Plate VIII. Vol. III. facing p.3. N.Blakey inv.&del. Ravenet sculp. HOPE humbly then; with trembling Vinions sear Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore! Essay on Man. Ep A WAKE, MY ST JOHN! leave all meaner things my 5 To low ambition, and the pride of Kings. Let us (fince Life can little more fupply Than juft to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this fcene of Man; A mighty maze! but not without a plan; A Wild, where weeds and flow'rs promifcuous fhoot; Or Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit. NOTES. The Opening of this poem, in fifteen lines, is taken up in giving an account of the Subject; which, agreeably to the title, is an ESSAY on MAN, or a Philofophical Enquiryinto his Nature and End, his Paffions and Pursuits. The Exordium relates to the whole 'work, of which the Effay on Man was only the first book. The 6th, 7th, and 8th lines allude to the fubjects of this Essay, viz. the general Order and Defign of Providence; the Conftitution of the human Mind; the origin, ufe, and end, of the Paffions and Affections, both felfish and focial; and the wrong pursuits of Power, [ Pleasure, and Happiness. The 10th, 11th, 12th, &c. have relation to the fubjects of the books intended to follow, viz. the Characters and Capacities of Men, and the Limits of Learning and Ignorance. The 13th and 14th, to the Knowledge of Mankind, and the various Manners of the age. VER. 7, 8. A Wild,-Or Garden,] The Wild relates to the human paffions, productive (as he explains in the fecond epiftle) both of good and evil. The Garden, to human reafon, fo often tempting us to tranfgrefs the bounds God has fet to it, and wander in fruitless enquiries. Together let us beat this ample field, Try what the open, what the covert yield; ΙΟ And catch the Manners living as they rife; I. Say firft, of God above, or Man below, NOTES. VER. 12. Of all who blindly creep, &c.] i. e. Those who only follow the blind guidance of their Paffions; or those who leave behind them common fenfe and fober reason, in their high flights through the regions of Metaphyfics. Both which follies are expofed in the fourth epiftle, where the popular and philosophical errors concerning Happiness are spoken of. The figure here is taken from animal life. VER. 15. Laugh where we muft, &c.] Intimating 20 that human follies are fo ftrangely abfurd and ridiculous, that it is not in the power of the most compassionate, on fome occafions, to reftrain their mirth: And that human crimes are so flagitious, that the most candid have feldom an opportunity, on this fubject, to exercise their virtue. VER. 19, 20. Of Man, what fee we but his ftation here, From which to reason, or to which refer?] The fenfe is, we fee nothing of Man, but as he ftands at Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known, 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are. NOTES. prefent in his fiation here: From which ftation, all our reasonings on his nature and end must be drawn; and to this ftation they must be all referred. The confequence is, all our reasonings on his nature and end muft needs be very imperfect. VER. 21. Thro' worlds unnumber'd, &c.] Hunc cognofcimus folummodo per Proprietates fuas & Attributa, &per fapientiffimas & optimas rerum ftructuras & caufas finales. Newtoni Princ. Schol. gen. fub fin. VER. 30. The ftrong con 25 30 nections, nice dependencies,] The thought is very noble, and expreffed with great philofophic beauty and exactnefs. The fyftem of the Universe is a combination of natural and moral Fitneffes, as the human fyftem is of body and spirit. By the ftrong connections, therefore, the Poet alluded to the natural part; and by the nice dependencies to the moral. For the Essay on Man is not a fyftem of Naturalism, but of natural Religion. Hence it is, that, where he fuppofes diforders may tend to fome |