"Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms, VI. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patri arch fate, 215 King, priest, and parent of his growing state; COMMENTARY. milies; 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 same time to institute a governor. However, that it is true that the fame wisdom 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 representing its earliest monarchs under the idea of a common father, walng dvdpav. Afterwards indeed they became a kind of fofter-fathers, wopiva λawv, as Homer calls one of them: 'Till at length they began to devour that flock they had been fo long accustomed to fhear; and, as Plutarch fays of Cecrops, ἐκ χρησὅ βασιλέως ἄγριον ἢ δρακοντώδη γενόμενον ΤΥΡΑΝΝΟΝ. VER. 215. Till then, by Nature crown'd, &c.] The poet now returns (at.y 215 to 241) to what he had left unfinish'd in his description of natural Society. This, which appears irregular, is indeed a fine inftance of his thorough knowledge of the art of Method. I will explain it : NOTES. VER. 211. 'Twas Virtue only, &c.] Our author hath good authority for this account of the origin of kingfhip. Ariftotle affures us, that it was Virtue only, or in arts or arms: Kaliταλαι Βασιλεὺς ἐκ τῶν ἐπιεικῶν καθ ̓ ὑπεροχὴν ἀρετῆς, ἡ πράξεων τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς, ἡ καθ' ὑπεροχὴν τοιέτα γένες, On him, their second Providence, they hung, COMMENTARY. This third epiftle, we fee, confiders Man with respect to Society; the fecond, with respect to Himself; and the fourth, with refpect to Happiness. But in none of these relations does the poet ever lofe fight of him under that in which he stands to God; it will follow, therefore, that speaking of him with respect to Society, the account would be then moft imperfect, were he not at the fame time confidered with refpect to his Religion; for between these two there is a close, and, while things continue in order, a most interesting connection: True faith, true policy united ran; That was but love of God, and this of Man. Now Religion suffering no change or depravation, when Man first entered into civil Society, but continuing the fame as in the ftate of Nature; the author, to avoid repetition, and to bring the accounts of true and false religion nearer to one another, in order to contraft them by the advantage of that fituation, deferred giving account of his Religion till he had spoken of the origin of that Society. Thence it is that he here refumes the account of the ftate of Nature, that is, fo much of it as he had left unCouched, which was only the Religion of it. This confifting in NOTES. VER. 219. He from the wond'ring furrow, &c.] i. e. He fubdued the intractability of all the four elements, and made them fubfervient to the ufe of Man, Then, looking up from fire to fire, explor'd 225 The worker from the work diftinct was known, COMMENTARY. the knowledge of one God, the creator of all things, he fhews how Men came by that knowledge: That it was either found out by Reason, which giving to every effect a cause, instructed them to go from cause to caufe, till they came to the first, who, being caufelefs, would neceffarily be judged felf-existent: or elfe taught by Tradition, which preferved the memory of the Creation. He then tells us what thefe men, undebauched by falfe science, understood by God's Nature and Attributes: First, of God's Nature, that they easily distinguished between the Worker and the Work, faw the fubftance of the Creator to be diftinct and different from that of the creature, and fo were in no danger of falling into the horrid opinion of the Greek philofophers, and their follower, Spinoza. And fimple Reason teaching them that the Creator was but One, they eafily faw that all was right, and were in as little danger of falling into the Manichean error; which, when oblique Wit had broken the fteddy light of Reason, imagined all was not right, having before imagined all was not the work of One. Secondly, he fhews what they understood of God's Attributes; that they cafily conceived a Father where they NOTES. VER. 225. Then, looking up, &c.] The poet here maketh their more ferious attention to Religion to have arifen, not from their gratitude amidst abundance, but from their helplessnefs in diftrefs; by fhewing that, during the former ftate, they refted in fecond caufes, the immediate authors of their bleffings, whom they revered as God; but that, in the other, they reafoned up to the First: Then looking up from fire to fe, &c. VOL. III. I Ere Wit oblique had broke that steddy light, Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then; 235 That was but love of God, and this of Man. 240 done, Th'enormous faith of many made for one; That proud exception to all Nature's laws, T'invert the world, and counter-work its Cause? COMMENTARY. had found a Deity; and that a fovereign being could only be a fovereign Good. VER. 241. Who first taught souls enflav'd, &c.] Order leadeth the poet to speak next (from 240 to 246) of the cor* ruption of civil Society into Tyranny, and its Causes; and here, with all the art of addrefs as well as truth, he observes it arose from the violation of that great Principle, which he so much infifts upon throughout his Effay, that each was made for the use NOTES. This, I am afraid, is but too true a representation of human nature. VER. 231. Ere Wit oblique, &c.] A beautiful allufion to the effects of the prifmatic glafs on the rays of light. VER. 242. Th'enormous faith, &c.] In this Ariftotle placeth the difference between a King and a Tyrant, that the first sup Force first made Conqueft,and that conqueft, Law; "Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe, COMMENTARY, 246 of all. We may be fure, that, in this corruption, where natural juftice was thrown afide, and force, the Atheift's juftice, prefided in its ftead, Religion would follow the fate of civil Society: We know, from ancient hiftory, it did fo. Accordingly Mr. Pope (from 245 to 269) with corrupt Politics defcribes corrupt Religion and its Causes: he first informs us, agreeable to his exact knowledge of Antiquity, that it was the Politician and not the Priest (as our illiterate tribe of Free-thinkers would make us believe) who firft corrupted Religion. Secondly, That the Superftition he brought in was not invented by him, as an engine to play upon others (as the dreaming Atheist feigns, who would thus miferably account for the origin of Religion) but was a trap he first fell into himself. ท NOTES. pofeth himself made for the People; the other, that the People are made for him: Βέλεται δ' ὁ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ εἶναι φύλαξ, ὅπως οἱ μὲν κεκλημένοι τὰς ἐσίας μηθὲν ἄδικον πάσχασιν, ὁ δὲ δήμος μὴ ὑβρίζηται μηθέν· ἡ δὲ ΤΥΡΑΝΝΙΣ πρὸς ἐδεν αποβλέπει κοινὸν, εἰ μὴ τῆς ἰδίας ὠφελείας χάριν. Pol. lib. v. cap. 1o. VER. 245. Force first made Conqueft, &c.] All this is agreeable to fact, and fheweth our author's exact knowledge of human nature. For that Impotency of mind (as the Latin writers call it) which giveth birth to the enormous crimes neceffary to support a Tyranny, naturally fubjecteth 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 Superftition upon himself, to turn it by the affiftance of the Prieft (who for his reward went sharer with him in the Tyranny) as his beft defence against his Subjects. For a Tyrant naturally and reasonably deemeth all his Slaves to be his enemies. Having given the Caufes of Superftition, he next defcribes its objects: Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust, &c. |