Omnibus ex causis, quæ animum corrumpere

junctis

Viribus, humanumque solent obtundere acumen,
Pingire caput solita est momento impellere summo
Stultitiæ semper cognata superbia ; quantum
Mentis nascenti fata invidere, profuso
Tantum subsidio fastûs superaddere gaudent;
Nam veluti in membris, sic sæpe animabus,
inanes

Exundant vice' spirituum, vice sanguinis auræ
Suppetias inopi venit alma superbia menti,
Atque per immensum capitis se extendit inane !
Quod si recta valet ratio hanc dispergere nubem
Naturæ verique dies sincera refulget.

Cuicunque est animus penitus cognoscere culpas, Nec sibi, nec sociis credat, verum omnibus aurem Commodet, apponatque inimica opprobria lucro.

[que

Ne musæ invigiles mediocritèr, aut fuge fontem
Castalium omnino, aut haustu te proluè pleno :
Istius laticis tibi mens abstemia torpet
Ebria, sobrietasque redit revocata bibendo.
Intuitu musæ priuno, novitateque capta
Aspirat doctrinæ ad culmina summa juventus
Intrepida, & quoniam tunc mens est arcta, suo-
Omnia metitur modulo, malè lippa labores
Ponè secuturos oculis non aspicit æquis:
Mox autem attonitæ jam jamque scientia menti
Crebrescit variata modis sine limite miris !
Sic abi desertis conscendere vallibus Alpes
Aggredimur, nubesque humiles calcare videmur,
Protinus æternas superâsse nives, & in ipso
Invenisse viæ lætamur limine finem :
His vero exactis tacito terrore stupemus
Durum crescentem magis & magis usque laborem,
Jam longus tandem prospectus læsa fatigat
Lumina, dum colles assurgunt undique fæti
Collibus, impositæque emergunt Alpibus Alpes.
Ingeniosa leget judex perfectus eâdem
Quá vates scripsit studiosus opuscula curâ,
Totum perpendet, censorque est parcus, ubi ardor
Exagitat naturæ animos & concitat cstrum;
Nec tam servili generosa libidine mutet
Gaudia, quæ bibulæ menti catus ingerit author.
Verum stagnantis mediocria carmina musæ,
Quæ reptant sub limâ & certâ lege stupescunt,
Quæ torpent uno erroris secura tenore,
Hæc equidem nequeo culpare—& dormio tantum.
Ingenii, veluti naturæ, non tibi constant
Jilecebræ formâ, quæ certis partibus insit ;
Nam te non reddit labiumve oculusve venustum,
Sed charitum cumulus, collectaque tela decoris.
Sic ubi lustramus perfectam insignitèr ædem,
{Quæ Romam splendore, ipsumque ita perculit
orbem)

Læta diu non ullâ in simplice parte morantur
Lumina, sed sese per totum errantia pascunt;
Nil longum latumve nimis, nil altius æquo
Cernitur, illustris nitor omnibus, omnibus ordo.
Quod consummatum est opus omni ex parte,
nec usquam
Nunc exstat, nec erat, nec erit labentibus annis.
Quas sibi proponat metas adverte, poeta [est,
Ultra aliquid sperare, illas si absolvat, iniquum

! Animalium scilicet.

VOL. XVI.

Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind: What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. Whatever Nature has in worth deny'd, She gives, in large recruits of needful pride; For as in bodies, thus in souls we find, [wind: What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, And fills up all the mighty void of sense! If once right reason drives that cloud away, Truth breaks upon us with resistless day; Trust not yourself by your defects to know, Make use of ev'ry friend—and ev'ry foe.

A little learning is a dang'rous thing, Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. Fir'd at first sight with what the Muse imparts, In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts, While from the bounded level of our mind, Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind; But more advanc'd, behold with strange surprise New distant scenes of endless science rise! So pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps we try, Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky, Th' eternal snows appear already past, And the first clouds and mountains seem the last; But those attain'd, we tremble to survey The growing labour of the lengthen'd way, Th' increasing prospect tires our wond'ring eyes, Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!

6 A perfect judge will read each work of wit With the same spirit that its author writ, Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find, Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind;

Nor lose, for that malignant, dull delight,
The gen'rous pleasure to be charm'd with wit:
But in such lays as neither ebb nor flow,
Correctly cold, and regularly low,
That shunning faults, one quiet temper keep,
We cannot blame indeed-but we may sleep.
In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts
Is not th' exactness of peculiar parts:
'Tis not a lip, nor eye, we beauty call,
But the joint force, and full result of all.
Thus when we view some well-proportion'd dome,
(The world's just wonder, and e'en thine, O Rome!
No single parts unequally surprise,

[pear;

All comes united to th' admiring eyes;
No monstrous height, or breadth, or length ap-
The whole at once is bold and regular.

Si recta ratione utatur, consilioque
Perfecto, missis maculis, vos plaudite clamo.
Accidit, ut vates, veluti vafer Aulicus, erret
Sæpius errorem, ut vitet graviora, minorem.
Neglige, quas criticus, verborum futilis auceps,
Leges edicit: nugas nescire decorum est.
Artis cujusdam tantum auxiliaris amantes
Partem aliquam plerique colunt vice totius; illi
Multa crepant de judicio, nihilominus istam
Stultitiam, sua quam sententia laudat, adorant.
Quixotus quondam, si vera est fabula, cuidam
Occurrens vati, criticum certamen inivit
Docta citans, graviterque tuens, tanquam arbiter

alter

Dennisius, Graii moderatus fræna theatri ;
Acriter id dein asseruit, stultum esse hebetemque,
Quisquis Aristotelis posset contemnere leges.
Quid?-talem comitem nactus felicitèr author,
Mox tragicum, quod composuit, proferre poema
Incipit, et critici scitari oracula tanti.
Jam μυθον τα παθη, τηθη προβλημα, λυσινque &
Cætera de genere hoc equiti describat hianti,
Quæ cuncta ad norman quadrarent, inter agen-
dum

Si tantum prudens certamen omitteret author.
"Quid vero certamen omittes?" excipit heros;
Sic veneranda Sophi suadent documenta. "Quid
ergo,
[oportet,"
Armigerumque, equitumque,cohors scenam intret,
Forsan, at ipsa capax non tantæ scena catervæ

est:

"Edificave aliam-vel apertis utere campis."
Sic ubi supposito morosa superbia regnat
Judicio, criticæque tenent fastidia curæ
Vana locum, curto modulo æstimat omnia censor,
Atque modo perversus in artibus errat eodem,
Moribus ac multi, dum parte laborat in unâ.
Sunt, qui nil sapiant, salibus nisi quæque re-
dundet

cuti

Pagina, perpetuoque nitet distincta lepore,
Nil aptum soliti justumve requirere, latè
Si micet ingenii chaos, indiscretaque moles.
Nudas naturæ veneres, vivumque decorem
Fingere, qui nequeunt, quorundam exempla se-
[auri,
Pictorum, haud gemmis parcunt, haud sumptibus
Ut sese abscondat rutilis inscitia velis.
Vis veri ingenii, natura est cultior, id quod
Senserunt multi, sed jam scite exprimit unus,
Quod primo pulchrum intuitu, rectumque videtur
Et mentis menti simulachra repercutit ipsi.
Haud secus ac lucem commendant suaviter um-
bræ,

Ingenio sic sitnplicitas superaddit honorem:
Nam fieri possit musa ingeniosior æquo,
Et pereant tumidæ nimio tibi sanguine venæ.
Nonnulli vero verborum in cortice ludunt,
Ornatusque libri solos muliebriter ardent.
Egregium ecce! stylum clamant! sed semper

ocellis

Prætereunt malè, si quid inest rationis, inunctis. Verba, velut frondes, nimio cum tegmine opacant Ramos, torpescunt mentis sine germine. Prava Rhetorice, vitri latè radiantis ad instar Prismatici, rutilos diffudit ubique colores;

And if the means be just, the conduct true
Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due.
As men of breeding, sometimes men of wit,
T'avoid great errours, must the less commit.
Neglect the rules each verbal critic lays,
For not to know some trifles is a praise.
Most critics, fond of some subservient art,
Still make the whole depend upon a part,
They talk of principles, but notions prize,
And all to one lov'd folly sacrifice.

Once, on a time, la Mancha's knight, they say,
A certain bard encount'ring on the way,
Discours'd in terms as just, in looks as sage,
As e'er cou'd Dennis, of the Grecian stage;
Concluding all were desp'rate sots and fools,
That durst depart from Aristotle's rules.
Our author happy in a judge so nice,
Produc'd his play, and begg'd the knight's advice;
Made him observe the subject, and the plot,
The manners, passions, unities, what not?
All which, exact to rule, were brought about,
Were but a combat in the lists left out. [knight!
"What! leave the combat out?" exclaims the
Yes, or we must renounce the Stagyrite.
"Not so, by heav'n!" (he answers in a rage)
"Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the
stage."

The stage can ne'er so vast a throng contain, "Then build a new, or act it on a plain.”

Thus critics of less judgment than caprice,
Curious, not knowing, not exact, but nice,
Form short ideas, and offend in arts
(As most in manners) by a love to parts.

Some to conceit alone their taste confine,
And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at ev'ry line;
Pleas'd with a work, where nothing's just or fit,
One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit.
Poets like painters, thus unskill'd to trace
The naked nature, and the living grace,
With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part,
And hide with ornaments their want of art.
True 7 wit is nature to advantage dress'd, I
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd;
Something, whose truth convinc'd at sight we
find,

That gives us back the image of our mind.
As shades more sweetly recommend the light,
So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit:
For works may have more wit than does them
good,

As bodies perish through excess of blood.

Others, for language all their care express,
And value books, as women men, for dress:
Their praise is still-the style is excellent;
The sense they humbly take upon content.
Words are like leaves, and where they most
abound,

Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.
False eloquence, like the prismatic glass
Its gaudy colours spreads on ev'ry place;

7 Naturam intueamur, hanc sequamur; id facillime accipiunt animi quod agnoscunt.

QUINTIL. lib. 8. cap. 34

Non tibi naturæ licet amplius ora tueri,
At malè discretis scintillant omnia flammis:
Sed contra veluti jubar immutabile solis,
Quicquid contrectat facundia, lustrat et auget,
Nil variat, sed cuncta oculo splendoris inaurat.
Eloquium mentis nostræ quasi vestis habenda est,
Quæ si sit satis apta, decentior inde videtur;
Scommata magnificis ornata procacia verbis
Indutos referunt regalia syrmata faunos ;
Diversis etenim diversa vocabula rebus
Appingi fas est, aulæ velut aulica vestis,
Alteraque agricolis, atque aitera congruit
Quidam scriptores, antiquis vocibus usi,
Gloriolam affectant, veterum æmula turba
sonorum,

urbi.

Si mentem spectes juvenentur more recentûm.
Tantula nugamenta styloque operosa vetusto,
Docti derident soli placitura popello.
Hi nihilo magè felices quam comicus iste
Fungoso, ostentat absurdo pepla tumore,
Qualia nescio quis gestavit nobilis olim ;
Atque modo veteres doctos imitantur eodem,
Ac hominein veteri in tunicâ dum simia ludit.
Verba, velut mores, a justis legibus errant,
Si nimium antiquæ fuerint, nimiumve novatæ ;
Tu cave ne tentes insueta vocabula primus,
Nec vetera abjicias postremus nomina rerum.

Lævis an asper eat versus plerique requirunt
Censores, solosque sonos damnantve probantve;
Mille licet veneres formosam Pierin ornent,
Stultitiâ vox argutâ celebrabitur una:
Qui juga Parnassi non ut mala corda repurgent,
Auribus ut placeant, visunt: sic sæpe profanos
Impulit ad resonum pietas aurita sacellum.
His solum criticis semper par syllabi cordi est,
Vasto etsi usque omnis pateat vocalia hiatu;
Expletivaque sæpe suas quoque suppetias dent,
Ac versum unum oneret levium heu! decas en !
pigra vocum ;

Dum non mutato resonant malè cymbala planctu, Atque augur miser usque scio, quid deinde sequatur.

Quacunque aspirat clementior aura Favoni,
Mex (nullus dubito) graciles vibrantur aristæ,
Rivulus ut molli serpet per lævia lapsu,
Lector, non temere expectes, post murmura,
[ipsa
Tum demum qua latè extremum ad distichou
Magnificum sine mente nihil, sententia splendet,

somnos.

The face of nature we no more survey,
All glares alike, without distinction gay;
But true expression, like th' unchanging Sun,
Clears and improves whate'er it shines upon,
It gilds all objects, but it alters none.
Expression is the dress of thought, and still
Appears more decent as more suitable;
A vile conceit in pompous words express'd,
Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd;
For different styles with diff'rent subjects sort,
As sev'ral garbs, with country, town, and court.
Some by old words to fame have made pretence,
Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense;
Such labour'd nothings in so strange a style,
Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile.
Unlucky, as Fungoso in the play9;
These sparks with awkward vanity display
What the fine gentleman wore yesterday;
And but so mimic ancient wits at best,
As apes our grandsires in their doubtlets drest.
In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold,
Alike fantastic, if too new, or old; '

Be not the first by whom the new are try'd,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

Not for the doctrine, but the music there.
These equal syllables alone require,
Though oft the ear the open vowels tire ";
While expletives their feeble aid do join,
And ten low words oft creep in one dull line!
While they ring round the same unvary'd chimes,
With sure returns of still expected rhymes.
Where'er you find the cooling western breeze,
In the next line it whispers through the trees,
Ifcrystal streams with pleasing murmurs creep,
The reader's threat'ned, not in vain, with sleep.
Then at the last, and only couplet fraught
With some unmeaning thing they call a thought,

Abolita et abrogata retinere, insolentiæ cu jusdam est, et frivolæ in parvis jactantiæ.

QUINTIL. lib. 1. cap. 6.

Opus est ut verba a vetustate repetita neque crebra sint, neque manifesta; quia nil est odiosius affectatione, nec utique ab ultimis repetita temporibus. Oratio cujus summa virtus est perspicuitas; quam sit vitiosa, si egeat interprete? Ergo ut novorum optima erunt maxime vetera, ita veterum maxime nova. Ibid,

9 Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour. 10 Quis populi sermo est? quis enim ? nisi

carmine molli

Nunc demum numero fluere ut per læve severos Effugit junctura ungues; scit tendere versum, Nec secus ac si oculo rubricam dirigat uno.

PERSIUS, Stat. 1.

13 Fugiemus crebas vocalium concursiones, quæ vastam atque hiantem orationem reddunt. Cic. ad Herenn. lib. 4.

instar

Anguis saucia terga trahentis, prorepentisque.
Hi proprias s upeant nugas, tu discere tentes,
Quæ teret properant vená, vel amabile languent.
Istaque fac laudes, ubi vivida Denhamii vis
Walleria condita fluit dulcedine musa.
Scribendi numerosa facultas provenit arte,
Ut soli incessu faciles fluitare videntur,
Pleci ro morigeros qui callent singere gressus.
Non solum asperitas teneras cave verberet aures,
Sed vox quæque expressa tuæ sit mentis imago.
Lenè edat Zephyrus suspiria blanda, politis
Lævius in numeris labatur læve fluentum;
At reboat, furit, æstuat æmula musa, sonoris
Littoribuscum rauca horrendum impingitur unda.
Quando est saxum Ajax vastâ vi volvere adortus,
Tarde incedat versus, multum perque laborem.
Non ita sive Camilla cito salis æquora rasit,
Sive levis levitèrque terit, neque flectit aristas.
Audin! Timothei cœlestia carmina, menti
Dulcibus alloquiis varios suadentia motus !
Audin! ut alternis Lybici Jovis inclyta proles
Nunc ardet famam, solos nunc spirat amores
Lumina nunc vivis radiantia volvere flammis,
Mox furtim suspiria, mox effundere fletum !
Dum Persa, Græcique pares sentire tumultus
Discunt, victricemque lyram rex orbis adorat.
Musica quid poterit corda ipsa fatentur, et audit
Timotheus nostras merita cum laude Drydenus.

Tu servare modum studeas benè cautus, et istos Queis aut nil placuisse potest, aut omnia, vites Exiguas naso maculas suspendere noli, Namque patent nullo stupor atquc superbia mentis

Clariùs indicio; neque mens est optima certè, Non secus ac stomachus, quæcunque recusat et odit

Omnia, difficilisque nihil tibi concoquit unquam.
Non tamen idcirco vegeti vis ulla leporis
Te tibi surripiat; mirari mentis ineptæ est,
Prudentis vero tantum optima quæque probare.
Majores res apparent per nubila visæ,
Atque ita luminibus stupor ampliat omnia densis.

His Galli minus arrident, illisque poetæ
Nostrates, hodierni aliis, aliisque vetusti.
Sic fidei simile, ingenium sectæ arrogat uni
Quisque sua; solis patet illis janua cœli
Scilicet, inque malam rem cætera turba jubentur.
Frustra autem immensis cupiunt imponere me-

tain

Muneribus Divûm, atque illius tela coarctant
Solis, hyberboreas etiam qui temperat auras,
Non solum australes genios fœcundat et auget.
Qui primis latè sua lumina sparsit ab annis,
Illustrat præsens, summumque accenderit ævum.
(Cuique vices variæ tamen; et jam sæcula sæ-
culis

Succedunt pejora, et jam meliora peractis)
Fro meritis musam laudare memento,nec unquam
Neglige quod novitas distinguit, quodve vetustas.
Sunt qui nil proprium in medium proferresuërunt,
Judiciumque suum credunt popularibus auris;
Tum vulgi quò exempla trahunt retrahuntque
sequuntur,

a Christianæ scilicet.

[along.

That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length Leave such to tune their own dull rhymes, and know

What's roundly smooth, or languishingly slow,
And praise the easy vigour of of a line
Where Denham's strength, and Waller's sweet-
ness join.

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers
flows,

But when loud billows lash the sounding shore, The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent [throw,

roar.

When Ajax strives, some rock's vast weight to
The line too labours, and the words move slow,
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,[main.
Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the
Hear how Timotheus' various lays surprise,
And bid alternate passions fall and rise;
While at each change the son of Lybian Jove,
Now burns with glory, and then melts with love.
Now fierce his eyes with sparkling fury glow!
Now sighs steal out, and tears begin to flow;
Persians and Greeks like turns of nature found,
And the world's victor stood subdu'd by sound!
The pow'r of music all our hearts allow,
And what Timotheus was, is Dryden now.

Avoid extremes, and shun the fault of such,
Who still are pleas'd too little, or too much.
At ev'ry trifle scorn to take offence,
That always shows great pride or little sense.
Those heads, as stomachs, are not sure the best,
Which nauseate all, and nothing can digest.
Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move;
For fools admire, but men of sense approve.
As things seem large which we through mists
descry,

Dulness is ever apt to magnify.

Some the French writers, some our own despise ; The ancients only, or the moderns prize. (Thus wit, like faith, by each man is apply'd To one small sect, and all are damn'd beside ;) And force that sun but on a part to shine, Meanly they seek the blessing to confine, Which not alone the southern wit sublimes, But ripens spirits in cold northern climes; Which from the first has shone on ages past, Enlights the present, and shall warm the last. (Though each may feel increases and decays And see now clearer and now darker days.) Regard not then if wit be old or new, But blame the false, and value still 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, And own stale nonsense which they ne'er invent.

12 Alexander's feast, or the power of music; an ode by Mr. Dryden.

Tolluntque expositas latè per compita nugas. Turba alia authorum titulos et nomina discit Scriptor que ipsos, non scripta examinat.

rum

nata

Ho

Pessimus iste cluet, si quem servilitèr ipsos
Visere magnates stupor ambitiosus adegit.
Qui critice ad mensam domino ancillatur inepto,
Futilis ardelio, semper referensque ferensque
Nuntia nugarum. Quam pinguia, quam male
[ullus
Carmina censentur, quæcunque ego forte vel
Pangere Apollineæ tentat faber improbus artis!
At siquis vero, siquis vir magnus adoptet
Felicem musam, quantus nitor ecce! venusque
Ingenio accedunt! quam prodigialitèr acer
Fit stubito stylus! omnig enam venerabile nomen
Prætexit sacris culpam radiis, & ubique
Carmina culta nitent, & pagina parturit omnis.
Stultula plebs doctos studiosa imitarier errat,
Ut docti nullos imitando sæpius ipsi ;
Qui, si forte unquam plebs rectum viderit, (illis
Tanto turba odio est) consultò lumina claudunt.
Talis schismaticus Christi, grege sæpe relicto,
Colos ingenii pro laude paciscitur ipsos.

Non desunt quibus incertum mutatur in horas
Judicium, sed semper eos sententia ducit
Ultima palantes. Illis miseranda camæna
More meretricis tractatur, nunc Dea certè,
Nunc audit vilis lupa: dum præpingue cerebrum,
Debilis & male munitæ stationis ad instar,
Jam recti, jam stultitiæ pro partibus astat.
Si causam rogites, aliquis tibi dicat eundo
Quisque dies teneræ præbet nova pabula menti,
Et sapimus magis atque magis. Nos docta pro-
pago

Scilicet et sapiens proavos contemnimus omnes,
Heu! pariter nostris temnenda nepotibus olim.
Quondam per nostros dum turba scholastica fines
Regnavit, si cui quam plurima clausula semper
In promptu, ille inter doctissimus audiit omnes;
Religiosa fides simul ac sacra omnia nasci
Sunt visa in litem: sapuit sat nemo refelli
Ut se sit passus. Jam gens insulsa Scotista,
Intactique abaci Thomista pace fruentes
Inter araneolos pandunt sua retira fratres,
Ipsa fides igitur cum sit variata, quid ergo,
Quid mirum ingenium quoque si varia induatora?
Naturæ verique relictis finibus amens
Sæpius insanire parat popularitèr author,
Expectatque sibi vitalem hoc nomine famam,
Suppetit usque suus plebi quia risus ineptæ.

Hic solitus propriâ metirier omnia normâ,
Solos, qui secum sunt mente et partibus iisdem
Approbat, ac vanos virtuti reddit honores,
Cui tantum sibi sic larvata superbia plaudit.
Partium in ingenio studium quoque regnat ut
Seditioque auget privatas publica rixas.
Drydeno obstabant odium atque superbia nuper
Et stupor omnigenæ latitans sub imagine formæ,
Nunc criticus, nunc bellus homo, inox deinde sa-
cerdos ;

[aula,

Attamen ingenium, joca cum siluêre, superstes Vivit adhuc, namque olim utcunque sepulta profundis

Pulchrior emerget tenebris tamen inclyta virtus. Milbourni, rursus si fas foret ora tueri, [merus HoBlackmorique novi reducem insequerentur;

Some judge of authors' names, not works, and then

Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men.
Of all this servile herd, the worst is he
Who in proud dulness joins with quality,
A constant critic at the great man's board,
To fetch and carry nonsense for my lord.
What woeful stuff this madrigal wou'd be,
In some starv'd hackney sonneteer, or me?
But let a lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens, how the style refines!
Before his sacred name flies ev'ry fault,
And each exalted stanza teems with thought!

The vulgar thus through imitation err,
As oft the learn'd by being singular;
So much they scorn the crowd, that if the throng
By chance go right, they purposely go wrong:
So Schismatics the plain believers quit,
And are but damn'd for having too much wit.
Some blame at morning what they praise at
night;

But always think the last opinion right.
A muse by these is like a mistress us'd,
This hour she's idoliz'd, the next abus'd;
While their weak heads like towns unfortify'd
'Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their side.
Ask them the cause, they're wiser still they say ;
And still to morrow's wiser than to day.
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow;
Our wiser sons no doubt will think us so.
Once school-divines this zealous isle o'erspread;
Who knew most sentences, were deepest read;
Faith, gospel, all, seem'd made to be disputed,
And uone had sense enough to be confuted:
Scotists and Thomists now in peace remain,
Amidst their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane.
If faith itself has diff'rent dresses worn,
What wonder modes in wit should take their turn?
Oft leaving what is natural and fit,

The current folly proves the ready wit;
And authors think their reputation safe,
Which lives as long as fools are pleas'd to laugh.