The Goddess smiling seem'd to give confent; So back to Pollio, hand in hand, they went. 395 Then thick as Locufts blackening all the ground, A tribe, with weeds and fhells fantastic crown'd, Each with fome wondrous gift approach'd the Power, A Neft, a Toad, a Fungus, or a Flower. But far the foremost, two, with earnest zeal, And aspect ardent, to the Throne appeal." 400 405 The firft thus open'd: Hear thy fuppliant's call, Great Queen, and common Mother of us all! Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this Flower, Suckled, and chear'd, with air, and fun, and shower: Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I fpread, Bright with the gilded button tipt its head. Then thron'd in glass and nam'd it CAROLINE: Each maid cried, Charming! and each youth, Did Nature's pencil ever blend fuch rays, Such vary'd light in one promifcuous blaze! REMARKS. Divine ! Now Ver. 394. Douglas] A physician of great Learning and no lefs Tafte; above all, curious in what related to Horace, of whom he collected every Edition, Translation, and Comment, to the number of feveral hundred volumes. Ver. 409. and nam'd it Caroline :] It is a compliment which the Florists ufually pay to Princes and great perfons, to give their names to the moft curious Flowers of their raifing: Some have been very jealous of vindicating this honour, but none more than that ambitious Gardener, at Hammerfmith, who caufed his Favourite to be painted on his Sign, with this infcription, This is My Queen Caroline. Now proftrate! dead! behold that Caroline: He ceas'd, and wept. With innocence of mien, 415 Th' Accus'd stood forth, and thus address'd the Queen : Of all th' enamel'd race, whose filvery wing 421 Waves to the tepid Zephyrs of the spring, Or fwims along the fluid atmosphere, Once brightest fhin'd this child of Heat and Air. I faw, and started from its vernal bower 425 The rifing game, and chac'd from flower to flower. It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain; It stopt, I ftopt; it mov'd, I mov'd again. 430 435 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. The common Soul, of Heaven's more frugal make, Serves but to keep fools pert and knaves awake; 449 A drowfy A drowsy Watchman, that juft gives a knock, 445 May wander in a wilderness of Mofs; 450 The head that turns at fuperlunar things, Pois'd with a tail, may fteer on Wilkins' wings. O! would the Sons of Men once think their Eyes And Reason giv'n them but to study Flies! 455 See Nature in fome partial narrow shape, Be that my task (replies a gloomy Clerk, 460 Whose VARIATION. Ver. 441. The common foul, &c.] in the firft Edit. thus, A drowsy Watchman in the land of Nod. REMARKS. Ver. 452. Wilkins' wings.] One of the firft Projectors of the Royal Society, who, among many enlarged and useful notions, entertained the extravagant hope of a poffibility to fly to the Moon; which has put fome volatile Geniufes upon making wings for that purpofe. Whofe pious hope afpires to fee the day 465 470 And reafon downward, till we doubt of God: And fhove him off as far as e'er we can Thruft fome Mechanic Caufe into his place; 475 Or bind in Matter, or diffufe in Space. Or, at one bound o'erleaping all his laws, Make God Man's Image, Man the final Cause, REMARKS. Find Ver. 462. When Moral Evidence fhall quite decay,] Alluding to a ridiculous and abfurd way of fome Mathematicians, in calculating the gradual decay of Moral Evidence by mathematical 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 Houfe. See Craig's Theologiæ Chriftianæ Principia 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 disappear, it must be owing, not to their Arguments, but to the extraordinary power of our Goddefs; for whofe help therefore they have reafon to pray. Find Virtue local, all Relation scorn, See all in Self, and but for Self be born: 480 485 Or that bright Image to our fancy draw, Which Theocles in raptur'd vifion faw, Wild through Poetic fcenes the GENIUS roves, 490 That NATURE our Society adores, Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus fnores. REMARKS. Rous'd Ver. 492. Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus fnores.] It cannot be denied but that this fine ftroke of fatire against Atheism was well intended. But how muft the Reader fmile at our Author's officious zeal, when he is. told, that at the time this was written, you might as foon have found a Wolf in England as an Atheift? The truth is, the whole fpecies was exterminated. There is a trifling difference indeed concerning the Author of the Atchievement. Some, as Dr. Afhenhurst, gave it to Bentley's Boylean Lectures. And he fo well convinced that great Man of the truth, that wherever afterwards he found Atheift, he always read it A Theift. But, in fpite of a claim fo well made out, others gave the honour of this exploit to a latter Boylean Lecturer. A judicious Apologift for Dr. Clarke, against Mr. Whiston, fays, with no lefs elegance than pofitiveness of Expreffion, It is a moft certain truth that the Demonstration of the being and attributes of God, has extir pated |