T1 fame Self-love, in all, becomes the cause NOTES. 275 His late the rights of mankind; and it causeth the People to vindicate that violation. For Self-love being common to the whole species, and setting each individual in pursuit of the fame objects, it became necessary for each, if he would fecure his own, to provide for the fafety of another's. And thus Equity and Benevolence arofe from that fame Self-love which had given birth to Avarice and Injustice: "His Safety must his Liberty restrain ; All join to guard what each defires to gain." The Poet hath not any where fhewn greater address, in the difpofition of this work, than with regard to the inference before us; which not only giveth a proper and timely fupport to what had been advanced in the fecond epiftle concerning the nature and effects of Self-love, but is a neceffary introduction to what follows, concerning the Reformation of Religion and Society: as we shall see presently. W. VER. 272. Government and Laws.] "However men might fubmit voluntarily, in the fimplicity of early ages, or be subjected by conqueft, to a government without a constitution; yet they were never long in discovering," in the words of Hooker," that to live by one man's will, became the cause of all men's misery; and therefore they foon rejected the yoke, or made it fit eafy on their necks." VER. 273. For, what one likes] These two lines express with brevity and clearness the following fentiments of Hooker: "The like natural inducement hath brought men to know that it is no lefs their duty to love others than themselves; for feeing those things which are equal must needs all have one measure; if I cannot but wish to receive good, even as much at every man's hands as any man can wifh unto his own foul, how fhould I look to have any part of my defire herein satisfied, unless my self be careful to satisfy the like desire which is undoubtedly in other men ?” VOL. III. 280 His fafety muft his liberty reftrain: NOTES. POET VER. 283. 'Twas then, the ftudious head, &c.] The Poet hath now described the rife, perfection, and decay of civil Policy and Religion in the more early times. But the defign had been imperfect, had he dropt his discourse here: There was, in after ages, a recovery of these from their several corruptions. Accordingly, he hath chofen that happy æra for the conclufion of his Song. But as good and ill Governments and Religions fucceed one another without ceafing, he now leaveth facts, and turneth his difcourse (from Ver. 282 to 295.) to speak of a more lasting reform of mankind, in the Invention of those philofophic Principles, by whofe obfervance, a Policy and a Religion may be for ever kept from finking into Tyranny and Superstition: ""Twas then, the ftudious head, or gen'rous mind, Follow'r of God, or friend of human-kind, Poet or Patriot, rose but to restore The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before;" &c. The easy and just tranfition into this fubject from the foregoing is admirable. In the foregoing he had described the effects of Selflove; and now, with great art, and high probability, he maketh Men's obfervations on these effects the occasion of those discoveries which they have made of the true principles of Policy and Religion, described in the present paragraph; and this he evidently hinteth at in that fine tranfition, ""Twas THEN, the ftudious head," &c. The Poet feemeth here to mean the polite and flourishing age of Greece; and those benefactors to Mankind, which he had principally in view, were SOCRATES and ARISTOTLE; who, of all the pagan world, fpoke beft of God, and wrote best of Go vernment. W. 285 POET OF PATRIOT, rose but to restore That touching one must strike the other too; 291 NOTES. Such VER. 285. Poet or Patriot, rofe] "No conftitution is formed by concert; no government is copied from a plan. The members of a small state contend for equality; the members of a greater find themselves claffed in a certain manner that lays a foundation for monarchy. They proceed from one form of government to another; by eafy tranfitions, and frequently under old names, adopt a new constitution. The feeds of every form are lodged in human nature; they spring up and ripen with the season. The prevalence of a particular fpecies is often derived from an imperceptible ingredient mingled in the foil. We are therefore to receive, with caution, the traditionary histories of ancient legislators and founders of states. Their names have long been celebrated; their fuppofed plans have been admired; and what were probably the confequences of an early fituation, is, in every inftance, confidered as an effect of defign. An author and a work, like cause and effect, are perpetually coupled together. This is the fimpleft form under which we can confider the establishment of nations: and we afcribe to a previous defign what came to be known only by experience, what no human wisdom could forefee, and what, without the concurring humour and disposition of his age, no authority could enable an individual to execute." Ferguson, in his History of Civil Society; a work highly commended by the late Lord. Mansfield. VER. 294. Th' according mufic] This is the very fame illuftration that Tully uses in that beautiful fragment, De Republicâ : I 2 " Ut Such is the World's great Harmony, that springs NOTES. 296 Where “Ut in fidibus, ac tibiis, atque cantu ipso, ac vocibus, concentus est quidam tenendus ex diftinctis tonis, quem immutatum, ac difcrepantem aures eruditæ ferre non poffunt, ifque concentus ex diffimillarum vocum moderatione concors tamen efficitur et congruens; fic, ex fummis et infimis, et mediis interjectis ordinibus, ut tonis, moderata ratione civitas confenfu diffimilli morum concinit, et quæ harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea eft in civitate concordia, arctiffimum atque optimum omni in Republicâ vinculum incolumitatis; quæ fine juftitiâ, nullo pacto effe poteft." Such is the happy and ineftimable conftitution of Great Britain! Let those, who talk and think of absolute equality, remember the words of one whom they must allow was a lover of freedom: "And if not equal all, yet free, Equally free; for orders and degrees Par. Loft. Book V. v. 791. Thucydides, in three words, defcribes a juft and well-poised government, which ought to be, αυτόνομον, αυτόδικον, αυτοτελῆ. VER. 295. Such is the World's great Harmony, &c.] This doctrine was taken up by Leibnitz; but it was to ingraft upon it a moft pernicious fatalifm. Plato faid, God chofe the beft: Leibnitz faid, he could not but choose the best, as he could not act without, what this philofopher called, a fufficient reafon. Plato fuppofed freedom in God to choose one of two things equally good: Leibnitz held the fuppofition to be abfurd: however, admitting the cafe, he still held that God could not choose one of two things equally good. Thus it appears, the first went on the fyftem of Freedom; and that the latter, notwithstanding the moft artful difguifes of his principles, in his Theodicée, was a thorough Fatalist: for we cannot well suppose he would give that freedom to Man which he had taken away from God. The truth of the matter feems to be this: he faw, on the one hand, the monftrous abfurdity of fuppofing, with Spinoza, that blind Fate was the author of a coherent Universe; but yet, on the other, he could not conceive with Plato, how God could foresee and conduct, according to an archetypal idea, a World, of all poffible Worlds the beft, 300 Where small and great, where weak and mighty made NOTES. For best, inhabited by free Agents. This difficulty therefore, which made the Socinians take Prefcience from God, difpofed Leibnitz to take Free-will from Man: And thus he fashioned his fantastical hypothefis; he supposed that when God made the body, he impreffed on his new-created Machine a certain series or fuite of motions; and that when he made the fellow foul, he impreffed a correfpondent series of ideas; whofe operations, throughout the whole duration of the union, were fo exactly timed, that whenever an idea was excited, a correspondent motion was ever ready to fatisfy the volition. Thus, for inftance, when the mind had the will to raise the arm to the head, the body was fo pre-contrived, as to raise, at that very moment, the part required. This he called the PRE-ESTABLISHED HARMONY; and with this he promifed to do wonders. W. VER. 297. Where fmall and great,] Swift's opinion about property is remarkable, in his Various Thoughts, p. 394. "In all well-inftituted commonwealths, care has been taken to limit men's poffeffions; which is done for many reafons, and, among the reft, for one, which is perhaps not often confidered; that when bounds are fet to men's defires, after they have acquired as much as the laws will permit them, their private interest is at an end, and they have nothing to do but to take care of the public.” VER. 303. For Forms of Government] But furely fome Forms of Government are better calculated to produce and continue a good administration than others, or alter and reform bad administrations. "It is a great question with several, Whether there be any effential difference," fays Hume," betwixt one form of Government |