Origin of true Religion and Government, from the fame Principle of Love, Origin of Superftition and Tyranny, Principle of Fear, ver. 235, &c. ver. 237, &c. The influence of Self-love operating to the focial and As it is neceffary for Order, and the peace and well- But notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of calamities of Nature, or of Fortune, ver. 93. ver. 121. ever they are, they must be happiest, ver. 133, &c. but often inconfiftent with or deftructive of Virtue, ver. 169. That even thefe can make no Man happy without With pictures of human Infelicity in Men poffeft of them all, ver. 277, &c. That Virtue only constitutes a Happiness, whose object is univerfal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 329, &c. That the perfection of Virtue and Happiness confifts in a conformity to the ORDER of PROVIDENCE here, and a Refignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 327, &c. [1] AN ESSAY on MAN: A EPISTLE I. WAKE, MY ST. JOHN! leave all meaner things Let us (fince Life can little more fupply ; A mighty maze! but not without a plan; NOTES VER. 1. Awake, my ST. JOHN !] The opening of this poem, in fifteen lines, is taken up in giving an account of the Subject; which, agreeable to the title, is an ESSAY On MAN, or a Philofophical Enquiry into his Nature and End, his Paffions and Pursuits. The Exordium relates to the whole work, of which the Efay on Man was only the first book. The 6th, 7th, and 8th lines allude to the fubject of this Essay, viz. the general Order and Defign of Providence; the Conftitution of the human Mind; the origin, use, and end of the A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promifcuous fhoot; Or Garden, tempting with forbidden Fruit. NOTES. Paffions and Affection, both selfish and focial; and the wrong purfuits of Power, Pleafure, and Hapinefs. The 10th, 11th, 12th, &c. have relation to the subjects of the books intended to follow, viz. the Characters and Capacities of Men, and the Limits of Science, which once tranfgreffed, ignorance begins, and error follows. The 13th and 2 th, to the Knowledge of Mankind, and the various Manners of the age. 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 (ver. 114.) fuch as cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjuft (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 of God into two parts. In the first of which he gives direct answers to thofe objections which libertine Men, on a view of the diforders 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 second. So that this whole book constitutes a complete Essay on Man, written for the best purpose, to vindicate the ways of God. VER. 7, 8. A Wild,-or Garden,] The Wild relates to the human paffions, productive (as he explains in the fecond epiftle) both of good and evil. The Garden, to human reafon, fo often tempting us to tranfgrefs the bounds God has fet to it, and wander in fruitless enquiries. |