[Footnote 33: This legendary hero was an Athenian knight-errant who, in
imitation of Hercules, went about doing battle with the scourges of
mankind, both human and animal.]
[Footnote 34: Minerva presented Perseus with her shield when he
undertook to kill the Gorgon, Medusa.]
[Footnote 35: This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the
position of the famous statue of Farnese.--POPE.
It were to be wished that our author, whose knowledge and taste of the
fine arts were unquestionable, had taken more pains in describing so
famous a statue as that of the Farnesian Hercules; for he has omitted
the characteristical excellencies of this famous piece of Grecian
workmanship; namely, the uncommon breadth of the shoulders, the
knottiness and spaciousness of the chest, the firmness and protuberance
of the muscles in each limb, particularly the legs, and the majestic
vastness of the whole figure, undoubtedly designed by the artist to give
a full idea of strength, as the Venus de Medicis of beauty. To mention
the Hesperian apples, which the artist flung backwards, and almost
concealed as an inconsiderable object, and which therefore scarcely
appear in the statue, was below the notice of Pope.--WARTON.
Addison's Vision: "At the upper end sat Hercules, leaning an arm upon
his club."]
[Footnote 36: The pause at the word "strikes" renders the verse finely
descriptive of the circumstance. Milton, in Par. Lost, xi. 491, has
attempted this beauty with success:
And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook, but delayed to strike.--WAKEFIELD.]
[Footnote 37: Milton, Par. Lost, i. 710:
a fabric huge
Rose like an exhalation.--BOWLES.]
[Footnote 38: "Trees," says Dennis, "starting from their roots, a
mountain rolling into a wall, and a town rising like an exhalation are
things that are not to be shown in sculpture." This objection, that
"motion is represented as exhibited by sculpture," is said by Johnson,
"to be the most reasonable of Dennis' remarks," but Dennis neutralised
his own criticism when he added, that "sculpture can indeed show posture
and position, and from posture and position we may conclude that the
objects are in motion."]
[Footnote 39: Wakefield quotes from Milton (Par. Lost, ii. 4), the
expression, "barbaric pearl and gold," and from Addison's translation of
the second book of Ovid's Met. the line in which it is said that the
palace of the sun
With burnished gold and flaming jewels blazed.
[Footnote 40: Cyrus was the beginning of the Persian, as Ninus was of
the Assyrian monarchy.--POPE.]
[Footnote 41: The Magi and Chaldaeans (the chief of whom was Zoroaster)
employed their studies upon magic and astrology, which was, in a manner,
almost all the learning of the ancient Asian people. We have scarce any
account of a moral philosopher, except Confucius, the great law-giver of
the Chinese, who lived about two thousand years ago.--POPE.
There are several mistakes in Pope's note. Zoroaster was not a magician
who "waved the circling wand" of the necromancer. "The Magians," says
Plato, "teach the magic of Zoroaster, but this is the worship of the
Gods." His creed was theological, and had no connexion with sorcery.
Some of his nominal followers subsequently professed to be
fortune-tellers. Astrology was not a general characteristic of the
diverse nations who constituted the "ancient Asian people," and their
learning was by no means limited to it. The Hindoos, for instance, were
the precursors of Aristotle in logic, and the earliest metaphysicians
whose doctrines have come down to us. "The Indian philosophy," says M.
Cousin, "is so vast that all the philosophical systems are represented
there, and we may literally affirm that it is an abridgment of the
entire history of philosophy." Nor was Confucius the only oriental
"law-giver who taught the useful science to be good." The Hindoo body of
laws, which bears the name of Menu, was compiled centuries before
Confucius was born, and it is eminently a moral and religious, as well
as a political code.]
[Footnote 42: It was often erroneously stated that the Brahmins dwelt
always in groves. By the laws of Menu the life of a Brahmin was divided
into four portions, and it was during the third portion only that he was
commanded to become an anchorite in the woods, to sleep on the bare
ground, to feed on roots and fruit, to go clad in bark or the skin of
the black antelope, and to expose himself to the drenching rain and
scorching sun. The caste have ceased to conform to the primitive
discipline, and the old asceticism is now confined to individual
devotees. The functions which Pope ascribes to the Brahmins formed no
part of their practices. They did not pretend to "stop the moon," and
summon spirits to "midnight banquets." Pope copied Oldham's version of
Virgil's eighth Eclogue: