Thy arts of building from the bee receive; "Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to "weave; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. "Here too all forms of focial union find, "And hence let Reafon, late, inftruct Mankind. "And Anarchy without confufion know; Thefe philofophical illuftrations are graced with all the ornaments of poetry: And while the reasoning mortifies our pride, the numbers flatter our tafte. The account which the poet gives of the origin of Religion is too excellent to be omitted. It is obvious that the religion of man, at his firft entrance into civil fociety, must have been the fame as in a fate of nature. By looking up from fire to fire, he explored one great firft Father, or else he gained the knowledge of God by tradition. The pure and fimple ideas which man then entertained of the attributes of the Deity are thus admirably defcribed "The Worker from the work diftinct was "known, "And fimple Reason never fought but one: "Ere Wit oblique had broke that fteddy light, Man, like his Maker, faw that all was right; "To Virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, "And own'd a Father when he own'd a God." The writer here, with great address, makes philofophy affiftant to religion *. Nor does the poet difplay lefs merit in the contraft which follows, wherein he traces the corruption of civil fociety, and confequently of religion. "Force firft made conqueft, and that conqueft, "law; "Till Superftition taught the Tyrant awe. "Here fix'd the dreadful, there the bleft "abodes; "Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her "Gods; "Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust, "Whofe attributes were Rage, Revenge, or "Luft; *All good moral philofophy, fays Lord Bacon, is but an handmaid to religion. "Such "Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive, "And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would "believe. "Zeal then, not charity, became the guide; "And hell was built on fpite, and heav'n on pride. "Then facred feem'd th' ethereal vault no "more; "Altars grew gore: marble then, and reek'd with "Then first the Flamen tafted living food; "Next his grim Idol fmear'd with human "blood; "With heav'n's own thunders fhook the world " below, "And play'd the God an engine on his foe." The fatal effects of tyranny and fuperftition, are here described in the most bold and glowing colours. The oppofition between zeal and charity is happily introduced. The eleventh line is awfully fublime, and pregnant with more meaning than it expreffes. In the deduction which the author draws from hence, he fhews with great judgment and address, that the fame principle which gave birth to this corruption, did at the fame time pave the way for a reformation. "So drives Self-love, thro' juft and thro' un“just, tr "To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, luft: R 2 "The "The fame Self-love, in all, becomes the cause "Of what reftrains him; Government and "Laws." This leads the poet to illuftrate the true principles of policy and religion "Such is the World's great Harmony, * that fprings "From Order, Union, full Confent of things, "Where fmall and great, where weak and "mighty, made "To ferve, not fuffer, ftrengthen, not in"vade; "More pow'rful each as needful to the reft, And, in proportion as it bleffes, bleft; "Draw to one point, and to one centre bring "Eeaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord or King." Mr. Croufaz, miftaking the harmony which the poet here fpeaks of, accufed him of efpoufing the pre-established harmony of the celebrated Leibnitz. The learned commentator, however, has clearly vindicated him from any intention of efpoufing that impious whimsy. The reader, nevertheless, will doubtlefs be pleased to hear what our author himf If fays on this occafion, in a letter addreffed to his friend and commentator. "I will not give you the unneceffary trouble of adding "here to the defence you have made of me, (though much might be faid on the article of the paffions in the second "book ;) only it cannot be unpleasant to you to know, that I never in my life read a line of Leibnitz, nor understood "there was fuch a term as pre-established harmony, till I "found it in Monf. Croufaz's book." Nothing Nothing can be more amiable, juft, wife and benevolent, than the foregoing fyftem: and as fuch a fyftem is always in danger from the refinements of too curious fpeculation, the poet very juftly reprehends this propenfity in the following lines. "For Forms of Government let fools conteft; "Whate'er is beft adminifter'd, is beft: "For Modes of Faith let gracelefs zealots fight; "His can't be wrong whofe life is in the right." These lines, more efpecially the first two, have been frequently mifinterpreted; and it has been fuppofed that the author meant to infinuate that no one form of government was, in itself, better than another: An abfurdity from which he is clearly vindicated by the learned editor of his works, as well as by an apology found under his own hand, which the editor has fubjoined to the note on thefe lines. Indeed it is ftrange to imagine that one of Mr. POPE's correct judgment should ever entertain fuch a folecifm. That adminiftration is beft, which is conducted according to the true principles of the established conftitution. Confequently if those principles are bad, the more perfect the adminiftration is, the more deftructive it will prove to the governed. Mr. POPE, in his apology above alluded to, admits, that the best fort of government, when the form of it is preserved, and the adminiflration corrupt, is most dangerous: fo, on the other hand, it is R 3 equally |