Together let us beat this ample field, Try what the open, what the covert yield; And catch the Manners living as they rife; COMMENTARY. Next, in line 16, he tells us with what design he wrote, viz. To vindicate the ways of God to Man. The Men he writes againft, he frequently informs us, are fuch as weigh their opinion against Providence (114) fuch as cry, if Man's unhappy, God's unjuft ( 118) or fuch as fall into the notion, that Vice and Virtue there is none at all (Ep. ii. ✯ 212) This occafions the poet to divide his vindication of the ways of God into two parts. In the firft of which he gives direct anfwers to those objections which libertine Men, on a view of the disorders arifing from the perverfity of the human will, have intended against Providence. And in the fecond, he obviates all thofe objections, by a true delineation of human Nature; or a general, but exact, map of Man. The first epiftle is employed in the management of the firft part of this difpute; and the NOTES VER. 12. Of all who blindly creep, &c.] i. e. Those who only follow the blind guidance of their Paffions; or those who leave behind them common fenfe and fober reason, in their high flights through the regions of Metaphyfics. Both which follies are expofed in the fourth epiftle, where the popular and philofophical errors concerning Happiness are detected. The figure is taken from animal life. VER. 15. Laugh where we must, &c.] Intimating that human follies are fo ftrangely abfurd, that it is not in the power of the most compaffionate, on fome occafions, to reftrain their 20 I. Say first, of God above, or Man below, What can we reason, but from what we know? Of Man, what fee we but his station here, From which to reafon, or to which refer? Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known, 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. He, who thro' vast immensity can pierce, See worlds on worlds compofe one universe, 25 What other planets circle other funs, COMMENTARY. three following in the difcuffion of the fecond. So that this whole book conftitutes a complete Effay on Man, written for the best purpose, to vindicate the ways of God. VER. 17. Say first, of God above, or Man below, &c.] The poet having declared his Subject, his End of writing, and the Quality of his Adverfaries, proceeds (from 16 to 23) to inftruct us, from whence he intends to draw his arguments; namely, from the visible things of God in this system to demonstrate the invifible things of God, his eternal Power and God-head: And NOTES. mirth: And that human crimes are so flagitious, that the most candid have seldom an opportunity, on this subject, to exercise their virtue. VER. 19, 20. Of Man, what fee we but his ftation here, From which to reafon, or to which refer ?] The fenfe is, we fee nothing of Man, but as he ftands at prefent in his ftation here: From which ftation, all our reafonings on his nature and end must be drawn; and to this ftation they must be all referred. The confequence is, all our reafonings on his nature and end muit needs be very imperfect. VER. 21. Thro' worlds unnumber'd, &c.] Hunc cognofcimus folummodo per Proprietates fuas & Attributa, & per fapientiffimas & optimas rerum ftructuras & caufas finales. Newtoni Princ. Schol. gen. fub fin. What vary'd Being peoples ev'ry star, Look'd thro'? or can a part contain the whole? COMMENTARY. 30 why? becaufe we can reafon only from what we know, and as we know no more of Man than what we fee of his station here; fo we know no more of God than what we fee of his difpenfations in this ftation; being able to trace him no further than to the limits of our own fyftem. This naturally leads the poet to exprobrate the miferable Folly and Impiety of pretending to pry into, and call in queftion, the profound difpenfations of Providence: Which reproof contains (from 22 to 43) a fublime defcription of the Omnifcience of God, and the miferable Blindness and Prefumption of Man. NOTES. VER. 30. The frong connections, nice dependencies,] The thought is very noble, and expreffed with great philofophic beauty and exactnefs, The fyftem of the Univerfe is a combination of natural and moral Fitneffes, as the human system is, of body and spirit. By the frong connections, therefore, the Poet alluded to the natural part; and by the nice dependencies to the moral. For the Efay on Man is not a fyftem of Naturalism but of natural Religion. Hence it is, that, where he fuppofes diforders may tend to fome greater good in the natural world, he fuppofes they may tend likewife to fome greater good in the moral, as appears from thefe fublime images in the following lines, If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's defign, Who knows, but he, whofe hand the light'ning forms, Or turns young Ammon loofe to fcourge mankind? Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn fupports, upheld by God, or thee? II. Prefumptuous Man! the reafon wouldst thou find, 35 Why form'd fo weak, fo little, and fo blind? Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove? That Wisdom infinite must form the best, COMMENTARY. VER. 43. Of fyftems possible, &c] So far his modeft and fober Introduction; in which he truly obferves, that no wifdom lefs than omniscient Can tell why Heav'n has made us as we are. Yet, though we be unable to difcover the particular reafons for this mode of our exiftence, we may be affured in general that it is right. For now, entering upon his argument, he lays down this evident propofition as the foundation of his NOTES. VER, 35 to 42.] In thefe lines the poet has joined the beauty of argumentation to the fublimity of thought; where the fimilar instances, proposed for his adverfaries examination, fhew as well the abfurdity of their complaints against Order, as the fruitleefs of their enquiries into the arcana of the Godhead. 45 Where all muft full or not coherent be, COMMENTARY. 50 Thefis, which he reafonably fuppofes will be allowed him, That, of all poffible fyftems, infinite wisdom bath formed the best ( 43, 44) From whence he draws two confequences: 1. The first (from 44 to 51) is, that as the best fyftem cannot but be such a one as hath no inconnected Void; fuch a one in which there is a perfect coherence and gradual fubordination in all its parts; there must needs be, in fome part or other of the scale of reasoning life, such a creature as MAN: Which reduces the difpute to this abfurd question, Whether God has placed him wrong? VER. 51. Refpecting Man, &c.] It being fhewn that MAN, the Subject of his enquiry, has a neceffary place in such a system as this is confeffed to be; and it being evident, that the abufe of Free-will, from whence proceeds all moral evil, is the certain effect of fuch a creature's exiftence; the next question will be, How thefe evils can be accounted for, confiftently with the idea we have of God's attributes? Therefore, 2. The fecond confequence he draws from his principle, That of all poffible fyftems, infinite wisdom has formed the best, is, that whatever is wrong in our private fyftem, is right as relative to the whole : Refpecting Man, whatever wrong we call, That it may, he proves (from 52 to 61) by fhewing in what confifts the difference between the fyftematic works of God, |