Never by tumbler through the hoops was shown Plague with dispute, or persecute with rhyme. 260 Or wed to what he must divorce, a Muse; REMARKS. 265 than to plague with dispute. But if, after all, the pupil will needs learn a science, it is then provided by his careful directors, ver. 261, 262, that it shall either be such as he can never enjoy when he comes out into life, or such as he will be obliged to divorce. And to make all sure, ver. 263 to 267, the useless or pernicious sciences, thus taught, are still applied perversely; the man of wit petrified in Euclid, or trammelled in metaphysics; and the man of judgment married, without his parents' consent, to a Muse. Thus far the particular arts of modern education, used partially, and diversified according to the subject and the occasion. But there is one general method, with the encomium of which the great Aristarchus ends his speech, ver. 267 to 270, and that is AUTHORITY, the universal CEMENT, which fills the cracks and chasms of lifeless matter, shuts up all the pores of living substances, and brings all human minds to one dead level. For if Nature should chance to struggle through all the entanglements of the foregoing ingenious expedients to bind rebel wit, this claps upon her one sure and entire cover. So that well may Aristarchus defy all human power to get the Man out again from under so impenetrable a crust. The poet alludes to this master-piece of the Schools in ver. 501, where he speaks of Vassals to a name. P.t Ver. 257. Never by tumbler] These two verses are verbatim from an epigram of Dr. Evans, of St. John's College, Oxford; given to my father twenty years before the Dunciad was written. The parenthesis, in ver. 259, (if sober all this time,) is a poor expletive. Warton. With the same CEMENT, ever sure to bind, And hew the block off, and get out the man. 270 But wherefore waste I words? I see advance Whore, Pupil, and lac'd Governor from France. Walker! our hat:" nor more he deign'd to say, But, stern as Ajax' spectre, strode away. REMARKS. Ver. 264. petrify a Genius] Those who have no genius, employed in works of imagination; those who have, in abstract sciences. P. W. Ver. 266. not a step advance.] He has condescended to borrow this illustration on metaphysicians, from Lord Hervey's Observations on Alciphron. Warton. Ver. 270. And hew the block off,] A notion of Aristotle, that there was originally in every block of marble, a statue, which would appear on the removal of the superfluous parts. P. W. Ver. 272. lac'd Governor] Why lac'd? Because gold and silver are necessary trimming to denote the dress of a person of rank; and the Governor must be supposed so in foreign countries, to be admitted into courts and other places of fair reception. But how comes Aristarchus to know at sight that this Governor came from France? Know? Why, by his laced coat. SCRIBLERUS. P.W. Ver. 272. Whore, Pupil, and lac'd Governor] Some critics have objected to the order here, being of opinion that the Governor should have the preference before the Whore, if not before the Pupil. But were he so placed, it might be thought to insinuate that the Governor led the Pupil to the Whore: and were the Pupil placed first, he might be supposed to lead the Governor to her. But our impartial poet, as he is drawing their picture, represents them in the order in which they are generally seen; namely, the Pupil between the Whore and the Governor; hut placeth the Whore first, as she usually governs both the others. P. W. Ver. 272. Whore, Pupil,] Meaning the late Duke of Kingston, and his celebrated mistress, Mad. De La Touche. Ver. 274. stern as Ajax' spectre, strode away.] Warton. See Homer, Odyss. 275 In flow'd at once a gay embroider'd race, And titt'ring push'd the Pedants off the place: Some would have spoken, but the voice was drown'd By the French horn, or by the op'ning hound. The first came forwards with an easy mien, As if he saw St. James's and the Queen. When thus th' attendant Orator begun : "Receive, great Empress! thy accomplish'd Son: Thine from the birth, and sacred from the rod, A dauntless infant, never scar'd with God. i REMARKS. 280 Odyss. xi. where the Ghost of Ajax turns sullenly from Ulysses the Traveller, who had succeeded against him in the dispute for the arms of Achilles. There had been the same contention between the Travelling, and the University Tutor, for the spoils of our young heroes, and fashion adjudged it to the former; so that this might well occasion the sullen dignity in departure, which Longinus so much admired. SCRIBEERUS. W.t Ver. 276. And titt'ring pushed, &c.] HOR. P. W. "Rideat et pulset lasciva decentius ætas." Ver. 280. As if he saw St. James's] Reflecting on the disrespectful and indecent behaviour of several forward young persons in the Presence, so offensive to all serious men, and to none more than the good Scriblerus. P. W. Ver. 281. th' attendant Orator] The Governor above-said. The poet gives him no particular name; being unwilling, I presume, to offend or do injustice to any, by celebrating one only with whom this character agrees, in preference to so many who equally deserve it. SCRIBLERUS. P. W. Ver. 284. A dauntless infant, never scar'd with God.] i. e. Brought up in the enlarged principles of modern education; whose great point is to keep the infant mind free from the prejudices of opinion, and the growing spirit unbroken by terrifying names. Amongst the happy consequences of this reformed discipline, it is not the least, that we have never afterwards any occasion for the priest, whose trade, as a modern wit informs us, is only to finish what the nurse began. SCRIBL. W.t The Sire saw, one by one, his virtues wake: 285 REMARKS. Ver. 288. he ne'er was boy, nor man.] Nature hath bestowed on the human species two states or conditions, infancy and manhood. Wit sometimes makes the first disappear, and folly, the latter; but true dulness annihilates both. For, want of apprehension in boys, preventing that conscious ignorance and inexperience which produce the awkward bashfulness of youth, makes them assured; and want of imagination makes them grave. But this gravity and assurance, which is beyond boyhood, being neither wisdom nor knowledge, do never reach to manhood. SCRIBL. W. Ver. 290. unseen the young Æneas pass'd; Thence bursting glorious,] See Virg. Æneid. i. "At Venus obscuro gradientes aëre sepsit, Et multo nebulæ circum Dea fudit amictu, Cernere ne quis eos ;-1. neu quis contingere possit; 2. Molirive moram ;-aut 3. veniendi poscere causas." Where he enumerates the causes why his mother took this care of him to wit, 1. that no body might touch or correct him: 2. might stop or detain him: 3. examine him about the progress he had made, or so much as guess why he came there. P. W. Ver. 294. Europe he saw,] The pernicious effects of too early travelling are here ridiculed and exposed with equal good sense and charming poetry. IMITATIONS. Ver. 284. A dauntless infant, never scar'd with God.] "sine Dîs animosus infans." HOR. Warton. P.† There all thy gifts and graces we display, 295 300 To happy convents, bosom'd deep in vines, REMARKS. 305 Ver. 301. To happy convents,] I cannot forbear saying, though indeed every reader of taste will perceive the thing, that Pope has never written, nor indeed does our language afford, six more delicious lines. The three compound epithets, which are more in. number than he ever has used so near each other, have a fine effect, and are most happily constructed. So also is greatly-daring, in line 318. Ver. 302, Abbots, purple as their wines, is from Rousseau, the poet. Warton. Ver. 303. lily-silver'd vales,] Tuberoses. P.† Ver. 305. To lands of-dancing slaves,] In the year 1413, when the city of Paris was in the utmost desolation, in the murders and proscriptions of the Great, by the uncontrolled fury of a mad populace, who had destroyed one half of the Court, and had kept the other half, with the King and Dauphin, prisoners in the palace, devoted to destruction. At this dreadful juncture, the insolence of one Jacqueville, the Captain of the mob, has been the occasion of bringing down to us a circumstance very declarative of the singular temper of this gay nation. As that fellow, with his guards at his heels, was going his rounds, to see that the work of ruin went on without interruption, when he came to the Palace he went abruptly up into the apartments, where he found the Dauphin and the principal Lords and Ladies of the Court dancing, as in the midst of peace and security: on which, with the |