able zeal, is not able to leffen; hear how the most fublime of all Beings is reprefented in the following images:

Firft he is a PAINTER.

*Sometimes the Lord of Nature in the air,
Spreads forth his clouds, his fable canvas, where
His pencil, dipp'd in heav'nly colour bright,
Paints his fair rain-bow, charming to the fight.
Now he is a CHEMIST.

Th' Almighty Chemift does his work prepare,
Pours down his waters on the thirsty plain,
Digefts his lightning, and diftils his rain.

Now he is a WRESTLER.

↑ Me in his griping arms th' Eternal took,
And with fuch mighty force my body shook,
That the firong grafp my members forely bruis'd,
Broke all my bones, and all my finews loos'd.

Now a RECRUITING OFFICER.

For clouds, the fun-beams levy fresh supplies,
And raife recruits of vapours, which arife
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,

Blackm. opt. edit. duod. 1716. p. 173, + Blackm. Pí, civ. p. 263.

‡ Page 75,

§ P. 170.

P. 70. _ P. 61.

God

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 secret rise,

Born on rebounding fun-beams thro' the skies,

Are thicken'd, wrought, and whiten'd, till they

A MERCER, or PACKER.

Didft thou one end of air's wide curtain hold,
And help the Bales of Ether to unfold;

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

A BUTLER.

§ He measures all the drops with wondrous fkill,
Which the black clouds, his floating Bottles fill.
And a BAKER.

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

CHAP. VI.

Of the several 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 assertion, 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 fo wonderfully low and unaccountable. The great author, from whofe treasury we have drawn all these 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 others to acquire a due fhare of praife in inferior kinds. Many painters who could never hit a nose 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.

but

An univerfal Genius rifes not in an age; 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 Poct. 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

collector of fhells, a laborious and tuneful bagpiper, or a diligent breeder of tame rabbits, might feverally excel in their respective parts of the Bathos.

I shall 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 Fishes: 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 skimming and fluttering up and down, but all their agility is employed to catch flies. L. T. W. P. Lord H.

3. The Oftridges are fuch, whose heaviness rarely permits them to raise themselves from the ground; their wings are of no use to lift them up, and their motion is between flying and walking; but then they run very fast. 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 least expected them. L. W'. G. D. Efq. The Hon. Sir W. Y.

;

6. The Porpoifes are unweildly 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 fhapeless and ugly monsters. 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. Esq; T. D. Gent.

8. The Eels are obscure 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 Tortoifes 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 blessed with fundry and manifold choice Spirits in this our Island.

CHAP. 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 familiarizing his mind to the lowest objects; to which it may be added, that Vulgar Conversation will greatly contribute. There is no queftion but the Gar

5

ret