clined to think that POPE borrowed it from a paffage in the zodiac of Palingenius, which the abovementioned Adventurer has also quoted, and which POPE, who was a reader of the poets of Palingenius's age, was more likely to fall upon, than on this thought of Plato.

Simia cœlicolûm rifufque jocufque deorum eft;

Tunc homo, quum temerè ingenio confidit, et audet
Abdita naturæ fcrutari, arcanaque divûm.

23. Trace science then, with modesty thy guide;
First strip off all her equipage of pride;
Deduct what is but vanity, or dress,
Or learning's luxury, or idleness;

Or tricks to fhew the stretch of human brain,
Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;
Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrefcent parts,
Of all our vices of created arts.

THE abuses of learning are enumerated with brevity and elegance, in these few lines. It was a favourite fubject with our author; and it is faid, he intended to have written four epiftles on it, wherein he would have treated

of the extent and limits of human reason, of arts and sciences useful and attainable, of the different capacities of different men, of the knowledge of the world, and of wit. Such cenfures, even of the most unimportant parts of literature, should not, however, be carried too far; and a fenfible writer observes, that there is not indeed any part of knowledge which can be called entirely useless." The most abstracted parts of mathematics, and the knowledge of mythological history, or antient allegories, have their own pleasures not inferior to the more gay entertainments of painting, mufic, or architecture; and it is for the advantage of mankind that some are found, who have a taste for these studies. The only fault lies, in letting any of thofe inferior taftes, engrofs the whole man to the exclufion of the nobler pursuits of virtue and humanity *." We may here apply an elegant obfervation of Tully, who fays in his Brutus, "Credo, fed Athenienfium quoque plus interfuit firma tecta

* Hutchefon's Nature and Conduct of the Passions. pag. 174.

in domiciliis habere, quam Minervæ fignum ex ebore pulcherrimum: tamen ego me Phidiam effe mallem quam vel optimum fabrum lignarium; quare non quantum quifque profit, fed quanti quifque fit, ponderandum eft: præfertim cum pauci pingere egregiè poffint aut fingere, operarii autem aut bajuli deeffe non poffint."

24. Paffions, tho' selfish, if their means be fair, Lift under reafon and deferve her care;

Thofe, that imparted, court a nobler aim,

Exalt their kind, and take fome virtue's name. *

We find an obscurity in these lines, arifing from the use of the participle imparted;

Ver. 97.

When I am writing, fays Fontenelle, I often stop and ask; "Do I myself understand this fentence?" And yet, Fontenelle, whom the French accufe of introducing the abrupt, affected ftyle, is frequently obfcure. "Non minus autem cavenda erit, fays Quintilian, quæ nimium corripientes omnia fequitur, obfcuritas: fatiufque eft aliquid narrationi fupereffe, quam deeffe. Nam cum fupervacua cum tædio dicuntur, neceffaria cum periculo fubtrahuntur."

Inftitut. Orat. Lib. iv. C. 2.

Happy is he who can unite brevity with perfpicuity.It is but of one writer that Quintilian fays, Idem lætus ac preffus, tum copiâ, tum brevitate mirabilis.

Lib. x. C. 1.

a modę

a mode of speaking of which POPE was fond, studious as he was of brevity, and which often betrayed him into the fame fault: as the ufe of the cafe abfolute does in the following lines;

Present to grafp, and future ftill to find,
The whole employ of body and of mind. *

25. In lazy apathy let Stoics boast

Their virtue fix'd! 'tis fix'd as in a froft;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;

The ftrength of mind is exercife, not rest. †

PERHAPS a ftronger example cannot be found, of taking notions upon trust without any examination, than the univerfal cenfure that has been paffed upon the Stoics, as if they ftrenuously inculcated a total infenfibility with respect to paffion. He that would be convinced that this trite accufation is ill-grounded, may confult the notes Mr. Harris has added to his third treatise. There he will find the genuine doctrines of the Stoics examined with and fagacity, in a learned deduction

accuracy

of paffages, from all the best writers of that fchool; the fum of which quotations, in the nervous language of that critic, appears to be this; "That the Stoics, in their character of their virtuous man, included rational defire, averfion, and exultation; included love, and parental affection; friendship, and a general charity or benevolence to all mankind: that they confidered it as a duty, arifing from our very nature, not to neglect the welfare of public fociety, but to be ever ready, according to our rank, to act either the magiftrate or the private citizen: that their apathy was no more than a freedom from perturbation, from irrational and exceffive agitations of the foul and confequently that the ftrange apathy, commonly laid to their charge, and in the demolishing of which there have been fo many triumphs, was an imaginary apathy, for which they were no way accountable."

26. LOVE, HOPE, and Joy, fair PLEASURE'S fmiling train, HATE, FEAR, and GRIEF, the family of PAIN.