only Question is, whether God has plac'd him in his right Place or no? which becomes no Question at at all, if all the Chain of Beings are in a natural Relation, and can't be otherways than where they are: He fays, whatever feems wrong refpecting Men, is right, as relative to all, which he does not attempt to prove, because he fays, we fee but a Part and not the Whole: Then he checks the Searcher again in eight Lines, from 60 to 68; all future Things he fays are hid from Men, therefore he recommends inftead of Knowledge unattainable, what he here calls Hope, but in his Definition it is Faith:

Hope humbly then; with trembling Pinions foar, Wait the great Teacher Death, and God adore, What Blifs above he gives not thee to know, But gives that Hope to be thy Bleffing now. Hope fprings eternal in the human Breaft, Man never is, but always to be blest : The Soul uneafy and confin'd at home Refts, andexpatiates in a Life to come,

He speaks very freely of Angels, tho' before he fays, what can we reafon but from what we know? He fays, that of the ftupendous Whole, the Soul is God, and the Body Nature, and inftead of farther Search, allows all to be unfearchable, and fays, fubmit, and in Spight of erring Reafon-Whatever is is right.

In the fecond Epiftle, he begins with checking Searchers in the firft 48 Lines, and then goes on dif courfing of the Paffions, and his favourite Theme the ruling Paffion; but at laft afferts, that all the Paffions may be called Modes of Self-love; he quotes an allegorical Paffage of the Bible, to prove that God is not always in the ftill Calm, but that he walks upon the Wind, The ruling Paffion he affirms is brought into the World with us, and like Aaron's Serpent, fwallows

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fwallows all the reft; that Spirit, and Wit, and Reafon, are aiding and affifting to it: Virtue and Vice, he fays, are fo blended together in our Natures, that we can't fee where the Virtue ends, or the Vice begins, and he looks on Pride as our great and common Friend, and concludes, that tho' Man is a Fool, yet God is wife, and thus by him vindicated.

The third Epiftle promifes to speak of Man with Refpect to Society, as the former had done as an Individual: This he begins with checking the Searcher, and talks again about the Chain; he proceds to call him Fool; he prefers Inftinct to Reafon, from Line, 86 to Line 98, and afterwards fays, that the Business of Reason was but to copy Inftinct, and as to Government (let it be arbitrary or what it will) that which is beft adminiftred is beft; and concludes this Epiftle, that Self-love and focial are the fame.

The fourth Epiftle of Happinefs, is where he fays, that common Senfe and Eafe are equal; he fays, the Rich are no happier than the Poor, the Great than the Little; but that Happinefs is Health, Peace, and Competence; yet, he fays, fome are happy (but wrongly fo) in other Things:

And grant the Bad what Happiness they wou'd,
One they must want, which is to pafs for Good.

In this Epiftle he checks the Searcher again, and calls him Fool, as he does many other contemptuous Names, thro' the whole Poem.

And difcourfing further, (for Happiness is a Theme of which every one may speak in their own Way) he reflects on fomè Courtiers, and now fays, VIRTUE is the only Happinefs, and not Health, Peace, and Competence; he concludes,

Whats

-Whatever is, is right,

That Reafon, Paffion, answer one great Aim,
That true Self-love and focial are the fame,
That Virtue only makes our Blifs below,
And all our Knowledge is ourselves to know.

We refer the Reader to the Effays, which upon the Whole feem to have been Notes collected from different Books, and by Mr. Pope turn'd into these fine Verfes; for the Sentiments of different Authors differing in Opinion, we think may be cafily trac'd; there has been a Commentary wrote on it, which is rejected by moft Philofophers and Scholars, and is indeed a very mean Performance.

This Effay has been (tho' but indifferently) tran flated into French, and a confiderable Price has been offer'd a Gentleman here in England, who refided many Years in Italy, and has tranflated feveral Pieces out of Italian, to render it into that Language, but he has hitherto refus'd it; it would abundantly please the Jefuits, and the following eight Lines are of the College :

Thus Nature gives us (let it check our Pride)
The Virtue neareft to our Vice allied;
Reafon the Biafs turns from Good to Ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus if he will:
The fiery Soul abhor'd in Cataline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine.
The fame Ambition can deftroy or fave,
And makes a Patriot as it makes a Knave.

When thefe Epiftles were publifh'd, they came, out fingly and without a Name. A little after the Appearance of the firft, a certain Gentleman, who has attempted fome Things in the poetical Way, particularly a Piece for Mufick, which was perfor-.

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med

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med in private before fome of the Royal Family; this Gentleman accidentally about that Time paid a Vifit to Mr. Pope, who, after the firft Civilities were over, enquired of him, What News there was in the Learned World, and what new Pieces were brought to Light: The leffer Poet reply'd, that there was little or nothing, or at least little or nothing worthy Notice: That there was indeed a Thing come out, call'd An Effay on Man, the firft Epiftle, threatning more, for he had read it, and it was a moft abominable Piece of Stuff, fhocking Poetry, infufferable Philofophy, no Coherence, no Connection at all; if I thought (continued he) that you had not feen it, I would have brought it with me. Upon this Mr. Pope very frankly told him, that he had feen it before it went to the Prefs; for it was his own Writing, a Work of Years, and the Poetry fuch as he thought proper for the Expreffion of the Subject, on which Side he did not imagine it would ever have been attack'd, efpecially by any pretending to the Study of Harmony and Knowledge of Numbers.

This was like a Clap of Thunder to the miftaken Bard; he took his Hat, and with a Blush and a Bow took his Leave of Mr. Pope, and never more ventured to fhew his unlucky Face there again. For the Verity of this Stary we have the Teftimony of a learned Gentleman, who has obliged the World with feveral Theological Treatifes, and who was at that Time and always very intimate with Mr. Pope.

It was expected, after what had happened, that the faid unlucky Gentleman would have given fome Reafon in publick for his Diflike of the Effay, and have fhow'd where the Poetry was defective, where the Philofophy; but whether intimidated by Fears of being clapp'd into the Dunciad; or whether what

he

he faid was only Wantonnefs, and the Love that a Poet has too often to speak ill of all others, we cannot fay; but he always remained filent.

This Effay is the Poem that the Bishop of Rochefter enquires after, and wishes to peep into the Manufcript: It would have done it no Harm; he would have honeftly declar'd against all which he did not like, as he did in Relation to the Epitaph upon Mr. Harcourt, which did not entirely please my Lord Chancellor, as appears by his Letter to Mr. Pope:

Cannot but fufpect myself of being very unreafe

clos'd. Your Friendship draws this Trouble on you. I may freely own to you, that my Tenderness makes me exceeding hard to be fatisfy'd with any Thing which can be faid on fuch an unhappy Subject. I caus'd the Latin Epitaph to be as often alter'd before I could approve it.

When once your Epitaph is set up, there can be no Alteration of it, it will remain a perpetual Monument of your Friendship, and I affure myself you will fo fettle it, that it fhall be worthy of you. I doubt whether the Word, deny'd, in the third Line, will juftly admit of that Conftruction which it ought to bear, viz. renounced, deserted, &c. deny'd is ca-pable, in my Opinion, as having an ill Senfe put upon it, as too great Easiness,' or more good Nature than a wife Man ought to have. I very well remember you told me, you could fcarce mend those too Lines, and therefore I can scarce expect your Forgivenefs for my defiring you to reconfider them: T Harcourt ftands dumb, and Pope is forc'd to speak. I can't perfectly, at least without further difcourfing you, reconcile myself to the firft Part of that Line;

and