Nor wert thou, Isis! wanting to the day, REMARKS. Semper enim refice: ac, ne post amissa requiras, Anteveni; et sobolem armento sortire quotannis. 195 It is remarkable with what dignity the poet here describes the friends of this ancient philosopher. Horace does not observe the same decorum with regard to those of another sect, when he says, Cum ridere voles Epicuri de grege Porcum. But the word Drove, Armentum, here understood, is a word of honour, as the most noble Festus, the Grammarian, assures us, Armentum id genus pecoris appellatur, quod est idoneum opus armorum. And alluding to the temper of this warlike breed, our poet very appositely calls them a hundred head. SCRIBLERUS. ฬ. Ver. 192. of Aristotle's friends.] Let those who wantonly and ignorantly condemn the philosophy of Aristotle, carefully read the truly learned treatise of the late James Harris, Esq. entitled, Philosophical Arrangements; where they may see in what manner the preceptor of Alexander the Great arranged his pupil's ideas, so that they might not cause confusion for want of accurate disposition. Warton. Ver. 194. [Tho' Christ-church] This line is doubtless spurious, and foisted in by the impertinence of the editor; and accordingly we have put it between hooks. For I affirm this College came as early as any other, by its proper Deputies; nor did any College pay homage to Dulness in its whole Body. BENTLEY. P.W. Ver. 196. still expelling Locke,] In the year 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the University of Oxford to censure Mr. Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, and to forbid the reading it. See his Letters in the last Edit. of his works. P. W. Such was the fate of this new Philosophy at Oxford. The new Theology of Erasmus met with pretty much the same treatment, a century or two before, in the University of Cambridge. See Dr. Knight's Life of Erasmus, p. 137. But our obnoxious Essayist had given scandal to the scholiastic spirit of Anthony Wood, the famed Oxford Historian, long before; who, in the Journal of his Own Came whip and spur, and dash'd through thin and thick, On German Crouzaz and Dutch Burgersdyck. REMARKS. own life, has furnished us with this curious anecdote. “April 23d, 1663, I began a Course of Chemistry, [in Oxford,] under the noted Chemist and Rosicrusian, Peter Sthael of Strasburg in Royal Prussia. The club consisted of ten at least, whereof was JOHN Lock, of Christ Church, afterwards a noted writer. This John Lock was a man of a turbulent spirit, clamorous, and never contented. The club wrote, and took notes from the mouth of their Master: but the said John Lock scorned to do it: so that while every man besides was writing, he would be prating and troublesome." w.t Whatever might have been the case in the year 1703, certain I am, that Locke's Essay has been universally read and recommended at Oxford, for above fifty years last past. Warton. Ver. 196. Locke,] I could never learn that Locke was expelled the University. He was deprived of his studentship of ChristChurch for being privy to the designs of Lord Shaftesbury against the Government; and if we consider the nature of the offence, we shall have reason to admire the mildness of the punishment. BANNISTER. They who would wish to see our Universities most ably and eloquently vindicated, must consult Dr. Parr's note in his celebrated Spital Sermon. Bowles. Ver. 198. Crouzaz] Author of a very absurd and abusive commentary on the Essay on Man. w.t Ver. 198. On German Crouzaz and Dutch Burgersdyck.] There seems to be an improbability that the Doctors and Heads of Houses should ride on horseback, who, of late days, being gouty or unwieldy, have kept their coaches. But these are horses of great strength, and fit to carry any weight, as their German and Dutch extraction may manifest; and very famous we may conclude, being honoured with names, as were the horses Pegasus and Bucephalus. SCRIBLERUS. P.W. Ver. 198. On German Crouzaz and Dutch Burgersdyck.] The hostility of Pope to Crouzaz is readily accounted for by the attack U 2 made 200 As many quit the streams that murm'ring fall REMARKS. 205 made by the latter on the Essay on Man, which he represented as inculcating the principles of fatalism and infidelity; but it has been observed by a philosophical writer of the first authority, that Pope should not have committed so gross a mistake as to introduce his adversary in the Dunciad amongst Locke's Aristotelian opponents— "Each fierce logician, still expelling Locke," "He having not only spoken in terms of high approbation of Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, but having (as observed by Mr. Gibbon) formed his philosophy in the school of Locke. Dugald Stuart's Diss. i. p. 2, Encycl. Brit. Suppl. vol. v. p. 12. 1821. Ver. 199. the streams] The river Cam, running by the walls of these Colleges, which are particularly famous for their skill in disputation. P. W. Ver. 202. sleeps in port.] viz. "Now retired into harbour after the tempests that had long agitated his society." So Scriblerus. But the learned Scipio Maffei understands it of a certain Wine called Port, from Oporto, a city of Portugal, of which this professor invited him to drink abundantly. SCIP. MAFF. De CompoP. W. tationibus Academicis. Ver. 205. His Hat, &c.—So upright Quakers please both Man and God.] The Hat-worship, as the Quakers call it, is an abomithat nation to that sect; yet, where it is necessary to pay respect to man (as in the Courts of Justice and Houses of Parliament) they have, to avoid offence, and yet not violate their conscience, P. W. permitted other people to uncover them. Ver. 206. Walker with rev'rence took,] He was Bentley's con stant Low bow'd the rest: he, kingly, did but nod; 210 Thy mighty Scholiast, whose unwearied pains Made Horace dull, and humbled Milton's strains. Turn what they will to verse, their toil is vain, Critics like me shall make it prose again. REMARKS. stant friend in College. B. This appears sufficiently from the records of the controversies alluded to in ver. 201, 202. Wakefield, Ver. 210. Aristarchus] A famous commentator and corrector of Homer, whose name hath been frequently used to signify a complete critic. The compliment paid by our author to this eminent Professor, in applying to him so great a name, was the reason that he hath omitted to comment on this part which contains his own praises. We shall therefore supply that loss to our best ability. SCRIBLERUS. P.W. Ver. 214. Critics like me] Alluding to two famous editions of Horace and Milton; whose richest veins of poetry he had prodigally reduced to the poorest and most beggarly prose. -Verily, the learned Scholiast is grievously mistaken. Aristarchus is not boasting here of the wonders of his art, in annihilating the sublime, but of the usefulness of it, in reducing the turgid to its proper class; the words make it prose again plainly shewing that prose it was, though ashamed of its original; and therefore resolved he was that to prose it should return. Indeed, much is it to be lamented that Dulness doth not confine her critics to this useful task, and commission them to dismount what Aristophanes calls Pnμať iπтoßapova, all prose on horseback, wherever they meet with it. SCRIBL. IMITATIONS. Ver. 207. He, kingly, did but nod;] Milton. w.t 66 Ver. 210. "Dost thou not feel me, Rome ?" Ben Jonson. He, kingly, from his state P.t Virg. P.t Roman and Greek Grammarians! know your better; REMARKS. 220 Ver. 214. Critics like me] This is the line in which, contrary to nature, character, and decorum, Bentley is made to condemn and ridicule himself, and his own labours. Besides, his Horace ought not to be ranked with his Milton, as containing many acute remarks and happy emendations; and therefore did not make Horace dull. Warton. Ver. 216. Author of something yet more great than letter ;] Alluding to Grammarians, such as Palamedes and Simonides, who invented single letters. But Aristarchus, who had found out a double one, was therefore worthy of double honour. SCRIBL. w.t Ver. 217, 218. While tow'ring o'er your alphabet, like Saul, -Stands our Digamma,] Alludes to the boasted restoration of the Eolic Digamma, in his long projected edition of Homer. He calls it something more than letter, from the enormous figure it would make among the other letters, being one Gamma set upon the shoulders of another. P. W. Ver. 220. of Me or Te,] It was a serious dispute, about which the learned were much divided, and some discourses written. Had it been about Meum and Tuum it could not have been more warmly contested, than whether at the end of the first Ode of Horace, we should read, Me docturum hederæ præmia frontium, or, Te doctarum hedera-By this the learned scholiast would seem to insinuate that the dispute was not about Meum and Tuum, which is a mistake; for, as a venerable sage observeth, Words are the counters of wise men, but the money of fools; so that we see their property was indeed concerned. SCRIBL. w.t IMITATIONS. Ver. 215. Roman and Greek Grammarians, &c.] Imitated from Propertius speaking of the Æneid: "Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite, Graii! P.t |