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 at the bottom of the pages; they will serve greatly to elucidate (as far as they go) the method of his reasoning. ESSAY I. Πόταγ ̓ ᾧ γαθέ; τὰν γὰρ ἀοιδὰν Οὔτι πω εἰς Αἴδαν γε τὸν ἐκλελάθονα φυλαξεις. THEOCRITUS. As sickly Plants betray a niggard earth, COMMENTARY. 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 similies; an uncommon kind of exordium: but which, I suppose, the Poet intentionally chose, to intimate the analogical method he meant to pursue in his subsequent reasonings. 1st, He asserts that men without education are like sickly plants in a cold or barren soil, (line 1 to 5, and NOTES. [As sickly Plants, &c. 1. 1.] If any copies of this Essay would have authorised me to have made an alteration in the disposition of the lines, I would, for the sake of perspicuity, have printed the And as in climes, where Winter holds his reign, 5 10 Spread the young thought, and warm the opening heart: So fond Instruction on the growing powers Of nature idly lavishes her stores, COMMENTARY. 8 to 12); and, 2dly, he compares them, when unblest with a just and well-regulated government, to plants that will not blossom or bear fruit in an unkindly and inclement air (1. 5 to 9, and l. 13 to NOTES. first twelve in the following manner; because I think the poetry would not have been in the least hurt by such a transposition, and the Poet's meaning would have been much more readily perceived, I put them down here for that purpose. As sickly Plants betray a niggard earth, Whose barren bosom starves her gen'rous birth, So draw Mankind in vain the vital airs, Spread the young thought, and warm the opening heart. The soil, tho' fertile, will not teem in vain, Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise, If equal Justice with unclouded face Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land: To check their tender hopes with chilling fear, From where the rolling Orb, that gives the day, To either pole, and life's remotest bounds. 15 20 25 30 35 COMMENTARY. 22.) Having thus laid down the two propositions he means to prove, he begins by examining into the characteristics which (taking a general 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 While mutual wishes, mutual woes endear Say, then, thro' ages by what fate confin'd Fix, and improve the polish'd arts of peace. Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war; 40 45 COMMENTARY. are linked to each other by their 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 line 38, and dilates upon to 1. 64. Why, says he, have some nations 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? I. 46 NOTES. [Has Scythia breath'd, &c. 1. 47.] The most celebrated of the early irruptions of the Scythians into the neighbouring countries is that under the conduct of Madyes, about the year of the creation 3350, when they broke into Asia, during the reign of Cyaxares, king of the Medes, and conqueror of the Assyrians, plundered it at discretion, and kept possession of it during twenty-eight years. Many successive incursions, attended with every kind of desolation, are enumerated by historians; particularly those, in A. D. 252, during the reign of Gallus and Volusianus, and in 261, under |