41 Oft, in the Paffions' wide rotation toft, COMMENTARY. 45 Some VER. 41, Oft, in the Paffions', &c.] We come now to the eighth and laft caufe, which very properly concludes the account; as, in a fort, it fums up all the difficulties in one (from ver. 40 to 51.), namely, that very often the man himself is ignorant of his own motive of action; the cause of which ignorance our Author has admirably explained: When the mind (fays he) is now tired out by the long conflict of oppofite motives, it withdraws its attention; and fuffers the will to be feized upon by the first that afterwards obtrudes itself: without taking much notice what that motive is. This is finely illuftrated by what he fuppofes to be the natural caufe of dreams; where the fancy juft let loofe, poffeffes itself of the last image which it meets with, on the confines between fleeping and waking; and on that erects all its ideal fcenery; yet this seizure is, with great difficulty, recollected; and never, but when by fome accident we happen to have our first flumbers fuddenly interrupted. Then (which proves the truth of the hypothefis) we are fometimes able to trace the workings of the Fancy backwards, from idea to idea, in a chain, till we come to that from whence they all arofe. WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 48. Becomes the stuff of which our dream is wrought:] Giraldus Cambrenfis, fpeaking of a divine vifion with which he was favoured, feems yet to think that it might be made out of the fluff of his waking thoughts. His words are thefe: "Cum igitur fuper univerfis quæ nobis acciderant, mecum non mediocriter anxius extiterim-fufpiriofæ mihi multoties cogitationes in animum afcenderint, nocte quadam in fomnis EX RELIQUIIS FORTE COGI TATIONUM Something as dim to our internal view, Is thus, perhaps, the cause of most we do. (So Darkness strikes the fense no less than Light;) Still fits at fquat, and peeps not from its hole, 50 55 At COMMENTARY. VER. 51. True, fome are open, &c.] But now, in answer to all this, an objector (from ver. 50 to 63.) may fay, "That thefe diffi culties seem to be aggravated: For many characters are so plainly marked, that no man can mistake them: and not so only in the more open and frank, but in the clofeft and moft reclufe likewife." Of each of these the Objector gives an inftance; by which it appears, that the forbidding clofenefs and concealed hypocrify in the one, are as confpicuous to all mankind, as the gracious openness and frank plain-dealing of the other.The Reader fees, this objection is more particularly levelled at the doctrine of ver. 23. "Our depths who fathoms, and our shallows finds ;" for here it endeavours to prove, that both are equally explorable. WARBURTON. NOTES. TATIONUM Vifionem vidi," &c. De rebus a fe geftis, L. 11. C. 12. -By which we fee, and it is worth remarking, that to philofophize on our Superftitions is fo far from erafing them, that it engraves them but the more deeply in the mind. The reafon is plain; it turns the objection to them, to a folution in their credit. WARBURTON. VER. 56. peeps not from its hole.] Which fhews (fays Scriblerus, idly), that this grave perfon was content with his prefent fituation, as finding but small fatisfaction in what a famous Poet reckons one of the advantages of old age: "The foul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made." WARTON. At half mankind when gen'rous Manly raves, All know 'tis Virtue, for he thinks them knaves: All fee 'tis Vice, and itch of vulgar praise. Tho' strong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind: COMMENTARY. 66 Or VER. 63. But thefe plain characters, &c.] To this objection, therefore, our Author replies (from ver. 62 to 71.), that indeed the fact may be true, in the instances given; but that such plain characters are extremely rare: And for the truth of this, he not only appeals to experience, but explains the causes of those perplexed and complicated humours which diffuse themselves over the whole species. 1. The first of which is, the vivacity of the imagination; that when the bias of the paffions is fufficiently determined to mark out the Character, the vigour of the fancy generally rifing in proportion to the ftrength of the appetites, the one no fooner draws the bias, than the other turns it to a contrary direction: "Tho' ftrong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind.” 2. A fecond cause is the contrariety of Appetites, which drawing feveral ways, as Avarice and Luxury, Ambition and Indolence, &c. (expreffed in the line, "Or puzzling Contraries confound the whole,") muft needs make the fame character inconfiftent to itself, and of course inexplicable by the obferver. 3. A third caufe is Affectation, which afpires to qualities that neither nature nor education has given us; and confequently, will be exerted with the fame reftraint and difficulty that a tumbler walks upon his hands; on which account it is that he says"Affectations quite reverse the foul ;" NOTES. natural VER. 57. At half mankind] The character alluded to is the principal one in the Plain Dealer of Wycherly, a comedy taken from Or puzzling Contraries confound the whole; And in the Cunning, Truth itfelf's a lie : 65 7༠ COMMENTARY. See natural paffions may, indeed, turn it from that bias which the ruling one has given it; but the affected paffions distort all its faculties, and cramp all its operations: fo that humanity itself, as well as its qualities, is no longer a diftinguishable thing. 4. A fourth caufe lies in the Inequalities of the human mind, which expofe the wife to unexpected frailties, and conduct the weak to as unlooked-for wisdom. WARBURTON. NOTES. from the Mifanthrope of Moliere, but much inferior to the original. Alceftes has not that bitterness of spirit, and has much more humanity and honour than Manly. Writers transfufe their own characters into their works: Wycherly was a vain and profligate libertine; Moliere was beloved for his candour, fweetness of temper, and integrity. It is remarkable that the French did not relish this incomparable comedy on the three first representations. The ftrokes of fatire were too fubtle and delicate to be felt by the generality of the audience, who expected only the grofs diverfion of laughing; fo that, at the fourth time of its being acted, the author was forced to add to it one of his coarfeft farces; but Boileau in the mean time affirmed that it was the capital work of their stage, and that the people would one time be induced to think fo. WARTON. VER. 61. hate it in a Queen,] Meaning Queen Caroline, whom he was fond of cenfuring; as was Bolingbroke. See vol. i. p. 123. of his Works, for a bitter ridicule on her affectation of science. WARTON. VER. 62. who charms us with his Spleen.] Clofely copied from Boileau : "Un efprit né chagrin plaît par fon chagrin même." It is a compliment to Swift. WARTON. See the fame man, in vigour, in the gout; Alone, in company; in place, or out; Early COMMENTARY. VER. 71. See the fame man, &c.] Of all these Four causes he here gives EXAMPLES: 1. Of the vivacity of the imagination (from ver. 70 to 77.)-2. Of the contrariety of Appetites (from ver. 76 to 81.)-3. Of Affectations (from ver. 80 to 87.)-and, 4. Of the Inequalities of the human mind (from ver. 86 to 95.) WARBURTON. NOTES. VER. 69. Unthought-of Frailties] The night before the battle of Blenheim, after a council of war had been held in the Duke of Marlborough's tent, at which Prince Louis of Baden and Prince Eugene had affifted, the latter, after the council had broke up, ftept back to the tent to communicate something he had forgot to the Duke, whom he found giving orders to his aid-de-camp Colonel Selwyn (who related this fact) at the table, on which there was now only a fingle taper burning, all the others being extinguished the moment the council was over. "What a man is this," faid Prince Eugene, "who at fuch a time can think of faving the ends of candles." WARTON. VER. 72. Alone, in company ;] The unexpected inequalities of our minds and tempers is a fubject that has been exhausted by Montagne in the 1ft chap. of the 2d book of his Essays, which, it is evident, Pope had been reading. Nothing can be finer than the picture which Tully has given, in his oration for Cælius, of the inconfiftencies and varieties of Catiline's conduct; ending with, Quis clarioribus viris quodam tempore jucundior? Quis turpioribus conjunctior? Quis civis meliorum partium aliquando? Quis tetrior hoftis huic civitati? Quis in voluptatibus inquinatior? Quis in laboribus patientior? Quis in rapacitate avarior? Quis in largitione effufior?" The learned Markland, in defending Euripides from a well-known objection made to the inconfiftency of the cha. racter of Iphigenia, is of opinion, that the Poet's defign, through the whole tragedy, was, in general, to fhew the inequality and inconfiftency of the human character; and gives inftances of this ' inconfiftency in the behaviour of Agamemnon, Menelaus, Achilles, the Chorus, and all the persons introduced, except Clytemneftra; intending to difplay humani animi levitatem et inconftantiam in confiliis fuis, et nos omnes æquè effe homines." Eurip. Iphig. Ant. P. 191. WARTON. |