Did Nature's pencil ever blend fuch

rays,

41.

Such vary'd light in one promifcuous blaze ?
Now proftrate! dead! behold that Caroline :
No maid cries, Charming! and no youth, Divine!
And lo the wretch ! whofe vile, whofe infect luft
Lay'd this gay daughter of the Spring in duft. 416
Oh punish him, or to th' Elysian shades

Difmifs my foul, where no Carnation fades.

He ceas'd and wept. With innocence of mien,

Th' Accus'd ftood forth, and thus addrefs'd the

Queen.

Of all th' enamel'd race, whofe filv'ry wing Waves to the tepid Zephyrs of the fpring,

REMARKS.

420

their names to the most curious Flowers of their raising: Some have been very jealous of vindicating this honour, but none more than that ambitious Gardiner, at Hammerfmith, who caused his Favourite to be painted on his Sign, with this infcription, This is My Queen Caroline.

VER. 418. Difmifs my foul, where no Carnation fades] It is a trite obfervation, that men have always placed the happiness of their fancied Elysium in fomething they took moft delight in here. The joys of a Mahometan paradife confift in young maidens, always virgins: Our modefter Votary warms his imagination only with Carnations always in bloom; which, alluding, at the fame time, to the perpetual spring of the old

IMITATION S.

VER. 421. Of all th' enamel'd race.] The Poet feems to have an eye to Spenfer, Muiopotmos.

Of all the race of filver winged Flies
Which do poffefs the Empire of the air.

Or fwims along the fluid atmosphere,

Once brightest shin'd this child of Heat and Air.
I faw, and started from its vernal bow'r,

425

The rifing game, and chac'd from flow'r to flow'r.
It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain;
It stopt, I ftopt; it mov'd, I mov'd again.
At laft it fix'd, 'twas on what plant it pleas'd,
And where it fix'd, the beauteous bird I feiz'd:.430
Rofe or Carnation was below my care;
I meddle, Goddefs! only in my sphere.
I tell the naked fact without disguise,
And, to excuse it, need but fhew the prize;
Whose spoils this Paper offers to your eye,
Fair ev'n in death! this peerlefs Butterfly.

435

My fons! (fhe answer'd) both have done your parts: Live happy both, and long promote our arts. But hear a Mother, when the recommends To your fraternal care, our fleeping friends.

REMARKS.

440

Elyfian fields, give an inimitable pleasantry, as well as decorum, to the conclufion of his Pray'r.

VER. 440. our sleeping friends,] Of whom see v. 345. above.

IMITATION S.

VER. 427, 428. It fled, I follow'd, etc.]

I started back,

It started back; but pleas'd I foon return'd,
Pleas'd it return'd as soon---

Milton,

445

The common Soul, of Heaven's more frugal make,
Serves but to keep fools pert, and knaves awake :
A drowzy Watchman, that juft gives a knock,
And breaks our reft, to tell us what's a clock.
Yet by fome object ev'ry brain is ftirr❜d;
The dull may waken to a Humming-bird;
The most reclufe, difcreetly open'd, find
Congenial matter in the Cockle-kind;
The Mind, in Metaphyfics at a lofs,
May wander in a wilderness of Mofs;

The head that turns at fuper-lunar things,

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

VARIATIONS.

450

VER. 441. The common foul, etc.] in the firft Edit. thus, Of Souls the greater part, Heav'n's common make, Serve but to keep fools pert, and knaves awake; And most but find that centinel of God,

A drowzy Watchman in the land of Nod.

REMARKS.

VER. 444. And breaks our rest, to tell us what's a clock] i. e. When the feaft of life is just over, calls us to think of breaking up; but never watches to prevent the diforders that happen in the heat of the entertainment.

VER. 450. a wilderness of Mofs;] Of which the Naturalists count I can't tell how many hundred species.

VER. 452. Wilkins' wings.] One of the first Projectors of the Royal Society, who, among many enlarged and useful nctions, entertain'd the extravagant hope of a poffibility to fly to the Moon; which has put fome volatile Genius's upon making wings for that purpose.

O! would the Sons of Men once think their Eyes And Reason giv'n them but to study Flies!

See Nature in fome 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 ferve.

Be that my task (replies a gloomy Clerk, Sworn foe to Myft'ry, yet divinely dark; Whofe pious hope afpires to fee the day When Moral Evidence fhall quite decay,

REMARKS.

460

VER. 453.0! would the fons of men, &c.] This is the third fpeech of the Goddess to her Supplicants, and completes the whole of what he had to give in inftruction on this important occafion, concerning Learning, Civil Society, and Religion. In the first speech, ver. 119. to her Editors and conceited Critics, the directs how to deprave Wit and difcredit fine Writers. In her second, ver. 175, to the Educators of Youth, the fhews them how all Civil Duties may be extinguished in that one doctrine of divine Hereditary Right. And in this third, the charges the Investigators of Nature to amufe themfelves in Trifles, and rest in second caufes, with a total difregard of the firft. This being all that Dulness can with, is all the needs to say; and we may apply to her (as the Poet hath managed it) what hath been faid of true Wit, that She neither says too little, nor too much.

VER. 459. a gloomy Clerk,] The Epithet gloomy in this line may seem the same with that of dark in the next. But gloomy relates to the uncomfortable and difaftrous condition of an irreligious Sceptic, whereas dark alludes only to his puzzled and embroiled Systems.

VER. 462. When Moral Evidence shall quite decay,] Alluding to a ridiculous and abfurd way of someMathematicians, in calculating the gradual decay of Moral Evidence by mathematical

And damns implicit faith, and holy lies,
Prompt to impofe, and fond to dogmatize :)
Let others creep by timid steps, and flow,
On plain Experience lay foundations low,
By common fenfe to common knowledge bred,
And laft, to Nature's Caufe thro' Nature led.
All-seeing in thy mifts, we want no guide,
Mother of Arrogance, and Source of Pride!
We nobly take the high Priori Road!

And reafon downward, till we doubt of God;

REMARK S.

465

470

proportions: according to which calculation, in about fifty years it will be no longer probable that Julius Cæfar was in Gaul, or died in the Senate House. See Craig's Theologiæ Christiana rincipia Mathematica. But as it feems evident, that facts of a thousand years old, for instance, are now as probable as they were five hundred years ago; it is plain, that if in fifty more they quite difappear, it must be owing, not to their Arguments, but to the extraordinary power of our Goddess; for whofe help therefore they have reafon to pray.

VER. 465-468. Let others creep---thro' Nature led] In these lines are defcribed the Difpofition of the rational Inquirer; and the means and end of Knowledge. With Regard to his difpofition, the contemplation of the works of God with human faculties, muft needs make a modest and sensible man timorous and fearful; and that will naturally direct him to the right means of acquiring the little knowledge his faculties are capable of, namely, plain and fure experience; which tho' supporting only an humble foundation, and permitting only a very flow progress, yet leads, furely, to the end, the discovery of the God of nature.

VER. 471. the high Priori Road,] Those who, from the effects in this Vifible world, deduce the Eternal Power and