"Here too all forms of focial union find, "And hence let Reason, late, inftruct Mankind : "Here fubterranean works and cities fee; 181 "There towns aerial on the waving tree. "Learn each fmall People's genius, policies, "The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bees; "How thofe in common all their wealth bestow, "And Anarchy without confufion know; 186 "And these for ever, tho' a Monarch reign, "Their fep'rate cells and properties maintain. COMMENTARY. Thus then to Man the voice of Nature fpake: The delicacy of the poet's addrefs in the firft part of the last line, is very remarkable. In this paragraph he has given an account of those intermediate means, that led Mankind from natural to civil Society, namely, the invention and improvement of Arts. Now here, on his conclusion of this account, and his entry upon the description of civil Society itself, he connects the two parts the most gracefully that can be conceived, by this true hiftorical circumstance, that it was the invention of thofe Arts which raised to the Magiftracy in this new Society formed for the perfecting them. NOTES. "They lib. i. defcribes this fifh in the following manner: " swim on the furface of the fea, on the back of their fhells, " which exactly refemble the hulk of a fhip; they raise two "feet like mafts, and extend a membrane between, which "ferves as a fail; the other two feet they employ as oars at "the fide. They are usually seen in the Mediterranean.” P. "Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state, "In vain thy Reason finer webs shall draw, Entangle Justice in her net of Law, "And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "And for those Arts mere Inftinct could afford, Here rofe one little ftate; 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, VER. 201. Here rofe one little ftate, &c.] In the MS. thus, COMMENTARY. VER. 199. Great Nature fpoke ;] After all this neceffary pre- VER. 199. obfervant Men obey'd ;] The epithet is beautiful, as fignifying both obedience to the voice of Nature, and attention to the lessons of the animal creation. Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, 'Till common int'reft plac'd the sway in one. 210 VARIATIONS. For want alone each animal contends; Tigers with Tigers, that remov'd, are friends. COMMENTARY. paration, the poet fhews (from 198 to 209) how civil Society followed, and the advantages it produced. VER. 209. Thus States were form'd;] Having thus explained the original of Civil Society, he fhews us next (from ✯ 208 to 215) that to this Society a civil magistrate, properly so called,` did belong: And this in confutation of that idle hypothefis, which pretends that God conferred the regal title on the Fathers of fa NOTES. VER. 208. When love was Liberty,] i. e. When men had no need to guard their native liberty from their governors by civil pactions; the love which each mafter of a family had for those under his care being their best security. "Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms, VI. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patri arch fate, 215 King, priest, and parent of his growing state; COMMENTARY. milies; from whence men, when they had instituted Society, were to fetch their Governors. On the contrary, our author fhews, that a King was unknown, 'till common interest, which led men to inftitute civil government, led them at the fame time to institute a governor. However, that it is true that the fame wisdom or valour, which gained regal obedience from fons to the fire, procured kings a paternal authority, and made them confidered as fathers of their people. Which probably was the original (and, while mistaken, continues to be the chief fupport) of that flavish error: antiquity representing its earliest monarchs under the idea of a common father, walng dvdpav. Afterwards indeed they became a kind of fofter-fathers, wouéva λawv, as Homer calls one of them: 'Till at length they began to devour that flock they had been so long accustomed to fhear; and, as Plutarch fays of Cecrops, ἐκ χρης βασιλέως ἄγριον και δρακοντώδη γενόμενον ΤΥΡΑΝΝΟΝ. VER. 215. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, &c.] The poet now returns (at 215 to 241) to what he had left unfinish'd in his defcription of natural Society. This, which appears irregular, is indeed a fine inftance of his thorough knowledge of the art of Method. I will explain it : NOTES. VER. 211. 'Twas Virtue only, &c.] Our author hath good authority for this account of the origin of kingship. Aristotle affures us, that it was Virtue only, or in arts or arms: Kaðíταΐαι Βασιλεὺς ἐκ τῶν ἐπιεικῶν καθ ̓ ὑπεροχὴν ἀρετῆς, ἡ πράξεων τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς, ἡ καθ' υπεροχὴν τοιότο γένος. On him, their fecond Providence, they hung, COMMENTARY. This third epiftle, we fee, confiders Man with respect to Society; the fecond, with respect to Himself; and the fourth, with refpect to Happiness. But in none of these relations does the poet ever lofe fight of him under that in which he ftands to God; it will follow, therefore, that speaking of him with respect to Society, the account would be then most imperfect, were he not at the fame time confidered with respect to his Religion; for between these two there is a clofe, and, while things continue in order, a most interesting connection: True faith, true policy united ran; That was but love of God, and this of Man. Now Religion fuffering no change or depravation, when Man firft entered into civil Society, but continuing the fame as in the ftate of Nature; the author, to avoid repetition, and to bring the accounts of true and false religion nearer to one another, in order to contrast them by the advantage of that fituation, deferred giving account of his Religion till he had spoken of the origin of that Society. Thence it is that he here refumes the account of the state of Nature, that is, fo much of it as he had left untouched, which was only the Religion of it. This consisting in NOTES. VER. 219. He from the wond'ring furrow, &c.] i. e. He fubdued the intractability of all the four elements, and made them fubfervient to the ufe of Man. |