He hangs between; in doubt to act, or reft;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;

COMMENTARY.

part of the objection, by defcribing the dark and feeble. state of the human Understanding, with regard to the knowledge of ourselves. And further, to strengthen this argument, he shews, in answer to the second part of the objection (from y 18 to 31.) that the highest advances in

NOTES.

and these are both wrong, for Man is neither condemned to flavish Toil and Labour, nor yet indulged in the Luxury of repose. The Poet fays,

In doubt to deem himself a God or beast.

i. e. He doubts, as appears from the very next line, whether his foul be mortal or immortal; one of which is the truth, namely its immortality, as the Poet himself teaches, when he speaks of the Omniprefence of God:

"Breathes in our Soul, informs our mortal part.

Ep. i. & 275.

The Tranflator, as we say, unconscious of the Poet's purpose, rambles as before,

Tantôt de son esprit admirant l'excellence,

Il pense qu'il eft Dieu, qu'il en a la puissance;

"Et tantôt gemissant des besoins de fon corps,

Il croit que de la brute, il n'a que les RESORTS. Here his head, turned to a sceptical view, was running on the different extravagances of Plato in his Theology, and of Des Cartes in his Philofophy. Sometimes, fays he, Man believes himself a real God; and fometimes again, a mere Machine: things quite out of the Poet's thought in this place. Again, the Poet, in a beautiful allufion to Scripture fentiments, breaks out into this just and moral reflection on man's condition here,

"Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err.

In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err,
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:

COMMENTARY.

natural knowledge may be easily acquired, and yet we, all the while, continue very ignorant of ourselves. For that neither the clearest science, which refults from the Newtonian philofophy, nor the most fublime, which is taught by the Platonic, will at all assist us in this self-study; nay,

NOTES.

The Tranflator turns this fine and fober thought into the most outrageous Scepticism;

"Ce n'eft que pour mourir, qu'il est né, qui'l refpire, "Et toute fa raison n'est presque qu'un delire.

and fo makes his Author directly contradict himself, where he says of Man, that he hath

-" too much knowledge for the Sceptic side.

VER. 10. Born but to die, &c.] The author's meaning is, that, as we are born to die, and yet do enjoy fome small portion of life; so, though we reason to err, yet we comprehend fome few truths. This is the weak ftate of Reafon, in which Error mixes itself with all its true conclufions concerning Man's Nature.

VER. 11. Alike in ignorance, &c.] i. e. The proper sphere of his Reason is fo narrow, and the exercise of it fo nice, that the too immoderate use of it is attended with the fame ignorance that proceeds from the not using it at all. Yet, tho' in both these cases, he is abused by himself, he has it still in his own power to disabuse himself, in making his Paffions subservient to the means, and regulating his Reason by the end of life.

VER.12. Whether he thinks too little, or too much:] This is so true, that ignorance arifes as well from pushing our

4

Chaos of Thought and Paffion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd, or difabus'd;
Created half to rife, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd :
The glory, jeft, and riddle of the world!

VARIATIONS.

After 18. in the MS.

For more perfection than this state can bear
In vain we figh, Heav'n made us as we are.

COMMENTARY.

15

what is more, that Religion itself, when grown fanatical and enthufiaftic, will be equally useless: Though pure and sober Religion will best instruct us in Man's Nature; that knowledge being effential to Religion; whose subject is Man confidered in all his relations, and, confequently, whose object is God.

NOTES.

enquities too far, as from not carrying them far enough, that we may observe, when Speculations, even in Science, are carried beyond a certain point; that point, where use is reafonably supposed to end, and mere curiofity to begin; they conclude in the most extravagant and fenfeless inferences; fuch as the unreality of matter; the reality of space; the fervility of the Will, &c. The reason of this fudden fall out of full light into utter darkness, feems not to refult from the natural condition of things, but to be the arbitrary decree of infinite wisdom and goodness, which impofed a barrier to the extravagancies of its giddy lawless creature, always inclined to pursue truths of less importance too far, to the neglect of those more neceffary for his improvement in his flation here.

VER. 17. Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error burl'd:] Some have imagined that the author, by, in endless error Go, wond'rous creature! mount where Science

guides,

Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; 20

VARIATIONS.

As wisely sure a modest Ape might aim
To be like Man, whose faculties and frame
He fees, he feels, as you or I to be
An Angel thing we neither know nor fee.
Observe how near he edges on our race;
What human tricks! how risible of face!

NOTES.

burld, meant, cast into endless error, or into the regions of endless error, and therefore have taken notice of it as an incongruity of speech. But they neither understood the Poet's language, nor his sense: to hurl and caft are not synonymous; but related only as the genus and species; for to hurl fignifies, not fimply to cast, but to cast backward and forward, and is taken from the rural game called hurling. So that, into endless error hurl'd, as these critics would have it, would have been a barbarism. His words therefore fignify, toffed about in endless error; and this he intended they should fignify, as appears from the antithesis, fole judge of truth. So that the sense of the whole is, “ Tho', as fole judge of truth, he is now fixed and stable; yet, as involved in endless error, he is now again burl'd, or "toffed up and down in it." This shews us how cautious we ought to be in censuring the expressions of a writer, one of whose characteristic qualities was correctness of expreffion and propriety of sentiment.

66

VER. 20. Go, measure earth, &c.] Alluding to the noble and useful labours of the modern Mathematicians, in measuring a degree at the equator and the polar circle, in order to determine the true figure of the earth; of great importance to astronomy and navigation.

VOL. III.

F

Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun;
Go, foar with Plato, to th' empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
Or tread the mazy round his follow'rs trod,
And quitting sense call imitating God;
As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the Sun.

VARIATIONS.

It must be so-why else have I the sense
Of more than monkey charms and excellence?
Why else to walk on two so oft essay'd?
And why this ardent longing for a maid?
So Pug might plead, and call his Gods unkind
Till fet on end and married to his mind.
Go, reas'ning Thing! assume the Doctor's chair,
As Plato deep, as Seneca severe:
Fix moral fitness, and to God give rule,
Then drop into thyself, &c.

VER. 21. Ed. 4th and 5th.

Show by what rules the wand'ring planets stray,
Correct old Time, and teach the Sun his Way.

NOTES.

25

VER. 22. Correct old Time,] This alludes to Sir Ifaac Newton's Grecian Chronology, which he reformed on those two fublime conceptions, the difference between the reigns of kings, and the generations of men; and the position of the colures of the equinoxes and solstices at the time of the Argonautic expedition.