That proud exception to all Nature's laws, COMMENTARY. 246 civil Society into Tyranny, and its causes; and here, with all the dexterity of address, as well as force of truth, he observes it arose from the violation of that great Principle, which he so much insists upon throughout his Essay, that each was made for the use of all. We may be sure, that in this corruption, where right or natural justice was cast aside, and violence, the Atheist's justice, presided in its stead, Religion would follow the fate of civil Society. We know, from ancient history, it did so. Accordingly Mr. Pope (from ver. 244 to 269.) together with corrupt Politics, describes corrupt Religion and its causes: he first informs us, agreeable to his exact knowledge of antiquity, that it was the Politician, and not the Priest (as the illiterate tribe of Freethinkers would make us believe), who first corrupted Religion. Secondly, That the Superstition he brought in was not invented by him, as an engine to play upon others (as the dreaming Atheist feigns, who would thus account for the origin of Religion), but was a trap he first fell into himself. "Superstition taught the tyrant awe." NOTES. the difference between a King and a Tyrant, that the first supposeth himself made for the People; the other, that the People are made for him : Βέλειαι δ' ὁ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ εἶναι φυλαξ, ὅ πως οἱ μὲν κεκλημένοι τὰς ἐσίας μηθὲν ἄδικον πάσχωσιν, ὁ δὲ δημος μὴ ὑβρίζηλαν μεθέν ἡ δὲ ΤΥΡΑΝΝΙΣ πρὸς ἐδὲν ἀποβλέπει κοινὸν, εἰ μὴ τῆς ἰδίας ὠφελείας χάριν. Pol. lib. v. cap. 10. Warburton. Ver. 245. Force first made conquest, &c.] All this is agreeable to fact, and shews our author's knowledge of human nature. For that Impotency of mind (as the Latin writers call it), which gives birth to the enormous crimes necessary to support a Tyranny, naturally subjects its owner to all the vain, as well as real, terrors of conscience. Hence the whole machinery of SUPERSTITION. It is true, the Poet observes, that afterwards, when the Tyrant's Then shar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid, NOTES. rant's fright was over, he had cunning enough, from the experience of the effect of Superstition upon himself, to turn it, by the assistance of the Priest (who for his reward went shares with him in the Tyranny) against the justly dreaded resentment of his subjects. For a tyrant naturally and reasonably supposeth all his slaves to be his enemies. Having given the Causes of Superstition, he next describeth its objects: " Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust," &c. The ancient Pagan Gods are here very exactly described. This fact evinces the truth of that original, which the Poet gives to Superstition; for if these phantasms were first raised in the imagination of Tyrants, they must needs have the qualities here assigned to them. For force being the Tyrant's virtue, and luxury his happiness, the attributes of his God would of course be Revenge and Lust; in a word, the antitype of himself. But there was another, and more substantial cause, of the resemblance between a Tyrant and a Pagan God; and that was the making Gods of Conquerors, as the Poet says; and so canonizing a Tyrant's vices with his person. Warburton. Ver. 246. Till Superstition taught] Notwithstanding these verses are so spirited and splendid, yet are they excelled by the sublime and terrific figure painted by Lucretius with such force and energy, that Michael Angelo might have worked from the sketch of the gigantic demon of superstition, putting out his head from the heavens, and looking down with a horrible aspect on the miserable and trembling sons of men. "Quæ caput à cœli regionibus ostendebat, Warton. Horribili super aspectû mortalibus instans!" The passages in Lucretius and Pope admit not of comparison; the former is no more characteristic of Superstition than of any other horrible spectre which may be supposed to look out from the heavens to terrify mankind; whilst that of Pope, carried on for upwards of twenty lines of insurpassable energy, exhibits Superstition in her different phases and effects, each more terrific than the other, till we shudder at the various changes she successively She 'midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's sound, When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the 250 ground, She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, NOTES. sively assumes; changes not the less striking because they cannot be embodied by the painter, whose limited art can only animate visible form, and can give us no idea of the rending earth and bursting skies. As an example of terror and sublimity this passage is not exceeded, if equalled, by those from Milton which Mr. Bowles has given in a subsequent note. Ver. 257. Gods partial, changeful,] " It were better," says Bacon, in his 17th Essay, " to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of Him; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely: and certainly Superstition is the reproach of the Deity. And as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not: but Superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. Therefore Atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no farther." It is extremely remarkable, that this last paragraph comprehends all that Bayle has said of the effects of Atheism in his celebrated Thoughts on Comets. And yet Bacon has never been censured for it, nor numbered among Infidels. Warton. Zeal then, not charity, became the guide; 1 NOTES. Ver. 262. and heaven on pride.] This might be very well said of those times when no one was content to go to Heaven without being received there on the footing of a God, with the ceremony of an Αποθέωσις. Warburton. Ver. 262. And hell was built on spite,] How mortifying is it to consider, says one, that Locke, Newton, and Clarke would have been persecuted in France, imprisoned at Rome, and burnt at Lisbon? Warton. Ver. 265. Then first the Flamen] With what imagination, and genuine strokes of poetry, are the idols and fearful rites of ancient Superstition described, in Milton's Hymn on the Nativity! " In urns and altars round, A drear and dying sound Affrights the Flamens, at their service quaint." " And sullen Moloch fled, Hath left, in shadows dread, His burning idol, all of blackest hue; In vain, with cymbal's ring In dismal dance about the furnace blue." Bowles. Ver. 266. Next his grim idol] From Milton's description of Moloch: "First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood It has not been remarked, as Mr. Todd observed to me, how many So drives Self-love, through just and through unjust, To one Man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust : 270 The same Self-love, in all, becomes the cause Of what restrains him, Government and Laws. COMMENTARY, Ver. 269. So drives Self-love, &c.] The inference our author draws from all this (from ver. 268 to 283.) is, that SELF-LOVE driveth through right and wrong; it causeth the Tyrant to violate the rights of mankind; and it causeth the people to vindicate that violation. For Self-love being common to the whole species, and setting each individual in pursuit of the same objects, it became necessary for each, if he would secure his own, to provide for the safety of another's. And thus Equity and Benevolence arose from that same Self-love which had given birth to Avarice and Injustice: " His Safety must his Liberty restrain; All join to guard what each desires to gain." The Poet hath not anywhere shewn greater address, in the disposition of this work, than with regard to the inference before us; which not only giveth a proper and timely support to what had been advanced in the second Epistle concerning the nature and effects of Self-love, but is a necessary introduction to what follows, concerning the reformation of Religion and Society; as we shall see presently. NOTES. many expressions Pope takes from Milton, whom, in his Imitations of English Poets, he omits,-possibly on this account. Many of his writings are strewed with Miltonic phrases, though they need not be pointed out, and certainly do not detract from his general merit. Such interweavings of significant and forcible expressions have often a striking effect. Bowles. Ver. 272. Government and Laws.] " However men might submit voluntarily, in the simplicity of early ages, or be subjected by conquest to a government without a constitution; yet they were never long in discovering," in the words of Hooker, " that to live by one man's will, became the cause of all men's misery; and therefore they soon rejected the yoke, or made it sit easy on Warton. their necks." |