penfent de meme, il faut bien qu'ils ayent tarron** 5. The lamb thy not dooms to bleed to-day, The tenderness of this ftriking image, and particularly the circumftance in the last line, has an artful effect in alleviating the drynefs in the argumentative parts of the Eftay, and interesting the reader. The foul uneafy, and confin'd from home, In former editions it used to be printed at bome; but this expreffion feeming to exclude a future exiftence, as, to speak the plain truth, it was intended to do, it was altered to from home, not only with great mary to the harmony of the line, but also, to the reafoning of the context. • Ouevres de Voltaire: Tom. 18. pag. 227. + Ver. 81. * Ver. 97. F 2 7. La 7. Lo the poor Indian! whofe untutor'd mind Yet fimple nature to his hope has giv❜n, Where slaves once more their native land behold, He asks no angel's wing, no feraph's fire; POPE has indulged himself in but few. digreffions in this piece; this is one of the most poetical. Representations of undifguised nature and artless innocence always amufe and delight. The fimple The fimple notions which uncivilized nations entertain of a future state, are many of them beautifully romantic, and fome of the best subjects for poetry. It has been queftioned whether the circumftance of the dog, although ftriking at the firft view, is introduced propriety, as it is known that this with • Ver. 99. Ν animal animal is not a native of America. The notion of seeing God in clouds, and hearing him in the wind, cannot be enough applauded. 8. From burning funs when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempefts sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep *. I quote thefe lines as an example of energy of stile, and of POPE's manner of compreffing together many images, without confufion, and without fuperfluous epithets. Subftantives and verbs are the finews of language. 9. If plagues or earthquakes break not heav'n's defign, Why then a Borgia or a Catiline †? "All ills arise from the order of the univerie, which is abfolutely perfect. Would you wish to disturb fo divine an order, for the fake of your own particular interest ? What if the ills I fuffer arise from malice or oppreffion? But the vices and imper • Ver. 142. F 3 + Ver. 156. fections fections of men are alfo comprehender, is the order of the universe. If plagues, c. Let this be allowed, and my own vices will be also a part of the fame order. Such is the commentary of the academift on these famous lines *; 10. The general order, fince the whole began. Is kept in nature, and is kept in man †. How this opinion is any way reconcileable with the orthodox doctrine of the lapfed condition of man, the chief foundation of the chriftian revelation. it is difficult to lay, 11. Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason, man is not a fly. Say what the ufe, were finer optics giv'n To fmart and agonize at ev'ry.pore limos If by the help of such microscopical eyes, if I may fo call them, a man could pepe • Hume's Effays, quarto, par Ver. 171. .06. † Ver. 193. trate 3 orate farther than ordinary into the secret compofition and radical texture of bodies, he would not make any great advantage by the change; if such an acute fight would not ferve to condu& him to the market and exchange, if he could not fee things he was to avoid at a convenient distance, nor distinguish things he had to do with by those sensible qualities others do *.” 12. If nature thunder'd in his opening ears, And ftunn'd him with the mufic of the fpheres, It is justly objected, that the argument required an inftance drawn from real found, and not from the imaginary music of the fpheres. Locke's illuftration of this doctrine, is not only proper but poetical ‡. "If our fenfe of hearing were but one thousand times quicker than it is, how would a perpetual noise distract us; and we Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, vol. I, pag. 256. + Ver. 201. Effay on Human Understanding, vol. I. pag. 255. |