Together let us beat this ample field, IO And catch the Manners living as they rise; COMMENTARY. Next, in line 16, he tells us with what defign he wrote, viz. To vindicate the ways of God to Man. The Men he writes againft, he frequently informs us, are fuch as weigh their opinion against Providence (114) fuch as cry, if Man's unhappy, God's unjust (118) or fuch as fall into the notion, that Vice and Virtue there is none at all (Ep. ii. † 212) This occafions the poet to divide his vindication of the ways of God into two parts. In the first of which he gives direct anfwers to thofe objections which libertine Men, on a view of the disorders arifing from the perversity of the human will, have intended against Providence. And in the fecond, he obviates all those objections, by a true delineation of human Nature; or a general, but exact, map of Man. The first epiftle is employed in the management of the first part of this difpute; and the NOTES. VER. 12. Of all who blindly creep, &c.] 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 follics 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 must, &c.] Intimating that human follies are fo ftrangely abfurd, that it is not in the power of the most compafienate, on fome occafions, to restrain their 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, 20 From which to reafon, or to which refer? What other planets circle other funs, COMMENTARY. 25 three following in the difcuffion of the fecond. So that this whole book constitutes a complete Essay on Man, written for the best purpose, to vindicate the ways of God. VER. 17. Say firft, of God above, or Man below, &c.] The poet having declared his Subject, his End of writing, and the Quality of his Adverfaries, proceeds (from 16 to 23) to inftruct us, from whence he intends to draw his arguments; namely, from the visible things of God in this fyftem to demonstrate the invifible things of God, his eternal Power and God-head: And NOTES. mirth: And that human crimes are so flagitious, that the most candid have seldom an opportunity, on this fubject, to exercise their virtue. VER. 19, 20. Of Man, what fee we but his station 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 must be all referred. The confequence is, all our reafonings on his nature and end muit needs be very imperfect. VER. 21. Thro' worlds unnumber'd, &c.] Hunc cognofcimus folummodo per Proprietates fuas & Attributa, & per fapientiffimas & optimas rerum ftructuras & caufas finales. Newtani Princ, Schol. gen. fub fin. What vary'd Being peoples ev'ry star, May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are. Look'd thro'? or can a part contain the whole ? COMMENTARY. 30 why? because we can reafon only from what we know, and as we know no more of Man than what we fee of his station here; fo we know no more of God than what we fee of his dispensations in this ftation; 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 22 to 43) a sublime defcription of the Omnifcience of God, and the miferable Blindness and Prefumption of Man. NOTES. VER. 30. The frong connections, nice dependencies,] The thought is very noble, and expreffed with great philofophic beauty and exactnefs. The fyftem of the Universe is a combination of natural and moral Fitneffes, as the human fyftem is, of body and spirit. By the firong connections, therefore, the Poet alluded to the natural part; and by the nice dependencies to the moral. For the Eay For the Efay on Man is not a fyftem of Naturalism but of natural Religion. Hence it is, that, where he fuppofes diforders may tend to fome greater good in the natural world, he supposes they may tend likewise to some greater good in the moral, as appears from these fublime images in the following lines, If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's defign, Who knows, but he, whofe hand the light'ning forms, Or turns young Ammon loofe to fourge mankind? Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn fupports, upheld by God, or thee? II. Presumptuous Man! the reason wouldft thou find, 35 Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind? Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove? COMMENTARY. VER. 43. Of fyftems poffible, &c] So far his modeft and fober Introduction; in which he truly observes, that no wisdom lefs than omnifcient Can tell why Heav'n has made us as we are. Yet, though we be unable to discover the particular reasons for this mode of our existence, we may be affured in general that it is right. For now, entering upon his argument, he lays down this evident propofition as the foundation of his NOTES. VER. 35 to 42.] In these lines the poet has joined the beauty of argumentation to the fublimity of thought; where the fi milar inftances, proposed for his adversaries examination, shew as well the abfurdity of their complaints against Order, as the fruitleffness of their enquiries into the arcana of the Godhead. 45 Where all muft full or not coherent be, COMMENTARY. Thefis, which he reasonably fuppofes will be allowed him, That, of all poffible fyftems, infinite wisdom hath formed the best (43, 44) From whence he draws two confequences : 1. The first (from ✯ 44 to 51) is, that as the best system cannot but be fuch a one as hath no inconnected Void; fuch a one in which there is a perfect coherence and gradual fubordination in all its parts; there muft needs be, in some part or other of the scale of reasoning life, fuch a creature as MAN: Which reduces the dispute to this abfurd question, Whether God has placed him wrong? VER. 51. Refpecting Man, &c.] It being fhewn that MAN, the Subject of his enquiry, has a neceffary place in such a system as this is confeffed to be; and it being evident, that the abuse of Free-will, from whence proceeds all moral evil, is the certain effect of such a creature's existence; the next question will be, How these evils can be accounted for, consistently with the idea we have of God's attributes? Therefore, 2. The fecond confequence he draws from his principle, That of all poffibie fystems, infinite wisdom has formed the best, is, that whatever is wrong in our private fyftem, is right as rela tive to the whole : Refpecting Man, whatever wrong we call, That it may, he proves (from 52 to 61) by fhewing in what . |