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Wife men have faid, are wearifome; who reads
Inceffantly, and to his reading brings not

A fpirit and judgment equal or fuperior,

(And what he brings, what needs he elsewhere seek ?) Uncertain and unfettled ftill remains,

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Deep vers'd in books and shallow in himself,

Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys,

And trifles for choice matters, worth a fpunge;

As children gathering pebbles on the shore.

330

Or if I would delight my private hours
With mufic or with poem, where so soon
As in our native language can I find
That folace? All our law and story strow'd

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With hymns, our pfalms with artful terms infcrib'd, Our Hebrew fongs and harps in Babylon,

336

That pleas'd fo well our victors ear, declare
That rather Greece from us thefe arts deriv'd;

Ill imitated, while they loudeft fing

The vices of their Deities, and their own

340

In fable, hymn, or song, so perfonating
Their Gods ridiculous, and themselves paft fhame.
Remove their swelling epithets thick laid
As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the reft,
Thin fown with ought of profit or delight,

335. our pfalms with artful terms infcrib'd,] He means the infcriptions often prefixed to the beginning of feveral pfalms, fuch as To the chief mufician upon Nehiloth, To the chief musician on

Neginoth upon Shemineth, Shiggaion of David, Michtam of David, &c. to denote the various kinds of pfalms or inftruments.

336. Our Hebrew Songs and harps in Babylon,

That pleas'dfowellour victors ear,] This is faid upon the authority of Pfal. CXXXVII. 1 &c. By the rivers of Babylon, there we fat down, yea we wept, when we remembred Sion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midft thereof. For there they that carried us away captive, required of us a fong; and they

345 Will

that wafted us, required of us mirth, Jaying, Sing us one of the fongs of Sion.

338. That rather Greece from us

thefe arts deriv'd;] This was the fyftem in vogue at that time. It was established and fupported and carried to an extravagant and with vaft erudition by Bochart, even ridiculous length by Huetius and Gale. Warburton.

343.-fuelling epithets] Greek compounds. Warburton. The hymns of the Greek poets to their Deities confift of very little more than repeated invocations of them by different names and epithets. Our Saviour very probably alluded to thefe, where he cautions his difciples against vain repeti

Will far be found unworthy to compare

With Sion's fongs, to all true tastes excelling,
Where God is prais'd aright, and God-like men,
The Holieft of Holies, and his Saints

;

Such are from God infpir'd, not fuch from thee, 350
Unless where moral virtue is exprefs'd

By light of nature not in all quite loft.
Their orators thou then extoll'ft, as those
The top of eloquence, ftatifts indeed,

And lovers of their country, as may feem;
But herein to our prophets far beneath,

355

As

tions and much speaking (Barloλoment alone, but in the very cria) in their prayers, Matt. VI. 7.

Thyer. 346. Will far be found unworthy

to compare

With Sion's fongs,] He was of this opinion not only in the decline of life, but likewife in his earlier days, as appears from the preface to his fecond book of the Reafon of Church Government."Or if occafion fhall lead to imi"tate thofe magnific odes and

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hymns wherein Pindarus and "Callimachus are in most things "worthy, fome others in their "frame judicious, in their matter "most an end faulty. But those "frequent fongs throughout the "law and prophets beyond all

thefe, not in their divine argu

"tical art of compofition, may
"be easily made appear over all
"the kinds of lyric poetry, to be
"incomparable."

350. Such are from God infpir'd,
not fuch from thee,
Unless where moral virtue is ex-

prefs'd &c] The sense of these lines is obfcure and liable to miftake. The meaning of them is, poets from thee infpired are not fuch as thefe, unless where moral virtue is expreffed &c]

Meadowcourt. 353. -- as thofe] I should prefer- -as though. Calton. 354.ftatifts] Or ftatefmen. A word in more frequent ufe formerly, as in Shakespear, Cymbe line Act. 2. Scene 5.

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-I

As men divinely taught, and better teaching
The folid rules of civil government

In their majestic unaffected ftile

Than all th' oratory of Greece and Rome.
In them is plaineft taught, and easiest learnt,
What makes a nation happy', and keeps it fo,
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat;
Thefe only with our law best form a king.

360

So fpake the Son of God; but Satan now

365

Quite at a lofs, for all his darts were spent,

Thus to our Saviour with ftern 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,

Or active, tended on by glory', or fame,
What doft thou in this world? the wilderness

I do believe,

(Statift though I am none, nor like to be :)

and Hamlet A&t 5. Sc. 3.

I once did hold it, as our statists do, &c.

380.

370

For

fulness of time,] Gal. IV. 4. When the fulnefs of the time was come, God fent forth his Son.

382.

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if I read ought in Heaven, &c] A fatire on Cardan, who with the boldnefs and impiety of an atheist and a madman, both

362. - makes happy and keeps fo] of which he was, caft the nativity

Hor. Epift. I. VI. 2.

facere & fervare beatum.

Richardfon.

of Jefus Chrift, and found by the great and illuftrious concourfe of ftars at his birth, that he muft

needs

For thee is fitteft place; I found thee there,

And thither will return thee; yet remember

What I foretel thee, foon thou fhalt have cause

375

To wish thou never hadft rejected thus

Nicely or cautiously my offer'd aid,

380

Which would have fet thee in short time with ease
On David's throne, or throne of all the world,
Now at full age, fulness of time, thy feafon,
When prophecies of thee are best fulfill'd.
Now contrary, if I read ought in Heaven,

Or Heav'n write ought of fate, by what the stars
Voluminous, or fingle characters,

In their conjunction met, give me, to spell,

385

Sorrows, and labors, oppofition, hate
Attends thee, fcorns, reproaches, injuries,
Violence and ftripes, and laftly cruel death;

needs have the fortune which be fel him, and become the author of a religion, which should spread itself far and near for many ages. The great Milton with a juft in dignation of this impiety hath fatirized it in a very beautiful manner, by putting these reveries into the mouth of the Devil: where it is to be observed, that the poet thought it not enough to difcredit judicial aftrology by

A

making it patronised by the Devil, without fhowing at the fame time the abfurdity of it. He has therefore very judiciously made him blunder in the expreffion, of portending a kingdom which was without beginning. This deftroys all he would infinuate. The poet's conduct is fine and ingenious. See Warburton's Shakespear Vol. 6. Lear Act 1. Sc. 8.

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399.- -2122

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