Turn what they will to Verfe, their toil is vain 214 Roman and Greek Grammarians! know your Better: REMARK S. VER 214. Critics like me— -] Alluding to two famous Editions of Horace and Milton; whofe richest veins of Poetry he had prodigally reduced to the poorest and most beggarly profe-Verily the learnest scholiaft is grievously mistaken. Ariftarchus, is not boafting here of the wonders of his art in annihilating the fublime; but of the usefulness of it, in reducing the turgid to its proper clafs; the words make it profe again, plainly fhewing that profe it was, tho' afhamed of its original, and therefore to profe it should return. Indeed, much is it to be lamented that Dulnefs doth not confine her critics to this useful task; and commiffion them to dismount what Ariftophanes calls Papa inapora, all profe on borfe back. SCRIBL. VER, 216. Author of fomething yet more great than Letter ;] Alluding to thofe Grammarians, fuch as Palamedes and Simonides, who invented fingle letters. But Ariftarchus, who had found out a double one, was therefore worthy of double honour. SCRIBL. VER. 217, 218. While tow'ring o'er your Alphabet, like Saul,-Stands our Digamma,] Alludes to the boafted restoration of the Æolic Digamma, in his long projected Edition of Homer. He calls it fomething more than Letter, from the enormous figure it would make among the other letters, being one Gamma fet upon the shoulders of another. IMITATIONS. VER. 215. Roman and Greek Grammarians, &c.] Imitated from Propertius speaking of the Æneid, Cedite, Romani fcriptores, cedite Graii! "Tis true, on Words is ftill our whole debate, Difputes of Me or Te, of aut or at, To found or fink in cano, O or A, Let Freind affect to speak as Terence spoke, REMARK S. 220 225 VER: 220. of Me or Te,] It was a serious difpute, about which the learned were much divided, and fome treatifes written: Had it been about Meum and Tuum it could not be more contested, than whether at the end of the first Ode of Horace, to read, Me doƐtarum bederæ præmia frontium, or, Te doctarum bedera-By this the learned scholiaft would feem to infinuate that the difpute was not about Meum and Tuum, which is a Mistake: For, as a venerable fage obferveth, Words are the counters of Wise-men, but the money of fools; so that we fee their property was indeed concerned, SCRIBL. VER. 222. Or give up Cicero to C or K.] Grammatical difputes about the manner of pronouncing Cicero's name in Greek. It is a dispute whether in Latin the name of Hermagoras fhould end in as or a. Quintilian quotes Cicero as writing it Hermagora, which Bentley rejects, and fays Quintilian must be mistaken, Cicero could not write it so, and that in this cafe he would not believe Cicero himself. These are his very words: Ego vero Ciceronem ita fcripfiffe ne Ciceroni quidem affirmanti crediderim.—Epift. ad Mill, in fin, Frag. Menand. et Phil. VER. 223, 224. Freind---Alfop] Dr. Robert Freind, master of Westminster school, and canon of Chrift-church--Dr. Anthony Alfop, a happy imitator of the Horation style. VER. 226. Manilius or Solinus] Some Critics having had it in their choice to comment either on Virgil or Manilius, Pliny or Solinus, have chosen the worse author, the more freely to display their critical capacity. For Attic Phrafe in Plato let them feek, Be fure I give them Fragments, not a Meal; Or chew'd by blind old Scholiasts o'er and o'er, 230 235 Ah, think not, Mitrefs! more true Dulnefs lies In Folly's Cap, than Wisdom's grave disguise. 240 Like buoys, that never fink into the flood, On learning's furface we but lie and nod, REMARKS. VER. 228. &c. Suidas, Gellius, Stobaeus] The first a Dictionary-writer, a collector of impertinent facts and barbarous words; the fecond a minute Critic; the third an author, who gave his Common-place book to the public, where we happen to find much Mince-meat of old books. VER. 232. Or chew'd by blind old Scholiafts o'er and o'er.] These taking the fame things eternally from the mouth of one another. VER. 239, 240. Ah, think not, Miftrefs, &c.--In Folly's Cap, &c.] By this it appears the Dunces and Fops, mentioned ver. 139, 140. had a contention of rivalship for the Goddess's favour on this great day. Those got the start, but these make it up by their Spokesman in the next speech. It feems as if Ariftarchus here first saw him advancing with his fair Pupil. SCRIBL. VIR. 241, 242. Like buoys, etc.--On Learning's surface, etc.] VOL. VI. C Thine is the genuine head of many a house, REMARKS. 245 So that the ftation of a Profeffor is only a kind of legal Noticer to inform us where the shattered bulk of Learning lies funk; which after fo long unhappy navigation, and now without either Master or Patron, we may with, with Horace, may lie there fill. ---- --Nonne vides, ut Nudum remigio latus? non tibi funt integra lintea; Non Dî, quos iterum preffa voces mało. Sylva filia nobilis, Factus & genus, & nomen inutile. VER. 244. And much Divinity without a Hor. Nec.] A word much affected by the learned Ariftarchus in common converfation, to fignify Genius or natural acumen. But this paf fage has a farther view. Nag was the Platonic term for Mind, or the first cause, and that fyftem of Divinity is here hinted at which terminates in blind nature without a Neç: fuch as the Poet afterwards defcribes (fpeaking of the dreams of one of these later Platonists) Or that bright Image to our Fancy draw, Which Theocles in raptur'd Vifion far, That Nature------&c. VER. 245, 246. Barrow, Atterbury] Ifaac Barrow, Master of Trinity, Francis Atterbury Dean of Chrift-church, both great Genius's and eloquent Preachers; one more converfant in the fublime Geometry, the other in claffical Learning; but who equally made it their care to advance the polite Arts in their feveral Societies. For thee we dim the eyes, and ftuff the head REMARKS. 250 VER. 247. the beavy Canon] Canon here, if spoken of Artillery, is in the plural number; if of the Canons of the House, in the fingular, and meant only of one: in which cafe 'I fufpect the Pole to be a falfe reading, and that it fhould be the Poll or Head of that Canon.' It may be objected, that this is a mere Paranomafia or Pun. But what of that? Is any figure of speech more apposite to our gentle Goddess, or more frequently used by her and her children, especially of the University? Doubtlefs it better fuits the Character of Dulness, yea of a Doctor, than that of an Angel; yet Milton feared not to put a confiderable quantity into the mouths of his. It hath indeed been observed, that they were the Devil's Angels, as if he did it to fuggeft the Devil was the Author as well of falfe Wit, as of falfe Religion, and that the Father of Lies was alfo the Father of Puns. But this is idle : It must be owned a Christian practice, ufed in the primitive times by fome of the Fathers, and in latter by most of the Sons of the Church; till the debauched reign of Charles the fecond, when the fhameless Paffion for Wit overthrew every thing and even the best Writers admitted it, provided it was obscene, under the name of the Double entendre. SCRIBL. VER. 248. And Metaphyfic fmokes, &c.] Here the learned Ariftarchus ending the first member of his harangue in behalf of Words, and entering on the other half, which regards the teaching of Things, very artfully connects the two parts in an encomium on METAPHYSICS, a kind of Middle nature between words and things: communicating, in its obfcurity, with Subftance, and, in its emptinefs, with Names, SCRIBL |