[970] The 10th, 13th, and 14th verses allude to the subject of the second Epistle of the second book,—the characters of men and manners.—Pope.
The four published Moral Essays were a portion of the projected second book.
[971] The 11th and 12th verses allude to the subject of the first Epistle of the second book,—the limits of reason, learning, and ignorance.—Pope.
This Epistle was never written, but some part of the matter was incorporated into the fourth Book of the Dunciad.
[972] MS.:
Of all that blindly creep the tracts explore,
And all the dazzled race that blindly soar.
Those who "blindly creep" are the ignorant and indifferent; those who "sightless soar" are the presumptuous, who endeavour to transcend the bounds prescribed to the intellect of man.
[973] Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, Part ii.:
while he with watchful eye
Observes, and shoots their treasons as they fly.—Wakefield.
Dryden, Aurengzebe, Act iii.: