Ah! how unlike the Man of times to come! And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds; NOTES. 165 What hath misled some to imagine that our author hath here fallen into a contradiction, was, I suppose, such passages as these, Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine, &c.; and again, Has God, thou fool! work'd solely for thy good, &c. But, in truth, this is so far from contradicting what he had said of Man's prerogative, that it greatly confirms it, and the Scripture account concerning it. And because the licentious manner in which this subject has been treated, has made some readers jealous and mistrustful of the author's sober meaning, I shall endeavour to explain it. Scripture says, that Man was made lord of this sublunary world. But intoxicated with Pride, the common effect of sovereignty, he erected himself, like little partial monarchs, into a tyrant. And as tyranny consists in supposing all made for the use of one, he took those freedoms with all, which are the consequence of such a principle. He soon began to consider the whole animal creation as his slaves rather than his subjects: as created for no use of their own, but for his use only; and therefore treated them with the utmost cruelty; and not content, to add insult to his cruelty, he endeavoured to philosophize himself into an opinion that these animals were mere machines, insensible of pain or pleaThus Man affected to be the Wit as well as Tyrant of the whole. So that it became one who adhered to the Scripture account of Man's dominion to reprove this abuse of it, and to shew that sure. "Heav'n's attribute was Universal Care, Warburton. Ver. 162. the butcher and the tomb;] Plutarch has written a treatise against animal food; tom. ii. 995. Thomson, with his usual tenderness, has done the same; Spring, v. 330. Warton. The fury-passions from that blood began, COMMENTARY. 170 Ver. 169. See him from Nature rising slow to Art!] Strict method (in which, by this time, the reader finds the Poet to be more conversant, than some were aware of) leads him next to speak of that Society, which succeeded the Natural, namely, the Civil. He first explains (from ver. 168 to 199.) the intermediate means which led Mankind from natural to civil Society. These were the invention and improvement of Arts. For while men 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 direction of a Magistrate, became necessary. And for these reasons; first, to bring those Arts, already found, to perfection; and, secondly, to secure 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 Essay, namely, to mortify that Pride which occasions all the impious complaints against Providence; he speaks of these inventions as only lessons learnt of mere animals guided by Instinct: and thus, at the same time, gives a new instance of the wonderful Providence of God, who hath continued to teach mankind in a way, not only proper to humble human pride, but to raise our idea of divine wisdom to the highest pitch. This he does in a prosopopæia the most sublime that ever entered into the human imagination: Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake : "Go, from the Creatures thy instructions take, &c. Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd." The delicacy of the Poet's address in the first part of the last line, is very remarkable. In this paragraph he hath given an account of those intermediate means, which led Men from natural to civil Society, that is to say, the invention and improvement of Arts. Now here, on his conclusion of this account, and on his entry upon the description of civil Society itself, he connects the two parts the Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake"Go, from the Creatures thy instructions take: COMMENTARY. the most gracefully that can be conceived, by this true historical circumstance, that it was the invention of those Arts which raised to the Magistracy, in this new Society formed for the perfecting of them. NOTES. Ver. 171. Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake Go, &c.] M. Du Resnel has translated the lines thus : "La Nature indignée alors se fit 'entendre ; Va, malheureux mortel, va, lui dit elle, apprendre." One would wonder what should make the translator represent Nature in such a passion with Man, and calling him names, at a time when Mr. Pope supposed her in her best good-humour. But what led him into this mistake was another as gross. His author having described the State of innocence which ends at these lines, "Heav'n's attribute was Universal Care, And Man's prerogative to rule, but spare," turns from those times, to a view of these latter ages, and breaks out into this tender and humane complaint, "Ah! how unlike the Man of times to come, Of half that live the butcher and the tomb, &c." Unluckily, M. Du Resnel took this man of times to come for the corrupter of that first age; and so imagined the Poet had introduced NATURE only to set things right: he then supposed, of course, she was to be very angry; and not finding the author had represented her in any great emotion, he was willing to improve upon his original. Warburton. Ver. 171. The voice of Nature] The prosopopoeia is magnificent, and the occasion important, no less than the origin of the arts of life. Nature is personified by Lucretius, and introduced speaking with suitable majesty and elevation. She is chiding her foolish and ungrateful children for their vain and impious discontent : "Quid tibi tantopere est, mortalis, quod nimis ægris Luctibus indulges? quid mortem congemis, ac fles?Aufer abhinc lacrymas, barathro et compesce querelas." There is an authoritative air in the brevity of this sentence, as also in Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; NOTES. in the concluding line of her speech; and particularly in the very last words: "Equo animoque, agedum, jam aliis concede: necesse est." This fine prosopopoeia in our author, is not, as Dr. Warburton asserted, the most sublime that ever entered into the human imagination, for we see Lucretius used it before. The Romans have left us scarcely any piece of poetry so striking and original as the beginning and progress of Arts, at the end of the fifth book of Lucretius; who perhaps, of all the Roman poets, had the strongest imagination. The Persians distinguish the different degrees of Fancy in different Poets, by calling them Painters or Sculptors. Lucretius, from the force of his images, should be ranked among the latter. He is in truth a Sculptor Poet. His images have a bold relief. Of this noble prosopopoeia in Lucretius, Addison seems to have thought in a well-known sage of Cato: pas "All Nature cries aloud Thro' all her works.". Warton. Ver. 173. Learn from the birds, &c.] It is a caution commonly practised amongst Navigators, when thrown upon a desert coast, and in want of refreshments, to observe what fruits have been touched by the birds; and to venture on these without further hesitation. Pope. Ver. 173. Learn from the birds] Taken, but finely improved, from Bacon's Advancement of Learning, p. 48. "They who discourse of the inventions and originals of things, refer them rather to Beasts, Birds, and Fishes, and Serpents, than to Men. So that it was no marvaile (the manner of antiquity being to consecrate Inventors) that the Egyptians had so few human idols in their temples, but almost all brute. Who taught the raven in a drought to throw pebbles into a hollow tree when she spied water, that the water might rise so as she might come to it? Who taught the bee to sayle thro' such a vast sea of air, and to find the way from a field in flower a great way off to her hive? Who taught the ant to bite every graine of corne she burieth in her hill, least it should take roote and grow?" See, in the Philosophical Transactions, the Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave; Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. Here too all forms of social union find, And hence let Reason, late, instruct Mankind: 180 There towns aërial on the waving tree. And these for ever, tho' a monarch reign, NOTES. 190 the marvellous account of the white ants in Africa, and their buildings and arts. It is somewhat remarkable, that Solomon, in the Proverbs, when he speaks of the wonderful instincts of certain animals, does not mention the bee. Warton. Ver. 174. Learn from the beasts, &c.] See Pliny's Nat. Hist. 1. viii. c. 27. where several instances are given of animals discovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own use of them ; and pointing out to some operations in the art of healing, by their own practice. Warburton. Ver. 177. Learn of the little nautilus, &c.] Oppian Halieut. lib. i. describes this fish in the following manner: "They swim on the surface of the sea, on the back of their shells, which exactly resemble the hulk of a ship; they raise two feet like masts, and extend a membrane between, which serves as a sail; the other two feet they employ as oars at the side. They are usually seen in the Mediterranean." Pope. |