Explores the loft, the wand'ring fheep directs,
By day o'erfees them, and by night protects,
The tender lambs he raifes in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his bofom warms;
Thus fhall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promis'd Father of the future age.
No more fhall 'nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover❜d o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad faulchion in a plow-fhare end.
Then palaces shall rife; the joyful TM Son

m

Shall finish what his short-liv'd Sire begun;
Their vines a fhadow to their race fhall yield,

And the fame hand that fow'd, shall reap the field.
The fwain in barren" deferts with furprise

See lilies fpring, and fudden verdure rise;

REMARKS.

55

бо

65

And

WARTON.

VER. 53. HE, is redundant. VER. 56. The promis'd father of the future age.] In Ifaiah ix. it is the everlafting Father; which the LXX render, The Father of the world to come; agreeably to the ftyle of the New Testament, in which the kingdom of the Meffiah is called the of the world to come; Mr. Pope, therefore, has, with great judgment, adopted the fenfe of the LXX, which his commentator has not obferved.

IMITATIONS.

age

WARTON.

VER. 67. The fwain in barren deferts] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 28. "Molli paulatim flavefcet campus arifta, Incultifque rubens pendebit fentibus uva, Et duræ quercus fudabunt roscida mella.” k Isaiah, ch. ix. ver. 6.

Ch. lxv. ver. 21, 22.

1 Ch. ii. ver. 4.

"The

And start, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murm'ring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste fandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn;

To leafless fhrubs the flow'ring palms fucceed,
And od❜rous myrtle to the noisome weed.

70

75

The ' lambs with wolves fhall graze the verdant mead, And boys in flow'ry bands the tiger lead;

REMARKS.

The

VER. 77. The words of Ifaiah are, "The wolf fhall dwell with the lamb," but Pope, by carrying the image farther, and making the wolf graze with the lamb, has inadvertently given an inconfiftency to the paffage. This was written before I had seen Mr. Stevens's remark, who, quoting the paffage, asks, "whether wolves are graminivorous ?"

IMITATIONS.

"The fields fball grow yellow with ripen'd ears, and the red grape Shall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard oak fhall diftil honey like dew."

66

Isaiah, ch. xxxv. ver. 7. "The parched ground fhall become a pool, and the thirfly lands fprings of water: In the habitation where dragons lay, fhall be grafs, and reeds and rushes."—Ch. lv. ver. 13. “ In. ftead of the thorn fhall come up the fir-tree, and inftead of the briar fball come up the myrtle-tree."

POPE.

VER. 77. The lambs with wolves, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 21. "Ipfæ lacte domum referent diftenta capella

Ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta leones--
Occidet et ferpens, et fallax herba veneni
Occidet.".

The fteer and lion at one crib fhall meet,

And harmless ferpents lick the pilgrim's feet.
The fmiling infant in his hand shall take

The crefted bafilifk and fpeckled fnake,

Pleas'd the green luftre of the scales furvey,
And with their forky tongue fhall innocently play.
Rife, crown'd with light, imperial' Salem, rise !
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes!

85

See,

IMITATIONS.

"The goats fhall bear to the fold their udders diffended with milk: nor shall the herds be afraid of the greatest lions. The serpent shall die, and the herb that conceals poifon fhall die."

Haiah, ch. xi. ver. 16, &c. "The wolf ball dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the caf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child fhall lead them. -And the lion fhall eat raw like the ox. And the fucking child Shall play on the hole of the afp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the den of the cockatrice."

POPE.

VER. 80. From the words occidet et ferpens, it was idly concluded the old ferpent, Satan, was meant. WARTON.

VER. 85. Rife, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise !] The thoughts of Ifaiah, which compose the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above those general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftieft parts of his Pollio:

Magnus ab integro fæclorum nafcitur ordo!

toto furget gens aurea mundo!

-incipient magni procedere menfes !

Afpice, venturo lætentur ut omnia fæclo!" &c.

The reader needs only to turn to the paffages of Isaiah, here cited.

↑ Isaiah, ch. lxv. ver. 25.

Ch. lx. ver. 1.

POPE.

See, a long' race thy fpacious courts adorn;
See future fons, and daughters yet unborn,
In crouding ranks on ev'ry fide arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!

t

See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,

Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings,
And heap'd with products of " Sabæan springs!
For thee Idume's fpicy forests blow,

And feeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day.
No more the rifing" Sun fhall gild the morn,
Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her filver horn;
But loft, diffolv'd in thy fuperior rays,

One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze

REMARKS.

90

95

100

O'er

VER. 87. See the very animated prophecy of Joad, in the feventh scene of Racine's Athaliah, perhaps the most fublime piece of poetry in the French language, and a chief ornament of that which is one of the best of their tragedies. In fpeaking of thefe paraphrafes from the facred fcriptures, I cannot forbear mentioning Dr. Young's nervous and noble paraphrafe of the book of Job, and Mr. Pitt's of the third and twenty-fifth chapters of the fame book, and alfo of the fifteenth chapter of Exodus. WARTON. VER 100. Cynthia is an improper because a claffical word.

WARTON.

VER. 102. One tide of glory,] Here is a remarkable fine effect of verfification: The poet rifes with his fubject, and the correfpon. dent periods feem to flow more copious and majestic with the grandeur and fublimity of the theme.

Ifai. ch. lx. ver. 4. u Ch. lx. ver. 6.

Ch. lx. ver 3.

w Ch. lx, ver. 19, 20.

106

O'erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!
The feas fhall wafte, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to duft, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd his word, his faving pow'r remains:
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own MESSIAH reigns!
* Ifaiah, ch. li. ver. 6. and Ch. liv. ver. 10.

THIS is certainly the moft animated and fublime of all our Author's compofitions, and it is manifeftly owing to the great original which he copied. Ifaiah abounds in striking and magnifiCent imagery. See Mr. Mafon's paraphrafe of the 14th chapter of this exalted prophet. Dr. Johnfon, in his youth, gave a tranflation of this piece, which perhaps has been praised and magnified beyond its merits.

I find and feel it impoffible to conclude these remarks on Pope's Meffiah, without mentioning another poem taken alfo from Isaiah, the noble and magnificent Ode on the Deftruction of Babylon, which Dr. Lowth hath given us in the thirteenth of his Prelections on the Poetry of the Hebrews; and which, the scene, the actors, the fentiments, and diction, all contribute to place in the firft rank of the fublime: thefe Prelections, abounding in remarks entirely new, delivered in the pureft and most expreffive language, have been received and read with almoft univerfal approbation, both at home and abroad, as being the richeft augmentation literature has in our times received, and as tending to illustrate and recommend the Holy Scriptures in an uncommon degree.

WARTON.

Dr. Johnson's Latin tranflation of this Poem is certainly inaccurate, and it contains many expreffions which, as Dr. Warton obferves, are not claffical. I have another Latin translation before me, with which I was favoured by Mr. Todd, printed at Naples 1760, and entitled, "Meffias, Ecloga facra Anglice, ab Alexandro Popio, Latine reddita a Gulielmo Bermingham, Presbytero."