Here rofe one little ftate; another near Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' love or fear. VARIATIONS. VER. 201. Here rofe one little ftate, &c.] In the MS, thus, Tigers with Tigers, that remov'd, are friends. NOTES. VRR. 196. Obfervant Man obey'd ;] The epithet is beautiful, as fignifying both obedience to the voice of Nature, and attention to the leffons of the animal creation. VER. 208. When Love was Liberty.] i. e. When men had no need to guard their native liberty from their governor by civil pactions; the love which each master of a family had for thofe under his care being their best security. 210 Thus States were form'd; the name of King unknown, 'Till common int'rest plac'd the sway in one, 'Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms, Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms) The fame which in a Sire the Sons obey'd, A Prince the Father of a People made. VI. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch fate, King, priest, and parent of his growing state; NOTES. 215 VER. 209. Thus ftates were form'd;] This is faid 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 inftituted Society, were to fetch their Governors. On the contrary, our author fhews, that a King was unknown, 'till common intereft, which led men to inftitute civil government, led them at the fame time to institute 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 mistaken, continues to be the chief fupport) of that flavish error: antiquity representing its earliest monarchs under the idea of a common father, warngardew. Afterwards indeed they became a kind of fofter-fathers, woμiv Aaws, as Homer calls one of them: "Till at length they began to devour that flock they had been fo long accuftomed to fhear: and, as Plutarch fays of Cecrops, ix Xensã βασιλέως ἄγριον καὶ δρακοντώδη γενόμενον ΤΥΡΑΝΝΟΝ. VER.211. 'Twas Virtue only, &c.] Our author hath good authority for this account of the origin of kingfhip. Ari 2 On him, their second Providence they hung, The worker from the work diftinct was known, NOTES. 225 230 ftotle affures us, that it was Virtue only, or in art or arms: Καθίσαλαν βασιλεὺς ἐκ τῶν ἐπιεικῶν καθ ̓ ὑπεροχὴν ἀρετῆς, ἡ πράξεων τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρέη, ή καθ' ὑπεροχὴν τοιύτε κρύες. VER. 219. He from the wond ring furrow, &c.]i. e. He fubdued the intractability of all the four elements, and made them fubfervient to the use of Man. VER. 225. Then, looking up, &c.] The poet here maketh their more ferious attention to Religion to have arisen, not from their gratitude amidst abundance, but for their helpleffness in diftrefs; by fhewing that, during the former ftate, they rested in fecond caufes, the immediate authors of their bleffings, whom they rever'd as God, but that, in the other, they reasoned up to the First : Then looking up from fire to fire, &c. Ere Wit oblique had broke that steddy light, A fov'reign being but a fovʼreign good. That was but love of God, and this of Man. 240 Who first taught fouls enflav'd, and realms undone, Th' enormous faith of made for one; many NOTES. This, I am afraid, is but too true a reprefentation of hu man nature. VER. 231. Ere Wit oblique, &c.] A beautiful allufion to the effects of the prifmatic glafs on the rays of light. VER. 241. Who first taught fouls, enflav'd, &c.] The poet informs us, agreeably to his exact knowledge of Antiquity, that it was the Politician, and not the Prieft (as our illiterate tribe of Free-thinkers would make us believe) who firft corrupted Religion. Secondly, That the Superftition he brought in was not invented by him, as an engine to play upon others (as the dreaming Atheist feigns, who would thus miferably account for the origin of Religion) but was a trap he first fell into himself. VER. 242. Th' enorious faith, &c.] In this Ariftotle placeth the difference between a King and a Tyrant, that the firft fuppofeth himself made for the People; the other that the People are made for him: Βέλλαι δ ̓ ὁ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ εἶναι φύλαξ, ὅπως οἱ μθὺ κεκλημένοι τὰς ἐσίας μηθὲν ἄδικον πά χωσιν, ὁ δὲ δῆμον μὴ ὑβρίζηται μηθέν, ἡ δὲ ΤΥΡΑΝΝΙΣ πρὸς That proud exception to all Nature's laws, 'T' invert the world, and counterwork its Cause? Force firft made Conqueft, and that Conquest, Law: 'Till superstition taught the tyrant awe, 146 Then fhar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid, ground, 250 She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, To Pow'r unseen, and mightier far than they : She, from the rending earth and bursting skies, Saw Gods defcend, and fiends infernal rise : NOTES. ὐδὲν αποβλέπει κοινὸν, εἰ μὴ τῆς ἰδίας ὠφελείας χάριν. Pol. lib. v. cap. 10. VER. 245. Force first made Conqueft, &c.] All this is agreeable to fact, and fheweth our author's exact knowledge of human nature. For that impotency of mind (as the Latin writers call it) which giveth birth to the enormous crime neceffary to fupport a Tyranný, naturally fubjecteth its owner to all the vain, as well as real, terrors of Confcience: Hence the whole machinery of Superftition, It is true, the Poet obferves, that afterwards, when the Tyrant's fright was over, he had cunning enough, from the experience of the effect of Superftition upon himself, to turn it by the affiftance of the Prieft (who for his reward went tharer with him in the Tyranny) as his best defence against his Subjects. For a Tyrant naturally and reasonably deemeth all his Slaves to be his enemies. |