tution of things, and deny a future ftate. To these he answers, that whatever is, is right; and he affigns this reafon,-that we fee only a part of the moral fyftem, and not the whole therefore thefe irregularities ferving to great purposes, fuch as the fuller manifestation of God's goodness and justice, they are right.

"On the other hand, Lord Bolingbroke's Essays are a pretended vindication of Providence against what he confiders an ingenious confederacy between Divines and Atheists; who use a common principle, namely, the irregularities of God's moral government here, for different ends and purposes; the one, to establish a future ftate, and the other to difcredit the being of God. Lord Bolingbroke oppofes both con clufions, by endeavouring to overthrow the common principle, by his friend's maxim, "Whatever is, is right;" not because the prefent state of our moral world (which is part only of a general system) is neceffary for the perfection of the whole, but because our moral world is an ENTIRE SYSTEM of ITSELF. In a word, the poet directs his reasonings against Atheists and Libertines in fupport of religion; Lord Bolingbroke against Divines in fupport of naturalism. Mr. Pope's argument is manly, fyftematical, and convincing; Lord B.'s confused, prevaricating, and inconsistent.”

It is well known, that M. de Croufaz wrote remarks on the Effay, accufing the Author of inculcating "Naturalism." These remarks were anfwered by Warburton, whofe interpretation, as it was adopted by Pope, is here retained. It is plain, that Pope did not in his Effay intend to inculcate Naturalism; but there are fome paffages which, notwithstanding all Warburton has done, seem to look that way. It is but fair, however, that he should have that interpretation by which he deliberately wished to abide. The eagerness with which Warburton's explanations were adopted, appears evidently from Pope's letter to him on the subject, in which I have no doubt he spoke the truth: "You have made my fyftem as clear as I ought to have done, and could not; you understand me as well as I understand myself, but you exprefs me better than I could myself."

This poem is of the moral and philosophical kind, and is to be claffed with the Poem of Lucretius,' &c. It has very little resemblance to didactic or preceptive pieces, fuch as the Game of Chefs by Vida, Boileau's Art of Poetry, Phillips' Cyder, and other poems of the kind, which Warton enumerates. In its caft and character it is almost as different from thefe, as they are of a different

7

different rank and character from poems which (as Warton fays) "describe events." Its merit is to be estimated from the depth of thinking which it evinces as a philofophical treatise, and from the propriety and beauty of the language and illuftrations which it difplays as a poem.

This Essay was translated into Latin verse by J. Sayer.

A

EPISTLE I.

WAKE, my ST. JOHN! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of Kings. Let us (fince Life can little more fupply

Than just to look about us and to die)

COMMENTARY.

Expatiate

THE opening of this Poem [in fifteen lines] is taken up in giving an account of the fubject; which, agreeably to the title, is an ESSAY on MAN, or a Philofophical Inquiry into his Nature and End, his Paffions and Purfuits.

The exordium relates to the whole work, of which the Essay on Man was only the first book. The fixth, seventh, and eighth lines allude to the fubjects of this Essay, viz. the general Order and Defign of Providence; the Conftitution of the Human Mind; the Origin, Ufe, and End of the Paffions and Affections, both selfish and focial; and the wrong Purfuits of Happiness in Power, Pleafure, &c. The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, &c. have relation to the fubjects of the books intended to follow, viz. the Characters and Capacities of Men, and the Limits of Science, which once transgreffed, ignorance begins, and errors without end fucceed. The thirteenth and fourteenth, to the Knowledge of Mankind, and the various Manners of the Age.

NOTES.

The

VER. 1. Awake, my ST. JOHN !] Henry St. John, fon of Sir Henry St. John, Baronet, of Lydiard Tregofe in Wiltshire, by Mary, fecond daughter and heirefs of Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, was born in 1678. He was educated firft at Eton School, from thence he went to Christ Church, Oxford, where, as through life, he was distinguished both by talents and exceffes.

Of

Expatiate free o'er all this scene of Man;

A mighty maze! but not without a plan;

COMMENTARY.

5

A wild,

The Poet tells us next (line 16th] with what defign he wrote, viz.

"To vindicate the ways of God to Man."

of

The men he writes againft, he frequently informs us, are fuch as weigh their opinion against Providence (ver. 114.), fuch as cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unju (ver. 118.), or fuch as fall into the notion, that Vice and Virtue there is none at all (Ep. ii. ver. 212.). This occafions the Poet to divide his vindication of the ways God into two parts. In the first of which he gives direct anfwers to those objections which libertine men, on a view of the disorders arifing from the perverfity 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 firft epiftle is employed in the management of the first part of this difpute; and the three following in the difcuffion of the fecond. So that this whole book conftitutes a complete Effay on Man, written for the best purpose, to vindicate the WARBURTON. ways of God.

NOTES.

Of his political career more will be faid in another place. His talents were fhewy and brilliant, if not folid; though he certainly wifhed to be confidered in the light of a great genius, born for great conjun&ures! His predominant ambition, or, as Pope would fay, "his ruling paffion," was to unite the characters of a man of business and of pleasure. By the favour of Mr. Coxe, I have feen a collection of his letters, belonging to the Egremont family.

His letters to Sir William Wyndham, from Paris, are fenfible, unaffected, and eloquent, with fome plaufible accounts of his virtues and philofophy in his exile; at the fame time he corre fponds with Charles Wyndham, his fon, a youth (afterwards Earl of Egremont), encouraging him in his earliest schemes of pleasure, and promoting an intrigue with a favourite actress; on which fubject, though fixty years old at the time, he evidently writes con amore. He married the niece of Madame de Maintenon, after the death of his firft wife.

Of

ΤΟ

A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous fhoot,
Or Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.
Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield;
The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore
Of all who blindly creep, or fightless foar;
Eye Nature's walks, shoot Folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rife;

NOTES.

Laugh

Of his Philofophy, in which he was the preceptor of Pope, we may fay with Burke, "Who now reads Bolingbroke? Who ever read him through?" But this Poem will continue to charm, from the mufic of its verfe, the fplendour of its diction, and the beauty of its illuftrations, when the Philofophy that gave rife to it, like the coarfe manure that fed the flowers, is perceived and remembered no more.

VER. 6. A mighty maze! but Nor without a plan;] In the first edition, it was "a mighty maze, without a plan." It is fingular that Mr. Gray fell into something like the same contradiction. In the first edition of his Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, it was printed, "What cat's a foe to fish?" when the strongest proof of it was this very ode. It was altered to "What cat's averse to fish?" but it is bad enough ftill. I mention this to shew that the most correct writers are subject to these inadvertencies, quas aut incuria fudit, aut humana parum cavet natura.”

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 follies are exposed in the fourth epistle, where the popular and philosophical errors concerning Happiness are detected. The figure is taken. from animal life. WARBURTON.

VER. 13. Eye Nature's walks,] Thefe metaphors, drawn from the field sports of fetting and fhooting, feem much below the dignity of the fubject, and an unnatural mixture of the ludicrous and ferious.

WARTON.