Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn fupports, upheld by God, or thee? II. Prefumptuous Man! the reafon wouldst thou find,

35

Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind?
First, if thou canft, the harder reason guess,
Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no lefs?
Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade? 40
Or ask of yonder argent fields above,

Why Jove's Satellites are lefs than Jove ?
Of Systems poffible, if 'tis confeft

That Wisdom infinite muft form the best,

COMMENTARY.

VER. 43. Of fyftems poffible, &c.] So far his modest and fober Introduction; in which he truly obferves, that no wisdom lefs than omniscient

Can tell why Heav'n has made us as we are.

Yet, though we cannot difcover the particular reafons for this mode of our exiftence, we may be affured in general that it is right. For now, entering upon his argument, he lays down this self-evident propofition as the foundation of his Thelis,

NOTES.

VER. 35 to 42.] In these lines the poet has joined the beauty of argumentation to the fublimity of thought; where the fimilar inftances, propofed for his adverfaries examination,

fhew as well the abfurdity of their complaints against Order, as the fruitleness of their enquiries into the arcana of the Godhead.

45

Where all must full or not coherent be,
And all that rises, rise in due degree;
Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain,
There must be, fomewhere, fuch a rank as Man:
And all the question (wrangle e'er fo long)
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong ?
Respecting Man, whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to all.

COMMENTARY.

50

which he reasonably fuppofes will be allowed him, That, of all tofible fyftems, infinite wisdom hath formed the best (✯ 43, 44) From whence he draws two confequences:

1. The first (from & 44 to 51) is, that as the best system cannot but be fuch a one as hath no inconnected Void; fuch a one in which there is a perfect coherence and gradual fubordination in all its parts; there must needs be, in some part or other of the scale of reasoning life, fuch a creature as MAN: Which reduces the difpute to this abfurd question, Whether God has placed him wrong?

VER. 51. Refpecting Man, &c.] It being fhewn that MAN, the Subject of his enquiry, has a neceffary place in such a system as this is confeffed to be; and it being evident, that the abuse of Free-will, from whence proceeds all moral evil, is the certain effect of fuch a creature's exiftence; the next queftion will be, How thefe evils can be accounted for, confiftently with the idea we have of God's attributes? Therefore,

2. The fecond confequence he draws from his principle, That of all poffible fyftems, infinite wisdom has formed the best, is, that whatever is wrong in our private system, is right as relative to the whole :

Refpecting Man, whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to ALL.

That it may, he proves (from 52 to 61) by fhewing in what confifts the difference between the fyftematic works of God,

[ocr errors]

In human works, tho' labour'd on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;
In God's, one fingle can its end produce;
Yet ferves to second too fome other use.
So Man, who here feems principal alone,
Perhaps acts fecond to some sphere unknown,
Touches fome wheel, or verges to fome goal;
'Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole.

55

60

When the proud steed shall know why Man

reftrains

His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains;

COMMENTARY.

and thofe 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 feems principal alone,
Perhaps acts fecond to fome fphere unknown.

And acting thus, the appearances of wrong in the partial fyftem, may be right in the univerfal: For

'Tis but a part we fee, and not a whole.

That it must, the whole body of this epiftle is employed to illuftrate and inforce. Thus partial Evil is univerfal Good; and thus Providence is fairly acquitted.

VER. 61. When the proud fteed &c.] From all this he draws a general conclufion (from 60 to 91) that, as what has been faid is fufficient to vindicate the ways of Providence, Man fhould reft fubmiffive and content, and confefs every thing to be disposed for the best; that to pretend to enquire into the manner how God conducts this wonderful scheme to its completion, is as abfurd as to imagine that the horfe and ox fhall

Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 90

Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.

COMMENTARY.

occafion to obferve, that God is the equal mafter of all his creatures, and provides for the proper happiness of each being.

VER. 91. Hope humbly then; &c.] But now the objector is fupposed to put in, and fay, You tell us indeed, that all things will terminate in good; but we see ourselves furrounded with present Evil; and yet you forbid us all inquiry into the manner how we are to be extricated; and, in a word, leave us in a very difconfolate condition. Not fo, replies the poet, you may reasonably, if you fo pleafe, receive much comfort from the HOPE of a happy futurity; a Hope implanted in the human breaft for this very purpose by God himself, as an earnest of that Bliss, which here perpetually flying us, is reserved for the good Man hereafter. The reafon why the poet chufes to insist on this proof of a future ftate, in preference to others, is in order to give his system (which is founded in a fublime and improved Platoni fm) the higher grace of uniformity. For HOPE was Plato's peculiar argument for a future ftate; and the words here employed-the foul uneafy &c. his particular expreffion. The poet in this place, therefore, fays in express terms, that God gave us Hope to fupply that future bliss, which he at prefent keeps hid from us. In his fecond epiftle, ✯ 274, he goes ftill farther, and fays, this HOPE quits us not even at Death, when every thing mortal drops from us :

Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die.

And, in the fourth epiftle, he fhews how the fame HOPE is a proof of a future ftate, from the confideration of God's giving man no appetite in vain, or what he did not intend fhould be fatisfied;

He fees, why Nature plants in Man alone

Hope of known blifs, and Faith in blifs unknown :

What future blifs, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy bleffing now.
Hope fprings eternal in the human breast:
Man never Is, but always To be bleft:

VARIATIONS.

In the firft Fol. and Quarto,

What blifs above he gives not thee to know,
But gives that Hope to be thy blifs below.

COMMENTARY.

(Nature, whofe dictates to no other kind

Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find)

95

It is only for the good man, he tells us, that Hope leads from goal to goal &c. It would be ftrange indeed then if it fhould prove a delufion.

NOTES.

VER.93. What future bliss, &c.] It hath been objected, that the Syftem of the best weakens the other natural arguments for a future state; becaufe, if the evils which good Men fuffer promote the benefit of the whole, then every thing is here in order; and nothing amifs that wants to be fet right: Nor has the good man any reason to expect amends, when the evils he fuffered had fuch a tendency. To this it may be replied, 1. That the poet tells us (Ep. iv. 361) that God loves from whole to parts. 2. That the fyftem of the best is so far from weakening thofe natural

arguments, that it ftrengthens and fupports them. For if those evils, to which good men are fubject, be mere Disorders, without any tendency to the greater good of the whole; then, though we must indeed conclude that they will hereafter be fet right, yet this view of things, representing God, as suffering disorders for no other end than to fet them right, gives us a very low idea of the divine wisdom. But if those evils (according to the system of the beft) contribute to the greater perfection of the whole; fuch a reafon may be then given for their permiffion, as fupports

« ZurückWeiter »