Let standard-authors, thus, like trophies borne,
Appear more glorious, as more hack'd and torn.
And you, my critics! in the chequer'd shade,
Admire new light through holes yourselves have made.
Leave not a foot of verse, a foot of stone,

A page, a grave, that they can call their own; But spread, my sons, your glory thin or thick, 80 On passive paper, or on solid brick.

So by each bard an alderman shall sit,
A heavy lord shall hang at every wit,
And while on Fame's triumphal car they ride,
Some slave of mine be pinion'd to their side.'

Now crowds on crowds around the goddess press,
Each eager to present the first address.
Dunce scorning dunce behold the next advance,
But fop shews fop superior complaisance.
When, lo! a spectre rose, whose index-band

90 Held forth the virtue of the dreadful wand;
His beaver'd brow a birchin garland wears,
Dropping with infant's blood, and mother's tears.
O'er every vein a shuddering horror runs ;
Eaton and Winton shake through all their sons.
All flesh is humbled, Westminster's bold race
Shrink, and confess the genius of the place:
The pale boy-senator yet tingling stands,

Placed at the door of learning, youth to guide,
We never suffer it to stand too wide.

To ask, to guess, to know, as they commence,
As fancy opens the quick springs of sense,
We ply the memory, we load the brain,
Bind rebel wit, and double chain on chain,
Confine the thought to exercise the breath;
And keep them in the pale of words till death.
Whate'er the talents, or howe'er design'd,
We hang one jingling padlock on the mind:
A poet the first day, he dips his quill;
And what the last? a very poet still.
Pity! the charm works only in our wall,
Lost, lost too soon in yonder house or hall.
There truant Windham every muse gave o'er,
There Talbot sunk, and was a wit no more!
How sweet an Ovid, Murray was our boast!
How many Martials were in Pulteney lost!
Else sure some bard, to our eternal praise,
In twice ten thousand rhyming nights and days,
Had reach'd the work, the all that mortal can;
And South beheld that master-piece of man.

Oh,' cried the goddess, for some pedant reign!
Some gentle James, to bless the land again;
To stick the doctor's chair into the throne,
Give law to words, or war with words alone.
Senates and courts with Greek and Latin rule,
And turn the counsel to a grammar-school!
For sure, if Dulness sees a grateful day,
"Tis in the shade of arbitrary sway.
O! if my sons may learn one earthly thing,
Teach but that one sufficient for a king;

That which my priests, and mine alone, maintain,
Which, as it dies, or lives, we fall, or reign:
May you, my Cam, and Isis, preach it long,
"The right divine of kings to govern wrong."
Prompt at the call, around the goddess roll
Broad hats, and hoods, and caps, a sable shoal:
Thick and more thick the black blockade extends,
A hundred head of Aristotle's friends.
Nor wert thou, Isis! wanting to the day,
[Though Christ-church long kept prudishly away.]
Each staunch polemic, stubborn as a rock,
Each fierce logician, still expelling Locke,

As many quit the streams that murmuring fall
To lull the sons of Margaret and Clare-hall,
Where Bentley late tempestuous wont to sport
In troubled waters, but now sleeps in port.
Before them march'd that awful Aristarch;
Plow'd was his front with many a deep remark:
His hat, which never vail'd to human pride,
160 Walker with reverence took, and laid aside.
Low bow'd the rest: he, kingly, did but nod:
So upright quakers please both man and God.
'Mistress! dismiss that rabble from your throne:
Avaunt is Aristarchus yet unknown?
The mighty scholiast, whose unwearied pains
Made Horace dull, and humbled Milton's strains.
Turn what they will to verse, their toil is vain,
Critics like me shall make it prose again.
Roman and Greek grammarians! know your better:
170 Author of something yet more great than letter;
While towering o'er your alphabet like Saul,
Stands our digamma, and o'ertops them all.
"Tis true, on words is still our whole debate,
Disputes of Me or Te, or Aut or At,

REMARKS.

200

210

220

literal sense, when no apparent absurdity accompanies it (and sure there is no absurdity in supposing a logi180 cian on horseback), yet still I must needs think the hackneys here celebrated were not real horses, nor even Centaurs, which, for the sake of the learned Chiron, I should rather be inclined to think, if I were forced to find them four legs, but downright plain men, though logicians and only thus metamorphosed by a rule of rhetoric, of which Cardinal Perron gives us an example, where he calls Clavius, Un esprit pesant, lourd, sans subtilité, ni gentilesse, un gros cheval d'Allemagne. Here I profess to go opposite to the whole stream of 190 commentators. I think the poet only aimed, though awkwardly, at an elegant Græcism in this representation; for in that language the word 'inños (horse) was often prefixed to others, to denote greatness of strength; as ἱππολάπαθον, ἱππογλωσσον, ἱππομαραθρον, and particularly ППогп£мÓÑ, a great connoisseur, which Scip. Maff.

Came whip and spur, and dash'd through thin and thick comes nearest to the case in hand.
On German Crouzaz, and Dutch Burgersdyck.

REMARKS.

Ver. 174. that master piece of man.] Viz. an epigram. The famous Dr. South declared a perfect epigram to be as difficult a performance as an epic poem. And the critics say, An epic poem is the greatest work human nature is capable of.'

Ver. 176. Some gentle James, &c.] Wilson tells us that this king, James the first, took upon himself to teach the Latin tongue to Car, earl of Somerset; aud that Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, would speak false Latin to him, on purpose to give him the pleasure of correcting it, whereby he wrought himself into his good

graces.

This great prince was the first who assumed the title of Sacred Majesty, which his loyal clergy transferred from God to him. The principles of passive obedience and non-resistance,' says the author of the Dissertation on Parties, Letter, 8, which before his time had skulked, perhaps in some old homily, were talked, written, and preached into vogue in that inglorious reign.

Ver. 194. Though Christ-church, &c.] This line is doubtless spurious, and foisted in by the impertinence of the editor; and accordingly we have put it in between hooks. For I affirm this college came as early as any other, by its proper deputies; nor did any college pay homage to Dulness in its whole body.

Bentl.

Ver. 196. still expelling Locke.] In the year 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the University of Oxford to censure Mr. Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, and to forbid the reading of it. See his Letters in the last edition.

Ver. 198. On German Crouzaz, and Dutch Burgersdyck. There seems to be an improbability that the doctors and heads of houses should ride on horseback, who of late days, being gouty or unwieldy, have kept their coaches. But these are horses of great strength, and fit to carry any weight, as their German and Dutch extraction may manifest; and very famous we may conclude, being honoured with names, as were the horses Pegasus and Bucephalus. Scribl.

Though I have the greatest deference to the penetration of this eminent scholiast, and must own that nothing can be more natural than his interpretation, or juster than that rule of criticism, which directs us to keep the

Ver. 199. the streams] The river Cam, running by the walls of these colleges, which are particularly famous for their skill in disputation.

Ver. 202. sleeps in port.] Viz. Now retired into har. bour, after the tempests that had long agitated his society. So Scriblerus. But the learned Scipio Maffei understands it of a certain wine called Port, from Oporto, a city of Portugal, of which this professor invited him to drink abundantly. Scip. Maff. De Compotationibus Academicis. [And to the opinion of Maffei inclineth the sagacious annotator on Dr. King's Advice to Horace.] Ver. 210. Aristarchus.] A famous commentator and corrector of Homer, whose name has been frequently used to signify a complete critic. The compliment paid by our author to this eminent professor, in applying to him so great a name, was the reason that he hath omitted to comment on this part which contains his own praises. We shall, therefore, supply that loss to our best ability.

Scribl.

Ver. 214. Critics like me-] Alluding to two famous editions of Horace and Milton; whose richest veins of poetry he had prodigally reduced to the poorest and most beggarly prose.-Verily the learned scholiast is grievously mistaken. Aristarchus is not boasting here of the wonders of his art in annihilating the sublime; but of the usefulness of it, in reducing the turgid to its proper that prose it was, though ashamed of its original, and class; the words 'make it prose again,' plainly shewing therefore to prose it should return. Indeed, much it is to be lamented that Dulness doth not confine her critics to this useful task; and commission them to dismount what Aristophanes calls Рnμat' innoСαμovα, all prose

on horse-back.

Scribl.

Ver. 216 Author of something yet more great than letter;] Alluding to those grammarians, such as Palamedes and Simonides, who invented single letters. But Aristarchus, who had found out a double one, was there. Scribl. fore worthy of double honour.

Ver. 217, 218. While towering o'er your alphabet, like Saul,-Stands, our digamma,] Alludes to the boasted restoration of the Eolic digamma, in his long projected He calls it something more than edition of Homer. letter, from the enormous figure it would make among the other letters, being one gamma, set upon the shoulders of another.

Ver. 220. of Me or Te,] It was a serious dispute, about which the learned were much divided, and some

To sound or sink in cano O or A,

Or give up Cicero to C or K.

Let Freind affect to speak as Terence spoke,
And Alsop never but like Horace joke:
For me, what Virgil, Pliny may deny,
Manilius or Solinus shall supply:
For Attic phrase in Plato let them seek,
1 poach in Suidas for unlicensed Greek.
In ancient sense if any needs will deal,
Be sure I give them fragments, not a meal;
What Gellius or Stobæus hash'd before,

Or chew'd by blind old scholiasts o'er and o'er,
The critic eye, that microscope of wit,
Sees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit:
How parts relate to parts, or they to whole;
The body's harmony, the beaming soul,

Are things which Kuster, Burman, Wasse shall see,
When man's whole frame is obvious to a flea.

'Ah, think not, mistress! more true Dulness lies
In Folly's cap, than Wisdom's grave disguise.
Like buoys, that never sink into the flood,
On learning's surface we but lie and nod,
Thine is the genuine head of many a house,
And much divinity without a Nous.
Nor could a Barrow work on every block,
Nor has one Atterbury spoil'd the flock.
See! still thy own, the heavy canon roll,
And metaphysic smokes involve the pole.
For thee we dim the eyes, and stuff the head
With all such reading as was never read:
For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it:
And write about it, goddess, and about it:
So spins the silk-worm small its slender store,
And labours, till it clouds itself all o'er.
What though we let some better sort of fool
Thrid every science, run through every school?
Never by tumbler through the hoops was shewn
Such skill in passing all, and touching none.
He may indeed (if sober all this time)
Plague with dispute, or persecute with rhyme.
We only furnish what he cannot use,

Or wed to what he must divorce, a muse:
Full in the midst of Euclid dip at once,
And petrify a genius to a dunce:
Or set on metaphysic ground to prance,
Shew all his paces, not a step advance.
With the same cement, ever sure to bind,
We bring to one dead level every mind.

REMARKS.

Then take him to develop, if you can,

And hew the block off, and get out the man.
But wherefore waste I words? I see advance
Whore, pupil, and laced governor, from France.
Walker! our hat'-nor more he deign'd to say,
But, stern as Ajax' spectre, strode away.

In flow'd at once a gay embroider'd race,
And tittering push'd the pedants off the place:
Some would have spoken, but the voice was drown'd
230 By the French horn, or by the opening hound.
The first came forwards, with as easy mien,
As if he saw St. James's and the queen.
When thus the attendant orator begun,
'Receive, great empress, thy accomplish'd son:
Thine from the birth, and sacred from the rod,
A dauntless infant! never scared with God.
The sire saw, one by one, his virtues wake;
The mother begg'd the blessing of a rake.
Thou gavest that ripeness, which so soon began,
And ceased so soon, he ne'er was boy nor man.
Through school and college, thy kind clouds o'ercast.
Safe and unseen the young Æneas pass'd:
Thence bursting glories, all at once let down,

240

Stunn'd with his giddy 'larum half the town.
Intrepid then, o'er seas and lands he flew :
Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too.
There all thy gifts and graces we display,
Thou, only thou, directing all our way:
To where the Seine, obsequious as she runs,

250 Pours at great Bourbon's feet her silken sons;
Or Tyber, now no longer Roman, rolls,
Vain of Italian arts, Italian souls ;

260

treatises written: had it been about meum and tuum it could not be more contested, than whether at the end of the first Ode of Horace, to read, Me doctarum hedera præmia frontium, or Te doctarum hedera-By this the learned scholiast would seem to insinuate that the dispute was not about meum and tuum, which is a mistake: For as a venerable sage observeth, words are the counters of wise men, but the money of fools: so that Scribl. we see their property was indeed concerned.

Ver. 222. Or give up Cicero to C or K.] Grammatical disputes about the manner of pronouncing Cicero's name in Greek. It is a dispute whether in Latin the name of Hermagoras should end in as or a. Quintilian quotes Cicero as writing it, Hermagora, which Bentley rejects, and says, Quintilian must be mistaken, Cicero could not write it so, and that in this case he would not believe Cicero himself. These are his very words: Ego vero Ciceronem ita scripsisse ne Ciceroni quidem affirmanti crediderim. Epist. ad Mill. in fin. Frag. Menand. et Phil.

Ver. 223, 224. Freind-Alsop] Dr. Robert, Freind, master of Westminster-school, and canon of Christ church-Dr. Anthony Alsop, a happy imitator of the Horatian style.

Ver. 226. Manilius and Solinus] Some critics having had it in their choice to comment either on Virgil of Manilius, Pliny or Solinus, have chosen the worse au thor, the more freely to display their critical capacity.

Ver. 228, &c. Suidas, Gellius, Stobaeus] The first a dictionary-writer, a collector of impertinent facts and barbarous words; the second a minute critic; the third an author, who gave his common place book to the public, where we happen to find much mince-meat of

old books.

Ver. 245, 246. Barrow, Atterbury] Isaac Barrow, master of Trinity, Francis Atterbury, dean of Christchurch, both great geniuses and eloquent preachers; one more conversant in the sublime geometry, the other in classical learning; but who equally made it their care to advance the polite arts in their several societies.

To happy convents, bosom'd deep in vines,
Where slumber abbots purple as their wines:
To isles of fragrance, lily-silver'd vales,

Diffusing langour in the panting gales :
To lands of singing, or of dancing slaves,

Love-whispering woods, and lute reasounding waves;

REMARKS.

270

280

290

300

Because gold

Ver. 272. laced governor] Why laced? and silver are necessary trimming to denote the dress of a person of rank, and the governor must be supposed so in foreign countries, to be admitted into courts and other places of fair reception. But how comes Aristarchus to know at sight that this governor came from France? Know? Why, by the laced coat. Scribl.

Ibid. Whore, pupil, and laced governor] Some critics have objected to the order here, being of opinion that the governor should have the precedence before the whore, if not before the pupil. But were he so placed, it might be thought to insinuate that the governor led the pupil to the whore; and were the pupil placed first, he might be supposed to lead the governor to her. But our impartial poet, as he is drawing their picture, represents then in the order in which they are generally seen; namely, the pupil between the whore and the governor; but placeth the whore first, as she usually governs both

the other.

Ver. 280. As if he saw St. James's] Reflecting on the disrespectful and indecent behaviour of several forward young persons in the presence, so offensive to all serious men, and to none more than the good Scriblerus.

Ver. 281. The attendant orator] The governor above said. The poet gives him no particular name: being unwilling, I presume, to offend or to do injustice to any, by celebrating one only with whom this character agrees, in preference to so many who equally deserve it.

Scribl.

Ver. 284. A dauntless infant! never scared with God] i. e. Brought up in the enlarged principles of modern education; whose great point is, to keep the infant mind free from the prejudices of opinion, and the growing spirit unbroken by terrifying names. Amongst the happy consequences of this reformed decipline, it is not the least that we have never afterwards any occasion for the priest, whose trade, as a modern wit informs us, is only to finish what the nurse began. Scribl. Ver. 286. the blessing of a rake.] Scriblerus is here much at a loss to find out what this blessing should be. He is sometimes tempted to imagine it might be the marrying a great fortune: but this again, for the vul garity of it, he rejects, as something uncommon seemed to be prayed for: and after many strange conceits, not at all to the honour of the fair sex, he at length rests in this, that it was, that her son might pass for a wit: in which opinion he fortifies himself by ver. 316, where the orator, speaking of his pupil, says, that he

Intrigued with glory, and with spirit whored,

And heard thy everlasting yawn confess
The pains and penalties of idleness.
She pitied! but her pity only shed
310 Benigner influence on thy nodding head.

But Annius, crafty seer, with ebon wand,
And well-dissembled emerald on his hand,
False as his gems, and canker'd as his coins,
Came, cramm'd with capon, from where Pollio dines,
Soft as the wily fox is seen to creep,

Where bask on sunny banks the simple sheep,
Walk round and round, now prying here, now there,
So he; but pious, whisper'd first his prayer:
'Grant, gracious goddess! grant me still to cheat,

320 O may thy cloud still cover the deceit !

Thy choicer mists on this assembly shed,
But pour them thickest on the noble head.
So shall each youth, assisted by our eyes,
See other Cæsars, other Homers rise;
Through twilight ages hunt the Athenian fowl,
Which Chaleis gods, and mortals call an owl,
Now see an Attys, now a Cecrops clear,
Nay, Mahomet! the pigeon at thine ear:
Be rich in ancient brass, though not in gold,

330 And keep his Lares, though his house be sold;
To headless Phoebe his fair bride postpone,
Honour a Syrian prince above his own;
Lord of an Otho, if I vouch it true;
Bless'd in one Niger, till he knows of two.
Mummius o'erheard him; Mummius, fool-renown'd.
Who like his Cheops stinks above the ground,
Fierce as a startled adder, swell'd and said,
Rattling an ancient sistrum at his head :

Speak'st thou of Syrian princes? Traitor base!
340 Mine, goddess! mine is all the horned race.
True, he had wit, to make their value rise:
From foolish Greeks to steal them, was as wise:

Ver. 326. Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber.] Three very eminent persons, all managers of plays: who, though not governors by profession, had, each in his way, concerned themselves in the education of youth; and regulated their wits, their morals, or their finances, at that period of their age which is the most important, their entrance into the polite world. Of the last of these, and his talents for this end, see Book i. ver. 199, &c.

Ver. 331. Her too receive, &c.] This confirms what the learned Scriblerus advanced in his note on ver. 272, that the governor, as well as the pupil, had a particular interest in this lady.

Ver. 341. Thee too, my Paridel !] The poet seems to speak of this young gentleman with great affection. The name is taken from Spenser, who gives it to a wandering courtly 'squire, that travelled about for the same reason for which many young 'squires are now fond of travelling, and especially to Paris.

Ver. 347. Annius,] The name taken from Annius the monk of Viterbo, famous for many impositions and forgeries of ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, which he was prompted to by mere vanity, but our Annius had a more substantial motive.

More glorious yet, from barbarous hands to keep,
When Sallee rovers chased him on the deep.
Then taught by Hermes, and divinely bold,
Down his own throat he risqued the Grecian gold.
Received each demi-god, with pious care,
Deep in his entrails-I revered them there;
I bought them, shrouded in that living shrine,
And, at their second birth, they issue mine.'
'Witness great Ammon! by whose horns I swore,'
Replied soft Annius, this our paunch before
Still bears then faithful; and that thus I eat,
Is to refund the medals with the meat.
To prove me, goddess! clear of all design,
Bid me with Pollio sup, as well as dine:
There all the learn'd shall at the labour stand,
And Douglas lend his soft, obstetric hand.'

The goddess, smiling seem'd to give consent;
So back to Pollio, hand in hand, they went.

380

Then thick as locusts blackening all the ground,
A tribe with weeds and shells fantastic crown'd,
Each with some wondrous gift approach'd the power,
A nest, a toad, a fungus, or a flower.

But far the foremost, two, with earnest zeal,
And aspect ardent, to the throne appeal.

400

The head that turns at superlunar things,
Poised with a tail, may steer on Wilkins' wings.
'O! would the sons of men once think their eyes
And reason given them but to study flies!
See nature in some partial narrow shape,
And let the author of the whole escape;
Learn but to trifle; or, who most observe,
To wonder at their Maker, not to serve.'

'Be that my task,' replies a gloomy clerk,
Sworn foe to mystery, yet divinely dark;
Whose pious hope aspires to see the day
39C When moral evidence shall quite decay,
And damns implicit faith, and holy lies,
Prompt to impose, and fond to dogmatize :
'Let others creep by timid steps and slow,
On plain experience lay foundations low,
By common sense to common knowledge bred,
And last, to nature's Cause through nature led.
All-seeing in thy mists, we want no guide,
Mother of arrogance, and source of pride!
We nobly take the high priori road,
And reason downward till we doubt of God;
Make nature still encroach upon his plan,
And shove him off as far as e'er we can:
Thrust some mechanic cause into his place,
Or bind in matter, or diffuse in space.
Or, at one bound, o'erleaping all his laws,
Make God man's image, man the final cause,
Find virtue local, all relation scorn,
See all in self, and but for self be born:
Of nought so certain as our reason still,
Of nought so doubtful as of soul and will.
Oh hide the God still more! and make us see
Such as Lucretius drew, a god like thee:
Wrapp'd up in self, a god without a thought,
Regardless of our merit or default.

410

The first thus open'd: 'Hear thy suppliant's call,
Great queen, and common mother of us all!
Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this flower,
Suckled, and cheer'd, with air, and sun, and shower:
Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I spread,
Bright with the gilded button tipp'd his head.
-Then throned in glass and named it Caroline:
Each maid cried, Charming! and each youth, Divine !
Did nature's pencil ever blend such rays,
Such varied light in one promiscuous blaze?
Now prostrate! dead! behold that Caroline:
No maid cries Charming! and no youth, Divine!
And lo the wretch! whose vile, whose insect lust
Laid this gay daughter of the spring in dust
Oh punish him, or to the Elysian shades
Dismiss my soul, where no carnation fades!'
He ceased, and wept. With innocence of mien,

Or that bright image to our fancy draw,
Which Theocles in raptured visions saw,
Wild through poetic scenes the genius roves,
Or wanders wild in academic groves;
That nature our society adores,

The accused stood forth,and thus address'd the queen: 420 Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus snores.

'Of all the enamell'd race, whose silvery wing
Waves to the tepid zephyrs of the spring,
Or swims along the fluid atmosphere,

Once brightest shined this child of heat and air.
I saw, and started from its vernal bower
The rising game, and chased from flower to flower.
It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain;
It stopp'd, I stopp'd; it moved, I moved again.
At last it fix'd, 'twas on what plant it pleased,
And where it fix'd, the beauteous bird I seized;
Rose or carnation was below my care;
I meddle, goddess! only in my sphere.
I tell the naked fact without disguise,

And to excuse it, need but shew the prize;
Whose spoils this paper offers to your eye,
Fair e'en in death! this peerless butterfly.'

REMARKS.

460

480

490

Ver. 452. Wilkins' wings.] One of the first projectors of the Royal Society, who, among many enlarged and useful notions, entertained the extravagant hope of a possibility to fly to the moon; which has put some volatile geniuses upon making wings for that purpose.

Ver. 462. When moral evidence shall quite decay,] 430 Alluding to a ridiculous and absurd way of some mathematicians, in calculating the gradual decay of moral evidence by mathematical proportions: according to which calculation, in about fifty years it will be no longer probable that Julius Cæsar was in Gaul, or died in the senate-house. See Craig's Theologiæ Christianæ Principia Mathematica. But, as it seems evident, that

My sons!" she answer'd, both have done your parts: facts of a thousand years old, for instance, are now

Live happy both, and long promote our arts.
But hear a mother, when she recommends
To your fraternal care our sleeping friends.
The common soul, of Heaven's more frugal make,
Serves but to keep fools pert and knaves awake;
A drowsy watchman, that just gives a knock,
And breaks our rest to tell us what's a clock.
Yet by some object every brain is stirr'd;
The dull may waken to a humming-bird;
The most recluse, discreetly open'd, find
Congenial matter in the cockle kind;
The mind in metaphysics at a loss,
May wander in a wilderness of moss;

REMARKS.

as probable as they were five hundred years ago; it is plain, that if in fifty more they quite disappear, it must 440 be owing, not to their arguments, but to the extraor dinary power of our goddess; for whose help, therefore, they have reason to pray.

Ver. 492. Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus snores.] It cannot be denied but that this fine stroke of satire against atheism was well intended. But how must the reader smile at our author's officious zeal, when he is told, that at the time this was written, you might as soon have found a wolf in England as an atheist? The truth is, the whole species was exterminated. There is a 450 trifling difference, indeed, concerning the author of the achievement. Some, as Dr. Ashenhurst, gave it to Bentley's Boylean Lectures. And he so well convinced that great man of the truth, that wherever afterwards he found atheist, he always read it A theist. But, in spite of a claim so well made out, others gave the honour of this exploit to a later Boylean lecturer. A judicious apologist for Dr. Clarke against Mr. Whiston, says, with no less elegance than positiveness of expression,It is a most certain truth, that the Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, has extirpated and banished atheism out of the Christian world, p. 18. It is much to be lamented, that the clearest truths have still their dark side. Here we see it becomes a doubt which of the two Hercules' was the monster-queller. But what of that? Since the thing is done, and the proof of it so certain, there is no occasion for so nice a canvassing of circumstances. Scribl.

Ver. 387. Witness great Ammon!] Jupiter Ammon is called to witness, as the father of Alexander, to whom those kings succeeded in the division of the Macedonian empire, and whose horns they wore on their medals.

Ver. 394. Douglas] A physician of great learning and no less taste; above all, curious in what related to Horace, of whom he collected every edition, translation, and comment, to the number of several hundred volumes. Ver. 409. and named it Caroline :] It is a compliment which the florists usually pay to princes and great persons, to give their names to the most curious flowers of their raising some have been very jealous of vindicating this honour, but none more than that ambitious gardener, at Hammersmith, who caused his favourite to be painted on his sign, with this inscription: This is my Queen Caroline

:

Ver. 492. Silenus.] Silenus was an Epicurean philosopher, as appears from Virgil, Eclog. vi. where he sings the principles of that philosophy in his drink.