The fhrine with gore unftain'd, with gold undreft, Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest: And man's prerogative to rule, but spare. NOTES. 160 ❝tains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars: Beafts "and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl: kings of "the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of "the earth. Let them praife the name of the Lord; ❝for his name alone is excellent, his glory is above the "earth and heaven." P/alm cxlviii. VER. 158. Unbrib'd, unbloody, &c.] i. e. The ftate defcribed, from ver. 261 to 269, was not yet arrived. For then when fuperftition was become fo extreme as to bribe the Gods with human facrifices (fee ver. 267.) Tyranny became neceffitated to woo the priest for a favourable anfwer: And play'd the God an engine on his foe. VER. 159. Heav'n's attribute, &c.] The poet fuppofes the truth of the Scripture account, that Man was created Lord of this inferior world (Ep. i. ver. 230.) Subjected these to thofe, and all to thee. What hath milled fome to imagine him here fallen into a contradiction, was, I fuppofe, fuch paffages as thefe, Afk for what end the heav'nly bodies fhine, &c. And again, Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy good, &c. But, in truth, this is fo far from contradicting what is here faid of man's prerogative, that it greatly confirms it, and the Scripture account concerning it. And because this matter has been mistaken, to the difcredit of the poet's religious fentiments, by readers, whom the conduct of certain licentious writers, treating this fubject in an abufive way, hath rendered jealous and mistrustful, I shall endeayour to explain it. Scripture fays, that Man was made Ah! how unlike the man of times to come! And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds; See him from Nature rifing flow to Art! 165 170 To copy Instinct then was Reason's part; NOTES. Lord of All: But this Lord become intoxicated with Pride, the common effect of fovereignty, erected himself, like more partial monarchs, into a tyrant. And as Tyranny confists in fuppofing all made for the use of one; he took those freedoms with all, that are confequent on fach a principle. He foon began to confider the whole animal creation as his flaves rather than as his fubjects; as being created for no use of their own, but for this only; and therefore treated them with the utmost barbarity: And not fo content, to add infult to this cruelty, he endeavoured to philosophize himself into an opinion that animals were mere machines, infenfible of pain or pleasure. Thus Man affected to be the Wit as well as Tyrant of the Whole: and it became one who adhered to the Scripture account' of Man's dominion, to reprove this abuse of it, and to shew, that Heav'n's attribute was Universal Care, And Man's prerogative to rule, but spáre. VER 171. Thus then to Man, &c.] The poet reprefents "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; "Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 "Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave ; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail, "Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. NOTES. the invention of Arts as only leffons learnt of brute animals, guided by instinct, in order to humble human arrogance, and raise our idea of infinite wifdom. This he does in a profopopaia, the moft fublime that ever entered into the human imagination":" Thus then to man the Voice of Nature spake: "Go, from the creatures thy instructions take, &e, "And for those Arts mere Inftinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd." VER. 173. Learn from the birds, &c.] It is a caution commonly practifed among Navigators, when thrown upon a defert coaft, and in want of refreshments, to obferve what fruits have been touched by the Birds, and to venture on these without further hesitation. VER. 174. Learn from the beafts, &c.] See Pliny's Nat. Hift. 1. viii. c. 27. where several inftances are given of Animals difcovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own ufe of them, and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing by their own practice. VER. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus] Oppian Halieut. lib. i. describes this fish in the following manner: "They "fwim on the surface of the fea, on the back of their fhells, which exactly refemble the hulk of a fhip; they raife two feet like mafts, and extend a membrane be "tween, which ferves as a fail; the other two feet they "employ as oars at the fide. They are ufually feen in "the Mediterranean.” "P. "Here too all forms of focial union find, "And hence let Reason, late, inftruct Mankind: 180 "Here fubterranean works and cities fee: "There towns aërial on the waving tree. "Learn each small People's genius, policies, "The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bees; "How thofe in common all their wealth bestow, 185 "And Anarchy without confufion know; "And these for ever, tho' a Monarch reign, "Their fep'rate cells and properties maintain. "Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state, "Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate. 190 "In vain thy Reason finer webs shall draw, Entangle Juftice in her net of Law. "And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too strong. "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 195 "Thus let the wifer make the reft obey; "And for thofe Arts mere Inftinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd." V. Great Nature spoke; obfervant Men obey'd; Cities were built, Societies were made: .. VARIATIONS. VER. 197. In the first Editions, Who for thofe Arts they learnt of Brutes before, Here rose one little ftate; another near Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' love or fear. Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, And there the ftreams in purer rills defcend? What War could ravifh,Commerce could beftow,205 And he return'd a friend, who came a foe. Converfe and Love mankind might strongly draw, When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law. VARIATIONS, VER. 201. Here rofe one little state, &c.] In the MS. thus, For want alone each animal contends; Tigers with Tigers, that remov'd, are friends. NOTES. VRR. 196. Obfervant Man obey'd;] The epithet is beautiful, as fignifying both obedience to the voice of Nature, and attention to the lessons of the animal creation. VER. 208. When Love was Liberty.] i. e. When men had no need to guard their native liberty from their governor by civil pactions; the love which each master of a family had for thofe under his care being their beft fecurity. |