Not fo, when swift Camilla fcours the plain,

372

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and fkims along the

main.

Hear how Timotheus' vary'd lays furprize,
And bid alternate paffions fall and rife!

375

While, at each change, the fon of Libyan Jove
Now burns with glory, and then melts with love;
Now his fierce eyes with sparkling fury glow,
Now fighs fteal out, and tears begin to flow:
Perfians and Greeks like turns of nature found,
And the World's victor ftood fubdu'd by Sound!
The pow'r of Mufic all our hearts allow,
And what Timotheus was, is DRYDEN now.
Avoid Extremes; and fhun the fault of fuch,
Who ftill are pleas'd too little or too much.
At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence,

385

That always fhows great pride, or little sense;
Those heads, as ftomachs, are not fure the beft,
Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest.

Yet let not each gay Turn thy rapture move; 390
For fools admire, but men of sense approve:
As things feem large which we thro' mifts defcry,
Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

Some foreign writers, fome our own despise;
The Ancients only, or the Moderns prize.

395

Thus

VER. 374. Hear how Timotheus, etc.] See Alexan der's Feast, or the Power of Mufick; an Ode by Mr.

Dryden. P.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 372. Not fo, when fwift Camilla, etc.]

At mora fi fuerit damno, properare jubebo, etc.

I

Vida ib. 420.

400

Thus Wit, like Faith, by each man is apply'd
To one fmall fect, and all are damn'd befide.
Meanly they seek the bleffing to confine,
And force that fun but on a part to shine,
Which not alone the southern wit fublimes,
But ripens fpirits in cold northern climes;
Which from the first has fhone on ages past,
Enlights the prefent, and fhall warm the last ;
Tho' each may feel encreases and decays,
And fee now clearer and now darker days.
Regard not then if Wit be old or new,
But blame the false, and value ftill the true.
Some ne'er advance a Judgment of their own,
But catch the spreading notion of the Town;
They reason and conclude by precedent,

405

410

415

And own ftale nonsense which they ne'er invent.
Some judge of authors names, not works, and then
Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men.
Of all this fervile herd, the worst is he
That in proud dulnefs joins with Quality.
A conftant critic at the great man's board,
To fetch and carry nonsense for my Lord.
What woful stuff this madrigal would be,
In some starv'd hackney fonnetteer, or me?
But let a Lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens! how the style refines!

420

Before

VER. 402. Which from the firft, etc.] Genius is the fame in all ages; but its fruits are various; and more or lefs excellent as they are checked or matured by the influence of Government or Religion upon them. Hence in fome parts of Literature the Ancients excel; in others, the modern; juft as thofe accidental circumstances influenced them.

Before his facred name flies ev'ry fault,
And each exalted stanza teems with thought!
The Vulgar thus thro' Imitation err;
As oft the Learn'd by being fingular;

425

So much they scorn the croud, that if the throng
By chance go right, they purposely go wrong:
So Schifmatics the plain believers quit,

And are but damn'd for having too much wit.
Some praise at morning what they blame at night;
But always think the last opinion right.

A Mufe by these is like a mistress us'd,

431

This hour fhe's idoliz'd, the next abus'd;
While their weak heads like towns unfortify'd,
"Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their fide.
Ask them the cause; they're wiser ftill, they say;
And still to-morrow's wifer than to-day.
We think our fathers fools, fo wife we grow ;
Our wifer fons, no doubt, will think us fo.
Once School-divines this zealous ifle o'er-fpread;
Who knew moft Sentences, was deepest read;
Faith, Gofpel, all, feem'd made to be disputed,
And none had fenfe enough to be confuted:
Scotifts and Thomifts, now, in peace remain,
Amidst their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane.

439

445

If

VER. 444. Scotifs and Thomifts] These were two parties amongst the fchoolmen, headed by Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas, of different opinions, and from that difference denominated Realifts and Nominalifts; they were perpetually difputing on the immaculate conception, and on fubjects of the like importance.

VER. 444. Scotifts] So denominated from Johannes Duns Scotus. He fuffered a miferable reverfe of fortune at Oxford in the time of Henry VIII. That grave An

tiquary

If Faith itself has diff'rent dreffes worn,

What wonder modes in Wit fhould take their turn?
Oft', leaving what is natural and fit,
The current folly proves the ready wit;

And

tiquary Mr. Antony Wood fadly laments the deformation, as he calls it, of that University by the King's Commisfioners; and even records the blafphemous fpeeches of one of them in his own Words-We have fet DUNCE in Biccardo, with all his blind Gloffers, faft nailed up upon pofts in all common houses of easement. Upon which our venerable Antiquary thus exclaims: "If fo be, the com"miffioners had fuch disrespect for that most famous "Author J. Duns, who was fo much admired by our

་་

predeceffors, and so DIFFICULT TO BE UNDERSTOOD, that the Doctors of thofe times, namely Dr. "William Roper, Dr. John Kynton, Dr. William Mowfe, "etc. profeffed, that, in twenty eight years flady, they

could not understand him rightly, What then had they "for others of an inferior note ?What indeed! But then, Iff be, that most famous J. Duns was fo difficult to be understood (for that this is a most classical proof of his great value, who doubts?) I fhould conceive our good old Antiquary to be a little mistaken. And that the nailing up this Proteus was done by the Commiffioners in honour of the most famous Duns: There being no other way of catching the fenfe of fo flippery an Author, who had eluded the purfuit of three of their most renowned Doctors, in full cry after him, for twenty eight years together. And this Boccardo in which he was confined, feemed very proper for the purpofe; it being obferved, that men are never more ferious and thoughtful than in that place. SCRIBL.

Ibid. Thomifts,] From Thomas Aquinas, a truly great Genius, who was, in those blind ages, the fame in Theology that Friar Bacon was in natural Philofophy: lefs happy than our Countryman in this, that he foon became furrounded with a number of dark Gloffers, who never left him till they had extinguished the radiance of that light which had pierced through the thickest night of Monkery,

450

455

And authors think their reputation safe,
Which lives as long as fools are pleas'd to laugh.
Some valuing thofe of their own fide or mind,
Still make themselves the measure of mankind :
Fondly we think we honour merit then,
When we but praise ourselves in other men.
Parties in Wit attend on those of State,
And public faction doubles private hate.
Pride, Malice, Folly, against Dryden rose,
In various shapes of Parfons, Critics, Beaus ;
But fenfe furviv'd, when merry jefts were paft;
For rifing merit will buoy up at last.

461
Might he return, and bless once more our eyes,
New Blackmores and new Milbourns muft arife:
Nay should great Homer lift his awful head,
Zoilus again would start up from the dead.
Envy will merit, as its fhade, pursue ;

But like a fhadow, proves the substance true;

465

Monkery, the thirteenth century, when the Waldenfes were fuppreffed, and Wickliffe not yet rifen.

VER. 445. Duck-lane] A place where old and fecond. hand books were fold formerly, near Smithfield.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 447. Between this and ver. 448.

P.

The rhyming Clowns that gladded Shakespear's age,
No more with crambo entertain the stage.

Who now in Anagrams their Patron praife,

Or fing their Mistress in Acroftic lays?

Ev'n pulpits pleas'd with merry puns of yore;
Now all are banish'd to the Hibernian fhore !
Thus leaving what was natural and fit,
The current folly prov'd their ready wit;
And authors thought their reputation fafe,

Which liv'd as long as fools were pleas'd to laugh."

VOL. I.