When the dull Ox, why now he breaks the clod, Then fhall Man's pride and dulnefs comprehend 65 Then say not Man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; 70 His knowledge measur'd to his ftate and place; If His time a moment, and a point his space. VARIATIONS. VER. 64. In the former Editions, Now wears a garland an Egyptian God: altered as above for the reafon given in the note. After ver. 68. the following lines in the first Edition : What matters foon or late, or here or there? The bleft to-day is as completely fo, As who began ten thousand years ago. COMMENTARY. imagine that the horfe and ox fhall ever be able to comprehend why they undergo fuch different treatment in the hand of Man ; nay, that fuch knowledge, if communicated, would be even pernicious, and make us negled or defert our duty here. This he illuftrates by the cafe of the lamb, which is happy in not knowing the fate that attends it from the butcher; and from thence takes occafion to observe, that God is the equal mafter of all his creatures, and provides for the proper happinefs of each and every of them. WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 64. Egypt's God:] Called fo, because the God Apis was worshipped univerfally over the whole land of Egypt. WARBURTON. 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 IH. 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 fpirits know: Or who could fuffer Being here below? The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play? VARIATIONS. After ver. 88, in the MS. No great, no little; 'tis as much decreed, That Virgil's Gnat fhould die, as Cæfar bleed. NOTES. 80 85 Who 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 confequent 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 seeing objects one after another; but the existence and the attributes of the Deity can have no relation to time; for that all things, paft, prefent, and to come, are all at once prefent to the Divine Mind." WARTON. VER. 81. The lamb thy riot dooms] The tenderness of this ftriking image, and particularly the circumftance in the last line, has an artful effect in alleviating the drynefs of the argumentative parts of the Effay, and interefting the reader. WARTON. 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. What COMMENTARY. VER. 91. Hope humbly then; &c.] But now an Objector is fuppofed to put in, and fay, "You tell us, indeed, that all things shall terminate in good; but we see ourselves furrounded with present evil; yet you forbid us all inquiry into the manner how we are to be extricated from it, and, in a word, leave us in a very difconfolate condition." Not fo, replies the Poet; you may rea fonably, if you please, receive much comfort from the HOPE of a happy futurity; a hope implanted in the human breaft by God himself for this very purpose, as an earneft of that blifs, which, always flying from us here, is reserved for the good Man hereafter. The reason why the Poet chooses to infist on this proof of a future state, in preference to others, is in order to give his fyftem (which is founded in a fublime and improved Platonifm) the greater grace of uniformity. For HOPE was Plato's peculiar argument for a future ftate; and the words here employed-The foul uneafy, c. his peculiar expreffion. The Poet in this place, therefore, fays in exprefs terms, that GOD GAVE US HOPE TO SUPPLY THAT FUTURE BLISS, WHICH HE AT PRESENT KEEPS HID FROM US. In his fecond epistle, ver. 274, he goes still further, and fays, this HOPE quits us not even at Death, when every thing mortal drops from us: "Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die." And, in the fourth epiftle, he fhews, how the fame HOPE is a proof of a future ftate, from the confideration of God's giving his creatures no appetite in vain, or what he did not intend fhould be fatisfied: NOTES. VER. 87. Who fees with equal eye, &c.] Matth. x. 29. "He What future blifs, he gives not thee to know, Lo, the poor Indian! whofe untutor❜d mind 95 100 His VARIATIONS. VER. 93, 94. In the first Fol. and Quarto, COMMENTARY. "He fees, why Nature plants in Man alone Are givʼn in vain, but what they seek they find.)" It is only for the good man, he tell us, that Hope leads from goal to goal, &c. It would then be ftrange indeed, if it should prove an illufion. WARBURTON, VER. 99. Lo, the poor Indian! &c.] The Poet, as we faid, 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 neceffary caution, "Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions foar;" provoked at thofe miscreants whom he afterwards (Ep.iii. ver. 263.) defcribes as building Hell on spite, and Heaven on pride, he upbraids them (from ver. 98 to 113.) with the example of the poor Indian, to whom also Nature hath given this common HOPE of Mankind: but though his untutored mind had betrayed him into many childish fancies concerning the nature of that future ftate, yet he : NOTES. ia VER. 99. Lo, the poor Indian ! &c.] Pope has indulged himself in but few digreffions in this piece; this is one of the most poetical. WARTON. His foul, proud Science never taught to stray Yet COMMENTARY. 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. WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 100. Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;] In John Wesley's curious journal, there is a fingular, and not uninterefting, account of his converfation with the Indians. Their religious ideas are literally those of " seeing God in clouds, and hearing him in the wind:" 66 - Tuesday, July 20. Five of the Chicafaw Indians came to fee us: they were all warriors. The two chief were Pauftoobee and Mingo Mattaw. Our conference was as follows: Question. Do you believe there is One above, who is over all things? PAUSTOOBEE anfwered. We believe there are four beloved things above; the Clouds, the Sun, the Clear Sky, and He that lives in the Clear Sky. 2. Do you think He made the Sun, and the other beloved things? A. We cannot tell; who hath feen? Q. Cannot He fave you from your enemies? A. Yes; but we know not if he will. We have now fo many enemies round about us, that I think of nothing but death. If I am to die, I shall die, and I will die like a Man; but if He will have me live, I shall live. Though I had ever fo He can destroy them all. Q. How do you know that? many enemies, A. From what I have feen. When our enemies came against us before, then the beloved Clouds came for us; and often much rain, and sometimes hail, has come upon them, and that in a very hot day and I faw when many French and Choctaws, and other Nations, came against one of our towns, the ground made a noise under them, and the Beloved Ones in the air behind them and they were afraid, and went away, and left the meat, and drink, and guns. I tell no lie. All there faw it too." |