III. Or tread the mazy round his followers trod, Mr. Pope says, Go, wondrous creature; and he never speaks at random. The reason of his giving Man this epithet, is, because, though he be, as the Poet says, in another place*, little less than angel in his faculties of science, yet is he miserably blind in the knowledge of himself. But the Translator not apprehending the Poet's thought, imagined it was said ironically, and so translates it; Va, sublime mortel, fier de ton excellence, Ne crois rien d'impossible à ton intelligence. Mr. Pope -Mount where science guides, Go measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; This is a description of the real advances in science, such as the Newtonian. And the And the very introduction to it,-Mount where science guides, shews it to be so. But the Translator, carried away with the fancy of its being an illustration of the foregoing description, turns the whole to vain, false, imaginary science, such as that of Des Cartes: Le compas à la main, mesure l'universe; Regle à ton gré le flux et le reflux des mers; Fire le poids de l'air, et commande aux planetes; Determine le cours de leurs marches secretes; Soumets à ton calcuł l'obscurité des tems, Et de l'astre du jour conduis les movemens. Here, in order to add the greater ridicule to his false sense, he introduces the philosopher, with compass in hand, measuring the Universe, mimicking the office of God in the act of creation, as he is represented by the ancients, who used to say, 'sos yelp. Whereas Mr. Pope's words are, Ep. i. 1. 166. Go Go measure earth Alluding to the noble and useful project of the modern mathematicians to measure a degree at the equator and the polar circle, in order to determine the true figure of the earth, of great importance to astronomy and navigation. Regulate, says he, according to your own will, the flux and reflux of the sea; and this, Des Cartes presumed to do: but it was Newton that stated the tides. It is the pretended philosopher that fixes the weight of the air; but the real philosopher that weighs air. It was Des Cartes that commanded the planets, and determined them to roll according to his own good pleasure; but it was Newton who Shew'd by what laws the wand'ring planets stray. Submit, says the Translator, the obscurity of time to your calculation.-The Poet says, Correct old time. He is here still speaking of Newton, Correct old time alludes to that great man's Grecian Chronology, which he reformed on those two sublime conceptions, the difference between the reigns of kings, and the generations of men, and the positions of the colures of the equinox and solstices, at the time of the Argonautic expedition. And when the Translator comes to the third instance, which is that of false religion, he introduceth it thus, Et joignant la folie à la temerité. Which shews how ill he understood Mr. Pope's instances of the natural philosophy of Newton, and the metaphysical philosophy of Plato. And yet all the justness, the force, and sublimity of the Poet's reasoning consist in a right apprehension of them, Mr. Pope Go teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule, These two lines have only contributed to keep the Translator in his error; for he took the first of them to be a recapitulation of all that had been said from l. 18. Whereas both of them together, are a conclusion from it, to this effect: "Go now, vain Man, elated with thy "acquirements F 3 acquirements in real science and imaginary intimacy "with God; Go and run into all the extravagances I "have exploded in the first Epistle, where thou pre"tendest to teach Providence how to govern; then drop "into the obscurities of thy own nature, and thereby "manifest thy ignorance and folly." Mr. Pope then confirms and illustrates this reasoning by one of the greatest examples that ever was: Superior Beings, when of late they saw A mortal Man unfold all nature's law, Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape, And shew'd a NEWTON, as we shew an ape. In these lines he speaks to this effect-" But to make you fully sensible of the difficulty of this study, I shall "instance in the great Newton himself; whom when "superior Beings, not long since, saw capable of unfold"ing the whole law of Nature, they were in doubt whether "the owner of such prodigious science should not be "reckoned of their own order; just as men, when they see the surprising marks of reason in an ape, are almost tempted to rank him with their own kind. And yet "this wondrous man could go no farther in the knowledge of his own nature, than the generality of his "species." Thus stands the argument, in which the Poet has paid a higher compliment to the great Newton, as well as a more ingenious, than was ever yet paid him by any of his most zealous followers: yet the Translator, now quite in the dark, by mistake upon mistake, imagined his design was to depreciate Newton's knowledge, and to humble the pride of his followers: which hath made him play at cross purposes with his original: Des celestes esprits la vive intelligence Regard avec pitie notre foible science; Newton, le grand Newton, que nos admirons tous, Est peut-etre pour eux, ce qu'un singe est pour nous. "The heavenly spirits, whose understanding is so far superior to ours, look down with pity on the weakness "of human science; Newton, the great Newton, whom "we so much admire, is perhaps in no higher esteem "with them, than an ape is with us." But But it is not their pity, but their admiration, that is the subject in question: and it was for no slight cause they admired; it was to see a mortal Man unfold the whole law of Nature: which, by the way, might have shewn the Translator, that the Poet was speaking of real science in the foregoing paragraph. Nor was it Mr. Pope's intention to bring any of the ape's qualities, but its sagacity, into the comparison. But why the ape's, it may be said, rather than the sagacity of some more decent animal; particularly the half-reasoning elephant, as the Poet calls it, which, as well on account of this its superiority, as for its having no ridiculous side, like the ape, on which it could be viewed, seems better to have deserved this honour? I reply, because as none but a shape resembling human, accompanied with great sagacity, could occasion the doubt of that animal's relation to Man, the ape only having that resemblance, no other animal was fitted for the comparison. And on this ground of relation the whole beauty of the thought depends; Newton, and those superior Beings being equally immortal spirits, though of different orders. And here let me take notice of a new species of the sublime, of which our Poet may be justly said to be the maker; so new that we have yet no name for it, though of a nature distinct from every other poetical excellence. The two great perfections of works of genius are wit and sublimity. Many writers have been witty, several have been sublime, and some few have even possessed both these qualities separately. But none that I know of, besides our Poet, hath had the art to incorporate them. Of which he hath given many examples, both in this Essay, and in his other Poems. One of the noblest being the passage in question. This seems to be the last effort of the imagination, to poetical perfection. And in this compounded excellence the wit receives a dignity from the sublime, and the sublime a splendour from the wit; which, in their state of separate existence, they both wanted. To return, this mistake seems to have led both the Translator and Commentator into a much worse; into a strange imagination that Mr. Pope had here reflected upon Sir Isaac Newton's moral character; which the Poet was as far from doing, as the philosopher was from deserving: for, After Mr. Pope had shewn, by this illustrious instance, that a great genius might make prodigious advances in the knowledge of nature, and at the same time remain very ignorant of himself, he gives a reason for it-In all other sciences the understanding has no opposite principle to cloud and bias it; but in the knowledge of Man, the passions obscure as fast as reason can clear up. Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind, Here we see, at the fifth line, the Poet turns from Newton, and speaks of Man and his nature in general. But the Translator applies all that follows to that philosopher : Toi qui jusques aux cieux oses porter ta vue, On which the Commentator thus candidly remarks; "It is not to be disputed, but that whatever progress a "great genius hath made in science, he deserves rather "censure than applause, if he has spent that time in "barren speculations, curious indeed, but of little use, "which he should have employed to know himself, his Sir Isaac Newton in calculating the velocity of a comet's motion, and the course it describes, when it becomes visible in its descent to, and ascent from the sun, conjectured, with the highest appearance of truth, that they revolve perpetually round the sun, in ellipses, vastly eccentrical, and very nearly approaching to parabolas. In which he was greatly confirmed, in observing between two comets a coincidence in their perihelions, and a perfect agreement in their velocities. “ beginning |