Before her, Fancy's gilded clouds decay, REMARK S. 635 640 VER. 641. Truth to her old Cavern fled,] Alluding to the faying of Democritus, That Truth lay at the bottom of a deep well, from whence he had drawn her: Though Butler fays, He first put her in, before he drew her out. Ŵ, IMITATIONS. VER. 637. As Argus' eyes, &c.] Et quamvis foper eft oculorum parte receptus, -Vidit Cyllenius omnes VEB.643. In the former Edd. it stood thus, And this was intended as a cenfure of the Newtonian philofophy. For the Poet had been misled by the prejudices of foreigners, as if that philofophy had recurred to the occult qualities of Ariftotle, This was the idea he Phyfic of Metaphyfic begs defence. 645 And Metaphyfic calls for aid on Senfe! REMARK S. received of it from a man educated much abroad, who had read every thing, but every thing fuperficially. Had his excellent friend Dr. A. been confulted in this matter, it is certain that fo unjust a reflection had never difcredited fo noble a fatire. When I hinted to him how he had been impofed upon, he changed the lines with great pleasure into a compliment (as they now ftand) on that divine Genius, and a fatire on the folly by which he himfelf had been misled. W. VER. 643. Philosophy, that lean'd on Heav'n] Philofophy has at length brought things to that pafs, as to have it esteemed unphilofophical to reft in the firft caufe'; as if its ends were an endless indagation of cause after cause, without ever coming to the firft. So that to avoid this unlearned difgrace, fome of the propagators of our best philosophy have had recourse to the contrivance here hinted at. For this philofophy, which is founded in the principle of Gravitation, first confidered that property in matter, as fomething extrinfical to it, and impreffed immediately by God, upon it. Which fairly and modeftly coming up to the firft Caufe, was pushing natural enqui ries as far as they fhould go. But this stopping, though at the extent of our ideas, and on the maxim of the great founder of this Philofophy, Bacon, who fays Circa ultimates rerum frustranea eft inquifitio, was miftaken by foreign philofophers as recurring to the occult qualities of the peripatetics: whofe fenfe is thus delivered by a great Poet, whom indeed it more became than a Philosopher. Sed gravitas etiam crefcat, dum corpora centro Accedunt propius. Videor mihi cernere terrá Emergens quidquid caliginis ac tenebrarum Pellai Juvenis Doctor conjecerat olim In Phyfica fludium : Anti-Lucr. To avoid which imaginary difcredit to the new theory, it was thought proper to feek for the cause of gravitation See Mystery to Mathematics fly! In vain! they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die. REMARK S. in a certain fubtile matter or elaftic fluid, which pervaded all body. By this means, inftead of really advancing in natural enquiries, we were brought back again, by this ingenious expedient, to an unfatisfactory fecond cause: Philofophy, that lear'd on Heav'n before, "Shrinks to her fecond caufe, and is no more. For it might ftill, by the fame kind of objection, be asked, what was the cause of that elafticity? See this folly cenfured, v. 475. and confuted in the following words of an excellent Philofopher, who having demonftrated the abfolute impoffibility of any fubtile matter or elaftic fluid's being able to perform the office here affigned to it, as it muft impell every particle of matter an infinite number of different ways at once, and inceffantly; goes on thus "When it is faid that the higher we rife in the SCALE OF "NATURE towards the fupreme caufe, the views we have from Philofopby appear more beautiful and extenfive; we may obferve that the fcale of material caufes in philofo. phy is not like the rifing fcale of Beings in the creation : "tho' the fuppofed fcale here, feems to have been taken "from that. In the fcale of BEINGS, the beginning is "low; and every fpecies rifes in perfection as we afcend: "There is an amazing variety, from dead matter, to living fpirit: nor does the gradation end there. This is full "of inftruction and delight; we see our felves in the mid"dle of the scale, and are certain of rifing higher, as ra"tional beings were not made for utter extinction. But it "is not fo in a scale of material CAUSES. There are no "degrees of perfection in matter. All matter is equally an unactive substance, that resists a change of its state. "The higher we had afcended in fuch a fcale, we should "have met with the more obfcurity. We fee it is fo in "reality to thofe who pretend to mount this way. The "firft fort of matter might perhaps have been feen eafily; "the fecond, but darkly; and the third, not at all. This 66 Religion blufhing veils her facred fires, And unawares Morality expires. REMARK S. 650 "had been the way for the Deity to conceal himfelf: "And this is the view which this philofophy endeavours "to give us. It is equivocal language to fpeak of rifing "towards the Supreme caufe through a scale of material caufes. No Philofophy ever yet difcovered the fecond "step of the feale. I fee a ftone fall. I am certain there "is but one step here. A fluid that impreffed a crushing "force on a small piece of matter, would have as much 86 66 overcome my ftrength to wade thro' it, as if I had en"deavoured to walk in the bottom of an ocean of Mercury, or fomething more denfe. Thus we fee their fe"cond step is a fiction, to divert the attention, and fet us "a gazing at fomething that cannot be feen. The views "that we have from this Philofophy are indeed very dark "and myfterious. Philofophers fpeak of not excluding the "Deity out of nature, as of a favour: But they endeavour "to exclude him from every thing we can point out, to "discover him. They endeavour to make us eafy, by telling us, he is every where active, and every where pre"Jent: But at the fame time they try to restrain his acti"vity, to quadrate with their hypothefis; and make him "prefent, only that SUBTILE MATTER may exercise his power and knowledge. Nothing can derogate more "from the Government and Influences of the Deity."BAXTER. Appendix to his Inquiry into the nature of the hu man foul, p. 194. VER. 645, 646. Phyfic of Metaphyfic, &c.-And Metaphyfic calls, &c.] Certain writers, as Malbranche, Norris, and others, have thought it of importance, in order to fecure the existence of the foul, to bring in queftion the reality of body; which they have attempted to do by a very refined metaphyfical reafoning: While others of the fame party, in order to perfuade us of the neceffity of a Revelation which promifes immortality, have been as anxious to prove that thofe qualities which are commonly fuppofed to belong only to an immaterial Being are but Nor public Flame, nor private, dares to shine; REMARK S. the refult from certain difpofitions of the particles of matter, and confequently that the foul is naturally mortal. Thus, between thefe different reafonings, they have left us neither Soul nor Body; nor, the Sciences of Phyfics and Metaphyfics the leaft fupport, by making them depend upon, and go a begging to, one another. W. VER. 647. See Myftery to Mathematics Ay!] A fort of men, who make human reafon the adequate measure of all Truth, having pretended that whatsoever is not fully comprehended by it, is contrary to it; certain defenders of Religion, who would not be outdone in a paradox, have gone as far in the oppofite folly, and attempted to fhew that the Myfteries of Religion may be mathematically demonftrated; as the authors of Philofophic, or Aftronomic Principles of Religion, natural and revealed; who have much prided themselves on reflecting a fantastic light upon religion from the frigid fubtilty of school moonfhine. W. VER. 649. Religion blushing veils her facred fires,] Blushing as well at the memory of the past overflow of dulness, when the barbarous learning of fo many ages was wholly employed in corrupting the fimplicity, and defiling the purity of Religion, as at the view of thefe her falfe fupports in the prefent; of which it would be endless to recount the particulars. However amidst the extinction of all other lights, she is faid only to withdraw hers; as hers alone in its own nature is unextinguishable and eternal. W. VER. 650. And unawares Morality expires.] It appears from hence that our Poet was of very different fentiments from the Author of the Characteristics, who has written a formal treatise on Virtue, to prove it not only real but |