Enough! enough! the raptur'd Monarch cries; And thro' the Iv'ry Gate the Vision Aies. REMARK S. 340 may plainly be feen from his conclufion; where caufing all this vifion to pass through the Ivory Gate, he exprefsly, in the language of Poefy, declares all fuch imaginations to be wild, ungrounded, and fictitious. SCRIBE. Ibid. Proceed great days! &c. 'Till Birch hall blush, &c.] Another great prophet of Dulness, on this fide Styx, promifeth thofe days to be near at hand. The Devil (faith he) licensed Bishops to licence Mafters of Schools ta inftruct youth in the knowledge of the heathen Gods, their religion, &c. The Schools and Universities will foon be tired and afbamed of Claffics, and fuch trumpery. HUTCHINSON'S Use of Reafon recovered. SCRIBL IMITATIONS. VER. 340. And thro' the Iv'ry Gate, &c.] Sunt gemina Somni portæ ; quarum altera fertur Sed falfa ad cælum mittunt infomnia manes. Virg. Æn. vi. The End of the THIRD Book. THE DUNCIA D. BOOK the FOURTH. ARGUMENT. The Poet being, in this Book, to declare the Completion of the Prophecies mentioned at the end of the former, makes a new Invocation; as the greater Poets are wont, when fome high and worthy matter is to be fung. He fhews the Goddefs coming in her Majefty, to defroy Order and Science, and to fubftitute the Kingdom of the Dull upon earth. How she leads captive the Sciences, and filenceth the Mufes; and what they be who fucceed in their ftead. All her Children, by a wonderful attraction, are drawn about her, and bear along with them divers others, who promote her Empire by connivance, weak refiftance, or difcouragement of Arts; fuch as Half-wits, taftelefs Admirers, vain Pretenders, the Flatterers of Dunces, or the Patrons of them. All thefe crowd around her; one of them offering to approach her, is driven back by a Rival, but he commends and entourages both. The first who speak in form are the Genius's of the Schools, who affure her of their care to advance her Caufe by confining Youth to She Words, and keeping them out of the way of real Knowledge. Their Addrefs, and her gracious Anfwer; with her Charge to them and the Universities. The Univerfities appear by their proper Deputies, and affure her that the fame method is obferv'd in the progress of Education. The fpeech of Ariftarchus on this fubject. They are driven off by a band of young Gentlemen return'd from Travel with their Tutors; one of whom delivers to the Goddefs, in a polite oration, an account of the whole Conduct and Fruits of their Travels: prefenting to her at the fame time a young Nobleman perfectly accomplished. She receives him graciously, and indues him with the happy quality of Want of Shame. fees loitering about her a number of Indolent Perfons abandoning all bufinefs and duty, and dying with lazinefs: To thefe approaches the Antiquary Annius, intreating her to make them Virtuofos, and affign them. over to him: But Mummius, another Antiquary, complaining of his fraudulent proceeding, he finds a method to reconcile their difference. Then enter a Troop of people fantastically adorn'd, offering her ftrange and exotic prefents: : Amongst them, one ftands forth and demands juftice on another, who had deprived him of one of the greatest Curiofities in nature: but he justifies himself fa well, that the Goddess gives them both her approbation. She recommends to them to find proper employment for the Indolents before mentioned, in the ftudy of Butterflies, Shells, Birds-nefts, Mofs, &c. but with particular caution, not to proceed beyond Trifles, to any useful or extenfive views of Nature, or of the Author of Nature. Against the last of these apprehenfions, he is fecured by hearty Address from the Minute Philofophers and Free-thinkers, one of whom speaks in the name of the rest.. The Youth thus inftructed and principled, are delivered to her in a body, by the hands of Silenus: and then admitted to tafle the Cup of the Magus her High a Prieft, which causes a total oblivion of all Obligations, divine, civil, moral, or rational. To thefe her Adepts fhe fends Priefts, Attendants, and Comforters, of various kinds; confers on them Orders and Degrees; and then difmiffing them with a fpeech, confirming to each his Privileges, and telling what she expects from each, concludes with a Yawn of extraordinary virtue: The Progrefs and Effects whereof on all Orders of men, and the Confummation of all, in the Refloration of Night and Chaos, conclude the Poem. BOOK IV. ET, a moment, one dim Ray of Light Of darkness vifible, fo much be lent, As half to fhew, half veil the deep Intent. REMARK S. 5 The DUNCIAD, Book IV.] This Book may properly be diftinguished from the former, by the name of the GREATER DUNCIAD, not fo indeed in fize, but in fubject; and fo far, contrary to the diftinction anciently made of the Greater and Leffer Iliad. But much are they mistaken who imagine this Work in any wife inferior to the former, or of any other hand than of our Poet; of which I am much more certain than that the Iliad itfelf was the work of Solomon, or the Batrachomuomachia of Homer, as Barnes hath affirmed. BENT. P. W. VER. 1. &c. This is an Invocation of much piety. The Poet willing to approve himself a genuine Son, beginneth by fhewing (what is ever agreeable to Dulness) his high refpect for Antiquity and a great Family, how dead or dark foever: Next declareth his paffion for explaining Mysteries; and laftly his Impatience to be reunited to her. SCRIBL. P. W. VER. 2. dread Chaos, and eternal Night!] Invoked, as the Restoration of their Empire is the Action of the Poem. P. W. VER. 4. half to fhew, half veil the deep Intent.] This is a great propriety, for a dull Poet can never exprefs himfelf otherwife than by balves, or imperfectly. SCRIBL. P. W. |