345 For him alone Hope leads from goal to goal, Self-love thus pufh'd to focial, to divine, 350 355 Grafp the whole worlds of Reafon, Life, and Sense, Happier as kinder, in whate er degree, God loves from whole to parts; but human foul Muft rife from individual to the whole. Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake, Oh, mafter of the poet and the fong! 360 365 370 come along; And while the Mufe now ftoops, or now afcends, 375 Y 3 380 Correct Correct with fpirit, eloquent with ease, Oh! while along the ftream of Time thy name Say, fhall my little bark attendant fail, 385 390 395 398 [As fome paffages in the Effay on Man bave been fufpected of favouring the schemes of Leibnitz and Spinoza, or of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalifm, it is thought proper here to infert the two following Letters, to show how ill-grounded fuch a fufpicion is.-Thefe Letters are not in any London Edition.] Mr. Pope to the Younger Racine, a celebrated French writer, occafioned by his animadverfions on his Essay on Man, in a Poem called Religion. London, Sept. 1, 1742. Sir, The expectation in which I have been for fome time paft of receiving the prefent you have honoured me with, was the occafion of my delaying fo long to answer your letter. I am at length favoured with your Poem upon Religion, and fhould have received, from the perufal of it, a pleasure unmixed with pain, had I not the mortification to find that you impute feveral principles to me which I abhor and deteft. My uneafinefs met fome alleviation from a paffage in your preface, where you declare your inability, from a want of knowledge of the English language, to give your own judgment on The Effay on Man. You add, that you do not controvert my tenets, but the evil confequences deducible from them, and the maxims which fome perfons of notable fagacity have imagined that they have difcovered in my Poem. This declaration is a fhining proof of your candour, your difcretion, and your charity. I must take leave to affure you, Sir, that your unacquaintance with the original has not proved more fatal to me than the imperfect conceptions of my tranflators, who have not fufficiently informed themfeves of my real fentiments. The many additional embellishments which my Piece, has received from the verfions of M. D. R---, have not done an honour to The Effay on Man equal to the prejudice it has fuffered from his frequent mifapprehenfion of the principles it inculcates. Thefe mistakes, you will perceive, are totally refuted in the English piece which I have tranfmitted to you. It is a critical and philofophic commentary, written by the learned author of the Divine Legation of Mofes. I flatter myfelf that the Chevalier Ramfay will, from his zeal for truth, take the trouble to explain the contents of it. I fhall then perfuade myself that your fufpicions will be effaced, and I fhall have no appeal from your candour and juice. In the mean time, I fhall not hesitate to declare myfelf very cordially in regard to fome particulars about which you have defired an anfwer. I must avow then, open and fincerely, that my principles are diametrically oppofite to the fentiments of Spinoza and Leibnitz; they are perfectly coincident with the tenets of Mr. Pafchal and the Archbishop of Cambray; and I fhall always esteem it an honour to me to imitate the moderation with which the latter fubmitted his private opinions to the decifions of the church of which he profeffed himself a member. I have the honour to be, &c. A. Pope. Sir, M. Racine's Answer to Mr. Pope. Paris, Oct. 25, 1742. The mildnefs and humility with which you justify yourself is a con vincing proof of your religion; the more fo, as you have done it to one on whom it is incumbent to make his own apology for his rafh attack upon your character. Your manner of pardoning me is the more delicate, as it is done without any mixture of reproach; but though you acquit me with fo much politenefs, 1 fhall not to easily forgive myself. Certain it is, a precipitance of zeal hurried me away. As I had often heard pofitions, faid to be your's, or at least confequences refulting from your Eay, cited against certain truths which I now find you refpect as much as myfelf, I thought I had a right to enter the lifts with you. The paffage in my preface was extorted from me by a degree of remorfe which I felt in writing again you. This remorfe, Sir, was awakened in me by the confideration that the greatest men are always the most fufceptible of the truths of Revelation. I was really grieved to think that Mr. Pope fhould oppofe a religion whofe enemies have ever been contemptible; and it appeared ftrange that, in a Work which points out the road to happinels, you should furnish arms to thofe who are induftrious to misguide us in the refearch. Your letter, at the fame time that it does honour to your character, must bring a blufh in my face for having entertained unjuft fufpicions: but, notwithanding this, I think myfelf obliged to make it public. The injury which I have done you was fo, the reparation fhould be the fame, I owe this to you, I owe it to myself, I owe it to justice. Whatever may be faid in your favour in the commentary you have fent me, it is now rendered unneceffary by your own declaration. The refpect which you avow for the religion you profefs, is a fufficient vindication of your doctrine. I will add, that, for the future, thofe among us who shall feel the laudable ambition of making their poetry fubfer vient to religion, ought to take you for their model; and it thould ever be remembered that the greatest poet in England is one of the humblest fons of the church. I am, &c. THE Fay on Man was intended to have been comprised in Four Bocks: The First of which the Author has given us under that title in Four Epifles. The Second was to have confifted of the fame number: 1. Of the extent and limits of human reafon. 2. Of those arts and Sciences, and of the parts of them, which are ufeful, and therefore attainable; together with those which are unuse ful, and therefore unattainable. 3. Of the nature, ends, ufe, and application, of the different capacities of men. 4. Of the use of learning, of the science of the world, and of wit, concluding with a fatire against the misapplication of them, illuftrated by pictures, characters, and examples. a The Third Book regarded civil regimen, or the science of politics, in which the Jeveral forms of republic were to be examined and explained; together with the feveral modes of religious worship, as far forth as they effect fociety: between which the Author always fuppofed there was the most interefing relation and clofeft connection; fo that this part would have treated of civil and religious fociety in their full extent. The Fourth and last Book concerned private ethics, or practical morality, confidered in all the circumftances, orders, professions, and fiations, of human life. The Scheme of all this had been maturely digtfted, and communicated to L. Bolingbroke, Dr. Swift, and one or two more, and was intended for the only work of his riper years; but was, parily through ill health, partly through dif couragements from the depravity of the times, and partly on prudential and other confiderations, interrupted, poftponed, and, lafly, in a manner laid afide. But as this was the Author's favourite work, which more exactly reflected the image of his firong capacious mind, and as we can have but a very imperfect idea of it from the disjecta membra poetæ that now remain, it may not be amifs to be a little more particular concerning each of the projected Books. The Firft, as it treats of Man in the abstract, and confiders him in general under every of his relations, becomes the foundation, and furnishes out the fubjects of the three following: fo that The Second Book was to take up again the first and fecond Epifles of the First Book, and treats of Man in his intellectual capacity at large, as has been explained above. Of this only a small part of the conclufion (which, as we faid, was to have contained a fatire against the misapplication of wit and learning may be found in the Fourth Book of the Dunciad, and up and down, occasionally, in the other Three. The Third Bock, in like manner, was to reaffume the fubject of the Third Epifle of the First, which treats of Man in his focial, political, and religious capacity. But this part the Poet afterwards conceived might be beft executed in an epic poem, as the action would make it more animated, and the fable lefs invidious; in which all the great principles of true and false governments and religions fhould be chiefly delivered in feigned examples. The Fourth and laft Book was to pursue the fubject of the Fourth Epifle of the First, and treats of ethics, or practical morality, and would have confifted of many members; of which the Four following Epistles were detached portions: the two first, on the characters of Men and Women, being the introductory part of this concluding Book. |