And damns implicit faith, and holy lies,
Prompt to impose, and fond to dogmatize :
'Let others creep by timid steps and slow,
On plain experience lay foundations low,
By common sense to common knowledge bred,
And last, to nature's Cause through nature led.
All-seeing in thy mists, we want no guide,
Mother of arrogance, and source of pride!
We nobly take the high priori road,
And reason downward till we doubt of God;
Make nature still encroach upon his plan,
And shove him off as far as e'er we can:
Thrust some mechanic cause into his place,
Or bind in matter, or diffuse in space.
Or, at one bound, o'erleaping 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 so certain as our reason still,

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480

Of nought so doubtful as of soul and will.

Oh hide the God still more! and make us see
Such as Lucretius drew, a god like thee :
Wrapp'd up in self, a god without a thought,
Regardless of our merit or default.

Or that bright image to our fancy draw,
Which Theocles in raptured visions saw,
Wild through poetic scenes the genius roves,
Or wanders wild in academic groves;

That nature our society adores,

Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus snores

REMARKS

490

as it seems evident, that facts of a thousand years old, for instance, are now as probabie as they were five hundred years ago; it is plain that if in fifty more they quite disappoar, 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.

V 492. Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus snores.] It cannot be denied but that this fine stroke of satire against

Roused at his name up rose the bowzy sire,
And shook from out his pipe the seeds of fire;
Then snapp'd his box, and stroked his belly down,
Rosy and reverend, though without a gown.
Bland and familiar to the throne he came,

Led up the youth, and call'd the goddess dame.
Then thus: From priestcraft happily set free,
Lo! every finish'd son returns to thee:
First, slave to words, then, vassal to a name,
Then, dupe to party; child and man the same;

REMARKS.

500

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 later 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 Hercules' was the monster-queller. But what 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.

Ver. 492. Silenus.] Silenus was an Epicurean philosopher, as appears from Virgil, Eclog. vi. where he sings the principles of that philosophy in his drink.

Ver. 501. First slave to words, &c.] A recapitulation of the whole course of modern education described in this book, which confines youth to the study of words only in schools; subjects them to the authority of systems in the universities; and deludes them with the names of party distinctions in the world; all equally concurring to narrow the understanding, and establish slavery and error 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 esta blishes self-love for the sole principle of action.

Bounded by nature, narrow'd still by art,
A trifling head, and a contracted heart.
Thus bred, thus taught, how many have I seen,
Smiling on all, and smiled on by a queen!
Mark'd out for honours, honour'd for their birth,
To thee the most rebellious things on earth:
Now to thy gentle shadow all are shrunk,
All melted down in pension, or in punk!
So K*, so B**, sneak'd into the grave,
A monarch's half, and half a harlot's slave.
Poor W**, nipp'd in folly's broadest bloom,
Who praises now? his chaplain on his tomb.
Then take them all, oh take them to thy breast,
Thy Magus, goddess! shall perform the rest.'
With that, a wizard old his cup extends;
Which whoso tastes, forgets his former friends.
Sire, ancestors, himself. One casts his eyes
Up to a star, and like Endymion dies:
A feather, shooting from another's head,
Extracts his brain; and principle is fled;
Lost is his God, his country, every thing;
And nothing left but homage to a king!

530

520

REMARKS.

Ver. 506. Smiled 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 a 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 country-and nothing left but homage to a king!] So strange as this must seem 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 lova

The vulgar nerd turn off to roll with hogs,
To run with horses, or to hunt with dogs;
But, sad example! never to escape
Their infamy, still keep the human shape.
But she, good goddess, sent to every child
Firm impudence, or stupefaction mild;
And straight succeeded, leaving shade no room,
Cibberian forehead, or Cimmerian gloom.

Kind self-conceit to some her glass applics,

Which no one looks in with another's eyes;
But, as the flatterer or dependant paint,
Beholds himself a patriot, chief, or saint.
On others, interest her gay livery flings,
Interest, that waves on party-colour'd wings:

530

REMARKS.

of our country, the interest, the glory, and service of the prince, supply its place.' De la Republique, chap. x.

Of this duty another celebrated French author 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 motif des prémiers heros, n'est plus regardé que comme une chimêre; l'idée du service du roi etendue jusqu'à l'oubli de tout autre principe, tient lieu de ce qu'on appelloit autrefois grandeur d'ame et fidélité.'— Boulainvilliers Hist. des Anciens Parlements de France, &c 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 repre sents the sudden plunging into pleasures. Hers, 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 Cimmerian gloom, for the pleasures of opera and the table.

Scribl

Turn'd to the sun, she casts a thousand dyes,
And, as she turns, the colours fall or rise.

Others the syren sisters warble round,
And empty heads console with empty sound.
No more, alas! the voice of fame they hear,
The balm of Dulness trickling in their ear.
Great C**, H**, P**, R**, K*,

540

Why all your toils? your sons have learn'd to sing.
How quick ambition hastes to ridicule !
The sire is made a peer, the son a fool.

On some, a priest succinct in amice white
Attends; all flesh is nothing in his sight!
Beeves, at his touch, at once to jelly turn,
And the huge boar is shrunk into an urn:
The board with specious miracles he loads,
Turns hares to larks, and pigeons into toads.
Another (for in all what one can shine ?)
Explains the seve and verdeur of the vinc.

REMARKS.

550

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 monstrous fables of the Cyclops, Læstrygons, Scylla, &c. What relation have these to the transformation of hares into larks, or of pigeons into toads? I shall tell thee. The Læstrygons 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 ending in a filthy beast. But here is the difficulty, why pigeons in so shocking a shape should be brought to a table. Hares, indeed, might be cut into larks, at a second dressing, out of frugality: yet that seems no probable motive, when we consider the extravagance before mentioned, of dissolving whole oxen and boars into a small vial of jelly; nay, it is expressiy said, that all flesh is nothing in his sight. I have searched in Appicus, Pliny, and the feast of Trimalchio, in vain; I can only resolve it into some mysterious superstitious rite, as it is said to be done by a priest, and soon after called a sacrifice, attended (as all ancient sacrifices were) with libation and song. Scribl.

This good scholiast, not being acquainted with modern xury, was ignorant that these were only the miracles of French cookery, and that particularly pigeons en crapau were a common dish.

Ver. 556. Seve and verdeur] French terms relating to wines, which signify their flavour and poignancy.