To bliss alike by that direction tend, And find the means proportioned to their end. Reason, however able, cool at best, Cares not for service, or but serves when pressed, But honest instinct comes a volunteer, Who taught the nations of the field and flood 85 90 95 100 Sure as Demoivre,2 without rule or line? Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore 105 Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before? in the eighteen lines following. The felicity of expression largely countervails the tediousness of detail. Line 94 is as noticeable for its diction as for its terseness. 1 The ancients thought that the halcyon, or kingfisher, built its nest on the waves. 2 An eminent mathematician (1667-1754), a French Huguenot. Driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he took up his residence in London. became an intimate friend of Newton, and a Fellow Newton had the highest admiration for Demoivre's He of the Royal Society. ability and learning. Who calls the council,1 states the certain day, And creature linked to creature, man to man. Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps, IIO 115 Not man alone, but all that roam the wood, 120 Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend; The young dismissed to wander earth or air, 125 There stops the instinct, and there ends the care: The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace, Another love succeeds, another race. A longer care man's helpless kind demands; That longer care contracts more lasting bands: 130' At once extend the interest, and the love: 1 The congregating of the storks before their departure for southern climes is a strange phenomenon. 2 In astronomical physics, ether is supposed to pervade space. Ancient philosophers regarded it as the principle of life. Cf. Vergil's Æneid, VI. line 728. 3 Note lines 115-118 and 119–122. A sentence containing four verses is unusually long for Pope. In these two the thoughts are not clearly expressed. 4 Cf. Epistle II. line 183. And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise, Still as one brood, and as another rose, 135 140 IV. Nor think in Nature's state they blindly trod; 145 Union the bond of all things, and of man.2 Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid; Man walked with beast, joint tenant of the shade;3 150 The same his table, and the same his bed; No murder clothed him, and no murder fed. In the same temple, the resounding wood, The shrine with gore unstained, with gold undressed, 155 Heaven's attribute was universal care, And man's prerogative, to rule, but spare. 1 Affections. 2 The social instinct was the "cohesive attraction" of the moral world. 3 "Man walked with beast, joint tenant of the shade.' The poet still takes his imagery from Platonic ideas. Plato had said, from old tradition, that during the Golden Age and under the reign of Saturn the primitive language in use was common to men and beasts. Moral philosophers took this in the popular sense, and so invented those fables which give speech to the whole brute creation. The naturalists understood the tradition to signify that in the first ages men used inarticulate sounds like beasts to express their wants and sensations, and that it was by slow degrees they came to the use of speech. This opinion was afterwards held by Lucretius, Diodorus Siculus, and Gregory of Nyssa" (WARBUrton). Ah! how unlike the man of times to come! 1 160 165 "Go, from the creatures thy instructions take: 170 175 Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind: There towns aërial on the waving tree. 180 Learn each small people's genius, policies, The ants' republic, and the realm of bees; How those in common all their wealth bestow, And these forever, though a monarch reign, 185 1 It may suit Pope's poetic purpose to inveigh, in lines 159-166, against the use of animal food; but it is well known that he entertained no such views as here expressed. We may suppose it is indicative of his inherent insincerity. 2 " Fury passions." Cf. Gray's Ode on Eton College, line 61; also his Progress of Poesy, line 16. 3 The idea that the nautilus lifts its feet and spreads a membrane to act as a sail is no longer entertained. It sometimes uses its feet, however, as oars. Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state, In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw, Entangle justice in her net of law, 190 And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, Thus let the wiser make the rest obey: And for those arts mere instinct could afford, 195 Be crowned as Monarchs, or as Gods adored." V. Great Nature spoke; observant man obeyed; Cities were built, societies were made: Here rose one little state; another near Grew by like means, and joined through love or fear. 200 205 Thus states were formed; the name of King unknown, 'Twas Virtue only (or in arts or arms, Diffusing blessings, or averting harms), 210 The same which in a sire the sons obeyed, A prince the father of a people made. 215 VI. Till then, by Nature crowned, each patriarch sate, King, priest, and parent of his growing state; On him, their second Providence, they hung, Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. He from the wondering 1 furrow called the food, Taught to command the fire, control the flood, Draw forth the monsters of the abyss profound,2 Or fetch the aërial eagle to the ground. 1 Wonder-working. 1 220 24 Abyss profound," a Miltonic expression. |