Mem'ry and fore-cast just returns engage, That pointed back to youth, this on to age; While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd, 145. Still spread the int'reft, and preferv'd the kind. IV. Nor think, in NATURE'S STATE they The state of Nature was the reign of God: Union the bond of all things, and of Man. 150 COMMENTARY. VER. 147. Nor think in Nature's state they blindly trod ;] But the Atheist and Hobbist, against whom Mr. Pope argueth, deny the principle of Right, or of natural Juftice, before the invention of civil compact; which, they fay, gave being to it: And accordingly have had the effrontery publicly to declare, that a ftate of Nature was a state of War. This quite fubverteth the NOTES. VER. 152. Man walk'd with beaft, joint tenant of the shade ;] The poet still takes his imagery from Platonic ideas, for the reafon given above. Plato had faid from old tradition, that, during the Golden age, and under the reign of Saturn, the primitive language then in use was common to man and beasts. Moral Inftructors took advantage of the popular fense of this tradition, to convey their precepts under thofe fables, which give fpeech to the whole brute-creation. The naturalists understood the tradition to fignify, that, in the firft ages, Men used inarticulate founds like beafts to express their wants and fenfations; and that it was by flow degrees they came to the ufe of fpeech. This opinion was afterwards held by Lucretius, Diodorus Sic. and Gregory of Nyff. The fame his table, and the fame his bed; No murder cloath'd him, and no murder fed. COMMENTARY. poet's natural Society: Therefore, after this account of that ftate, he proceedeth to support the reality of it by overthrowing the oppugnant principle of no natural fuflice; which he doth (from 146 to 169) in fhewing, by a fine defcription of the ftate of Innocence, as reprefented in Scripture, that a state of Nature was fo far from being without natural Juftice, that it was, at firft, the reign of God, where Right and Truth univerfally prevailed, NOTES. VER. 156. All vocal beings, &c.] This may be well explained by a fublime paffage of the Pfalmift, who, calling to mind the age 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 Beaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King; breaks out into this rapturous and divine apoftrophe, to call back the devious creation to its priftine rectitude (that very state our author describes above) "Praise the Lord, all an"gels; praise him, all ye hofts. Praise ye him, fun and "moon; praife him, all ye ftars of light. Let them praise "the name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were "created. Praise the Lord, from the earth, ye dragons, and "all deeps; fire and hail, fnow and vapour, ftormy wind fulfilling his word: Mountains, and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars: Beafts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all "judges of the earth. Let them praise the name of the Lord; for his name alone is excellent, his glory is above the earth and heaven." Pfal. cxlviii. The shrine with gore unftain'd, with gold undreft, Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest: Heav'n's attribute was Universal Care, And man's prerogative to rule, but spare. Ah! how unlike the man of times to come! NOTES. 160 VER. 158. Unbrib'd, unbloody, &c.] i. e. The ftate described, from 261 to 269, was not yet arrived. For then when Superftition was become so extreme as to bribe the Gods with hu man facrifices (fee 267) Tyranny became neceffitated to woo the priest for a favourable answer: And play'd the God an engine on his foe. VER. 159. Heaven's attribute, &c.] The poet fuppofes the truth of the Scripture account, that Man was created Lord of this inferior world (Ep. i. 230.) Subjected these to thofe, and all to thee. What hath misled fome to imagine him here fallen into a contradiction, was, I fuppofe, fuch passages as these, Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, &c. And again, Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy good, &c. But in truth this is fo far from contradicting what is here faid of Man's prerogative, that it greatly confirms it, and the Scripture account concerning it. And because this matter has been mistaken, to the difcredit of the poet's religious fentiments, by readers, whom the conduct of certain licentious writers, treating this fubject in an abufive way, hath rendered jealous and mistrustful, I fhall endeavour to explain it. Scripture fays, that Man was made Lord of All. But this Lord become intoxicated with Pride, the common effect of fovereignty, erected himself, like more partial monarchs, into a tyrant. And as Tyranny confifts in fuppofing all made for the ufe of one; he took thofe freedoms with all, that are confequent on fuch a 165 Ep. III. COMMENTARY. 170 VER. 169. See him from Nature rifing flow to Art!] Strict method (in which, by this time, the reader finds the poet more converfant than fome were aware of) leads him next to speak of that Society, which fucceeded the Natural, namely the Civil. He first explains (from 169 to 199) the intermediate means which led Mankind from natural to civil Society. These were the invention and improvement of Arts. For while Mankind lived in a mere state of Nature, there was no need of any other government than the Paternal; but when Arts were found out and improved, then that more perfect form, under the direc tion of a Magistrate, became neceffary. And for these rea NOTES. principle. He foon began to confider the whole animal creation as his flaves rather than his subjects: as being created for no use of their own, but for this only; and therefore treated them with the utmost barbarity: And not fo content, to add infult to his cruelty, he endeavoured to philosophize himself into an opinion that animals were mere machines, insensible of pain or pleasure. Thus Man affected to be the Wit as well as Tyrant of the Whole: and it became one who adhered to the Scripture account of Man's dominion, to reprove this abuse of it, and to fhew that Heav'n's attribute was Univerfal Care, And Man's prerogative to rule, but spare. . Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake--"Go, from the Creatures thy inftructions take: "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield, "Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 "Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. COMMENTARY. fons; first, to bring those arts, already found, to perfection: And, fecondly, to fecure the product of them to their rightful proprietors. The poet, therefore, comes now, as we say, to the invention of Arts; but being always intent on the great end for which he wrote his Effay, namely to mortify that Pride which occafions the impious complaints against Providence; he speaks of these inventions as only leffons learnt of mere animals guided by instinct; and thus, at the fame time, gives a new instance of the wonderful Providence of God, who has contrived to teach mankind in a way, not only proper to humble human arrogance, but to raise our idea of infinite Wisdom to the greatest pitch. This he does in a prosopopaia the most fublime that ever entered into the human imagination : NOTES. VER. 173, Learn from the birds, &c.] It is a caution commonly practifed amongst Navigators, when thrown upon a defert coaft, and in want of refreshments, to obferve what fruits have been touched by the Birds; and to venture on these without further hesitation. VER. 174. Learn from the beafts, &c.] See Pliny's Nat. Hift. 1. viii. c. 27. where several instances are given of Animals difcovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own use of them; and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing, by their own practice. VER, 177. Learn of the little Nautilus] Oppian. Halicut. |