Mem'ry and fore-cast just returns engage, blindly trod; COMMENTARY. 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 fay, 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 NOTES. Ver. 152. Man walk'd with | speech to the whole brute-creabeast, joint tenant of the shade;] tion. The naturalists understcod The poet still takes his imagery the tradition to fignify, that, from Platonic ideas, for the in the first ages, Men used inreason given above. Plato had articulate sounds like beasts to faid from old tradition, that, express their wants and sensaduring the Golden age, tions; and that it was by now der the reign of Saturn, the degrees they came to the use primitive language then in use of speech. This opinion was was common to man and beasts. afterwards held by Lucretius, Moral philosophers took this in Diodorus Sic. and Gregory of the popular sense, and so in- Nyíl. yented those fables which give and un The same his table, and the same his bed; COMMENTARY. poet's natural Society : Therefore, after his account of that state, he proceedeth to support the reality of it by overthrowing the oppugnant principle of no natural Justice; which he doth (from y 146 to 169) in shewing, by 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. NOTES. VER. 156. All vocal beings, mind the age of Innocence, &c.] This will be well ex and full of the great ideas of plained by a sublime passage of those the Psalmist, who, calling to -Chains of Love, Beast, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King breaks out into this rapturous “deeps ; fire and hail, snow and divine apostrophe, to call " and vapour, stormy wind back the devious creation to “ fulfilling his word: Mounits pristine rectitude (that very " tains, and all hills, fruitful state our author describes a " trees and all cedars : Beasts bove) “ Praise the Lord, all 66 and all cattle, creeping things angels; praise him, all ye " and Aying fowl : Kings of " hosts. Praise ye him, sun o the earth, and all people : " and moon; praise him, all “ princes, and all judges of ye stars of light. Let " the earth. Let them praise “ them praise the name of the 6 the name of the Lord; for “ Lord, for he commanded, “ his name alone is excellent, were created. “ his glory is above the earth « Praise the Lord, from the " and heaven.” Psal. cxlviii. “ earth, ye dragons, and all 66 and they The thrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest, 3 NOTES. VER. 158. Unbrib'd, un extreme as to bribe the Gods bloody, &c.] i. e. The state de- with human facrifices (see scribed, from 261 to 269, Ý 267) Tyranny became newas not yet arrived. For then ceffitated to woo the priest for when Superstition became fo a favourable answer : And play'd the God an engine on his foe. VER. 159. Heav'n's attri count, that Man was created bute, &c.] The poet fupposes Lord of this inferior world (Ep. the truth of the Scripture ac i. $ 230.) Subjected these to those, and all to thee. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, &c. an abusive fool! work’d solely for thy good, way, hath rendered jealous &c. But in truth this is fo and miftruftful, I shall enfar from contradicting what is deavour to explain it. Scriphere faid of Man's prerogative, ture says, that Man was maię that it greatly confirms it, and Lord of All. But this Lord what the Scripture tells us con becoming at length intoxicatcerning it. And because this ed with Pride, the common matter has been mistaken, to effect of sovereignty, erected the discredit of the poet's re- himself, like more partial mcligious sentiments, by readers, narchs, into a tyrant. And whom the conduct of cer as Tyranny consists in fuptain licentious writers, treating posing all made for the use ! Who, foe to Nature, hears the gen'ral groan, 165 See him from Nature rising flow to Art ! part; 170 COMMENTARY, Ver. 169. See him from Nature rising Now to Art!] Strict method (in which, by this time, the reader finds the poet 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 $ 169 to 199) the intermediate means which led Mankind from natural to civil Society. These were the invention and improvement of Arts. For while Mankind 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 rea NOTES. of one ; he took those freedoms cruelty, he endeavoured to phiwith all, that are consequent lofophize himself into an opinion such a principle. He soon on that animals were mere mabegan to consider the whole chines, insensible of pain or animal creation as his slaves ra pleasure. Thus Man affected ther than his subjects ; as be to be the Wit as well as Tying created for no use of their rant of the Whole : and it beown, but for his only; and came one who adhered to the therefore treated them with the Scripture account of Man's doutmost barbarity: And not fo minion, to reprove this abuse content, to add infult to his I of it, and to shew that Heav’n’s attribute was Universal Care, Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake Go, from the Creatures thy instructions take: “ 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. 3 COMMENTARY. fons; 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 the impious complaints against Providence ; he speaks of these inventions as only lessons learnt of mere animals guided by instinct; and thus, at the same time, gives a new instance of the wonderful Providence of God, who has contrived to teach mankind in a way, not only proper to humble human arrogance, but to raise our idea of infinite Wisdom to the greatest pitch. This he does in a profopopoeia the most sublime that ever entered into the human imagination: NOTES. Ver. 173. Learn from the beasts &c.] See Pliny's Nat. birds, &c.] It is a common Hift. 1. viii. c. 27. where se practice amongst Navigators, veral instances are given of when thrown upon a desert Animals discovering the medicoast, - and in want of re cinal efficacy of herbs, by their freshments, to observe what own use of them; and pointing fruits have been touched by out to some operations in the the Birds : and to venture on art of healing, by their own these without further hesita- practice. tion. Ver. 177. Learn of the litVER. 174. Learn from the tle Nautilus] Oppian. Halieut. |