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he doubts, he applauds; but it all ends in Calumny and Condemnation. Here you have an old Veteran Controverfialist of seventy-five, who gives the World his fecond Thoughts (for he had published his Examen before he wrote his Commentary) telling us that he fcribled at random, and made the greatest Part of his Remarks before he had read over the Book he wrote against : A Book that contains a regular, well-digefted System, whose Parts, having a mutual Dependance, neceffarily support and illuftrate one another. But if a Man would make fo free with himself as to tell this ftrange Story to the World, which certainly he had a Right to do, he should, as his moral Character was concerned, have made Satisfaction for his Folly, by ftriking out all thofe odious Imputations with which the foregoing Part of his Commentary abounds. Instead of this, he was not only content to leave the Calumnies of Fatalism and Spinozism un-retracted; but has thought fit to renew them, even after this Confeffion of his hasty, immature Way of Writing Ah! mifera mens hominis, quo te fatum fæpiffime trahit! What but this I could have forced him to write a whole Book in Contradiction to the very Principle he himself lays down to proceed by? An over fcrupulous Exactitude (fays he) would hurt the very End of Poetry. But we must make it a Law to interpret one Expreffion by another, for fear of attributing Notions

to

to a Poet that would be injurious to him".

But to return: This is not all; the Poet fhews farther [from 1. 330 to 343] that, when the fimpleminded Man, on his first fetting out in the Pursuit of Truth, in order to Happiness, has had the Wisdom

To look thro' Nature up to Nature's God,

inftead of adhering to any Sect or Party, where there was fo great Odds of his chufing wrong; That then the Benefit of gaining the Knowledge of God's Will written in the Mind, is not there confined; for that standing on this fure Foundation, he is now no longer in Danger of chufing wrong, amidft fuch Diversities of Religions; but by purfuing this grand Scheme of Universal Benevolence, in Practice, as well as Theory, he arrives at length to the Knowledge of the revealed Will of God, which is the Confummation of the System of Benevolence:

ce

For him alone Hope leads from Gole to Gole,
And opens ftill, and opens on his Soul,
'Till lengthen'd on to FAITH, and unconfin'd,
It pours the Blifs, that fills up all the Mind.

But let us once more hear Mr. De Croufaz: “We

are brought (fays he) at length to the Truths of "Revelation.-See Man once again re-established in "his Rights, raised as far above Brutes as Heaven " is above the Earth. How infinite a Difference

Commentaire, p. 196.

<< between

« between what one reads in this fourth Epistle, "and what the Poet ventured to propofe in the

ec

firft, and in part of the two following? There,

corrupt Minds thought they read their own Sen"timents; and even this, which we find here, is "infufficient to bring them back again from their "Preventions."

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That the three first Epiftles have nothing contrary to the fourth, we have not only sufficiently evinced, but fhewn likewise, that the Doctrine of this laft, fo much approved by Mr. De Croufaz, is the neceffary Confequence of that laid down in every one of the preceding, fo much condemned by him. But, that corrupt Minds thought they read their own Sentiments there, nay, that it will be hard to bring them back again from their Preventions, I can easily conceive; because, not only Partiality to Mens own Opinions, but Prejudice against the Opinions of others, may make them fancy they fee Doctrines in a celebrated Writer, which are indeed not there. And then, Self-love on the one hand, and Self-conceit on the other, may easily keep both in their several Delufions, against all the Power of Conviction.

To proceed, The Poet, in the last Place, marks out [from 1. 342 to 363] the Progress of his Good Man's Benevolence, pushed thro' natural Religion to revealed, 'till it arrives to that Height, which the Sacred Writers defcribe as the very Summit

с

Commentaire, p. 332, 333.

of

of Chriftian Perfection: And fhews how the Pro-
grefs of human differs from the Progress of divine
Benevolence. That the divine defcends from
Whole to Parts; but that the human muft rife from
individual to univerfal. And with this rapturous
Description the Subject of the Epiftle closes:
Self-love thus pufh'd to focial, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy Neighbour's Bleffing thine:
Is this too little for the boundless Heart?
Extend it, let thy Enemies have Part.

Grafp the whole Worlds of Reason, Life, and
Senfe,

In one clofe Syftem of Benevolence.

Happier, as kinder! in whate'er Degree,

AND HEIGHT OF BLISS, BUT HEIGHT OF CHA

RITY,

God loves from Whole to Parts; but human Soul Muft rife from Individual to the Whole. Self-love but ferves the virtuous Mind to wake, As the fmall Pebble ftirs the peaceful Lake; The Centre mov'd, a Circle ftrait fucceeds, Another ftill, and ftill another fpreads, &c. The laft Part of the Obfervation is important. Rochefocault, Efprit, and their wordy Disciple Mandeville, had obferved, that Self-love was the Origin of all thofe Virtues Mankind moft admire; and therefore foolishly fuppofed it was the End likewife: And fo, taught that the highest Pretences to Difinterestedness were only the more artful Difguifes of Self-love. But Mr. Pope, who

fays

fays, fomewhere or other,

Of human Nature Wit its worst may write, We all revere it in our own Despite, faw, as well as they, and every body elfe, that the Paffions began in Self-love; yet he understood human Nature better than to imagine they terminated there. He knew that Reafon and Religion could convert Selfishness into its very oppofite; and therefore teaches that

Self-love but ferves the virtuous Mind to wake, and thus hath vindicated the Dignity of human Nature, and the philofophic Truth of the Chriftian Doctrine.

But let us turn once more to Mr. De Croufaz, who, constant to himself, concludes, in the fame even tenor in which he first set out. "A Man

(fays he) must use fome Efforts to go even fo "far as to love his Enemies.-But as to what conແ cerns all Parts of the Universe, and all the liv"ing Beings that inhabit it, as well those we fee <c not, as those we do fee, we find nothing in "ourselves repugnant indeed to the giving them "our Love; but then, on the other hand, we do "not feel any Motions towards the rendering it cc to them. And while fo great a Number of Ob"jects, with which we are clofely furrounded, ❝ demand our Attention and Concern, it appears "not only fuperfluous but even irrational, to teaze "ourselves with I cannot tell what Kind of Ten

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