And Grace and Virtue, Sense and Reason split, With all the rash dexterity of wit. Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, 85 Have full as oft no meaning, or the same. Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire; III. Modes of Self-love the passions we may call; 'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all : COMMENTARY. may see in him, of some of the more ancient theistical Philosophers. It was of importance, therefore, to reprobate and subvert a notion that served to the support of so dangerous an error; and this the Poet hath done with much force and clearness. Ver. 93. Modes of Self-love, &c.] Having given this account of the nature of Self-love in general, he comes now to anatomize it, in a discourse on the Passions, which he aptly names the MODES OF SELF-LOVE. The object of all these, he shews (from ver. 92 to 101.) is good; and, when under the guidance of reason, real good, either of ourselves, or of another; for some goods not being capable of division, or communication, and reason at the same time directing us to provide for ourselves, we therefore, in pursuit of these objects, sometimes aim at our own good, sometimes at the good of others. When fairly aiming at our own, the quality is called Prudence; when at another's, Virtue. Hence (as he shews from ver. 100 to 105.) appears the folly of the Stoics, who would eradicate the Passions, things so necessary VARIATIONS. both After ver. 86. in the MS. Of good and evil Gods what frighted fools, Warburton. 95 But since not ev'ry good we can divide, Their virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a frost; COMMENTARY. both to the good of the Individual and of the Kind. Which preposterous method of promoting Virtue he therefore very reasonably reproves. NOTES. Ver. 101. In lazy apathy] Swift observes, that " the Stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our passions, is like cutting off our legs for want of shoes." How easy is it to expose assertions which were never asserted; to refute tenets which were never held; to become St. George when we make our own dragons! What says old Epictetus, who knew Stoicism better than these men? ὁ γὰρ δεῖ με ἔιναι ΑΠΑΘΗ ὡς Ανδριάνια, &c. "I am NOT to be APATHETIC, or VOID OF PASSIONS, LIKE A STATUE. I am to discharge all the relations of a social and friendly life, the parent, the husband, the brother, the magistrate." From a manuscript of the late James Harris, Esq. author of Hermes, &c. Perhaps a stronger example cannot be found, of taking notions upon trust without any examination, than the universal censure that has been passed upon the Stoics, as if they constantly and strenuously inculcated a total insensibility with respect to passion, to which these lines of Pope allude; when it is certain the Stoics meant only a freedom from strong perturbation, from irrational and excessive agitations of the soul; and no more. Warton. Ver. 101. In lazy apathy] Adam Smith's account of the Philosophy of the Stoics, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, is the most just. That sublime system is put in a new light, and the magnanimity which they professed themselves, contrasted with the benevolence they were equally required to shew to others. See Chapter on the Stoic Philosophy. Bowles. Contracted all, retiring to the breast; The rising tempest puts in act the soul, 105 COMMENTARY. Ver. 105. The rising tempest puts in act the soul,] But as it was from observation of the evils occasioned by the Passions, that the Stoics thus extravagantly projected their extirpation, the Poet recurs (from ver. 104 to 111.) to his grand principle, so often before, and to so good purpose, insisted on, that partial Ill is universal Good; and shews, that though the tempest of the Passions, like that of the air, may tear and ravage some few parts of Nature in its passage, yet the salutary agitation produced by it preserves the whole in life and vigour. This is his first argument against the Stoics, which he illustrates by a very beautiful similitude, on a hint taken from Scripture: "Nor God alone in the still calm we find; He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind." NOTES. Ver. 105. The rising tempest, &c.] From factions, and ferments, and political agitations, and commotions, and wars, arise the most striking and vigorous exertions of the human mind. Witness what happened in Greece, and Rome, and modern Italy; in France after the league; and in England after, and in, our civil war. Great occasions call forth great and latent abilities; and every man becomes capable of every exertion. A Socrates and a Sophocles were found, alone, in the time of Themistocles and Thrasybulus. The dead calm of despotism, in such a government as China, for instance, crushes and overwhelms all effort and all emulation. Warton. VARIATIONS, After ver. 108. in the MS. A tedious voyage! where how useless lies Warburton. Nor God alone in the still calm we find ; NOTES. Ver. 108. Reason the card,] This passage is exactly copied from Fontenelle, tom. i. p. 109. " Ce sont les passions qui font et qui defont tout. Si la raison dominoit sur la terre, il ne s'y passeroit rien. On dit que les pilotes craignent au dernier point ces mers pacifiques, où l'ont ne peut naviger, et qu'ils veulent du vent, au hazard d'avoir des tempêtes. Les passions sont chez des hommes des vents qui sont nécessaires, pour mettre tout en mouvement, quoiqu'ils causent souvent les orages." He had also copied Fontenelle before, in Epistle i. v. 290. "All chance, direction which thou canst not see," " Tout est hazard dans le monde, pourvû que l'on donne ce nom à un ordre que l'on ne connoit point." Tom. i. p. 81. Warton. The idea is also in Bacon :-" The mind would be temperate and stayed, if the affections, as winds, did not put it into tumult." Bowles. Ver. 109. Nor God alone in the still calm we find; He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind.] The translator turns it thus: " Dieu lui-même, Dieu sort de son profond repos." And so, makes an Epicurean God, of the Governor of the Universe. M. de Crousaz does not spare this expression of God's coming out of his profound repose. " It is," says he, "excessively poetical, and presents us with ideas which we ought not to dwell upon,' &c. and then, as usual, blames the author for the blunder of his translator. Comm. p. 158. Warburton. Ver. 109. Nor God alone, &c.] These words are only a simple affirmation in the poetic dress of a similitude, to this purpose: Good is not only produced by the subdual of the Passions, but by the turbulent exercise of them. A truth conveyed under the most sublime imagery that poetry could conceive or paint. For the author is here only shewing the providential issue of the Passions; and how, by God's gracious disposition, they are turned away from their natural destructive bias, to promote the happiness of mankind. As to the method in which they are to be treated by man, in whom they are found, all that he contends for, in favour of 115 Passions, like elements, tho' born to fight, Yet, mix'd and soften'd, in his work unite: These, 'tis enough to temper and employ; But what composes Man, can Man destroy? Suffice that Reason keep to Nature's road, Subject, compound them, follow her and God. Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure's smiling train, Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain, These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd, Make and maintain the balance of the mind: 120 COMMENTARY. Ver. 111. Passions, like elements, &c.] His second argument against the Stoics (from ver. 110 to 133.) is, that Passions go to the composition of a moral character, just as elementary particles go to the composition of an organized body. Therefore, for man to project the destruction of what composes his very being, is the height of extravagance. 'Tis true, he tells us, that these Passions, which in their natural state, like elements, are in perpetual jar, must be tempered, softened, and united, in order to perfect the work of the great plastic Artist; who, in this office, employs human Reason ; whose business it is to follow the road of Nature, and to observe the dictates of the Deity; - Follow her and God. The use and importance of this precept is evident: for in doing the first, she will discover the absurdity of attempting to eradicate the Passions; in doing the second, she will learn how to make them subservient to the interests of Virtue. NOTES. of them, is only this, that they should not be quite rooted up and destroyed, as the Stoics, and their followers, in all religions, foolishly attempted. For the rest, he constantly repeats this advice, "The action of the stronger to suspend, Reason still use, to Reason still attend." Warburton. |