e greatest lions. The serpent shall die,
and the herb that conceals poison shall die._"

Isaiah xi. 6, 7, 8. "_The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the
leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion,
and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the
lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on
the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the den
of the cockatrice._"--POPE.]

[Footnote 48: The similarity of the rhymes in this couplet to those of
the preceding is a blemish to this passage.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 49: Isaiah lxv. 25.--POPE. "_The lion shall eat straw like the
bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat._"]

[Footnote 50: Pope's line may have been suggested by Ovid's description
of the transformation of Cadmus and his wife into snakes. Of Cadmus it
is said, Met. iv. 595, that

ille suae lambebat conjugis ora;

and of husband and wife, when the change in both was complete, that

Nunc quoque nec fugiunt hominem, nec vulnere laedunt.]

[Footnote 51: Originally,

And with their forky tongue and pointless sting shall play.

Wakefield conjectures that Pope altered the line from having learnt the
erroneousness of the vulgar belief that the sting of the serpent is in
its tail. The expression he substituted in the text is borrowed from
Dryden's Palamon and Arcite, quoted by Wakefield:

And troops of lions innocently play.]

[Footnote 52: Salem is used for Jerusalem in Psalm lxxvi. 2.]

[Footnote 53: Isaiah lx. 1.--POPE. "_Arise, shine; for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee._"]

[Footnote 54: The thoughts of Isaiah, which compose the latter part of
the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above those general
exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftiest parts of his Pollio:

Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo
--toto surget gens aurea mundo!
--incipient magni procedere menses!
Aspice, venture laetentur ut omnia saeclo! &c.

The reader needs only to turn to the passages of Isaiah, here
cited.--POPE.]

[Footnote 55: The open vowel _thy eyes_ is particularly
offensive.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 56: Isaiah lx. 4.--POPE. "_Lift up thine eyes round about, and
see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons
shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side._"]

[Footnote 57: Isaiah lx. 3.--POPE. "