But as he fram'd the Whole, the Whole to bless, And creature link'd to creature, man to man. 115 120 Or breathes thro' air, or fhoots beneath the deeps, NOTES. Thus Reafon. The philofophic nature of his work requiring he should fhew by what means those Societies were introduced, this affords h'm an opportunity of fliding gracefully and eafily from the preliminaries into the main subject; and so of giving his work that perfection of method, which we find only in the compofitions of great writers. For having juft before, though to a different purpose, defcribed the power of bestial Instinct to attain the happiness of the Individual, he goeth on, in fpeaking of Inftinct as it is ferviceable both to that, and to the Kind (from Ver. 108 to 147.), to illustrate the original of Society. He fheweth, that though, as he had before observed, God had founded the proper blifs of each creature in the nature of its own exiftence; yet these not being independent individuals, but parts of a Whole, God, to bless that Whole, built mutual happinefs on mutual wants: Now, for the fupply of mutual wants, creatures muft neceffarily come together: which is the firft ground of Society amongft Men. He then proceeds to that called natural, fubject to paternal authority, and arifing from the union of the two fexes; describes the imperfect image of it in brutes; then explains it at large in all its causes and effects. Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 125 The young difmifs'd to wander earth or air, A longer care Man's helplefs kind demands; Each Virtue in each Paffion takes its turn; And still new needs, new helps, new habits rife, Still as one brood, and as another rose, 130 135 These nat❜ral love maintain'd, habitual those : 140 Saw helpless him from whom their life began : That pointed back to youth, this on to age; IV. Nor think, in NATURE'S STATE they blindly trod; The State of Nature was the reign of God: NOTES. Self effects. And laftly fhews, that, as in fact, like mere animal Society, it is founded and preserved by mutual wants, the fupplial of which caufeth mutual happiness; fo is it likewife in right, as a rational Society, by equity, gratitude, and the obfervance of the relation of things in general. W. Self-love and Social at her birth began, Union the bond of all things, and of Man. No murder cloath'd him, and no murder fed. In the fame temple, the refounding wood, NOTES. 150 155 The VER. 152. Man walk'd with beaft,] Lucretius, agreeably to his more uncomfortable system, has presented us with a different and more horrid picture of this state of Nature. The calamitous condition of Man is exhibited by images of much energy and wildnefs of fancy; fee ver. 980. book v.; and particularly when he represents, at ver. 991. fome of these wretched mortals mangled by the wild beasts, into whose caverns they had retreated for shelter in tempeftuous seasons, and running distracted with pain through the woods, with their wounds undreffed and putrifying: -tremulas fuper ulcera tetra tenentes Palmas, horriferis accibant vocibus Orcum. Pain is most forcibly expreffed by the action here described, and by the epithet "tremulas." The continuance and univerfality of the favage ftate of Man, in the earliest ages of the world, has been the favourite opinion of many late philofophical writers, particularly of Lord Kaims, in his Sketches, which has been answered with much learning and acuteness by Dr. Doig, 1792. VER. 156. All vocal beings, &c.] This may be well explained by a fublime paffage of the Pfalmift, who, calling to mind the age of Innocence, and full of the great ideas of those "Chains of Love Combining all below and all above, Which to one point, and to one centre bring, BEAST, MAN, or ANGEL, Servant, Lord, or King;" breaks out into this rapturous and divine apoftrophe, to call back the devious Creation to its priftine rectitude; that very state our author defcribes above: "Praife the Lord, all angels; praise him all ye hofts. Praise ye him, fun and moon; praise him, all ftars of light," &c. ye W. The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest, Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest: Heav'n's attribute was Universal Care, And Man's prerogative to rule, but fpare. 160 Ah! how unlike the Man of times to come! Of half that live the butcher and the tomb; 165 See him from Nature rifing flow to Art! To copy Instinct then was Reafon's part; 170 Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake"Go, from the Creatures thy instructions take: NOTES. "Learn VER. 157. Undreft, unbrib'd, unbloody,] Alliteration is here. ufed with effect. But is the affertion confiftent with the usual interpretation of the Scripture account of the origin of facrifice? VER. 158. Unbrib'd, unbloody, &c.] i. e. the ftate described from Ver. 262 to 269, was not yet arrived. For then, when Superstition was become fo extreme as to bribe the Gods with human facrifices; Tyranny became neceffitated to woo the priest for a favourable answer. W. VER. 162. The butcher and the tomb;] Plutarch has written a treatise against animal food; tom. ii. 995. Thomson, with his ufual tenderness, has done the fame; Spring, v. 330. VER. 171. Thus then to Man the voice of Nature fpake “Go, &c.] M. Du Refnel has translated the lines thus, "La Nature indigné alors fe fit entendre ; "Va, malheureux mortel, va, lui dit elle, apprendre." One would' wonder what fhould make the Translator represent "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beafts the phyfic of the field; NOTES. "Thy Nature in such a paffion with Man, and calling him names, at a time when Mr. Pope supposed her in her beft good-humour. W. VER. 171. The voice of Nature] The profopopaia is magnificent, and the occafion important, no less than the origin of the arts of life. Nature is perfonified by Lucretius, and introduced speaking with suitable majefty and elevation: She is chiding her foolish and ungrateful children for their vain and impious discontent: "Quid tibi tantopere eft, mortalis, quod nimis ægris Luctibus indulges? quid mortem congemis, ac fles? Aufer abhinc lacrymas, barathro et compefce querelas." There is an authoritative air in the brevity of this fentence, as alfo in the concluding line of her fpeech; and particularly in the very laft words: "Equo animoque, agedum, jam aliis concede :-necesse est.” This fine profopopeia in our Author is not, as Dr. Warburton afferted, the most fublime that ever entered into the human imagination, for we fee Lucretius ufed it before. The Romans have left us fcarcely any piece of poetry fo ftriking and original as the beginning and progrefs of arts, at the end of the fifth book of Lucretius; who perhaps, of all the Roman poets, had the ftrongeft imagination. The Perfians diftinguish the different degrees of Fancy in different poets, by calling them painters or sculptors. Lucretius, from the force of his images, fhould be ranked among the latter. He is in truth a Sculptor Poet. His images have a bold relief. Of this noble profopopœia, in Lucretius, Addison seems to have thought, in a well-known paffage of Cato: " All Nature cries aloud Thro' all her Works.". VER. 173. Learn from the birds, &c.] It is a caution commonly practifed amongst Navigators, when thrown upon a defert coast, and in want of refreshments, to obferve what fruits have been touched by the Birds: and to venture on thefe without further hefitation. P. VER. 173. Learn from the birds] Taken, but finely improved, from Bacon's Advancement of Learning, p. 48. "They who difcourfe |