Contracted all, retiring to the breast; But strength of mind is exercise, not rest: 105 Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole. 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; He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. 110 NOTES. Ver. 108. Reason the card,] This passage is exactly copied from Fontenelle, tom. i. p. 109. Si la raison "Ce sont les passions qui font et qui defont tout. 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. وو 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 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, 115 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." VARIATIONS. After ver. 112. in the MS. Warburton. The soft reward the virtuous, or invite; The fierce, the vicious punish or affright. Warburton. VOL. V. H The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife COMMENTARY. 125 Ver. 123. Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;] His third argument against the Stoics (from ver. 122 to 127.) is, that the Passions are a continual spur to the pursuit of Happiness; which, without these powerful inciters, we should neglect, and sink into a senseless indolence. Now Happiness is the end of our creation ; and this excitement, the means to that end; therefore, these movers, the Passions, are the instruments of God, which he hath put into the hands of Reason to work withal. Ver. 127. All spread their charms, &c.] The Poet now proceeds in his subject; and this last observation leads him naturally to the discussion of his next principle. He shews then, that though all the Passions have their turn in swaying the determinations of the mind, yet every man hath one MASTER PASSION, that at length stifles or absorbs all the rest. The fact he illustrates at large in his Epistle to Lord Cobham. Here (from ver. 126 to 149.) he giveth us the CAUSE of it. Those Pleasures or Goods, which are the objects of the Passions, affect the mind by striking on the senses but as, through the formation of the organs of our frame, every man hath some one sense stronger and more acute than others, the object which strikes the stronger or acuter sense, whatever it be, will be the object most desired; and consequently, the pursuit of that will be the ruling Passion: That the difference of force in this ruling Passion, shall, at first, perhaps, be very small, or even imperceptible; NOTES. Ver. 128. On different senses] A didactic poet has thus nobly illustrated this very doctrine : Hence different Passions more or less inflame, As strong or weak, the organs of the frame; 130 And hence one MASTER PASSION in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest. As Man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, Receives the lurking principle of death; The young disease, that must subdue at length, 135 Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength : COMMENTARY. imperceptible; but Nature, Habit, Imagination, Wit, nay even reason itself, shall assist its growth, till it hath at length drawn and converted every other into itself. All which is delivered in a strain of poetry so wonderfully sublime, as suspends, for a while, the ruling Passion in every reader, and engrosses his whole admiration. This naturally leads the Poet to lament the weakness and insufficiency of human Reason (from ver. 148 to 161.); and the purpose he had in so doing, was plainly to intimate THE NECESSITY OF A MORE PERFECT DISPENSATION TO MANKIND. NOTES. The vast alone, the wonderful, the wild; And gentlest beauty. Hence, when lightning fires And Ocean, groaning from the lowest bed, 66 Warton. Ver. 133. As Man, perhaps, &c.] " Antipater Sidonius Poeta omnibus annis uno die natali tantum corripiebatur febre, et eo consumptus est satis longâ senectâ." Plin. 1. vii. N. H. This Anti |