Thy choicer mists on this assembly shed,
But pour them thickest on the noble head.
So shall each youth, assisted by our eyes,
See other Cæsars, other Homers rise;
Through twilight ages hunt the' Athenian fowl,
Which Chalcis gods, and mortals call an owl.
Now see an Attys, now a Cecrops clear,
Nay, Mahomet! the pigeon at thine ear;
Be rich in ancient brass, though not in gold,
And keep his lares, though his house be sold;
To headless Phœbe his fair bride postpone,
Honour a Syrian prince above his own;
Lord of an Otho, if I vouch it true;
Bless'd in one Niger, till he knows of two.'
Mummies o'erheard him; Mummius, fool-re-
nown'd,
Who, like his Cheops, stinks above the ground,
Fierce as a startled adder, swell'd, and said,
Rattling an ancient sistrum at his head :
'Speak'st thou of Syrian princes? traitor base !375
Mine, goddess! mine is all the horned race.
True, he had wit to make their value rise;
From foolish Greeks to steal them, was as wise;
More glorious yet, from barbarous hands to keep,
When Sallee rovers chas'd him on the deep.
Then taught by Hermes, and divinely bold,
Down his own throat he risk'd the Grecian gold,
$75 The strange story following, which may be taken for a fiction of the poet, is justified by a true relation in Spon's Voyages.
"Da, pulchra Laverna,
Da mihi fallere
Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem.' HOR.
Receiv'd each demigod, with pious care, 383
Deep in his entrails—I rever'd them there,
I bought them, shrowded in that living shrine,
And, at their second birth, they issue mine.'
'Witness great Ammon! by whose horns I swore,
(Reply'd soft Annius) this our paunch before
Still bears them, faithful; and that thus I eat,
Is to refund the medals with the meat.
To prove me, goddess! clear of all design,
Bid me with Pollio sup as well as dine:
There all the learn'd shall at the labour stand,
And Douglas lend his soft obstetric hand.' 394
The goddess smiling seem'd to give consent;
So back to Pollio hand in hand they went.
Then thick as locusts blackening all the ground,
A tribe, with weeds and shells fantastic crown'd,
Eachwith some wondrous gift approach'd the power,
A nest, a toad, a fungus, or a flower.
But far the foremost, two, with earnest zeal
And aspect ardent, to the throne appeal.
The first thus open'd: 'Hear thy suppliant's call, Great queen, and common mother of us all!
391 Douglas.] A physician of great learning, and no less taste; above all, curious in what related to Horace; of whom he collected every edition, translation, and comment, to the number of several hundred volumes.
383 Receiv'd each demigod.]
Emissumque ima de sede Typhoa terræ
Cœlitibus fecisse metum; cunctosque dedisse,
Terga fugæ donec fessos Egyptia tellus
Ceperit.'
Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this flower, 405
Suckled and cheer'd, with air, and sun, and shower.
Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I spread,
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, divine!
Did Nature's pencil ever blend such rays,
Such varied light in one promiscuous blaze?
Now prostrate! dead! behold that Caroline :
No maid cries, charming! and no youth, divine!
And lo the wretch! whose vile, whose insect-lust
Laid this gay daughter of the spring in dust.
O punish him, or to the' Elysian shades
Dismiss my soul, where no carnation fades.'
He ceas'd, and wept. With innocence of mien The' accus'd stood forth, and thus address'd the queen:
'Of all the' enamell'd race, whose silvery wing 421 Waves to the tepid zephyrs of the spring, Or swims along the fluid atmosphere,
Once brightest shin'd this child of heat and air.
405, &c. Fair from its humble bed, &c.-nam'd it
Each maid cried, charming! and each youth, divine!
Now prostrate! dead! behold that Caroline:
No maid cries, charming! and no youth, divine !]
These verses are translated from Catullus, Epith.
Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis,
Quam mulcent auræ, firmat Sol, educat imber,
Multi illum pueri, multæ optavere puellæ :
Idem quum tenui carptus defloruit ungui,
Nulli illum pueri, nullæ optavere puellæ,' &c.
421 Of all the' enamell'd race.] The poet seems to have an
eye to Spenser, Muiopotmos.
Of all the race of silver-winged flies
Which do possess the empire of the air.'
I saw, and started from its vernal bower
The rising game, and chas'd from flow'r to flower.
It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain; 427
It stop'd, I stop'd; it mov'd, I mov❜d again.
At last it fix'd, 'twas on what plant it pleas'd,
And where it fix'd, the beauteous bird I seiz'd:
Rose or carnation was below my care;
I meddle, goddess! only in my sphere.
I tell the naked fact without disguise,
And, to excuse it, need but show the prize;
Whose spoils this paper offers to your eye,
Fair ev'n in death! this peerless butterfly.' [parts :
'My sons! (she answer'd) both have done your
Live happy both, and long promote our arts.
But hear a mother when she recommends
To your fraternal care our sleeping friends.
The common soul, of Heaven's more frugal make,
Serves but to keep fools pert, and knaves awakė.
A drowsy watchman, that just gives a knock,
And breaks our rest, to tell us what's a-clock.
Yet by some object every brain is stir'd;
The dull may waken to a humming-bird;
The most recluse, discreetly open'd, find
Congenial matter in the cockle-kind;
The mind, in metaphysics at a loss,
May wander in a wilderness of moss;
The head that turns at superlunar things,
Pois'd with a tail, may steer on Wilkins' wings.
452 Wilkins.] One of the first projectors of the Royal Society, who, among many enlarged and useful notions, en
497, 428 It fled, I followed, &c.]
-I started back;
It started back; but pleas'd I soon return'd;
Pleas'd it return'd as soon.'-
'O! would the sons of men once think their eyes
And reason given them but to study flies!
See Nature in some partial narrow shape,
And let the Author of the whole escape:
Learn but to trifle; or, who most observe,
To wonder at their Maker, not to serve!'
'Be that my task (replies a gloomy clerk,
Sworn foe to mystery, yet divinely dark;
Whose pious hope aspires to see the day
When moral evidence shall quite decay,
And damns implicit faith, and holy lies,
Prompt to impose, and fond to dogmatize :)
Let others creep by timid steps, and slow,
On plain experience lay foundations low,
By common sense to common knowledge bred,
And last, to nature's cause through nature led.
All-seeing in thy mists, we want no guide,
Mother of arrogance, and source of pride!
We nobly take the high priori road,
And reason downward, till we doubt of God:
Make nature still encroach upon his plan,
And shove him off as far as e'er we can:
Thrust some mechanic cause into his place,
Or bind in matter, or diffuse in space:
Or, at one bound o'erleaping all his laws,
Make God man's image; man, the final cause;
Find virtue local, all relation scorn,
See all in self, and but for self be born:
Of nought so certain as our reason still,
Of nought so doubtful as of soul and will.
tertained the extravagant hope of a possibility to fly to the moon; which has put some volatile geniuses upon making wings for that purpose.
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