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There's fome Peculiar in each leaf and grain, 15 Some unmark'd fibre, or fome varying vein :

COMMENTARY,

the epiftle, has a peculiar relation to each of its parts or members: For the causes of the difficulty in coming at the knowledge and characters of men, explained in the firft, will fhew the importance of what is here delivered, of the joint affiftance of speculation and practice to furmount it; and the wrong means, which both philofophers and men of the world have employed in overcoming thofe difficulties difcourfed of in the fecond, have their fource here deduced; which is feen to be a separate adherence of each to his own method of studying men, and a mutual contempt of the others. Laftly, the right means delivered in the third, will be of little ufe in the application, without the direction here delivered: for though the observation of men and manners discovered a RULING PASSION, yet, without a philofophic knowledge of human nature, we may easily mistake a fecondary and fubfidiary paffion for the principal, and so be never the nearer in the Knowledge of Men. But the elegant and easy form of the introduction equals the propriety of its matter; for the epiftle being addreffed to a noble perfon, diftinguished for his knowledge of the world, it opens, as it were, in the midst of a familiar conversation, which lets us at once into his character; where the Poet, by politely affecting only to ridicule the uselefs knowledge of men confined to books, and only to extol that acquired by the world, artfully infinuates how alike defective the latter may be, when conducted on the fame narrow principle: Which is too often the cafe; as men of the world are more than ordinarily prejudiced in favour of their own observations for the fake of the obferver; and, for the fame reason, lefs indulgent to the discoveries of others.

I.

VER. 15. There's fome Peculiar, &c.] The Poet enters on

NOTES.

VER. 9. And yet-Men may be read, as well as Books, too much, &c.] The Poet has here covertly defcribed a famous

Shall only Man be taken in the grofs?
Grant but as many forts of Mind as Mofs.

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That each from other differs, first confess; Next, that he varies from himself no less: Add Nature's, Custom's, Reason's, Paffion's, ftrife, And all Opinion's colours caft on life.

COMMENTARY.

the First divifion of his fubject, the difficulties of coming at the Knowledge and true Characters of Men. The first cause of this difficulty, which he profecutes (from Ver.14 to 19.) is the great diverfity of characters; of which, to abate our wonder, and not difcourage our inquiry, he only defires we would grant

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-but as many forts of Mind as Mofs." Hereby artfully infinuating, that if Nature hath varied the moft worthless vegetable into above three hundred fpecies, we need not wonder at a greater diverfity in her highest work of the human mind: And if the variety in that vegetable has been thought of importance enough to employ the leifure of a ferious enquirer, much more will the fame circumftance in this mafter piece of the fublunary world deferve our study and

attention.

VER. 19. That each from other differs, &c.] A fecond caufe of this difficulty (from Ver. 18 to 21.) is man's incontancy; whereby not only one man differs from another, but the fame man from himself.

VER. 21. Add Nature's, &c.] A third caufe (from Ver. 20 to 23.) is that cbfcurity thrown over the characters of men,

NOTES.

fyftem of a man of the world, the celebrated Maxims of M. de la Rochefoucault, which are one continued fatire on human Nature; and hold much of the ill language of the Parrot : Our Author's fyftem of human Nature will explain the reason of the cenfure.

VER. 22. And ali Opinien's colours caft en life, &c.] The Poet refers here only to the effects: In the Effay on Man he gives

Our depths who fathoms, or our shallows finds, Quick whirls, and shifting eddies, of our minds?

On human Actions reason tho' you can,

It

may be Reason, but it is not Man:

His Principle of action once explore,

That instant 'tis his Principle no more.

COMMENTARY.

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through the ftrife and contest between nature and custom, be- . tween reafon and appetite, between truth and opinion. And as most men, either through education, temperature, or profeffion, have their characters warp'd by cuftom, appetite, and opinion, the obfcurity arifing from thence is almoft univerfal.

VER. 23. Our depths who fathoms, &c.] A fourth cause (from Ver. 22 to 25.) is deep diffimulation, and restless caprice; whereby the shallows of the mind are as difficult to be found, as the depths of it are to be fathomed.

VER. 25. On human Actions, &c.] A fifth cause (from Ver. 24 to 31.) is the fudden change of his principle of action; ei

NOTES.

both the efficient and the final caufe. The First in the third Ep. Ver. 231.

"Ere Wit oblique had broke that steddy light."

For oblique Wit is Opinion. The other, in the fecond Ep. Ver. 283.

"Meanwhile Opinion gilds with varying rays

"These painted clouds that beautify our days," &c.

VER. 26. It may be Reafon, but it is not Man:] i. e. The Philofopher may invent a rational hypothefts which fhall account for the appearances he would investigate; and yet that hypothefts be, all the while, very wide of fact and the nature of things,

Like following life thro' creatures you diffect,
You lose it in the moment you detect.

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Yet more; the diff'rence is as great between The optics seeing, as the objects seen. All Manners take a tincture from our own; Or come difcolour'd thro' our Paffions shown. Or Fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies, 35 Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes.

COMMENTARY.

ther on the point of its being laid open and detected, or when it is reafoned upon, and attempted to be explored.

VER. 31. Yet more; the diff'rence, &c.] Hitherto the Poet hath fpoken of the causes of difficulty arifing from the obfcurity of the object; he now comes to thofe which proceed from defects in the obferver. The firft of which, and a fixth cause of difficulty, he fhews (from Ver. 30 to 37.) is the perverse manners, affections, and imaginations of the obferver; whereby the characters of others are rarely feen either in their true light, complexion, or proportion.

NOTES.

VER. 29. Like following life through creatures you diffect,
You lofe it in the moment you detect.]

This Simile is extremely beautiful. In order to fhew the difficulty of discovering the operations of the heart in a moral fenfe, the Poet illuftrates it by another attempt ftill more difficult, the difcovery of its operations in a natural: For the feat of animal life being in the heart, our endeavours of tracing it thither muft neceffarily drive it from thence.

VER. 33. All Manners take a tincture from our own, Or come difcolour'd thro' our Paffions shown.] These two lines are remarkable for the exactness and propriety of expreffion. The word tincture, which implies a weak

Nor will Life's ftream for Obfervation stay,

It hurries all too faft to mark their

way:

In vain fedate reflections we would make,

When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.

Oft, in the Paffions' wild rotation toft,
Our spring of action to ourselves is loft:

COMMENTARY.

40

VER. 37. Nor will Life's fream for Obfervation, &c.] The fecond of these, and feventh caufe of difficulty (from Ver. 36 to 41.) is the fhortness of human life; which will not fuffer the obferver to select and weigh out his knowledge, but juft to fnatch it, as it rolls fwiftly by him, down the rapid current of Time.

VER. 41. Oft, in the Paffions', &c.] We come now to the eighth and last cause, which very properly concludes the account; as, in a fort, it fums up all the difficulties in one (from Ver. 40 to 51.) namely, that very often the man himself is ignorant of his own motive of action; the cause of which ignorance our author has admirably explained: When the mind (fays he) is now quite tired out by the long conflict of oppofite motives, it withdraws its attention; and fuffers the will to be seized upon by the first that afterwards obtrudes itself; without taking notice what that motive is. This is finely illuftrated by what he supposes to be the general cause of dreams; where the fancy, juft let loofe, poffeffes itself of the laft image which it meets with, on the confines between fleep and waking; and on that, erects all its visionary operation; yet this feizure is, with great difficulty, recollected; and never, but when fome accident happens

NOTES.

colour given by degrees, well defcribes the influence of the Manners; and the word difcolour, which implies a quicker change and by a deeper dye, denotes as well the operation of the Paffions.

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