meftick Life, he comes in the laft Place [from 1. 250 to the End] to fhew their Ufe to the Individual even in their Illufions; the imaginary Happiness they prefent, helping to make the real Miferies of Life less infupportable. And this is his third general Divifion: Opinion gilds with varying Rays

Thofe painted Clouds that beautify our Days:
Each Want of Happiness by Hope fupply'd,
And each Vacuity of Senfe by Pride.
Thefe build as faft as Knowledge can deftroy::
In Folly's Cup ftill laughs the Bubble Joy;
One Profpect loft, another ftill we gain;
And not a Vanity is given in vain.

Which must needs vaftly raise our Idea of God's Goodness, who hath not only provided more than a Counter-balance of real Happiness to human Miferies, but hath even, in his infinite Compaffion, beftow'd on those who were fo foolish as not to have made this Provifion, an imaginary Happiness; that they may not be quite over-borne with the Load of human Miferies. This is the Poet's great and noble Thought, as ftrong and folid as it is new and ingenious.

The Poet endeavours likewife to fhew, that notwithstanding the feeming Difcontent, which appears in all States and Stations of Life, yet every Body is fo thoroughly pleas'd in Reality with what they are, that nothing could prevail upon them to be any other Perfon, the Riches or Power of one might pleafe them, but then their Perfon, their Humour, their Wit, or certainly fomething would prevent the Change, were it poffible:

Whate'er the Paffion, Knowledge, Fame, or Pelf, Not one will change his Neighbour with himself.

Than

Than which, perhaps, he has not advanc'd a greater Truth; for they who have look'd near into Mankind, find that the greatest Part of them heartily defpife one another. The Mathematician looks down with Contempt on all other Studies: Law, Phyfick, and Divinity, down with juft fuch Eyes on each other, and fo do moft other Profeffions, all Rivals in the fame Arts are of this Clafs, and Nation defpifes Nation, merely because they are not under the fame Laws, Cuftoms, and Habits, while the Happiness of all, is that particular favourite Talent or Acquirement upon which each values himself, and builds up a Sort of Happiness:

The Learn'd are happy, Nature to explore;
The Fool is happy, that he knows no more,
The Rich are happy in the Plenty giv❜n :
The Poor contents him with the Care of Heaven.
See the blind Beggar dance, the Cripple fing,
The Sot a Hero, Lunatick a King,

The ftarving Chymift in his golden Views
Supreamly bleft, the Poet in his Muse.

Certainly it is the Wisdom of every Creature to value that which gives to it its greatest Pleasure or Happiness, and not to confent to exchange a State which wants the very Thing that conftitutes that Pleasure, which Mr. Pope calls Opinion:

Hope travels thro', nor leaves us till we die. Till then Opinion gilds with varying Lays Those painted Clouds that beautify our Days.

Hope often fupplies the Place of Happiness, and Pride ferves for Senfe, and all other Perfections wanting, and, in fhort, we only run round in a Maze of Weakness and Folly:

See!

See! and confefs, one Comfort ftill muft rife
'Tis this, tho' Man's a Fool, yet God is wife.

Thus he has chofe to finish his Second Epiftle; where the Paffions, Faculties of the Mind, Vice and Virtue, Wisdom and Folly are treated in an uncom→ mon Manner, and in a Strain of Poetry uncommonly beautiful: This rifes higher ftill in the next Epiftle, which is, in my Opinion, the most excellent of the

four.

This third Ethick Epiftle treats of the Nature and State of Man, with Refpect to Society; and it is connected with the foregoing; which treated him as an Individual: And whereas in feveral Editions of this Effay the first Line began;

Learn, Dulness, Learn, &c.

In the latter it was chang'd:

Here then we reft; the univerfal Caufe

Acts to one End, but acts by various Laws.

And this he defires Man to remember always, let him be in what Situation of Life he may; but he more especially recommends it to the Clergy, left when they preach, they should give a falfe Definition. of the Workings of Providence; or when they pray, they should ask Things which were not for the Good of the Whole, and fo feem to oppofe the very Designs and Difpenfation of the Deity..

To fhew that we are by Nature defign'd for Society he fays, that if we will but make Observation, we fhall fee all Thiugs combin'd together by a Chain of Love. This he proves from Line 8 to 13, on the Theory of Attraction, from the Economy of the material World, that every fingle Atom attracts and is attracted:

VOL. II.

Ꮓ

Form'1

Form'd, and impell'd its Neighbour to embrace.

Thefe Words form'd and impell'd, (fays the Commentator) are not of a loose, undiftinguifh'd Meaning, thrown in to fill up the Verfe. This is not our Author's Way, they are full of Senfe, and of the most philofophical Precifion. For to make Matter fo cohere, as to fit it for the Ufes intended by its Creator, a proper Configuration of its infenfible Parts, is as neceffary as that Quality fo equally and univerfally conferr'd upon it.

His next Argument is from the vegetable and animal World, whofe Beings mutually ferve for the Production and Suftainment of each other; that every Part relates to the Whole in a continued Chain, reaching far beyond the Penetration of Man:

See Matter next, with various Life endu'd,
Prefs to one Centre ftill, the gen'ral Good;
See dying Vegetables Life fuftain;
See Life diffolving vegetate again:
All Forms that perifh other Forms supply,
By Turns they catch the vital Breath, and die;
Like Bubbles to the Sea of Matter born,

They rife, they break, and to that Sea return, &c.

Next he checks the Pride of thofe, who think that all was made for them, and yet would not themselves be ferving the great End, the Good of the Whole; which Unwillingness itself, Mr. Pope fays, fhall at laft terminate in that Good. However, (fays the, Commentator) his Adverfaries, loth to give up the Queftion, will reafon upon the Matter; and we are now to suppose them objecting against Providence in this Manner. We grant, fay they, that in the irrational, as in the inanimate Creation, all is ferved,

and

and all is ferving. But with Regard to Man, the Cafe is different; he ftands fingle: For his Reafo hath endow'd him both with Power and Add efs fufficient to make all Things ferve him; and his Selflove, of which you have fo largely provided for him, will difpofe him, in his Turn, to ferve none. There fore your Theory is imperfect. Not fo, replies "the Poet, [from Line 52 to 83] I grant you, Man, "indeed, affects to be the Wit and Tyrant of the "Whole, and would fain fhake off

That Chain of Love,

Combining all below, and all above:

"But Nature, even by the very Gift of Reason, "checks this Tyrant: For Reafon endowing Man "with the Ability of fetting together the Memory of "the Paft, and Conjecture about the Future; and "paft Misfortunes making him apprehenfive of more "to come, this difpofes him to pity and relieve o"thers in a State of Suffering. And the Paffion "growing habitual, naturally extends its Effects to "all that have a Sense of Suffering. Now, as Brutes "have neither Man's Reafon, nor his inordinate

Self-love, to draw them from the Syftem of Bene"volence; so they wanted not, and therefore have 66 not, this human Sympathy of another's Mifery. By " which Paffion we fee thofe Qualities, in Man, "ballance one another, and fo retain him in that ge"neral-Order, in which Providence has plac'd its "whole Creation. But this is not all; Man's In"tereft, Amusement, Vanity, and Luxury, tie him "ftill clofer to the Syftem of Benevolence, by obli"ging him to provide for the Support of other Ani "mals; and tho' it be, for the moft Part, only to "devour them with the greater Guft, yet this does "not abate the proper Happiness of the Animals fo " preferved,

Z 2