VII. Far as Creation's ample range extends, The scale of fenfual, mental pow'rs afcends; Mark how it mounts, to Man's imperial race, From the green myriads in the peopled grafs : COMMENTARY. 210 What VER. 207. Far as Creation's ample range extends,] He tells us next (from ver. 206 to 233.), that the complying with fuch extravagant defires would not only be ufelefs and pernicious to Man, but would be breaking into the order, and deforming the beauty of God's Creation, in which this animal is fubject to that, and every one to Man; who, by his Reason, enjoys the fum of all their powers. WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 207. Far as Creation's ample range extends,] It may be doubted, whether our Author has excelled Dryden in the art of reasoning in rhyme, whofe Religio Laici, and Hind and Panther, are in this respect admirable; though the fable of the latter abounds in abfurdities and inconfiftencies. WARTON. VER. 209. Mark how it mounts,] When it is faid that Pope was guilty of fome contradictions and fome inconfiftencies in his reafonings on the bef, let us alfo remember, that fo alfo was his guide and philofophical friend, who, it is to be wifhed, had always expreffed himself as in the following terms, p. 121, v. 5. "Methinks I hear a fincere and devout theift, in the midst of fuch meditations as thefe, cry out, "No; the world was not made for man, nor man only to be happy. The objections urged by atheists and divines against the wisdom and goodness of the Supreme Being, on thefe arbitrary fuppofitions, deftroy their own foundations. Mankind is expofed, as well as other animals, to many inconveniencies and to various evils, by the conftitution of the world. The world was not, therefore, made for him, nor he to be happy. But he enjoys numberlefs benefits, by the fitnefs of his nature to this conftitution, unasked, unmerited, freely beftowed. He returns, like other animals, to the duft; yet neither he nor they are willing to leave the state wherein they are placed here. The wisdom and the goodness of God are therefore manifeft., I thank thee, O my Creator! that I am placed in a rank, low What modes of fight betwixt each wide extreme, NOTES. Of low in the whole order of being, but the first in that animal system to which I belong: a rank wherein I am made capable of knowing thee, and of difcovering thy will, the perfection of my own nature, and the means of my own happiness. Far be it from me to repine at my prefent ftate, like thofe who deny thee; or like those who own thee, only to cenfure thy works and the difpenfations of thy providence. May I enjoy thankfully the benefits bestowed on me by thy divine liberality! May I suffer the evils, to which I stand exposed, patiently, nay willingly! None of thy creatures are made to be perfectly happy like thyfelf; nor did thy goodness require that they should be fo. Such of them as are more worthy objects of it than thy human creatures, fuperior natures that inhabit other worlds, may be affected in fome degree or other by physical evils, fince thefe are effects of the general laws of matter and motion. They must be affected too, in fome degree or other, by moral evil, fince moral evil is the consequence of error, as well as of disorderly appetites and paffions, and fince error is the confequence of imperfect understanding. Lefs of this evil may prevail among them. But all that is finite, the most exalted intelligences, must be liable to fome errors. Thou, O God! that Being who is liable to none, and to whom infallibility and impeccability belong, "Duc me, parens celfique dominator poli, "Quocumque placuit. Nulla parendi mora eft, WARTON. VER. 210. From the green myriads] These lines are admirable patterns of forcible diction. The peculiar and difcriminating expreffiveness of the epithets ought to be particularly regarded. Perhaps we have no image in the language more lively than that of the laft verfe. "To live along the line," is equally bold and beautiful. In this part of the epiftle the Poet seems to have remarkably laboured his ftyle, which abounds in various figures, and is much elevated. Pope has practifed the great fecret of Virgil's art, * Sen. Ep. 107. Of smell, the headlong lionefs between, And hound fagacious to the tainted green: Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood, 215 To that which warbles through the vernal wood? Feels at each thread, and lives along the line: In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew? 220 NOTES. Remem art, which was to discover the very fingle epithet that precisely fuited each occafion. If Pope muft yield to other poets in point of fertility of fancy, or harmony of numbers, yet in point of propriety, clofenefs, and elegance of diction, he can yield to none. Very inferior is the tranflation of Abbé du Refnel, of all this fine paffage, to the original, though it is evident he took pains about it. See his four lines on the fpider : Contemplez l'araignée en fon réduit obfcur; Que fon toucher eft vif, qu'il eft prompt, qu'il eft fur; Dans chacun de fes fils elle paroit vivante. WARTON. VER. 213. the headlong lioness] The manner of the lions hunting their prey in the defarts of Africa is this: At their firft going out in the night-time, they fet up a loud roar, and then liften to the noise made by the beasts in their flight, pursuing them by the ear, and not by the noftril. It is probable the ftory of the jackall's bunting for the lion, was occafioned by the obfervation of this defect of fcent in that terrible animal. POPE. VER. 224. For ever fep'rate, &c.] Near, by the fimilitude of the operations; Separate, by the immense difference in the nature of the powers. WARBURTON. Remembrance and Reflection, how ally'd; What thin partitions Senfe from Thought divide? Without this juft gradation, could they be The pow'rs of all fubdu'd by thee alone, 225 230 VIII. See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth, All matter quick, and bursting into birth. Above, how high, progreffive life may go! Around, how wide, how deep extend below! 235 Vaft COMMENTARY. VER. 233. See, through this air, &c.] And further (from ver: 232 to 267.), that this breaking the order of things, which, as a link or chain, connects all beings, from the highest to the loweft, would unavoidably be attended with the deftruction of the Universe for that the feveral parts of it must at least compose as entire and harmonious a Whole, as the parts of a human body, can be doubted of by no one : yet we see what confufion it would make in our frame, if the members were fet upon invading each other's office : "What if the foot," &c. Who will not acknowledge, therefore, that a connection, in the difpofition of things, fo harmonious as here described, is transcendently beautiful? But the Fatalifts fuppofe fuch an one. What then? Is the First Free Agent, the great Cause of all things, debarred a contrivance infinitely exquifite, because fome Men, to fet up their idol, Fate, abfurdly reprefent it as prefiding over fuch a fyftem? WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 235. Above, how high,] This is a magnificent paffage. Has Vaft chain of Being! which from God began, 240 Or VER. 238. Ed. Ift, VARIATIONS. Ethereal effence, fpirit, fubftance, man. NOTES. Has any feen The mighty chain of beings, leffening down Of dreary Nothing, defolate abyfs! From which aftonifh'd Thought recoiling turns? THOMSON. WARTON. The paffage in Locke on this topic is fo eloquent, that the reader will pardon its infertion: "That there fhould be more fpecies of intelligent creatures above us, than there are of fenfible and material below us, is probable to me from hence: That in all the vifible corporeal world we fee no chafms, or gaps. All quite down from us, the defcent is by eafy fteps, and a continued feries of things, that in each remove differ very little one from the other. And when we confider the infinite power and wisdom of the Maker, we have reason to think that it is fuitable to the magnificent barmony of the Universe, and the great defign and infinite goodness of the Architect, that the species of creatures fhould also, by gentle degrees, afcend upwards from us towards his infinite Perfection, as we fee from us they gradually defcend downward." Vol. ii. p. 4. VER. 240. No glafs can reach;] "There are," fays Hooke the naturalift, " 8,280,000 animalcula in one drop of water." "Nature, in many inftances," fays Themiftius, "appears to make her tranfitions fo imperceptibly, and by little and little, that in fome beings it may be doubted whether they are animal or vegetable. WARTON. |