Did Nature's pencil ever blend fuch rays, 41. Such vary'd light in one promifcuous blaze ? 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 Or fwims along the fluid atmosphere, Once brightest shin'd this child of Heat and Air. 425 The rifing game, and chac'd from flow'r to flow'r. 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, Milton, 445 The common Soul, of Heaven's more frugal make, 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 : 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, 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 |