In God's, one fingle can its end produce; NOTES. 55 60 When VER. 60. 'Tis but a part] A new method of accounting for the origin of evil has been advanced by Hume in his Dialogues, p. 196. "I fcruple not to allow," faid Cleanthes," that I have been apt to fufpect the frequent repetition of the word infinite, which we meet with in all theological writers, to favour more of panegyric than of philofophy; and that any purposes of reasoning, and even of religion, would be better served, were we to rest content with more accurate and more moderate expreffions. The terms, admirable, excellent, fuperlatively great, wife, and holy, these fufficiently fill the imaginations of men; and any thing beyond, besides that it leads into abfurdities, has no influence on the affections or fentiments. Thus, in the present fubject, if we abandon all human analogy, as it seems your intention, Demea, I am afraid we abandon all religion, and retain no conception of the great object of our adoration. If we preferve human analogy, we ́must for ever find it impoffible to reconcile any mixture of evil in the universe with infinite attributes; much lefs can we ever prove the latter from the former. But supposing the Author of Nature to be finitely perfect, though far exceeding mankind, a fatisfactory account may then be given of natural and moral evil, and every untoward phenomenon be explained and adjusted. A less evil may then be chofen, in order to avoid a greater inconveniencies be fubmitted to, in order to reach a defirable end: and, in a word, benevolence, regulated by wisdom and limited by neceffity, may produce juft fuch a world as the prefent." This seems to have been borrowed from Voltaire. Queflions fur l'Encyclopedie, 9 Partie, p. 348. I have heard Dr. Adam Smith say, that thefe Dialogues concerning Natural Religion were the most laboured of all Hume's works. They were the occafion of Dr. Balguy's publishing that capital treatife, intitled, Divine Benevolence which benevolence he undertakes to vindicate like this Effay on Man, but with greater confiftency and clofeness of reafoning, without having recourse to a future existence. Wollaston, in When the proud fteed fhall know why Man restrains His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains; When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod, Is now a victim, and now Egypt's God: Then shall Man's pride and dulnefs comprehend 65 His actions', paffion's, being's, use and end; Why doing, fuff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why This hour a slave, the next a deity. Then say not Man's imperfect, Heaven's in fault; Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought: 70 His knowledge measur❜d to his state and place; His time a moment, and a point his space. If VARIATIONS. VER. 64. In the former Editions, Now wears a garland an Egyptian God: altered as above for the reafon given in the note. NOTES. in a celebrated passage, has given a striking and pathetic picture of the evils and miseries of this present life, in order to fhew (as many divines do in their discourses) the abfolute neceffity of another, for the defence of the difpenfations of Providence. Dr. Balguy, from p. 110 to p. 127, has minutely, and ftep by step, confuted every part of this statement of the evils and miferies of life; and ends by faying," that Wollafton has only attended to one fide of the question. He has dwelt largely on the melancholy parts of human life; but in great measure overlooked its enjoyments. A like his could, with equal eafe and fuccefs, have painted the happiness of our present ftate, and given it the appearance of a paradise." This is the paffage of Wollafton, which Bolingbroke has fo much ridiculed. Works, vol. ii. p. 110. pen VER. 64.-Egypt's God:] Called fo, because the God Apis was worshipped univerfally over the whole land of Egypt. W. VER. 70. As he ought:] Confequently man is not in a lapfed or degenerate state. He is as perfect a being as ever his Creator intended him to be; nor, confequently, did he stand in need of If to be perfect in a certain fphere, What matter, foon or late, or here or there? As who began a thousand years ago. 75 III. Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prefcrib'd, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could fuffer Being here below? 80 The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to day, Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play? And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. 85 NOTES. Who any redemption or atonement. The expreffion, as he ought, is imperfect; for, ought to be. VER. 74. What matter, foon] But surely, the fooner and the later, with refpect to communicating happiness to any being, is, and must be, a circumstance of great confequence. VER. 77. The book of Fate,] It would obviate the heavy difficulties in which we are involved, when we argue on the Divine Prescience, and consequent Predeftination, if we were to adopt Archbishop King's opinion, and fay, "that the knowledge of God is very different from the knowledge of Man, which implies fucceffion, and feeing objects one after another; but the existence. and the attributes of the Deity can have no relation to time; for that all things, past, present, and to come, are all at once prefent to the Divine Mind." VER. 81. The lamb thy riot dooms] The tendernefs of this ftriking image, and particularly the circumstance in the last line, has an artful effect in alleviating the drynefs of the argumentative parts of the Effay, and interefting the reader. No happier pas fige can be found in our author's works, though Johnson thought otherwise. Who fees with equal eye, as God of all, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, And now a bubble burst, and now a world. Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore. The foul (uneafy, and confin'd) from home, 90 95 Lo, VARIATIONS. After Ver. 88, in the MS. No great, no little; 'tis as much decreed What blifs above he gives not thee to know, NOTES. VER. 87. Who fees with equal eye, &c.] Matth. x. 29. VER. 97. The foul (uneafy, and confin'd)] "In the old editions, it was, confin'd at home, which was altered at the perfuafion of the divine, against the sense of the poet. The point to be illustrated is, that hope is implanted in man, to enable him to bear all the evils of life, though it is merely vifionary, and has no foundation : "What future blifs he gives not thee to know, But gives that hope to be thy bleffing now." Thus man, confined on his own earth, dreams of imaginary manfions in another world. Hope fupplies the reality of them. He hopes, upon the fame ground as the Indian does, for a heaven, where his dog fhall accompany him. Sorry am I to give this view of the author's creed; but it is too true a reprefentation of it. He makes no difference between the certainty of the Chriftian's C 3 Lo, the poor Indian! whofe untutor❜d mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; NOTES. 100 His Christian's heaven and the Indian's. It will be presumption in me to go further; and yet I cannot help obferving, that, allow Mr. Pope this doctrine, and he will go near to overthrow the whole argument of the divine legation of Mofes. God has implanted in mankind a religious fear, and a foreboding of a future state. The divine fays, he had this from revelation: the deift, that it fupplies the want of one; that it has kept the world in awe from the beginning of the creation, feconded with an opinion of Providence prevailing even in this world." From MS. notes of our learned printer Mr. Bowyer. VER. 99. Lo, the poor Indian! &c.] The Poet having bid Man comfort himself with expectation of future happiness; having fhewn him that this HOPE is an earnest of it; and put in one very necessary caution, 66 Hope humbly then, with trembling pinions foar;" provoked at those miscreants whom he afterwards (Ep. iii. Ver. 263.) describes as building Hell on fpite, and Heaven on pride, he upbraids them (from Ver. 98 to 113.) with the example of the poor Indian, to whom alfo Nature hath given this common HOPE of Mankind: But though his untutor'd mind had betrayed him into many childish fancies concerning the nature of that future ftate, yet he is fo far from excluding any part of his own fpecies (a vice which could proceed only from the pride of falfe Science) that he humanely, though fimply, admits even his faithful dog to bear him company. W. Pope has indulged himself in but few digreffions in this piece; this is one of the most poetical. Representations of undisguised nature and artlefs innocence always amufe and delight. The fimple notions which uncivilized nations entertain of a future ftate are many of them beautifully romantic, and fome of the beft fubjects for poetry. It has been queftioned, whether the circumstance of the dog, although striking at the first view, is introduced with propriety, as it is known that this animal is not a native of America. The notion of feeing God in clouds, and hearing him in the wind, cannot be enough applauded. Buffon fays, the Americans had no domestic animals about them when that continent was difcovered. |