STA N.Blakey inv.&del. Ravenet sculp. HOPE humbly then: with trembling Pinions soar; Essay on Man. Ep.1.7! A EPISTLE I. WAKE, MY ST. JOHN! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of Kings. Let us (fince Life can little more fupply Than just to look about us and to die) A mighty maze! but not without a plan; 5 A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous fhoot, Or Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit. COMMENTARY. Together THE Opening of this poem, [in fifteen lines] is taken up in giving an account of the Subject; which, agreeably to the title, is an ESSAY on MAN, or a Philofophical Enquiry into his Nature and End, his Paffions and Pursuits. The Exordium relates to the whole Work, of which the Elay on Man was only the firft book. The 6th, 7th, and 8th lines allude to the fubjects of this Effy, viz. the general Order and Defign of Providence; the Conftitution of the human Mind; the origin, ufe, and end of the Paffions and Affections, both felfifh and focial; and the wrong purfuits of Happiness in Power, Pleafure, etc. The 10th, 11th, 12th, etc. have relation to the subjects of the books intended to follow, viz. the Characters and Capacities of Men, and the Limits of Science, which once tranfgreffed, ignorance begins, and er NOTES. rors VER. 7, 8. AWild-Or Garden,] The Wild relates to the human paffions, productive (as he explains in the fecond epiftle) both of good and evil. The Garden, to human reafon, fo often tempting us to tranfgrefs the bounds God has fet to it, and to wander in fruitlefs enquiries. ΙΟ Together let us beat this ample field, COMMENTARY. I. Say rors without end fucceed. The 13th and 14th, to the Knowledge of Mankind, and the various Manners of the Age. The Poet tells us next [line 16th] with what defign he wrote, viz. "To vindicate the ways of God to Man.” The Men he writes against, he frequently informs us, are fuch as weigh their opinion against Providence, (Ver. 114.) fuch as cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust, (Ver. 118.) or fuch as fall into the notion, that Vice and Virtue there is none at all, (Ep. ii. Ver. 212.) This occafions the Poet to divide his vindication of the ways of God, into two parts. In the first of which he gives NOTES. VER. 12. Of all who blindly creep, etc.] i. e. Those who only follow the blind guidance of their paffions; or those who leave behind them common fenfe and fober reason, in their high flights through the regions of Metaphyfics. Both which follies are expofed in the fourth epiftle, where the popular and philofophical errors concerning Happiness are detected. The figure is taken from animal life. VER. 15. Laugh where we muft, etc.] Intimating, that human follies are fo ftrangely abfurd, that it is not in the power of the most compaffionate, on-fome occafions, to restrain their mirth: And that its crimes are fo flagitious, that the most candid have feldom an opportunity, on this fubject, to exercise their virtue. VER. 16. VINDICATE the ways of God to Man.] Milton's phrafe, judiciously altered, who fays, JUSTIFY the ways of God to I. Say firft, of God above, or Man below, What can we reason, but from what we know? Of Man, what fee we but his station here, From which to reafon, or to which refer? COMMENTARY. 20 Thro' gives direct answers to those objections which libertine Men, on a view of the diforders arifing from the perverfity of the human will, have intended against Providence: And in the fecond, he obviates all thofe objections, by a true delineation of human Nature; or a general, but exact, map of Man. The first epistle is employed in the management of the first part of this difpute; and the three following in the difcuffion of the fecond. So that this whole book conftitutes a complete Ejay on Man, written for the beft purpofe, to vindicate the ways of God. VER. 17. Say first, of God above, or Man below, etc.] The Poet having declared his Subject; his End of writing; and the Quality of his Adve faries; proceeds (from Ver. 16 to 23 ) to instruct us, from whence he intends to draw his arguments; namely, from the visible things of God in this fyftem, to de NOTES. monftrate to Man. Milton was addreffing himself to BELIEVERS, and delivering reafons, or explaining the ways of God: his idea, the word juftify, precifely conveys. Pope was addreffing hiniself to UNBELIEVERS, and expofing fuch of their of jections whofe ridicule and abfurdity arifes from the judicial blin nefs of the objectors; he therefore more fitly employs the word VINDICATE, which conveys the idea of a confutation attended with punishment. Thus, fufcipere vindictam Legis, to undertake the defence of the Law, implies punifhing the violators of it. VER. 19, 20. Of Man, what fee we but his Hation here, From which to reafon, or to which refer? | The fenfe is," we fee nothing of Man but as he ftands at "prefent in his ftation here: From which station, all our reafonings on his nature and end must be drawn; and to "this ftation they muit all be referred." The confequence is, that our reasonings on his nature and end must needs be very imperfect. Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known, 25 May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are. COMMENTARY. monftrate the invifible things of God, his eternal Power and God-head: And why? because we can reafon only from what we know; and as we know no more of Man than what we fee of his ftation here; fo we know no more of God than what we fee of his difpenfations in this station; being able to trace him no further than to the limits of our own fyftem. This naturally leads the Poet to exprobrate the miferable Folly and Impiety of pretending to pry into, and call in queftion, the profound difpenfations of Providence: Which reproof contains (from Ver. 22 10 43.) a fublime defcription of the Omniscience of God, and the miferable Blindness and Prefumption of Man. NOTES. VER. 21. Through worlds unnumber'd, etc.] Hunc cognofcimus folummodo per Proprietates fuas et Attributa, et per fapientiffimas et optimas rerum ftructuras et caufas finales. Newtoni Princ. Schol. gen. fub fin. VER. 30. The frong connections, nice dependencies,] The thought is very noble, and expreffed with great beauty, and philofophic exa&inefs. The fyftem of the Universe is a combination of natural and moral Fitneffes, as the human system is, of |