326 Wise men have said, are wearisome; who reads 330 With rem autem ut redeam, judicium hoc Incessantly, &c ] See the same omnium mortalium eft, fortunam à just sentiment in Paradise Lost Deo petendam, à fe ipfo jumendam efle VII. 126. fapientiam. De Nat. Deor. III. 36. But knowledge is as food, and Warburton, needs no less 321. An empty cloud,]. A me Her temp’rance over appetite, taphor taken from the fable of &c. Thyer. Ixion, who embrac'd an empty cloud 325. And what he brings, what for a Juno. needs he elsewhere seek?] The 322. Wife men have faid,] Al. poet makes the old fophifter the luding to Ecclef. XII. 12. Of Devil always busy in his trade. making many books there is no end, 'Tis pity he should make Jesus and much study is a weariness of the (as he does here) use the same Warburton. 322. who reads VOL. I. 335. fleja. arms. N With hymns, our psalms with artful terms inscrib’d, Our Hebrew songs and harps in Babylon, 336 That pleas'd so well our victors ear, declare That rather Greece from us these arts deriv'd; Ill imitated, while they loudest sing The vices of their Deities, and their own 340 In fable, hymn, or song, so personating Their Gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame. Remove their swelling epithets thick laid As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest, Thin sown with ought of profit or delight, 345 Will 335. our psalms with artful that wasted us, required of us mirth, terms inscrib’d,] He means the saying, Sing us one of the fongs of inscriptions often prefixed to the Sion. beginning of several psalms, such as To the chief musician upon Ne. 338. That rather Greece from us hiloth, To the chief musician on these arts deriv'd;] This was Neginoth upon Shemineth, Shig- It was established and supported the system in vogue at that time. gaion of David, Michtam of Da- with vast erudition by Bochart, vid, &c. to denote the various and carried to an extravagant and kinds of psalms or instruments. 336. Our Hebrew songs and harps and Gale. even ridiculous length by Huetius Warburton. in Babylon, That pleas'd so wellour victors ear, ] 343. - swelling epithets ] Greek This is said upon the authority of compounds. Warburton. Pfal. CXXXVII. 1 &c. By the ri- The hymns of the Greek poets to vers of Babylon, there we sat down, their Deities consist of very little yea we wept, when we remembred more than repeated invocations of Sion. We hanged our harps upon the them by different names and epiwillows in the midst thereof. For thets. Our Saviour very probably there they chat carried us away cap- alluded to these, where he cautions tive, required of us a fong; and they his disciples against vain repeti Will far be found unworthy to compare As 1 tions and much speaking (Batleho- “ment alone, but in the very criya) in their prayers, Matt. VI. 7. “ tical art of composition, may Thyer. “ be easily made appear over all 346. Will far be found unworthy “ the kinds of lyric poetry, to be to compare « incomparable." With Sion's fongs,] He was of 350. Such are from God inspir'd, this opinion not only in the de nct such from thee, cline of life, but likewise in his Unless where moral virtue is exearlier days, as appears from the press'd &c] The sense of these preface to his second book of the lines is obscure and liable to misReason of Church Government. take. The meaning of them is, “ Or if occafion shall lead to imi. poets from thee inspired are not “ tate those magnific odes and such as these, unless where moral “ hymns wherein Pindarus and virtue is expressed &c] • Callimachus are in most things Meadowcourt. worthy, some others in their 353. as those] I Would pre" frame judicious, in their matter fer as though. Calcon. “ most an end faulty. But those 354. -- ftatifts] Or statesmen. frequent fongs throughout the A word in more frequent ufe for“ law and prophets beyond all merly, as in Shakespear, Cymbe «« these, not in their divine argu- line Act. 2. Scene 5. As men divinely taught, and better teaching 360 So spake the Son of God; but Satan now 365 Quite at a loss, for all his darts were spent, Thus to our Saviour with stern brow reply'd. Since neither wealth, nor honor, arms nor arts, Kingdom nor empire pleases thee, nor ought By me propos’d in life contemplative, 370 Or active, tended on by glory', or fame, What dost thou in this world ? the wilderness For Sc. 3. I do believe, 380. --fulness of time, ] Gal. (Statist though I am none, nor IV. 4. When the fulness of the like to be:) time was come, God sent forth his Son. and Hamlet Act 5. 382. if I read ought in HeaI once did hold it, as our fatifts ven, &c] A satire on Cardan, do, &c. who with the boldness and impiety 362. — makes happy and keeps fo] of which he was, cast the nativity of an atheist and a madman, both Hor. Epift. I. VI. 2. of Jesus Chrift, and found by the facere & fervare beatum. great and illustrious concourse of Richardson. Itars at his birth, that he must needs 380 For thee is fittest place ; I found thee there, 375 A needs have the fortune which be making it patronised by the Defel him, and become the author vil, without showing at the same of a religion, which should spread time the absurdity of it. He has itself far and near for many ages. therefore very judiciously made The great Milton with a jult in- him blunder in the expression, of dignation of this impiety hath portending a kingdom which was satirized it in a very beautiful without beginning. This destroys manner, by putting these reveries all he would infinuate. The into the mouth of the Devil : poet's conduct is fine and ingeniwhere it is to be observed, that ous. See Warburton's Shakespear the poet thought it not enough Vol. 6. Lear Act 1. Sc. 8. to discredit judicial astrology by 399. N 3 |