See the fole blifs Heav'n could on all beftow! 331 Which who but feels can tafte, but thinks can know: COMMENTARY. 335 VER. 327. See the fole blifs Heav'n could on all bestow !] Having thus proved that Happiness is indeed placed in Virtue; he proves next (from 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 obferveth, with fome indignation (from 328 to 341) that as eafy and as evident as this truth was, yet Riches and falfe Philofophy had fo blinded the difcernment even of improved minds, that the poffeffors of the firft, placed Happiness in Externals, unfuitable to Man's Nature; and the followers of the latter, in refined Vifions, unfuitable to his Situation: while the fimpleminded man, with NATURE only for his guide, found plainly in what it fhould be placed. For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal, And opens still, and opens on his foul ; 'Till lengthen'd on to Faith, and unconfin'd, COMMENTARY. VER. 341. For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal,] But this is not all; the author fhews farther (from 340 to 353) that when the fimple-minded man, on his first setting out in the pursuit of Truth in order to Happiness, hath had the wisdom To look thro' Nature up to Nature's God, (inftead of adhering to any fect or party, where there was fo great odds of his chufing wrong) that then the benefit of gain C. NOTES. VER. 341. For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal, &c.] PLATO, in his firft book of a Republic, hath a remarkable paffage to this purpofe. He whose conscience does not reproach him, has chearful Hope, for his com"panion, and the fupport and "comfort of his old age, ac"cording to Pindar. For this "great poet, O Socrates, very « elegantly fays, That he who « leads a juft and holy life has "always amiable Hope for his "companion, which fills his "heart with joy, and is the то Οὗτος δ ̓ ἀνὰρ ἄριστος, ὅσις ἐλπίσιν Πέποιθεν αἰεί. τὸ δ ̓ ἀπορεῖν, ἀνδρὸς κακό, He is the good man in whofe "breaft Hope fprings eternally: "But to be without hope in 105. "the world is the portion of "the wicked.” He fees, why Nature plants in Man alone 345 Hope of known blifs, and Faith in blifs unknown: Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find) His greatest Virtue with his greatest Bliss ; 350 Self-love thus push'd to focial, to divine, COMMENTARY. ing the knowledge of God's will written in the mind, is not con- For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal, VER. 353. Self-love thus push'd to focial, &c.] The poet, in the laft place, marks out (from 352 to 373) the Progress of his good man's Benevolence, pufhed through natural religion to revealed, 'till it arrives to that height which the facred writers defcribe as the very fummit of Chriftian perfection: And shews how the progrefs of human differs from the progrefs of divine benevolence. That the divine defcends from whole to parts;. but that the human must rise from individual to univerfal. His argument for this extended benevolence is, that as God has made a Whole, whofe parts have a perfect relation to, and an entire dependency on each other; Man, by extending his bene-: 1 Is this too little for the boundless heart? Extend it, let thy enemies have part: COMMENTARY. 355 volence 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 fhewn his piety in this obfervation, but the utmost art and address likewife in the difpofition of it. The Essay on Man opens with exposing the murmurings and impious conclufions of foolish men against the prefent conftitution of things: As it proceeds, it occafionally detects all thofe falfe principles and opinions that led them to conclude thus perverfely. Having now done all that was neceffary in Speculation, the author turns to Practice; and ends his Effay with the recommendation of an acknowledged virtue, Charity; which, if exercised in the Extent that conformity to the will of God requireth, would effectually prevent all complaints against the present order of things: fuch complaints being made with a total difregard to every thing but their own private fyftem, and feeking remedy in the disorder, and at the expence, of all the reft. This obfervation, Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake, is important: Rochefoucault, Efprit, and their wordy difciple Mandeville, had obferved that Self-love was the Origin of all thofe virtues Mankind moft admire; and therefore foolishly supposed it was the End likewife: And fo taught that the highest pretences to difinterestedness were only the more artful difguifes of Self-love. But our author, who fays fomewhere or other, Of human Nature, Wit its worst may write, We all revere it in our own despite, MS. faw, as well as they and every body elfe, that the Paffions began in Self-love; yet he understood human Nature better than to imagine they terminated there. He knew that Reafon and Religion could convert Selfishness into its very oppofite; and therefore teacheth that Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake: And thus hath vindicated the dignity of human Nature, and the philofophic truth of the Chriftian doctrine. Grafp the whole worlds of Reason, Life, and Senfe, In one close fyftem of Benevolence: Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree, And height of Blifs but height of Charity. 360 God loves from Whole to Parts: But human foul 365 Muft rise from Individual to the Whole. 370 Earth fmiles around, with boundless bounty bleft, And Heav'n beholds its image in his breast. Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along; Oh master of the poet, and the fong! VARIATIONS. VER. 373. Come then, my friend! &c.] in the MS. thus, While the wing'd courfer flies with all her rein, NOTES. 374 VER. 373. Come then, my | ftrophe, by which the Poet conFriend! &c. This noble Apo- cludes the Effay in an address |