3

Now a RECRUITING OFFICER. For clouds, the fun-beams levy fresh fupplies, And raife recruits of vapours, which arise Drawn from the feas, to mufter in the fkies.

Now a peaceable GUARANTEE.
In leagues of peace the neighbours did agree,
And to maintain them, God was Guarantee.

Then he is an ATTORNEY.
Job, as a vile offender, God indites,
And terrible decrees against me writes.
God will not be my advocate,

My caufe to manage or debate.

In the following Lines he is a GOLDBEATER. "Who the rich metal beats, and then, with care, Unfolds the golden leaves, to gild the fields of air.

Then a FULLER.

th' exhaling reeks that fecret rife,

Born on rebounding fun-beams thro' the fkies, Are thicken'd, wrought, and whiten'd, 'till they grow

A heav'nly fleece.

A MERCER, or PACKER. 'Didft thou one end of air's wide curtain hold, And help the Bales of Æther to unfold,

Say, which cærulean pile was by thy hand unroll'd?

P 170. f P. 174.

b P. 70.

e P. 61. d P. 181.

• P. 18.

A BUTLER.

& He measures all the drops with wondrous skill, Which the black clouds, his floating Bottles, fill.

And a BAKER.

God in the wilderness his table spread,
And in his airy Ovens bak'd their bread.

CHA P. VI.

Of the feveral Kinds of Genius's in the Profund, and the Marks and Characters of each.

I

Doubt not but the reader, by this Cloud of examples, begins to be convinced of the truth of our affertion, that the Bathos is an Art; and that the Genius of no mortal whatever, following the mere ideas of Nature, and unaffifted with an habitual, nay laborious peculiarity of thinking, could arrive at images to wonderfully low and unaccountable. The great author, from whose treafury we have drawn all thefe inftances (the Father of the Bathos, and indeed the Homer of it) has, like that immortal Greek, confined his labours to the greater Poetry, and thereby left room for

& P. 131.

h

Elackm. Song of Mofes, p. 218.

others to acquire a due fhare of praise in inferior kinds. Many painters who could never hit a nofe or an eye, have with felicity copied a small-pox, or been admirable at a toad or a red herring. And feldom are we without genius's for Still-life, which they can work up and ftiffen with incredible accuracy.

An univerfal Genius rifes not in an age; but when he rifes, armies rife in him! he pours forth five or fix Epic Poems with greater facility, than five or fix pages can be produced by an elaborate and fervile copier after Nature or the Ancients. It is affirmed by Quintilian, that the fame genius which made Germanicus fo great a General, would with equal application have made him an excellent Heroic Poet. In like manner, reasoning from the affinity there appears between Arts and Sciences, I doubt not but an active catcher of butterflies, a careful and fanciful pattern-drawer, an induftrious collector of shells, a laborious and tuneful bagpiper, or a diligent breeder of tame rabbits, might severally excel in their refpective parts of the Bathos.

I fhall range these confined and lefs copious Genius's under proper claffes, and (the better to give their pictures to the reader) under the names of Animals of fome fort or other; whereby he will be enabled, at the first fight of fuch as fhall daily come forth, to know to what kind to refer, and with what authors to compare them.

1. The Flying Files: Thefe are writers who now and then rife upon their fins, and fly out of the Profund, but their wings are foon dry, and they drop down to the bottom. G. S. A. H. C. G.

2. The Swallows are authors that are eternally fkimming and fluttering up and down, but all their agility is employed to catch flies. L.T. W.P.

Lord H.

3. The Oridges are fuch, whofe heaviness rarely permits them to raife themselves from the ground; their wings are of no ufe to lift them up, and their motion is between flying and walking; but then they run very fat. D. F. L. E. The

Hon. E. H.

4. The Parrots are they that repeat another's words, in fuch a hoarfe odd voice, as makes them feem their own. W. B. W. H. C. C. The Reverend D. D.

5. The Didappers are authors that keep themfelves long out of fight, under water, and come up now and then where you leaft expected them. L. W. G.D. Eq. The Hon. Sir W. Y.

6. The Propafes are unweildy and big; they put all their numbers into a great turmoil and tempeft, but whenever they appear in plain light (which is feldom) they are only flapelefs and ugly monfters. I. D. C. G. I. O.

7. The Frogs are fuch as can neither walk nor fly, but can leap and bound to admiration: They live generally in the bottom of a ditch, and make a great noise whenever they thruft their heads above water. E. W. I. M. Efq; T. D. Gent.

8. The Eels are obfcure authors, that wrap themselves up in their own mud, but are mighty nimble and pert. L. W. L. T. P. M. General C.

9. The Tortoises are flow and chill, and, like paftoral writers, delight much in gardens: they have for the most part a fine embroidered Shell, and underneath it, a heavy lump. A. P. W. B. L.E. The Right Hon. E. of S.

These are the chief Characteristicks of the Bathos, and in each of these kinds we have the comfort to be bleffed with fundry and manifold choice Spirits in this our Island.

СНА Р. VII.

Of the Profund, when it confifts in the

W

Thought.

E have already laid down the Principles upon which our author is to proceed, and the manner of forming his Thought by familiariz