Obtruding false rules, prankt in reason's garb.
I hate when vice can bolt her arguments,
And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.
Impostor, do not charge most innocent nature,
As if she would her children should be riotous
With her abundance; she, good cateress,
Means her provision only to the good,
That live according to her sober laws,
And holy dictate of spare temperance:

770

775

(774) Good cateress. This very strange expression seems to me to point to another remedy as useful against the fevers in question, namely, caterache or Scolopendrium, one of the species of plants called maiden-hair, which have the property of sweetening the blood. The History of Drugs, in treating of the caterache, says this particular sort of maiden-hair is called by the inhabitants of Languedoc, Goldy-locks, because of its near approach to hair and its golden colour. It is pectoral, and particularly appropriated to diseases of the spleen." It had been before alluded to, among other remedies in 763, tresses like the morn.

If every just man, that now pines with want,
Had but a moderate and beseeming share
Of that which lewdly pamper'd luxury
Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,
Nature's full blessings would be well dispens'd
In even unsuperfluous proportion,

780

And she no whit incumber'd with her store,
And then the giver would be better thank'd, 785
His praise due paid; for swinish gluttony
Ne'er looks to heav'n amidst his gorgeous feast,

(787) Whether this expression, the swinish gluttony that crams and blasphemes its feeder, may not involve some further evidence, in addition to that offered in the 3rd chapter on Homer, that le mal d'Amerique, as De Pauw calls it, is derived from eating the flesh of the peccary or Mexican hog, is for the reader to judge. The expressions sensual sly (77) and sensual folly (984) may have the same subject possibly in view; and as these evidences on that topic are very modern when compared with those which are stated in the beginning of this volume to have originally led to that con

But with besotted base ingratitude

Crams and blasphemes his feeder. Shall I go on? Or have I said enough? To him that dares 790 Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous

words

jecture; so I think another strong modern confirmation of that conjecture arises from the following statement. It is well-known that the balsam of copyba (or capivy as it is more commonly called) is of very great efficacy in the cure of one species of the lal d'Amerique. "The History of Drugs" after stating the medicinal qualities of it, adds the following traditionary fable, which, duly explained, seems to lead to the conclusion for which I contend. "The natives (of South America) found out the virtues of this balsam by means of certain hogs in those parts, who presently, when they were wounded, would strike their teeth against the trunks of these trees, from whence the balsam would flow into their wound; and this they would continue to do till they were perfectly well."

Against the sun-clad power of chastity;

Fain would I something say, yet to what end?
Thou hast nor ear, nor soul to apprehend
The sublime notion, and high mystery,

That must be utter'd to unfold the sage
And serious doctrine of virginity,

795

(792) From what was said in the note on line 421, it has appeared that the Peruvian bark has already been in the contemplation of the poet; and it has been since particularly alluded to by the expression of corporal rind of 673, and perhaps by the vermeil-tinctured lip of 762 : 'it is here again most specially alluded to, and in the 795th and following lines, but with so very marked a reverence, that I think it fit to imitate the example of the poet and leave the veil over it as I find it. In the conclusion of the speech, however, by the mention of the flame and the brute earth shaking, the allusion is distinct enough to the fires and earthquakes of the volcanoes of the Andes mountains of Peru, where this superlatively useful remedy is found.

And thou art worthy that thou should'st not know More happiness than this thy present lot.

Enjoy your dear wit and gay rhetoric,

800

That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence. Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinc'd;

Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth

805

Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits
To such a flame of sacred vehemence,
That dumb things would be mov'd to sympathize,
And the brute earth would lend her nerves and
shake,

Till all thy magic structures rear'd so high,
Were shatter'd into heaps o'er thy false head.
Com. She fables not; I feel that I do fear
Her words set off by some superior power;

810

And though not mortal, yet a cold shudd'ring dew

(812) The frequent allusions which have been made passim to the torpid numbness, which is the distinguishing characteristic of the ague, cannot have escaped the reader's attention, as in the nerves being all chained up like those of a statue in the 667th line; in the mention of dumb things