tell beads," or to be at one's "beads," is, to be at -prayer.--JOHNSON. - -[1254] MS.: - - At last he sleeps, and all the care is o'er. - -[1255] MS.: "Till then." - -[1256] MS.: - - Observant then, how from defects of mind - Spring half the bliss, or rest of humankind! - How pride rebuilds what reason can destroy, &c. - -[1257] MS.: - - Of certainty by faith, of sense by pride. - -[1258] MS.: - - These still repair what wisdom would destroy. - -[1259] MS.: - - Through life's long dream new prospects entertain. - -[1260] MS.: - - Life's prospects alter ev'ry step we gain, - And Nature gives no vanity in vain. - -[1261] See further of the use of this principle in man, Epist. 3, ver. -121, 124, 133, 143, 199, etc., 269, etc., 316, etc. And Epist. 4, ver. -353 and 363.--POPE. - -[1262] MS.: - - Confess one comfort ever will arise. - -[1263] Bolingbroke, Fragment 53: "God is wise and man a fool." - -[1264] In several editions in quarto, - - Learn, Dulness, learn! "The Universal Cause," etc.--WARBURTON. - -[1265] The "one end" is the good of the whole. - -[1266] MS.: - - Must act by gen'ral not by partial laws. - -[1267] That is, those who are rich in temporal blessings should remember -that the world is not made for them alone. - -[1268] MS.: - - Look nature through, and see the chain of love. - -[1269] Ed. 1.: - - See lifeless matter moving to one end.--POPE. - -"Plastic," or as Bolingbroke called it, "fashioning nature," was in its -etymological and popular sense, the power in nature which gave things -their shape or figure. This seems to be the meaning in Pope. The -philosophic sense of the phrase was more extensive. The laws of matter -may have been made self-acting, or they may be maintained by the direct -and constant interposition of God. Cudworth, and some other writers, who -held the first of these opinions, called "plastic nature" the inward -energy, the operative principle which is as a sort of life to the laws. -The "plastic nature" of Cudworth is, in reality, nothing more than the -laws of matter, with the proviso that they work by an inherent virtue -infused into them by the Creator once for all. - -[1270] "Embrace" is an inappropriate word. The particles of matter do -not clasp. They are not even in contact, but only contiguous. - -[1271] MS.: - - Press to one centre of commutual good. - -As the inorganic, or lifeless matter, of which he had previously spoken, -gravitates to a centre, so the "matter" which is "endued with life" also -"presses" to a "centre"--"the general good." The comparison of the -general good to the centre of gravity is inaccurate. The centre of -gravity is a point; the general good is diffused good. - -[1272] Shaftesbury's Moralists, Part i. Sect. 3: "The vegetables by -their death sustain the animals, and animal bodies dissolved enrich the -earth, and raise again the vegetable world."--WARTON. - -[1273] Pope is speaking in the context of plants and animals, which are -the "they" of ver. 20. He threw ver. 18 into a parenthesis, and said, -"_we_ catch," because the interjected remark relates to men. The power -displayed in the transmission of life from parents to progeny is happily -illustrated by Fenelon, in his Traite de l'Existence de Dieu: "What -should we think of a watchmaker who could make watches which would -produce other watches to infinity, insomuch that the two first watches -would be sufficient to propagate and perpetuate the species over all the -earth? What should we say of an architect who had the art to construct -houses which generated fresh houses to replace our dwellings before they -began to fall into ruin?" - -[1274] "Connects," that is, "the greatest with the least." Pope, in his -free use of elliptical expressions, having omitted "the," Warburton -interprets the phrase according to the strict language, and supposes the -meaning to be that the greatness of the Deity is manifested most in the -creatures which are least. - -[1275] Another couplet follows in the MS.: - - More pow'rful each as needful to the rest, - Each in proportion as he blesses blessed. - -[1276] The passage is indebted to Fenton, in his Epistle to Southerne: - - Who winged the winds, and gave the streams to flow, - And raised the rocks, and spread the lawns below.--WAKEFIELD. - -MS.: - - Think'st thou for thee he feeds the wanton fawn - And not as kindly spreads for him the lawn? - Think'st thou for thee the sky-lark mounts and sings? - -[1277] Apart from the metre the proper order of the words would be, -"loves and raptures of his own swell the note." - -[1278] MS.: "gracefully." The reading Pope substituted is not much -better, for the generality of men are not absurd enough to ride -"pompously." - -[1279] This description of the hog as living on the labours of the lord -of creation, without ploughing, or obeying his call, gives the idea of -some untamed depredator, and not of a domestic animal kept to be eaten. -The lord lives on the hog. - -[1280] MS.: "Sir Gilbert," which meant Sir Gilbert Heathcote, a rich -London alderman, who had been lord mayor. The fur was a part of his -official robes. - -[1281] MS.: - - Know, Nature's children with one care are nursed; - What warms a monarch, warmed an ermine first. - -[1282] After ver. 46 in the former editions: - - What care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat him! - All this he knew; but not that 'twas to eat him, - As far as goose could judge he reasoned right; - But as to man, mistook the matter quite.--WARBURTON. - -Cowley, in his Plagues of Egypt, stanza 1: - - All creatures the Creator said were thine: - No creature but might since say, "Man is mine." - -Gay, Fable 49: - - The snail looks round on flow'r and tree, - And cries, "All these were made for me."--WAKEFIELD. - -The goose is taken from Peter Charron; but such a familiar and burlesque -image is improperly introduced among such solid and serious -reflections.--WARTON. - -Pope copied Charron's predecessor, Montaigne, Book ii. Chap. 12: "For -why may not a goose say thus, 'The earth serves me to walk upon, the sun -to light me. I am the darling of nature. Is it not man that keeps, -lodges, and serves me? It is for me that he both sows and grinds.'" "The -pampered goose," says Southey, "must have been forgetful of plucking -time, as well as ignorant of the rites that are celebrated in all -old-fashioned families on St. Michael's Day." The goose's ignorance of -his future fate was part of Pope's argument, and he contended that the -men who exclaimed, "See all things for my use," were equally blind to -the purposes for which they were destined. The illustration is poor both -poetically and philosophically. - -[1283] Bolingbroke, Fragment 43: "The hypothesis that assumes the world -made for man is not founded in reason."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1284] That is, "Let it be granted that man is the intellectual lord;" -for "wit" is here used in its extended sense of intellect in general. - -[1285] MS.: - - 'Tis true the strong the weaker still control, - And pow'rful man is master of the whole: - Him therefore nature checks; he only knows, etc. - -[1286] What an exquisite assemblage is here, down to ver. 70, of deep -reflection, humane sentiments, and poetic imagery. It is finely observed -that compassion is exclusively the property of man alone.--WARTON. - -[1287] That is, varying with her position, and the different angles in -which the reflected light strikes upon the eye.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1288] MS.: - - Turns he his ear when Philomela sings? - Admires her eye the insect's gilded wings? - -The superior mercy with which Pope accredits men is of an unreflecting -description, since he implies that it is regulated by gaiety of colour, -and sweetness of song, and not by the capacities of creatures for -pleasure and pain. The claim itself is unfounded under the circumstances -of his comparison. The falcon and the jay must eat their natural prey or -starve, and when hunger or gratification solicits him, man never -hesitates to kill the animals which are needful for his support or -delicious to his palate. If he had a taste for "insects with gilded -wings," the gilding on their wings would not restrain him. Martial, Lib. -xiii. Ep. 70, says of the peacock, "You admire him every time he -displays his jewelled wings, and can you, hard-hearted man, deliver him -to the cruel cook?" and Pope in his celebrated lines on the pheasant had -commemorated the impotence of brilliant plumage to touch the compassion -of the sportsman. The poet, in this Epistle, forgot that in Epist. i. -ver. 117, he had accused man of "destroying all creatures for his sport -or gust," which is to place him below the animals. He is undoubtedly -without an equal in his destructive propensities, and too often abuses -his power over the sentient world. - -[1289] Pope starts with the intimation that mankind extend their -protection to animals from commiseration for their "wants and woes," and -ends with declaring that the motive is "interest, pleasure, and pride." - -[1290] Borrowed from Milton's Samson Agonistes, ver. 549: - - Wherever fountain or fresh current flowed - Against the eastern ray, translucent, pure - With touch ethereal of heav'n's fiery rod, - I drank.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1291] Several of the ancients, and many of the Orientals since, -esteemed those who were struck by lightning as sacred persons, and the -particular favourites of heaven.--POPE. - -Plutarch mentions that persons struck with lightning were held in -honour, which did not accord with the concurrent belief that lightning -was the instrument of Jove's vengeance. Superstitions often clash. - -[1292] "View" is "prospect,"--a vision of future bliss. - -[1293] Sir W. Temple, Works, vol. iii. p. 539: "Man is a thinking thing, -whether he will or no." - -[1294] Pope repeats in this paragraph the argument he uses Epist. i. -ver. 77-98, to prove that death has been beneficently disarmed of its -terrors. Unthinking animals cannot be troubled at the prospect, for they -have no knowledge, he says, of their end, which is more than we can -tell; and thinking beings, according to him, have, in addition to the -hope which mingles with their dread, the unfailing belief that death, -though always drawing nearer, is never near. Such an irrational delusion -in a "thinking thing" is, in Pope's estimation, a "standing miracle." -The ostensible miracle is deduced from his exaggeration of the truth. -The conviction that death is distant usually yields when appearances are -against the supposition. Hale men often rush consciously upon certain -destruction; old and sick men have constantly the genuine belief that -their end is at hand; and dying men expect each day or hour to be their -last. The false expectation of prolonged life does not enter into their -minds, and can have nothing to do with their resignation, peace, or joy. - -[1295] This is the true principle from which Pope immediately departs, -and exalts instinct above reason. "Man," says Aristotle, "has sometimes -more, sometimes less than the beast;" for they are adapted to different -functions, and man excels in his sphere, and beasts in theirs. The -sphere of man is the highest, and his faculties are proportionate. He -cannot do the work of the bee, but he can do his own work, which is -greater. - -[1296] The roman catholic council, which claims to be infallible. -Instinct, says Pope, being infallible does not need the guidance of any -other infallible authority. When he speaks of "full instinct," he -probably means that instinct is always complete within its own limited -domain, for if he intended to put "full instinct" in opposition to the -instinct which is defective and misleads, he would contradict ver. 94, -in which he states that instinct "must go right." - -[1297] After ver. 84 in the MS.: - - While man with op'ning views of various ways - Confounded, by the aid of knowledge strays: - Too weak to choose, yet choosing still in haste, - One moment gives the pleasure and distaste.--WARBURTON. - -[1298] In Pope's wide sense of the term, reason adapts means to ends, -and distinguishes between truth and falsehood, right and wrong. The -faculty operates in part spontaneously, and in part with effort. In an -endless number of ordinary circumstances man cannot help observing, -comparing, and inferring, and his reason is itself an instinct which -"comes a volunteer." The distinction is, that man does not stop with the -unconstrained exercise of his powers. He aspires to progress, and -laboriously pushes forward, while animals turn round, generation after -generation, in the same narrow circle. What Pope supposed was a mark of -man's inferiority is just the ground of his superiority. His conquests -begin with his difficulties and exertions. - -[1299] Pope says, ver. 79, that whether blessed with reason or instinct -"all enjoy the power that tends to bliss,--all find the means -proportioned to the end." He now contradicts himself with regard to -reason, and says that, in the effort to determine which of our impulses -are beneficial and which injurious, it never hits the mark, but labours -in vain after happiness. The wisdom he denies to reason he erroneously -ascribes to instinct, which has no superiority in securing an immunity -from ill. Through want of foresight, and the limitation of their powers -of contrivance, myriads of creatures die of hunger and cold. Those which -come off with life suffer frequently from scarcity and inclement -seasons. Their defective sagacity makes them a prey to each other and to -man, and often when they escape death they receive torturing injuries. -The young are exposed to wholesale destruction, and in many instances -the parents manifest a grief which if short is at least acute. Creatures -of the same species have their intestine enmities, and engage in combats -attended by wounds and death. They have their fears, jealousies, and -tempers, their alternations of contentment and dissatisfaction, and upon -the whole the instinct conferred upon animals seems a less protection -from present evils than a moderate use of reason in man. What -alleviation there may be to animals in their inevitable trials cannot be -known to us, but no one will imagine that they can be supported by -sublimer hopes than our own. - -[1300] This is a mistake. Instinct is often imperfect with reference to -its own special ends. Misled by the odour of the African carrion flower, -the flesh-flies lay their eggs in it, and the progeny, not being -vegetable feeders, are starved. Here the injury is to the offspring. In -other cases the erring individuals suffer for their own mistake. Pope, -in this Epistle, magnifies instinct, and disparages reason. In Epist. -i., ver. 232, he took the opposite side, and said that the reason of man -was all the "powers" of animals "in one." - -[1301] MS.: - - One in their act to think and to pursue, - Sure to will right, and what they will to do. - -Pope's meaning is, that there is no conflict in animals, as in man, -between passion and reason, between desire and judgment, that there is -not in the operations of animals, as in man's contrivances, a studied -adaptation of means to ends, nor a balancing of method against method, -and of end against end, but that animals are endowed with singleness of -purpose, know instinctively what to do, and how to do it. - -[1302] MS.: - - Reason prefer to instinct if you can. - -[1303] Addison, Spectator, No. 121; "To me instinct seems the immediate -direction of Providence. A modern philosopher delivers the same opinion -where he says, God himself is the soul of brutes." Upon the theory that -brutes act from the immediate impulse of their Maker, there is a -difficulty in explaining the cases of misdirected instinct, as when a -jackdaw drops cart-loads of sticks down a chimney, in the vain endeavour -to obtain a basis for its nest. Some animals, again, profit by -experience, as foxes which improve in cunning, and we must infer that -the assistance afforded by the Deity increases with the experience of -the animals, though the experience is in nowise concerned in the result. -A viciousness of temper, which resembles the evil passions of men, -sometimes dominates in brutes, as we may see in horses and dogs, and we -cannot ascribe these propensities to the immediate instigation of the -Creator, unless we accept Pope's doctrine that God "pours fierce -ambition into Caesar's mind." - -[1304] "Wood" in all editions, though designated as an erratum by Pope -in his small edition of 1736. The mention of "tides" and "waves" in the -next couplet should have called attention to a mistake, which seems -obvious enough even without any special notice.--CROKER. - -[1305] This instinct is not invariable. Animals eat food poisoned -artificially, and sometimes feed greedily upon poisonous natural -products. Yew is a poison to cows and horses, and yet with an abundance -of wholesome herbage they will sometimes eat the yew. - -[1306] Every verb and epithet has here a descriptive force. We find more -imagery from these lines to the end of the Epistle, than in any other -parts of this Essay. The origin of the connections in social life, the -account of the state of nature, the rise and effects of superstition and -tyranny, and the restoration of true religion and just government, all -these ought to be mentioned as passages that deserve high applause, nay, -as some of the most exalted pieces of English poetry.--WARTON. - -[1307] The halcyon or king-fisher was reputed by the ancients "to build -upon the wave," and the entrance to the floating nest was supposed to be -contrived in a manner to admit the bird, and exclude the water of the -sea. Either Pope believed the fable, or he thought himself at liberty to -illustrate the marvels of instinct by fictitious examples. The couplet -was originally thus in the MS.: - - The cramp-fish, remora what secret charm - To stop the bark, arrest the distant arm? - -The cramp-fish is the torpedo. "She has the quality," says Montaigne, -"not only to benumb all the members that touch her, but even through the -nets transmits a heavy dullness into the hands of those that move them; -nay, it is further said, that if one pour water upon her, he will feel -this numbness mount up the water to the hand, and stupify the feeling -through the water." The remora, or sucking-fish, sticks by the disc on -the top of its head, to ships and other fishes, and "renders -immoveable," says Pliny, "the vessels which no chain could stay, no -weighty anchor moor." The mighty prowess ascribed to the remora is -imaginary, and the electrical capacity of the torpedo greatly -exaggerated. The story of halcyon, cramp-fish, and remora are all in -Book ii. chap. 12 of Montaigne's Essays. - -[1308] The geometric, or garden-spider, makes a web of concentric -circles, but the house-spider, which used to have credit for weaving a -web of parallel longitudinal lines crossed by parallel transverse lines, -observes no such regularity in the construction of her toils. - -[1309] An eminent mathematician.--POPE. - -He was born in France in 1667. Driven from his native country in 1685 by -the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he settled in London, and died -there in 1754. He got his living mainly by teaching mathematics, in -which his skill was consummate, and his publications on the subject -attest the acuteness and originality of his genius. He was on terms of -friendship with Newton. - -[1310] The poet probably took the hint of this passage from Lord Bacon's -De augmentis scientiarum: "Who taught the raven in a drought to throw -pebbles into an hollow tree where she espied water, that the water might -rise so as she might come to it? Who taught the bee to sail through such -a vast sea of air, and to find a way from the field in flower, a great -way off to her hive?"--RUFFHEAD. - -[1311] MS.: - - Through air's vast oceans see the storks explore, - Columbus-like, a world unknown before. - -[1312] From Le Spectacle de la Nature of the Abbe Pluche: "Who informed -their young that it would be requisite to travel into a foreign country? -What particular bird takes the charge upon him of assembling their grand -council, and fixing the day of their departure?" - -[1313] The MS. has the lines which follow: - - Boast we of arts? a bee can better hit - The squares than Gibbs, the bearings than Sir Kit. - To poise his dome a martin has the knack, - While bold Bernini lets St. Peter's crack. - -Gibbs was born about 1674 and died in 1754. He designed St. Martin's -church in London, and the Radcliffe library at Oxford. Sir Kit is Sir -Christopher Wren. A century after the dome of St. Peter's was erected, -Bernini inserted staircases in the hollow piers which support the -cupola, and the cracks in the dome were falsely ascribed to his -operations. The martins are not more infallible than man, and, unlike -man, they do not profit by experience. White of Selborne relates that -they built in the window corners of a house in his neighbourhood, where -the recess was too shallow to protect their work, which was washed down -with every hard rain, and yet year after year they persevered through -the summer in their useless drudgery. - -[1314] Bolingbroke, Fragment 51: "We are designed to be social, not -solitary creatures. Mutual wants unite us, and natural benevolence and -political order, on which our happiness depends, are founded in -them."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1315] Ether was reputed to be an element finer than air, and to fill -the regions beyond our atmosphere. Some of the stoics believed that -ether was the animating principle of all things, and Pope adopted the -doctrine. Hence he calls ether "all-quickening," and says that "one -nature feeds the vital flame" in all the creatures of earth, air, and -water. - -[1316] Bolingbroke, Fragment 51: "As our parents loved themselves in us, -so we love ourselves in our children."--WAKEFIELD. - -Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel: - - Our fond begetters who would never die, - Love but themselves in their posterity. - -The lines from ver. 115 to ver. 124 are varied in the MS.: - - Quick with this spirit new-born nature moved, - Itself each creature in its species loved; - Each sought a pleasure not possessed alone, - Each sex desired alike till two were one. - This impulse animates; one nature feeds - The vital lamp, and swells the genial seeds: - All spread their image with like ardour stung, - All love themselves, reflected in their young. - -Dr. George Campbell remarks, in his Philosophy of Rhetoric, that to talk -of creatures loving themselves in their progeny is nonsensical rant. Of -many fathers and mothers it would be nearer the truth to say that they -love their children almost to the exclusion of themselves. Neither Pope -nor Bolingbroke had children, and not having experienced, they -misapprehended, the parental feeling. - -[1317] Pope's division of duties is not the law of creation. In a -multiplicity of cases both parents feed, and both defend their young. -When the sire is of no use in providing food, as with grass-eating -animals, he equally abandons his defending function, and does not even -recognise his offspring. - -[1318] MS.: - - Till taught to range the wood, or wing the air, - There instinct ends its passion and its care. - -[1319] Locke, Civil Government, book ii. chap. vii. sect. 79: "The -conjunction between male and female ought to last so long as is -necessary to the support of the young ones. And herein, I think, lies -the chief, if not the only reason, why the male and female in mankind -are tied to a longer conjunction than other creatures, whose young being -able to subsist of themselves before the time of procreation returns -again, the conjugal bond dissolves of itself." - -[1320] Bolingbroke, Fragment 3: "Reason improved sociability, extended -it to relations more remote, and united several families into one -community, as instinct had united several individuals into one family." -"Interest" in Pope's line signifies "advantage." Reason, he says, -teaches man to improve on the ties of instinct, and form connections -beyond his immediate family, whereby he at once extends his love, and -the advantages derived from it. - -[1321] That is, man becomes constant from choice. - -[1322] MS.: - - And ev'ry tender passion takes its turn. - -The line in the text alludes to Pope's hypothesis that every virtue is -grafted upon a ruling passion. - -[1323] "Charity" is used in the antiquated sense of "love." "New needs," -says Pope, give rise to "new helps," and the virtue "benevolence" is -grafted upon the natural affections. - -[1324] He means that the latest brood, being young children, love their -parents by nature, while the previous brood, being grown up, only love -parents from habit. - -[1325] MS.: - - Scarce had the last the parents' care outgrown - Before they saw those parents want their own. - -Dryden, Palamon and Arcite, Book iii.: - - and issuing into man, - Grudges their life from whence his own began. - -[1326] MS.: - - Stretch the long interest, and support the line. - -[1327] The MS. goes on thus: - - She spake, and man her high behests obeyed; - Harmless amidst his fellow-beasts he strayed; - For pride was not; joint tenant of the shade - He shared with beasts his table and his bed; - No murder etc. - -"He speaks," says M. Crousaz, "of what passed in the earliest ages of -the world no less positively than an eye-witness." Pope followed the -ancient fable which he may have read, among other places, in Montaigne's -Essays, Book ii. Chap. 12: "Plato, in his picture of the golden age -under Saturn, reckons, among the chief advantages that a man then had, -his communications with beasts, by which he acquired a very perfect -intelligence and prudence, and led his life more happily than we could -do." - -[1328] "Her birth" is the birth of nature. The personification of nature -in the phrase "the state of nature," or "the natural state," is so -forced, that we do not at once perceive that "nature" is the noun to -which "her" refers. - -[1329] "Union" is put for voluntary union, the union of social -affection, in contrast to the bonds of fear, coercion, and the -necessities of life, which are large elements in the present condition -of mankind. The beasts were included in the common league, and animals -of prey unknown in Pope's state of nature. But he did not keep steady to -his first account. - -[1330] So Hall, Satires, Book iii. Sat. 1: - - Then crept in pride, and peevish covetise, - And man grew greedy, discordous, and nice. - Now man that erst hail-fellow was with beast, - Woxe on to ween himself a god at least.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1331] Dryden, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book xv.: - - The woolly fleece that clothed her murderer. - -[1332] Virgil, Ecl. x. 58: "lucos sonantes;" Dryden, "sounding -woods."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1333] MS.: - - He called on heav'n for blessing, they for food. - -[1334] MS.: - - Unstained with gore the grassy altar grew, - Priests yet were temperate, yet no passions knew; - Nor yet would glutton zeal devoutly eat, - Nor faithful av'rice hugged his god in plate. - -The pagans feasted upon the meat they offered to idols, which is what we -are to understand by the "glutton zeal" that "devoutly eats." - -[1335] Dryden, Virg. AEn. ix. 640: - - Ah how unlike the living is the dead.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1336] MS.: - - Of half that live himself the living tomb. - -[1337] MS.: - - Who, foe to nature, other kinds o'erthrown - Restless he seeks dominion o'er his own. - -Or, - - Who deaf to nature's universal groan, - Murders all other kinds, betrays his own. - -This is the same amiable being who is celebrated, ver. 51, for "helping -the wants and woes of other creatures," and sparing singing-birds and -gilded insects out of pure compassion. - -[1338] Pope probably meant that man was a "fiercer savage" than the -animals of which he shed the blood, but as the "blood" only is -mentioned, there is no proper positive to the comparative. - -[1339] Dryden in his version of the speech of Pythagoras in Ovid, Met. -Book xv., which our poet doubtless had in view through this whole -delineation: - - Th' essay of bloody feasts on brutes began, - And after forged the sword to murder man.--WAKEFIELD. - -MS.: - - While nature, strict the injury to scan, - Left man the only beast to prey on man. - -[1340] MS.: - - In early times when man aspired to art. - -The lines from ver. 161 to 168 are parenthetical, and Pope now goes back -to the primitive age in which uncorrupted man associated freely with the -beasts, and profited by their teaching. - -[1341] MS.: - - 'Twas then the voice of mighty nature spake. - -[1342] It is a caution commonly practised amongst navigators, when -thrown upon a desert coast, and in want of refreshments, to observe what -fruits have been touched by the birds, and to venture on these without -further hesitation.--WARBURTON. - -[1343] See Pliny's Nat. Hist. Lib. viii. cap. 27, where several -instances are given of animals discovering the medicinal efficacy of -herbs by their own use of them, and pointing to some operations in the -art of healing by their own practice.--WARBURTON. - -The instances are all fanciful or fabulous. - -[1344] Montaigne, Essays, Book ii. Chap. 12: "Democritus held and -proved, that most of the arts we have were taught us by other animals, -as by the spider to weave and sew, by the swallow to build, by the swan -and nightingale music, and by several animals to make medicines." - -[1345] The MS. adds: - - Behold the rabbit's fortress in the sands, - The beaver's storied house not made with hands. - -A rabbit-burrow has no resemblance to a military fortress, and Pope -prudently omitted the incongruous comparison. Martial, Lib. xiii. Ep. -60, had used the illustration in a directly opposite sense, and said -that rabbits, by teaching the art of mining, had shown the enemy how -fortresses could be taken. - -[1346] Oppian, Halicut. Lib. i., describes this fish in the following -manner: "They swim on the surface of the sea, on the back of their -shells, which exactly resemble the hulk of a ship. They raise two feet -like masts, and extend a membrane between, which serves as a sail; the -other two feet they employ as oars at the side. They are usually seen in -the Mediterranean."---POPE. - -The paper-nautilus, or Argonauta Argo, has eight arms. The first pair in -the female expand at their extremities, so that each of the two arms -terminates in a broad thin membrane. These broad membranes do not exist -in the male, and modern naturalists reject the idea that they are used -for sails. - -[1347] MS.: - - There, too, each form of social commerce find, - So late by reason taught to human kind. - Behold th' embodied locust rushing forth - In sabled millions from th' inclement north; - In herds the wolves, invasive robbers, roam, - In flocks, the sheep pacific, race at home. - What warlike discipline the cranes display, - How leagued their squadron, how direct their way. - -[1348] The Guardian, No. 157: "Everything is common among ants." - -[1349] "Anarchy without confusion" is a contradiction in terms, -according to the meaning which is now universally attached to the word -anarchy. Pope understands by it the mere absence of all inequality of -station. - -[1350] The Guardian, No. 157: "Bees have each of them a hole in their -hives; their honey is their own; every bee minds her own concerns." The -natural history of former times abounded in fables, and among the number -was the fancy that each bee had its separate cell, and private store of -honey. - -[1351] An adaptation of the Latin proverb, mentioned by Cicero, Off. i. -10, and Terence, Heaut. iv. 5, that over-strained law is often -unrestrained injustice. The letter contravenes the spirit. - -[1352] The imagery of the passage is derived from an observation of a -Greek philosopher, who compared laws to spiders' webs,--too fragile to -hold fast great offenders, and too strong to suffer trivial culprits to -escape.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope upbraids men for enacting laws too strong for the weak instead of -following the laws of bees, which are "wise as nature, and as fixed as -fate." Such is their superior consideration for the weak that the -workers kill the drones when they become burthensome to them, and so far -are we behind them in our poor law legislation that we are compelled to -maintain the useless members of society,--the old, the crippled, the -hopelessly sick, the insane, the idiotic--all of whom, if we would only -learn mercy and wisdom of the bee, we should immediately put to death. -The doctrine of Pope is altogether childish. The contracted routine of a -bee's existence has too little in common with the complicated relations -of human life for bee-hive usages to displace the statutes of the realm. - -[1353] Till ed. 5: - - Who for those arts they learned of brutes before, - As kings shall crown them, or as gods adore.--POPE. - -[1354] Roscommon's version of Horace's Art of Poetry: - - Cities were built, and useful laws were made.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1355] In the MS. thus: - - The neighbours leagued to guard their common spot, - And love was nature's dictate, murder not. - For want alone each animal contends; - Tigers with tigers, that removed, are friends. - Plain nature's wants the common mother crowned, - She poured her acorns, herbs, and streams around. - No treasure then for rapine to invade, - What need to fight for sunshine, or for shade? - And half the cause of contest was removed, - When beauty could be kind to all who loved.--WARBURTON. - -Of the first couplet there are two other versions in the MS.: - - Fear would forbid th' unpractised to engage, - And nature's dictate love, not blood and rage. - -Or, - - Unpractised man, that knew no murd'ring skill, - And nature's dictate was to love, not kill. - -[1356] MS.: - - Commerce, convenience, change might strongly draw. - -[1357] These two lines added since the first edition.--POPE. - -The second line of the couplet had already appeared in the Epistle of -Eloisa to Abelard, ver. 92, in connection with sentiments which leave no -doubt of Pope's meaning. In the primitive and golden age he held that -love had full liberty to obey its inclinations, or, as he expressed it -in the passage of the MS. quoted by Warburton, "beauty could then be -kind to all who loved." In other words there was a community of women -regulated by no other law than natural impulse. - -[1358] MS.: - - These states had lords 'tis true, but each its own, - Not all subjected to the rule of one, - Unless where from one lineage all began, - And swelled into a nation from a man. - -The nature of the distinction which Pope draws between the lordship over -the early states, and kingly rule, is clear from ver. 215, where he says -that till monarchy was established patriarchal government prevailed, and -each state was only a collection of relations who obeyed the family -chief. In a monarchy two or more states were joined together, and the -national began to take the place of the family tie. The effect of the -change would be great. The social bond between the governor and the -governed would be weakened, and the official dignity, the harsh -authority, and selfish impulses of the ruler would be quickly increased. - -[1359] "Sons," that is, "obeyed a sire" on account of his "virtue," and -not on account of his parental authority. Pope had in his mind the -remarks of Locke. A mature understanding is necessary for the right -direction of the will, and parents must govern the will of the child -till he is competent to govern his own. He is then responsible to -himself. He owes his parents lasting honour, gratitude, and assistance, -but ceases to be under their command, and if, in primitive times, the -children, who had arrived at years of discretion, accepted a father for -their ruler, his "virtue," says Pope, was the cause. - -[1360] Locke, Civil Government, bk. ii. chap. vi. sect. 74: "It is -obvious to conceive how easy it was in the first ages of the world for -the father of the family to become the prince of it." The right order of -Pope's distorted language is that "virtue made the father of a people a -prince." He was raised to be a prince because he had manifested a -fatherly care for the people. - -[1361] Hooker, Eccles. Polity, bk. i. chap. x. sect. 4: "The chiefest -person in every household was always as it were a king, and fathers did -at the first exercise the office of priests." - -[1362] A finer example can perhaps scarce be given of a compact and -comprehensive style. The manner in which the four elements were subdued -is comprised in these four lines alone. There is not an useless word in -this passage. There are but three epithets,--"wond'ring, profound, -aerial"--and they are placed precisely with the very substantive that is -of most consequence. If there had been epithets joined with the other -substantives, it would have weakened the nervousness of the sentence. -This was a secret of versification Pope well understood, and hath often -practised with peculiar success.--WARTON. - -Warton's criticism appears to be wrong throughout. He says the lines -describe "the manner in which the four elements were subdued;" but we -learn nothing of "the manner" by being told that "fire" was "commanded," -and water "controlled." He says "there is not an useless word;" but as -either "command" or "control" would apply with equal propriety to both -fire and water, the second verb is added solely to eke out the line, and -the adjective "profound," when joined to "abyss," is weak tautology for -the sake of the rhyme. He says that the epithets "are placed precisely -with the very substantive that is of most consequence;" but why is the -"fire" less important than the "abyss?" The verses might pass without -comment if Warton had not extolled them for imaginary merits. The first -line is an example of the sacrifice of truth and picturesqueness to -hyperbolical, affected forms of speech. To talk of "calling food from -the wond'ring furrow" conveys a false idea of agricultural processes. - -[1363] MS.: - - He crowned the wond'ring earth with golden grain, - Taught to command the fire, control the main, - Drew from the secret deep the finny drove, - And fetched the soaring eagle from above. - -The first couplet is again varied: - - He taught the arts of life, the means of food, - To pierce the forest, and to stem the flood. - -[1364] MS.: - - Till weak, and old, and dying they began. - -This couplet is followed in the MS. by a second which Pope omitted: - - Saw his shrunk arms, pale cheeks, and faded eye, - Beheld him bend, and droop, and sink, and die. - -[1365] Men are said by the poet to have been awakened by the death of -the patriarch to reflection upon his original, and to have advanced -upwards from father to father, that is, from cause to cause, till their -enquiries terminated in one original Father, one first, independent, -uncreated cause.--JOHNSON. - -At ver. 148 we are told that "the state of nature was the reign of God," -and at ver. 156 that "all vocal beings"--man, bird, and beast--joined -then in "hymning" their Creator. This condition of things, we learn from -ver. 149, dated from the "birth" of nature, which is contrary to Pope's -present conjecture that the primitive families may, perhaps, have had no -conception of a Deity. The poet's language is irrational. If God did not -reveal himself to them in any direct way, they might yet be supposed -capable of inferring from their own existence and that of the universe, -a truth which their posterity deduced from the death of patriarch after -patriarch. - -[1366] Pope ought to have written "began." He has improperly put the -participle for the past tense. The meaning of the couplet is, that men -may possibly have learned from tradition that, "this all," did not exist -from eternity, but had a beginning, and therefore a Creator. - -[1367] A belief, that is, in the unity of God was the original faith, -and polytheism a later corruption. - -[1368] Warburton says that the allusion is to the refraction of light in -passing through the oblique sides of the glass prism. - -[1369] It was before the fall that God pronounced that all was good. But -our author never adverts to any lapsed condition of man.--WARTON. - -He adverts to it in this passage, where he contrasts primitive virtue -with subsequent license. - -[1370] This couplet follows in the MS.: - - 'Twas simple worship in the native grove, - Religion, morals, had no name but love. - -[1371] The divine right of kings to their throne, and the unlawfulness -of deposing them, however much they might oppress the people for whose -benefit they were appointed to rule, was a doctrine first taught in the -time of the Stuarts. "It was never heard of among mankind," says Locke -writing in 1690, "till it was revealed to us by the divinity of this -last age." In opposition to the slavish theory which would subject -nations to despots, Pope says that when government was instituted -allegiance was the voluntary homage of love. - -[1372] Mr. Pope told us that of the number that had read these Epistles, -he knew of no one that took the elegance, or even the true meaning of -the word "enormous," except Lord Bolingbroke alone. I wonder at it. I am -sure I never understood it otherwise than as "out of all rule," and I do -not know how anybody could that had read Horace's "abnormis sapiens," -and Milton's "enormous bliss." Mr. Pope added for that reason, against -his rule of brevity, the two next lines to explain it, and accordingly I -since saw them interlined in the original MS.--RICHARDSON. - -Milton's "enormous bliss" was bliss "wild, above rule or art." The -persons who misunderstood the epithet in Pope's poem must have been -those who read the MS.; for the explanatory couplet appeared in the -first edition of the Epistle. He obviously meant by "enormous faith" -that the faith was an enormity, and it is difficult to conjecture what -other sense could be attached to his phrase. - -[1373] The "cause" here signifies the purpose or motive manifested in -the constitution of the world, and this purpose is "inverted" by the -doctrine that "many are made for one." The one is made for the -many,--the prince for the people. - -[1374] Wicked rulers, terrified by an evil conscience, became the dupe -of impostors who professed to speak in the name of the invisible powers. - -[1375] MS.: - - Split the huge oak, and rocked the rending ground. - -Wakefield points out that the lines, ver. 249-252, are from Lucretius, -v. 1217. - -[1376] MS.: - - From op'ning earth showed fiends infernal nigh, - And gods supernal from the bursting sky. - -[1377] Horace, Ode iii. bk. iii., translated by Addison: - - An umpire, partial, and unjust, - And a lewd woman's impious lust. - -[1378] Bolingbroke, Fragment 22: "Men made the Supreme Being after their -own image. Fierce and cruel themselves they represented him hating -without reason, revenging without provocation, and punishing without -measure." Pope says that tyrants would believe such gods as were formed -like tyrants. He meant that the tyrants would believe _in_ the gods, but -probably found the "in" unmanageable. - -[1379] MS.: - - The native wood seemed sacred now no more. - -People no longer held sacred the natural temple in which, ver. 155, men -and beasts formerly "hymned their God," but it was thought necessary to -worship in costly buildings, and sacrifice animals on "marble altars." - -[1380] Bolingbroke, Fragment 24: "God was appeased provided his altars -reeked with gore." A sentence of the same Fragment furnished Pope with -his view of heathen sacrifices: "The Supreme Being was represented so -vindictive and cruel, that nothing less than acts of the utmost cruelty -could appease his anger, and his priests were so many butchers of men -and other animals." - -[1381] The "flamen" was a priest attached exclusively to the service of -some particular god. - -[1382] MS.: - - The glutton priest first tasted living food. - -Bolingbroke, Fragment 24: "As if God was appeased whenever the priest -was glutted with roast meat." Wakefield remarks that Pope followed -Pythagoras in calling food "living," because it had once been alive. A -meat diet is said, ver. 167, to have been the origin of wars, and here -we are told that the "flamen first tasted living food" after war and -tyranny had over-spread the earth, which is an inconsistency, unless -Pope believed that his "glutton priests" were more abstemious than the -rest of mankind till animals were sacrificed in the name of religion. -The poet, in this Epistle, is loud in denouncing the practice of eating -animal food, but he ate it without scruple himself. - -[1383] Milton, Par. Lost, i. 392: - - First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood - Of human sacrifice, and parent's tears, - Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud - Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire - To his grim idol. - -Many of Pope's writings are strewed with Miltonic phrases, though they -need not be pointed out, and certainly do not detract from his general -merit. Such interweavings of significant and forcible expressions have -often a striking effect.--BOWLES. - -[1384] The image is derived from the old engines of war, such as the -catapult which threw stones. The Flamen made an engine of his god, and -assailed foes by threatening them with chastisement from heaven. - -[1385] Hooker, Eccles. Polity, bk. i. chap. x. sect. 5: "At the first, -it may be, that all was permitted unto their discretion which were to -rule, till they saw that to live by one man's became the cause of all -men's misery. This constrained them to unto laws."--WARTON. - -In the MS. there is this couplet after ver. 272: - - For say what makes the liberty of man? - 'Tis not in doing what he would but can. - -The lines were intended to give the reason why law is not an -infringement of liberty, and were probably cancelled because the reason -was as applicable to cruel as to salutary laws. Upon Pope's principle -the worst despotism would not interfere with the liberty of the subject, -provided only that resistance was hopeless. - -[1386] When the proprietor is asleep the weak rob him by stealth, and -when he is awake the strong rob him by violence. - -[1387] Bolingbroke, Fragment 6: "Private good depends on the public." - -[1388] The inspired strains of the Hebrew Scriptures are the only -instance in which poetry has "restored faith and morals." The heathen -poets adopted the absurd and profligate fables current in their day, and -christian poets have never done more than reflect the prevalent -christianity. The term "patriot" is commonly applied to political -benefactors, and not to the preachers and disseminators of -righteousness. Pope fell back on the fiction of regenerating poets and -patriots to avoid all mention of the saints and martyrs who really -performed the mighty work. Bolingbroke hated the apostles of genuine -religion, and his pupil had no reverence for them. - -[1389] Pope breaks down in his comparison of a mixed government to a -stringed instrument. An instrument would not be "set justly true," but -rendered worthless, when in "touching one" string the musician "must -strike the other too." - -[1390] This is the very same illustration that Tully uses, De Republica: -"Quae harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea est in civitate -concordia."--WARTON. - -[1391] The deduction and application of the foregoing principles, with -the use or abuse of civil and ecclesiastical policy, was intended for -the subject of the third book.--POPE. - -[1392] "Consent" is now limited to mental consent, and the word is -obsolete in the sense of "consent of things." - -[1393] From Denham's Cooper's Hill: - - Wisely she knew the harmony of things, - As well as that of sounds, from discord springs.--HURD. - -[1394] "Where the small and weak" are "made to serve, not suffer," "the -great and mighty to strengthen, not invade." - -[1395] This couplet is at variance with ver. 289-294, where a mixed form -of government is lauded for its superiority. - -[1396] Cowley's verses on the death of Crashaw: - - His path, perhaps, in some nice tenets might - Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right. - -The position is demonstrably absurd in both poets. All conduct -originates in principles. Where the principles, therefore, are not -strictly pure, and accurately true, the conduct must deviate from the -line of perfect rectitude.--WAKEFIELD. - -"I prefer a bad action to a bad principle," says Rousseau, somewhere, -and Rousseau was right. A bad action may remain isolated; a bad -principle is always prolific, because, after all, it is the mind which -governs, and man acts according to his thoughts much oftener than he -himself imagines.--GUIZOT. - -He whose life is in the right cannot, says Pope, in any sense calling -for blame, have a wrong faith. But the answer is that his life cannot be -in the right unless in so far as it bends to the influences of a true -faith. How feeble a conception must that man have of the infinity which -lurks in a human spirit, who can persuade himself that its total -capacities of life are exhaustible by the few gross acts incident to -social relations, or open to human valuation? The true internal acts of -moral man are his thoughts, his yearnings, his aspirations, his -sympathies or repulsions of heart. This is the life of man as it is -appreciable by heavenly eyes.--DE QUINCEY. - -[1397] MS.: - - Prefer we then the greater to the less, - For charity is all men's happiness. - -[1398] MS.: - - But charity the greatest of the three. - -1 Cor. xiii. 13: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but -the greatest of these is charity." - -[1399] The MS. adds this couplet: - - Th' extended earth is but one sphere of bliss - To him, who makes another's blessing his. - -[1400] At the same time. - -[1401] From the Spectator, No. 588, said to be written by Mr. Grove: "Is -benevolence inconsistent with self-love? Are their motions contrary? No -more than the diurnal rotation of the earth is opposed to its annual; or -its motion round its own centre, which might be improved as an -illustration of self-love, to that which whirls it about the common -centre of the world, answering to universal benevolence."--WARTON. - -[1402] "Nature" is not a power coordinate with God, but only the means -by which he acts. - -[1403] Bolingbroke, Fragment 51: "A due use of our reason makes -self-love and social coincide, or even become in effect the -same."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1404] Happiness is with Pope the sole end of life, and virtue is only a -means. The means cannot be more binding than the end, and happiness is -not obligatory and virtue is. A certain contempt, again, for pain and -privation is heroic, but indifference to moral worth is degradation. -Thus virtue is plainly an end in itself, and is superior, not -subordinate, to happiness. - -[1405] Overlooked in the things which would yield it, and in other -things magnified by the imagination, as is happily expressed by Young, -when he says, Universal Passion, Sat. i., 238: - - None think the great unhappy but the great. - -[1406] Pope personified happiness at the beginning, but seems to have -dropped that idea in the seventh line, where the deity is suddenly -transformed into a plant, from whence this metaphor of a vegetable is -carried on through the eleven succeeding lines till he suddenly returns -to consider happiness again as a person, in the eighteenth -line.--WARTON. - -The change from a person to a thing commences at the third verse, where -Pope calls happiness "that something," and he changes back to the person -in the eighth verse, where he addresses happiness as "thou." - -[1407] MS.: - - O happiness! to which we all aspire, - Winged with strong hope, and borne with full desire; - That good, we still mistake, and still pursue, - Still out of reach, yet ever in our view; - That ease, for which in want, in wealth we sigh, - That ease, for which we labour and we die; - Tell me, ye sages, (sure 'tis yours to know), - Tell in what mortal soul this ease may grow. - -[1408] "Is there," asks Mr. Croker, "any other authority for shine as a -noun?" The noun is found in Milton, and Locke, and in much earlier -writers, but Johnson says, "it is a word, though not unanalogical, yet -ungraceful, and little used." - -[1409] "Flaming" is not an appropriate epithet for mines. The line calls -up a false idea of splendour, and not a vision of subterranean gloom and -desolation. - -[1410] Dryden, AEn. xii. 963: - - An iron harvest mounts, and still remains to mow.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope's image is not sufficiently distinctive. There is only one word, -the epithet "iron," to indicate that he is speaking of military renown, -and this epithet, drawn from the material of which swords are made, is -also applicable to the sickle. - -[1411] "Say in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow," is the -invocation addressed by Pope to Happiness. He now strangely answers his -own inquiry in a tone of rebuke, as though it were preposterous to ask -the question. "Where grows! where grows it not?" - -[1412] These lines follow in the MS.: - - Heav'n plants no vain desire in human kind, - But what it prompts to seek, directs to find, - From whom, so strongly pointing at the end, - To hide the means it never could intend. - Now since, whatever happiness we call, - Subsists not in the good of one, but all, - And whosoever would be blessed must bless, - Virtue alone can form that happiness. - -A sentence in Hooker's Eccl. Pol., Book i. Chap. viii. Sect. 7, will -explain Pope's idea in the last four lines: "If I cannot but wish to -receive all good at every man's hand, how should I look to have any part -of my desire satisfied, unless myself be careful to satisfy the like -desire in other men?" - -[1413] "Sincere" in its present use is the opposite of "disingenuous," -"deceptive," and has always a moral signification. Formerly it had the -sense, which Pope gives it here, of "pure," "unadulterated," without any -necessary ethical meaning. Thus Dryden, Palamon and Arcite, Bk. iii. - - And none can boast sincere felicity. - -Philemon Holland talks of "sincere vermillion," Arbuthnot of "sincere -acid," and Hooker speaks of keeping the Scriptures "entire and sincere." - -[1414] This was flattery. Bolingbroke was notoriously a prey to factious -rancour, and the pangs of disappointed ambition. - -[1415] Epicureans.--POPE. - -[1416] Stoics.--POPE. - -Pope's account of the epicureans is the exact opposite of the truth. He -says they "placed bliss in action," whereas Seneca tells us, Benef. iv. -4: "Quae maxima Epicure felicitas videtur, nihil agit." The poet's -account of the stoics is equally wrong. Instead of placing "bliss in -ease" they inculcated the sternest self-denial, and untiring efforts to -fulfil all virtue. - -[1417] Epicureans.--POPE. - -[1418] Stoics.--POPE. - -The true stoic did not, as Pope asserts, "confess virtue vain." He -contended that it was all-sufficient. Till the edition of 1743 this -couplet was as follows: - - One grants his pleasure is but rest from pain; - One doubts of all; one owns ev'n virtue vain. - -The two lines which conclude the paragraph, and which first appeared in -the edition of 1743, were written at Warburton's suggestion. The object -of the addition was to represent the credulous man who trusted -everything as equally deceived with the sceptic who trusted in nothing. -Of the last line there is a second version: - - One trusts the senses, and one doubts of all. - -[1419] Sceptics.--POPE. - -Pyrrho and his followers held that we can only know things as they -appear, and not as they are. Thence they maintained that appearances -must be absolutely indifferent, and that we could be equally happy in -all conditions,--in sickness, for instance, Cicero, Fin. ii. 13, as in -health. The one reality which Pyrrho admitted was virtue, and this he -said (Cicero, Fin. iv. 16), was the supreme good which he who possessed -had nothing left to desire. - -[1420] Pope's complaint, that the directions of the ancient moralists -amounted to no more than that "happiness is happiness," arose from his -ignorance of their tenets. The stoics and sceptics placed the supreme -good in unconditional virtue, and the epicureans taught the precise -doctrine of Pope himself, that pleasure is the goal, and virtue the -road. The admonition, "take nature's path," which Pope would substitute -for the teaching of these sects, was the maxim on which they all -insisted. - -[1421] Pope has here adopted the sentiments of the Grecian sage who -said, "That if we live according to nature we shall never be poor, and -if we live according to opinion we shall never be rich."--RUFFHEAD. - -For opinion creates the fantastic wants of fashion and luxury. - -[1422] He means that happiness does not "dwell" in any "extreme" of -wealth, rank, talent, etc., but that all "states," or classes of men -"can reach it." - -[1423] MS.: - - True happiness, 'tis sacred truth I tell, - Lies but in thinking, &c. - -The man who always "thinks right" is infallible in wisdom, and if he -always "means well" he must act in obedience to his infallible -convictions, when he will also be impeccable. There needs but this, says -Pope, to secure happiness. He scoffs at the vague definitions of -philosophers, and substitutes the luminous direction that we should be -infallible in our views, and impeccable in our conduct. - -[1424] "The common sense" and "common ease" of which all the world have -an equal share, cannot exceed the measure of sense and ease which falls -to the lot of the most foolish and suffering of mankind. This is the -same sort of equality that there is between the income of a pauper and a -millionaire, since both have half-a-crown a week. - -[1425] The MS. adds: - - In no extreme lies real happiness, - Not ev'n of good or wisdom in excess. - -"Good" and "wisdom" in the last line might be supposed to mean something -that was not true wisdom and goodness if Pope had not argued, ver. -259-268, that real wisdom was injurious to happiness. He would have the -"right thinking" alloyed with error, and the "meaning well" with evil. - -[1426] That is, all which can "justly" or rightly be termed happiness. - -[1427] The image is drawn from a person leaning towards another, and -listening to what he says. Pope took the expression from the simile of -the compasses in Donne's Songs and Sonnets: - - And though it in the centre sit, - Yet when the other far doth roam, - It leans, and hearkens after it, - And grows erect, as that comes home. - -[1428] The MS. goes on thus: - - 'Tis not in self it can begin and end, - The bliss of one must with another blend: - The strongest, noblest pleasures of the mind - All hold of mutual converse with the kind. - Can sensual lust, or selfish rapine, know - Such as from bounty, love, or mercy flow? - Of human nature wit its worst may write, - We all revere it in our own despite. - -[1429] This couplet follows in the MS.: - - To rob another's is to lose our own, - And the just bound once passed the whole is gone. - -[1430] MS.: - - inference if you make, - That such are happier, 'tis a gross mistake. - Say not, "Heav'n's here profuse, there poorly saves, - And for one monarch makes a thousand slaves;" - You'll find when causes and their ends are known, - 'Twas for the thousand heav'n has made that one. - Ev'n mutual want to common blessings tends, - One labours, one directs, and one defends, - While double pay benevolence receives, - Is blessed in what it takes, and what it gives. - In what (heav'n's hand impartial to confess) - Need men be equal but in happiness. - The bliss of all, if heav'n's indulgent aim, - He could not place in riches, pow'r or fame. - In these suppose it placed, one greatly blessed, - Others were hurt, impoverished, or oppressed; - Or did they equally on all descend, - If all were equal must not all contend? - -[1431] After ver. 66 in the MS. - - Tis peace of mind alone is at a stay: - The rest mad fortune gives or takes away: - All other bliss by accident's debarred, - But virtue's, in the instant, a reward; - In hardest trials operates the best, - And more is relished as the more distressed.--WARBURTON. - -There is still another couplet in the MS.: - - Virtue's plain consequence is happiness, - Or virtue makes the disappointment less. - -[1432] The exemplification of this truth, by a view of the equality of -happiness in the several particular stations of life, was designed for -the subject of a future Epistle.--POPE. - -"Heaven's just balance" is made "equal," says this writer, because men -are harassed with fears in proportion to their elevation, and amused -with hopes in a state of distress. But a man may be good either in high -or low rank; and God does not, to make the happiness of mankind equal, -fill the heart of one with idle fears, and of the other with chimerical -hopes.--CROUSAZ. - -[1433] Sir W. Temple, Works, vol. iii. p. 531: "Whether a good -condition with fear of being ill, or an ill with hope of being well, -pleases or displeases most." Pope's MS. goes on thus: - - How widely then at happiness we aim - By selfish pleasures, riches, pow'r or fame! - Increase of these is but increase of pain, - Wrong the materials, and the labour vain. - -[1434] He had in his mind Virgil's description, borrowed from Homer, of -the attempt made by the giants, in their war against the gods, to scale -the heavens by heaping Ossa upon Pelion, and Olympus upon Ossa. Pope -took the expressions "sons of earth," and "mountains piled on -mountains," from Dryden's translation, Geor. i. 374. - -[1435] "Still" is repeated to give force to the remonstrance. "Attempt -still to rise, and Heaven will still survey your vain toil with -laughter." - -[1436] An allusion to Psalm ii. 1, 4: "Why do the heathen rage, and the -people imagine a vain thing? He that sitteth in the heavens shall -laugh."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1437] MS.: - - The gods with laughter on the labour gaze, - And bury such in the mad heaps they raise. - -[1438] "Nature" is a name for the second causes, or instruments, by -which God works. Pope speaks as if nature's meaning was distinct from -the meaning of God. - -[1439] By "mere mankind" Pope means man in his present earthly -condition, and not the generality of mankind as distinguished from -favoured mortals, for he says, ver. 77, that individuals can no more -attain to any greater good than mankind at large. - -[1440] From Bolingbroke, Fragment 52: "Agreeable sensations, the series -whereof constitutes happiness, must arise from health of body, -tranquillity of mind, and a competency of wealth." - -[1441] The MS. adds, - - Behold the blessing then to none denied - But through our vice, by error or by pride; - Which nothing but excess can render vain, - And then lost only when too much we gain. - -[1442] The sense of this ill-expressed line is, that bad men taste the -gifts of fortune less than good men, in proportion as they obtain them -by worse means. The couplet was originally thus in the MS.: - - The good, the bad may fortune's gifts possess; - The bad acquire them worse, enjoy them less. - -[1443] "That" is put improperly for "those that." - -[1444] MS.: - - Secure to find, ev'n from the very worst, - If vice and virtue want, compassion first. - -[1445] But are not the one frequently mistaken for the other? How many -profligate hypocrites have passed for good?--WARTON. - -Men not intrinsically virtuous have often had the good opinion of the -world; the happiness they want is a good conscience. - -[1446] After ver. 92 in the MS.: - - Let sober moralists correct their speech, - No bad man's happy: he is great, or rich.--WARBURTON. - -[1447] That is, "who fancy bliss allotted to vice." - -[1448] Lord Falkland was killed by a musket ball at the battle of -Newbury, Sept. 20, 1643. Turenne was killed by a cannon ball, near -Sassback, July 26, 1675. Sir Philip Sidney was mortally wounded by a -bullet at Zutphen, Sept. 22, 1586, and died a few days afterwards. -Sidney was 32 years of age at his death, Falkland 33, and Turenne 64. - -[1449] The Hon. Robert Digby, who died, aged 40, April 19, 1726. Pope -wrote his epitaph. - -[1450] MS.: - - Brave Sidney falls amid the martial strife, - Not that he's virtuous, but profuse of life. - Not virtue snatched Arbuthnot's hopeful bloom, - And sent thee, Craggs, untimely to the tomb. - Say not 'tis virtue, but too soft a frame, - That Walsh his race, and Scud'more ends her name. - Think not their virtues, more though heav'n ne'er gave, - Unites so many Digbys in a grave. - Fierce love, not virtue, Falkland, was thy doom, - Her grief, not virtue, nipped Louisa's bloom. - -The Arbuthnot mentioned here was Charles, a clergyman, and son of the -celebrated physician. His death in 1732 was supposed to have been -occasioned by the lingering effects of a wound he received in a duel he -fought while at Oxford with a fellow-collegian, his rival in love. James -Craggs died of the small-pox Feb. 14, 1721, aged 35. Virtue had -certainly no share in his death, for he was licentious in private life, -and in his public capacity accepted a bribe from the South Sea -directors. Walsh died in 1708, at the age of 49. His virtue may be -estimated by his confession that he had committed every folly in love, -except matrimony. Lady Scudamore, widow of Sir James Scudamore, and -daughter of the fourth Lord Digby, died of the small-pox, May 3, 1729, -aged 44. She left only a daughter, who married, and hence Pope's -expression, "Scud'more ends her name." The many Digbys united in one -grave were the children of the fifth Lord, the father of the poet's -friend, Robert. I do not know what is meant by the "fierce love" which -was Falkland's "doom," nor can I identify the Louisa who died of grief. - -[1451] William, fifth Lord Digby, was 74 when this fourth Epistle was -published in 1734, and he lived to be 92. He died December 1752. - -[1452] M. de Belsunce, was made bishop of Marseilles in 1709. In the -plague of that city in 1720 he distinguished himself by his activity. He -died at a very advanced age in 1755.--WARTON. - -[1453] Some anonymous verses in Dryden's Miscellanies, vi. p. 76: - - When nature sickens, and with fainting breath - Struggles beneath the bitter pangs of death.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1454] Dryden, Virg. x. 1231: - - O Rhoebus! we have lived too long for me, - If life and long were terms that could agree.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1455] MS.: - - Yet hemmed with plagues, and breathing deathful air, - Marseilles' good bishop still possess the chair; - And long kind chance, or heav'n's more kind decree, - Lends an old parent, etc. - -Pope's mother died June 7, 1733. She was said by the poet to be 93, but -was only 91, if the register of her baptism, June 18, 1642, gives the -year of her birth, which is doubtless the case, since an elder sister -was baptised in 1641, and a younger in 1643. - -[1456] How change can admit, or nature let fall any evil, however short -and rare it may be, under the government of an all-wise, powerful, and -benevolent Creator, is hardly to be understood. These six lines are -perhaps the most exceptionable in the whole poem in point both of -sentiment and expression.--WARTON. - -Pope's justification of the partial ill which is not a general good is, -in substance, that Providence has not supreme dominion over his physical -laws, that change and nature act independently of him, and vitiate his -work. In place of ver. 113-16 the earlier editions have this couplet: - - God sends not ill, 'tis nature lets it fall, - Or chance escape, and man improves it all. - -The notion that the disturbing operations of "chance" could explain the -existence of evil was intrinsically absurd, and inconsistent with Ep. -i., ver. 290, where Pope says that "all chance is direction." Chance is, -in strictness, a nonentity, and merely signifies that the cause of an -effect is unknown to us, or beyond our control. Neither supposition -could apply to the Almighty. Warburton quotes a couplet from the MS., -which could not be retained without a glaring contradiction, when Pope -had discovered two other evil-doers besides man,--nature and chance: - - Of every evil, since the world began - The real source is not in God, but man. - -[1457] This comparison of the favourites of the Almighty to the -favourites of a weak prince is fallacious and revolting. Weak princes -select their favourites from weak or vicious motives. The favourites of -heaven are the righteous. - -[1458] Warburton says that Pope alluded to Empedocles. The story ran -that he pretended to be a divinity, and threw himself into the crater of -AEtna, that nobody might know what had become of him, and might conclude -that he had been carried up into heaven. All the circumstances of his -death are doubtful, and whether he was a calumniated sage, or a -conceited madman, legends are not a proper illustration of God's -dealings with mankind. Pope had originally written, - - T' explore Vesuvius if great Pliny aims, - Shall the loud mountain call back all its flames? - -At the eruption of Vesuvius in 79, Pliny, the naturalist, was commanding -the Roman fleet in the Gulf of Naples. He made for the coast in the -neighbourhood of the volcano, till checked by the falling stones and -ashes, he sailed to Stabiae, and landed. In a few hours the tottering of -the houses, shaken by the earthquake, warned him to fly, and according -to his nephew he was overtaken by flames and sulphurous vapours, and -suffocated. Stabiae is ten miles from Vesuvius, and the flame and vapour -could hardly have been propelled from the mountain. - -[1459] The forgetfulness to thunder supposes unconscious obliviousness, -the recalling the fires conscious activity. The mountain would not at -the same moment forget to keep up the irruption, and remember to -restrain it. - -[1460] Wollaston, Religion of Nature, sect. v. prop. 18: "If a man's -safety should depend upon winds or rains, must new motions be impressed -upon the atmosphere?" - -[1461] Warton tells us in a note on one of Pope's letters to Bethel, -that the latter was "celebrated in two fine lines in the Essay on Man on -account of an asthma with which he was afflicted." I find in Ruffhead's -Life a quotation from a letter of Pope's to Bethel, "then in Italy," and -we may conclude that Bethel, being troubled with an asthma, visited -Italy for relief, but that in crossing the sea the "motions of the sea -and air" disagreed with him, as they do with most people.--CROKER. - -[1462] "You," is Bolingbroke, to whom the epistle is addressed. A writer -in the Adventurer, No. 63, quotes Wollaston, Religion of Nature, sect. -v. prop. 18: "If a good man be passing by an infirm building, just in -the article of falling, can it be expected that God should suspend the -force of gravitation till he is gone by, in order to his deliverance?" -The illustrations and language Pope copied from Wollaston are the -objections of those who deny a special Providence, and Wollaston only -stated the arguments to refute them. - -[1463] MS.: - - Or shall some ruin, as it nods to fall, - For Chartres' brains reserve the hanging wall? - No,--in a scene far higher heav'n imparts - Rewards for spotless hands, and honest hearts. - -The last couplet is a direct acknowledgment of a future state, and was -probably omitted to avoid contradicting the infidel tenets of -Bolingbroke. - -[1464] Christians have never raised the objection. They only say that -since this world is not a kingdom of the just, reason, as well as -revelation, teaches that there must be a kingdom to come. - -[1465] Bolingbroke, Fragment 57: "Christian divines complain that good -men are often unhappy, and bad men happy. They establish a rule, and are -not agreed about the application of it; for who are to be reputed good -christians? Go to Rome, they are papists. Go to Geneva, they are -calvinists. If particular providences are favourable to those of your -communion they will be deemed unjust by every good protestant, and God -will be taxed with encouraging idolatry and superstition. If they are -favourable to those of any of our communions they will be deemed unjust -by every good papist, and God will be taxed with nursing up heresy and -schism." - -[1466] MS.: - - This way, I fear, your project too must fall, - Will just what serves one good man serve 'em all? - -[1467] After ver. 142 in some editions: - - Give each a system, all must be at strife; - What diff'rent systems for a man and wife?--WARBURTON. - -[1468] Young, Universal Passion, Sat. iii. 61. - - The very best ambitiously advise. - -MS.: - - The best in habits variously incline. - -[1469] MS.: - - E'en leave it as it is; this world, etc. - -[1470] He alludes to the complaint of Cato in Addison's tragedy, Act iv. -Sc. 4: - - Justice gives way to force: the conquered world - Is Caesar's; Cato has no business in it. - -And Act v. Sc. 1: - - This world was made for Caesar. - -"If," says Pope, "the world is made for ambitious men, such as Caesar, it -is also made for good men, like Titus." Extreme cases test principles, -and to establish his position, that the virtuous in this life have -always a larger share of enjoyments than the worldly, Pope should have -dealt with some of the numerous instances in which the good have been -condemned to tortures in consequence of their goodness. - -[1471] Remembering one evening that he had given nothing during the day, -Titus exclaimed, "My friends, I have lost a day." - -[1472] Unquestionably it must be one of the rewards if Pope is right in -maintaining that present happiness is proportioned to virtue. No more -cruel mockery could be conceived than to act on his doctrine, and tell a -virtuous mother, surrounded by starving children, that she and her -little ones were quite as happy as the families who lived in abundance. - -[1473] MS.: - - Can God be just if virtue be unfed? - Why, fool, is the reward of virtue bread? - 'Tis his who labours, his who sows the plain, - 'Tis his who threshes, or who grinds the grain. - -[1474] The MS. has two readings: - - Where madness fights for tyrants or for gain. - Where folly fights for kings or drowns for gain. - -In the early editions Pope adopted the first version; in the later the -second, with the change of "dives" for "drowns." - -[1475] "Why no king?" is equivalent to "why is he not any king?" The -proper form would be "why not a king?" - -[1476] MS.: - - Then give him this, and that, and everything: - Still the complaint subsists; he is no king. - Outward rewards for inward worth are odd: - Why then complain not that he is no god? - -Ver. 162 in the text is inconsistent with ver. 161. Pope supposes the -good to rise in their demands until they rebel against receiving -external rewards for internal merits, and insist that man should be a -god, and earth a heaven, which heaven is one of the externals they have -just indignantly repudiated. - -[1477] Pope is speaking of the good, and what good man ever did "ask and -reason" according to Pope's representation? - -[1478] In a work of so serious a cast surely such strokes of levity, of -satire, of ridicule, as also lines 204, 223, 276, however poignant and -witty, are ill-placed and disgusting, are violations of that propriety -which Pope in general so strictly observed.--WARTON. - -[1479] MS.: - - But come, for virtue the just payment fix, - For humble merit say a coach and six, - For justice a Lord Chancellor's awful gown, &c. - -Pope showed his consciousness of the weakness of his cause by raising -false issues. Virtue would not be rewarded by swords, gowns, and -coaches, but is it rewarded by the cross, the stake, the rack, and the -dungeon? - -[1480] This sarcasm was directed against George II. When Prince of Wales -he quarrelled with his father, and patronised the opposition. On his -accession to the throne he abandoned the opposition, to which Pope's -friends belonged, and retained the ministers of George I. - -[1481] After ver. 172 in the MS.: - - Say, what rewards this idle world imparts, - Or fit for searching heads or honest hearts.--WARBURTON. - -[1482] Heaven in this line has either improperly the double sense of a -person and a place,--the God of heaven, and the kingdom of the -blessed--or else "there" is a clumsy tautological excrescence to furnish -a rhyme. - -[1483] These eight succeeding lines were not in former editions; and -indeed none of them, especially lines 177 and 179, do any credit to the -author.--WARTON. - -From Warton's note it would appear that the lines were first printed in -his own edition in 1797, whereas they were published in Pope's edition -of 1743. The poet had then renounced Bolingbroke for Warburton, and -ventured to admit that there was a heaven reserved for man. - -[1484] The "boy and man makes an individual" is not grammar. - -[1485] Thus till the edition of 1743: - - For riches, can they give, but to the just, - His own contentment, or another's trust? - -[1486] We see in the world, alas! too many examples of riches giving -repute and trust, content and pleasure to the worthless and -profligate.--WARTON. - -[1487] Dryden: - - Let honour and preferment go for gold, - But glorious beauty isn't to be sold. - -The MS. adds: - - Were health of mind and body purchased here, - 'Twere worth the cost; all else is bought too dear. - -[1488] The man, that is, who is the lover of human kind, and the object -of their love. - -[1489] No rational believer in Providence ever did suppose that to have -less than a thousand a year was a mark of God's hatred, or ever doubted -that the sufferings of good men in this life were consistent with the -dispensations of wisdom and mercy. Pope began by undertaking to prove -that happiness was independent of externals, and drops into the separate -and indubitable proposition that earthly happiness and the blessing of -God are not dependent upon the possession of a thousand a year. - -[1490] This seems not to be proper; the words "flaunt" and "flutter" -might with more propriety have changed places.--JOHNSON. - -The satirical aggravation here is conducted with great dexterity by an -interchange of terms: the gaudy word "flaunt" properly belongs to the -sumptuous dress, and that of "flutter" to the tattered -garment.--WAKEFIELD. - -Wakefield did not perceive that the language no longer fitted the facts; -for though flimsy rags flutter, the stiff brocade did not. Pope avoided -the inconsistency in his first draught: - - Oft of two brothers one shall be surveyed - Flutt'ring in rags, one flaunting in brocade. - -[1491] This must be understood as if Pope had written, "The cobbler is -aproned." - -[1492] MS.: - - What differs more, you cry, than gown and hood? - A wise man and a fool, a bad and good. - -The miserable rhyme in the text had the authority of a pun in -Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI. Act v. Sc. 6: - - Why what a peevish fool was that of Crete - That taught his son the office of a fowl? - And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drowned. - -[1493] He alluded to Philip V. of Spain, who resigned his crown to his -son, Jan. 10, 1724, and retired to a monastery. The son died in August, -and on Sept. 5, 1724, Philip reascended the throne. Weak-minded, -hard-hearted, superstitious, and melancholy mad, he was a just instance -of a man who owed all his consideration to the trappings of royalty. - -[1494] That is, the rest is mere outside appearance,--the leather of the -cobbler's apron, or the prunella of the clergyman's gown. Prunella was a -species of woollen stuff. - -[1495] _Cordon_ is the French term for the ribbon of the orders of -knighthood; but in England the ribbons are never called "strings," nor -would Pope have used the term unless he had wanted a rhyme for "kings." -The concluding phrase of the couplet was aimed at the supposed influence -of the mistresses of George II. - -[1496] Cowley, Translation of Hor. Epist. i. 10: - - To kings or to the favourites of kings.--HURD. - -[1497] In the MS. thus: - - The richest blood, right-honourably old, - Down from Lucretia to Lucretia rolled, - May swell thy heart and gallop in thy breast, - Without one dash of usher or of priest: - Thy pride as much despise all other pride - As Christ-church once all colleges beside.--WARBURTON. - -[1498] A bad rhyme to the preceding word "race." It is taken from -Boileau, Sat. v.: - - Et si leur sang tout pur, ainsi que leur noblesse, - Est passe jusqu'a vous de Lucrece en Lucrece.--WARTON. - -The bad rhyme did not appear till the edition of 1743. The couplet had -previously stood as follows: - - Thy boasted blood, a thousand years or so - May from Lucretia to Lucretia flow. - -[1499] Hall, Sat. iii.: - - Or tedious bead rolls of descended blood, - From father Japhet since Deucalion's flood.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1500] There are two other versions of this couplet in the MS.: - - But to make wits of fools, and chiefs of cowards, - What can? not all the pride of all the Howards. - -And, - - But make one wise, or loved, or happy man, - Not all the pride of all the Howards can. - -[1501] Pope took the phrase from Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, vol. i., -p. 26: "Who can forbear laughing when he thinks on all the great men -that have been so serious on the subject of that Macedonian madman?" -Warton protests against the application of the term to Alexander the -Great, and adds that Charles XII. of Sweden "deserved not to be joined -with him." The objection is well-founded, for Pope not only compared -them in their rage for war, but said that neither "looked further than -his nose," which was true of Charles XII., and false of Alexander, who -mingled grand schemes of civilisation with his selfish lust of dominion. - -[1502] "To find an enemy of all mankind," signifies to find some one who -is an enemy of all mankind, whereas Pope means to say that heroes desire -to find all mankind their enemies. He exaggerated the "strangeness" of -the conqueror's "purpose." The making enemies is incidental to the -purpose, but is not itself the end. - -[1503] The idea expressed in this line is put more clearly by Johnson in -his description of Charles XII: - - Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain, - "Think nothing gained," he cries, "till nought remain." - -[1504] There is something so familiar, nay even vulgar, in these two -lines as renders them very unworthy of our author.--RUFFHEAD. - -[1505] That is, "the politic and wise" are "no less alike" than the -heroes, of whom he had said, ver. 219, that they had all the same -characteristics. - -[1506] Shakespeare, Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3: "The sly, slow hours." - -[1507] "'Tis phrase absurd" is one of those departures from pure English -which would only be endurable in familiar poetry. - -[1508] The pronunciation of "great" was not uniform in Pope's day. "When -I published," says Johnson, "the plan for my Dictionary, Lord -Chesterfield told me that the word 'great' should be pronounced so as to -rhyme to 'state,' and Sir William Yonge sent me word that it should be -pronounced so as to rhyme to 'seat,' and that none but an Irishman would -pronounce it 'grait.'" Pope, in this epistle, and elsewhere, has made -"great" rhyme to both sounds. - -[1509] Marcus Aurelius, who regulated his life by the lofty principles -of the Stoics, was born A.D. 121 and died 180. The man, says Pope, who -aims at noble ends by noble means is great, whether he attains his end -or fails, whether he reigns like Aurelius or perishes like Socrates. - -[1510] Considering the manner in which Socrates was put to death, the -word "bleed" seems to be improperly used.--WARTON. - -[1511] Wollaston, Religion of Nature, sect. v. prop. 19: "Fame lives but -in the breath of the people." - -[1512] Is depreciating the passion for fame consistent with the doctrine -before advanced, Epist. ii. ver. 290, that "not a vanity is giv'n in -vain?"--WARTON. - -[1513] This is said to Bolingbroke. - -[1514] Celebrated men are aware that their reputation spreads wide, and -whether fame is valuable or worthless, "all that is felt of it" does not -"begin and end in the small circle of friends and foes." - -[1515] The men of renown,--the Shakespeares, Bacons, and Newtons,--can -never be "empty shades" while we have the works which were the fruit of -their prodigious intellects. When the wealth of a great mind is -preserved to posterity we possess a principal part of the man, and if in -the next world he takes no cognisance of his fame in this, it is we that -are the empty shades to him; he is a substance and a power to us. - -[1516] Wakefield says that "but for his political bias Pope would have -written, 'A Marlb'rough living.'" But Marlborough died in 1722, and the -point of Pope's line consisted in opposing the example of a living man -to a dead. - -[1517] The "wit" is not to be taken here in its narrow modern sense of a -jester. Pope is deriding fame in general, and divides famous men into -two classes,--"heroes and the wise." The wise, such as Shakespeare, -Bacon, and Newton, are compared to feathers, which are flimsy and showy; -and the heroes, who are the scourges of mankind, are compared to rods. - -[1518] "Honest" was formerly used in a less confined sense than at -present, but the word has never been adequate to designate "the noblest -work of God." - -[1519] Pope has hitherto spoken of all fame. He now speaks of bad fame, -and this was never supposed to be an element of happiness. - -[1520] He alludes to the disinterment of the bodies of Cromwell, -Bradshaw, and Ireton on Jan. 30, 1661, the anniversary of the execution -of Charles I. The putrid corpses were hung for the day upon a gibbet at -Tyburn, were decapitated at night, and the heads fixed on the front of -Westminster Hall. The trunks were buried in a hole dug near the gibbet. - -[1521] Marcellus was an opponent of Caesar, and a partisan of Pompey. -After the battle of Pharsalia he retired to Mitylene, was pardoned by -Caesar at the request of the senate, and assassinated by an attendant on -his way back to Rome. His moral superiority over Caesar is conjecture. -Warton mentions that "by Marcellus Pope was said to mean the Duke of -Ormond," a man of small abilities, and a tool of Bolingbroke and Oxford. -He fled from England at the death of Queen Anne, joined the court of the -Pretender, and being attainted had to pass the rest of his life abroad. -He died at Madrid, Nov. 16, 1745, aged 94. One version of the couplet in -the MS. has the names of Walpole, and the jacobite member of parliament, -Shippen: - - And more contentment honest Sh[ippen] feels - Than W[alpole] with a senate at his heels. - -[1522] So Lord Lansdowne of Cato: - - More loved, more praised, more envied in his doom, - Than Caesar trampling on the rights of Rome.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1523] "Superior parts" are ranked by Pope among "external goods," which -is a palpable error. Nothing can be less external to a man than his -mind. - -[1524] Which does not hinder our advancing with delight from truth to -truth, nor are we depressed because, to quote Pope's language, Epist. i. -ver. 71, "our knowledge is measured to our state and place." - -[1525] In the interests of charity, humility, and self-improvement, it -were to be wished that this was the universal result of superior -intelligence. - -[1526] Pope objects that wise men are "condemned to drudge," which is -not an evil peculiar to the tasks of wise men, and so immensely does the -pleasure of mental exercise preponderate over the weariness, that a -taste for philosophy, letters, and science is one of the surest -preservatives against the tedium of life. He objects that the wise have -no one to second or judge them rightly, which never happens. The most -neglected genius wins disciples from the beginning, who make up in -weight what they want in number, and were the adherents fewer, the -capacity which conceives important truths would be self-sustained from -the consciousness that truth is mighty and will prevail. - -[1527] The allusion is to Bolingbroke's patriotic pretensions, and -political impotence. The cause of his want of success is reversed by -Pope. He was understood well enough, and nobody trusted him in -consequence. His selfish, unprincipled ambition was too transparent. - -[1528] To a person that was praising Dr. Balguy's admirable discourses -on the Vanity and Vexation of our Pursuits after Knowledge, he replied, -"I borrowed the whole from ten lines of the Essay on Man, ver. 259-268, -and I only enlarged upon what the poet had expressed with such -marvellous conciseness, penetration, and precision." He particularly -admired ver. 266.--WARTON. - -The exclamation "painful pre-eminence," is from Addison's Cato, Act iii. -Sc. 5, where Cato applies the phrase to his own situation. - -[1529] This line is inconsistent with ver. 261-2. A man who feels -painfully his own ignorance and faults is not "above life's weakness." -The line is also inconsistent with ver. 310. No one can be above life's -weakness who is not transcendent in virtue, and then he cannot be above -"life's comfort," since Pope says, that "virtue alone is happiness -below." The melancholy picture, again, which the passage presents of the -species of martyrdom endured by Bolingbroke from his intellectual -pre-eminence, is inconsistent with ver. 18, where Pope says that perfect -happiness has fled from kings to dwell with St. John. - -[1530] "Call" for "call forth." - -[1531] Lord Umbra may have stood for a dozen insignificant peers who had -the ribbon of some order. Sir Billy was Sir William Yonge, who was made -a Knight of the Bath when the order was revived in May, 1725. "Without -having done anything," says Lord Hervey, "out of the common track of a -ductile courtier, and a parliamentary tool, his name was proverbially -used to express everything pitiful, corrupt, and contemptible." His one -talent was a fluency which sounded like eloquence, and meant nothing, -and this ready flow of specious language, unaccompanied by solid -reasoning or conviction, and always exerted on behalf of his patron, -Walpole, rendered his unconditional subserviency conspicuous. - -[1532] Mr. Croker suggests that Gripus and his wife may be Mr. Wortley -Montagu and Lady Mary. Pope accused them both of greed for money. - -[1533] Oldham: - - The greatest, bravest, wittiest of mankind.--BOWLES. - -[1534] From Cowley, Translation of Virgil: - - Charmed with the foolish whistlings of a name.--HURD. - -[1535] This resembles some lines in Roscommon's Essay: - - That wretch, in spite of his forgotten rhymes, - Condemned to live to all succeeding times.--WAKEFIELD. - -Pope's examples would not bear out his language unless Bacon and -Cromwell were generally reprobated, whereas both have distinguished -champions and innumerable adherents. - -[1536] MS.: - - In one man's fortune, mark and scorn them all. - -The "ancient story" was a pretence which Pope inserted when he turned -the invective against the Duke of Marlborough into a general satire upon -a class. - -[1537] Mr. Croker asks "who was happy to ruin and betray?--the favourite -or the sovereign?" The language is confused, but "their" in the next -line refers to those who "ruin" and "betray," and shows that the -favourites were meant. They were happy to ruin those--the kings, to -betray these--the queens. The couplet made part of the attack upon the -Duke of Marlborough, and the words of ver. 290 were borrowed from -Burnet, who said in his defence of the Duke, "that he was in no -contrivance to ruin or betray" James II. While, however, he was a -trusted officer in the army of James he entered into a secret league -with the Prince of Orange, and deserted to him on his landing. The -accusation of lying in the arms of a queen, and afterwards betraying -her, alludes, says Wakefield, to Marlborough's youthful intrigue with -the Duchess of Cleveland, the mistress of Charles II., and we need not -reject the interpretation because the mistress of a king is not a queen, -or because there is no ground for believing that Marlborough betrayed -her. Pope constantly sacrificed accuracy of language to glitter of -style, and historic truth to satirical venom. - -[1538] In the MS. "great * * grows," that is, great Churchill or -Marlbro'.--CROKER. - -[1539] MS.: - - One equal course how guilt and greatness ran. - -[1540] This couplet and the next have a view to his supposed peculation -as commander-in-chief, and his prolongation of the war on this -account.--WAKEFIELD. - -The charges were the calumnies of an infuriated faction. His military -career while he was commander-in-chief was free from reproach. He was -never known to sanction an act of wanton harshness, or to exceed the -recognised usages of war. The pretence that he prolonged the contest for -the sake of gain does not require a refutation, for his accusers could -never produce a fragment of colourable evidence in support of the -allegation. The Duke of Wellington ridiculed the notion, and said that -however much Marlborough might have loved money he must have loved his -military reputation more. The poet, who denounced him as a man "stained -with blood," and "infamous for plundered provinces," could, at ver. 100, -call Turenne "god-like," though he gave the atrocious command to pillage -and burn the Palatinate, and turned it into a smouldering desert. -"Habit," says Sismondi, "had rendered him insensible to the sufferings -of the people, and he subjected them to the most cruel inflictions." - -[1541] MS.: - - Let gathered nations next their chief behold, - How blessed with conquest, yet more blessed with gold: - Go then, and steep thy age in wealth and ease, - Stretched on the spoils of plundered provinces. - -[1542] "Acts of fame" are not the best means of "sanctifying" wealth. -True charity is unostentatious. - -[1543] Wakefield quotes Horace, Od. ii. 2, or, as Creech puts it in his -translation, silver has no brightness, - - Unless a moderate use refine, - A value give, and make it shine. - -[1544] Dryden, Virg. AEn. iv. 250: - - But called it marriage, by that specious name - To veil the crime, and sanctify the shame.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1545] Originally, "Ambition, avarice, and th' imperious" etc., for -Marlborough was never the dupe of a "greedy minion." - -[1546] "Storied halls" are halls painted with stories or histories, as -in Milton, Il Penseroso, ver. 159: - - And storied windows richly dight - Casting a dim religious light. - -The walls and ceiling of the saloon at Blenheim are painted with figures -and trophies, and some rooms are hung with tapestry commemorating the -great sieges and battles of the Duke. The tapestry, which was -manufactured in the Netherlands, and was a present from the Dutch, is -described by Dyer in The Fleece, Book iii. ver. 499-517. - -[1547] Addison's Verses on the Play-House: - - A lofty fabric does the sight invade, - And stretches o'er the waves a pompous shade.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1548] Pope may mean that nothing affords happiness which infringes -virtue, and this would contradict the conclusion of the second epistle, -where he dwells upon the continuous happiness we derive from follies and -vanities. Or he may mean that virtue is by itself complete happiness, -whatever else may be our circumstances, which would contradict ver. 119, -where he says that the "virtuous son is ill at ease" when he inherits a -"dire disease" from his profligate father. - -[1549] The allusion here seems to be to the pole, or central point, of a -spherical body, which, during the rotatory motion of every other part, -continues immoveable and at rest.--WAKEFIELD. - -The "human bliss" does not "stand still," unless we believe that the -virtuous man suffers nothing when his virtue subjects him to scorn, -persecution, and tortures. - -[1550] "It" in this couplet and the next stands for virtuous "merit." - -[1551] Merchant of Venice, Act iv. Sc. 1: - - it is twice blessed; - It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. - -[1552] Immortality must be the "end" which it will be "unequalled joy to -gain," and yet "no pain to lose," since the annihilated will not be -conscious of the loss. Lord Byron expressed the same idea in a letter, -Dec 8, 1821: "Indisputably, the believers in the gospel have a advantage -over all others,--for this simple reason, that, if true, they will have -their reward hereafter, and if there be no hereafter, they can be but -with the infidel in his eternal sleep, having had the assistance of an -exalted hope through life." Pope and Byron leave out of their reckoning -the sufferings to which christians are constantly exposed through their -homage to christianity. - -[1553] After ver. 316 in the MS.: - - Ev'n while it seems unequal to dispose, - And chequers all the good man's joys with woes, - 'Tis but to teach him to support each state, - With patience this, with moderation that; - And raise his base on that one solid joy, - Which conscience gives, and nothing can destroy.--WARBURTON. - -The sense in the first line is not completed. Virtue "seems unequal to -dispose" something, but we are not told what. - -[1554] This is the Greek expression, [Greek: platus gelos], broad or -wide laughter, derived, I presume, from the greater aperture of the -mouth in loud laughter.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1555] MS.: - - More pleasing, then, humanity's soft tears - Than all the mirth unfeeling folly wears. - -There are numerous grades of character between "unfeeling folly" and -christian excellence, and many gratifications of the earthly-minded are -assuredly more pleasant for the time than the sharp and ennobling pangs -of suffering virtue. - -[1556] MS.: - - Which not by starts, and from without acquired, - Is all ways exercised, and never tired. - -[1557] Is it so impossible that a "wish" should "remain" when Pope has -just said that virtue is "never elated while one oppressed man" exists? -Or has virtue in tears, ver. 320, no wish for that happiness which Pope -says, ver. 1, is "our being's end and aim?" Or is the "wish" for "more -virtue" fulfilled by the act of wishing, without frequent failure, and -perpetual conflict, and prolonged self-denial? - -[1558] "The good" is singular, and stands for "the good man," as is -required by the verbs "takes," "looks," "pursues," etc., up to the end -of the paragraph. - -[1559] Creech's Horace, Epist. i. 1, ver. 23: - - But if you ask me now what sect I own, - I swear a blind obedience unto none.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1560] Bolingbroke's Letters to Pope: "The modest enquirer follows -nature, and nature's God."--WAKEFIELD. - -[1561] MS.: - - Let us, my S[t. John], this plain truth confess, - Good nature makes, and keeps our happiness; - And faith and morals end as they began, - All in the love of God, and love of man. - -In his second epistle Pope maintains that we are born with the germ of -an unalterable ruling passion which grows with our growth, and swallows -up every other passion. Among these ruling passions he specifies spleen, -hate, fear, anger, etc., which are dispensed by fate, absorb the entire -man, and of necessity exclude love. Here, on the contrary, we are told, -ver. 327-340, that "the sole bliss heaven could on _all_ bestow," is the -virtue which "ends in love of God and love of man." - -[1562] He hopes, indeed, for another life, but he does not from hence -infer the absolute necessity of it, in order to vindicate the justice -and goodness of God.--WARTON. - -[1563] The "other kind" is the animal creation, which, says Pope, has -not been given any abortive instinct. Nature, which furnishes the -impulse, never fails to provide appropriate objects for its -gratification. - -[1564] The meaning of this couplet comes out clearer in the prose -explanation which Pope has written on his MS.: "God implants a desire of -immortality, which at least proves he would have us think of, and expect -it, and he gives no appetite in vain to any creature. As God plainly -gave this hope, or instinct, it is plain man should entertain it. Hence -flows his greatest hope, and greatest incentive to virtue." - -[1565] "His greatest virtue" is benevolence; "his greatest bliss" the -hope of a happy eternity. Nature connects the two, for the bliss depends -on the virtue. - -[1566] Pope exalts the duty of "benevolence," which, ver. 371, causes -"earth to smile with boundless bounty blessed." But bounty cannot -benefit the recipients, if the poet is right in maintaining that -happiness is independent of externals. - -[1567] Warton remarks that this simile, which is copied from Chaucer, -was used by Pope in two other places,--The Temple of Fame, ver. 436, and -the Dunciad, ii. ver. 407. - -[1568] Waller, Divine Love, Canto v.: - - A love so unconfined - With arms extended would embrace mankind. - Self-love would cease, or be dilated, when - We should behold as many selfs as men.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1569] MS.: - - To rise from individuals to the whole - Is the true progress of the god-like soul. - The first impression the soft passions make, - Like the small pebble in the limpid lake, - Begets a greater and a greater still, - The circle widening till the whole it fill; - Till God and man, and brute and reptile kind - All wake, all move, all agitate his mind; - Earth with his bounteous overflows is blessed; - Heav'n pleased beholds its image in his breast. - Parent or friend first touch the virtuous mind, - His country next, and next all human kind. - -[1570] In the MS. thus: - - And now transported o'er so vast a plain, - While the winged courser flies with all her rein, - While heav'n-ward now her mounting wing she feels, - Now scattered fools fly trembling from her heels, - Wilt thou, my St. John! keep her course in sight, - Confine her fury, and assist her flight?--WARBURTON. - -The exaggerated estimate which Pope had formed of the Essay on Man is -apparent from this passage. With respect to the poetry, "the winged -courser flew with all her rein;" with respect to the argument, -"scattered fools flew trembling" from its crushing power. - -[1571] "Stoops to man's low passions or ascends to the glorious ends" -for which those passions have been given. - -[1572] "Did he rise with temper," asks the writer of A Letter to Mr. -Pope, 1735, "when he drove furiously out of the kingdom the Duke of -Marlborough? or did he fall with dignity when he fled from justice, and -joined the Pretender?" Lord Hervey asserts, and many circumstances -confirm his testimony, that Bolingbroke "was elate and insolent in -power, dejected and servile in disgrace." - -[1573] Boileau's Art of Poetry, translated by Soame and Dryden, Cantos -i.: - - Happy, who in his verse can gently steer - From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.--WAKEFIELD. - -[1574] MS.: - - And while the muse transported, unconfined, - Soars to the sky, or stoops among mankind, - Teach her like thee, through various fortune wise, - With dignity to sink, with temper rise; - Formed by thy converse, steer an equal flight - From grave to gay, from profit to delight - Artful with grace, and natural to please, - Intent in business, elegant in ease. - -[1575] From Statius, Silv. Lib. i. Carm. iv. 120: - - immensae veluti connexa carinae - Cymba minor, cum saevit hyems, pro parte, furentes - Parva receptat aquas, et eodem volvitur austro.--HURD. - -Mr. Pope forgot while he wrote ver. 383-6, the censures he had so justly -cast, ver. 237, upon that vain desire of an useless -immortality--CROUSAZ. - -[1576] An unfortunate prophecy. Posterity has more than confirmed the -contempt in which Bolingbroke's character was held by his -contemporaries. - -[1577] "Pretend" is used in the old and literal sense "to stretch out -before any one." Its exact synonym in Pope's line is "proclaim." - -[1578] Pope professes to believe that all his poetry up to the Essay on -Man was made up of "sounds" to the exclusion of "things," and was -addressed as little "to the heart" as to the understanding. His change -of subject, and his panegyrics on virtue, had at least not taught him -that the manly simplicity of truth was to be preferred to insincere -hyperboles. - -[1579] In the MS. thus: - - That just to find a God is all we can, - And all the study of mankind is man.--WARBURTON. - -The MS. has another version of the couplet in the text: - - And all our knowledge, all our bliss below, - To love our neighbour, and ourselves to know. - -[1580] The rule of Horace and Warton for testing poetry was to divest it -of metre by changing the order of the words. The language of Bowles -would give the idea that the change was to be from one measure and set -of rhymes to another. - -[1581] Voltaire, Oeuvres, tom. xiv. p. 169. - -[1582] Epist. iv. ver. 112. - -[1583] Epist. iv. ver. 111-113. - -[1584] Epist. iv. ver. 121. - -[1585] Archbishop Whately, Bacon's Essays, p. 145, quotes this stanza, -and says that it is strange that Pope, and those who use similar -language, should have "failed to perceive that the pagan nations were in -reality atheists. For by the word God we understand an Eternal Being, -who made and who governs all things. And so far were the ancient pagans -from believing that 'in the beginning God made the heavens and the -earth,' that, on the contrary, the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, -and many other natural objects, were among the very gods they adored. -Accordingly, the apostle Paul expressly calls the ancient pagans, -atheists, Ephes. ii. 12, though he well knew that they worshipped -certain supposed superior beings which they called gods. But he says in -the Epistle to the Romans that 'they worshipped the creature more than, -that is, instead of the Creator.' And at Lystra, when the people were -going to do sacrifice to him and Barnabas, mistaking them for two of -their gods, he told them to 'turn from those vanities to serve the -living God, who made heaven and earth.'" The pagans were equally -ignorant of the holiness of the Supreme Being; and Pope himself, -describing the heathen divinities, Essay on Man, Epist. iii. 257, calls -them - - Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, - Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust. - -Such a divinity was Jupiter, and to worship an abominable phantom, -conspicuous for "rage, revenge, and lust," was not to adore "Jehovah." - -[1586] It ought to be "confinedst" or "didst confine," and afterwards -"gavedst" or "didst give" in the second person.--WARTON. - -[1587] This may mean that the Deity was beneficent, or holy, or both, -but whatever sense Pope attached to the word, he held with Bolingbroke -that the attributes of the Divine Being were not the qualities which -passed by the same name among us, and the present stanza is a -re-assertion of the doctrine of the Essay on Man, Epist. ii. 1, that we -must not "presume to scan God," or think to know more than the bare fact -that he is "good." - -[1588] First edition: - - Left conscience free and will. - -Here followed, if it is genuine, a suppressed stanza, which Mrs. Thrale -repeated to Dr. Johnson, and which she said a clergyman of their -acquaintance had discovered: - - Can sins of moments claim the rod - Of everlasting fires? - And that offend great nature's God - Which nature's self inspires - -Mrs. Thrale called the stanza "licentious," Johnson observed that it was -borrowed from the Pastor Fido of Guarini, and Boswell pointed out that a -"rod of fires" was an incongruous metaphor. "I warrant you, however," -said Johnson, "Pope wrote this stanza, and some friend struck it out." -The folly of the lines is transparent. The "sins" with which "nature's -self inspires" man, "conscience warns him not to do," ver. 14, and Pope -assumes that God will never be "offended" if we disregard conscience, -and yield to temptation. - -[1589] This stanza was evidently directed against the ascetic acts which -were rated high among virtues by the papists. - -[1590] There is something elevated in the idea and expression, - - Or think Thee Lord alone of man, - When thousand worlds are round; - -but the conclusion is a contrast of littleness, - - And deal damnation round the land.--BOWLES. - -[1591] Unquestionably no man of right judgment will pronounce the holder -of any opinion to be beyond the limits of divine mercy; but he may -justly pronounce the opinion itself to be ruinous in the highest degree. -Nothing can be more false than the spurious liberality which presumes -all opinions to be equally innocent, or affects to conceive that man is -answerable only for the sincerity of his convictions. He is accountable -for his opportunities, his understanding, and his knowledge, and if he -espouses error through negligence, prejudice, or presumption, he -involves himself in the full criminality of his error.--CROLY. - -[1592] I have often wondered that the same poet who wrote the Dunciad -should have written these lines. Alas for Pope, if the mercy he showed -to others was the measure of the mercy he received.--COWPER. - -[1593] Lucan, ix. 578: - - Estne Dei sedes, nisi terra, et pontus, et aer, - Et coelum, et virtus?--WAKEFIELD. - -[1594] Erudition and acuteness are not the only requisites of a good -commentator. That conformity of sentiment which enables him fully to -enter into the intention of his author, and that fairness of disposition -which places him above every wish of disguising or misrepresenting it, -are qualifications not less essential. In these points it is no breach -of candour to affirm, since the public voice has awarded the sentence, -that Dr. Warburton has, in various of his critical labours, shown -himself extremely defective, and perhaps in none more than in those he -has expended upon this performance, his manifest purposes in which, have -been to give it a systematic perfection that it does not possess, to -conceal as much as possible the suspicious source whence the author -derived his leading ideas, and to reduce the whole to the standard of -moral orthodoxy. So much is the sense of the poet strained and warped by -these processes of his commentator, that it is scarcely possible in many -places to enter into his real meaning, without laying aside the -commentary, and letting the text speak for itself--AIKIN. - -[1595] Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, vol. i. p. 377. - -[1596] Descartes. - -[1597] Soame Jenyns, who published in 1757 a Free Enquiry into the -Nature and Origin of Evil. - -[1598] All three were republicans who flourished at the period of the -Great Rebellion. Harrington published his political work, Oceana, in -1656, and Neville his Plato Redivivus, or A Dialogue concerning -Government, in 1681. Burnet says of Wildman that he "had been a constant -meddler on all occasions in everything that looked like sedition, and -seemed inclined to oppose everything that was uppermost." He served in -the Parliamentary army, and proved troublesome to Cromwell, who -imprisoned him. His restless republicanism was thought dangerous at the -Restoration, and the government kept him under lock and key for some -years. He survived to take a share in the Revolution of 1688, and was as -hard to please as in his younger days. Pepys says in 1667, that he had -been "a false fellow to everybody." - -[1599] In the Commentary on ver. 303. - -[1600] A false pretence. Waterland expressed his disapproval of -Warburton's Divine Legation, and Jackson wrote a formal refutation. -Warburton, as sensitive as he was abusive, never forgave them, and to -revenge his wounded vanity, he thrust this forced digression into the -middle of Pope's works under the hollow plea that Pope seemed to have -had in his mind the controversy between Jackson and Waterland on the -Trinity. Jackson was an Arian clergyman, who defended the views of -Samuel Clarke. - -[1601] Tindal, who was a deist, published in 1730 his well-known work, -Christianity as old as the Creation. Waterland wrote an answer called -Scripture Vindicated, and Jackson, his Remarks on a book entitled, etc. - -[1602] Waterland published a sermon called, A familiar discourse upon -the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and the use and importance of it; and -Jackson, after publishing in 1734 his treatise On the Existence and -Unity of God, followed it up in 1735, with A Defence of the book -entitled, On the Existence, etc., in answer to Law's Enquiry into the -Ideas of Space, Time, etc. Warburton, in his discreditable note, has not -the candour to allude to the real ground of his rancour against Jackson -and Waterland. - -[1603] Nothing was ever more unfortunate than these five examples of -sublimity, all of which, as Dr. Warton observes, prove the -contrary.--BOWLES. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES - -Since Greek text cannot be rendered in this version, it has been -transliterated and enclosed in brackets, e.g. [Greek: entelecheia]. - -"oe" ligatures have been replaced by the separate "o" and "e" -characters. - -Except as noted below, obvious punctuation inconsistencies and -typographical errors and spelling errors have been corrected. - -Except as noted below, spelling and capitalization inconsistencies have -been retained. - -Pope often wrote names with dashes replacing part of the name, as in -'Sw--y'. The dashes look like em-dashes in the original, but they have -been changed to long dashes; thus, 'Sw----y'. - -On the title page, in the phrase "RT. HON. JOHN WILSON CROKER.", the -"T." in "RT." appears as a superscript. - -On p. 60, the first footnote (footnote 195) ('This couplet is succeeded -by two...') has nothing in the text pointing to it; however the couplet -on lines 426 and 427 is marked in pen at the side. This could be the -couplet referred to in footnote 195. - -On p. 126, the second footnote (footnote 318) ('Spence, p. 178.') has -nothing in the text pointing to it; however it seems likely that it -refers to the quote ending 'He has an appetite to satire.' - -On p. 127, 'terrestial' (in the phrase 'Whose shapes seemed not like to -terrestial boys,') was changed to 'terrestrial'. - -On the unnumbered page between p. 144 and p. 146, the line in the -third footnote (footnote 369), 'If any muse assists the poet's lays' -had 'asists' in the original. - -On p. 146, in the fourth footnote (footnote 375) the phrase 'I myself, -about the year 1790' was 'I myself, about the year year 1790' in the -original. - -On the unnumbered page before p. 186, the line 'Launched on the bosom -of the silver Thames' had 'bosm' in the original. - -On p. 231, the third footnote (footnote 576) ('Introduction to the -Literature of Europe, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 33....') has nothing in the -text pointing to it. - -On p. 254, the first footnote (footnote 697) ('The combination -"heavenly-fair"...') had nothing in the text pointing to it; a pointer -has been added after the first line on the page, which starts 'Oh grace -serene!' - -On p. 263, in the phrase 'With these precautions, in 1732[3] was -published...', the '[3]' does not indicate a footnote. Other footnote -indicators in the original were superscripts; this '[3]' was not. - -On p. 274, the word 'beforehand' was broken across two lines; it was -arbitrarily made 'beforehand' rather than 'before-hand'. - -On p. 388, the line 'Through life 'tis followed, ev'en at life's -expense' had 'expence' in the original. - -On p. 513, the phrase 'He subdued the intractability of all the four -elements' had 'intractibility' in the original. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 -(of 10), by Alexander Pope - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE *** - -***** This file should be named 43271.txt or 43271.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/7/43271/ - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Colin M. 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