than that of proposing laws which,
however just or expedient, will never be made; or endeavouring to reduce
to rational schemes of government societies which were formed by chance,
and are conducted by the private passions of those who preside in them.
He guides the unhappy fugitive, from want and persecution, to plenty,
quiet, and security, and seats him in scenes of peaceful solitude, and
undisturbed repose. Savage has not forgotten, amidst the pleasing
sentiments which this prospect of retirement suggested to him, to
censure those crimes which have been generally committed by the
discoverers of new regions, and to expose the enormous wickedness of
making war upon barbarous nations because they cannot resist, and of
invading countries because they are fruitful; of extending navigation
only to propagate vice, and of visiting distant lands only to lay them
waste. He has asserted the natural equality of mankind, and endeavoured
to suppress that pride which inclines men to imagine that right is the
consequence of power.

His description of the various miseries which force men to seek for
refuge in distant countries, affords another instance of his proficiency
in the important and extensive study of human life; and the tenderness
with which he recounts them, another proof of his humanity and
benevolence.

It is observable, that the close of this poem discovers a change which
experience had made in Mr. Savage's opinions. In a poem written by him
in his youth, and published in his Miscellanies, he declares his
contempt of the contracted views and narrow prospects of the middle
state of life, and declares his resolution either to tower like the
cedar, or be trampled like the shrub; but in this poem, though addressed
to a prince, he mentions this state of life as comprising those who
ought most to attract reward, those who merit most the confidence of
power, and the familiarity of greatness; and, accidentally mentioning
this passage to one of his friends, declared, that, in his opinion, all
the virtue of mankind was comprehended in that state.

In describing villas and gardens, he did not omit to condemn that absurd
custom which prevails among the English, of permitting servants to
receive money from strangers for the entertainment that they receive,
and, therefore, inserted in his poem these lines:

But what the flow'ring pride of gardens rare,
However royal, or however fair,
If gates, which to access should