395

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, Each with fome 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,

400

Great Queen, and common Mother of us all !
Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this Flower,
Suckled, and chear'd, with air, and fun, and shower :

405

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 vary'd light in one promiscuous blaze!

REMARKS.

Now

Ver. 394. Douglas] A physician of great Learning and no less Taste; above all, curious in what related to Horace, of whom he collected every Edition, Tranflation, and Comment, to the number of several hundred volumes.

Ver. 409. and nam'd it Caroline :) It is a compliment which the Florists usually pay to Princes and great perfons, to give their names to the most curious Flowers of their raifing: Some have been very jealous of vindicating this honour, but none more than that ambitious Gardener, at Hammersmith, who caused his Favourite to be painted on his Sign, with this inscription, This is My Queen Caroline.

Now prostrate! dead! behold that Caroline:
No maid cries, Charming! and no youth, Divine!
And lo the wretch! whose vile, whose infect luft
Lay'd this gay daughter of the Spring in dust.

415

Oh punish him, or to the Elysian shades
Dismiss my foul, where no carnation fades.

He ceas'd, and wept. With innocence of mien,
Th' Accus'd stood forth, and thus address'd the Queen :

Of all th' enamel'd race, whose silvery wing

421

Waves to the tepid Zephyrs of the spring,
Or fwims along the fluid atmosphere,
Once brightest shin'd this child of Heat and Air.
I faw, and started from its vernal bower

445

The rifing game, and chac'd from flower to flower.
It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain;
It stopt, I stopt; it mov'd, I mov'd again.
At last it fixt, 'twas on what plant it pleas'd,
And where it fix'd, the beauteous bird I seiz'd:
Rofe or Carnation was below my care;
I meddle, Goddess! only in my sphere.
I tell the naked fact without difguise,
And, to excuse it, need but shew the prize;
Whose spoils this Paper offers to your eye,

430

435

Fair ev'n in death! this peerless Butterfly.

My fons! (she answer'd) both have done your parts:

Live happy both, and long promote our arts.

But hear a Mother, when she recommends

To your fraternal care our fleeping friends.

449

The common Soul, of Heaven's more frugal make,

Serves but to keep fools pert and knaves awake;

A drowfy

445

450

A drowsy Watchman, that just gives a knock,
And breaks our rest, to tell us what's a clock.
Yet by fome object every brain is stirr'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 Metaphyfics 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.
O! would the Sons of Men once think their Eyes
And Reason giv'n 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;

VARIATION.

455

460 Whofe

Ver. 441. The common foul, &c.] in the first Edit. thus,
Of Souls the greater part, Heaven's common make,
Serve but to keep fools pert, and knaves awake;
And most but find that centinel of God,
A drowsy Watchman in the land of Nod.

REMARKS.

Ver. 452. Wilkins' wings.] One of the first Projectors of the Royal Society, who, among many enlarged and useful notions, entertained the extravagant hope of a poffibility to fly to the Moon; which has put some voJatile Geniuses upon making wings for that purpose.

Whose pious hope aspires to fee the day
When Moral Evidence shall quite decay,
And damns implicit faith, and holy lies,
Prompt to impofse, and fond to dogmatize :)
Let others creep by timid steps and flow,
On plain Experience lay foundations low,
By common sense to common knowledge bred,
And laft, to Nature's Cause through Nature led.
All-feeing in thy mists, we want no guide,
Mother of Arrogance, and Source of Pride!
We nobly take the high Priori Road,
And reafon downward, till we doubt of God:
Make Nature still incroach 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,

REMARKS.

465

470

475

Find

Ver. 462. When Moral Evidence shall quite decay,] Alluding to a ridiculous and abfurd way of fome Mathematicians, in calculating the gradual decay of Moral Evidence by mathematical proportions: according to which calculation, in about fifty years it will be no longer probable that Julius Cæfar was in Gaul, or died in the Senate House. See Craig's Theologiæ Chriftianæ Principia Mathematica. But as it seems evident, that facts of a thousand years old, for inftance, are now as probable as they were five hundred years ago; it is plain, that if in fifty more they quite difappear, it must be owing, not to their Arguments, but to the extraordinary power of our Goddess; for whose help therefore they have reafon to pray.

Find Virtue local, all Relation scorn,
See all in Self, and but for Self be born :
Of nought fo certain as our Reason still,
Of nought fo doubtful as of Soul and Will.
Oh hide the God still more! and make us fee
Such as Lucretius drew, a God like Thee :
■Wrapt up in Self, a God without a Thought,
Regardless of our merit or default.
Or that bright Image to our fancy draw,
Which Theocles in raptur'd vifion faw,
Wild through Poetic scenes the GENIUS roves,

Or wanders wild in Academic Groves;
That NATURE our Society adores,

Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus fnores.

REMARKS.

480

485

490

Rous'd

Ver. 492. Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus snores.] It cannot be denied but that this fine stroke of fatire against Atheism was well intended. But how must the Reader fmile at our Author's officious zeal, when he is. told, that at the time this was written, you might as foon have found a Wolf in England as an Atheist? The truth is, the whole species was exterminated. There is a trifling difference indeed concerning the Author of the Atchievement. Some, as Dr. Afhenhurst, gave it to Bentley's Boylean Lectures. And he fo well convinced that great Man of the truth, that wherever afterwards he found Atheist, he always read it A Theist. But, in spite of a claim so well made out, others gave the honour of this exploit to a latter Boylean Lecturer. A judicious Apologift for Dr. Clarke, againft Mr. Whifton, says, with no less elegance than positiveness of Expreffion, It is a moft certain truth that the Demon- stration of the being and attributes of God, has extirpated