Force first made Conquest, and that conquest, Law; 'Till Superftition taught the tyrant awe, COMMENTARY. 246 Society: We know, from ancient history, it did so. Accordingly Mr. Pope, (from $ 245 to 269.) together with corrupt.Politics, describes corrupt Religion and its Causes: he first informs us, agreeable to his exact knowledge of Antiquity, that it was the Politician and not the Prieft (as the illiterate tribe of Freethinkers would make us believe) who first corrupted Religion. Secondly, That the Superstition, he brought in, was not invented by him, as an engine to play upon others (as the dreaming Atheist feigns, who would thus account for the origin of Religion) but was a trap he first fell into himself. VER. 245. Force first made Conquests, &c.] All this is agreeable to fact, and shews our Author's exact knowledge of human nature. For that Impotency of mind (as the Latin writers call it) which gives birth to the enormous crimes necessary to fupport a Tyranny, naturally subjects its owner to all the vain, as well as real, terrors of Confcience: Hence the whole machinery of Superftition. It is true, the Poet obferves, that afterwards, when the Tyrant's fright was over, he had cunning enough, from the experience of the effect of Superstition upon himself, to turn it, by the assistance of the Priest (who for his reward went sharer with him in the Tyranny) against the justly dreaded resentment of his Subjects. For a Tyrant naturally and reasonably supposes all his Slaves to be his Enemies. Having given the causes of Superftition, he next describes its objects: "Gods partial, changeful, pafsionate, unjuft, &c. The ancient Pagan Gods are here very exactly described. Then shar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid, 250 She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride. NOTES. This fact evinces the truth of that original, which the Poet gives to Superstition; for if these phantafms were first raised in the imagination of Tyrants, they must needs have the qualities here assigned to 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 anti-type 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 says; and so canonizing a tyrant's vices with his perfon. VER. 262.-and heav'n on pride.) This might be very well faid of those times, when no one was content to go to heaven without being received there on the footing of a God. Then facred feem'd th' etherial vault no more; So drives Self-love, thro' just and thro' unjust, COMMENTARY. 265 270 VER. 269. So drives Self-love, &c.] The inference our Author draws from all this (from $ 268 to 283.) is, that Self-love drives through right and wrong; it causeth the Tyrant to violate the rights of mankind; and it causeth the People to vindicate that violation. For Self-love being common to the whole fpecies, and setting each individual in pursuit of the same objects, it became necessary for each, if he would secure his own, to provide for the fafety of another's. And thus Equity and Benevolence arose from that fame Self-love which had given birth to Avarice and Injustice: "His Safety must his Liberty restrain; "All join to guard what each defires to gain. The Poet hath not any where shewn greater address, in the disposition of his work, than with regard to the inference before us; which not only giveth a proper and timely support to what had been advanced, in the second epiftle concerning the nature and effects of Self-love; but is a necessary introduction to what follows, concerning the Reformation of Religion and Society; as we shall fee presently. 275 For, what one likes if others like as well, The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before; COMMENTARY. 280 285 VER. 283. 'Twas then, the studious head, &c.] The Poet hath now defcribed the rife, perfection, and decay of civil Policy and Religion, in the more early times. But the defign had been imperfect, had he here dropt his discourse: There was, in after ages, a recovery of these from their several corruptions. Accordingly, he hath chofen that happy æra for the conclufion of his Song. But as good and ill Governments and Religions fucceed one another, without ceasing, he now leaveth facts, and turneth his dif NOTES. VER. 283. 'Twas then, &c.] The Poet seemeth here to mean the polite and flourishing age of Greece; and those benefactors to Mankind, which he had principally in view, were SOCRATES and ARISTOTLE; who, of all the pagan world, spoke best of God, and wrote best of Government. Taught Pow'rs due use to People and to Kings, That touching one must strike the other too; COMMENTARY. course [from $ 282 to 295.) to fpeak 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 Superstition: "'Twas then the studious head or gen'rous mind, "Follow'r of God or friend of human kind, Poet or Patriot rofe but to reftore The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before; &c. The easy and just transition into this subject from the foregoing, is admirable. In the foregoing he had described the effects of Self-love; and now, with great art, and high probability, he maketh Mens obfervations on these effects the occafion of those discoveries which they have made of the true principles of Policy and Religion, defcribed in the present paragraph; and this he evidently hinteth at in that fine tranfition, 66 'Twas then, the studious head, &c. VER. 295. Such is the World's great harmony, &c.] Having thus described the true principles of civil and ecclefiaftical Policy, he proceedeth (from $ 294 to 303.) to NOTES. VER. 295. Such is the World's great harmony, &c.] An harmony very different from the pre-established harmony of the celebrated Leibnitz, which establisheth a Fatality deVOL. III. K. |