[23] Pope puts "the elements" for the creatures which inhabited them.
[24] In the first edition it was,
The swain with tears to beasts his labour yields,
which defined the poet's idea more clearly. He changed the expression to avoid the recurrence of the same word when he introduced "beast" into the next couplet.
[25] Addison's Letter from Italy:
The poor inhabitant beholds in vain
The reddening orange, and the swelling grain:
Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines,
And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines:
Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curst,
And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst.—Holt White.
This passage, which describes the misery entailed upon the Italian peasants by an oppressive government, plainly suggested the lines of Pope. The death from thirst, which Addison adds to the death from starvation, is too great an exaggeration. Water could always be had.
No wonder savages or subjects slain—
But subjects starved, while savages were fed.
It was originally thus, but the word "savages" is not properly applied to beasts, but to men; which occasioned the alteration.—Pope.