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With Heav'n's own Thunders fhook the World below,

And play'd the God an Engine on his Foe.

For a Tyrant naturally and reasonably takes all his Slaves for his Enemies.

Having given the Causes of Superstition, he next describes its Objects:

Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust, Whose Attributes were Rage, Revenge, and Luft: Such as the Souls of Cowards might conceive, And, form'd like Tyrants, Tyrants wou'd believe. The ancient Pagan Gods are here very exactly defcribed. This Fact is a convincing Evidence of the Truth of that Original which the Poet gives to Superftition: For if these Phantafms were first raised in the Imagination of Tyrants, they muft needs have the Qualities here affigned them. For Force being the Tyrant's Virtue, and Luxury his Happiness, the Attributes of his God would of Course be Revenge and Luft; in a Word, the Antitype of himself. But there was another, and more substantial Cause, of the Resemblance between a Tyrant and a Pagan God; and that was the making Gods of Conquerors, as the Poet fays, and so canonizing a Tyrant's Vices with his Perfon. That thefe Gods fhould fuit a People humbled to the Stroke of a Master, will be no Wonder, if we recollect a generous Saying of the Ancients;That, that Day which fees a Man a Slave, takes away half his Virtue.

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The Inference our Poet draws from all this [from 1. 269 to 284] is, that Self-love drives through Right and Wrong; it causes the Tyrant to violate the Rights of Mankind; and it causes the People to vindicate that Violation. For Selflove being common to the whole Species, and fetting each Individual in pursuit of the fame Objects, it became neceffary for each, if he would fecure his own, to provide for the Safety of another's. And thus Equity and Benevolence arose from that fame Self-love, which had given Birth to Avarice and Injustice.

For what one likes, if others like as well,
What serves one Will, when many Wills rebel?
How fhall he keep, what fleeping or awake
A Weaker may furprife, a Stronger take?
His Safety muft his Liberty restrain ;
All join to guard what each defires to gain.

The Poet hath not any where fhewn greater Address in the masterly Disposition of his Work, than with regard to the Inference before us; which not only gives a proper and timely Support to what he had before advanced, in his fecond Epiftle, concerning the Nature and Effects of Self-love; but is a neceffary Introduction to what follows concerning the Reformation of Religion and Society, as we fhall fee presently.

The Poet hath now defcrib'd the Rife, Perfection, and Decay of civil Policy and Religion, in the more early Ages. But the Design had been

imperfectly

imperfectly executed, had he here drop'd his Difcourfe; there was, after this, a Recovery from their feveral Corruptions. Accordingly, he hath chofen that happy Period for the Conclufion of his Song. But as good and ill Governments and Religions fucceed one another without ceafing, he now, with great Judgment leaves Facts, and turns his Discourse [from 1. 283 to 296] to speak of a more lafting Reform of Mankind, in the Invention of those philofophic Principles, by whose Obfervance a Policy and Religion may be for ever kept from finking into Tyranny and Superftition.

'Twas then the ftudious Head, or gen'rous Mind,
Foll'wer of God, or Friend of human Kind,
Poet or Patriot rose, but to restore
The Faith and Morals, Nature gave before;
Relum'd her ancient Light, not kindled new,
If not God's Image, yet his Shadow drew;
Taught Pow'r's due Use to People and to Kings,
Taught not to flack, nor ftrain its tender
Strings, &c.

The easy and just Transition into this Subject, from the foregoing, is admirable. In the foregoing, he had defcribed the Effects of Selflove; now the Obfervation of these Effects, he, with great Art and high Probability, makes the Occafion of thofe Difcoveries, which speculative Men made of the true Principles of Policy and Religion, described in the prefent Paragraph; and this he evidently hints at in that fine Transition,

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'TWAS THEN the ftudious Head, &c.

Mr. De Croufaz, who faw nothing of this Beauty, fays, It is not eafy to guess to what Epoch Mr. Pope would have us refer his THEN". He has indeed proved himself no good Guesser, which yet is the best Quality of a Critic. I will therefore tell him without more ado, Mr. Pope meant the polite and flourishing Age of Greece; and those Benefactors to Mankind, which, I prefume, he had principally in View, were Socrates and Ariftotle, who, of all the Pagan World, spoke beft of God, and wrote beft of Government.

Having thus defcribed the true Principles of civil and ecclefiaftical Policy, the great Poet proceeds (from 1. 295 to 305] to illuftrate his Account by the fimilar Harmony of the Universe :

Such is the World's great Harmony, that springs
From Union, Order, full Concent of Things!
Where small and great, where weak and mighty,
made,

To ferve, not fuffer, ftrengthen, not invade,
More pow'rful each as needful to the rest,
And in proportion as it bleffes, blest,

Draw to one Point, and to one Centre bring Beast, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King. Thus, as in the Beginning of this Epistle, he fupported the great Principle of mutual Love or Association in general, by Confiderations drawn from

Commentaire, p. 261.

the

the Properties of Matter, and the mutual Dependence between vegetable and animal Life; fo, in the Conclufion, he has inforced the particular Principles of civil and religious Society, from that univerfal Harmony which springs, in part, from those Properties and Dependencies.

But now the Poet, having fo much commended the Invention and Inventors of the philofophic Principles of Religion and Government, left an evil Ufe fhould be made of this, by Men's refting in Theory and Speculation, as they have been always too apt to do, in Matters whofe Practice makes their Happiness, he cautions his Reader [from 1. 304 to 311] against this Error, in a Warmth of Expreffion, which the fublime Ideas of that univerfal Harmony, operating inceffantly to univerfal Good, had raised up in him.

For Forms of Government let Fools conteft;
Whate'er is beft adminifter'd is best.
For Modes of Faith let graceless Zealots fight;
His can't be wrong, whose Life is in the Right.
All must be falfe, that thwart this one great End,
And all of God, that blefs Mankind, or mend.

The Seafonablenefs of this Reproof will appear evident enough to those who know, that mad Difputes about Liberty and Prerogative had once well nigh overturned our Conftitution; and that others about Mystery and Church Authority had almost destroyed the very Spirit of our holy Religion.

But these fine Lines have been strangely mitunderstood:

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