the food and support of others, whose souls may be necessary to prepare and preserve their bodies for that purpose, and may at the same time be happy in a consciousness of their own existence. 'Tis probable they are intended to promote each others good reciprocally: Nay, man himself contributes to the happiness *, and betters the condition of the brutes in feveral respects, by cultivating and improving the ground, by watching the feasons, by protecting and providing for them, when they are unable to protect and provide for themselves." These are the words of Dr. Law, in his learned Commentary on King's Origin of Evil, first published in Latin, 1701, a work of penetration and close reasoning; which, it is remarkable, Bayle had never read, but only some extracts from it, when he first wrote his famous article of the Paulicians, in his * That very life his learned hunger craves, He saves from famine, from the savage saves; Nay, feafts the animal he dooms his feast, Dictionary, where he has artfully employed all that force and acuteness of argument, which he certainly poffefsed, in promoting the gloomy and uncomfortable scheme of Scepticism or Manicheifm. 36. And reason raise o'er instinct as you can, In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man *. THERE is a fine observation of Montefquieu†, concerning the condition of brutes. They are deprived of the high advantages we enjoy; but they have some which we want. They have not our hopes, but then they are without our fears; they are subject like us to death, but it is without knowing it; most of them are even * Ep. iii. 97. + We ought not to be blind to the faults of this fine writer, whatever applause he deferves in general. But it must be confefsed, that his ftyle is too short, abrupt, and epigrammatic; he tells us himself, he was fond of Lucius Florus; and he believed too credulously, and laid too great a stress upon, the relations of voyage-writers and travellers; as indeed did Locke, for which he is ridiculed by Shaftesbury, vol. i. p. 344, of the Characteristics. If Shaftesbury, faid the great Bishop Butler, had lived to see the candor and moderation of the present times, in discussing religious fubjects, he would have been a good chriftian. more \ more attentive than we are to felf-prefervation; and they do not make so bad a use of their paffions. B. i. c. 1. 37. Who taught the nations of the field and wood To shun their poison, and to chuse their food? Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand, Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand * ? THIS passage is highly finished; such objects are more fuited to the nature of poetry than abstract ideas. Every verb and epithet has here a descriptive force. We find more imagery from these lines to the end of the epistle, than in any other parts of this Essay. The origin of the connexions in focial life, the account of the state of nature, the rife and effects of superstition and tyranny, and the restoration of true religion and just government, all these ought to be mentioned as passages that deserve high applause, nay as fome of the most exalted pieces of English poetry. 38. Man walk'd with beast, joint tenant of the shade t. * Ver. 99. † Ver. 152. H 3 LUCRE LUCRETIUS, agreeably to his 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 wildness of fancy. Sæcla ferarum Infestam miseris faciebant fæpe quietem : He represents afterwards some of these wretched mortals mangled by wild beasts, and running distracted with pain through the woods, with their wounds undressed and putrifying: At quos effugium servârat, corpore adeso, Pain is forcibly expressed by the action defcribed in the second line, and by the epithet tremulas. 39. The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest, Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest *. THE effect of alliteration is here felt by the reader. But at what period of time could this be justly faid, if we confider the very early institution of facrifice, according to the scripture-account of this venerable rite? 40. Ah! how unlike the man of times to come! "Hears the OVID, on the fame topic, has nothing so manly and emphatical. general groan," is nobly expressed, and the circumstance of betraying his own species, is an unexpected and striking addition to the foregoing sentiment. Thomson has enlarged on this doctrine, with that tenderness and humanity for which he was fo justly beloved, in his Spring, at verse three hundred and thirty. Our poet ascribes the violence of the passions to the use of animal food. * Ep. iii. 156. † Ep. iii. 161. H4 But |