579 * Impale a Glow-worm, or Virtú profess, Shine in the dignity of F. R. S. Some, deep Free-masons, join the filent race Worthy to fill Pythagoras's place : Some Botanifts, or Florifts at the leaft, Or iffue Members of an annual feaft, 575 580 All my commands are easy, fhort, and full: Rr Guard "A brain of Feathers, and a heart of Lead." For the fatire extends much farther than to the person who occafioned it, and takes in the whole fpecies of those on whom a good Education (to fit them for fome ufeful and learned profeffion) has been beflowed in vain, That worthlefs Band "Of ever-liftlefs Loit'rers, that attend "No caufe, no truft, no duty, and no Friend." Who, with an understanding too diffipated and futile for the offices of civil life; and a heart tco lumpish, narrow, and contracted for those of facial, become fit for nothing: And fo turn Wits and Critics, where fenfe and civility are neither required nor expected. *The Poet all along expreffes a very particular concern for this filent Race; He has here provided, that in cafe they will not waken or open (as was before proposed) to a Humming-bird or a Cockle, yet at worst they may be made Free-mafons; where Taciturnity is the only effential Qualification, as it was the chief of the difciples of Pythagoras. A fort of Lay-brothers, Slips from the Root of the Free-mafons. We should be unjust to the reign of Dulness, not to confefs that her's has one advantage in it rarely to be met with in Modern Governments, which is, that the public Education of her Youth fits and prepares them for the obfervance of her Laws, and the exertion of thofe Virtues fhe recommends. For what makes men prouder than the empty knowledge of Words; what more Selfish than the Free-thinker's System of Morals; or duller than the profeffion of true Virtuofofhip? Nor are her Inftitutions lefs admirable in themselves, than in the fitness of these their several relations, to promote the harmony of the whole. For the tells her Sons, and with great truth, that all her commands are cafy, short, and full." For is any thing in nature more eafy than the Guard my Prerogative, affert my Throne : Or draw to filk Arachne's fubtile line ‡ ; 585 590 the exertion of Pride; more fort and fimple than the principle of Selfishness; or more full and ample than the sphere of Dulness? Thus, Birth, Education, and wife Policy, all concurring to fupport the throne of our Goddess, great must be the strength thereof. SCRIBL. • This speech of Dulness to her Sons at parting may poffibly fall short of the Reader's expectation; who may imagine the Goddess might give thera Charge of more confequence, and, from such a Theory as is before delivered, incite them to the practice of fomething more extraordinary, than to personate Running Footmen, Jockeys, Stage Coachmen, etc. But if it be well confidered, that whatever inclination they might have to do mifchief, her fons are generally rendered harmless by their Inability; and that it is the common effect of Dulness (even in her greatest efforts) to defeat her own design; the Poet, I am persuad d, will be justified, and it will be allowed that thefe worthy perfons, in their feveral ranks, do as much as can be expected from them. + The Goddess's political balance of favour, in the diftribution of her rewards, deferves our notice. It confifts in joining with thofe Honours claimed by birth and high place, others more adapted to the genius and talents of the Candidates. And thus her great Fore-runner, John of Leiden, King of Munster, entered on his Government, by making his ancient friend and companion, Knipperdolling, General of his Horfe and Hangman. And had but Fortune feconded his great schemes of Reformation, it is faid, he would have established his whole Household on the fame reasonable footing. SCRIBL. This is one of the most ingenious employments affigned, and therefore recommended only to Peers of Learning. Of weaving Stockings of the Webs of Spiders, íee the Phil. Tranf. || Alluding perhaps to that ancient and folemn Dance, intitled, A call of Serjeants. The 595 The sturdy Squire to Gallic mafters stoop, 600 And MAKE ONE MIGHTY DUNCIAD OF THE LAND! More fhe had spoke, but yawn'd-All Nature nods: What Mortal can refift the Yawn of Gods? 606 Churches and Chapels || inftantly it reach'd: (St. James's firft, for leaden G— preach'd) Then catch'd the Schools; the Hall scarce kept awake; The Convocation gap'd, but could not fpeak §: Rr 2 610 Loft * An ancient amufement of Sovereign Princes, (viz.) Achilles, Alexander, Nero; though despised by Themistocles, who was a Republican. Either after their Prince, or to Pontoife, or Siberia. This verfe is truly Homerical; as is the conclusion of the Action, where the great Mother compofes all, in the fame manner as Minerva at the period of the Odyffey. It may indeed feem a very singular Epitafis of a Poem,_to end as this does, with a Great Yawn; but we must confider it as the Yawn of a God, and of powerful effects. It is not out of Nature, most long and grave counfels concluding in this very manner: Nor without Authority, the incomparable Spencer having ended one of the most considerable of his works with Roar; but then it is the Roar of a Lion, the effects whereof are described as the Catastrophe of the Poem. The Progrefs of this Yawn is judicious, natural, and worthy to be noted. First it feizeth the Churches and Chapels; then catcheth the Schools, where, tho' the boys be unwilling to fleep, the Mafters are not: Next Westminster hall, much more hard indeed to fubdue, and not totally put to fi lence even by the Goddess: Then the Convocation, which tho' extremely defirous to speak, yet cannot: Even the Houfe of Commons, juftly called the Senfe of the Nation, is loft (that is to say suspended) during the Yawn (far be it from our Author to fuggeft it could be loft any longer!) but it fpreadeth at large over all the rest of the Kingdom, to fuch a degree, that. Palinurus himself (though as incapable of fleeping as Jupiter) yet noddeth for a moment; the effect of which, though ever fo momentary, could not but cause fome Relaxation, for the time, in all public affairs. SCRIBL § Implying a great defire fo to do, as the learned Scholiaft on the plac rightly Loft was the Nation's Senfe, nor could be found, The Vapour mild o'er each Committee crept; 615 620 Till drown'd was Senfe, and Shame, and Right, and Wrong O fing, and hufh the Nations with thy Song! * * * * * * * * * * 625 and rightly obferves. Therefore, beware Reader, left thou take this Gape for a Yawn, which is attended with no defire but to go to reft: by no means the difpofition of the Convocation; whofe melancholy cafe in short is this: She was, as is reported, infected with the general influence of the Goddefs; while the was yawning carelefly at her cafe, a wanton Courtier took her at advantage, and in the very nick clap`da Gag into her chops. Well therefore may we know her meaning by her gaping; and this distressful posture our poet here defcribes, just as she stands at this day, a fad example of the effects of Dulnefs and Malice uncheck'd, and defpifed. BENTL. *VER. 615, 618.] Thefe Verfes were written many years ago, and may be found in the State Poems of that time. So that Scriblerus is mistaken, or whoever else have imagined this Poem of a fresher date. This feems to be the reason why the Poets, when they give us a Cata, logue, conftantly call for help on-the Mufes, who, as the Daughters of Memory, are obliged not to forget any thing. So Homer, Iliad ii. and Virgil, En vii. But our Poet had yet another reason for putting this Task upon the Muse, that, all befides being asleep, the only could relate what pafled. SCRIBL. It were a Problem worthy the folution of Mr. Ralph and his Patron, who had lights that we know nothing of;- -Which required the greatest effort of our Goddess's power, to intrance the Dull, or to quiet the Venal. For though the Venal may be more unruly than the Dull, yet, on the other hand, it demands a much greater expence of her Virtue to intrance than barely to quiet. SCRIBL In vain, in vain,-the all-compofing Hour Refiftlefs falls: the Mufe obeys the Pow'r. 汁 She comes! fhe comes the fable Throne + behold 630 635 640 Phyfic *Here the Mufe, like Jove's Eagle, after a fudden stoop at ignoble game, foareth again to the skies. As Prophecy hath ever been one of the chief provinces of Poefy, our poet here foretells from what we feel, what we are to fear; and in the ftyle of other prophets, hath ufed the future tense for the preterit: fince what he says shall be, is already to be feen, in the writings of fome even of our most adored authors, in Divinity, Philofophy, Phyfics, Metaphyfics, etc. who are too good indeed to be named in fuch company. ↑ The fable Thrones of Night and Chaos, here represented as advancing to extinguish the light of the Sciences, in the first place blot out the Colours of Fancy and damp the Fire of Wit, before they proceed to their work. Alluding to the faying of Democritus, That Truth lay at the bottom of a deep well, from whence he had drawn her: Though Butler fays, He first put ber in, before be drew her out. Philofophy has at length brought things to that pafs, as to have it efteemed unphilofophical to rest in the firft Caufe; as if its ends were an endlefs indagation of cause after caufe, without ever coming to the first. So that to avoid this unlearned difgrace, fome of the propagators of our best philofophy have had recourse to the contrivance here hinted at. For this Philofophy, which is founded in the principle of Gravitation, first considered that property in matter, as fomething extrinsical to it, and impressed immediately by God upon it. Which fairly and modeftly coming up to the first Cause, was pushing natural enquiries as far as they should go. But this stopping, though |