Th'Affront is mine, my friend, and fhould be yours.
Mine, as a Foe profefs'd to false Pretence, 201
Who think a Coxcomb's Honour like his Sense;
Mine, as a Friend to ev'ry worthy mind;

And mine as Man, who feel for all mankind.
F. You're ftrangely proud.

P. So proud, I am no Slave:

So impudent, I own myself no Knave:
So odd, my Country's Ruin makes me grave.
Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see
Men not afraid of God, afraid of me:

206

Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne, 210 Yet touch'd and fham'd by Ridicule alone.

O facred weapon! left for Truth's defence, Sole Dread of Folly, Vice, and Insolence! To all but Heav'n-directed hands deny'd,

NOTES.

VER. 204. And mine as Man, who feel for all mankind.) From Terence:,,Homo fum: humani nihil a me alienum puto.

P.

VER. 208. Yes, I am proud; &c.) In this ironical exultation the Poet infinuates a fubject of the deepest humiliation.

VER. 211. Yet touch'd and fham'd by Ridicule alone.) The Paffions are given us to awake and fupport Virtue. But they frequently betray their truft, and go over to the interests of Vice. Ridicule, when employed in the cause of Virtue, fhames and brings them back to their duty. Hence the ufe and impor

tance of Satire.

VER. 214. To all but Heav'n - directed hands) ,, The Citizen (fays Plato, in his fifth book of Laws) who does no injury to any ,,one, without question, merits our esteem. He, who, not con,,tent with being barely just himself, oppofes the course of injustice, ,,by profecuting it before the Magistrate, merits our esteem vastly ,,more. The first discharges the duty of a fingle Citizen; but the other does the office of a Body. But he whofe zeal stops hot

The Muse may give thee, but the Gods must guide: 215
Rev'rent I touch thee! but with honeft zeal;
To roufe the Watchmen of the public Weal,
To Virtue's work provoke the tardy Hall,
And goad the Prelate flumb'ring in his Stall,
Ye tinfel Insects! whom a Court maintains,

NOTES.

220

ahere, but proceeds to ASSIST THE MAGISTRATE IN "BUNISHING is the most valuable bleffing of Society. This

is the PERFECT CITIZEN, to whom we should adjudge the prize of Virtue.

VER. 219. And goad the Prelate flumb'ring in his Stall.) The good Eufebius, in his Evangelical Preparation, draws a long parallel between the Ox and the Christian Priesthood. Hence the dignified Clergy, out of mere humility, have ever fince called their thrones by the name of stalls. To which a great Prelate of Winchester, one W. Edinton, modeftly alluding (who otherwife had been long fince forgotzen) has rendered his name immortal by this ecclefiaftical aphorifm, Canterbury is the higher rack, but Winchester is the better manger. By which, however, it appears that he was not one of thofe here candemned, who flamber in their falls.

SCRIBLERUS.

VER, 220, &c, Ye tinfel Infects! whom a Court maintains, That counts your Beauties only by your Stains, Spin all your Cobwebs) And again, to the fame purpose, in the Epifle to Dr. Arbuthnot,

Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?

Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings,

This painted child of Dirt, that finks and stings. Thefe, it is objected, are Insects not of Nature's creating, but The Poet's, and therefore fuch compound images are to be condemned. One would think, by this, that mixed qualities troubled the fenfe, as much as mixed metaphors do the style. But whoever thinks fo, is mistaken. The fault of mixed metaphors is, that they call the imagination from image to image, when it is the Writer's purpose to fix it upon one. On the contrary, mixed qualisies do their office rightly, and inform the understanding of what the

That counts your Beauties only by your Stains,
Spin all your Cobwebs o'er the Eye of Day!
The Mufe's wing fhall brush you all away:
All his Grace preaches, ali his Lordship fings,
All that makes Saints of Queens, and Gods of Kings, 225

NOTES.

author would infinuate, that the moral infect is a more worthless creature than the phyfical, as he collects together, in one individual, divers bad or trifling qualities, which nature had dispersed in many. And when, in fact, we fee them fo collected; as venom, sophistry, and infidiousness, in a Court - Butterfly, the giving it the bite of the bug, and the web of the spider, makes it a monster indeed, but a monster of nature's producing, and not the poet's, cujus velut ægri fomnia vanæ

Fingentur fpecies.

VER. 220, Ye Infects The Mufe's wing shall brush you all away:) This it did very effectually; and the memory of them had been now forgotten, had not the Poet's charity for a while, protracted their miserable Being. There is now in his library a complete collection of all the horrid Libels written and published against him;

The tale reviv'd, the lye fo oft o'erthrown,

Th'imputed trash, and dulness not his own ;

The morals blacken'd, when the writings 'scape,
The libell'd Person, and the pictur'd shape.

Thefe he had bound up in several volumes, according to their various fizes, from folios down to duodecimos; and to each of them hath affixed this motto out of the book of Job:.

Behold, my defire is, that mine adversary fhould write a book. Surely I should take it upon my fhoulder, and bind it as a crown se me. Ch. xxxi. v. 35, 36,

VER. 222. Cobwebs) Weak and flight fophiftry against virtue and honour. Thin colours over vice, as unable to hide the light of Truth, as cobwebs to fhade the fun.

All, all but Truth, drops dead-born from the Press, Like the laft Gazette, or the laft Addrefs.

When black Ambition ftains a public Cause, A Monarch's fword when mad Vain-glory draws, Not Waller's Wreath can hide the Nation's Scar, 230 Nor Boileau turn the Feather to a Star.

Not fo, when diadem'd with rats divine,

Touch'd with the Flame that breaks from Virtue's Shrine,
Her Prieftefs Mufe forbids the Good to die.
And opes the Temple of Eternity.

There, other Trophies deck the truly brave,

VARIATIONS.

After v. 227. in the MS,

Where's now the Star that lighted Charles to rife? j
With that which follow'd Julius to the skies.

Angels, that watch'd the Royal Oak fo well,
How chanc'd ye nod, when lucklefs Sorel fell?
Hence, lying miracles! reduc'd fo low
As to the regal-touch, and papal-toe;

Hence haughty Edgar's title to the Main,

Britain's to France, and thine to India, Spain!

NOTES.

235

VER. 228. When black Ambition &c.) The cafe of Cromwell in the civil war of England and (v. 229.) of Louis XIV. in his conquest of the Low Countries.

:

P.

VER. 231. Nor Boileau turn the Feather to a Star.) See his Ode on Namur; where (to ufe his own words),,Il a fait un ,,Aftre de la Plume blanche que le Roy porte ordinairement à „fon Chapeau, & qui est en effet une espece de Comete, fatale à ,,nos ennemis.,,

P.

Than fuch as Anftis cafts into the Grave;
Far other Stars than * and * * wear,

240

And may defcend to Mordington from STAIR:
(Such as on HOUGH's unfully'd Mitre fhine,
Or beam, good DIGBY, from a heart like thine)
Let Envy howl, while Heav'n's whole Chorus fings,
And bark at Honour not confer'd by Kings;
Let Flatt'ry fick'ning fee the Incense rise,

Sweet to the World, and grateful to the Skies: 245
Truth guards the Poet, fanctifies the line,
And makes immortal, Verfe as mean as mine.

Yes, the laft Pen for Freedom let me draw, When Truth ftands trembling on the edge of Law; Here, Laft of Britons! let your Naines be read; 25c Are none living? let ne praise the Dead,

And for that Caufe which made your Fathers fhine, Fall by the Votes of their degen'rate Line.

NOTES.

VER. 237. Anftis) The chief Herald at Arms. It is the cuftom, at the funeral of great peers, to caft into the grave the broken staves and ensigns of honour.

P.

VER. 239. Stair;) John Dalrymple Earl of Stair, Knight of the Thistle; served in all the wars under the Duke of Marlborough; and afterwards as Embassador in France.

P.

VER. 240, 241. Hough and Digby) Dr. John Hough Bishop of Worcester, and the Lord Digby. The one an affertor of the Church of England in oppofition to the false measures of King James II. The other as firmly attached to the cause of that King. Both acting out of principle, and equally men of honour and