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Prefumptuous Man! the Reason would'st thou find Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind?

1. 35.

Then say not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault. 1. 69.

As he proceeds, he ftill applies his Reasoning to the fame Men:

Go

and in thy Scale of Senfe
Weigh thy Opinion against Providence;
Call Imperfection what thou fancy'st such;
Say, here he gives too little, there too much;
Destroy all Creatures for thy Sport or Guft:
Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust.

1. 109, & feq.

And concludes with this Reproof to them:
Cease then, nor Order Imperfection name.

1.273.

Having premised thus much, we now proceed to Mr. de Croufaz.

Mr. Pope had faid:

The Lamb thy Riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy Reafon, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the laft, he crops the flow'ry Food,
And licks the Hand juft rais'd to fhed his Blood.
O Blindness to the Future! kindly giv'n,
That each may fill the Circle mark'd by Heav'n.
1. 77, & feq.

On which his Commentator:-"We do not, "indeed, perceive any Thing in Beafts, that fhews "they have an Idea or Apprehenfion of Death.

But

"But, furely, with regard to Man, to reflect on "Death, and to contemplate the Certainty of it, cr are of great Ufe to a prudent Life and a happy "Death. Reason and Religion agree in this, and a Man must want both one and the other, to cry out,

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"O Blindness to the Future! kindly giv❜n,

"That each may fill the Circle mark'd by Heav'n. "This fuppofes, that if Men had a Foreknow"ledge of their Destiny, they would do all they "could to avoid it, and that they would fucceed: "Because, without this Ignorance, Heaven, it "feems, could never bring all its Beings to fill

that Circle mark'd out by it. Yet this, notwithftanding, is a Confequence that can have no "Place, if it be impoffible for Men to act with "Freedom. But the Doctrine of FATE neceffaແ rily draws us into Contradictions." Mr. Croufaz introduces his Commentary, by folemnly acquainting his Reader, That he had, from his very Infancy, a strong Biafs towards LOGIC; that he has given a confiderable Time to that Study, and does not repent his Pains; that he has profited by Maxims which he has found in Books not written with Defign to give them; that he has run through evry Book that has fallen into his Hands under pat Title, or any Thing approaching to it; that he has not

d Commentaire fur la Traduction en vers de Mr. l'Abbé du Refnel de L'Effai de Mr. Pope fur l'Homme, p. 63, 64.

even

even neglected the most out-of-fashion'd Works of this Kind: But, as the greatest Treasure is worthless, unless well used, he is refolved to employ fome of it upon Mr. Pope. And here you have the Fruits of his Labours. Here he has fhewn, to fome Purpose, his Skill in extracting Doctrines from Books not defign'd to give them. And for this Paffage I will be answerable, that he has extracted a Doctrine from it which our POET did not defign to give, who, when he had answer'd the atheistical Objection about pofitive Evil, supposes the Objector to reply to this Effect:-It may be true, what you fay, that partial Evil tends to univerfal Good: But why, then, has not God let me clearly into this Secret, and acquainted me with the Manner how? The Poet replies, " For very good Reasons. "You were fent into the World on a Task and "Duty to be performed by you. And as the "knowing these Things might diftract you, or "draw you from your Station; it was in Mercy "that God hath hid these Things from you:

Heav'n from all Creatures hides the Book of Fate, All but the Page prescrib'd, their present State, From Brutes what Men, from Men what Spirits know;

who would fuffer Being here below?

1.73, & feq. "To illuftrate this by a familiar Inftance; how "kindly hath Nature acted by the Lamb, in hiding "its Death from it; the Knowledge of which "would have imbitter'd all its Life?" This is the

e P. 27, 28.

Force

Force of the Poet's Argument; and nothing can be better connected, or more beautiful. But our great Logician, instead of attending to the Argument of a very close Reafoner (whofe Thread of Reasoning, therefore, one fhould have imagin'd might have conducted a Mathematician too, as he is, to the true Senfe of the Paffage) rambles after a Meaning that could not poffibly be Mr. Pope's; because it both difagrees with the Context, and directly opposes what he lays down in express Words in this very Effay. Mr. De Croufaz, we see, imagines that this Inftance of the Lamb was given to fhew how hurtful a Gift God bestowed upon us, when he gave us the Knowledge of our End. Mr. Pope fays exprefly, that it was a friendly Gift: To each unthinking Being Heav'n a Friend, Gives not the useless Knowledge of its End: To Man imparts it; but with fuch a View, As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too. Ep. iii. 1.75, & feq.

i.e. "Heaven, which is not only friendly to Man, " but Beast, gives not this latter the Knowledge of "its End; because such Knowledge (which is ne

ceffarily attended with Anxiety) would be useless "to it. On the other hand, He gives it to Man; « because it is of the higheft Advantage to him, "who, being to exift in a future State, may, by "this Means, make a fitting Preparation for his "good Reception there; which Preparation will "temper, and, at length, quite fubdue the Anxiety "neceffarily attendant (as is faid) on the Know

ledge

"ledge of our End, by the certain Hope of a hap66 py Immortality."

After these extraordinary Fruits of our Logician's long Application to the Art of Thinking, he goes on, for four Pages together, to fhew how ufeful and neceffary it is for Man to cultivate his Underftanding. You afk whom he contradicts in this? He abfurdly fuppofes, Mr. Pope; while he is indeed but quarelling with his own Imaginations. Here we must recollect what we obferved above of the Subject of the Poem; which is a Vindication of Providence against impious Complainers. As these will not acknowledge it just and good, because they cannot comprehend it, and as this Argument is only fupported by Pride, the Poet thought proper to mortify that Pride; which could not be done more effectually, than by fhewing them, that even a Savage Indian reafoned better:

Lo! the poor Indian, whofe untutor❜d Mind
Sees God in Clouds, and hears him in the Wind;
His Soul proud Science never taught to ftray
Far as the Solar Walk, or Milky Way;
Yet fimple Nature to his Hope has giv❜n,
Behind the cloud-topt Hill, an humbler Heav'n;
To be contents his natural Defire,

He asks no Angel's Wing, or Seraph's Fire, &c.

1. 95. & feq.

What are we to conclude from hence? That Mr.

f Commentaire, p. 66 to 70.
D

Pope

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