pact, which, they fay, gave Being to it: And accordingly have had the Effrontery publickly to declare that a State of Nature was a State of War. This quite fubverts the Poet's natural Society: Therefore, after his Account of that State, he proceeds to fupport the Reality of it, by overthrowing the oppugnant Principle of no natural Justice; which he does [from 1. 147 to 170] by fhewing, in a fine Description of the State of Innocence, as represented in Scripture, that a State of Nature was fo far from being without natural Justice, that it was, at first, the Reign of God, where Right and Truth universally prevail❜d:

Nor think, in Nature's State they blindly trod, The State of Nature was the Reign of God. Self-love, and focial, at her Birth began, Union, the Bond of all Things, and of Man. Pride then was not; nor Arts, that Pride to aid; Man walk'd with Beast, joint Tenant of the Shade. Now let us hear Mr. De Croufaz, who tells us, he had redoubled his Attention upon this Epistle. Mr. Pope (fays he) fpeaks with the Affurance of an Eye-witness of what passed in this first Age of the World. And why fhould he not, when conducted by his Faith in Scripture Hiftory?-That which he here reprefents, fays he, is much lefs credible in itself, than that which Mofes teacheth us. Now what must we think of our Logician's Faith,

c Commentaire, p. 218.

d Ib.

240.

who

who taking it for granted, that Mr. Pope would not borrow of Mofes, has here condemn'd, before he was aware, the Credibility of Scripture Hiftory? For the Account here given of the State of Innocence is indeed no other than that of Mofes himself.

He goes on,This Religion, common to Brutes and Men, infinuates to us, that, in thofe happy Times, Men had no more Religion than Bruies ©.

This fhrewd Reflection points at the following Lines:

In the fame Temple, the refounding Wood,
All vocal Beings hymn'd their equal God.

But does not the Poet fpeak, in this very place, of Man, as officiating in the priestly Office at the Altar, and offering up his blameless euchariftical Sacrifice to Heaven?

The Shrine with Gore unftain'd, with Gold undrest,

Unbrib'd, unbloody, flood the blameless Priest. As to the Line,

All vocal Beings hymn'd their equal God,

our Logician fhould be fent to Scripture for its Meaning; who, had he been as converfant with the Pfalmift as with Burgerfdicius, would have learned to have judged more pioufly as well as more charitably. The infpired Poet calling to Mind (as Mr. Pope did here) the Age of Innocence,

e Commentaire, p. 240.

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and

and full of the great Ideas of those

-Chains of Love,

Combining all below, and all above;

which

Draw to one Point, and to one Centre bring Beaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King; breaks out into this rapturous and divine Apoftrophe, to call back the devious Creation to its priftine Rectitude. That very State Mr. Pope defcribes above:" Praise the Lord, all ye Angels; "praise him, all ye Hofts. Praise him, Sun and "Moon; praise him, all ye Stars of Light. Let "them praise the Name of the Lord, for he com"manded, and they were created. Praise the Lord "from the Earth, ye Dragons, and all Deeps: Fire " and Hail, Snow and Vapour, stormy Wind ful"filling his Word: Mountains and all Hills, fruit"ful Trees, and all Cedars: Beasts and all Cattle, cc creeping Things, and flying Fowl: Kings of the "Earth, and all People; Princes and all Judges of "the Earth. Let them praise the Name of the "Lord; for his Name alone is excellent, his Glocc ry is above the Earth and Heaven." Pfal. cxlviii.

To return. Strict Method (in which, by this time, the Reader finds the Poet more converfant than our Logician was aware of) leads him next to fpeak of that Society which fucceeded the natural, namely the civil. But as he does all by eafy Steps, in the natural Progreffion of Ideas, he first ex

plains

plains from 1. 169 to 200] the intermediate Means which led Mankind from natural to civil Society. These were the Invention and Improvement of Arts. For while Mankind lived in a mere State of Nature, unconscious of the Arts of Life, there was no need of any other Government than the paternal; but when Arts were found out and improved, then that more perfect Form under the Direction of a Magiftrate, became neceffary. And for thefe Reafons; First, to bring thofe Arts, already found, to Perfection; and, Secondly, to fecure the Product of them to their rightful Proprietors. The Poet, therefore, comes now, as we fay, to the Invention of Arts; but being always intent on the great End for which he wrote his Essay, namely, to mortify that Pride, which oc-. cafions the impious Complaints against Providence, he, with the greatest Art and Contrivance, speaks of these Inventions, as only Leffons learnt of mere Animals guided by Instinct; and thus, at the fame time, gives a new Inftance of the wonderful Providence of God, who has contrived to teach Mankind in a Way not only proper to humble human Arrogance, but to raise our Idea of infinite Wisdom to the greatest Pitch. All this he does in a Profopopoeia the most sublime that ever entered into the human Imagination:

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See him from Nature rifing flow to Art!
To copy Instinct then was Reafon's Part:
Thus then to Man the Voice of Nature fpake-

Go, from the Creatures thy Inftructions take;

Thy Arts of Building from the Bee receive, "Learn of the Mole to plow, the Worm to weave; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail,

"Spread the thin Oar, and catch the driving "Gale, &c.

"Yet go! and thus o'er all the Creatures (way, "Thus let the Wifer make the rest obey, "And for those Arts mere Instinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd. The Delicacy of the Poet's Addrefs in the first Part of the laft Line, is very remarkable. I obferved, that, in this Paragraph, he has given an Açcount of thofe intermediate Means that led Mankind from natural to civil Society, namely, the Invention and Improvement of Arts. Now here, on his Conclufion of this Account, and Entry upon the Description of civil Society itself, he connects the two Parts the most gracefully that can be conceived, by this true historical Circumftance, that it was the Invention of those Arts, which raised to the Magiftracy, in this new Society, now formed for the perfecting them.

I cannot leave this Part without taking notice of the ftrange Turn the Tranflator has given to these two Lines:

Thus then to Man the Voice of Nature fpake,

Go, from the Creatures thy Instructions take.

La Nature indigné alors fe fit entendre;

Va, malheureux mortel, va, lui dit elle, apprendre Des plus vils animaux.

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