His Principle of action once explore, That inftant 'tis his Principle no more. 30 Yet more; the diff'rence is as great between The optics seeing, as the objects feen. All Manners take a tincture from our own; Or come difcolour'd thro' our Paffions shown. Or Fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies, 35 Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes. Nor will Life's ftream for obfervation stay, It hurries all too faft to mark their way: COMMENTARY. VER. 31. Yet more; the difference &c.] Hitherto the poet hath spoken of the causes of difficulty arifing from the obfcurity of the Object; he now comes to thofe which proceed from defects in the Obferver. The Firft of which, and a fixth cause of difficulty, he fhews (from 30 to 37) is the perverfe manners, affections, and imaginations of the obferver, whereby the Characters of others are rarely feen either in their true light, complexion, or proportion. VER. 37. Nor will Life's ftream for Obfervation &c.] The NOTES. VER. 29. Like following life thro' creatures you diffect,You lofe it in the moment you detect.] This Simile is extremely beautiful. In order to fhew the difficulty of difcovering the operations of the heart in a moral fenfe, he illuftrates it by another attempt ftill more difficult, the difcovery of its operations in a natural: For the feat of animal life being in the heart, our endeavours of tracing it thither muft neceffarily drive it from thence. VER 33. All Manners take a tincture from our own; -Or come difcolour'd thro' our Paffions shown.] Thefe two lines are In vain fedate reflections we wou'd make, When halfour knowledge we must snatch,not take. Our spring of action to ourselves is loft: COMMENTARY. 41 Second of these, and feventh caufe of difficulty (from 36 to 41) is the fhortness of human life, which will not fuffer the obferver to select and weigh out his knowledge, but just to fnatch it as it rolls rapidly by him down the current of Time. VER. 41. Oft, in the Paffions' &c.] We come now to the eighth and last cause, which very properly concludes the account, as, in a fort, it fums up all the difficulties in one (from 40 to 51) namely, that very often the man himself is ignorant of his own motive of action; the caufe of which ignorance our author has admirably explain'd; When the mind (fays he) is now quite tired out by the long conflict of opposite motives, it withdraws its attention, and fuffers the will to be feized upon by the first that afterwards obtrudes itself, without taking notice what that motive is. This is finely illuftrated by what he fupposes the general caufe of dreams; where the fancy, just let loofe, poffeffes itfelf of the last image which it meets with on the confines between fleep and waking, and on that erects all its vifionary operation; yet this image is, with great difficulty, recollected, and never, but when fome accident happens to interrupt our firft flumbers: Then (which proves the truth of the hypothefis) we are fometimes able to trace the workings of the Fancy backwards, from image to image, in a chain, till we come to that from whence they all arose, NOTES. remarkable for the exactness and propriety of expreffion. The word tincture, which implies a weak colour given by degrees, well defcribes the influence of the Manners; and the word dif colour, which implies a quicker change and by a deeper dye, denotes as well the operation of the Paffions. 45 As the last image of that troubled heap, COMMENTARY. VER. 51. True, fome are open, &c.] But now in answer to all this, an objector (from 50 to 61) may fay, "That these "difficulties feem to be aggravated: For many Characters are "fo plainly marked, that no man can mistake them: And not "fo only in the more open and frank, but in the clofeft and "moft reclufe likewife." Of each of which the objector gives an inftance, whereby it appears, that the forbidding clofenefs and concealed hypocrify in the one, are as confpicuous to all mankind, as the gracious openness and frank plain-dealing of NOTES. VER. 56.-peeps not from its hale.] Which fhews that this grave perfon was content with his present fituation; as finding but fmall fatisfaction in what a famous poet reckons one of the great advantages of old age, The foul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light from chinks that time has made. Scribl. At half mankind when gen'rous Manly raves, All know 'tis Virtue, for he thinks them knaves: When univerfal homage Umbra pays, 60 All fee 'tis Vice, and itch of vulgar praise. COMMENTARY. the other. The Reader fees this objection is more particularly level'd at the doctrine of 23. Our depths who fathoms, and our fhallows finds? for here it endeavours to prove, that both are equally explorable. VER. 63. But thefe plain Characters &c.] To this objection, therefore, our author replies (from 60 to 67) that indeed the fact may be true in the inftances given, but that fuch plain characters are extremely rare: And for the truth of this, he not only appeals to experience, but explains the caufes of that perplexed and complicated Character which diffufes itfelf over the whole fpecies, 1. The Firft of which is, the vivacity of the imagination; fo that when the bias of the Paffions is fufficiently determined to mark out the Character, yet even then, as the vigour of the Fancy generally rifes in proportion to the strength of the Appetites, the one no fooner directs the bias, than the other reverfes it, Tho' ftrong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind. 2. A Second caufe is the contrariety of Appetites, which drawing feveral ways, as Avarice and Luxury, Ambition and Indolence, &c. (expreffed in the line, Or puzzling Contraries confound the whole,) they must needs make the fame Character inconfiftent to itself, and confequently inexplicable to the observer. The Dull, flat Falfhood ferves, for policy: See the fame man, in vigour, in the gout; Catius is ever moral, ever grave, Thinks who endures a knave, is next a knave,' Save just at dinner --- then prefers, no doubt, A Rogue with Ven'fon to a Saint without. COMMENTARY. 79 75 80 3. A Third caufe is Affectation, that aspires to qualities, which neither nature nor education has given us, and which, confequently, neither ufe nor art will ever render graceful or becoming. On this account it is, he well obferves, Or Affectations quite reverfe the foul 1; natural paffions may indeed turn it from that bias which the ruling one has given it; but the affected paffions diftort all its faculties, and cramp all its operations; fo that it acts with the fame constraint that a tumbler walks upon his hands. VER. 69. Unthought-of Frailties &c.] 4. A Fourth caufe lies in the Inequalities in the human mind, which expofe the wife to unexpected frailties, and conduct the weak to as unlook'd for wisdom. VER. 71. See the fame man, &c.] Of all thefe Four caufes he here gives examples: 1. Of the vivacity of the Imagination (from 71 to 77)-2. Of the contrariety of Appetites (from 76 to 81)-3. Of Affectation (from 80 to 87)-and 4. Of the Inequalities of the human mind (from 86 to 95.) |