This is the first general Divifion of the Subject of this Epiftle,

He comes to fhew [from 1. 238 to 251] the Ufe of these Paffions, with regard to the more confin'd Circle of our Friends, Relations, and Acquaintance. And this is the second general Divifion :

Wants, Frailties, Paffions clofer still ally The common Int'reft, or endear the Tie: To these we owe true Friendship, Love fincere, Each home-felt Joy that Life inherits here: Yet from the fame we learn in its Decline Those Joys, thofe Loves, thofe Int'refts to refign. So that Folly and Caprice are by this Counter-working of Providence, happy Frailties producing Good, and the Effect of Vice being disappointed, all Things are tending to Good, though in Appearance and in the present Action ill.

"To these Frailties (fays he) we owe all the Endearments of private Life, yet, when we come "to that Age, which generally difpofes Men to think "more ferioufly of the true Value of Things, and "confequently, of their Provifion for a future State, "the Confideration that the Grounds of thofe Joys, "Loves and Friendships, are Wants, Frailties and

Paffions, proves the beft Expedient to wean us "from the World; a Difengagement fo friendly to "that Provifion we are making for another.”

The Obfervation is new, and would in any Place be extremely beautiful, but has here an Infinite Grace and Propriety, as it fo well confirms, by an Inftance of great Moment, the Poet's general Thefis, That God makes Ill, at every Step, productive of Good.

The Poet (fays his Commentator) having thus fhewn the Ufe of the Paffions in Society and in do

meftick

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 lefs infupportable. And this is his third general Divifion :

-Opinion gilds with varying Rays
Thofe painted Clouds that beautify our Days:
Each Want of Happinefs by Hope supply'd,
And each Vacuity of Senfe by Pride.
Thefe build as faft as Knowledge can destroy:
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 muft 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 Miseries. 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 please 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 just 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 starving 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 constitutes 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 chose to finish his Second Epiftle; where the Paffions, Faculties of the Mind, Vice and Virtue, Wifdom and Folly are treated in an uncommon Manner, and in a Strain of Poetry uncommonly beautiful: This rifes higher still 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 Respect to Society; and it is connected with the foregoing; which treated him as an Individual: And whereas in feveral Editions of this Effay the firft Line began;

Learn, Dulness, Learn, &c.

In the latter it was chang'd:

Here then we reft; the universal Cause 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 fhould give a falfe Definition of the Workings of Providence; or when they pray, they should afk Things which were not for the Good of the Whole, and fo feem to oppose 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 Obfervation, we shall 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.

Z

Form'i

Form'd, and impell'd its Neighbour to embrace. Thefe Words form'd and impell'd, (fays, the Commentator) are not of a loofe, undiftinguith'd Meaning, thrown in to fill up the Verfe. This is not our Author's Way, they are full of Sense, 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 neceflary as that Quality fo equally and univerfally conferr'd upon it.

"

21.

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 sustain; See Life diffolving vegetate again: All Forms that perifh other Forms fupply, 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 themfelves 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 Question, will reafon upon the Matter; and we are now to fuppofe them objecting against Providence in this Manner. We grant, fay they, that in the ir rational, as in the inanimate Creation, all is ferved, ' and