How many Dutchmen she vouchsaf'd to thrid? As man's meanders to the vital spring 55 Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring; Or whirligigs, twirl'd round by skilful swain, Suck the thread in, then yield it out again; 60 65 "Ascend this hill, whose cloudy point commands Her boundless empire over seas and lands. REMARKS. Ver. 67. "Ascend this hill, &c.] The scenes of this vision are remarkable for the order of their appearance. First, from ver. 67 to 73, those places of the globe are shown where Science never rose; then, from ver. 74 to 83, those, where she was destroyed by Tyranny; from ver. 85 to 95, by inundations of Barbarians; from ver. 96 to 106, by Superstition. Then Rome, the mistress of arts, is described in her degeneracy; and lastly Britain, the scene of the action of the poem; which furnishes the occasion of drawing out the progeny of Dulness in review.-W. It cannot be believed that our author ever dreamt of the order, which the learned Remarker has supposed to be observed in this vision. This note is precisely in the style and manner of a forced and refined conceit of another eminent prelate, the good Bishop of Thessalonica, Eustathius : IMITATIONS. Ver. 54. Mix'd the owl's ivy with the poet's bays?] 66 sine tempora circum Inter victrices hederam tibi serpere lauros." Virg. Ecl. viii.—P. Ver. 61, 62. For this, our Queen unfolds to vision true This has resemblance to that passage in Milton, book xi. where the "To noble sights from Adam's eye remov'd The film; then purg'd with euphrasie and rue There is a general allusion, in what follows, to that whole episode.—P. See, round the Poles where keener spangles shine, 70 "Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the sun And orient science their bright course begun: One god-like Monarch all that pride confounds, He, whose long wall the wand'ring Tartar bounds; REMARKS. 75 "Aurora was in love with Orion, who was a great hunter;" by which it was hinted that the morning was the most favourable time for hunting.— Warton. Ver. 69. See, round the Poles, &c.] Almost the whole Southern and Northern continent wrapped in ignorance.-P. Ver. 69. See, round the Poles, &c.] These are excellent verses indeed; and may owe some obligations to a very animated and polished passage in Tickell's Prospect of Peace : Ver. 73.] "Now o'er his head the polar bear he spies, And freezing spangles of the Lapland skies ; With glittering spoils where Indian grottos shine, And wafted citron scents the balmy breeze."-Wakefield. Our author favours the opinion that all sciences came from the Eastern nations.-P. Ver. 73. Far eastward, &c.] In the former Edd. Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the sun And orient science at a birth begun. But as this was thought to contradict that line of the introduction, In oldest times, ere mortals writ or read, which supposes the sun and science did not set out together, it was altered to, their bright course begun. But this slip, as usual, escaped the gentlemen of the Dunciad.-w.t See selections from Pauw, with curious and valuable additions by Daniel Webb, Esq. an author who unites profound philosophy with fine taste.Warton. Ver. 74. orient science] Indostan was in all probability the parent of all the sciences, that arose first in the East. Many new lights will be thrown on this subject by the curious investigations of Sir William Jones at Calcutta.- -Since this was written, I am sorry to hear of the loss the world and his friends (of whom I had the happiness of being one) have sustained by his death.-Warton. Ver. 75.] Chi Ho-am-ti, Emperor of China, the same who built the great wall between China and Tartary, destroyed all the books and learned men of that empire.-P. Ver. 76. He, whose long wall] Other nations, says Voltaire, fortify their towns; the Chinese fortified their empire. The great wall which separated and defended China against the Tartars, and which was built an hundred and thirty-seven years before our era, subsists to this day, on a circumference of five hundred leagues, rising on the tops of mountains, and descending down into precipices, being almost every where twenty fect Heav'ns! what a pile! whole ages perish there, 66 Thence to the south extend thy gladden'd eyes; There rival flames with equal glory rise; From shelves to shelves see greedy Vulcan roll, "How little, mark! that portion of the ball, REMARKS. 80 85 90 broad, and above thirty feet high; a monument superior to the pyramids of Egypt, both by its utility and its immensity.-Warton. Ver. 81, 82.] The Caliph, Omar I. having conquered Egypt, caused his general to burn the Ptolemean library, on the gates of which was this inscription, VYXHE IATPEION, the Physic of the Soul.-P. Ver. 85. from hyperborean skies] The Roman, like other great empires, having degraded, debased, and destroyed a great part of the human species, about the fourth century, there rushed forth from the North prodigious swarms of warlike nations, from regions unknown, to take vengeance on those tyrants, for the various calamities they had inflicted on mankind. Their mighty armies could not have been conducted, nor could their victories have been so important, without more skill, and address, and knowledge, than they are commonly represented to have possessed. When the Goths, it is said, had sacked Athens, and were going to set fire to its libraries, one of their Chiefs dissuaded them from the design, by observing to them, that as long as the Greeks were addicted to the study of books, they would never apply themselves to the exercise of arms.- -Warton. Ver. 87. Lo! where Mæotis] This is said to be Pope's favourite line of all his works.-Warton. Ver. 87. Lo! where Mæotis, &c.] Dr. Johnson tells us, that this was the couplet, with which Pope, as he had been told, declared his own ear to be most gratified; but professes himself unable to see the reason of this preference. I think the couplet excellent in two respects, both from a judicious pause and a descriptive tenour in the numbers, and a curious felicity of most appropriate expression. We may compare some lines in A. Phillips's celebrated letter from Copenhagen, on a congenial subject; lines, if you except the insipid epithet delightful, not unworthy of Pope himself: See Alaric's stern port! the martial frame 66 95 100 "Lo! Rome herself, proud mistress now no more Of arts, but thund'ring against heathen lore; REMARKS. Ver. 92. Attila's dread name!] At an entertainment given by Attila to the Roman ambassadors, two Scythians advanced to him, and recited a poem, in which they celebrated his victories and military virtues. All the Huns fixed their eyes with attention on these bards; some, remembering their own exploits, exulted with joy; others, feeble with age, burst into tears, bewailing the decay of their vigour. See also a fine chapter, the 19th of Montesquieu's Grandeur, &c. for a character of this great hero. A poet of Calabria, named Marullus, having written a panegyric on Attila, after he had taken Padua, 451, in which he had called Attila a God, and said he was of divine original, Attila, ordering the verses to be interpreted to him, with indignation ordered the poem to be burnt, and the poet with difficulty escaped the same punishment.-See Fabricius, Bibl. Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis, t. 5. The noble painting by Raphael, of Attila, St. Peter, and St. Paul, is well known.-Warton. Ver. 96. (The soil that arts and infant letters bore)] Phoenicia, Syria, &c. where Letters are said to have been invented. In these countries Mahomet began his conquests.-P. Ver. 99. See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep, And all the western world believe and sleep.] A modification of his exemplar, Dryden, Epist. xiv. 66 Long time the sister-arts, in iron sleep, A heavy sabbath did supinely keep."-Wakefield. Ver. 102. thundring against heathen lore;] A strong instance of this pious rage is placed to Pope Gregory's account. John of Salisbury gives a very odd encomium of this Pope, at the same time that he mentions one of the strongest effects of this excess of zeal in him: Doctor sanctissimus ille Gregorius, qui melleo prædicationis imbre totam rigavit et inebriavit ecclesiam ; non modo Mathesin jussit ab aulâ, sed, ut traditur a majoribus, incendio dedit probata lectionis scripta, Palatinus quæcunque tenebat Apollo. And in another place: Fertur beatus Gregorius bibliothecam combussisse gentilem; quo divinæ paginæ gratior esset locus, et major authoritas, et diligentia studiosior. Desiderius, Archbishop of Vienna, was sharply reproved by him for teaching grammar and literature, and explaining the poets; because (says this Pope) In uno se ore cum Jovis laudibus, Christi laudes non capiunt. Et quam grave nefandumque sit Episcopis canere quod nec Laico religioso conveniat, ipse con Her grey-hair'd Synods damning books unread, 105 See, the Cirque falls, th' unpillar'd Temple nods! REMARKS. 110 sidera. He is said, among the rest, to have burned Livy: Quia in superstitionibus et sacris Romanorum perpetuò versatur. The same Pope is accused by Vossius and others, of having caused the noble monuments of the old Roman magnificence to be destroyed, lest those who came to Rome should give more attention to Triumphal Arches, &c. than to holy things. Bayle, Dict.-P. Ver. 104. And Bacon trembling] Trembling, lest that awful tribunal, which condemned his philosophy unread, should give credit to the foolish stories of his magic, and the tricks with his brazen head.-W.† Ver. 109. Till Peter's keys some christen'd Jove adorn,] After the government of Rome devolved to the Popes, their zeal was for some time exerted in demolishing the heathen temples and statues, so that the Goths scarce destroyed more monuments of antiquity out of rage, than these out of devotion. At length they spared some of the temples, by converting them to churches; and some of the statues, by modifying them into images of saints. In much later times, it was thought necessary to change the statues of the Apollo and Pallas, on the tomb of Sannazarius, into David and Judith; the Lyre easily became a Harp, and the Gorgon's Head turned to that of Holofernes.-P. Ver. 111. graceless Venus] Many pleasing instances of this kind are given in Middleton's entertaining Letter from Rome: "As it is in the Pantheon, (he says,) 'tis just the same in all the other heathen temples that still remain at Rome; they have only pulled down one idol to set up another in its place, and changed rather the name than the object of their worship. Thus the little Temple of Vesta, near the Tiber, mentioned by Horace, is now possessed by the Madonna of the Sun; that of Fortuna Virilis, by Mary the Egyptian; that of Saturn (where the public treasure was anciently kept), by St. Adrian; that of Romulus and Remus in the Via Sacra, by two other brothers, Cosmus and Damianus; that of Antonine the Godly, by Laurence the Saint. But for my part, I should sooner be tempted out of devotion for Romulus or Antonine, to prostrate myself before their statues, than those of a Laurence or a Damian; and much rather with pagan Rome give divine honours to the founders of empires, than with popish Rome to the founders of monasteries." Middleton borrowed much from Les Conformités des Ceremonies modernes avec les anciennes. A Leyde, 1667.-Warton. Ver. 112. Or Phidias broken,] Poggius, sitting with a friend on the top of the Capitoline hill, makes a pleasing and eloquent description of the Ruins of Rome, which lay in prospect below him; inserted in the Dialogue |