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105

Narcissus, prais'd with all a parson's pow'r,
Look'd a white lily sunk beneath a show'r.
There mov'd Montalto with superior air;
His stretch'd out arm display'd a volume fair;
Courtiers and patriots in two ranks divide,
Through both he pass'd, and bow'd from side to side:
But as in graceful act, with awful eye,

Compos'd he stood, bold Benson thrust him by: 110
On two unequal crutches prop'd he came,
Milton's on this, on that one Johnston's name.
The decent knight retir'd with sober rage,
Withdrew his hand, and clos'd the pompous page:
But (happy for him as the times went then)

Appear'd Apollo's may'r and aldermen,
On whom three hundred gold-capt youths await,
To lug the pond'rous volume off in state.

115

When Dulness, smiling...." Thus revive the wits!

But murder first, and mince them all to bits:

As erst Medea (cruel, so to save!)

A new edition of old Æson gave;

REMARKS.

120

໑. 115, &c.] These four lines were printed in a separate leaf by Mr. Pope, in the last edition which he himself gave of the Dunciad, with directions to the printer to put this leaf into its place, as soon as sir T. H.'s Shakespeare should be published.

125

Let standard authors thus, like trophies borne,
Appear more glorious, as more hack'd and torn.
And you, my critics, in the chequer'd shade,
Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made.
Leave not a foot of verse, a foot of stone,

A page, a grave, that they can call their own;
But spread, my sons, your glory thin or thick,
On passive paper, or on solid brick.
So by each bard an alderman shall sit,

A heavy lord shall hang at ev'ry wit,
And while on Fame's triumphal car they ride,
Some slave of mine be pinion'd to their side."

130

136

140

Now crowds on crowds around the goddess press, Each eager to present the first address. Dunce scorning dunce beholds the next advance, But fop shows fop superior complaisance. When lo! a spectre rose, whose index-hand Held forth the virtue of the dreadful wand; His beaver'd brow a birchen garland wears, Dropping with infants' blood and mothers' tears, O'er ev'ry vein a shudd'ring horror runs, Eton and Winton shake through all their sons. All flesh is humbled, Westminster's bold race Shrink, and confess the genius of the place : The pale-boy senator yet tinkling stands, And holds his breeches close with both his hands.

145

Then thus: Since man from beast by words is

known,

151

155

Words are man's province, words we teach alone.
When reason doubtful, like the Samian letter,
Points him two ways, the narrower is the better.
Plac'd at the door of Learning, youth to guide,
We never suffer it to stand too wide.
To ask, to guess, to know, as they commence,
As Fancy opens the quick springs of sense,
We ply the memory, we load the brain,
Bind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain,
Confine the thought, to exercise the breath,
And keep them in the pale of words till death. 160
Whate'er the talents, or howe'er design'd,
We hang one gingling padlock on the mind:

A poet the first day he dips his quill;

And what the last? a very poet still.
Pity! the charm works only in our wall,
Lost, lost too soon in yonder house or hall.
There truant Windham ev'ry muse gave o'er,
There Talbot sunk, and was a wit no more!
How sweet an Ovid Murray, was our boast:
How many Martials were in Pult'ney lost!
Else sure some bard, to our eternal praise,
In twice ten thousand rhyming nights and days,
Had reach'd the work, the all that mortal can,
And South beheld that masterpiece of man.

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170

176

180

Oh! cried the goddess, for some pedant reign!
Some gentle James, to bless the land again:
To stick the doctor's chair into the throne,
Give law to words, or war with words alone,
Senates and courts with Greek and Latin rule,
And turn the council to a grammar-school!
For sure if Dulness sees a grateful day,
'Tis in the shade of arbitrary sway.
O! if my sons may learn one earthly thing,
Teach but that one, sufficient for a king;
That which my priests, and mine alone, maintain,
Which, as it dies, or lives, we fall, or reign : 186
May you, my Cam and Isis, preach it long!
"The right divine of kings to govern wrong."
Prompt at the call, around the goddess roll
Broad hats, and hoods, and caps, a sable shoal: 190
Thick and more thick the black blockade extends,
A hundred head of Aristotle's friends.

Nor wert thou, Isis! wanting to the day,
[Though Christ-church long kept prudishly away.]
Each staunch polemic, stubborn as a rock,
Each fierce logician, still expelling Locke,

195

REMARKS.

v. 196.-still expelling Locke.] In the year 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the university of Oxford to

Came whip and spur, and dash'd thro' thin and thick
On German Crouzaz, and Dutch Burgursdyck.
As many quit the streams that murm'ring fall
To lull the sons of Margret and Clare-hall,
Where Bentley late tempestuous wont to sport
In troubled waters, but now sleeps in port.
Before them march'd that awful Aristarch;
Plow'd was his front with many a deep remark:

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205

His hat, which never veil'd to human pride,
Walker with rev'rence took, and laid aside.
Low bow'd the rest: he, kingly, did but nod;
So upright quakers please both man and God.
Mistress! dismiss that rabble from your throne:
Avaunt.........is Aristarchus yet unknown?
Thy mighty scholiast, whose unweary'd pains
Made Horace dull, and humbled Milton's strains.
Turn what they will to verse, their toil is vain,

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214

Critics like me shall make it prose again.
Roman and Greek grammarians! know you better;
Author of something yet more great than letter;

While tow'ring o'er your alphabet, like Saul,

Stands our Digamma, and o'ertops them all. 'Tis true, on words is still our whole debate,

Dispute of me or te, of aut or at,

REMARKS.

220

censure Mr. Locke's essays on human understanding, and to forbid the reading it. See his letters in the last edit.

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