Wife men have faid, are wearifome; who reads A fpirit and judgment equal or fuperior, (And what he brings, what needs he elsewhere seek ?) Uncertain and unfettled ftill remains, 326 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 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 Ill imitated, while they loudeft fing The vices of their Deities, and their own 340 In fable, hymn, or song, so perfonating 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, ; Such are from God infpir'd, not fuch from thee, 350 By light of nature not in all quite loft. And lovers of their country, as may feem; 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 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 350. Such are from God infpir'd, 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. N 2 -I As men divinely taught, and better teaching In their majestic unaffected ftile Than all th' oratory of Greece and Rome. 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, Or active, tended on by glory', or fame, 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. 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 Or Heav'n write ought of fate, by what the stars In their conjunction met, give me, to spell, 385 Sorrows, and labors, oppofition, hate 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. N 3 399.- -2122 |