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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 fon returns to thee :

First slave to words, then vassal to a name,
Then dupe to party; child and man the fame ;
Bounded by Nature, narrow'd still by art,

A trifling head, and a contracted heart.

500

Thus bred, thus taught, how many have I seen, 505
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 penfion or in punk!
So K*, fo 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! 515
Thy Magus, Goddess! shall perform the rest.

510

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;
Loft 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 hories, or to hunt with dogs;

E 3

520

525

But,

REMARKS.

v. 517.---his cup---Which whoso tastes, &c.] The cup of Self-love, which caufes a total oblivion of the obligations of friendship or honour; and of the fervice of God or our country; all facrificed to vain gloty, court worship, or the yet meaner confiderations of lucre and brutal pleafures. From ver. 520 to 528.

IMITATIONS.

v. 518. Which whoso tafles, forgets his former friends,
Αὐτίκ ἂρ εἰς οἶνον βαλε φάρμακον, ἔνθεν ἔπινον
Νηπενθές τ' ἀχολόν τε κακῶν ἐπιληθον ἁμάνιων.

Sire, &c.] Homer of the Nepenthe, Odyss. IV.

But, fad example! never to escape
Their infamy, still keep the human shape.
But the, good Goddess, fent to every child

Firm Impudence, or Stupefaction mild;
And ftraight fucceeded, leaving Shame no room,
Cibberian forehead, or Cimmerian gloom.

Kind Self-conceit to fome her glass applies,
Which no one looks in with another's eyes :
But as the flatt'rer or dependent paint,
Beholds himself a patriot, chief, or faint.
On others' int'rest her gay liv'ry flings,
Int'rest, that waves on party colour'd wings :
Turn'd to the fun, she casts

a

thousand dyes,

And, as she turns, the colours fall or rife.
Others the Syren Sisters warble round,
And empty heads console with empty found.
No more, alas! the voice of Fame they hear,
The balm of Dulness trickling in their ear.

530

535

540

Why all your toils? your fons have learn'd to fing.

Great C**, H**, P**, R**, K*,

How quick Ambition hastes to ridicule!
The fire is made a peer, the son a fool.

545

On fome a priest succinct in amice white
Attends; all flesh is nothing in his fight!
Beeves, at his touch, at once to jelly turn,
And the huge boar is shrunk into an urn:
The board with spacious miracles he loads,
Turns hares to larks, and pigeons into toads.
Another (for in all what one can shine?)
Explains the feve and verdeur of the vine.
What cannot copious facrifice atone?
Thy truffles, Perigord! thy hams, Bayonne !
With French libation, and Italian strain,
Wash Bladen white, and expiate Hay's stain.

550

555

560

Knight

REMARKS.

v. 560. Bladen---Hays. Names of gamesters. Bladen is a black man. Robert Knight, Cashier of the South-fea 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 perfons of the firit quality of England, and even by princes of the blood

of France.

Knight lifts the head; for what are crouds undone,
To three effential partridges in one ?
Gone every blush, and filent all reproach,
Contending princes mount them in their coach.

Next bidding all draw near on bended knces,

The Queen confers her titles and degrees.
Her children first of more diftinguifh'd fort,
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-mafons, join the filent race,

Worthy to fill Pythagoras's place:
Some botanifts, or florists at the leaft,
Or iffue members of an annual feaft.
Nor past the meanest unregarded, one
Rofe a Gregorian, one a Gormogon.
The laft, nor leaft in honour or applaufe,
Ifis and Cam made Doctors of her Laws.

Then, bleffing all, Go, children of my care!

To practise now from theory repair.
All my commands are easy, short, and full;
My fons! be proud, be felfish, and be dull.
Guard my prerogative, affert my throne:
This nod confirms each privilege your own.
The cap and switch be facred to his Grace;
With staff and pumps the Marquis leads the race;
From stage to stage the licens'd Earl may run,
Pair'd with his fellow-charioteer, the Sun;

The learned Baron butterflies defign,
Or draw to filk Arachne's fubtile line;
The Judge to dance his brother ferjeant call;

The Senator at cricket urge the ball;
The Bishop stow (pontific luxury!)
An hundred fouls of turkeys in a pye;
The sturdy Squire to Gallic matters fłoop,
And drown his lands and manors in a foup.
Others import yet nobler arts from France,
Teach kings to fiddle, and make fenates dance.
Perhaps more high fome daring fon may foar,
Proud to my lift to add one monarch more;

566

570

575

580

585

590

595

600

And,

And, nobly confcious, princes are but things
Born for first ministers, as flaves for kings;
Tyrant fupreme! shall three estates command,
And make one mighty Dunciad of the land!

More she had spoke, but yawn'd-All Nature nods:

606

610

What mortal can refift the yawn of gods?
Churches and Chapels instantly it reach'd;
(St. James's first, for leaden G-preach'd:)
Then catch'd the Schools; the Hall scarce kept awake;
The Convocation gap'd, but could not speak :
Loft was the Nation's fenfe, nor could be found,
While the long folemn unison went round:
Wide, and more wide, it spread o'er all the realm;
E'en Palinurus nodded at the helm :
The vapour mild o'er each Committee crept;
Unfinish'd treaties in each office flept;

615

And chiefless Armies doz'd out the campaign;
And Navies yawn'd for orders on the main.

'O Mufe! relate, (for you can tell alone,
Wits have short memories, and dunces none,)
Relate who first, who last, resign'd to reft;
Whose heads she partly, whose completely, blest;
What charms could faction, what ambition lull,

The venal quiet, and intrance the dull;

620

Till drown'd was Senfe, and Shame, and Right, and

Wrong

O fing, and hush the nations with thy fong!

*

*

*

*

*

626

In vain, in vain the all-compofing hour
Refiftless falls; the Muse obeys the pow'r.
She comes! she comes! the fable throne behold

Of night primeval, and of Chaos old!
Before her Fancy's gilded clouds decay,
And all its varying rainbows die away.
Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires,
The meteor drops, and in a flash expires.

630

As

IMITATIONS.

v. 621. Relate who first, who last, resign'd to rest:

Whose heads she partly, whose completely blef.]
"Quem telo primum, quem poftremum afpera Virgo
"Dejicis? aut quot humi, morientia corpora fundis!

Virg. And univerfal Darkness buries All.

As one by one, at dread Medea's ftrain,
The fick'ning stars fade off the ethereal plain;
As Argus' eyes, by Hermes' wand opprest,
Clos'd one by one to everlasting reft;
Thus at her felt approach, and fecret might,
Art after Art goes out, and all is night.
See sculking Truth to her old cavern fled,
Mountains of Casuistry heap'd o'er her head !
Philofophy, that lean'd on Heav'n before,
Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more.
Phyfic of Metaphyfic begs defence,
And Metaphyfic calls for aid on Sense !
See Mystery to Mathematics fly!

In vain! they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die.

Religion, blushing, veils her facred fires,

And unawares Morality expires.

Nor Public flame, nor Private, dares to shine;
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpfe Divine!

Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is reftor'd;

Light dies before thy uncreating word:

635

640

645

650

Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; 655

IMITATIONS.

w. 637. As Argus eyes, &c.]

"Et quamvis fopor est oculorum parte receptus,

"Parte tamen vigilat----..

"------Vidit Cyllenius omnes

"Succubuiffe oculos," &c.

VARIATIONS.

v. 643.] In the former edit. it ftood thus:

Philofophy, that reach'd the heav'ns before,
Shrinks to her hidden caufe, and is no more.

Ovid, Met. II.

And this was intended as a cenfure of the Newtonion philofophy. For
the Poet had been mifled by the prejudices of foreigners, as if that phi-
lofophy had recurred to the ocult qualities of Aristotle. This was the
idea he received of it from a man educated much abroad, who had read
every thing, but every thing fuperficially. Had his excellent friend, Dr.
A. been confulted in this matter, it is certain that fo unjust a reflection
had never difcredited fo noble a Satire. When I hinted to him how he
had been impofed upon, he changed the lines with great pleasure, into a
compliment (as they now stand) on that divine genius, and a fatire on the
folly by which he, the Poet himself, had been mifled.

INDEX

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