Lo, the poor Indian! whofe untutor❜d mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; NOTES. 100 His Christian's heaven and the Indian's. It will be prefumption in me to go further; and yet I cannot help observing, that, allow Mr. Pope this doctrine, and he will go near to overthrow the whole argument of the divine legation of Mofes. God has implanted in mankind a religious fear, and a foreboding of a future state. The divine fays, he had this from revelation: the deift, that it supplies the want of one; that it has kept the world in awe from the beginning of the creation, feconded with an opinion of Providence prevailing even in this world." From MS. notes of our learned printer Mr. Bowyer. VER. 99. Lo, the poor Indian! &c.] The Poet having bid Man comfort himself with expectation of future happiness; having fhewn him that this HOPE is an earnest of it; and put in one very neceffary caution, "Hope humbly then, with trembling pinions foar;" provoked at those miscreants whom he afterwards (Ep. iii. Ver. 263.) defcribes as building Hell on Spite, and Heaven on pride, he upbraids them (from Ver. 98 to 113.) with the example of the poor Indian, to whom also Nature hath given this common HOPE of Mankind: But though his untutor'd mind had betrayed him into many childish fancies concerning the nature of that future ftate, yet he is so far from excluding any part of his own fpecies (a vice which could proceed only from the pride of falfe Science) that he humanely, though fimply, admits even his faithful dog to bear him company. W. Pope has indulged himself in but few digreffions in this piece; this is one of the most poetical. Representations of undisguised nature and artlefs innocence always amuse and delight. The fimple notions which uncivilized nations entertain of a future. ftate are many of them beautifully romantic, and fome of the beft fubjects for poetry. It has been queftioned, whether the circumftance of the dog, although ftriking at the first view, is introduced with propriety, as it is known that this animal is not a native of America. The notion of feeing God in clouds, and hearing him in the wind, cannot be enough applauded. Buffon fays, the Americans had no domeftic animals about them when that continent was difcovered. His foul, proud Science never taught to ftray Yet fimple Nature to his hope has giv❜n, Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n; Some happier ifland in the watʼry waste, Where flaves once more their native land behold, He asks no Angel's wing, no Seraph's fire; 105 IV. Go, wifer thou! and, in thy fcale of fenfe, Weigh thy Opinion against Providence ; Call imperfection what thou fancy'st fuch, Say, Here he gives too little, there too much : 115 120 Snatch VARIATIONS. After Ver. 108. in the first Ed. But does he say the Maker is not good, NOTES. VER. 120. Alone made perfect here,] The obvious meaning is, "Be content with the prefent life; it is your pride only that makes you think yourself ill-treated, and induces you to look for another and more perfect ftate." C 4 Bolingbroke Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, NOTES. 125 Afpiring Bolingbroke is for ever repeating the fame note, and saying, "It is profane even to infinuate, and much more to affirm peremptorily, that the proceedings of God towards man, in the prefent life, are unjust; and, if that could be admitted, it would be abfurd to admit that this may be set right; which means, if the words have any meaning, that this injustice must cease to be injustice, on the received hypothefis of his proceedings towards man in another life. One is profane, notwithstanding all the questions they beg to support the charge: the other is abfurd, on the very principles on which they argue, and according to our clearest and moft diftinct ideas or notions of human juftice." It is a fingular fact, and not fufficiently attended to, that neither the ancient philofophers nor poets, though they abound in complaints of the unequal distribution of good and evil at present, yet do not even infer or draw any arguments, from this supposed inequality, for the neceffity of a future life, where fuch inequality will be rectified, and Providence vindicated. VER. 126. Men would be Angels,] Verbatim from Bolingbroke, vol. v. p. 465.; as are many other paffages. How are we to interpret the affertion, that Pope did not really underftand the principles of Bolingbroke, when the latter fays to him, "These subjects have been so often treated of between you and me, that I shall fay nothing of them here." The following passage, relating to the caution and timidity of Pope, may give us a key to his conduct, vol. iv. p. 190. "Read," fays Bolingbroke to him, "the entire paffage; confult your memory; look round you, and then you shall tell me what you think of Clarke's argument. You shall tell it in my ear: I expect no more; for I know how defirous you are to keep fair with orders, whatever liberties you take with particular men." Afpiring to be Gods, if Angels fell, Of ORDER, fins against th' Eternal Cause. 130 V. Afk NOTES. VER. 127. If Angels fell,] It may mortify our pride to confider how little we know of the Fall of Angels; on which event depends the Fall of Man, effected by the agency of the chief of these Fallen Angels. Revelation is not exprefs on this important fubject. All is imperfect conjecture. We have only a few hints on the fubject: Such as that in Ifaiah, c. xiv. v. 12.; and in Ezekiel, c. xxviii. v. 14.; and in the Apocalypfe, concerning the feven-headed dragon. "I had rather know the hiftory of Lucifer," fays Burnet, in his Theory," than of all the Babylonian and Persian kings; nay, than of all the kings of the earth: what the birthright was of that mighty prince; what his dominions; where his imperial court and refidence; how he was deposed; for what crime, and by what power; how he ftill wages war against heaven in his exile; what confederates he hath; what is his power over mankind, and how limited." Milton, in book v. copies from the Rabbinical writers, from the fathers, and fome of the schoolmen, the causes of the rebellion of Satan and his affociates; but feems more particularly to have in view an obfcure Latin poem written by Odoricus Valmarana, and printed at Vienna in 1627, intitled, "Dæmonomachiæ, five de Bello Intelligentiarum fuper Divini Verbi Incarnatione ;” in which the revolt of Satan, or Lucifer, is expressly ascribed to his envy at the exaltation of the Son of God. See Newton's Milton, vol. i. p. 407. But the commentators on Milton have not observed that there is still another poem which he seems to have copied, “L'Angeleida di Erasmo di Valvafone," printed at Venice, in quarto, in 1590, defcribing the battle of the Angels against Lucifer, and which Gordon de Porcel, in his Library of Romances, tom. ii. p. 190. thought related to Angelica, the heroine of Boiardo and Ariofto. I beg leave to add, that Milton feems alfo to have attended to a poem of Taffo, not much noticed, on the Creation," Le Sette Giornate del Mondo Creato," in 1607. 1 V. Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies fhine, Earth for whose use? Pride anfwers, ""Tis for mine: "For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow'r, "Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev'ry flow'r ; "Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew, 135 "The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew; "For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings; "For me, health gushes from a thousand springs; "Seas roll to waft me, funs to light me rife; "My foot-ftool earth, my canopy the skies." But errs not Nature from this gracious end, From burning funs when livid deaths defcend, NOTES. 140 When VER. ER. 131. Ask for what end, &c.] If there be any fault in these lines, it is not in the general fentiment, but in the ill choice of inftances made ufe of in illuftrating it. It is the highest abfurdity to think that Earth is man's foot-flool, his canopy the Skies, and the heavenly bodies lighted up principally for his use; yet, furely, it is very excufable to fuppofe fruits and minerals given for this end. There is most affuredly a fault. W. VER. 141. But errs not Nature] The whole of this doctrine is thus clearly stated in fome valuable manuscripts of the late James Harris, Efq. "Whence evil in the univerfe, and why? Some things, perhaps, which thou thinkest such, are not evil, but in appearance. Where the whole is vaftly great, the connections will be innumerable. When, therefore, a part only is seen, many of these connections will be inexplicable. Being inexplicable, they will often exhibit appearances of evil, where yet in fact is no evil, but only good, not understood. 66 Again, throughout the whole there is more good than evil : For in the fyftem of the heavens we know of no evil at all. The fame |