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,1
And reason downward, till we doubt of God;
Make nature still2 encroach upon His plan;
And shove Him off as far as e'er we can:
Thrust some mechanic cause into His place;3
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,
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:
Wrapped 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 vision saw,
While through poetic scenes the Genius roves,

inary power of our goddess; for whose help therefore they have reason to pray.-Warburton. Pope.

1 Those who, from the effects in this visible world, deduce the Eternal Power and Godhead of the first cause, though they cannot attain to an adequate idea of the Deity yet discover so much of Him, as enables them to see the end of their creation, and the means of their happiness: whereas they who take this high Priori Road (such as Hobbes, Spinoza, Des Cartes, and some better reasoners) for one that goes right, ten lose themselves in mists, or ramble after visions, which deprive them of all sight of their end, and mislead them in the choice of wrong means.- Warburton. Pope.

2 This relates to such as being ashamed to assert a mere mechanic cause, and yet unwilling to forsake it entirely, have had recourse to a certain plastic nature, elastic fluid, subtle matter, &c.-Warburton. Pope.

3 The first of these follies is that of Des Cartes; the second of Hob. bes; the third of some succeeding philosophers.-Pope.

4 Lucretius was a great Roman poet. His poem "On the Nature of Things" is, however, founded on the doctrines of Epicurus.

5 Bright image was the title given by the later Platonists to that vision of nature which they had formed out of their own fancy, so bright, that they called it AÜTоTтоν “Aуaλua, or the self-seen image, i. e., seen by its own light.-Scribl. Pope.

Lord Shaftesbury, who was a Deist.

Or wanders wild in academic groves;
That Nature our society adores,

Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus1 snores.

Roused at his name, up rose the bousy sire, And shook from out his pipe the seeds of fire;? Then snapped his box, and stroked his belly down; Rosy and rev'rend, though without a gown. Bland and familiar to the throne he came, Led up the youth, and called the Goddess dame Then thus: "From priest-craft happily set free, Lo! ev'ry finished son returns to thee: First slave to words, then vassal to a name, Then dupe to party; child and man the same; Bounded by nature, narrowed 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 ?3 Marked out for honours, honoured 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** sneaked into the grave, A monarch's half, and half a harlot's slave. Poor W*** nipped in folly's broadest bloom, Who praises now? this 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, ev'rything; And nothing left but homage to a king!

5

1 Silenus was an Epicurean philosopher, as appears from Virgil, eclog. vi., where he sings the principles of that philosophy in his drink.-Warburton. By Silenus he means Thos. Gordon, a violent Whig, the transalator of Tacitus, who published the "Independent Whig," and obtained a place under government.-Warton.

2 The Epicurean language, Semina rerum, or atoms, Virg., eclog. vi. "Semina iguis-semina flammæ." P.

3 I. e., This Queen or Goddess of Dulness.-Pope.

4 Philip, Duke of Wharton, celebrated for his profligacy and eccentricity. He died in exile, 1731.-Bowles.

5 The effect of the Magus cup was the reverse of that of Circe. • Endymion loved the moon,

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.
But she, good Goddess, sent to ev'ry child
Firm impudence, or stupefaction mild;
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-coloured wings:
Turned to the sun, she casts a thousand dyes,
And, as she turns, the colours fall or rise.

Others the siren 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**,

Why all your toils? your sons have learned 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 verdeur1 of the vine.
What cannot copious sacrifice atone?
Thy truffles, Perigord! thy hams, Bayonne!
With French libation, and Italian strain,
Wash Bladen white, and expiate Hays's stain."
Knight lifts the head, for what are crowds undone,

1 French terms relating to wines.

2 Bladen-Hays. Names of gamesters. Robert Knight, cashier of the South-sea Company, who fled from England in 1720, (afterwards pardoned in 1742). These lived with the utmost magnificence at Paris, and kept open tables frequented by persons of the first quality in England, and even by princes of the blood of France.-Pope. Colonel Martin Bladen was a man of some literature, and translated Cæsar's "Commentaries." I never could learn that he had offended Pope. He was uncle to Wm. Collins, the poet, whom he left an estate.- Warton.

To three essential partridges in one?
Gone every blush, and silent all reproach,
Contending princes mount them in their coach.
Next, bidding all draw near on bended knees,
The queen confers her titles and degrees.
Her children first of more distinguished sort,
Who study Shakespeare at the Inns of Court,'
Impale a glow-worm, or vertú profess,
Shine in the dignity of F.R.S.

Some, deep Free Masons, join the silent race
Worthy to fill Pythagoras's place:
Some botanists, or florists at the least,
Or issue members of an annual feast.
Nor past the meanest unregarded, one
Rose a Gregorian, one a Gormogon.
The last, not least in honour or applause,
Isis and Cam made doctors of her laws.

2

Then, blessing all, "Go, children of my care!
To practice now from theory repair.
All my commands are easy, short, and full:
My sons! be proud, be selfish, and be dull.
Guard my prerogative, assert my throne:
This nod confirms each privilege your own.3
The and switch be sacred to his grace;
cap

With staff and pumps the marquis lead the race;
From stage to stage the licensed earl may run,
Paired with his fellow-charioteer the sun;
The learned baron butterflies design,

Or draw to silk Arachne's subtle line;*

1 Mr. Thomas Edwards. He wrote "The Canons of Criticism," which Dr. Johnson commended; but held him to be inferior to Warburton as a critic.

2 A sort of lay brothers, slips from the roots of the Free Masons.Pope.

3 This speech of Dulness to her sons at parting may possibly fall short of the reader's expectation; who may imagine the godness might give them a charge of more consequence, and, from such a theory as is before delivered, incite them to the practice of something more extraordinary, than to personate running-footmen, jockeys, stage coachmen, &c. But if it be well considered, that whatever inclination they might have to do mischief. her sons 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 persuaded, will be justified, and it will be allowed that these worthy persons, in their several ranks, do as much as can be expected from them.-Pope.

4 This is one of the most ingenious employments assigned, and therefore recommended only to peers of learning. Of weaving stockings of the webs of spiders, see the "Philosophical Transactions,"-Warbur ton.-Pope.

The judge to dance his brother sergeant call;1
The senator at cricket urge the ball;
The bishop stow (pontific luxury!)
An hundred souls of turkeys in a pie;
The sturdy squire to Gallic masters stoop,
And drown his lands and manors in a soupe.
Others import yet nobler arts from France,
Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance.
Perhaps more high some daring son may soar,
Proud to my list to add one monarch more!
And nobly conscious, princes are but things
Born for first ministers, as slaves for kings,
Tyrant supreme! shall three estates command,
And make one mighty Dunciad of the land!"

More she had spoke, but yawned-All nature nods: What mortal can resist the yawn of Gods? Churches and chapels instantly it reached; (St. James's first, for leaden G

preached)2

Then catched the schools; the hall scarce kept awake;
The convocation gaped, but could not speak:
Lost was the nation's sense, nor could be found,
While the long solid unison went round:

Wide, and more wide, it spread o'er all the realm;
Even Palinurus nodded at the helm:

The vapour mild o'er each committee crept;
Unfinished treaties in each office slept;
And chiefless armies dozed out the campaign;
And navies yawned for orders on the main.
O muse! relate (for you can tell alone
Wits have short memories, and dunces none),
Relate, who first, who last resigned to rest;
Whose heads she partly, whose completely, blest;
What charms could faction, what ambition lull,
The venal quiet, and entrance the dull; [wrong-
Till drowned was sense, and shame, and right, and
O sing, and hush the nations with thy song!

1 Alluding, perhaps, to that ancient and solemn dance, intituled, “A Call of Sergeants."-Pope.

2 Dr. Gilbert, Archbishop of York, who had attacked Dr. King, of Oxford, whom Pope much respected.-Warton. It is asserted that Dr. Gilbert was really an eloquent and impressive preacher. See Bowles's edition of Pope.

3 Palinurus was the pilot of Eneas, who fell into the sea when sleeping at the helm. Sir Robert Walpole is here meant by Palinu

rus.