What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, COMMENTARY, And, in the fourth epistle, he shews, how the same HOPE is a proof of a future state, from the consideration of God's giving his creatures no appetite in vain, or what he did not intend should be satisfied: "He sees, why Nature plants in Man alone Hope of known bliss, and Faith in bliss unknown: Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find.)" It is only for the good man, he tells us, that Hope leads from goal to goal, &c. It would then be strange indeed, if it should prove an illusion. NOTES. Ver. 93. What future bliss, &c.] It hath been objected, that " the System of the best weakens the other natural arguments for a future state; because, if the evils which good men suffer, promote the benefit of the whole, then every thing is here in order: and nothing amiss that wants to be set right: nor has the good man any reason to expect amends, when the evils he suffered had such a tendency." To this it may be replied, 1. That the Poet tells us, (Ep. iv. ver. 361.) that God loves from whole to parts. Therefore, if, in the beginning and progress of the moral System, the good of the Whole be principally consulted, yet, on the completion of it, the good of Particulars will be equally provided for. 2. The system of the best is so far from weakening those natural arguments, that it strengthens and supports them. For if those evils, to which good men are subject, be mere disorders, without any tendency to the greater good of the whole; then, though we must, indeed, conclude that they will hereafter be set right, yet this view of things, representing God as suffering disorders for no other end than to set them right, gives us too low an idea of the divine wisdom. But if those evils (according to the system of the best) contribute VARIATIONS. Ver. 93, 94.] In the first Fol. and Quarto: Warburton. Hope springs eternal in the human breast: 95 Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; 100 COMMENTARY. Ver. 99. Lo, the poor Indian, &c.] The Poet, as we said, having bid Man comfort himself with expectation of future happiness; having shewn him that this HOPE is an earnest of it; and put in one very necessary caution, "Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;" provoked at those miscreants whom he afterwards (Ep. iii. ver. 263.) describes as building Hell on spite, and Heaven on pride, he upbraids them NOTES. tribute to the greater perfection of the Whole, such a reason may Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made Which coincidence can never be, without a retribution to each good man for the evils he has suffered here below. Warburton. Ver. 97. from home,] The construction is,-The soul, uneasy and confined, being from home, expatiates, etc. By which words, it was the Poet's purpose to teach, that the present life is only a state His soul, proud Science never taught to stray Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv❜n, Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, a humbler heav'n; Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, 105 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, contents his natural desire, He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire; 110 COMMENTARY. them (from ver. 98 to 113.) with the example of the poor Indian, to whom also Nature hath given this common HOPE of Mankind: but though his untutored mind had betrayed him into many childish fancies concerning the nature of that future state, yet he is so far from excluding any part of his own species (a vice which could proceed only from the pride of false Science), that he humanely, though simply, admits even his faithful dog to bear him company. NOTES. state of probation for another, more suitable to the essence of the soul, and to the free exercise of its qualities. Warburton. In the first editions it stood, The soul uneasy and confined at home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come: which is said to have been altered at the recommendation of Warburton, in order to prevent cavils; an effect which, however, it has failed to produce, as already remarked in the introductory note to the present edition. Ver. 110. He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;] The VARIATIONS. French After ver. 108. in the first Ed. But does he say the Maker is not good, Himself alone high Heav'n's peculiar care, Alone made happy when he will, and where? Warburton. But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, IV. Go, wiser thou! and, in thy scale of sense, Weigh thy opinion against Providence; COMMENTARY. Ver. 113. Go, wiser thou! &c.] He proceeds with these accusers of Providence (from ver. 112 to 123.), and shews them, that complaints against the established order of things begin in the highest ubsurdity, from misapplied reason and power; and end in the highest impiety, in an attempt to degrade the God of heaven, and to assume his place: "Alone made perfect here, immortal there :" That is, be made God, who only is perfect, and hath immortality : to which sense the lines immediately following confine us: “Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, NOTES. French translator, M. l'Abbé Du Resnel, has turned the line thus: "Il ne désire point cette céleste flamme Qui des purs Seraphins dévore, et nourrit l'ame." í. e. The savage does not desire that heavenly flame, which at the same time that it devours the souls of pure Seraphims, nourishes them. On which Mr. de Crousaz (who, by the assistance of a translation abounding in these absurdities, writ a Commentary on the Essay on Man, in which we find nothing but greater absurdities,) remarks, "Mr. Pope, in exalting the fire of his poetry by an antithesis, throws occasionally his ridicule on those heavenly spirits. The Indian, says the Poet, contents himself without any thing of that flame, which devours at the same time that it nourisheth." Comm. p. 77. But the Poet is clear of this imputation. Nothing can be more grave or sober than his English, on this occasion; nor, I dare say, to do the translator justice, did he aim to be ridiculous. It is the sober, solid theology of the Sorbonne. Indeed had such a writer as Mr. Pope used this school-jargon, we might have suspected he was not so serious as he should be.- The reader, as he goes along, will see more of this translator's peculiarities. And the conclusion of the Commentary on the fourth Epistle will shew why I have been so careful to preserve them. Warburton. Call imperfection what thou fanciest such, COMMENTARY. 115 120 Ver. 123. In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; &c.] From these men, the Poet now turns to his friend; and (from ver. 122 to 131.) remarks, that the ground of all this extravagance is Pride; which, more or less, infects the whole reasoning tribe; shews the ill effects of it, in the case of the fallen angels; and observes, that even wishing to invert the laws of Order, is a lower species of their crime. He then brings an instance of one of the effects of Pride, which is the folly of thinking every thing made solely for the use of Man, without the least regard to any other of the creatures of God. "Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine," &c. The ridicule of imagining the greater portions of the material system to be solely for the use of Man, true philosophy has sufficiently exposed: and common sense, as the Poet observes, instructs us to conclude, that our fellow-creatures, placed by Providence as the joint inhabitants of this globe, are designed to be joint sharers with us of its blessings: "Has God, thou fool! work'd solely for thy good, Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food? Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry lawn." NOTES. Epistle iii. ver. 27. Ver. 120. Alone made perfect here, &c.] The obvious meaning is, "Be content with the present life; it is your pride only that makes |