239 And Middle natures, how they long to join All matter quick, and bursting into birth. COMMENTARY. VER. 233. See, thro' this air, &c.] And further (from Ver. 232 to 267.) that this breaking the order of things, which, as a link or chain, connects all beings from the highest to the loweft, would unavoidably be attended with the deftruction of the Universe: For that the feveral parts of it must at least compofe as entire and harmonious a Whole, as the parts of a human body, can be doubted of by no one: Yet we fee what confufion it would make in our frame, if the members were fet upon invading each other's office. What if the Foot, &ç. NOTES. really and effentially different, how thin foever the partition is by which they are divided. Thus (to illuftrate the truth of this obfervation) when a geometer confiders a triangle, in order to demonftrate the equality of its three angles to two right ones, he has the picture or image of fome fenfible triangle in his mind, which is fenfe; yet notwithstanding, he muft needs have the notion or idea of an intellectual triangle likewife, which is thought; for this plain reafon, because every image or picture of a triangle muft needs be obtufangular, or rectangular, or acutangular; but that which, in his mind, is the fubject of his propofition is the ratio of a triangle, undetermined to any of thefe fpecies. On this account Above, how high, progreffive life may go! 235 Where, one step broken, the great scale's deftroy'd: VARIATIONS. VER. 238. Ed. ist. Ethereal effence, fpirit, fubftance, man. COMMENTARY. Who will not acknowledge, therefore, that a connection, in the difpofition of things, fo harmonious as here described, is transcendently beautiful? But the Fatalifts fuppofe fuch an one. -What then? Is the First Free Agent, the great Cause of all things, debarred a contrivance infinitely exquifite, because fome Men, to fet up their idol, Fate, abfurdly reprefent it as prefiding over such a system ? NOTES. it was that Ariftotle faid, Νοηματὰ τινι διοίσει, το μὴ φανΠάσματα εἶναι, ἢ ἐδὲ ταῦτα φανάσματα, ἀλλ ̓ ἐκ ἄνευ φαντάσο Marwv. The conceptions of the mind differ fomewhat from fenfible images; they are not fenfible images, and yet not quite free or dif engaged from fenfible images. μάτων. VER. 243. Or in the full creation leave a void, &c.] This is only an illustration from the Peripatetic plenum and vacuum : the full and void here meant, relating not to Matter, but to. Life. From Nature's chain whatever link you you strike, Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. And, if each system in gradation roll Alike effential to th' amazing Whole, The leaft confufion but in one, not all 246 That system only, but the Whole must fall, 250 Vile worm !---oh Madness! Pride! Impiety! NOTES. VER. 247. And, if each fstem in gradation roll.] The verb is exactly chofen, as not alluding to the motion of the planetary bodies of each fyftem; but to the figures defcribed by that motion. VER. 251. Let Earth unbalanc'd] i.e. Being no longer kept within its orbit by the different directions of its progreffive and attractive motions; which, like equal weights in a balance, keep it in an equilibre. VER. 253. Let ruling Angels, &c.] The Poet, throughout this Work, has, with great art, used an advantage which his employing a Platonic principle for the foundation of his Effay, had afforded him; and that is the expreffing himself (as here) in Platonic language; which, luckily for his purpofe, 260 IX. What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread, To be another, in this gen'ral frame: All are but parts of one ftupendous whole, COMMENTARY. VER. 267. All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,] Our Author having thus given a representation of God's work, as one entire whole, where all the parts have a neceffary dependance on, and relation to each other, and where each parti cular part works and concurs to the perfection of the Whole; as fuch a fyftem tranfcends vulgar ideas; to reconcile it to common conceptions, he fhews (from Ver. 266 to 281.) that God is equally and intimately present to every fort of fubftance, NOTES. is highly poetical, at the fame time that it adds a grace to the uniformity of his reasoning. VER. 259. What if the Foot, &c.] This fine Illustration in defence of the Syftem of Nature, is taken from St. Paul, who employed it to defend the System of Grace. VER. 265. Just as abfurd, &c.] See the profecution and application of this in Ep. iv. P. VER. 266. The great directing mind, &c.]" Veneramur "autem & colimus ob dominium. Deus enim fine dominio, "providentia, & caufis finalibus, nihil aliud eft quam FA"TUM & NATURA." Newtoni Princip. Schol. gener. fub finem. VER. 268. Whofe body Nature is, &c.] Mr. de Croufaz re That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame; Great in the earth, as in th' æthereal frame; 270 COMMENTARY. to every particle of matter, and in every inftant of being; which eases the labouring imagination, and makes us expect no lefs, from fuch a Prefence, than fuch a Difpenfation. NOTES. marks, on this line, that "A Spinozift would exprefs him"felf in this Manner." I believe he would; for fo the infamous Toland has done, in his Atheist's Liturgy, called PANTHEISTICON: But fo would St. Paul likewife, who, writing on this fubject, the omniprefence of God in his Providence, and in his Subftance, fays, in the words of a pantheistical Greek Poet, In him we live, and move, and have our being; i. e. we are parts of him, his offpring: And the reason is, becaufe a religious theift and an impious pantheift both profefs to believe the omniprefence of God. But would Spinoza, as Mr. Pope docs, call God the great directing mind of all, who hath intentionally created a perfect Univerfe? Or would a Spinozist have told us, "The workman from the work diftinct was known," a line that overturns all Spinozifm from its very foundations. But this fublime defcription of the Godhead contains not only the divinity of St. Paul; but, if that will not fatisfy the men he writes against, the philosophy likewise of Sir Ifaac Newton. The Poet fays, "All are but parts of one ftupendous whole, "Spreads undivided, operates unspent." The Philofopher:-"In ipfo continentur & moventur uni |