155 The same his table, and the same his bed; NOTES. wildness of fancy; see ver. 980, book v; and particularly when he represents, at ver. 991, some of these wretched mortals mangled by the wild beasts, into whose caverns they had retreated for shelter in tempestuous seasons, and running distracted with pain through the woods, with their wounds undressed and putrefying: -tremulas super ulcera tetra tenentes Palmas, horriferis accibant vocibus Orcum. Pain is most forcibly expressed by the action here described, and by the epithet "tremulas." The continuance and universality of the savage state of Man, in the earliest ages of the world, has been the favourite opinion of many late philosophical writers, particularly of Lord Kaimes in his Sketches, which has been answered with much learning and acuteness by Dr. Doig, 1792. Ver. 156. All vocal beings, &c.] This may be well explained by a sublime passage of the Psalmist, who, calling to mind the 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, BEAST, MAN, or ANGEL, Servant, Lord, or King;" age breaks out into this rapturous and divine apostrophe, to call back the devious Creation to its pristine rectitude; that very state our author describes above: "Praise the Lord, all angels; praise him, all ye hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon; praise him, all ye stars of light," &c. W. Ver. 157. undrest, Unbrib'd, unbloody,] Alliteration is here used with effect. But is the assertion consistent with the usual interpretation of the Scripture account of the origin of sacrifice? Ver. 158. Unbrib'd, unbloody, &c.] i. e. the state described from Heav'n's attribute was Universal Care, See him from Nature rising slow to Art! To copy Instinct then was Reason's part; Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake"Go, from the Creatures thy instructions take 160 165 170 NOTES. Ver. 262 to 269, was not yet arrived. For then, when Superstition was become so extreme as to bribe the Gods with human sacrifices; Tyranny became necessitated to woo the priest for a favourable answer. W. Ver. 162. the butcher and the tomb;] Plutarch has written a treatise against animal food; tom. ii. 995. Thomson, with his usual tenderness, has done the same; Spring, v. 330. Ver. 171. Thus then to Man the voice of Naturé spáke—— "Go, &c.] M. Du Resnel has translated the lines thus, "La Nature indignée alors se fit entendre; Va, malheureux mortel, va, lui dit elle, apprendre." One would wonder what should make the Translator represent Nature in such a passion with Man, and calling him names, at a time when Mr. Pope supposed her in her best good-humour. W. Ver. 171. the voice of Nature] The prosopopoeia is magnifi cent, and the occasion important, no less than the origin of the arts of life. Nature is personified by Lucretius, and introduced speaking with suitable majesty and elevation: She is chiding Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; NOTES. her foolish and ungrateful children for their vain and impious discontent: "Quid tibi tantopere est, mortalis, quod nimis ægris Luctibus indulges? quid mortem congemis, ac fles ?— Aufer abhinc lacrymas, barathro et compesce querelas." There is an authoritative air in the brevity of this sentence, as also in the concluding line of her speech; and particularly in the very last words: 66 Equo animoque, agedum, jam aliis concede:-necesse est." This fine prosopopœia in our Author is not, as Dr. Warburton asserted, the most sublime that ever entered into the human imagination, for we see Lucretius used it before. The Romans have left us scarcely any piece of poetry so striking and original as the beginning and progress of arts, at the end of the fifth book of Lucretius; who perhaps, of all the Roman poets, had the strongest imagination. The Persians distinguish the different degrees of Fancy in different poets, by calling them painters or sculptors. Lucretius, from the force of his images, should be ranked among the latter. He is in truth a Sculptor Poet. His images have a bold relief. Of this noble prosopopoeia, in Lucretius, Addison seems to have thought, in a well-known passage of Cato: ." All Nature cries aloud Thro' all her Works.". Ver. 173. Learn from the birds, &c.] It is a caution commonly practised amongst Navigators, when thrown upon a desert coast, and in want of refreshments, to observe what fruits have been touched by the Birds: and to venture on these without farther hesitation. P. Ver. 173. Learn from the birds] Taken, but finely improved, from Bacon's Advancement of Learning, p. 48. "They who discourse of the inventions and originals of things, refer them rather to Beasts, Birds, and Fishes, and Serpents, than to Men. So that it was no marvaile (the manner of antiquity being to consecrate Inventors) that the Ægyptians had so few human idols in their temples, but almost all brute. Who taught the Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave; Learn of the little Nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. Here too all forms of social union find, And hence let Reason, late, instruct Mankind : 181 The Ants' republic, and the realm of Bees ; How those in common all their wealth bestow, 185. And Anarchy without confusion know; NOTES. raven in a drowth to throw pebbles into a hollow tree when she spied water, that the water might rise so as she might come to it? Who taught the bee to sayle thro' such a vast sea of air, and to find the way from a field in flower a great way off to her hive? Who taught the ant to bite every graine of corne she burieth in her hill, least it should take roote and grow?" See, in the Philosophical Transactions, the marvellous account of the white ants in Africa, and their buildings and arts. It is somewhat remarkable, that Solomon, in the Proverbs, when he speaks of the wonderful instincts of certain animals, does not mention the bee. Ver. 174. Learn from the beasts, &c.] See Pliny's Nat. Hist. 1. viii. c. 27, where several instances are given of Animals discovering the medical efficacy of herbs, by their own use of them; and pointing out to some operations in the art of healing, by their own practice. W. Ver. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus, &c.] Oppian Halieur, lib. ii. describes this fish in the following manner : "They swim on the surface of the sea, on the back of their shells, which exactly resemble the hulk of a ship; they raise two feet like masts, and extend a membrane between, which serves as a sail: the other two feet they employ as oars at the side. They are usually seen in the Mediterranean." And these for ever, tho' a Monarch reign, And right, too rigid, harden into wrong, 190 Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, Thus let the wiser make the rest obey; And for those Arts mere Instinct could afford, 195 V. Great Nature spoke; observant Men obey'd; Cities were built, Societies were made: Here rose one little state; another near 200 Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' love or fear. VARIATIONS. Ver. 197. In the first Editions, Who for those Arts they learn'd of BRUTES before, "Les Sauvages racontent que ce fut Michabou [le DIEU des Eaux] qui apprit à leurs Ancêtres à pêcher, qu'il inventa les Rèts, et que ce fut la toile d'ARAIGNE'E qui lui en donne l'idée." -Journal d'un Voyage dans l'Amerique Sept. par Charlevoix. Vol. v. p. 417. Par. 1744. 8vo. W. Ver. 201. Here rose one little state; &c.] In the MS. thus, For want alone each animal contends; 1 |