Self-love thus pufh'd to focial, to divine, Is COMMENTARY. VER. 353. Self-love thus push'd to focial, &c.] The Poet, in the last place, marks out (from ver. 352 to 373.) 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 muít rife 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 address likewise in the disposition of it. The Effay on Man opens with expofing the murmurs and impious conclufions of foolish men against the prefent conftitution of things as it proceeds, it occafionally detects all thofe falfe principles and opinions, which led them to conclude thus perverfely. Having now done all that was necessary in fpeculation, the Author turns to practice; and ends his Effay with the recom mendation of an acknowledged Virtue, CHARITY; which, if exercifed in that extent which conformity to the will of God requireth, would effectually prevent all complaints against the prefent order of Nature: fuch complaints being made with a total disregard to every thing but their own private fyftem, and feeking remedy in the diforder, and at the expence of all the reft. This observation, "Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake," is important: Rochefoucault, Efprit, and their coarfe and wordy difciple Mandeville, had obferved, that Self-love was the origin of all those virtues which mankind most admire; and therefore foolishly fuppofed it was the end likewife: and so taught that the highest pretences to difinterestednefs were only the more artful difguifes of Self-love. But our Author, who fays fomewhere or other, "Of 355 Is this too little for the boundless heart? Extend it, let thy enemies have part: Grafp the whole worlds of Reason, Life, and Sense, 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 Muft rife from Individual to the Whole. Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake, As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; The COMMENTARY. "Of human Nature, Wit its worft may write, MS. We all revere it in our own defpite," faw, as well as they, and every body else, that the Paffions began in Self-love; yet he understood human nature better than to imagine that they ended 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 Chriftian doctrine. WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 364. As the fmall pebble] It is obfervable that this fimilitude, which is to be found in Silius Italicus, 1. xiii. v. 24. and alfo in Du Bartas, and in Shakefpear's Henry VI., and alfo in Feltham's Refolves, hath been used twice more in the writings of our Poet; in the Temple of Fame, in the four hundred and thirtyfixth line, and in the Dunciad, at the four hundred and fifth. This Effay is not decorated with many comparifons; two, however, ought to be mentioned, on account of their aptness and propriety. The firft is, where he compares man to the vine, that gains its ftrength from the embrace it gives: The fecond is conceived with peculiar felicity; all Nature does not perhaps afford fo fit and close an application. It is obferved above, in Ep. iii. ver. 313. from whence it is borrowed: "On 365 The centre mov'd, a circle straight fucceeds, 379 Earth fmiles around, with boundless bounty bleft, And Heav'n beholds its image in his breast. Come NOTES. "On their own axis as the planets run, Yet make at once their circle round the fun : So two confiftent motions act the foul; And one regards itself, and one the whole." This fimile bears a close resemblance to that in the first act of the tragedy of Cato. WARTON. Dr. Warton has not observed, that Pope took the fimile of the Lake, from Chaucer, whofe "Houfe of Fame" he had imitated. The fimile is : "Takith hede nowe That circle caufe another whele; And that the thirde, and fo forthe, brother, Eviry circle caufing other, Moch brodir than himfelfin was: And thus from roundil to compas That it at both brinkis be," &c. Book ii. v. 280. Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along; Oh master of the poet, and the fong! And VARIATIONS. VER. 373. Come then, my Friend! &c.] In the MS. thus: While the wing'd courser flies with all her rein, NOTES. VER. 373. Come then, my Friend! &c.] Warburton fays, the conclufion of this Effay (from "Come then," &c.) furnishes a Critic with examples of every one of thofe five fpecies of elocution from which Longinus deduces the SUBLIME *. 1. Grandeur of conception: "Come then, my Friend!" &c. 2. Pathetic enthusiasm : "Teach me, like thee," &c. 3. An elegant ordonance of figures: "Oh! while along the stream," &c. 4. A fplendid diction: "When statesmen," &c. And, 5. A weight and dignity of compofition: "Shew'd erring Pride," &c. Nothing was ever more unfortunate than these five examples of Sublimity, &c.; all of which, as Dr. Warton obferves, prove the contrary. But that this Poem contains great beauty and fitness of language, and many paffages masterly and sublime, there can be no doubt. The character of fuch an Effay must be estimated, as before has been obferved, from the depth of thought it evinces, the * πέντε πηγαί τίνες εἰσιν τ ̓ ὑψηγορίας. 1. Πρῶτον μὲν καὶ κρατιςον τὸ περὶ τὰς νοήσεις ἀδρεπήβολον. 2. Δεύτερον δὲ τὸ σφοδρὸν καὶ ἐνθουσιας ι κὸν παθο. 3. Ποιὰ τῶν σχημάτων πλάσις. 4. Ἡ γενναῖα φράσις. 5. Πέμπτη δὲ μεγέθες αἰτία, καὶ συγκλείεσα τὰ πρὸ ἑαυ]ῆς ἅπαντα, ἡ ἐν ἀξιώματι καὶ διάρσει σύνθεσις. WARBURTON. And while the Mufe now ftoops, or now afcends, NOTES. 376 Teach the power of language, and the aptnefs, beauty, or fublimity of its illuftrations. With refpect to the obfervation and thinking it contains, how different is the opinion of able judges. Johnfon, with lofty and indignant farcafm, pronounces, that "the reader, though he feels his mind full, learns nothing; and when he meets it in its new array, no longer knows the talk of his mother and nurfe !" It is fingular that two fuch men as Johnson and Warburton, both remarkable for their learning and intellectual fuperiority, as both were deficient in true poetic tafte, fhould come to fuch different conclufions refpecting the effential character of this Effay, which, in the firft place, muft certainly be confidered as a Moral and Philofophical Treatife. Warburton fays, "it has a precifion, force, and closeness of connexion, rarely to be found in formal treatifes." Warton, in oppofition to both, "thinks it cannot be decried as the one has done, and ought not to be exalted fo much as it has been by the other ;" and, to prove its penetration and philofophy, he observes, that from fix lines Dr. Balguy had furnished a most eloquent difcourfe on the vanity of our intellectual attainments; that fuch a burlefque abftract as Johnson gave, might be given of any compofition whatever; and that it was as unfair and imperfect a representation, as the fame Critic gave of the beautiful imagery in "Il Penferofo of Milton." Will it be thought presumptuous in me, if I endeavour to reconcile thefe opinions? It is obfervable, that Warburton does not fpeak of the originality, or of any depth of thinking, this Essay contains: he only fays, "it has a precision, &c. not to be found in any formal treatises." It may be fairly allowed him to fay fo, after the pains he himself took, in pursuing with fuch ingenuity its train of argument, and sometimes finding out meanings which never entered into Pope's head: but, after all, as far as reasoning and argument are concerned, this opinion does not place the Effay on Man very high. Johnson's contemptuous judgment furely places it too low; but the reafon given by Warton, that because Dr. Balguy had made a moft excellent fermon from the ground-work afforded by a few lines, therefore, the power of investigation and depth of thought in this Effay, were |