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The insertion of the machinery of the sylphs in proper places, without the least appearance of its being awkwardly stitched in, is one of the happiest efforts of judgment and art. He took the idea of these invisible beings, so proper to be employed in a poem of this nature, from a little French book entitled, Le Comte de Gabalis,) of which is given the following account in an entertaining writer. "The Abbé Villars, who came from Thoulouse to Paris, to make his fortune by preaching, is the author of this diverting work. The five dialogues of which it consists, are the result of those gay conversations in which the Abbé was engaged with a small circle of men, of fine wit and humour, like himself. When this book first appeared, it was universally read, as innocent and amusing. But at length its consequences were perceived, and reckoned dangerous, at a time when this sort of curiosities began to gain credit. Our devout preacher was denied the chair, and his book forbidden to be read. It was not clear whether the author intended to be ironical, or spoke all seriously. The second volume, which he promised, would have decided the question; but

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the unfortunate Abbé was soon afterwards assassi

nated by ruffians on the road to Lyons. The laughers gave out, that the gnomes and sylphs, disguised like ruffians, had shot him, as a punishment for revealing the secrets of the Cabala ; a crime not to be pardoned by these jealous spirits, as Villars himself has declared in his book.*

It may not be improper to give a specimen of this author's manner, who has lately been well imitated in the way of mixing jest with earnest, in an elegant piece called HERMIPPUS REDIVIVUS. The Comte de Gabalis being about to initiate his pupil into the most profound mysteries of the Rosicrusian philosophy, advises him to consider seriously, whether or no he had courage and resolution sufficient to RENOUNCE all those obstacles which might prevent his arising to that height which the figure of his nativity promised. "Le mot de RENONCER, (says the scholar,) m'effraya, & je ne doutai point qu'il n'allât me proposer de renoncer au baptême ou au paradis.

*Mélanges d'Histoire & de Litterature. By Dom Noel Dargonne, disguised under the name of Vigneul Marville, Tom. prem. pag. 275. edit. Rotterdam, 1700.

paradis. Ainsi ne sçachant comme me tirer de ce mauvais pas; Renoncer, lui dis-je, Monsieur quoi-faut, il renoncer à quelque chose? Vraiment, reprit-il, il le faut bien; & il le faut si necessairement, qu'il faut commencer par-là. Je ne sçai si vous pourrez vous résoudre : mais je sçai bien que la sagesse n'habite point dans un corps sujet au péché, comme elle n'entre point dans une ame prevenue d'erreur ou de malice. Les sages ne vous admettront jamais à leur compagnie, si vous ne renoncez dès à présent à un chose qui ne peut compatir avec la sagesse. Il faut, ajoûta-t-il tout bas en se baissant à mon oreille, il faut renoncer à tout commerce charnel avec les femmes. On a diligent perusal of this book, I cannot find that POPE has borrowed any particular circumstances relating to these spirits, but merely the general idea of their existence.

These machines are vastly superior to the allegorical personages of Boileau and Garth; not only on account of their novelty, but for the exquisite poetry, and oblique satire, which they have

LE COMTE DE GABALIS, ou ENTRETIENS sur les Sciences Secretes. Second ENTRETIEN, page 30. à Amsterdam, 1671.

have given the poet an opportunity to display. The business and petty concerns of a fine lady, receive an air of importance from the notion of their being perpetually overlooked, and conducted, by the interposition of celestial agents.

It is judicious to open the poem, by introducing the Guardian Sylph warning Belinda against some secret impending danger. The account which Ariel* gives of the nature, office, and employment, of these inhabitants of air, is finely fancied; into which several strokes of satire are thrown with great delicacy and address.)

Think what an equipage thou hast in air,
And view with scorn two pages and a chair.

The transformation of women of different tem-.

pers into different kinds of spirits, cannot be too much applauded.

+ The sprites of fiery Termagants, in flame
Mount up, and take a salamander's name.

* Cant. i. ver. 27. to ver. 114.

Soft

These images have been lately expressed in Latin, with much purity and elegance; and deserve to be here inserted.

Mortua

Soft yielding minds to water glide away,
And sip with Nymphs, their elemental tea.
The graver Prude sinks downward to a gnome,
In search of mischief still on earth to roam.
The light Coquettes in sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the fields of air.

The description of the * toilette, which succeeds, is judiciously given in such magnificent terms as dignify the offices performed at it. Belinda dressing, is painted in as pompous a manner as Achilles arming.) The canto ends with a circumstance artfully contrived to keep this beautiful machi

Mortua lascivum resoluta liquescit in ignem,
Aut abit in molles singula nympha notos:
Etheriosque trahens haustus, tenuissima turba,
Versat ad æstivum lucida membra jubar.
Gaudet adhuc circum molles operosa puellas
Versari, et veneres suppeditare novas.
Curat uti dulces commendent oscula risus,
Purior ut sensim prodeat ore rubor:
Ne quatiat comptos animosior aura capillos,
Nec fædet pulcras pustula sæva genas:
Neve recens maculâ violetur purpura palli,
Excidat aut niveo pendula gemma sinu.
Corpora nympharum vacuas tenuentur in auras;
At studia in memori pectore prisca manent.

nery

Carm. Quadrages. vol. ii. pag. 32. Oxon. 1748.

Cant. i. ver. 121.

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