335

Slave to no fect, who takes no private road,
But looks thro' Nature, up to Nature's God;
Pursues that Chain which links th' immenfe defign,
Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no Being any bliss can know,
But touches fome above, and fome below;
Learns from this union of the rifing Whole,
The firft, laft purpose of the human foul;
And knows where Faith, Law, Morals, all began,
All end, in LOVE OF GOD, and LOVE OF MAN. 340
For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens ftill, and opens on his foul;

NOTES.

dent as this truth was, yet Riches and false Philofophy had fo blinded the difcernment even of improved minds, that the poffeffors of the first placed Hapinefs in Externals, unfuitable to Man's Nature; and the followers of the latter, in refined Vifions, unfuitable to his Situation; while the fimple-minded man, with NATURE only for his guide, found plainly in what it fhould be placed.

VER. 341. For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal,] But this is not all; when the fimple-minded man, on his firft fetting out in the pursuit of Truth, in order to Happinefs, hath had the wisdom,

To look thro' Nature up to Nature's God.

(inftead of adhering to any fect or party, where there was fo great odds of his chufing wrong) that then the benefit of gaining the knowledge of God's will, written in the mind, is not confined there; for standing on this fure foundation, he is now no longer in danger of chufing wrong, amidst fuch diverfities of Religions; but by pur

1

"Till lengthen'd on to FAITH, and unconñn'd, It pours the blifs that fills up all the mind.

NOTES.

fuing this grand fcheme of UNIVERSAL BENEVOLENCE in practice as well as theory, he arrives at length to the knowledge of the REVEALED will of God, which is the confummation of the system of benevolence:

For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens ftill, and opens on his foul,
'Till lengthen'd on to faith, and unconfin'd

It

pours the blifs that fills up all the mind.

VER. 341. For him alone Hope leads from goal to goal, &c.] PLATO, in his first book of a Republic, hath a remarkable paffage to this purpose: " He whofe confcience does not "reproach him, has chearful Hope for his companion, "and the fupport and comfort of his old age, according to Pindar: For this great Poet, O Socrates, very ele

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gantly fays, That he who leads a juft and holy life has "always amiable Hope for his companion, which fills his "heart with joy, and is the fupport and comfort of his "old age. Hope, the moft powerful of the Divinities, in "governing the ever changing and inconftant temper of “ mortal men.” Τῷ δὲ μηδὲν ἑαυτῷ ἄδικον ξυνειδότι ἡδεια ἐλπὶς ἀεὶ πάρεςι, καὶ ἀγαθὴ γηροτρόφο, ὡς καὶ Πίνδαρον λέγει Χαριένως γάρ τοι, ὦ Σώκρατες, τότ' ἐκείνῳ εἶπεν, ὅτι ὃς ἂν δια · καίως καὶ ὁσίως τὸν βίον διαγάγῃ, γλυκεῖα οἱ καρδίαν ἀτάλλεσα γηροτρόφων συναιρεῖ ἐλπὶς, ἃ μάλισα θνατῶν πολύτροφον γνώ par xp. In the fame manner Euripides speaks in his Hercules furens.

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~

Οὗτων δ' ἀνὴρ ἄρις, ὅσις ἐλπίσιν

Πέποιθεν αἰεί· τὸ δ ̓ ἀπορεῖν, ἀνδρὸς κακό. ver. 105.

"He is the good man in whose breaft hope Springs eternally: But to be without hope in the world is the portion "of the wicked."

He fees why Nature plants in Man alone

345

Hope of known bliss, and Faith in bliss unknown: (Nature, whofe dictates to no other kind

Are given in vain, but what they feck they find)
Wife is her prefent; fhe connects in this

His greatest Virtue with his greatest Blifs; 350
At once his own bright profpect to be bleft,
And strongest motive to affift the rest.

Self-love thus pufh'd to focial, to divine,

Gives thee to make thy neighbour's bleffing thine.

NOTES.

VER. 353. Self-love thus prf'd to facial, &c.] The poet here marks out the Progrefs of his good man's Benevolence, pufhed through natural religion to revealed, 'till it arrives to that height which the facred writers defcribe as the very fummit of Chriftian perfection; and fhews how the progrefs of human differs from the progrefs of divine benevolence. That the divine defcends from whole to parts; but that the human must rise from individual to univerfal. His argument for this extended benevolence is, that, as God has made a Whole, whofe parts have a perfect relation to, and an entire dependency on each other, Man, by extending his benevolence throughout that Whole, acts in conformity to the will of his Creator; and therefore this enlargement of his affection becomes a duty. But the poet hath not only fhewn his piety in this obfervation, but the utmost art and addrefs likewife in the difpofition of it. The Efay on Man opens with expofing the murmurings and impious conclufions of foolish men against the prefent conftitution of things; as it proceeds, it occafionally detects all thofe falfe pr nciples and opinions that led them to conclude thus perverfely. Having

Is this too little for the boundless heart?

355

Extend it, let thy enemies have part :
Grafp the whole worlds of Reason, Life, and Sense,
In one close system of Benevolence :

NOTES.

now done all that was neceffary in Speculation, the au thor turns to Practice; and ends his Effay with the recommendation of an acknowledged virtue, CHARITY; which, if exercised in the Extent that conformity to the will of God requireth, would effectually prevent all complaints against the present order of things; fuch complaints being made with a total difregard to every thing but their own private fyftem, and feeking remedy in the diforder, and at the expence of all the reft. This obfervation,

Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake,

is important; Rochefaucault, Efprit, and their worthy difciple Mandeville, had obferved, that Self-love was the Origin of all thofe virtues Mankind most admire; and therefore foolishly fuppofed it was the End likewife; and fo taught, that the highest pretences to difinterestedness were only the more artful difguifes of Self-love. But our author, who fays fomewhere or other,

Of human Nature, Wit its worst may write,
We all revere it in our own defpite,

MS.

faw, as well as they and every body elfe, that the Paffions began in Self-love; yet he understood human Nature better than to imagine they terminated there. He knew, that Reason and Religion could convert Selfishness into its very oppofite; and therefore teacheth, that

Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake :

And thus hath vindicated the dignity of human Nature, and the philofophic truth of the Christian doctrine.

Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,

And height of Bliss but height of Charity.

360

God loves from Whole to Parts: But human foul

Must rise from Individual to the Whole,

Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble ftirs the peaceful lake;

365

The centre mov'd, a circle strait fucceeds,
Another ftill, and ftill another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, firft it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take ev'ry creature in, of ey'ry kind;
Earth fmiles around, with boundless bounty blest,
And Heav'n beholds its image in his breast.
Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along!
Oh master of the poet, and the fong!

VARIATIONS.

370

VER. 373. Come then, my friend, &c.] In the MS. thus,

And now transported o'er fo vaft a Plain,

While the wing'd courfer flies with all her rein,
While heav'n-ward now her mounting wing the feels,
Now fcatter'd fools fly trembling from her heels,
Wilt thou, my St. John! keep her courfe in fight,
Confine her fury, and affift her flight?

NOTES.

VER. 373. Come then, my friend! &c.] This noble Apoftrophe, by which the Poet concludes the Effay in an ad