"Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;

Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 "Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to << weave;

"Learn of the little Nautilus to fail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.

COMMENTARY.

The delicacy of the Poet's address in the first part of the last line, is very remarkable. In this paragraph he hath given an account of thofe intermediate means, which led Men from natural to civil Society, that is to fay, the invention and improvement of Arts. Now here, on his conclufion of this account, and his entry upon the description of civil Society itfelf, he connects the two parts the moft gracefully that can be conceived, by this true hiftorical circumftance, that it was the invention of thofe Arts which raised to the Magistracy, in this new Society formed for the perfecting of them.

NOTES.

pofed, of course she was to be very angry; and not finding the Author had reprefented her in any great Emotion, he was willing to improve upon his Original.

VER. 173. Learn from the birds, &c.] It is a caution commonly practifed amongst Navigators, when thrown upon a defert coaft, and in want of refreshments, to observe what fruits have been touched by the Birds and to venture on these without further hesitation. P.

:

VER. 174. Learn from the beasts, &c.] See Pliny's Nat. Hift. 1. viii. c. 27. where feveral inftances are given of Animals difcovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own use of them; and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing, by their own practice.

VER. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus, &c.] Oppian Halieut. lib. i. defcribes this fish in the following manner:

"Here too all forms of focial union find,

"And hence let Reason, late, inftruct Mankind: "Here fubterranean works and cities fee; 181 "There towns aerial on the waving tree. "Learn each small People's genius, policies, "The Ants' republic, and the realm of Bees ; "How thofe in common all their wealth bestow, "And Anarchy without confufion know; 186 "And these for ever, tho' a Monarch reign, "Their fep'rate cells and properties maintain, "Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state, "Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate. 190 "In vain thy Reason finer webs shall draw,

Entangle Justice in her net of Law,

"And right, too rigid, harden into wrong,

"Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too ftrong.

"Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, "Thus let the wiser make the rest obey; 196 "And for thofe Arts mere Inftinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd,"

VARIATION S.

VER. 197. in the first Editions,

Who for thofe Arts they learn'd of Brutes before,
As Kings fhall crown them, or as Gods adore'

NOTES.

They fwim on the furface of the fea, on the back of their "fhells, which exactly resemble the hulk of a ship; they raife "twofeet like mafts, and extend a membrane between, which

V. Great Nature spoke; obfervant Men obey'd; Cities were built, Societies were made: Here rose one little ftate; another near

200

Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' love or fear. Did here the trees with ruddier burthens bend, And there the streams in purer rills descend? What War could ravish, Commerce could bestow, And he return'd a friend, who came a foe.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 201. Here,rofe one little ftate, &c.] In the MS. thus, The Neighbours leagu'd to guard their common spot : And Love was Nature's dictate, Murder, not.

For want alone each animal contends;

Tigers with Tigers, that remov'd, are friends.
Plain Nature's wants the common mother crown'd,
She pour'd her acorns, herbs, and ftreams around.
No Treasure then for rapine to invade;

What need to fight for fun-fhine, or for shade?
And half the cause of conteft was remov'd,
When beauty could be kind to all who lov'd.

COMMENTARY.

VER. 199. Great Nature Spoke ;] After all this necessary preparation, the Poet fhews (from Ver. 198 to 209) how civil Society followed, and the advantages it produced.

NOTES.

"ferves as a fail; the other two feet they employ as oars at the "fide. They are ufually feen in the Mediterranean." P.

VER. 199-obfervant Men obey'd ;] The epithet is beautiful, as fignifying both obedience to the voice of Nature, and attention to the leffons of the animal creation.-But M. l'Abbe, who has a strange fatality of contradicting his original, whenever he attempts to paraphrafe (as he calls it) the fenfe, turns the lines in this manner,

"Par ces mots la nature excita l' Industrie, "Et de l'Homme feroce enchaina la furie."

Converse and Love mankind might strongly draw, When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law.

Thus States were form'd; the name of King unknown,

Till common int'reft plac'd the fway in one. 210 'Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms, Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms)

COMMENTARY.

VER. 209. Thus States were form'd;] Having thus explained the original of Civil Society, he fhews us next (from Ver. 208 to 215.) that to this Society a civil magiftrate properly fo called, did belong: And this in confutation of that idle hypothefis, which pretends that God conferred the regal title

NOTES.

Chain'd up the fury of favage Man; and fo contradicts the Author's whole fyftem of benevolence: and goes over to the Atheist's; who fupposes the fate of nature to be a state of war. What seems to have mifled him was thefe lines,

"What war could ravish, Commerce could bestow, "And he return'd a friend who came à foe."

But M. Du Refnel should have confidered, that though the Author holds, a ftate of nature to be a ftate of peace, yet he never imagined it impoffible that there should be quarrels in it. He had faid,

"So drives felf-love thro' juft and thro' unjust.”

He pushes no system to an extravagance, but fteers (as he says in his preface) through doctrines feemingly opposite, or, in other words, follows truth uniformly throughout.

VER. 208. When Love was Liberty,] i. e. When men had no need to guard their native liberty from their governors by civil pactions; the love which each master of a family had for thofe under his care being their beft fecurity.

VER. 211. 'Twas Virtue only, &c.] Our Author hath good authority for this account of the origin of kingship. Aristotle

The fame which in a Sire the Sons obey'd,
A Prince the Father of a People made.

VI. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Pa

triarch fate,

215

King, priest, and parent of his growing state;

COMMENTARY.

on the Fathers of families; from whence men, when they had inftituted Society, were to fetch their Governors. On the contrary, our Author fhews, that a King was unknown, till common intereft which led men to institute civil government, led them at the fame time to institute a Governor. However, that it is true that the fame 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 fupport) of that flavish error: Antiquity reprefenting its earliest monarchs under the idea of a common father, walng andewv. Afterwards, indeed, they became a kind of fofter-fathers, woμsva rawv, as Homer calls one of them: Till at length they began to devour that flock they had been fo long accustomed to hear; and, as Plutarch fays of Cecrops, ἐκ χρης βασιλεως ἄγριον κι δρακοντόδη γενόμενον ΤΥΡΑΝΝΟΝ.

VER 215. Till then, by Nature crown'd, &c.] The Poet now returns (at Ver. 215 to 241.) to what he had left unfinished in his defcription of natural Society. This, which appears irregular, is, indeed, a fine inftance of his thorough knowlege of method. I will explain it :

This third epiftle, we fee, confiders Man with refpect to SOCIETY; the fecond, with refpect to HIMSELF; and the

NOTES.

affures us, that it was Virtue only, or in arts or arms: Kaθίςαται Βασιλεὺς ἐκ τῶν ἐπιεικῶν καθ ̓ υπεροχὴν ἀρετῆς, ἢ πρά ή ξεων τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς, ἢ καθ' υπεροχὴν τοιέτε γενος.