* The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, 80 86 90 95 100 And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. IMITATIONS. 106 Ver 85. Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise!] 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 Polio. Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo! -------toto surget gens aurea mundo! incipient magni procedere menses! Aspice, venturo lætentur ut omnia sæcio! &c. The reader needs only to turn to the passages of Isaiah here cited. P. AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM. [Written in the Year 1712.] MADAM, TO MRS. ARABELLA FERMOR. It will be in vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece, since I dedicate it to you. Yet you may bear me witness, it was intended only to divert a few young ladies, who have good sense and good humour enough to laugh not only at their sex's little unguarded follies, but at their own. But as it was communicated with the air of a secret, it soon found its way into the world. An imperfect copy having been offered to a bookseller, you had the good-nature, for my sake, to consent to the publication of one more correct: this I was forced to before I had executed half my design, for the machinery was entirely wanting to complete it. The machinery, Madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that part which the deities, angels, or dæmons, are made to act in a poem: for the ancient poets are in one respect like many modern ladies, let an action be ever so trivial in itself, they always make it appear of the utmost importance. These machines I determined to raise on a very new and odd foundation, the Rosicrusian doctrine of spirits. I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a lady; but it is so much the concern of a poet to have his works understood, and particularly by your sex, that you must give me leave to explain two or three difficult terms. The Rosicrusians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best account I know of them is in a French book called Le Comte de Gabalis, which both in its title and size, is so like a novel, that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these gentlemen, the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call Sylphs, Gnomes, Nymphs, and Salamanders. The gnomes, or dæmons of earth, delight in mischief; but the sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are the best-conditioned creatures imaginable: for they say, any mortal may enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle spirits, upon a condition very easy to all true adepts, an inviolate preservation of chastity. As to the following Cantos, all the passages of them are as fabulous as the vision at the beginning, or the transformation at the end; (except the loss of your hair, which I always mention with reverence.) The human persons are as fictitious as the airy ones; and the character of Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but in beauty. If this poem had as many graces as there are in your person, or in your mind, yet I could never hope it should pass through the world half so uncensured as you have done. But let its fortune be what it will, mine is happy enough, to have given me this occasion of assuring you that I am, with the truest esteem, MADAM, Your most obedient humble servant, A. POPE THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos; Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis. Mart. CANTO I. WHAT dire offence from am'rous causes springs, Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel A well-bred lord t' assault a gentle belle? 5 O say what stranger cause, yet unexplor'd, 10 16 Sol through white curtains shot a tim'rous ray, Her guardian sylph prolong'd the balmy rest: 20 25 30 35 40 With golden crowns and wreaths of heav'nly flow'rs; 45 |