Pope intended to difcourage all Improvements of the human Understanding? or that it was only his Design to deter Men from Impiety, and from presuming to rejudge the Justice of their Creator? Mr. Croufaz, contrary to common Sense, and the whole Tenor of the Epistle, has chosen the former Part; tho' Mr. Pope had immediately added, Go wiser thou, and in thy Scale of Sense But to this, the Commentator:-" To whom "does Mr. Pope address himself in this long Pe riod? Is it to those prefumptuous Men, who are " continually confounding themselves, and abufing "the Fruitfulness of their Imaginations, to teize good Christians with Objections against Provi"dence? Their Rafhnefs and Impatience well "deferve, in my Opinion, the Cenfures Mr. Pope "here inflicts upon them."-Wonderful! Our Logician has, at length, discovered the Subject of Mr. Pope's Epiftle. Why then did he not do Juftice to Truth, by ftriking out all the reft of his Remarks? For if this be right, all the rest must, of confequence, be wrong. Commentaire, P 79. Mr. Mr. Pope fays, speaking of the End of Providence, As much that End a conftant Course requires Of Showers and Sunfhine, as of Man's Defires; As much eternal Springs and cloudlefs Skies, As Men for ever temp'rate, calm and wife. 1. 147, & feq. On which the Examiner, "A continual Spring " and a Heaven without Clouds would be fatal to "the Earth and its Inhabitants; but can we reСС gard it as a Misfortune that Men fhould be alcc ways fage, calm and temperate? I am quite in the dark as to this Comparison " Let us try if we can drag him into light, as unwilling as he is to fee. The Argument ftands thus.-Prefumptuous Man complains of moral Evil; Mr. Pope checks and informs him thus: The Evil, fays he, you complain of, tends to univerfal Good; for as Clouds, and Rain, and Tempeft, are neceffary to preserve Health and Plenty in this fublunary World, fo the Evils that fpring from diforder'd Paffions are neceffary.-To what? Not to Man's Happinefs here, but to the Perfection of the Univerfe in general. So that, If Plagues or Earthquakes break not Heav'n's Defign, Why then a Borgia or a Catiline? On which the Examiner thus defcants,-" These "Lines have no Senfe but on the Syftem of Leibnitz, which confounds Morals with Physics; 66 Examen de l'Essai, &c. D 2 " and " and in which, all that we call Pleasures, Grief, "Contentment, Inquietude, Wisdom, Virtue, Сс Truth, Error, Vices, Crimes, Abominations, CC are the inevitable Confequences of a fatal Chain "of Things as ancient as the World. But this is "it which renders the Syftem fo horrible, that "all honeft Men muft fhudder at it. It is, in"deed, fufficient to humble human Nature, to re"flect that this was invented by a Man, and that "other Men have adopted it h." This is, indeed, very tragical; but we have fhewn above, that it hath its Sense on the Platonic, not the Leibnitzian Syftem; and besides, that the Context confines us to that Sense. What hath misled the Examiner is his fuppofing the Comparison to be between the Effects of two Things in this fublunary World; when not only the Elegancy, but the Juftness of it confifts in its being between the Effects of a Thing in the Universe at large, and the familiar and known Effects of one in this fublunary World. For the Pofition inforc'd in these Lines is this, that partial Evil tends to the Good of the Whole: Refpecting Man, whatever Wrong we call, 1. 51. How does the Poet inforce it? Why, if you will believe the Examiner, by illuftrating the Effects of partial moral Evil in a particular System, by that of partial natural Evil in the fame Sy b Examen de l'Effai, &c. ftem, ftem, and fo leaves his Pofition in the lurch; but we must never believe the great Poet reafons like the Logician. The Way to prove his Point he knew was to illuftrate the Effect of partial moral Evil in the Universe, by partial natural Evil in a particular Syftem. Whether partial moral Evil tend to the Good of the Universe, being a Question, which by reason of our Ignorance of many Parts of that Universe, we cannot decide, but from known Effects; the Rules of Argument require that it be proved by Analogy, i. e. fetting it by, and comparing it with a Thing certain; and it is a Thing certain, that partial natural Evil tends to the Good of our particular System. This is his Argument: And thus, we fee, it stands clear of Mr. De Croufaz's Objection, and of Leibnitz's Fatalism. After having inforced this analogical Position, the Poet then indeed, in order to ftrengthen and fupport it, employs the fame Inftance of natural Evil, to fhew that, even here to Man, as well as to the Whole, moral Evil is productive of Good, by the gracious Difpofition of Providence, who turns it deviously from its natural Tendency. Mr. Pope then adds, From Pride, from Pride, our very Reasoning fprings; Account for moral, as for nat'ral Things: Why charge we Heav'n in those, in these acquit ? In both to reason right, is to submit. e 1. 153, & feq. Our Commentator asks-" Why, then, does "Mr. Pope pretend to reafon upon the Matter, " and rear his Head fo high, and decide fo dog"matically, upon the most important of all Sub"jects?" This is indeed pleafant. Suppofe Mr. De Croufaz fhould undertake to fhew the Folly of pretending to penetrate into the Mysteries of revealed Religion, as here Mr. Pope has done of natural, muft he not employ the Succours of Reafon? And could he conclude his Reafonings with 'greater Truth and Modefty, than in the Words of Mr. Pope?-To reafon right, is to submit. But he goes on, "If you will believe him "[Mr. Pope] the Sovereign Perfections of the eter"nal Being have inevitably determined him to "create this Univerfe, because the Idea of it was "the most perfect of all those which represented ૮ many poffible Worlds. Notwithstanding, there " is nothing perfect in this Part, which is affign"ed for our Habitation; it fwarms with Imper"fections; it is God who is the Cause of them, " and it was not in his Power to contrive Matters "otherwise. The Poet had not the Caution to СС recur to Man's Abuse of his own Free-will, the cc true Source of all our Miseries, and which are cc agreeable to that State of Disorder in which "Men live by their own Fault." I will venture to fay, every Part of this Reflection is falfe and calumnious. The firft Part of it, that the Eternal Being, according to Mr. Pope, was inevitably de i Commentaire, P. 94. k Ib. 94, 95. termined, |