I saw, and started from its vernal bow'r

425

The rising game, and chas'd from flow'r to flow'r.

It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain;

It stopt, I stopt; it mov'd, I mov'd again.
At last it fix'd, 'twas on what plant it pleas'd,
And where it fix'd, the beauteous bird I seiz'd:
Rose, or carnation, was below my care;
I meddle, Goddess! only in my sphere.
I tell the naked fact without disguise,
And, to excuse it, need but shew the prize;
Whose spoils this paper offers to your eye,
Fair ev'n in death! this peerless butterfly.

430

435

My sons! (she answer'd) both have done your
parts:

Live happy both, and long promote our arts.
But here a mother when she recommends
To your fraternal care our sleeping friends;
The common soul, of Heav'n's more frugal make,
Serves but to keep fools pert, and knaves awake:
A drowzy watchman, that just gives a knock,
And breaks our rest, to tell us what's a-clock.

VARIATIONS.

440

v. 441. The common soul, &c.] In the first edit. thus: Of souls the greater part, Heaven' common make, Serve but to keep fool's pert, and knaves awake; And mos but find that centinel of God,

A drowzy watchman in the land of Ncd.

IMITATIONS.

0.427, 428. It fled, I followed, &c.]

"I started back;

"It started back; but pleas'd I soon return'd;
"Pleas'd it return'd as soon.'

Yet by some object ev'ry brain is stirr'd,
The dull may waken to a humming-bird;
The most recluse, discreetly open'd, find
Congenial matter in the cockle-kind;
The mind, in metaphysics at a loss,
May wander in a wilderness of moss;
The head that turns at superlunar things,

445

450

Poiz'd with a tail, may steer on Wilkins' wings.

O! would the sons of men once think their eyes

And reason giv'n them but to study flies!
See nature in some partial narrow shape,

455

And let the author of the whole escape:

Learn but to trifle; or, who most observe,
To wonder at their Maker, not to serve.

Be that my task (replies a gloomy clerk,
Sworn foe to myst'ry, yet divinely dark;
Whose pious hope aspires to see the day
When moral evidence shall quite decay,
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.

REMARKS.

460

465

v. 452.---Wilkins' wings.] One of the first projectors of the Royal Society, who, among many enlarged and useful notions, entertained the extravagant hope of a possibility to fly to the moon; which has put some volatile geniuses upon making wings for that purpose.

All-seeing in thy mists, we want no guide,
Mother of arrogance, and source of pride!
We nobly take the high Priory road,

470

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,

475

Or bind in matter, or diffuse 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 so certain as our Reason still,

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:

Wrapt up in self, a god without a thought,
Regardless of our merit, or default.

Or that bright image to our fancy draw,

485

Which Theocles in raptur'd vision saw,

While through poetic scenes the Genius roves,
Or wanders wild in academic groves;

That Nature our society adores,

Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus snores.

490

Rous'd at his name, up-rose the bowzy sire, And shook from out his pipe the seeds of fire;

REMARKS.

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

Then snapt his box, and stroak'd his belly down;
Rosy, and rev'rend, though without a gown.
Bland and familiar to the throne he came,

496

Led up the youth, and call'd the Goddess Dame.
Then thus: From priestcraft happily set free,
Lo! ev'ry finish'd son returns to thee:

500

First slave to words, then vassal to a name,

Then dupe to party; child and man the same;
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 smil'd 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** nipt 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.

505

510

515

REMARKS.

v. 517. ---bis cup---Which whoso tastes, &c.] The cup of Self-love, which causes a total oblivion of the obliga

IMITATIONS.

v. 518. Which whoso tastes, forge's bis former friends,
---Sire, &c. Homer of the Nepenthe, Odyss. IV.
Α τικ αρ εἰ, οἱ ον Βαλε φάρμακον, ένθεν ἐπιν ν
Νηπενθές τ ̓ ἀχογόν τε κακαν έπιληθον ἀπάντα ο

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, 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;
But, sad example! never to escape.
Their infamy, still keep the human shape.

520

525

But she, good Goddess, sent to every child

Firm Impudence, or Stupefaction mild;

530

And straight succeeded, leaving Shame no room,
Cibberian forehead, or Cimmerian gloom.

Kind self-conceit to some her glass applies,

Which no one looks in with another's eyes:
But as the flatt'rer, or dependant, paint,
Beholds himself a patriot, chief, or saint.

On others' int'rest, her gay liv'ry flings,
Int'rest, that waves on party-colour'd wings:
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.

REMARKS.

535

540

tions of friendship or honour; and of the service of God or our country: all sacrificed to vain-glory, court-worship, or the yet meaner considerations of lucre and brutal pleasures. From ver. 520, to 528.