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It was remarked long ago in the Adventurer,* that these reflections were minutely copied from Pascal, who says, "What a chimera then is man! what a confused chaos! what a subject of contradiction! a professed judge of all things, and yet a feeble worm of the earth! The great depositary and guardian of truth, and yet a mere huddle of uncertainty! the glory and the scandal of the universe."

22. Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal man unfold all Nature's law,
Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And shew'd a Newton as we shew an ape.†

The author of the letter on the Marks of imitation, is induced to think, from the sigularity of this sentiment, that the great poet had his eye on Plato ; ότι ανθρωπων ὁ σοφω]αλος προς θεον πίθηκος pavelas. But I am more inclined to think that POPE borrowed it from a passage in the zodiac of Palingenius, which the above-mentioned Adventurer has also quoted, and which POPE, who was a reader of the poets of Palingenius's

age,

* No. 63.

† Ver. 31.

age, some of whom he published, was more likely to fall upon, than on this thought of Plato:

Simia cœlicolûm risusque jocusque deorum est;
Tunc homo, quum temerè ingenio confidit, et audet
Abdita naturæ scrutari, arcanaque divûm.

23. Trace science, then, with Modesty thy guide; First strip off all her equipage of pride; Deduct what is but vanity, or dress,

Or learning's luxury, or idleness;

Or tricks to shew the stretch of human brain,
Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;
Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts
Of all our vices have created arts.*

The abuses of learning are enumerated with brevity and elegance, in these few lines. It was a favourite subject with our author; and it is said, he intended to have written four epistles on it, wherein he would have treated of the extent and limits of human reason, of arts and sciences useful and attainable, of the different capacities of different men, of the knowledge of the world, and of wit. Such censures, even of the most unimportant

* Ver. 43. There is some obscurity in the last line, occasioned by omitting the relative.

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unimportant parts of literature, should not, however, be carried too far; and a sensible writer observes, that there is not, indeed, any part of knowledge which can be called entirely useless. "The most abstracted parts of mathematics, and the knowledge of mythological history, or ancient allegories, have their own pleasures not inferior to the more gay entertainments of painting, music, or architecture; and it is for the advantage of mankind, that some are found who have a taste for these studies. The only fault lies in letting any of those inferior tastes engross the whole man, to the exclusion of the nobler pursuits of virtue and humanity."* We may

here apply an elegant observation of Tully, who says, in his Brutus, "Credo, sed Atheniensium quoque plus interfuit firma tecta in domiciliis habere, quam Minervæ signum ex ebore pulcherrimum tamen ego me Phidiam esse mallem quam vel optimum fabrum lignarium; quare non quantum quisque prosit, sed quanti quisque sit, ponderandum est: præsertim cum pauci pingere egre

giè

* Hutcheson's Nature and Conduct of the Passions, page

giè possint aut fingere, operarii autem aut bajuli deesse non possint."

24. Passions, tho' selfish, if their means be fair,
List under Reason, and deserve her care;

Those, that imparted, court a nobler aim,

Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name.*

We find an

obscurity in these lines, arising

from the use of the participle imparted; a mode of speaking of which POPE was fond, studious as he was of brevity, and which often betrayed him into the same fault: Passions that court an aim, is surely a strange expression.

VOL. II.

G

25. In

* Ver. 97.

"When I am writing, (says Fontenelle,) I often stop, and ask, Do I myself understand this sentence?" And yet Fontenelle, whom the French accuse of introducing the abrupt, affected style, is frequently obscure. "Non minus autem cavenda erit, (says Quintilian,) quæ nimium corripientes omnia sequitur, obscuritas: satiusque est aliquid narrationi superesse, quam deesse. Nam cum supervacua cum tædio dicuntur, necessaria cum periculo subtrahuntur."

Institut. Orat. Lib. iv. C. 2.

Happy is he who can unite brevity with perspicuity. It is but of one writer that Quintilian says, Idem lætus ac pressus, tum copià, tum brevitate mirabilis. Lib. x. C. 1.

25. In lazy apathy let Stoics boast

Their virtue fix'd! 'tis fix'd as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;

But strength of mind is exercise, not rest.*

Perhaps a stronger example cannot be found, of taking notions upon trust without any examination, than the universal censure that has been passed upon the Stoics, as if they strenuously inculcated a total insensibility with respect to passion. He that would be convinced that this trite accusation is ill-grounded, may consult the notes Mr. Harris has added to his third treatise. There he will find the genuine doctrines of the Stoics examined with accuracy and sagacity, in a learned deduction of passages from all the best writers of that school; the sum of which quotations, in the nervous language of that critic, appears to be this; "That the Stoics, in their character of their virtuous man, included rational desire, aversion, and exultation; included love, and parental affection; friendship,

and

* Ver. 101.

From note pag. 325 to pag. 331.

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