Tho' many a paffenger he rightly call, You hold him no Philosopher at all. COMMENTARY. And duction equals the propriety of its matter; for the Epistle being addreffed to a noble perfon, diftinguished for his knowledge of the world, it opens, as it were, in the midst of a familiar conversation, which lets us at once into his character; where the Poet, by politely affecting only to ridicule the ufelefs knowledge of men confined to books, and only to extol that acquired by the world, artfully infinuates how alike defective the latter may be, when conducted on the fame narrow principle: which is too often the cafe; as men of the world are more than ordinarily prejudiced in favour of their own obfervations for the fake of the observer; and, for the same reason, less indulgent to the discoveries of others. WARBURTON. NOTES. most interesting relation. So that this part would have treated of Civil and Religious Society in their full extent. The Fourth and laft book concerned private ethics, or practical morality; confidered in all the circumftances, orders, profeffions, and ftations of human life. The scheme of all this had been maturely digefted, and communicated to L. Bolingbroke, Dr. Swift, and one or two more; and was intended for the only work of his riper years; but was, partly through ill health, partly through difcouragements from the depravity of the times, and partly on prudential and other confiderations, interrupted, poftponed, and, laftly, in a manner laid afide. But as this was the Author's favourite Work, which more exactly reflected the image of his own ftrong and capacious mind, and as we can have but a very imperfect idea of it from the dif jecta membra Poete, which now remain; it may not be amifs to be a little more particular concerning each of these projected books. The FIRST, as it treats of Man in the abstract, and confiders him in general, under every one of his relations, becomes the foundation, and furnishes out the fubjects, of the three following; so that The SECOND Book was to take up again the first and second epiftles of the first book; and to treat of Man in his intellectual VOL. III. P capacity And yet the fate of all extremes is fuch, Men may be read, as well as Books, too much. NOTES. capacity at large, as has been explained above. Of this, only a fmall part of the conclufion (which, as we faid, was to have contained a fatire against the mifapplication of wit and learning) may be found in the fourth book of the Dunciad; and up and down, occafionally, in the other three. The THIRD BOOK, in like manner, was to re-affume the subject of the third epistle of the firft, which treats of Man in his focial, political, and religious capacity. But this part the Poet afterwards conceived might be beft executed in an Eric POEM, as the Action would make it more animated, and the Fable lefs invidious; in which all the great principles of true and false Governments and Religions fhould be chiefly delivered in feigned examples. The FOURTH and laft book was to pursue the fubject of the fourth epiftle of the first, and to treat of Ethics, or, practical morality; and would have consisted of many members; of which, the four following epiftles are detached portions: the two first, on the Characters of Men and Women, being the introductory part of this concluding book. WARBURTON. VER. I. Yes, you defpife] The patrons and admirers of French literature ufually extol those authors of that nation who have treated of life and manners; and five of them, particularly, are efteemed to be unrivalled, namely, Montagne, Charron, La Rochefoucault, Boileau, La Bruyere, and Pascal. These are supposed to have deeply penetrated into the moft fecret receffes of the human heart, and to have discovered the various vices and vanities that lurk in it. I know not why the English fhould in this refpect yield to their polite neighbours more than in any other. Bacon in his Effays and Advancement of Learning, Hobbes and Hume in their treatifes, Prior in his elegant and witty Alma, Richardfon in his Clariffa, and Fielding in his Tom Jones (comic writers are not here included), have fhewn a profound knowledge of Man; and many portraits of Addifon may be compared with the most finished touches of La Bruyere. But the Epistles we are now entering upon will place the matter beyond a difpute; for the French can boast of no author who has fo much exhausted the fcience To obfervations which ourselves we make, We grow more partial for th' Obferver's fake; Maxims are drawn from Notions, thofe from Guess. Shall only Man be taken in the grofs? 15 Grant but as many forts of Mind as Mofs. That COMMENTARY. VER. 15. There's fome Peculiar, &c.] The Poet enters on the first division of his subject, the difficulties of coming at the Knowledge and true Chara&ers of Men. The firft caufe of this difficulty, which he profecutes (from ver. 14 to 19.), is the great diverfity of characters; of which, to abate our wonder, and not discourage our inquiry, he only defires we would grant him -but as many forts of Mind as Mofs," Hereby artfully infinuating, that if Nature hath varied the most worthlefs vegetable into above three hundred fpecies, we need not wonder at a greater diverfity in her highest work, the human mind: And if the variety in that vegetable has been thought of importance enough to employ the leisure of a ferious inquirer, much more will the fame circumftance in this mafter-piece of the fublunary world deferve our study and attention. "Shall only Man be taken in the grofs ?” NOTES. WARBURTON. fcience of morals as Pope has in his five Epiftles. They indeed contain all that is folid and valuable in the above-mentioned French writers, of whom our Author was remarkably fond. But whatever obfervations he has borrowed from them he has made his own by the dexterity of his application. VER. 10. Men may be read,] "Say what they will Book of the World, we must read others to know that." M. De Sevigne to R. Rabutin. WARTON. of the great how to read WARTON. That each from other differs, first confess; Our depths who fathoms, or our shallows finds, 20 25 It may be Reason, but it is not Man: COMMENTARY. His VER. 19. That each from other differs, &c.] A fecond cause of this difficulty (from ver. 18 to 21.) is man's inconftancy; for not only one man differs from another, but the fame man from himfelf. WARBURTON. VER. 21. Add Nature's, &c.] A third cause (from ver. 20 to 23.) is that obfcurity thrown over the characters of men, through ́the ftrife and contest between nature and cuftom, between reason and appetite, between truth and opinion. And as moft men, either through education, temperature, or profeffion, have their characters 'warped by cuftom, appetite, and opinion, the obfcurity arifing from thence is almost univerfal. WARBURTON. VER. 23. Our depths who fathoms, &c.] A fourth cause (from ver. 22 to 25.) is deep diffimulation, and restless caprice; whereby the shallows of the mind are as difficult to be found, as the depths of it are to be fathomed. WARBURTON. VER. 25. On human Actions, &c.] A fifth cause (from ver. 24 to 31.) is the fudden change of his principle of action; either on the point of its being laid open and detected, or when it is reafoned upon, and attempted to be explored. WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 20. Next, that he varies] A fenfible French writer fays, that the faults and follies of men chiefly arise from this circumftance, qu'ils n'ont pas l'efprit, en equilibre, pour ainfi dire, avec leur charactere: Ciceron, par exemple, etoit un grand efprit et une ame foible; c'est pour cela, qu'il fut grand orateur et homme d'etat mediocre. WARTON. VER. 23. Our depths who fathoms, &c.] "A mefure qu'on a plus d'efprit," fays the profound Pafcal, "on trouve qu'il y a plus d'hommes originaux." WARTON. His Principle of action once explore, That inftant 'tis his Principle no more. Like following life through creatures you diffect, Yet more; the diff'rence is as great between All Manners take a tincture from our own; Or come difcolour'd through our Paffions shown. 30 35 When half our knowledge we must snatch, not tåke. COMMENTARY. Oft, VER. 31. Yet more; the diff'rence, &c.] Hitherto the Poet hath spoken of the causes of difficulty arifing from the obfcurity of the object; he now comes to those which proceed from defects in the obferver. The first of which, and a fixth caufe of difficulty, he fhews (from ver. 30 to 37.) is the perverse manners, affections, and imaginations of the observer; whereby the characters of others are rarely feen either in their true light, complexion, or proportion. WARBURTON. VER. 37. Nor will Life's ftream for Obfervation, &c.] The seventh cause of difficulty, and the fecond arifing from defects in the Obferver (from ver. 36 to 41.), is the fhortness of human life; which will not fuffer him to felect and weigh out his knowledge, but just to snatch it, as it rolls fwiftly by him, down the rapid current of Time. WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 33. All Manners take] A deep knowledge of Human Nature is difplayed in thefe four lines. So alfo in ver. 42. WARTON. |