Page images
PDF
EPUB

VOLTAIRE, in the late additions to his works, has the following remarkable words: "I own it flatters me to see that POPE has fallen upon the very same sentiment which I had entertained many years ago." "Vous vous étonnez que Dieu ait fait l'homme si borné, si ignorant, si peu heureux. Que ne vous étonnez-vous, qu'il ne

l'ait

pas fait plus borné, plus ignorant, & plus malheureux? Quand un Français & un Anglais ! pensent de meme, il faut bien qu'ils ayent raison."*

5. The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.†

The tenderness of this striking image, and particularly the circumstance in the last line, has an artful effect in alleviating the dryness in the argumentative parts of the Essay, and interesting the reader.

*

Oeuvres de Voltaire. Tom. iv. pag. 227.

+ Ver. 81.

6. The

6. The soul uneasy, and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come. *

In

In former editions it used to be printed at home; but this expression seeming to exclude a future existence, (as, to speak the plain truth, it was intended to do,) it was altered to from home; not only with great injury to the harmony of the line, but also, to the reasoning of the context.

7. Lo the poor Indian! whose untutor❜d mind

Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud science never taught to stray,
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;

Yet simple nature to his hope has giv❜n,
Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, an humbler heav'n ;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the wat❜ry waste,

Where slaves once more their native land behold;
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
TO BE Content's his natural desire ;

He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.†

POPE has indulged himself in but few digres sions in this piece; this is one of the most poeti

cal.

* Ver. 97.

† Ver 99.

cal. Representations of undisguised nature, and artless innocence, always amuse and delight. The simple notions which uncivilized nations entertain of a future state, are many of them beautifully romantic, and some of the best subjects for poetry. It has been questioned whether the circumstance of the dog, although striking at the first view, is introduced with propriety, as it is known that this animal is not a native of America. The notion of seeing God in clouds, and hearing him in the wind, cannot be enough applauded.

8. From burning suns when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep.*

I quote these lines as an example of energy of style, and of POPE's manner of compressing together many images, without confusion, and without superfluous epithets. Substantives and verbs are the sinews of language.

9. If plagues or earthquakes break not heav'n's design, Why then a Borgia or a Catiline ?†

F

"All

VOL. II.

Ver. 155.

* Ver. 142.

"All ills arise from the order of the universe, which is absolutely perfect. Would you wish to disturb so divine an order, for the sake of your own particular interest? What if the ills I suffer arise from malice or oppression? But the vices and imperfections of men are also comprehended in the order of the universe.

If plagues, &c.

Let this be allowed, and my own vices will be also a part of the same order."-Such is the commentary of the academist on these famous lines.*

10. The general order, since the whole began, Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.†

How this opinion is any way reconcileable with the orthodox doctrine of the lapsed condition of man, the chief foundation of the Christian revelation, it is difficult to say.

11. Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason, man is not a fly.

* Hume's Essays, quarto, pag. 106.

↑ Ver. 171.

'Say,

Say, what the use, were finer optics giv❜n,

T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,
To smart and agonize at every pore ?*

« If, If, by the help of such microscopical eyes, if I may so call them, a man could penetrate farther than ordinary into the secret composition and radical texture of bodies, he would not make any great advantage by the change; if such an acute sight would not serve to conduct him to the market and exchange, if he could not see things he was to avoid at a convenient distance, nor distinguish things he had to do with by those sensible qualities others do."t

12. If nature thunder'd in his opening ears,

And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,
How would he wish that heav'n had left him still
The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill?

It is justly objected, that the argument required an instance drawn from real sound, and

[blocks in formation]

Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, vol. I. pag. 256.

Ver. 201.

« PreviousContinue »