VI. What would this Man? Now upward will he foar, And little less than Angels, would be more; Now looking downwards, just as griev'd ap pears 175 To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears. COMMENTARY. VER. 173. What would this Man? &c.] Having thus juftified Providence in its permiffion of partial MORAL EVIL, Our Author employs the remaining part of his Epiftle in vindicating it from the imputation of certain fuppofed NATURAL EVILS. For now he fhews (from Ver. 172 to 207.) that though the complaint of his adverfaries against Providence be on pretence of real moral evils; yet, at bottom, it all proceeds from their impatience under imaginary natural ones, the iffue of a depraved appetite for vifionary advantages, which if Man had, they would be either ufelefs or pernicious to him, as repugnant to his ftate, or unfuitable to his condition. Though God (fays he) hath fo bountifully bestowed, on Man, Faculties little lefs than angelic, yet he ungratefully grafps at higher; and then, extravagant in another extreme, with a paffion as ridiculous as that is impious, envies as advantages, even the peculiar accommodations of brutes. But here his own principles fhew his folly. He fuppofes them all made NOTE S. VER. 174. And little less than Angels, &c.] Thu haft made him a little lower than the Angels, and haft crowned him with glory and honour, Pfalm viii. 9. Each feeming want compenfated of course, Each beast, each infect, happy in its own: 185 Be pleas'd with nothing, if not bless'd with all? The blifs of Man (could Pride that bleffing find) Is not to act or think beyond mankind; 190 COMMENTARY. for his ufe: Now what ufe could he have of them, when he had robbed them of all their qualities? Qualities diftributed with the highest wisdom, as they are divided at prefent; but which, if beftowed according to the froward humour of thefe childish complainers, would be found to be, every where, either wanting or fuperfluous. But even with these brutal qualities, Man would not only be no gainer, but a confiderable lofer; as the Poet fhews, in explaining the confequences which would follow from his having his fenfations in that exquisite degree, in which this or the other animal is obferved to poffefs them. NOTES. VER. 182. Here with degrees of Swiftness, &c.] It is a certain axiom in the anatomy of creatures, that in proportion as they are formed for ftrength, their fwiftnefs is leffened; or as they are formed for fwiftness, their strength is abated. P. Why has not Man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason, Man is not a Fly. Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, 195 200 If nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears, COMMENTARY. VER. 207. Far as Creation's ample range extends,] He tells us next (from Ver. 206 to 233) that the complying with fuch extravagant defires would not only be ufelefs and pernicious to Man, but would be breaking into the order, and deforming the beauty of God's Creation, in which this animal is subject to that, and every one to Man; who by his Reafon enjoys the fum of all their powers. NOTES: VER. 202. Stunn'd him with the mufic of the spheres,] This inftance is poetical and even fublime, but mifplaced. He is arguing philofophically in a case that required him to employ the real objects of fenfe only: and, what is worse, he speaks Mark how it mounts, to Man's imperial race, From the green myriads in the peopled grafs: 210 What modes of fight betwixt each wide extreme, The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam: NOTES. of this as a real object-If NATURE thunder'd, &c. The cafe is different where (in Ver. 253) he speaks of the motion. of the heavenly bodies, under the fublime conception of ruling Angels: For whether there be ruling Angels or no, there is real motion, which was all his argument wanted; but if there be no mufic of the fpheres, there was no real found, which his argument was obliged to find. VER. 209. Mark how it mounts to Man's imperial race,] M. Du Refnel has turned the latter part of the line thus, Jufqu'à l'Homme, ce chef, ce Roy de l' Univers. "Even to man, this Head, this King of the Univerfe," which is fo fad a blunder that it contradicts the Poet's peculiar Syftem; who, although he allows Man to be King of this inferior world, yet he thinks it madness to make him King of the Univerfe. If the philofophy of the Poem could not teach him this, yet methinks the Poet's own words, in this very Epistle, might have prevented his mistake. "So man, who here feems Principal alone, If the Tranflator imagined that Mr. Pope was fpeaking ironically where he talks of Man's imperial race, and fo would heighten the ridicule of the original by ce Roy de l'Univers, the mistake is ftill worfe; for the force of the argument depends upon its being faid feriously; the Poet being here fpeaking of a scale from the highest to the lowest in the mun dane System. Of smell, the headlong lionefs between, And hound fagacious on the tainted green : From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew? NOTES. VER. 213. The headlong lioness.] The manner of the lions hunting their prey in the defarts of Africa is this: At their first going out in the night-time they set up a loud roar, and then liften to the noife made by the beasts in their flight, pursuing them by the ear, and not by the noftril. It is probable the ftory of the jackal's hunting for the lion, was occafioned by the observation of this defect of scent in that terrible animal. P. VER. 224. For ever fep'rate, &c.] Near, by the fimilitude of the operations; feparate by the immenfe difference in the nature of the powers. VER. 226. What thin partitions, &c.] So thin, that the Atheistic Philofophers, as Protagoras, held that thought was only fenfe; and from thence concluded, that every imagination or opinion of every man was true: Πᾶσα φαντασία ἐςὶν ἀληθής. But the Poet determines more philofophically; that they are VOL. III. F |