"Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail, "Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. NOTES. 181 "Learn discourse of the inventions and originals of things, refer them rather to Beafts, Birds, and Fishes, and Serpents, than to Men. So that it was no marvaile (the manner of antiquity being to confecrate Inventors) that the Ægyptians had fo few human idols in their temples, but almost all brute. Who taught the raven in a drowth to throw pebbles into a hollow tree when she spied water, that the water might rise so as she might come to it? Who taught the bee to fayle thro' such a vast sea of air, and to find the way from a field in flower a great way off to her hive? Who taught the ant to bite every graine of corne fhe burieth in her hill, least it should take roote and grow?" See, in the Philofophical Tranfactions, the marvellous account of the white ants in Africa, and their buildings and arts. It is fomewhat remarkable, that Solomon, in the Proverbs, when he speaks of the wonderful instincts of certain animals, does not mention the bee. VER. 174. Learn from the beafts, &c.] See Pliny's Nat. Hift. 1. viii. c. 27. where several instances are given of Animals discovering the medical efficacy of herbs, by their own use of them; and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing, by their own practice. 66 W. VER. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus, &c.] Oppian Halieur, lib. ii. defcribes this fifh in the following manner: They fwim on the furface of the fea, on the back of their fhells, which exactly resemble the hulk of a ship; they raise two feet like mafts, and extend a membrane between, which serves as a fail; the other two feet they employ as oars at the fide. They are usually seen in the Mediterranean." P. "Learn each fmall People's genius, policies, "The Ants' republic, and the realm of Bees; "And these for ever, tho' a Monarch reign, 190 "Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway, 195 "Thus let the wiser make the rest obey; "And for thofe Arts mere Instinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd." V. Great Nature spoke; obfervant Men obey'd; Cities were built, Societies were made: Here rofe one little ftate; another near 200 Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' love or fear. VARIATIONS. Did VER. 197. In the first Editions, Who for those Arts they learn'd of BRUTES before, "Les Sauvages racontent que ce fut Michabou [le DIEU des Eaux] qui apprit à leurs Ancêtres à pêcher, qu'il inventa les Rêts, et que ce fut la toile d'ARAIGNE'E qui lui en donne l'idée.” -Journal d'un Voyage dans l'Amerique Sept. par Charlevoix, Vol. v. p. 417. Par. 1744. 8vo. W. VER. 201. Here rofe one little ftate, &c.] In the MS. thus, The neighbours leagu'd to guard their common spot; For 206 Did here the trees with ruddier burthens bend, known, Till common int'reft plac'd the sway in one. 210 'Twas VARIATIONS. For want alone each animal contends; Tigers with Tigers, that remov'd, are friends. NOTES. VER. 208. When Love was Liberty,] i. e. When men had no need to guard their native liberty from their governors by civil pactions; the love which each master of a family had for those under his care being their beft fecurity. W. VER. 209. Thus States were form'd;] Having thus explained the original of Civil Society, he shews us next (from Ver. 208 to 215.) that to this Society a civil magiftrate, properly fo called, did belong: And this in confutation of that idle hypothefis, which pretends that God conferred the regal title on the Fathers of families; from whence men, when they had instituted Society, were to fetch their Governors. On the contrary, our Author shews, that a King was unknown, till common intereft, which led men to institute civil government, led them at the fame time to inftitute 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 'Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms, A Prince the Father of a People made. VI. Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch fate, King, prieft, and parent of his growing state; NOTES. 215 On while mistaken, continues to be the chief support) of that slavish error: Antiquity representing its earliest monarchs under the idea of a common father, walng ardear. Afterwards, indeed, they became a kind of fofter-fathers, waiva aw, 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, iz χρης βασιλέως ἄγριον και δρακοντόδη γενόμενον ΤΥΡΑΝΝΟΝ. W. "The highest or From the manuscripts of James Harris, Efq. der of men are wife and honest legislators: next to them come wife and honest magistrates: next to thefe, military commanders, whether naval or terrestrial: next to these, the tribe of artists, as well the elegant as the neceffary: next to these, farmers, hinds, and labourers: then come idle men of great family, patent-gatherers, knights, and baronets, mumpers, fortune-tellers, gypfies, gentlemen without poffeffions; all who injure fociety either by fraud or rapine, or at least by ingratitude, in partaking of its benefits, without regarding the great duty of contributing their own endeavours." VER. 211. 'Twas Virtue only, &c.] Our Author hath good authority for this account of the origin of kingship. Aristotle affures us, that it was Virtue only, or in arts or arms: Kabigtalar Βασιλεὺς ἐκ τῶν ἐπιεικῶν καθ ̓ ὑπεροχὴν ἀρετῆς, ἢ πράξεων τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς αρετ Την ἡ καθ ̓ ὑπεροχήν τοιέτε γένες. W. VER. 214. A Prince the Father] Joinville relates, that he had frequently feen St. Louis, after having heard mass in the summer, feat himself at the foot of an old oak in the foreft of Vincennes, where any one of his subjects might approach him, and lay his business or complaint before this good king. Our Author would have much improved all that he fays of Government, if he had lived to have read one of the beft, perhaps, of all treatises on politics, that of the Prefident Montefquieu. On him, their fecond Providence, they hung, He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the food, Taught to command the fire, controul the flood, 220 NOTES. 225 Or VER. 219. He from the wond'ring] A finer example can perhaps scarce be given of a compact and comprehensive style. The manner in which the four elements were fubdued is comprised in thefe four lines alone. Pope is here, as Quintilian fays of another, "denfus et brevis, et inftans fibi." There is not an useless word in this paffage; there are but three epithets, wondering, profound, aerial; and they are placed precifely with the very substantive that is of most confequence: if there had been epithets joined with the other fubftantives, it would have weakened the nervousness of the fentence. This was a fecret of verfification Pope well understood, and hath often practised with peculiar fuccefs. VER. 225. Then, looking up, &c.] The Poet here maketh their more serious attention to Religion to have arisen, not from their gratitude amidst abundance, but from their inability in distress; by fhewing, that, in prosperity, they rested in second causes, the immediate authors of their bleffings, whom they revered as God; but that, in adverfity, they reafoned up to the First: "Then, looking up from fire to fire," &c. This, I am afraid, is but too true a representation of humanity. W. VER. 225 to Ver. 240.] M. Du Refnel, not apprehending that the Poet was here returned to finish his description of the State of Nature, has fallen into one of the groffeft errors that ever was committed. He has mistaken this account of true Religion for an account of the origin of Idolatry; and thus he fatally embellishes his own blunder: "Jaloux |