"To Ifles of fragrance, lilly-filver'd vales, Diffufing languor in the panting gales : "To lands of finging, or of dancing flaves, Love-whisp'ring woods, and lute-refound"ing waves.

"But chief her fhrine where naked Venus "keeps,

"And Cupids ride the Lion of the Deeps; "Where, eas'd of Fleets, the Adriatic main "Wafts the fmooth Eunuch and enamour'd "fwain.

"Led by my hand, he faunter'd Europe round, "And gather'd ev'ry Vice on Chriftian "ground;

"Saw ev'ry Court, heard ev'ry King declare "His royal Senfe, of Op'ra's or the Fair; "The Stews and Palace equally explor'd, "Intrigu'd with glory, and with fpirit "whor'd;

"Try'd all hors-d'œuvres, all liqueurs de"fin'd,

“Judicious drank, and greatly-daring din'd; Dropt the dull lumber of the Latin ftore,

Spoil'd his own language, and acquir'd no 66 more;

"All Claffic learning loft on Claffic ground; "And last turn'd Air, the Echo of a Sound!

See, to my Country happy I reftore

"This glorious Youth, and add one Venus

"more."

Το

To complete the fatire, the goddess is made to receive them gracioufly, and to bestow on them one of her choiceft bleffings.

"Pleas'd, fhe accepts the Hero, and the Dame, "Wraps in her Veil, and frees from Senfe of "Shame."

Senfe, fatire, and poetry were never more happily combined, than in the foregoing defcription.

The goddess is then furrounded by a crowd of Indolents, who are tortured with too much ease, and endure all the pains and penalties of lazinefs.

To relieve these from their fufferings, an Antiquarian steps forth, intreating the goddess to make them Virtuofos.

of

Here our author expofes the impofitions of the Virtuofi, and the credulity of those who are the dupes of their artifices, in feveral exquifite humour, which are too long for abridgement.

pages

The virtuofi being difpofed of, a fantaftic troop next prefent themfelves before the Goddefs, crowned with weeds of fhells, and make offerings of ftrange whimfical prefents, fuch as a fungus, a toad, a neft, or a flower.

Το

To the care of these Naturalifts, the Goddess recommends the lethargic Indolents above-mentioned; adding, that their fleepy brothers may be well employed in the ftudy of Butterflies, Birds-nefts, Shells, Mofs, &c. There is a great deal of pleasant ridicule in this recommendation from the Goddefs.

"The mind, in Metaphyfics at a lofs,

May wander in a wilderness of Mofs; "The head that turns at fuper-lunar things, "Poiz'd with a tail, may fteer on Wilkins** wings."

Dulness, however, cautiously warns her fons ftill to bufy themselves about trifles, and to confine their refearches to fecond caufes. In her exclamatory fpeech to this effect, the poet takes occafion to fatirize fuch trifling investigations of nature, with becoming dignity.

"O! would the fons of Men once think their

"Eyes

"And Reason giv'n them but to study Flies ! "See Nature in fome partial narrow shape, "And let the Author of the Whole escape : "Learn but to trifle; or, who moft obferve, "To wonder at their Maker, not to serve."

* Wilkins was one of the firft projectors of the Royal Society, and entertained an extravagant notion of the poifibility of man's flying.

The

The Goddess has no fooner expreffed this favourite wifh, than fhe is addreffed by a gloomy Sceptic, who undertakes to relieve Dulness from any apprehensions that her fons will ever apply their thoughts to any ufeful or extenfive views of nature. In this addrefs, the poet has admirably exposed the abfurd principles, and deplorable condition, of minute philofophers and freethinkers.

Says the vain-glorious Sceptic

"Let others creep by timid fteps, and flow, "On plain Experience lay foundations low, "By common fenfe to common knowledge “bred,

"And laft, to Nature's Caufe thro' Nature led.

All-feeing in thy mifts, we want no guide, "Mother of Arrogance, and Source of Pride! "We nobly take the high Priori Road, "And reafon downward, till we doubt of God: "Make Nature ftill encroach upon his plan; "And fhove him off as far as e'er we can: "Thrust fome Mechanic Caufe into his place; "Or bind in Matter, or diffufe in Space. "Or, at one bound o'er-leaping 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 fo certain as our Reafon ftill, "Of nought fo doubtful as of Soul and Will."

In these excellent lines, which are animated with the most pointed fatire, the poet has hap pily contrived to inculcate the principles of found philofophy and true piety.

The children of Dulnefs, thus tutored and accomplished, are prefented to her in a body by Silenus the Epicurean philofopher, and are then allowed to taste of the cup, which is handed to them by Magus the minifter to the Goddess, and which is no fooner tafted, than it occafions a total oblivion of all obligations divine, civil, moral, and rational.

The effects of this cup are described in a vein of exquifite raillery.

66

One cafts his eyes

86 Up to a Star, and like Endymion dies:
"A Feather, fhooting from another's head,
"Extracts his brain; and Principle is fled;
"Loft is his God, his Country, ev'ry thing;
"And nothing left but Homage to a King!
“The vulgar herd turn off to roll with Hogs,
"To run with Horses, or to hunt with Dogs.",

These myfteries being over, Dulness, ever attentive to the welfare of her children, affigns each to the guidance of a proper conductor. These attendants are humorously defcribed, under the characters of Impudence, Stupefaction, Self-conceit, Self-intereft, Pleafure, Epicurifm, &c. who apply themfelves to the exercife of their feveral functions.