The fame which in a Sire the Sons obey'd, VI. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch fate, King, prieft, and parent of his growing state; COMMENTARY. 215 the regal title on the Fathers of families; from whence men, when they had inftituted Society, were to fetch their Governors. On the contrary, our Author shews, that a King was unknown, 'till common interest, which led men to inftitute civil government, led them at the same time to institute a Governor. However, that it is true that the same wifdom or valour, which gained regal obedience from fons to the fire, procured kings a paternal authority, and made them confidered as fathers of their people. Which probably was the original (and, while mistaken, continues to be the chief support) of that flavish error: Antiquity representing its earliest monarchs under the idea of a common father, παλὴρ ἀνδρῶν. Afterwards indeed they became a kind of fofter-fathers, ποιμένα λαῶν, as Homer calls one of them: 'Till at length they began to devour that flock they had been so long accustomed to shear; and, as Plutarch says of Cecrops, ἐκ χρησῦ βασιλέως ἀγριον κὶ δρακοντίδη γλυόμενον ΤΥΡΑΝΝΟΝ. : VER. 215. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, &c.] The Poet now returns (at $ 215 to 24.1.) to what he had left unfinish'd in his description of natural Society. This, which appears irregular, is indeed a fine instance of his thorough knowledge of Method. I will explain it: This third epiftle, we fee, considers Man with respect to SOCIETY; the second, with respect to HIMSELF; and NOTES. arms: Καθίσαλαι Βασιλεὺς ἐκ τῶν ἐπιεικῶν καθ ̓ ὑπροχὴν ἀρεθῆς, ἢ πράξεων τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρεθῆς, ἢ καθ ̓ ὑπροχὴν τοιέτο γλύες. On him, their second Providence, they hung, COMMENTARY, the fourth, with respect to HAPPINESS. But in none of these relations does the Poet ever lose fight of him under that in which he stands to GOD: It will follow, therefore, that speaking of him with respect to Society, the account would be then most imperfect, were he not at the fame time confidered with respect to his Religion; for between these two, there is a close, and, while things continue in order, a most interesting connection : "True FAITH, true POLICY united ran; "That was but love of God, and this of Man. Now Religion fuffering no change or depravation, when Man first entered into civil Society, but continuing the same as in the state of Nature; the Author, to avoid repetition, and to bring the account of true and false Religion nearer to one another, in order to contraft them by the advantage of that fituation, deferred giving account of his Religion till he had spoken of the origin of that Society. Thence it is that he here refumes the account of the state of Nature, that is, so much of it as he had left untouched, which was only the Religion of it. This confifting in the knowledge of one God, the Creator of all things, he shews how Men came by that knowledge: That it was either found out by REASON, which giving to every effect, a cause, instructed them to go from cause to cause, till they came to the first, who, being causeless, would ne NOTES. VER. 219. He from the wond ring furrow, &c.] i. e. He fubdued the intractability of all the four elements, and made them subservient to the use of Man. Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound, 'Till drooping, fick'ning, dying they began 225 COMMENTARY. cessarily be judged self-exiftent: or else that it was taught by TRADITION, which preserved the memory of the Creation. He then tells us what these men, undebauched by false science, understood by God's nature and attributes: First, of God's Nature, that they easily distinguished between the Worker and the Work; faw the substance of the Creator to be distinct and different from that of the creature, and fo were in no danger of falling into the horrid opinion of the Greek philosophers, and their follower, Spinoza. And fimple Reason teaching them that the Creator was but One, they easily saw that all was right, NOTES. VER. 225. Then looking up, &c.] The Poet here maketh their more ferious attention to Religion to have arisen, not from their gratitude amidst abundance, but from their helplessiness in distress; by shewing, that in profperity, they refted in second causes, the immediate authors of their blessings, whom they revered as God; but that, in adversity, they reasoned up to the First: "Then looking up from fire to fire, &c. This, I am afraid, is but too true a representation of hu man nature. VER. 225, to ver. 240.] M. Du Resnel, not apprehending that the Poet was here returned to finish his defcription of the State of Nature, has fallen into one of the grossest mistakes that ever was committed. He has miftaken this account of true Religion for an account of the Or plain tradition that this All begun, COMMENTARY. 230 and so were in as little danger of falling into the Manichean error; which, when oblique Wit had broken the fteddy light of Reason, imagined all was not right, having before imagined that all was not the work of One. Secondly, he shews, what they understood of God's Attributes; that they easily acknowledged a Father where they found a Deity; and could not conceive a fovereign Being to be any other than a fovereign Good. NOTES. origin of Idolatry; and thus he fatally embellishes his own blunder, "Jaloux d'en conserver les traits et la figure, 66 Qui par le droit du sang avoient régné sur eux, "Trouvent-ils dans leur fuite un grand, un premier pere, Leur aveugle respect l'adore et le révere. 66 Here you have one of the finest pieces of reasoning turned at once into a heap of nonsense. The unlucky term of Great first Father, was mistaken by our Tranflator to fignify a Great Grand Father. But he should have confidered, that Mr. Pope always represents God under the idea of a FATHER: He should have observed that the Poet is here defcribing those men who "To Virtue in the paths of pleasure trod, " And own'd a Father, where they own'd a God. VER. 231. Ere Wit oblique, &c.] A beautiful allufion to the effects of the prismatic glass on the rays of light. To Virtue, in the paths of Pleasure trod, LOVE all the faith, and all th' allegiance then; 235 Th' enormous faith of many made for one; COMMENTARY. VER. 241. Who first taught fouls enslav'd, &c.] Order leadeth the Poet to speak (from * 240 to 246.) of the corruption of civil Society into Tyranny, and its Causes; and here, with all the dexterity of address as well as force` of truth, he observes it arose from the violation of that great Principle, which he so much infists upon throughout his Effay, that each was made for the use of all. We may be sure, that, in this corruption, where right or natural juftice was cast aside, and violence, the Atheist's justice, presided in its stead, Religion would follow the fate of civil NOTES. VER. 242. Th' enormous faith, &c.] In this Ariftotle placeth the difference between a King and a Tyrant, that the first supposeth himself made for the People; the other, that the People are made for him: Βέλειαι δ ̓ ὁ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ εἶναι φύλαξ, ὅπως οἱ μὲν κεκλημένοι τὰς ἐσίας μηθὲν ἄδικον πάσχωσιν, ὁ δὲ δῆμος μὴ ὑβρίζηλαι μηθέν· ἡ δὲ ΤΥΡΑΝΝΙΣ πρὸς ἐδὲν ἀποβλέπει κοινὸν, εἰ μὴ τῆς ἰδίας ὠφελείας χάριν. Ρol. lib. v. cap. 10. |