Which fees no more the ftroke, or feels the pain,
Than favour'd Man by touch etherial flain.
The creature had his feaft of life before;

Thou too muft perish, when thy feaft is o'er! 70
To each unthinking being, Heav'n a friend,
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end:
To Man imparts it; but with fuch a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too:
The hour conceal'd, and fo remote the fear, 75
Death ftill draws nearer, never feeming near.
Great standing miracle! that Heav'n affign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

II. Whether with Reafon, or with Instinct bleft, Know, all enjoy that pow'r which fuits them beft;

COMMENTARY.

VER. 79. Whether with Reafon, &c.] But even to this, as a caviller would ftill object, we must fuppofe him fo to do, —Admit (fays he) you have fhewn that Nature hath endowed all animals, whether human or brutal, with fuch faculties as admirably fit them to promote the general good: yet, in its care for this, hath not Nature neglected to provide for the private good of the individual? We have caufe to think the hath; and we fuppofe, it was on this exclufive confideration that he kept back from brutes the gift of Reafon (fo neceffary a means of private happinefs) becaufe Reafon, as we find in the instance of

NOTES.

VER. 68. Then favour'd Man, &c.] Several of the ancients, and many of the Orientals fince, efteemed thofe who were ftruck by lightning as facred perfons, and the particular favou rites of Heaven. P.

To blifs alike by that direction tend,

And find the means proportion'd to their end.
Say, where full Instinct is th'unerring guide,
What Pope or Council can they need befide?
Reason, however able, cool at beft,

Cares not for fervice, or but ferves when preft,
Stays 'till we call, and then not often near;
But honest Inftinct comes a volunteer,

Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit;

81

85

While ftill too wide or fhort is human Wit; 90

While Man, with opening views of various ways
Confounded, by the aid of knowledge strays :
Too weak to chufe, yet chufing ftill in hafte,
One moment gives the pleasure and distaste.

COMMENTARY.

Man, where there is occafion for all the complicated contrivance you have described above, to make the effects of his Paffions counter-work the immediate powers of his Reafon, in order to keep him fubfervient to the general fyftem; Reason, we say, naturally tends to draw Beings into a private, independent system. This the poet answers, by fhewing (from 78 to 109) that the happiness of animal and that of human life are widely different: The happiness of human life confifting in the improvement of the mind, can be procured by Reafon only; but the happiness of animal life confifting in the gratifications of sense, is best promoted by Inftinct. And, with regard to the regular and constant operation of each, in that, Instinct hath plainly the advantage; for here God directs immediately; there, only mediately through Man.

Which fees no more the ftroke, or feels the pain,
Than favour'd Man by touch etherial flain.
The creature had his feast of life before;

Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er! 70
To each unthinking being, Heav'n a friend,
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end:
To Man imparts it; but with fuch a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too :
The hour conceal'd, and fo remote the fear, 75
Death ftill draws nearer, never feeming near.
Great standing miracle! that Heav'n affign'a
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

II. Whether with Reason, or with Instinct bleft, Know, all enjoy that pow'r which fuits them beft;.

COMMENTARY.

VER. 79. Whether with Reafon, &c.] But even to this, as a caviller would ftill object, we muft fuppofe him fo to do, -Admit (fays he) you have fhewn that Nature hath endowed all animals, whether human or brutal, with fuch faculties as admirably fit them to promote the general good: yet, in its care for this, hath not Nature neglected to provide for the private good of the individual? We have caufe to think fhe hath; andfuppofe, it was on this exclufive confideratio back from brutes the gift of Reafon (fo private happiness) because Reafon, as we

NOTES.

VER. 68. Then favour'd Man, &c.

fhe

and many of the O

ftruck by lightning a

rites of Heaven,

fince,

perfor

Sure by quick Nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier Reason labours at in vain.
This too serves always, Reason never long ;
One must go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing pow'rs
One in their nature, which are two in ours;
And Reason raise o'er Instinct as you can,
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis Man.

95

Who taught the nations of the field and wood To fhun their poison, and to chuse their food? 100 Prescient, the tides or tempefts to withstand, Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fand? Who made the spider parallels defign, Sure as De-moivre, without rule or line? Who bid the ftork, Columbus-like, explore 105 Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before? Who calls the council, ftates the certain day, Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way? III. God, in the nature of each being, founds Its proper blifs, and fets its proper bounds: 110

COMMENTARY.

VER. 109. God, in the nature of each being, &c.] The author now cometh to the main fubject of his epiftle, the proof of Man's SOCIABILITY, from the two general focieties compofed by him; the natural, fubject to paternal authority; and the civil, fubject to that of a magiftrate. This he hath the addrefs to introduce, from what had preceded, in so easy and na