penfent de meme, il faut bien qu'ils aycn't raison * "

5. The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the band juft rais'd to fhed his blood +.

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 Effay, and interesting the reader.

6. The foul uneafy, and confin'd from home; Refts and expatiates in a life to come .

IN former editions it used to be printed at bome; but this expreffion feeming to exclude a future existence, as, to speak the plain truth, it was intended to do, it was altered to from home, not only with great injury to the harmony of the line, but also, to the reasoning of the context.

* Quevres de Voltaire. Tom. iv. pag. 227.

† Ver: 81.

‡ Ver. 97:

F 2

7. Lo

7. Lo the poor Indian! whofe untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His foul proud fcience never taught to ftray,
Far as the folar walk or milky way;

Yet fimple nature to his hope has giv❜n,

Behind the cloud-topp'd hill an humbler heav'n
Some fafer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier ifland in the wat'ry wafte,

Where flaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Chriftians thirst for gold. 'TO BE content's his natural defire,

He asks no angel's wing, no feraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog fhall bear him company

POPE has indulged himself in but few digreffions in this piece; this is one of the most poetical. Representations of undif guised nature and artless innocence always amufe and delight. The fimple notions. which uncivilized nations entertain of a future ftate, 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 with propriety, as it is known that this

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 defcend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempefts sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep *.

I quote these 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 universe, 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. 156.

* Ver. 142.

F 3

fections

fections of men are alfo comprehended in 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 academist on these famous lines *.

10. The general order, fince the whole began, Is kept in nature, and is kept in man t.

How this opinion is any way reconcileable with the orthodox doctrine of the lapsed condition of man, the chief foundation of the chriftian revelation, it is difficult to fay.

11. Why has not man a microscopic eye?

For this plain reason, man is not a fly.

Say what the use, were finer optics giv❜n,
T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n ?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,

To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore ‡ ?

"If by the help of fuch microscopical eyes, if I may fo call them, a man could pene,

* Hume's Effays, quarto, pag. 106.

+ Ver, 171.

* Ver. 193.

trate

trate farther than ordinary into the secret compofition and radical texture of bodies, he would not make any great advantage by the change; if fuch an acute fight would not ferve to conduct 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 fenfible qualities others do *:”

12. If nature thunder'd in his opening ears,

And stunn'd him with the mufic of the spheres,
How would he wish that heav'n had left him ftill
The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill +?

Ir 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 Effay on Human Understanding, vol. I. pag. 256 + Ver. 201.

Effay on Human Understanding, vol. I. pag. 255.