30

Lets through its meshes every meaner thought,
While rich ideas there are only caught?
Sure that's not all; this is a piece too fair
To be the child of chance, and not of care:
No atoms cafually together hurl'd
Could e'er produce fo beautiful a world.
Nor dare I fuch a doctrine here admit,
As would deftroy the providence of wit.
"Tis your ftrong genius then which does not feel
Those weights, would make a weaker spirit reel.
To carry weight, and run fo lightly too,
Is what alone your Pegafus can do.

34

Great Hercules himself could ne'er do more, Than not to feel thofe heavens and gods he bore.

40

Your easier odes, which for delight were penn'd, Yet our inftruction make their fecond end: We're both enrich'd and pleas'd, like them that

45

At once a beauty, and a fortune too.
Of moral knowledge poefy was queen,
And still she might, had wanton wits not been;
Who, like il guardians, liv'd themselves at

large,

And, not content with that, debauch'd their

charge.

Like fome brave captain, your fuccefsful pen Reftores the exil'd to her crown again:

50

And gives us hope, that having feen the days When nothing flourish'd but fanatic bays,

All will at length in this opinion reft, "A fober prince's government is best." This is not all; your art the way has found 55 To make the improvement of the richest ground,

60

That foil which those immortal laurels bore,
That once the facred Maro's temples wore.
Elifa's griefs are fo exprefs'd by you,
They are too eloquent to have been true.
Had the fo fpoke, Æneas had obey'd
What Dido, rather than what Jove had faid.
If funeral rites can give a ghoft repose,
Your muse fo juftly has difcharged those,
Elifa's fhade may now its wandring cease,
And claim a title to the fields of peace.
But if Æneas be oblig'd, no lefs
Your kindness great Achilles doth confefs;
Who, drefs'd by Statius in too bold a look,
Did ill become those virgin robes he took. 70
To understand how much we owe to you,

65

We must your numbers, with your author's,

view:

Then we shall fee his work was lamely rough,
Each figure ftiff, as if defign'd in buff:
His colors laid fo thick on every place,
As only fhew'd the paint, but hid the face.

75

But as in perspective we beauties fee,
Which in the glafs, not in the picture, be;
So here our fight obligingly mistakes

That wealth, which his your bounty only

makes.

Thus vulgar dishes are, by cooks difguis'd,

80

More for their dreffing, than their substance priz'd.

Your curious notes fo fearch into that age,
When all was fable but the facred page,

That, fince in that dark night we needs must ftray,

We are at least misled in pleasant way.

85

But what we moft admire, your verfe no less
The prophet than the poet doth confefs.
Ere our weak eyes difcern'd the doubtful
ftreak

Of light, you faw great Charles his morning

break.

So fkilful feamen ken the land from far,

90

Which fhews like mifts to the dull paffenger. To Charles your muse first pays her duteous love,

As still the antients did begin from Jove.

With Monk you end, whofe name preferv'd fhall be,

As Rome recorded Rufus' memory,

Who thought it greater honor to obey

His country's intereft, than the world to fway.

95

But to write worthy things of worthy men,
Is the peculiar talent of your pen:
Yet let me take your mantle up, and I
Will venture in your right to prophefy.
"This work, by merit first of fame secure,
"Is likewife happy in its geniture:

100

"For, fince 'tis born when Charles afcends the throne,

"It fhares at once his fortune and its own."

105

LEARNED AND USEFUL WORKS; BUT MORE PARTICULARLY HIS TREATISE OF STONE-HENGE, BY HIM RESTORED TO THE TRUE FOUNDER.

THE longeft tyranny that ever sway'd,
Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd

* The book that occafioned this epiftle made its appearance in quarto in 1663. It is dedicated to King Charles II. and entitled, "Chorea Gigantum; or, The most famous Antiquity of Great Britain, Stone-Henge, ftanding on Salisbury-plain, reftored to the Danes by Dr. Walter Charleton, M. D. and Phyfician in Ordinary to his Majefty." It was written in answer to a treatife of Inigo Jones's, which attributed this ftupendous pile to the Romans, fuppofing it to be a temple, by them dedicated to the god Cœlum, or Cœlus; and here that great architect let his imagination outrun his judgment, nay, his fenfe; for he described it not as it is, but as it ought to be, in order to make it confiftent with what he delivered. Dr. Charleton, who will have this to be a Danish monument, was countenanced in his opinion by Olaus Wormius, who wrote him feveral letters upon the subject: