*Glorious illuminations, made on high Spectators charm'd, and the bleft dwelling grac❜d. "Thro' all th' enlighten'd air swift fire-works flew, Which with repeated fhouts glad Cherubs threw, "Comets afcended with their sweeping train, "Then fell in ftarry fhow'rs and glitt'ring rain. In air ten thoufand meteors blazing hung, "Which from th' eternal battlements were flung. $1 If a man who is violently fond of Wit, will facrifice to that paffion his friend or his God, would it not be a fhame, if he who was fmit with the love of the Bathos fhould not facrifice to it all other tranfitory regards? You fhall hear a zealous Proteftant Deacon invoke a Saint, and modeftly befeech her to do more for us than Providence: "Look down blefs'd faint, with pity then look down, "Shed on this land thy kinder influence, And guide us through the mifts of providence, "In which we ftray." Neither will he, if a goodly Simile come in his way, fcruple to affirm himself an eye-witness of things never yet beheld by man, or never in exiftence; as thus, Thus have I feen in Araby the blefs'd, "A Phoenix couch'd upon her funʼial neft.” But to convince you that nothing is fo great which a marvellous genius, prompted by this laudable zeal, is not able to leffen, hear how the moft fublime of all Beings is reprefented in the following images: Prince Arthur, p. 50. A. Phillips on the death of Queen Mary. Firft be is a PAINTER. "Sometimes the Lord of Nature in the air, 66. Spreads forth his clouds, his fable canvas, where "His pencil, dipp'd in heav'nly colour bright, "Paints his fair rainbow, 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 light'ning, and diftils his rain." · Now he is a WRESTLER. "Me in his griping arms th' Eternal took, That the ftrong 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 raise recruits of vapours, which arise "Drawn from the feas, to mufter in the skies." 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, "My cause to manage or debate." Blackm. opt. edit. deod, 1716. p. 172. + Blackm. Pf. civ. p. 263. $ Page 70. Page 75. Page 170 + Page 61. In the following Lines he is a GOLD-BEATER. "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, "Borne on rebounding fun-beams thro' the skies, "Are thicken'd, wrought, and whiten'd, till they << grow "A heav'nly fleece." A MERCER, or PACKER. "Did'ft thou one end of air's wide curtain hold, "And help the Bales of Ether to unfold; "Say, which cærulean pile was by thy hand unroll'd ??? A BUTLER. "He measures all the drops with wond'rous skill, "Which the black clouds, his floating bottles, fill," And a BAKER. "God in the wilderness his table spread, Blackm. p. 181. & Page 131, + Blackm. Pf. civ. Page 18. + Page 1741 СНАР. CHAP. VI. Of the feveral Kinds of Geniufes 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 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 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 geniuses for Stilllife, 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 felicity, 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 fhells, a laborious and tuneful bag-piper, or a diligent breeder of tame rabbits, might feverally excel in their respective parts of the Bathos. 7 I fhall I fhall range thefe confined and lefs copious Geniuses 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 firft. 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 rise 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 Ostriches are fuch, whofe heaviness rarely per mits them to raise 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 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 make them feem their own. W. B. W. H. C. C. The Reverend D. D.. 5. The Didappers are authors that keep themselves long out of fight, under water, and come up now and then where you leaft expected them. L. W. G. D. Efq. The Hon. Sir W. Y. 6. The Porpoifes are unwieldy and big; they put alį their numbers into a great turmoil and tempeft, but whenever they appear in plain light (which is feldom) they are only shapeless and ugly monsters. I. D. C. G. 1. O. 7. The Frogs are such as can neither walk nor fly, but can leap and bound to admiration: They live generally in the |