[1499] Hall, Sat. iii.:
Or tedious bead rolls of descended blood,
From father Japhet since Deucalion's flood.—Wakefield.
[1500] There are two other versions of this couplet in the MS.:
But to make wits of fools, and chiefs of cowards,
What can? not all the pride of all the Howards.
And,
But make one wise, or loved, or happy man,
Not all the pride of all the Howards can.
[1501] Pope took the phrase from Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, vol. i., p. 26: "Who can forbear laughing when he thinks on all the great men that have been so serious on the subject of that Macedonian madman?" Warton protests against the application of the term to Alexander the Great, and adds that Charles XII. of Sweden "deserved not to be joined with him." The objection is well-founded, for Pope not only compared them in their rage for war, but said that neither "looked further than his nose," which was true of Charles XII., and false of Alexander, who mingled grand schemes of civilisation with his selfish lust of dominion.
[1502] "To find an enemy of all mankind," signifies to find some one who is an enemy of all mankind, whereas Pope means to say that heroes desire to find all mankind their enemies. He exaggerated the "strangeness" of the conqueror's "purpose." The making enemies is incidental to the purpose, but is not itself the end.
[1503] The idea expressed in this line is put more clearly by Johnson in his description of Charles XII:
Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain,
"Think nothing gained," he cries, "till nought remain."