CRITICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL

COMMENTARY

ON

MR. POPE'S

ESSAY ON MAN:

In which is contained a Vindication of the said ESSAY from the Misrepresentations of

MR. DE RESNEL, the French Translator;

and of

MR. DE CROusaz,

Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics
in the Academy of Lausanne,

The Commentator.

Vide quam iniqui sunt divinorum munerum æstimatores
etiam quidam PROFESSI SAPIENTIAM.—SEN,

with great truth, and, I hope I may do it with m that what I offer to the Public concerning The Legation of Moses is not a hasty sudden though what has appeared flattering to me upon its fi pearance only; as such things often strike, which review, give no satisfaction. But this has been lo subject of my thoughts; often laid by, and then ag proper intervals, resumed, reviewed, and turned sides. What then I have been in no haste to a after carefully weighing and examining every part, hope the equitable Reader will be in no haste demn or suspect while he has seen only one.

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SIR,

ΤΟ

MY WORTHY FRIEND,

RALPH ALLEN, ESQ.

I GIVE myself the pleasure of conversing with you, in this form; as I see you less under the idea of a patron, than of a joint labourer with me in the service of mankind. For while I attempt to explain the theory of this divine philosophy of Universal Benevolence, you illustrate it by your practice. At most therefore I can but offer you the ESSAY ON MAN, set in a just light, as a mirrour for your cabinet; where you may behold the perfect image of your own mind: And the works of this Artist, who is beholden only to truth for their polish and their lustre, you are too well acquainted with to suspect them of flattery. To preserve the lustre of this mirrour was the sole purpose of the following Letters. For the dull breath of malice had attempted to defile its purity; and, by staining it with the black imputation of Fatalism, to tarnish every virtue it reflected.

It hath been observed in Physics, that nature never gave an excellence, but she at the same time produced its contrary, with qualities peculiarly adapted to its destruction. As we see how this serves the wise ends of Providence, by keeping us in that state of imperfection and dependence in which it hath pleased the Author of all Things to place us, we need not be much surprised to find the same phænomenon in the moral world: In no instance more apparent than in the doctrine of FATE, which, almost coæval with the practice of VIRTUE, is yet altogether the destruction of it.

But as there is not that decay, nor degeneracy of good, in the natural as in the moral world; so neither is there that increase of evil. I say this chiefly with regard to the doctrine of Fate, which hath been still growing, from

age