Without fatiety, tho' e'er fo blefs'd, And but more relish'd as the more distress'd; Lefs pleafing far than Virtue's very tears: 320 Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd, For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd; Never elated, while one man's opprefs'd; Never dejected while another's bless'd, And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325 Since but to wish more Virtue is to gain. See the fole blifs Heav'n could on all bestow! Which who but feels can tafte, but think can know: Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind, The bad muft mifs; the good, untaught, will find; 330 VARIATIONS. And raise his bafe on that one folid joy, Which confcience gives, and nothing can deftroy. These lines are extremely finished. In which there is fuch a foothing sweetnefs in the melancholy harmony of the verfification, as if the poet was then in that tender office in which he was moft officious, and in which all his foul came out, the condoling with fome good man in affliction. NOTES. by an enumeration of its Qualities, all naturally adapted to give and to increase human Happiness; as its Conftancy, Capacity, Vigour, Efficacy, Activity, Moderation, and Self-fufficiency.. VER. 329. Yet poor with fortune, &c.] The poet here obferveth, with fome indignation, that as cafe and as evi 335 Slave to no fect, who takes no private road, NOTES. dent as his truth was, yet Riches and falfe Philofophy had fo blinded the difcernment even of improved minds, that the poffeffors of the firft placed Hapinefs in Externals, unfuitable to Man's Nature; and the followers of the latter, in refined Vifions, unfuitable to his Situation; while the fimple-minded man, with NATURE only for his guide, found plainly in what it fhould be placed. VER. 341. For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal,] But this is not all; when the fimple-minded man, on his first fetting out in the purfuit of Truth, in order to Happinefs, hath had the wisdom, To look thro' Nature up to Nature's God. (instead of adhering to any fect or party, where there was fo great odds of his chufing wrong) that then the benefit of gaining the knowledge of God's will, written in the mind, is not confined there; for ftanding on this fure foundation, he is now no longer in danger of chufing wrong, amidst fuch diverfities of Religions; but by pur 'Till lengthen'd on to FAITH, and unconfin'd, It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. NOTES. fuing this grand fcheme of UNIVERSAL BENEVOLENCE in practice as well as theory, he arrives at length to the knowledge of the REVEALED will of God, which is the confummation of the system of benevolence: For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal, ! It pours VER. 341. For him alone Hope leads from goal to goal, &c.] PLATO, in his first book of a Republic, hath a remarkable paffage to this purpose: " He whofe confcience does not "reproach him, has chearful Hope for his companion, "and the fupport and comfort of his old age, according to Pindar: For this great Poet, O Socrates, very elegantly fays, That he who leads a just and holy life has always amiable Hope for his companion, which fills his "heart with joy, and is the fupport and comfort of his "old age. Hope, the most powerful of the Divinities, in governing the ever changing and inconftant temper of "mortal men." Τῷ δὲ μηδὲν ἑαυτῷ ἄδικον ξυνειδότι ἡδεια ἐλπὶς ἀεὶ πάρεςι, καὶ ἀγαθὴ γηροτρόφο, ὡς καὶ Πίνδαρο, λίγο Χαριένως γάρ τοι, ὦ Σώκρατες, τότ ̓ ἐκεῖν©· εἶπεν, ὅτι ὃς ἂν διο καίως καὶ ὁσίως τὸν βίον διαγάγη, γλυκειά οἱ καρδίαν ἀτάλλασα γηροτρόφων συναιρεῖ ἐλπὶς, ἃ μάλιςα θνατῶν πολύςροφον γνώ May xvepra. In the fame manner Euripides fpeaks in his Hercules furens. 86 Οὗτα δ' ἀνὴρ ἄρις, ὅσις ἐλπίσιν Πέποιθεν αἰεί· τὸ δ' ἀπορῶν, ἀνδρὸς κακό. ver. 105. "He is the good man in whose breaft hope Springs eternally: But to be without hope in the world is the portion " of the wicked." He fees why Nature plants in Man alone 345 Hope of known blifs, and Faith in blifs unknown: (Nature, whofe dictates to no other kind Are given in vain, but what they seek they find) His greatest Virtue with his greatest Bliss; 350 Self-love thus pufh'd to focial, to divine, VER. 353. Self-love thus push'd to focial, &c.] The foet here marks out the Progrefs of his good man's Benevolence, pushed through natural religion to revealed, 'till it arrives to that height which the facred writers defcribe as the very fummit of Chriftian perfection; and fhews how the progress of human differs from the progrefs of divine benevolence. That the divine defcends from whole to parts; but that the human muft rife from individual to univerfal. His argument for this extended benevolence is, that, as God has made a Whole, whofe parts have a perfect relation to, and an entire dependency on each other, Man, by extending his benevolence throughout that Whole, acts in conformity to the will of his Creator; and therefore this enlargement of his affection becomes a duty. But the poet hath not only fhewn his piety in this obfervation, but the utmost art and address likewife in the difpofition of it. The Fay on Man opens with expofing the murmurings and impious conclufions of foolish men against the prefent conftitution of things; as it proceeds, it occafionally detects all thofe falfe principles and opinions that led them to conclude thus perverfely. Having Is this too little for the boundless heart? 355 Extend it, let thy enemies have part : NOTES. now done all that was neceffary in Speculation, the au thor turns to Practice; and ends his Effay with the recommendation of an acknowledged virtue, CHARITY; which, if exercised in the Extent that conformity to the will of God requireth, would effectually prevent all complaints against the present order of things; fuch complaints being made with a total difregard to every thing but their own private fyftem, and feeking remedy in the disorder, and át the expence of all the reft. This obfervation, Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake, is important; Rochefaucault, Efprit, and their worthy difciple Mandeville, had obferved, that Self-love was the Origin of all thofe virtues Mankind most admire; and therefore foolishly fuppofed it was the End likewife; and fo taught, that the higheft pretences to difinterestedness were only the more artful difguifes of Self-love. But our author, who fays fomewhere or other, Of human Nature, Wit its worft may write, MS. faw, as well as they and every body elfe, that the Paffions began in Self-love; yet he understood human Nature better than to imagine they terminated there. He knew, that Reason and Religion could convert Selfishness into its very oppofite; and therefore teacheth, that Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake: And thus hath vindicated the dignity of human Nature, and the philofophic truth of the Chriftian doctrine. I |