(Malignant Fate sat by, and smil'd) Eight times emerging from the flood Some speedy aid to send. No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd: A Fav'rite has no friend! From hence, ye Beauties, undeceiv'd, Know, one false step is ne'er retriev'd, And be with caution bold. Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes Nor all, that glisters, gold. 30 35 40 VI. THE ALLIANCE OF EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. A FRAGMENT. Commentary.1 THE Author's subject being (as we have seen) The necessary Alliance between a good Form of Government and a good Mode of Education, in order to produce the Happiness of Mankind, the Poem opens with two similes; an uncommon kind of exordium: but which I suppose the 5 Poet intentionally chose, to intimate the analogical method he meant to pursue in his subsequent reasonings. 1st, 1 "On carefully reviewing the scattered papers in prose which he writ, as hints for his own use in the prosecution of this work, I think it best to form part of them into a kind of commentary." - Mason. He asserts that men without education are like sickly. plants in a cold or barren soil, (line 1 to 5, and 8 to 12 ;) and, 2dly, he compares them, when unblest with a just 10 and well regulated government, to plants that will not blossom or bear fruit in an unkindly and inclement air (1. 5 to 9, and 1. 13 to 22). Having thus laid down the two propositions he means to prove, he begins by examining into the characteristics which (taking a general 15 view of mankind) all men have in common one with another (1. 22 to 39); they covet pleasure and avoid pain (1.31); they feel gratitude for benefits (1. 34); they desire to avenge wrongs, which they effect either by force or cunning (1. 35); they are linked to each other by their 20 common feelings, and participate in sorrow and in joy (1. 36, 37). If then all the human species agree in so many moral particulars, whence arises the diversity of national characters? This question the Poet puts at 1. 38, and dilates upon to 1. 64. Why, says he, have some nations 25 shewn a propensity to commerce and industry; others to war and rapine; others to ease and pleasure? (1. 42 to 46) Why have the Northern people overspread, in all ages, and prevailed over the Southern? (1. 46 to 58) Why has Asia been, time out of mind, the seat of despotism, 30 and Europe that of freedom? (1.59 to 64). Are we from these instances to imagine men necessarily enslaved to the inconveniences of the climate where they were born? (1. 64 to 72) Or are we not rather to suppose there is a natural strength in the human mind, that is able to van- 35 quish and break through them? (1. 72 to 84) It is confest, however, that men receive an early tincture from the situation they are placed in, and the climate which produces them (1. 84 to 88). Thus the inhabitants of the mountains, inured to labour and patience, are naturally 40 trained to war (1. 88 to 96); while those of the plain are more open to any attack, and softened by ease and plenty (1. 96 to 99). Again, the Ægyptians, from the nature of their situation, might be the inventors of homenavigation, from a necessity of keeping up an intercourse 45 between their towns during the inundation of the Nile (1. 99 to . . . ). These persons would naturally have the first turn to commerce, who inhabited a barren coast like the Tyrians, and were persecuted by some neighbouring tyrant; or were drove to take refuge on some shoals, like 50 the Venetian and Hollander; their discovery of some rich island, in the infancy of the world, described. The Tartar hardened to war by his rigorous climate and pastoral life, and by his disputes for water and herbage in a country without land-marks, as also by skirmishes 55 between his rival clans, was consequently fitted to conquer his rich Southern neighbours, whom ease and luxury had enervated: Yet this is no proof that liberty and valour may not exist in Southern climes, since the Syrians and Carthaginians gave noble instances of both; 60 and the Arabians carried their conquests as far as the Tartars. Rome also (for many centuries) repulsed those very nations, which, when she grew weak, at length demolished her extensive Empire. * * * ... ESSAY I. Πόταγ ̓, ὦ 'γαθε; τὰν γὰρ ἀοιδὰν Οὔτι πω εἰς Αΐδαν γε τὸν ἐκλελάθοντα φυλαξεις. Theocritus, Id. I. 63. As sickly Plants betray a niggard earth, And as in climes, where Winter holds his reign, 5 Spread the young thought, and warm the opening heart : So fond Instruction on the growing powers Of Nature idly lavishes her stores, If equal Justice with unclouded face This spacious animated scene survey ΙΟ 15 20 25 With sense to feel, with memory to retain, 30 Their judgment mends the plan their fancy draws, Th' event presages, and explores the cause. The soft returns of gratitude they know, By fraud elude, by force repell the foe, 35 While mutual wishes, mutual woes endear Say, then, thro' ages by what fate confin'd To different climes seem different souls assign'd? Fix, and improve the polish'd arts of peace; 40 Command the winds, and tame th' unwilling deep. Here force and hardy deeds of blood prevail; 45 Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war; And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway Their arms, their kings, their gods were roll'd away. 50 The blue-eyed myriads from the Baltick coast. The prostrate South to the Destroyer yields 55 Why yet does Asia dread a monarch's nod, 60 While European freedom still withstands Th' encroaching tide, that drowns her lessening lands; Her native plains, and Empires once her own 65 To string our nerves and steel our hearts to war? 70 Must sick'ning virtue fly the tainted ground? |