See plastic Nature working to this end, See life diffolving vegetate again: COMMENTARY. dictate of the Creator; and that Man, in this, did but follow the example of general Nature, which is united in one clofe fyftem of benevolence. VER. 9. See plaftic Nature working to this end,] This he proveth, first (from 8 to 13) on the noble theory of Attraction, from the economy of the material world; where there is a general confpiracy in all the particles of Matter to work for one end; the use, beauty, and harmony of the whole mass. VER. 13. See Matter next, &c.] The fecond argument (from 12 to 27) is taken from the vegetable and animal world; whofe Beings ferve mutually for the production, fupport, and fuftentation of each other. But this part of the argument, in which the poet tell us, that God Connects each being, greatest with the leaft; Made Beaft in aid of Man, and Man of Beaft; NOTES. tends to be wisdom, wit, learning, honesty, and, in short, all the virtues in their turns. VER. 12. Form'd and impell'd &c.] To make Matter fo cohere as to fit it for the ufes intended by its Creator, a proper configuration of its in fenfible parts is as necessary as that quality fo equally and univerfally conferred upon it, called Attraction. To exprefs the first part of this thought, our Author fays, form'd; and to express the latter, impell' d. All forms that perish other forms supply, (By turns we catch the vital breath, and die) Like bubbles on the fea of Matter born, They rife, they break, and to that fea return. 20 Nothing is foreign: Parts relate to whole; One all-extending, all-preferving Soul Connects each being, greatest with the leaft; Made Beast in aid of Man, and Man of Beast; All ferv'd, all serving: nothing stands alone; 25 The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown. Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy good, Thy joy, thy paftime, thy attire, thy food? COMMENTARY. awaking again the old pride of his adversaries, who cannot bear that Man fhould be thought to be ferving as well as served; he takes this occafion again to humble them (from 26 to 49) by the fame kind of argument he had fo fuccefsfully employed in the first epistle, and which our comment on that epistle hath confidered at large. Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, 39 35 40 Know, Nature's children all divide her care; The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear. 44 While Man exclaims, "See all things for my use!". "See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goofe: VARIATIONS. After y 46. in the former Editions, What care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat him! As far as Goofe could judge, he reafon'd right; NOTES. See all things VER. 45. for my ufe!] On the contrary, the wife man hath faid, The Lord hath made all things for himself. Prov. xvi. 4. And just as short of reason He must fall, Grant that the pow'rful still the weak controul Be Man the Wit and Tyrant of the whole: Nature that Tyrant checks; He only knows, And helps, another creature's wants and woes. COMMENTARY. 50 VER. 49. Grant that the pow'rful fill the weak controul;] However, his adverfaries, loth to give up the question, will reason upon the matter; and we are now to fuppofe them objecting against Providence in this manner.-We grant, fay they, that in the irrational, as in the inanimate creation, all is ferved, and all is ferving: But, with regard to Man,, the cafe-is' different; he ftandeth fingle. For his Reason hath endowed him both with power and address fufficient to make all things ferve him; and his Self-love, of which you have fo largely provided for him, will difpofe him, in his turn, to ferve none: Therefore your theory is imperfect.-Not fo, replies the poet (from ✯ 48 to 79) I grant that Man, indeed, affects to be the Wit and Tyrant of the whole, and would fain shake off that chain of love, Combining all below and all above: But Nature, even by the very gift of Reafon, checks this tyrant. For Reafon endowing Man with the ability of fetting together the memory of the past with his conjectures about the future; and past misfortunes making him apprehenfive of more to come, this difpofeth him to pity and relieve others in a state of fuffering. And the paffion growing habitual, naturally extendeth its NOTES. VER. 50. Be Man the Wit and Tyrant of the whole :] Alluding to the witty system of that Philofopher, which made Animals mere Machines, in fenfible of pain or pleasure: and fo encouraged Men in the exercife of that Tyranny over their fellow-creatures, confequent on such a principle. Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, 55 Smit with her varying plumage, fpare the dove? That very life his learned hunger craves, And, 'till he ends the being, makes it bleft; COMMENTARY. 65 effects to all that have a fenfe of fuffering. Now as brutes have neither Man's Reafon, nor his inordinate Self-love, to draw them from the fyftem of Benevolence; fo they wanted not, and therefore have not, this human fympathy of another's mifery. By which paffion, we fee, thofe qualities, in Man, balance one another; and fo retain him in that general Order, in which Providence hath placed its whole creation. But this is not all; Man's intereft, amufement, vanity, and luxury, tie him ftill closer to the fyftem of benevolence, by obliging him to provide for the support of other animals; and though it be, for the most part, only to devour them with the greater guft, yet this does not abate the proper happinefs of the animals fo preferved, to whom Providence hath not imparted the ufelefs knowledge of their end. From all which it appears, that the theory is yet uniform and perfect. |