Go, wond'rous creature! mount where Science guides, Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the 20 tides; VARIATIONS. As wifely fure a modest Ape might aim NOTES. hurl'd, meant, caft into endless error, or, into the regions of endlefs error, and therefore have taken notice of it as an incongruity of fpeech. But they neither understood the Poet's language, nor his fenfe: to hurl and cast are not fynonymous; but related only as the genus and fpecies; for to hurl fignifies not fimply to caft, but to caft backward and forward, and is taken from the rural game called burling. So that, into endless error hurl'd, as thefe critics would have it, would have been a barbarifm. His words therefore fignify toffed about in endless error; and this he intended they fhould fignify, as appears from the antithefis, fole judge of truth. So that the fenfe of the whole is," Though, as fole judge of "truth, he is now fixed and ftable; yet, as involved in endlefs error, he is now again hurl'd, or toffed up and "down in it." This fhews us how cautious we ought to be in cenfuring the expreffions of a Writer, one of whofe characteristic qualities was correctnefs of expreffion and propriety of fentiment. VER. 20. Go, measure earth, &c.] Alluding to the noble and ufeful labours of the modern Mathematicians, in measuring a degree at the equator and the polar circle, in order to determine the true figure of the earth; of great importance to aftronomy and navigation. Instruct the planets in what orbs to run, VARIATIONS. It must be fo-why elfe have I the fenfe Fix moral fitnefs, and to God give rule, VER. 21. Ed. 4th and 5th. Show by what rules the wand'ring planets stray, NOTES: VER. 22. Correct old Time, &c.] This alludes to Sir Ifaac Newton's Grecian Chronology, which he reformed on those two fublime conceptions, the difference between the reigns of kings, and the generations of men; and the pofition of the colures of the equinoxes and folftices at the time of the Argonautic expedition. Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule-- Then drop into thyfelf, and be a fool! COMMENTARY. 39 VER. 31. Superior beings, &c.] To give this fecond argument its full force, he illuftrates it (from Ver. 30 to 43) by the nobleft example that ever was in fcience, the incomparable NEWTON; who, although he penetrated fo far beyond others into the works of GOD, yet could go no farther in the knowlege of his own nature than the generality of his fellows. Of which the Poet affigns this very just and adequate reafon: In all other fciences the Understanding is unchecked and uncontrouled by any oppofite principle; but in the science of Man, the Paffions overturn as fast as Reason can build up. NOTES. VER. 29, 30. Go, teach Eternal Wisdom, &c.] Thefe two lines are a conclufion from all that had been faid from Ver. 18. to this effect: Go now, vain Man, elated with thy acquirements in real fcience, and imaginary intimacy with God; go, and run into all the extravagancies I have exploded in the first epistle, where thou pretendeft to teach Providence how to govern; then drop into the obfcurities of thy own nature, and thereby manifeft thy ignorance and folly. VER. 31. Superior beings, &c.] In thefe lines the Poet fpeaks to this effect: But to make you fully fenfible of the difficulty of this study, I shall inftance in the great Newton himself; whom, when fuperior beings, not long fince, faw capable of unfolding the whole law of Nature, they were in doubt whether the owner of fuch prodigious fagacity should not be reckoned of their own order; just as men, when they fee the furprizing marks of Reafon in an Ape, are almoft tempted to rank him with their own kind. And Admir'd fuch wisdom in an earthly shape, VARIATIONS. VER. 35. Ed. ift. Could he, who taught each Planet where to roll, NOTES. yet this wondrous Man could go no further in the knowlege of himself than the generality of his fpecies. M. Du Refnel, who underfood nothing of all this, tranflates these four celebrated lines thus, "Des celeftes Efprits la vive intelligence "Newton, le grand Newton, que nos admirons tous But it is not the pity, but the admiration of those celestial Spirits which is here fpoken of. And it was for no flight caufe they admired; it was, to fee a mortal Man unfold the whole law of Nature. By which we fee, it was not Mr. Pope's intention to bring any of the Ape's qualities, but its fagacity, into the comparifon. But why the Ape's, it may be faid, rather than the fagacity of fome more decent animal, particularly the half-reafoning elephant, as the Poet calls it; which, as well on account of this its excellence, as for its having no ridiculous fide, like the Ape, on which it could be viewed, feems better to have deferved this honour? reply, Because, as a fhape refembling human (which only the Ape has) must be joined with great fagacity, to raise a fufpicion of the animal, thus endowed, it's relation to man ; Who faw its fires here rife, and there defcend, Explain his own beginning, or his end? NOTES. fo the fpirituality, which Newton had in common with Angels, joined to a penetration fuperior to Man, made thofe Beings fufpect he might be one of their order. On this ground of relation, we fee the whole beauty of the thought depeuds. And here let me take notice of a new fpecies of the fublime, of which our Poet may be justly said to be the Maker; fo new, that we have yet no name for it, though of a nature diftinct from every other known beauty of Poetry. The two great perfections in works of genius, are WIT and SUBLIMITY. Many Writers have been witty; fome have been fublime; and a few have even poffeffed both thefe qualities feparately but none, that I know of, befides our Poet, hath had the art to INCORPORATE them; of which he hath given many examples, both in this Effay, and his other poems; one of the nobleft being the paffage in question. This feems to be the laft effort of the imagination to poetical perfection: and, in this compounded excellence, the Wit receives a dignity from the Sublime, and the Sublime a splendor from the Wit; which, in their ftate of feparate existence, they both wanted. : VER. 37. Who faw its fires here rife, &c.] Sir Ifaac Newton, in calculating the velocity of a Comet's motion, and the course it defcribes, when it becomes vifible in its defcent to, and afcent from the Sun, conjectur'd, with the highest appearance of truth, that Comets revolve perpe. tually round the Sun, in ellipfes vaftly eccentrical, and very nearly approaching to parabolas. In which he was greatly confirmed, in obfcrving between two Comets a coinci |