Wondering he gazed when lo! a sage appears,
By his broad shoulders known, and length of ears,
Known by the band and suit which Settles wore
(His only suit) for twice three years before :
All as the vest, appear'd the wearer's frame,
Old in new state, another yet the same.
Bland and familiar as in life, begun
Thus the great father to the greater son.

O born to see what none can see awake!
Behold the wonders of the oblivious lake.
Thou, yet unborn, hast touch'd this sacred shore;
The hand of Bavius drench'd thee o'er and o'er.
But blind to former as to future fate,

What mortal knows his pre-existent state?
Who knows how long thy transmigrating soul
Might from Boeotian to Boeotian roll1?

How many Dutchmen she vouchsafed to thrid ?
How many stages through old monks she rid?
And all who since, in mild benighted days,
Mix'd the owl's ivy with the poet's bays',
As man's mæanders to the vital spring

Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring;
Or whirligigs, twirl'd round by skilful swain,
Suck the thread in, then yield it out again :
All nonsense thus, of old or modern date,
Shall in thee centre, from thee circulate.
For this our queen unfolds to vision true
Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view:

of forgery, was first expelled the House, and then sentenced to the pillory, on the 17th of February, 1727. Mr. Curl (having likewise stood there) looks upon the mention of such a gentleman in a satire, as a great act of barbarity, Key to the Dunciad, 3rd edit. p. 16.

8 Elkanah Settle was once a writer in vogue, as well as Cibber, both for dramatic poetry and politics. Mr. Dennis tells us that "he was a formidable rival to Mr. Dryden, and that in the University of Cambridge there were those who gave him the preference."

h Boeotia lay under the ridicule of the Wits formerly, as Ireland does now: though it produced one of the greatest poets and one of the greatest generals of Greece :

Bæotum crasso jurares aere natum.-HORAT.

i

-sine tempora circum

Inter victrices hederam tibi serpere lauros.-VIRG. Ecl. viii.

This has a resemblance to that passage in Milton, book xi. where the angel

To nobler sights from Adam's eye removed
The film; then purged with euphrasie and rue
The visual nerve-for he had much to see.

There is a general allusion in what follows to that whole episode.

Old scenes of glory, times long cast behind,
Shall, first recall'd, rush forward to thy mind:
Then stretch thy sight o'er all her rising reign,
And let the past and future fire thy brain.

Ascend this hill, whose cloudy point commands
Her boundless empire over seas and lands.
See, round the Poles where keener spangles shine,
Where spices smoke beneath the burning Line,
(Earth's wide extremes) her sable flag display'd,
And all the nations cover'd in her shade!

Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the sun
And orient science their bright course begun!
One god-like monarch all that pride confounds,
He, whose long wall the wandering Tartar bounds;
Heavens! what a pile! whole ages perish there,
And one bright blaze turns learning into air.

Thence to the south extend thy gladden'd eyes;
There rival flames with equal glory rise,
From shelves to shelves see greedy Vulcan roll,
And lick up all their physic of the soul'.

How little, mark! that portion of the ball,
Where, faint at best, the beams of science fall:
Soon as they dawn, from hyperborean skies
Embodied dark, what clouds of Vandals rise!
Lo! where Mæotis sleeps, and hardly flows
The freezing Tanais through a waste of snows,
The North by myriads pours her mighty sons,
Great nurse of Goths, of Alans, and of Huns!
See Alaric's stern port! the martial frame
Of Genseric! and Attila's dread name!
See the bold Ostrogoths on Latium fall;
See the fierce Visigoths on Spain and Gaul !
See where the morning gilds the palmy shore
(The soil that arts and infant letters borem)
His conquering tribes the Arabian prophet draws,
And saving ignorance enthrones by laws.

Chi Ho-am-ti, Emperor of China, the same who built the great wall between China and Tartary, destroyed all the books and learned men of that empire.

1 The caliph, Omar I., having conquered Egypt, caused his general to burn the Ptolemæan library, on the gates of which was this inscription, ΨΥΧΗΣ ΙΑΤΡΕΙΟΝ, the physic of the soul.

m Phoenicia, Syria, &c., where letters are said to have been invented. In these countries Mahomet began his conquests.

See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep,
And all the western world believe and sleep.

Lo! Rome herself, proud mistress now no more
Of arts, but thundering against heathen lore";
Her
grey-hair'd synods damning books unread,
And Bacon trembling for his brazen head.
Padua, with sighs, beholds her Livy burn,
And even the Antipodes Virgilius mourn.
See, the cirque falls, the unpillar'd temple nods,
Streets paved with heroes, Tiber choak'd with gods:
Till Peter's keys some christian'd Jove adorno,
And Pan to Moses lends his pagan horn;
See graceless Venus to a virgin turn'd,
Or Phidias broken, and Apelles burn'd.
Behold yon isle, by palmers, pilgrims trod,

Men bearded, bald, cowl'd, uncowl'd, shod, unshod,
Peel'd, patch'd, and piebald, linsey-wolsey brothers,
Grave mummers! sleeveless some, and shirtless others.
That once was Britain-Happy, had she seen P
No fiercer sons, had Easter never been"!

A strong instance of this pious rage is placed to Pope Gregory's account. John of Salisbury gives a very odd encomium of this Pope, at the same time that he mentions one of the strangest effects of this excess of zeal in him: Doctor sanctissimus ille Gregorius, qui melleo prædicationis imbre totam rigavit et inebriavit ecclesiam; non modo Mathesin jussit ab aula, sed, ut traditur a majoribus, incendio dedit probata lectionis scripta, Palatinus quæcunque tenebat Apollo. And in another place: Fertur beatus Gregorius bibliothecam combussisse gentilem ; quo divinæ pagina gratior esset locus, et major authoritas, et diligentia studiosior. Desiderius, Archbishop of Vienna, was sharply reproved by him for teaching grammar and literature, and explaining the poets; because (says this Pope) In uno se ore cum Jovis laudibus Christi laudes non capiunt: Et quam grave nefandumque sit Episcopis canere quod nec Laico religioso conveniat, ipse considera. He is said, among the rest, to have burned Livy; Quia in superstitionibus et sacris Romanorum perpetuo versatur. The same Pope is accused by Vossius, and others, of having caused the noble monuments of the old Roman magnificence to be destroyed, lest those who came to Rome should give more attention to triumphal arches, &c. than to holy things.-BAYLE, Dict.

• After the government of Rome devolved to the Popes, their zeal was for some time exerted in demolishing the heathen temples and statues, so that the Goths scarce destroyed more monuments of antiquity out of rage, than these out of devotion. At length they spared some of the temples, by converting them to churches; and some of the statues, by modifying them into images of saints. In much later times, it was thought necessary to change the statues of Apollo and Pallas, on the tomb of Sannazarius, into David and Judith; the lyre easily became a harp, and the Gorgon's head turned to that of Holofernes.

P Wars in England anciently, about the right time of celebrating Easter. Et fortunatam, si nunquam armenta fuissent.-VIRG. Ecl. vi.

In peace, great goddess, ever be adored;
How keen the war, if Dulness draw the sword!
Thus visit not thy own! on this blest age
O spread thy influence, but restrain thy rage.
And see, my son! the hour is on its way,
That lifts our goddess to imperial sway;
This favourite isle, long sever'd from her reign,
Dove-like, she gathers to her wings again.

Now look through fate! behold the scene she draws !
What aids, what armies to assert her cause!

See all her progeny, illustrious sight!
Behold, and count them, as they rise to light.
As Berecynthia, while her offspring vie *
In homage to the mother of the sky,
Surveys around her, in the blest abode,
An hundred sons, and every son a god :
Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd,
Shall take thro' Grub-street her triumphant round;
And her Parnassus glancing o'er at once,

Behold an hundred sons, and each a dunce.

Mark first that youth who takes the foremost place,
And thrusts his person full into your face.
With all thy father's virtues blest, be born"!
And a new Cibber shall the stage adorn.

A second see, by meeker manners known,
And modest as the maid that sips alone;
From the strong fate of drams if thou get free ',
Another Durfey, Ward! shall sing in thee.

Nunc age, Dardaniam prolem quæ deinde sequatur
Gloria, qui maneat Itala de gente nepotes,
Illustres animas, nostrumque in nomen ituras,
Expediam. VIRG. Æn. vi.

*Felix prole virúm, qualis Berecynthia mater

Invehitur curru Phrygias turrita per urbes,
Læta deúm partu, centum complexa nepotes,
Omnes cœlicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes. VIRG. En. vi.

Ille, vides, pura juvenis qui nititur hasta,
Proxima sorte tenet lucis loca

VIRG. En. vi.

"A manner of expression used by Virgil, Ecl. viii.

Nascere! præque diem veniens, age, Lucifer

As also that of patriis virtutibus, Ecl. iv.

-si qua fata aspera rumpas,

Tu Marcellus eris!

VIRG. Æn. vi.