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. 240 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 Nos. 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 ev'ry science, run through every school? Never by tumbler through the hoops was shown Such skill in passing áll; and touching none, He may indeed (if sober all this time) 250 Plague with dispute, or persecute with rhyme. 260 Or wed to what he must divorce, a Muse: Or set on metaphysic ground to prance, And hew the block off, and get out the man. 270 REMARKS. Ver. 245, 246. Barrow, Atterbury] Isaac Barrow, master of Trinity, Francis Atterbury, dean of Christ-church, 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. Ver. 272. lac'd governor] Why lac'd? Because gold 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. Walker! our hat"-nor more he deign'd to say, But, stern as Ajax' spectre, strode away. 280 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 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 th' attendant orator begun, Receive, great empress, thy accomplish'd son: Thine from the birth, and sacred from the rod, A dauntless infant! never scar'd with God. The sire saw, one by one, his virtues wake: The mother begg'd the blessing of a rake. Thou gav'st that ripeness, which so soon began, And ceas'd so soon, he ne'er was boy, nor man. Through school and college, thy kind cloud o'er cast, Safe and unseen the young Æneas past: Thence bursting glorious, all at once let down, Stunn'd with his giddy larum half the town. REMARKS. 290 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. th' 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 scar'd 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 conse quences of this reformed discipline, 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 vulgarity 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 whor'd, which seems to insinuate that her prayer was Ibid. Whore, pupil, and lac'd governor] Some critics have objected to the order here, being of opinion that the governor should have the pre-heard. cedence 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 them 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. Here the good seholiast, as, indeed, every where else, lays open the very sou! of modern criticism, while he makes his own ignorance of a poetical expression hold open the door to much erudition and learned conjecture: the blessing of a rake signifying no more than that he might be a rake; the effects of a thing for the thing itself, a common figure. The careful mother only wished her son might be a rake, as well knowing that its attendant blessings would follow of course. To happy convents, bosom'd deep in vines, 321 Ver. 507. But chief, &c.] These two lines, in their force of imagery and colouring, emulate and equal the pencil of Rubens. Ver. 308. And Cupids ride the lion of the deeps;] The winged lion, the arms of Venice. This republic heretofore the most considerable in Europe, for her naval force and the extent of her commerce; now illustrious for her carnivals. Ver. 318. greatly-daring din'd;] It being indeed no small risque to eat through those extraordinary compositions, whose disguised ingredients are generally unknown to the guests, and highly inflammatory and unwholesome. Ver. 324. With nothing but a solo in his head;] With nothing but a solo? Why, if it be a solo, how should there be any thing else? Palpable tautology! Read boldly an opera, which is enough of conscience for such a head as has lost all its Latin.-Bentl. 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. Her too receive (for her my soul adores), Pleas'd, she accepts the hero and the dame, Of ever-listless loiterers, that attend No cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend, 340 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, 350 360 Soft, as the wily fox is seen to creep, REMARKS. 370 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 tra velled about for the same reason for which many young squires are now fond of travelling, and especially to Paris. Ver. 347. Amius,] 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. Mummius o'erheard him; Mummius, fool-re- | I bought them, shrouded in that living shrine, nown'd, Who like his Cheops stinks above the ground, "Speak'st thou of Syrian princes? Traitor Mine, goddess! mine is all the horned race. REMARKS. Ver. 371. Mummius] This name is not merely an allusion to the Mummius he was so fond of, but probably referred to the Roman general of that name, who burned Corinth, and commited the curious statues to the captain of a ship, assuring him," that if any were lost or broken, he should procure others to be made in their stead;" by which it should seem (whatever may be pretended) that Mummius was no vir tuoso. Ibid.--Fool-renown'd] A compound epithet in the Greek manner, renown'd by fools, or renowned for making fools. Ver. 372. Cheops] A king of Egypt whose body was certainly to be known, as being buried alone in his pyramid, and is therefore more genuine than any of the Cleopatras. This royal mummy, being stolen by a wild Arab, was pur chased by the consul of Alexandria, and transmitted to the museum of Mummius; for proof of which he brings a passage in Sandys's Travels, where that accurate and learned voyager assures us that he saw the sepulchre empty, which agrees exactly (salth he) with the time of the theft above mentioned. But he omits to observe that Herodotus tells the same thing of it in his time. And, at their second birth, they issue mine." The goddess smiling seem'd to give consent; 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, 400 A nest, a toad, a fungus, or a flower. divine! 410 Did Nature's pencil ever blend such rays, "Of all th' enamel'd race, whose silvery wing REMARKS. Ver. 387. Witness great Ammon !] Jupiter Ammon is called to witness, as the father of Alexander, to whoin 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 num Ver. 375. Speak'st thou of Syrian princes? &c.] The strange story following, which may be taken for a fiction of the poet, is justified by a true relation in Spon's Vovages. Vaillant (who wrote the history of the Syrian kings as it is to be found on nedals) coming from the Levant, where he had been collecting various coins, and being pursued by a corsair of Sallee, swallowed down twenty gold medals. A sudden bourasque freed him from the rover, and he got to land with them in his belly. On his road to Avignon he met two physicians. of whom he demanded assistance. One advised purgations, the other vomits. In this uncertainty he took neither, but pursued his way to Lyons, where he found his ancient friend the famous physician and antiquary Dufour to Ver. 409. and nam'd it Caroline:] It is a comwhom he related his adventure. Dufour, with- pliment which the florists usually pay to princes out staying to inquire about the uneasy symptoms and great persons, to give their names to the most of the burthen he carried, first asked him, Whecurious flowers of their raising: some have bcen ther the medals were of the higher empire? He very jealous of vindicating this honour, but none assured him they were. Dufour was ravished with more than that ambitious gardener, at Hammerthe hope of p. ssessing so rare a treasure; he bar-smith, who caused his favourite to be painted on gained with him on the spot for the most curious of them, and was to recover them at his own expense. ber of several hundred volumes. his sign, with this inscription, This is my Queen Caroline. At last it fixt, 'twas on what plant it pleas'd, 440 Live happy both, and long promote our arts. "Be that my task" (replies a gloomy clerk, VARIATION. 470 "Let others creep by timid steps and slow, 450 Or that bright image to our fancy draw, 460 480 490 Rous'd at his name, up rose the bowzy sire, REMARKS. Ver. 492. Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus Ver, 441. The common soul, &c.] in the first snores.] It cannot be denied but that this fine edit. thus: Of souls the greater part, Heaven's common Serve but to keep fools pert, and knaves awake; REMARKS. 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,] 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 Caesar was in Gaul, or died in the senate house. See Craig's Theologiæ Christiane Principia Mathematica. But as it seems evident, that facts of a thousand years old, for instance, are now as probable as they were five hundred years ago; it is plain, that if in fifty more they quite disappear, it must be owing, not to their arguments, but to the extraordinary power of our goddess; for whose help therefore they have reason to pray. 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 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 latter 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 Herculeses was the monsterqueller. But hat 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. Ibid. Silenus] Silenus was an Epicurean piloso pher, as appears from Virgil, Eclog. vi. where he sings the principles of that philosophy in his drink. 510 First slave to words, then vassal to a name, REMARKS. 520 But, sad example! never to escape Kind Self-conceit to some her glass applies, On others Interest her gay livery flings, Interest, that waves on party-colour'd wings : Turn'd to the Sun, she casts a thousand dyes, And, as she turns, the colours fall or rise. 530 540 Others the syren sisters warble round, On some, a priest succinct in amice white REMARKS. 550 tient lieu de ce qu'on appelloit autrefois grandeur d'ame et fidelité."-Boulainvilliers Hist. des Anciens Parlements de France, &c. Ver. 501. First slave to words, &c.] A recapitulation of the whole course of modern educ1tion described in this book, which confines youth motif des prémiers heros, n'est plus regardé que to the study of words only in schools; subjects comme une chimêre; l'idée du service du roi, them to the authority of systems in the univer-etendue jusqu'a l'oubli de tout autre principe, sities; and deludes them with the names of party distinctions in the world. All equally concurring to narrow the understanding, and establish slavery and errour in literature, philosophy, and politics. The whole finished in modern free. thinking the completion of whatever is vain, wrong, and destructive to the happiness of mankind; as it establishes self-love for the sole principle of action. : Ver. 506. Smild on by a queen!] i. e. This queen or goddess of Dulness Ver. 517. With that a wizard old, &c.]. Here beginneth the celebration of the greater mysteries of the goddess, which the poet, in his invocation, ver. 5. promised to sing. Ver. 518. forgets his former friends,] Surely there little needed the force of charms or magic to set aside an useless friendship. For of all the accommodations of fashionable life, as there are none more reputable, so there are none of so little charge as friendship. It fills up the void of life with a name of dignity and respect; and at the same time is ready to give place to every passion that offers to dispute possession with it.-Scribl. Ver. 523, 524. Lost is his God, his countryAnd nothing left but homage to a king!] So Strange as this must seein to a mere English reader, the famous Mons. de la Bruyere declares it to be the character of every good subject in a monarchy: Where," says he, "there is no such thing as love of our country, the interest, the glory, and service of the prince, supply its place."De la Republique, chap. x. Ver. 528. still keep the human shape.] The effects of the Magus's cup, by which is allegorized a total corruption of heart, are just contrary to that of Circe, which only represents the sudden plunging into pleasures. Her's, therefore, took away the shape, and left the human mind; his takes away the mind, and leaves the human shape. Ver. 529. But she, good goddess, &c.] The only comfort people can receive, must be owing in some shape or other to Dulness; which makes some stupid, others impudent, gives self-conceit to some, upon the flatteries of their dependants, presents the false colours of interest to others, and busies or amuses the rest with idle pleasures or sensuality, till they become easy under any infamy. Each of which species is here shadowed under allegorical persons. Ver. 532. Cibberian forehead, or Cimmerian gloom.] i. e. She communicates to them of her own virtue, or of her royal colleagues. The Cibberian forehead being to fit them for self-conceit, self-interest, &c. and the Cinunerian gloom, for the pleasures of opera, and the table.--Scribl. Ver. 553. The board with specious miracles he loads, &c.] Scriblerus seems at a loss in this place. Speciosa miracula (says he) according to Horace, were the monst ous fables of the Cyclops, Læ trygons, Scylla, &. What relation have these to the transformation of hares into Of this duty another celebrated French author|arks, or of pigeons into toads? I shall tell thee. speaks indeed a little more disrespectfully; which for that reason, we shall not translate, but give in his own words," L'Amour de la Patrie, le grand The Lestrygous spitted men upon spears, as we do larks upon skewers; and the fair pigeon turned to a toad, is similar to the fair virgin Scylla |