70 Which fees no more the ftroke, or feels the pain, 75 II. Whether with Reason, or with Inftinct bleft, Know, all enjoy that pow'r which fuits them best; COMMENTARY. VER. 79. Whether with Reafon, &c.] But even to this, as a caviller would ftill object, we muft fuppofe him fo to do, and fay, Admit you have fhewn that Nature hath endowed all animals, whether human or brutal, with fuch 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 caufe to think fhe hath; and we fuppofe, it was on this exclufive confideration that fhe kept back from brutes the gift of Reason (fo neceffary a means of private happiness) because Reason, as we find in the inftance of NOTES. VER. 68. Than favour'd Man &c.] Several of the ancients, and many of the Orientals fince, esteemed those who were ftruck by lightning as facred perfons, and the particular favourites of Heaven. P. To blifs alike by that direction tend, And find the means proportion'd to their end. Cares not for service, or but serves when prest, While ftill too wide or fhort is human Wit; VARIATIONS. After 84. in the MS. While Man, with opening views of various ways COMMENTARY. 81 85 90 Man, where there is occafion for all the complicated contrivance you have described above, to make the effects of his Paffions counter-work the immediate powers of his Reason, in order to keep him fubfervient to the general fyftem; Reason, we say, naturally tends to draw Beings into a private, independent system. This the poet answers, by fhewing (from 78 to 109) that the happiness of animal and that of human life are widely different: The happiness of human life confifting in the improvement of the mind, can be procured by Reafon only; but the happiness of animal life confifting in the gratifications of sense, is beft promoted by Inftinct. And, with regard to the regular and conftant operation of each, in that, Inftinct hath plainly the advantage; for here God directs immediately; there, only mediately through Man. Sure by quick Nature happiness to gain, 95 Who taught the nations of the field and wood Sure as De-moivre, without rule or line? COMMENTARY. VER. 109. God, in the nature of each being, &c.] The author now cometh to the main fubject of his epiftle, the proof of Man's SOCIABILITY, from the two general focieties compofed by him; the natural, fubject to paternal authority; and the civil, fubject to that of a magiftrate. This he hath the addrefs to introduce, from what had preceded, in fo eafy and na But as he fram'd a Whole, the Whole to bless, So from the first, eternal ORDER ran, And creature link'd to creature, man to man. Each fex defires alike, 'till two are one. COMMENTARY. 120 tural a manner, as fheweth him to have the art of giving all the grace to the dryness and severity of Method, as well as wit to the ftrength and depth of Reafon. The philofophic nature of his work requiring he should shew by what means those Societies were introduced, this affords him an opportunity of fliding gracefully and easily from the preliminaries into the main fubject; and fo of giving his work that perfection of method, which we find only in the compofitions of great writers. For having juft before, though to a different purpose, defcribed the power of beftial Inftinct to attain the happiness of the Individual, he goeth on, in fpeaking of Instinct as it is ferviceable 'both to that, and to the Kind (from 108 to 147) to illustrate the original of Society. He fheweth, that though, as he had before obferved, God had founded the proper blifs of each creature in the nature of its own existence; yet these not being independent individuals, but parts of a Whole, God, to blefs that Whole, built mutual happiness on mutual wants: Now, for the fupply of mutual wants, creatures muft neceffarily come together; which is the first ground of Society amongst Men. He then proceeds to that called natural, fubject to paternal authority, and arifing from the union of the two fexes; describes the 126 Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace ; A longer care Man's helpless kind demands ; 130 At once extend the int'reft, and the love; Still as one brood, and as another rose, These natʼral love maintain'd, habitual those: 140 COMMENTARY. imperfect image of it in brutes; then explains it at large in all its caufes and effects. And laftly fhews, that as is fact, like mere animal fociety, it is founded and preferved by mutual wants, the fupplial of which caufeth mutual happiness; fo is it likewife in right, as a rational Society, by equity, gratitude, and the obfervance of the relation of things in general. |