Then, looking up from fire to fire, explor❜d 225 One great ' Convey'd unbroken faith from fire to fon; COMMENTARY. 230 the knowledge of one God, the creator of all things, he fhews how Men came by that knowledge: That it was either found out by Reason, which giving to every effect a caufe, inftructed them to go from caufe to caufe, till they came to the firft, who being causeless, would neceffarily be judged felf-exiftent: or else taught by Tradition, which preferved the memory of the Creation. He then tells us what these men, undebauched by false fcience, understood by God's Nature and Attributes: First, of God's Nature, that they eafily diftinguifhed between the Worker and the Work, faw the fubftance of the Creator to be diftinct and different from that of the creature, and fo were in no danger of falling into the horrid opinion of the Greek philofophers, and their follower, Spinoza. And fimple Reafon teaching them that the Creator was but One, they eafily faw that all was right, and were in as little danger of falling into the Manichean error; which, when oblique Wit had broken the fteddy light of Reafon, imagined all was not right, having before imagined all was not the work of One. Secondly, he fhews what they understood of God's Attributes; that they easily conceived a Father where they NOTES. VER. 225. Then, looking up, .] The poet here maketh their more serious attention to Religion to have arifen, not from their gratitude amidst abundance, but from their helplefsnefs in diftrefs; by fhew ing that, during the former ftate, they refted in fecond caufes, the immediate authors of their bleffings, whom they revered as God; but that, in the other, they reafoned up to the First: Then looking up from fire to fire, L. E'er Wit oblique had broke that steddy light, That was but love of God, and this of Man. 240 done, Th'enormous faith of many made for one; COMMENTARY. had found a Deity; and that a fovereign being could only be a fovereign Good. VER. 241. Who firft taught fouls enflav'd, &c.] Order leadeth the poet to speak next (from 240 to 246) of the corruption of civil Society into Tyranny, and its Caufes; and here, with all the art of addrefs as well as truth, he observes it arofe from the violation of that great Principle, which he so much infifts upon throughout his Effay, that each was made for the use NOTES. This, I am afraid, is but too true a representation of human nature. VER.231. E'er Wit oblique &c.] A beautiful allufion to the effects of the prismatic glass on the rays of light. VER. 242. Th'enormous faith &c.] In this Aristotle placeth the difference between Force first made Conquest, and that conquest, Law; 'Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe, COMMENTARY. : 246 of all. We may be fure, that, in this corruption, where natural juftice was thrown afide, and force, the Atheift's justice, prefided in its ftead, Religion would follow the fate of civil Society: We know, from ancient hiftory, it did fo. Accordingly Mr. Pope (from 245 to 269) with corrupt Politics describes corrupt Religion and its Caufes he firft informs us, agreeable to his exact knowledge of Antiquity, that it was the Politician and not the Prieft (as our illiterate tribe of Free-thinkers would make us believe) who first corrupted Religion. Secondly, That the Superftition he brought in was not invented by him, as an engine to play upon others (as the dreaming Atheist feigns, who would thus miferably account for the origin of Religion) but was a trap he first fell into himself. NOTES. a King and a Tyrant, that the first supposeth himself made for the People; the other, that the People are made for him: Βέλεται δ' ὁ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ εἶναι φύλαξ, ὅπως οἱ μὲν κεκλημένοι τὰς ἐπίας μηθὲν ἄδικον πάσχωσιν, ὁ δὲ δῆμος μὴ ὑβρίζηται μηθέν· ἡ δὲ ΤΥΡΑΝΝΙΣ πεὶς εἰδὲν ἀποβλέπει κοινὸν, εἰ μὴ της ίδιας ωφελείας χάριν. Pol. lib. v. cap. 10. its owner to all the vain, as well as real, terrors of confcience: Hence the whole machinery of Superftition. It is true, the poet obferves, that afterwards, when the Tyrant's fright was over, he had cunning enough, from the experience of the effe&t of Superftition upon himself, to turn it by the affiftance of the Pricft (who for his reward went tharer with him in the Tyranny) as his beft defence against his Subjects. For a Tyrant naturally and reasonably deemeth all his Slaves to be his enemies. VER. 245. Force first made Conqueft, &.] All this is agreeable to fact, and fheweth our Author's exact knowledge of human nature. For that Impotency of mind (as the Latin writers call it) which giveth birth to the enormous crimes neceffary to fupport a Tyranny, naturally fubjecteth its objects: Gods partial, changeful, pafinate, unjua, &c. Having given the Caufes of Superftition, he next deferibes. G Then fhar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid, And Gods of Conqu'rors, Slaves of Subjects made: She 'midft the light'ning's blaze, and thunder's found, When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground, 254 250 She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, To Pow'r unfeen, and mightier far than they : She, from the rending earth and bursting skies, Saw Gods defcend, and fiends infernal rise : Here fix'd the dreadful, there the bleft abodes; Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods; Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust, Whose attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Luft; NOTES. himself. But there was another, and more fubftantial caufe, of the resemblance between a Tyrant and a Pagan god; and that was the making The ancient Pagan Gods are here very exactly described. This fact is a convincing evidence of the truth of that original which the poet giveth to Superftition; for if these phan-Gods of Conquerors, as the poet tafms were firft raifed in the imagination of Tyrants, they muft needs have the qualities here affigned to them. For Force being the Tyrant's Virtue, and Luxury his Happiness, the attributes of his God would of course be Revenge and Luft; in a word, the anti-type of fays, and fo canonizing a tyrant's vices with his perfon. That these gods should suit a people humbled to the stroke of a master, will be no wonder, if we recollect a generous faying of the ancients; That day which fees a Man a flave, takes away half his Virtue. Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive, 261 And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe. 265 Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood; With Heav'n's own thunders fhook the world below, And play'd the God an engine on his foe. So drives Self-love, thro' juft and thro' unjust, To one Man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, luft: COMMENTARY. 270 VER. 269. So drives Self-love, &c.] The inference our author draws from all this (from ✯ 268 to 283) is, that Self-love driveth through right and wrong; it caufeth the Tyrant to violate the rights of mankind; and it causeth the People to vindicate that violation. For Self-love being common to the whole fpecies, and fetting each individual in pursuit of the fame objects, it became neceffary for each, if he would secure his own, to provide for the fafety of another's. And thus Equity and Benevolence arose from that fame Self-love which had given birth to Avarice and Injustice: His Safety must his Liberty restrain; |