The fame his table, and the fame his bed; NOTES. 155 ideas for the reason given above. Plato had faid from old tradition, that, during the golden age, and under the reign of Saturn, the primitive language then in ufe was common to man and beasts. Moral inftructors took advantage of the popular sense of this tradition, to convey their precepts under thofe fables, which give fpeech to the whole brute creation. The naturalifts understood the tradition to fignify, that, in the firft Ages, Men used inarticulate founds, like beafts, to exprefs their wants and fenfations; and that it was by flow degrees they came to the use of speech. This opinion was afterwards held by Lucretius, Diodorus Sic. and Gregory of Nyff. VER. 156. All vocal beings, &c.] This may be well explained by a fublime paffage of the pfalmift, who, calling to mind the age of innocence, and full of the of those Chains of Love, Combining all below, and all above, great Which to one point and to one center bring ideas Beaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King; breaks out into this rapturous and divine apoftrophe, to call back the devious creation to its priftine rectitude (that very state our author describes above): "Praise the Lord, "all his angels; praise him, all ye hofts. Praise ye him, "fun and moon; praise him, all ye ftars of light. "them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded, "and they were created. Praise the Lord, from the "earth, ye dragons, and all deeps; fire and hail, fnow "and vapour, ftormy wind fulfilling his word: Moun Let The fhrine with gore unftain'd, with gold undreft, Unbrib'd, unbloody, ftood the blameless prieft; Heav'n's attribute was Universal Care, And man's prerogative to rule, but spare. NOTES. 160. "tains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars: Beafts "and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl: kings of "the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of "the earth. Let them praife the name of the Lord; "for his name alone is excellent, his glory is above the "earth and heaven." Pfalm cxlviii. For VER. 158. Unbrib'd, unbloody, &c.] i. e. The ftate defcribed, from ver. 261 to 269, was not yet arrived. then when fuperftition was become fo extreme as to bribe the Gods with human facrifices (see ver. 267.) Tyranny became neceffitated to woo the priest for a favourable answer: And play'd the God an engine on his foe, VER. 159. Heav'n's attribute, &c.] The poet fuppofes the truth of the Scripture account, that Man was created Lord of this inferior world (Ep. i. ver. 230.) Subjected these to thofe, and all to thee. What hath milled fome to imagine him here fallen into a contradiction, was, I suppose, such paffages as these, Afk for what end the heav'nly bodies fhine, &c. And again, Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy good, &c. But, in truth, this is fo far from contradicting what is here faid of man's prerogative, that it greatly confirms it, and the Scripture account concerning it. And because this matter has been mistaken, to the difcredit of the poet's religious fentiments, by readers, whom the conduct of certain licentious writers, treating this fubject in an abufive way, hath rendered jealous and miftrustful, I fhall endeavour to explain it. Scripture fays, that Man was made Ah! how unlike the man of times to come! And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds; 165 See him from Nature rifing flow to Art! NOTES. 179 Lord of All. But this Lord become intoxicated with Pride, the common effect of fovereignty, erected himself, like more partial monarchs, into a tyrant, And as Tyranny confifts in fuppofing all made for the ufe of one; he took thofe freedoms with all, that are confequent on fuch a principle. He foon began to confider the whole animal creation as his flaves rather than as his fubjects; as being created for no ufe of their own, but for this only; and therefore treated them with the utmost barbarity: And not fo content, to add infult to this cruelty, he endeavoured to philofophize himself into an opinion that animals were mere machines, infenfible of pain or pleasure. Thus Man affected to be the Wit as well as Tyrant of the Whole: and it became one who adhered to the Scripture account of Man's dominion, to reprove this abuse of it, and to fhew, that Heav'n's attribute was Univerfal Care, And Man's prerogative to rule, but fpare. VER. 171. Thus then to Man, &c.] The poet reprefents "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; "Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 "Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave ; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail, "Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. NOTES. the invention of Arts as only leffons learnt of brute animals, guided by instinct, in order to humble human arrogance, and raife our idea of infinite wifdom. This he does in a prosopopaia, 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 thofe Arts mere Inftinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd." VER. 173. Learn from the birds, &c.] It is a caution commonly practifed among Navigators, when thrown upon a defert coaft, and in want of refreshments, to obferve what fruits have been touched by the Birds, and to venture on these without further hesitation. VER. 174. Learn from the beafts, &c.] See Pliny's Nat. Hift. 1. viii. c. 27. where several inftances are given of Animals discovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own ufe of them, and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing by their own practice. VER. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus] Oppian Halieut. lib.i. defcribes this fish in the following manner: "They "fwim on the furface of the fea, on the back of their "fhells, which exactly resemble the hulk of a hip; they ❝raise two feet like mafts, and extend a membrane between, which ferves as a fail; the other two feet they employ as oars at the fide. They are usually seen in "the Mediterranean." P. "Here too all forms of focial union find, "And hence let Reason, late, inftruct Mankind: 180 "Here fubterranean works and cities fee: "There towns aërial on the waving tree. "The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bees; "And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 195 "Thus let the wifer make the reft obey; "And for those Arts mere Inftinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd." V. Great Nature spoke; obfervant Men obey'd; Cities were built, Societies were made: VARIATIONS. VER. 197. In the first Editions, Who for thofe Arts they learnt of Brutes before, |