Now looking downwards, juft as griev'd appears
To want the ftrength of bulls, the fur of bears.
Made for his ufe all creatures if he call,

Say what their use, had he the pow'rs of all ;
Nature to thefe, without profufion, kind,

'The proper organs, proper pow'rs affign'd; 180
Each feeming want compenfated of course,
Here with degrees of fwiftnefs, there of force;

COMMENTARY.

putation of certain fuppofed NATURAL EVILS. For now he fhews (from 172 to 207) that though the complaint of his adversaries against Providence be on pretence of real moral evils ; yet, at bottom, it all proceeds from their impatience under imaginary natural ones, the iffue of a depraved appetite for vifionary advantages, which if Man had, they would be either ufelefs or pernicious to him, as unfuitable to his state, or repugnant to his condition. Though God (fays he) hath so bountifully bestowed, on Man, Faculties little lefs than angelic, yet he ungratefully grafps at higher; and then, extravagant in another extreme, with a paffion as ridiculous as that is impious, envies even the peculiar accommodations of brutes. But here his own principles fhew his folly. He fuppofes them all made for his use: Now what use could he have of them, when he had robbed them of all their qualitics? Qualities, diftributed with the highest wifdom, as they are divided at prefent; but which, if bestowed according to the froward humour of thefe childish complainers, would be found to be, every where, either wanting or fuperfuous. But even with thefe brutal qualities, Man would not only be no gainer, but a confiderable lofer; as is fhewn, in

NOTES.

VER. 182. Here with degrees of fwiftne, &c.] It is a certain axiom in the anatomy of creatures, that in proportion as they are formed for firength, their fwiftnefs is leffened; or as, they are formed for fwifthefs, their ftrength is abated. P.

All in exact proportion to the state;

Nothing to add, and nothing to abate."
Each beaft, each infect, happy in its own:

185

Is Heav'n unkind to Man, and Man alone?

Shall he alone, whom rational we call,

190

Be pleas'd with nothing, if not bless'd with all ?
The bliss of Man (could Pride that bleffing find)
Is not to act or think beyond mankind ;
No pow'rs of body or of foul to share,
But what his nature and his ftate can bear.
Why has not Man a microscopic eye?
For this plain reafon, man is not a Fly.
Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n,

195

T' infpect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n ?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,

To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore?
Or quick effluvia darting thro' the brain,
Die of a rofe in aromatic pain?

If nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears,

200

And stunn'd him with the mufic of the spheres,

COMMENTARY.

explaining the confequences that would follow from his having his fenfations in that exquifite degree, in which this or that animal is obferved to poffefs them.

NOTES.

VER. 202. Stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,] This instance is poetical and even fublime, but mifplaced. He

How would he wish that Heav'n had left him ftill The whifp'ring Zephyr, and the purling rill? Who finds not Providence all good and wife, 205 Alike in what it gives, and what denies ?

VII. Far as Creation's ample range extends, The fcale of fenfual, mental pow'rs afcends: Mark how it mounts, to Man's imperial race, From the green myriads in the peopled grafs : 210 What modes of fight betwixt each wide extreme, The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam: Of smell, the headlong lionefs between, And hound fagacious on the tainted green:

COMMENTAY.

VER. 207. Far as Creation's ample range extends,] He tells us next (from 206 to 233) that the complying with fuch extravagant defires would not only be ufelefs and pernicious to Man, but would be breaking into the Order, and deforming the Beauty of God's Creation, in which this animal is fubject to that, and every one to Man; who by his Reafon enjoys the fum of all their powers.

NOTES.

is arguing philofophically in a cafe that required him to employ the real objects of fenfe only: and, what is worse, he fpeaks of this as a real object.If NATURE thunder'd, &c. The cafe is different where (iny 253) he fpeaks of the motion of the heavenly bodies under the fublime Imagery of ruling Angels: For whether there be ruling Angels or no, there is real motion, which was all his argument wanted; but if there be no mufic of the jpheres, there was no real found, which his argument was obliged to find.

VER. 213. The headlong lionefs] The manner of the

Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood, 215
To that which warbles thro' the vernal wood?
The spider's touch, how exquifitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:
In the nice bee, what fenfe fo fubtly true
From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?229
How Instinct varies in the grov❜ling swine,
Compar'd, half-reas'ning elephant, with thine!
Twixt that, and Reason, what a nice barrier?
'For ever fep'rate, yet for ever near!
Remembrance and Reflection how ally'd;

225

What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide? -

NOTES.

lions hunting their prey in the deferts of Africa is this: At their firft going out in the night-time they fet up a loud roar, and then liften to the noise made by the beafts in their flight, pursuing them by the ear, and not by the noftril. It is probable the ftory of the jackal's hunting for the lion, was occafioned by obfervation of this defect of fcent in that terrible animal. P.

VER. 224. For ever fep'rate, &c.] Near, by the fimilitude of the operations; feparate, by the immenfe difference in the nature of the powers.

VER. 226. What thin partitions, &c.] So thin, that the Atheistic philofophers, as Protagoras, held that thought was only fenfe; and from thence concluded, that every imagination or opinion of every man was true: Πᾶσα φαντασία ἐςὶν ἀληθής. But the poet determines more philofophically; that they are 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 demonstrate the equality of its three angles to two right ones, he has the picture or image of fome fenfible trian

230

And Middle natures, how they long to join,
Yet never pass th' infuperable line!
Without this juft gradation, could they be
Subjected, these to thofe, or all to thee?
The pow'rs of all fubdu'd by thee alone,
Is not thy Reason all these pow'rs in one?
VIII. See, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth,

COMMENTARY.

VER. 233. See, thro' this air, &c.] And further (from 232 to 267) that this breaking the order of things, which, as a link or chain, connects all beings from the higheft to the lowest, would unavoidably be attended with the deftruction of the Univerfe 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 hardly be doubted: Yet we fee what confusion it would make in our frame, if the members were fet upon invading each other's office:

* 259, &c.

What if the Foot, &c. Who will not acknowledge, therefore, that fo harmonious a

NOTES.

gle 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 it was that Ariftotle faid, Νοήματα τους διοίσει, τὸ μὴ φαντάσματα εἶναι, ἡ ἐδὲ ταῦτα φαντάσματα, ἀλλ ̓ ἐκ ἄνευ φαντασμάτων. The conceptions of the mind differ fomewhat from fenfible images; they are not fenfible images, and yet not quite free or difengaged from fenfible images.