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they are so, appears from their always preserving the same unvaried course, throughout all ages, from the creation to the present time:

The gen'ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.

We see, therefore, it would be doing great injustice to our author to suspect that he intended, by this, to give any encouragement to vice. His system is this: That the passions, for the reasons above given, are necessary to the support of virtue: that, indeed, the passions in excess produce vice, which is, in its own nature, the greatest of all evils, and comes into the world from the abuse of man's free-will; but that God, in his infinite wisdom and goodness, deviously turns the natural bias of its malignity to the advancement of human happiness, and makes it productive of general good:

Th' ETERNAL ART educes good from ill. Ep. ii. p. 42. P. 21. And little less than angel, &c.] "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour." Psalm viii. 9.

P. 22. Here with degrees of swiftness, &c.] It is a certain axiom in the anatomy of creatures, that in proportion as they are formed for strength, their swiftness is lessened; or, as they are formed for swiftness, their strength is abated.

P. 24. The headlong lioness.] The manner of the lions hunting their prey in the deserts of Africa is this: At their first going out in the night-time they set up a loud roar, and then listen to the noise made by the beasts in their flight, pursuing them by the ear, and not by the nostril. It is probable the story of the jackal's hunting for the lion, was occasioned by observation of this defect of scent in that terrible animal.

P. 26. Let earth unbalanc'd.] i. e. Being no longer kept within its orbit by the different directions of its progressive and attractive motions; which, like equal weights in a balance, keep it in an equilibre.

P. 27. Whose body nature is, &c.] This sublime description of the Godhead contains not only the divinity of St. Paul, but likewise the philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton.

P. 28. As the rapt seraph, &c.] Alluding to the name seraphim, signifying burners.

P. 28. Cease then, nor Order] That the reader may see in one view the exactness of the method, as well as force of the argument, I shall here draw up a short synopsis of this epistle. The poet begins by telling us his subject is an Essay on Man: that his end of writing is to vindicate Providence: that he intends to derive his arguments from the visible things of God seen in this system: lays down this proposition, that of all possible systems, Infinite Wisdom has formed the best: draws from thence two consequences, 1. that there must needs be somewhere such a creature as man; 2. that the moral evil which he is author of, is productive of the good of the whole. This is his general thesis; from whence he forms this conclusion, that man should rest submissive and content, and make the hopes of futurity his comfort; but not to suffer this to be the occasion of pride, which is the cause of all his impious complaints. He proceeds to confirm his thesis---Previously endeavours to abate our wonder at the phænomenon of moral evil; shews first, its use to the perfection of the universe, by analogy, from the use of physical evil in this particular system---Secondly, its use in this system, where it is turned providentially from its natural bias to promote virtue. Then goes on to vindicate Providence from the imputation of certain supposed natural evils; as he had before justified it for the permission of real moral evil, in shewing that, though the atheist's complaint against Providence be on pretence of real moral evil, yet the true cause is his impatience under imaginary natural evil; the issue of a depraved appetite for fantastical advantages, which, if obtained, would be useless or hurtful to man, and deforming and destructive to the universe, as breaking into that ORDER by which it is supported.---He describes that order, harmony, and close connexion of the parts; and by shewing the intimate presence of God to his whole creation, gives a reason for an universe so amazingly beautiful and perfect. From all this he deduces this general conclusion, that nature being neither a blind chain of causes and effects, nor yet the fortuitous result of wandering atoms, but the wonderful art and direction of an all-wise, all-good, and free Being, whatever is, is RIGHT, with regard to the disposition of God, and its ultimate tendency; which once granted, all complaints against Providence are at an end.

EPISTLE II.

P. 31. The proper study, &c.] The poet having shewn, in the first epistle, that the ways of God are too high for our comprehension, rightly draws this conclusion, and methodically makes it the subject of his introduction to the second, which treats of the nature of man.

P. 32. Alike in ignorance, &c.] i. e. The proper sphere of man's reason is so narrow, and the exercise of it so nice, that the too immoderate use of it is attended with the same ignorance that proceeds from the not using it at all. Yet, though in both these cases he is abused by himself, he has it still in his power to disabuse himself, in making his passions subservient to the means, and regulating his reason by the end of life.

P. 32. Whether be thinks too little or too much.] This is so true, that ignorance arises as well from pushing our enquiries 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 reasonably supposed to end, and mere curiosity to begin---they conclude in the most extravagant and senseless inferences; such as the unreality of matter, the reality of space, the servility of the will, &c. The reason of this sudden fall out of full light into utter darkness, appears not to result from the natural condition of things, but to be the arbitrary decree of infinite wisdom and goodness, which imposed 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 necessary for his improvement in his station here.

P. 32. Go measure earth, &c.] Alluding to the noble and useful project of our modern mathematicians, to measure a degree at the equator and polar circle, in order to determine the true figure of the earth; of great importance to astronomy and navigation.

P. 33. Correct old time.] This alludes to Sir Isaac Newton's Grecian Chronology, which he reformed on those two sublime 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.

P. 33. Superior beings, &c.] In these lines the poet speaks to this effect: But to make you fully sensible of the difficulty of this study, I shall instance in the great Sir Isaac Newton himself; whom, when superior beings saw capable of unfolding the whole law of nature, they were in doubt whether the owner of such prodigious sagacity should not be reckoned of their own order; just as men, when they see the surprising marks of reason in an ape, are almost tempted to rank him with their own kind. And yet this wondrous man could go no further in the knowledge of himself than the generality of his species.

P. 34. Vanity, or dress.] These are the first parts of what the poet, in the preceding line, calls the scholar's equipage of pride. By vanity is meant that luxuriancy of thought and expression in which a writer indulges himself, to shew the fruitfulness of his fancy or invention. By dress is to be understood a lower degree of that practice, in amplification of thought, and ornamental expression, to give force to what the writer would convey: but even this, the poet, in a severe search after truth, very justly condemns.

P. 34. Or learning's luxury, or idleness.] The luxury of learning consists in dressing up and disguising old notions in a new way, so as to make them more fashionable and palatable; instead of examining and scrutinizing their truth.

P. 34. Or tricks to shew the stretch of buman brain.] Such as the mathematical demonstrations concerning the small quantity of matter, the endless divisibility of it, &c.

P. 34. Expunge the whole---or lop th' excrescent parts,
Of all our vices have created arts ;]

i. e. Those parts of natural philosophy, logic, rhetoric, &c. that administer to luxury, deceit, ambition, effeminacy, &c.

P. 39. All spread their charms, &c.] Though all the passions have their turn in swaying the determinations of the mind, yet every man hath one MASTER PASSION that at length stifles or absorbs all the rest. The difference of force in this ruling passion shall, at first, perhaps be very small, or even imperceptible; but nature, habit, imagination, wit, nay, even reason itself, shall assist its growth, till it hath at length drawn and converted every other into itself.

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