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fed Man fo blind as to be bufied in chufing, or doubtful in his Choice, between two Objects equally wrong, the Cafe had appeared desperate; and all Study of Man had been effectually discouraged. But his Tranflator not seeing into the Force and Beauty of this Conduct, hath run into the very Abfurdity I have here fhewn Mr. Pope hath fo artfully avoided.

The Poet says,

Man hangs between; in doubt to ACT, or REST. Now he tells us 'tis Man's Duty to Act, not to Reft, as the Stoics thought; and to their Principle this latter Word alludes, he having just before mentioned that Sect", whofe Virtue, as he says, is fix'd as in a Froft;

Contracted all, retiring to the Breast:

But Strength of Mind is EXERCISE, not Reft. 1. 92, & feq. But the Tranflator is not for mincing Matters. Seroit-il en naiffant au travail condamné ? Aux douceurs du repos feroit-il destiné! According to him, Man doubts whether he be condemned to a flavish Toil and Labour, or deftined to the Luxury of Repofe; neither of which is the Condition whereto Providence defigned him. This therefore contradicts the Poet's whole Purpofe, which is to recommend the Study of Man,

m With too much Weakness for the Stoic's Pride.

on

on a Supposition that it will enable him to determine rightly in his Doubts between the true and false Object. 'Tis on this Account he says, Alike in Ignorance, his Reason fuch, Whether he thinks too little, or too much; Chaos of Thought and Paffion, all confus'd, Still by himself abus'd, or difabus'd.

i. e. the proper Sphere of his Reason is so narrow, and the Exercise of it so nice, that the too immoderate Use of it is attended with the fame Ignorance that proceeds from the not using it at all. Yet, tho' in both these Cases, he is abused by himself, he has it still in his own Power to difabuse himself, in making his Paffions fubfervient to the Means, and regulating his Reafon by the End of Life. Mr. De Croufaz himself had fome Glimmering of the Abfurdity of those two Lines of the Tranflator: And because he shall not fay, I allow him to have faid nothing reasonable throughout his whole Commentary, I will here transcribe his very Words: "Ce qui fait encore, que les Antithefes frapent au "lieu d'inftruire, c'eft qu'elles font outrées. « L'Homme nait-il condamné au travail? Doit-il "fe permettre la moleffe et le repos? Quel fujet de "decouragement ou de trouble, fi l'on n'avoit de "choix qu'entre deux partis fi contraires? Mais <c nous ne naiffons ni deftinés à un repos oifif, ni " condamnes à un travail accablant et inhumain." p. 138.

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Again, Mr. Pope,

In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beaft.

i. e. He doubts, as appears from the Line immediately following this, whether his Soul be Mortal or Immortal; one of which is the Truth, namely, its Immortality, as the Poet himself teaches, when he fpeaks of the Omniprefence of God:

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Breathes in our Soul, informs our mortal Part. 1 Ep. 1. 267. The Tranflator, as we say, unconscious of the Poet's Purpose, rambles, as before:

Tantôt de fon efprit admirant l'Excellence, Il pense qu'il est Dieu, qu'il en a la puissance; Et tantôt gemiffant des besoins de fon Corps, Il croit que de la brute, il n'a que les reforts. Here his Head (turned to a fceptical View) was running on the different Extravagances of Plato in his Divinity, and of Des Cartes in his PhiloSophy. Sometimes, fays he, Man thinks himself a real God, and fometimes again a meer Machine; Things quite out of Mr. Pope's Thoughts in this Place.

Again, the Poet, in a beautiful Allufion to the Sentiments and Words of Scripture, breaks out into this juft and moral Reflection upon Man's Condition here,

Born but to die, and reasoning but to err.

• In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer.

The

The Tranflator turns this fine and fober Thought into the most outrageous Scepticism;

Ce n'eft que pour mourir, qu'il est né, qu'il refpire, Et tout fa raifon n'eft prefque qu'un delire: and fo makes his Author directly contradict himfelf, where he says of Man, that he hath

- too much Knowledge for the Sceptic Side. Strange! that the Tranflator could not fee his Author's Meaning was, that, as we are born to die and yet enjoy fome small Portion of Life; so, tho we reafon to err, yet we comprehend fome few Truths. Strange! that he could not fee the Difference between that weak State of Reafon, in which Error mixes itself with all its true Conclufions concerning Man's Nature; and an abstract Quality, which we vainly call Reafon, but which, he tells us, is indeed Scarce any thing else but Madnefs. One would think he paid little Attention to the concluding Words of this fublime Defcription, where the Poet tells us, Man was

Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great Lord of all Things, yet a Prey to all; Sole Judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl❜d: The Glory, Jeft, and Riddle of the World. Indeed he paid fo much, as to contrive how he might pervert them to a Sense confiftent with his

Et tout fa raison n'eft presque qu'un delire: Which he does in these Words:

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Tantôt feu, tantôt fage, il change A CHAQUE INSTANT.

This is indeed making a Madman of this fole Judge of Truth, to all Intents and Purposes. But Mr. Pepe fays nothing of his changing every Moment from Sage to Fool; he only fays, that Folly and Wisdom are the infeparate Partage of Humanity: Which is quite another Thing.

But Miftakes, like Misfortunes, feldom come fingle; and the reason is the fame, in both cafes, because they influence one another. For the Tranflator, having mistaken both the Nature and End of the Defcription of the Weakness of human Nature, imagined the Poet's fecond Argument for the Difficulty of the Study of Man, which fhews, that the clearest and fublimeft Science is no Affiftance to it, nor even Religion itself, when grown Fanatical and Enthufiaftic; he imagined, I fay, that this fine Argument was an Illuftration only of the foregoing Description, in which Illustration, Instances were given of the feveral Extravagances in falfe Science; whereas the Poet's Defign was, just the contrary, to fhew the prodigious Vigour of the human Mind, in Studies which do not relate to itself, and yet that all its Force together with those Effects of it, avail little in this Inquiry.

But there was another Cause of the Tranflator's Error; he had mistaken, as we say, the Poet's first Argument for a Description of the Weakness of the human Mind with regard to all Truth; where

as

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