Toland and Tindal, prompt at priests to jeer.

Yet filent bow'd to "Chrift's No kingdom here." 400 Who fate the nearest, by the words o'ercome,

Slept first, the distant nodded to the hum.

Then down are roll'd the books; stretch'd o'er them lies Each gentle clerk, and muttering seals his eyes,

VARIATION.

Ver. 399. in the firft Edit. it was,

Collins and Tindal, prompt at Priests to jeer.

REMARKS.

As

Ver. 397. Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak,] Famous for his fpeeches on many occafions about the South Sea scheme, &c. "He is a very ingenious gentleman, and hath written fome excellent Epilogues to plays, "and one fmall piece on Love, which is very pretty." Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 289. But this gentleman fince made himself much more eminent, and perfonally well known to the greatest Statesmen of all parties, as well as to all the Courts of Law in this nation.

Ver. 399. Toland and Tindal,] Two perfons not fo happy as to be obscure, who writ against the Religion of their Country. Toland, the author of the Atheist's liturgy, called Pantheisticon, was a spy, in pay to Lord Oxford. Tindal was author of the Rights of the Chriftian Church, and Christianity as old as the Creation. He also wrote an abufive pamphlet against Earl S-, which was fuppreffed while yet in MS. by an eminent perfon, then out of the miniftry, to whom he fhewed it, expecting his approbation: This Doctor afterwards published the fame piece, mutatis mutandis, against that very perfon.

Ver. 400. Chrift's No kingdom, &c.] This is faid by Curll, Key to Dunc. to allude to a fermon of a reverend Bishop.

As what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes,
One circle first, and then a fecond makes ;
What Dulness dropt among her fons imprest
Like motion from one circle to the rest:

So from the mid-most the nutation spreads

405

Round and more round, o'er all the sea of heads. 410
At laft Centlivre felt her voice to fail,
Motteux himself unfinish'd left his tale,

Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave o'er,
Morgan and Mandevil could prate no more;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 412. In firft Ed. Old James himself.
Ver. 413. In the first Edit. it was,

Norton

T-s and T- the Church and State gave o'er,
Nor *** talk'd nor S- whisper'd more.

In the fecond,

Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave o'er,
Nor Motteux talk'd, nor Nafo whisper'd more.

REMARKS.

Ver. 411. Centlivre] Mrs. Sufanna Centlivre, wife to Mr. Centlivre, Yeoman of the Mouth to his Majesty. She writ many Plays, and a Song (fays Mr. Jacob, vol. i. p. 32.) before she was seven years old. She alfo writ a Ballad against Mr. Pope's Homer, before he began it.

Ver. 413. Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave o'er,] A. Boyer, a voluminous compiler of Annals, Political Collections, &c.-William Law, A. M. wrote with great zeal against the Stage; Mr. Dennis anfwered with as great: Their books were printed in 1726. The fame Mr. Law is author of a book, intitled, An Appeal to all that doubt of or difbelieve the truth of the Gofpel; in which he has detailed a Syftem

of

Norton, from Daniel and Oftroa fprung,

415

Blefs'd with his father's front, and mother's tongue,
Hung filent down his never-blushing head;

And all was hush'd, as Folly's felf lay dead.
Thus the foft gifts of Sleep conclude the day,
And stretch'd on bulks, as ufual, Poets lay.
Why fhould I fing, what Bards the nightly Muse
Did flumbering visit, and convey to stews;

429

Who

REMARKS.

of the rankeft Spinozifm, for the moft exalted Theology; and amongst other things as rare, has informed us of this, that Sir Isaac Newton ftole the principles of his philofophy from one Jacob Behmen, a German Cobler.

Ver. 414. Morgan] A writer against Religion, diftinguished no otherwife from the rabble of his tribe, than by the pompoufnefs of his title; for having ftolen his morality from Tindal, and his Philosophy from Spinofa, he calls himself, by the courtesy of England, a Moral Philofopher.

Ibid. Mandevil] This writer, who prided himself in the reputation of an Immoral Philofopher, was author of a famous book called the Fable of the Bees; written to prove, that Moral Virtue is the Invention of knaves, and Christian Virtue the Imposition of fools; and that Vice is necessary, and alone fufficient to render Society flourishing and happy.

Ver. 415. Norton] Norton De Foe, offspring of the famous Daniel, Fortes creantur fortibus. One of the authors of the Flying Poft, in which well-bred work Mr. P. had fometime the honour to be abused with his betters; and of many hired fcurrilities and daily papers, to which he never fet his name.

Who prouder march'd with magistrates in state,
To fome fam'd round-house, ever-open gate!
How Henley lay inspir'd beside a sink,

And to mere mortals feem'd a Priest in drink :
While others, timely, to the neighbouring Fleet
(Haunt of the Muses) made their safe retreat.

VARIATION.

Ver. 425. In firft Ed. How Laurus lay, &c.

REMARKS:

425

Ver. 427. Fleet] A prifon for infolvent Debtors on the bank of the Ditch.

THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK.

THE

DUNCIA D.

BOOK THE THIRD.

ARGUMENT.

AFTER the other perfons are difpofed in their proper places of reft, the Goddess transports the King to her Temple, and there lays him to flumber with his head on her lap; a pofition of marvellous virtue, which caufeth all the Visions of wild enthufiafts, projectors, politicians, inamoratos, caftle-builders, chemifts, and poets. He is immediately carried on the wings of Fancy, and led by a mad Poetical Sibyl, to the Elyfian fhade; where, on the banks of Lethe, the fouls of the dull are dipped by Bavius, before their entrance into this world. There he is met by the ghoft of Settle, and by him made acquainted with the wonders of the place, and with those which he himfelf is destined to perform. He takes him to a Mount of Vision, from whence he fhews him the past triumphs of the Empire of Dulness, then the prefent, and lastly the future: how small a part of the world was ever conquered by Science, how foon those conquests were stopped, and those very nations again

reduced