Than which, perhaps, he has not advanc'd a greater Truth; for they who have look'd near into Mahkind, find that the greateft Part of them heartily defpife one another. The Mathematician looks down with Contempt on all other Studies: Law, Phyfick, and Divinity, down with juft fuch Eyes on each other, and fo do moft other Profeffions, all Rivals in the fame Arts are of this Clafs, and Nation defpifes Nation, merely because they are not under the fame Laws, Customs, and Habits, while the Happiness of all, is that particular favourite Talent or Acquirement upon which each values himself, and builds up a Sort of Happiness:

The Learn'd are happy, Nature to explore;
The Fool is happy, that he knows no more,
The Rich are happy in the Plenty giv'n:....
The Poor contents him with the Care of Heaven.
See the blind Beggar dance, the Cripple fing,
The Sot a Hero, Lunatick a King,

The ftarving Chymift in his golden Views
Supreamly bleft, the Poet in his Mufe.

Certainly it is the Wifdom of every Creature to value that which gives to it its greatest Pleasure or Happiness, and not to confent to exchange a State which wants the very Thing that conftitutes that Pleafure, which Mr. Pope calls Opinion:

Hope travels thro', nor leaves us till we die. Till then Opinion gilds with varying Lays Thofe painted Clouds that beautify our Days.

Hope often fupplies the Place of Happinefs, and "Pride ferves for Senfe, and all other Perfections wanting, and, in fhort, we only run round in a Maze of Weakness and Folly:

See!

7

See! and confefs, one Comfort ftill muft rife,
'Tis this, tho' Man's a Faal, yet God is wife.

Thus he has chofe to finish his Second Epiftle; where the Paffions, Faculties of the Mind, Vice and Virtue, Wisdom and Folly are treated in an uncommon Manner, and in a Strain of Poetry uncommonly beautiful: This rifes higher ftill in the next Epiftle, which is, in my Opinion, the most excellent of the four.

This third Ethick Epiftle treats of the Nature and State of Man, with Refpect to Society; and it is connected with the foregoing; which treated him as an " Individual: And whereas in feveral Editions of this Effay the first Line began;

Learn, Dulness, Learn, &c.

In the latter it was chang'd:

Here then we reft; the univerfal Caufe

Acts to one End, but acts by various Laws. And this he defires Man to remember always, let him be in what Situation of Life he may; but he more efpecially recommends it to the Clergy, left when they preach, they fhould give a falfe Definition of the Workings of Providence; or when they pray, they should ask Things which were not for the Good of the Whole, and fo feem to oppofe the very Designs and Difpenfation of the Deity.

To fhew that we are by Nature defign'd for Society he fays, that if we will but make Obfervation, we fhall fee all Thiugs combin'd together by a Chain of Love. This he proves from Line 8 to 13, on the Theory of Attraction, from the Economy of the material World, that every fingle Atom attracts and is attracted :

- VOL. II.

Z

Form'd

Form'd, and impell'd its Neighbour to embrace.

Thefe Words form'd and impell'd, (fays the Commentator) are not of a loofe, undiftinguifh'd Meaning, thrown in to fill up the Verfe. This is not our. Author's Way, they are full of Senfe, and of the most philofophical Precifion. For to make Matter fo cohere, as to fit it for the Ufes intended by its Creator, a proper Configuration of its infenfible Parts, is as neceffary as that Quality fo equally and universally conferr'd upon it.

His next Argument is from the vegetable and animal World, whofe Beings mutually ferve for the Production and Suftainment of each other; that every Part relates to the Whole in a continued Chain, reach'ing far beyond the Penetration of Man:

See Matter next, with various Life endu'd,
Prefs to one Centre ftill, the gen'ral Good;
See dying Vegetables Life fuftain;
See Life diffolving vegetate again:

All Forms that perifh other Forms fupply,
By Turns they catch the vital Breath, and die;
Like Bubbles to the Sea of Matter born,

They rife, they break, and to that Sea return, &c.

Next he checks the Pride of thofe, who think that all was made for them, and yet would not themselves be ferving the great End, the Good of the Whole; which Unwillingness itself, Mr. Pope fays, fhall at laft terminate in that Good. However, (fays the, Commentator) his Adverfaries, loth to give up the Queftion, will reafon upon the Matter; and we are now to fuppofe them objecting against Providence in this Manner. We grant, fay they, that in the irrational, as in the inanimate Creation, all is ferved,

and

and all is ferving. But with Regard to Man, the Cafe is different; he ftands fingle: For his Reafon hath endow'd him both with Power and Addrefs fuf ficient to make all Things ferve him; and his Selflove, of which you have fo largely provided for him, will difpofe him, in his Turn, to ferve none. Therefore your Theory is imperfect. Not fo, replies "the Poet, [from Line 52 to 83] I grant you, Man, indeed, affects to be the Wit and Tyrant of the Whole, and would fain fhake off

-That Chain of Love,

Combining all below, and all above:

"But Nature, even by the very Gift of Reafon, "checks this Tyrant: For Reafon endowing Man "with the Ability of fetting together the Memory of "the Paft, and Conjecture about the Future; and "paft Misfortunes making him apprehenfive of more "to come, this difpofes him to pity and relieve o❝thers in a State of Suffering. And the Paffion "growing habitual, naturally extends its Effects to "all that have a Sense of Suffering. Now, as Brutes "have neither Man's Reafon, nor his inordinate "Self-love, to draw them from the Syftem of Bene"volence; fo they wanted not, and therefore have

not, this human Sympathy of another's Mifery. By "which Paffion we fee thofe Qualities, in Man, "ballance one another, and fo retain him in that ge"neral Order, in which Providence has plac'd its "whole Creation. But this is not all; Man's In❝tereft, Amusement, Vanity, and Luxury, tie him

ftill clofer to the Syftem of Benevolence, by obli"ging him to provide for the Support of other Ani"mals; and tho' it be, for the most Part, only to "devour them with the greater Guft, yet this does "not abate the proper Happiness of the Animals fo " preserved,

Z 2

"preserved, to whom Providence has not given the ufelefs Knowledge of their End. A From all which it appears, that the Theory is yet uniform, and "perfect."

Grant that the Pow'rful ftill the Weak controul, Be Man the Wit and Tyrant of the Whole: Nature that Tyrant checks; he only knows. And helps another Creature's Wants and Woes. Say, will the Falcon, ftooping from above, Smit with her varying Plumage, fpare the Dove? Admires the Jay, the Infect's gilded Wings,

Or hears the Hawk when Philomel Wings,

Man cares for all, &c.

fings?

For fome his Int'reft prompts him to provide,
For more his Pleafure, yet for more his Pride."

After this he comes to the Subject propos'd for this Epiftle, the Sociability of Man, prov'd by the Subjection to the Parent and to the Magistrate, and that our Society is altogether founded on our Wants, for wanting what another has to beftow, naturally caufes us to make Application for it where it is, and thus we are by Neceffitv brought together; otherwife were it fo that Man wanted no Aid, or could receive no Good or Pleafure from another, Self-love might (there being no Attraction or Inclination) draw each a feperate Way, and the World would be peopled with Hermits. But Mr. Pope affirms it to be quite otherwife:

L

Whate'er of Life all-quickening Ether keeps, Or breathes thro' Air, or fhoots beneath the Deeps, Or pours profufe on Earth; one Nature feeds The vital Flame, and fwells the genial Seeds.