Mem'ry and fore-caft juft returns engage, That pointed back to youth, this on to age; While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd, 145 Still spread the int'reft, and preferv'd the kind. IV. Nor think, in NATURE'S STATE they blindly trod ; The state of Nature was the reign of God; Union the bond of all things, and of Man. 150 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 Juftice, before the invention of civil compact; which, they fay, gave Being to it: And accordingly have had the effrontery publicly to declare, that a ftate of Nature was a state of War. This quite fubverteth the fpeech to the whole brute-creation. The naturalifts underftcod the tradition to fignify, that, in the first 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 fpeech. This opinion was afterwards held by Lucretius, Diodorus Sic. and Gregory of Nyff. The fame his table, and the fame his bed; No murder cloath'd him, and no murder fed. COMMENTARY. 155 poet's natural Society: Therefore, after his account of that state, he proceedeth to fupport the reality of it by overthrowing the oppugnant principle of no natural Justice; which he doth (from 146 to 169) in fhewing, by a fine description of the state of Innocence, as reprefented in Scripture, that a state of Nature was fo far from being without natural Justice, that it was, at firft, the reign of God, where Right and Truth univerfally prevailed. NOTES. VER. 156. All vocal beings, &c.] This will be well explained by a fublime paffage of the Pfalmift, who, calling to | mind the age of Innocence, and full of the great ideas of those -Chains of Love, Combining all below, and all above, Which to one point and to one centre bring breaks out into this rapturous "deeps; fire and hail, fnow "and vapour, ftormy wind fulfilling his word: Moun"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." Pfal. cxlviii. The fhrine with gore unftain'd, with gold undreft, NOTES. VER. 158. Unbrib'd, unbloody, &c.] i. e. The state defcribed, from 261 to 269, | was not yet arrived. For then when Superstition became fo And play'd the God an VER. 159. Heav'n's attribute, &c.] The poet fuppofes the truth of the Scripture ac 160 extreme as to bribe the Gods with human facrifices (fee 267) Tyranny became neceffitated to woo the priest for a favourable answer: engine on his foe. count, that Man was created Lord of this inferior world (Ep. i. 230.) Subjected thefe to thofe, and all to thee. What hath misled fome to ima- | tradiction, was, I suppose, fuch gine him here fallen into a con- paffages as thefe, Ask 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 what the Scripture tells us 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 abusive way, hath rendered jealous and mistrustful, I shall endeavour to explain it. Scripture fays, that Man was ma Lord of All. But this Lord becoming at length intoxicated with Pride, the commcn effect of fovereignty, erected himself, like more partial monarchs, into a tyrant. And as Tyranny confifts in fuppofing all made for the use Who, foe to Nature, hears the gen'ral groan, And ev'ry death it's own avenger breeds; COMMENTARY, 165 170 VER. 169. See him from Nature rifing flow to Art!] Strict method (in which, by this time, the reader finds the poet more converfant than fome were aware of) leads him next to speak of that Society, which fucceeded the Natural, namely the Civil. He firft 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 ftate 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 Magiftrate, became neceflary. And for these rea NOTES. 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 his fubjects; as being created for no use of their own, but for his only; and therefore treated them with the utmost barbarity: And not fo content, to add infult to his | 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 Universal Care, And Man's prerogative to rule, but fpare. Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake "Go, from the Creatures thy inftructions take: "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beafts the phyfic 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. COMMENTARY. fons; firft, to bring thofe arts, already found, to perfection: And, fecondly, to fecure 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 Effay, namely to mortify that Pride which occafions the impious complaints against Providence; he speaks of these inventions as only leffons learnt of mere animals guided by instinct; and thus, at the same time, gives a new inftance 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 prosopopæia the most fublime that ever entered into the human imagination: NOTES. VER. 173. Learn from the birds, &c.] It is a common practice amongst 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 hefitation. beafts &c.] See Pliny's Nat. Hift. 1. viii. c. 27. where feveral inftances are given of Animals discovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own use of them; and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing, by their own practice. VER. 177. Learn of the litVER. 174. Learn from the tle Nautilus] Oppian. Halicut. |