CHAP. XIV.

OF THE SECESSION OF MARTINUS; AND SOME HINTS OF HIS TRAVELS.

Ir was in the year 1699, that Martin set out on his Travels.* Thou wilt certainly be very curious to know what they were. It is not yet time to inform thee. But what hints I am at liberty to give, I will.

Thou shalt know then, that in his first voyage he was carried, by a prosperous storm, to a discovery of the remains of the ancient Pygmaean empire.

That in his second, he was as happily shipwrecked on the land of the giants, now the most humane people in the world.

That in his third voyage, he discovered a whole kingdom of philosophers, who govern by the mathematics; with whose admirable schemes and projects he returned to benefit his own dear country; but had the misfortune to find them rejected by the envious minis

* It is very acutely and justly observed by Mr. Cambridge, in the Preface to his Scribleriad, that it was surprising Mr. Pope should make his Scriblerus so complicated a character as he represents him toward the end of his Memoirs, attributing to him things quite incompatible. Nay, such is his lust of loading this character, that he declares Gulliver's Travels to be the Travels of Scriblerus: and this without any other pretence, than that Swift had once designed to write the Travels of Scriblerus. What reasons induced him to change this work of humour, to a particular gratification of his spleen, it is not to the present purpose to make known; but this is certain, that when he made so total an alteration in his design, he took care not to give one feature of Scriblerus to his Gulliver. Dr. WARTON.

ters of Queen Anne, and himself sent treacherously

away.

And hence it is, that in his fourth voyage he discovers a vein of melancholy proceeding to almost a disgust of his species; but above all, a mortal detestation to the whole flagitious race of ministers, and a final resolution not to give in any memorial to the secretary of state, in order to subject the lands he discovered to the crown of Great Britain.

Now if, by these hints, the reader can help himself to a farther discovery of the nature and contents of these Travels, he is welcome to as much light as they can afford him; I am obliged, by all the ties of honour, not to speak more openly.

But if any man shall see such very extraordinary voyages, into such very extraordinary nations, which manifest the most distinguishing marks of a philosopher, a politician, and a legislator; and can imagine them to belong to a surgeon of a ship, or a captain of a merchantman, let him remain in his ignorance.

And whoever he be, that shall further observe, in every page of such a book, that cordial love of mankind, that inviolable regard to truth, that passion for his dear country, and that particular attachment to the excellent princess Queen Anne; surely that man deserves to be pitied, if by all those visible signs and characters, he cannot distinguish and acknowledge the great Scrible

rus.

Chap.

15. Of the discoveries and works of the great Scriblerus, made and to be made, written and to be written, known and unknown.*

* Among the qualifications attributed to Scriblerus, is the following, particularly appropriate to Swift: "In politics, his writings are of a peculiar cast, for the most part ironical, and the drift of them often so profound and delicate as to be mistaken by the vulgar. He once went so far, as to write a persuasive to people to eat their own children, which was so little understood as to be taken in ill part." N.

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS

ΠΕΡΙ ΒΑΘΟΥΣ,

CHAP. I.

INTRODUCTION.

IT hath been long (my dear countrymen) the subject of my concern and surprise, that whereas numberless poets, critics, and orators, have compiled and digested the art of ancient poesy, there hath not risen among us one person so public-spirited, as to perform the like for the modern. Although it is universally known that our every way industrious moderns, both in the weight of their writings, and in the velocity of their judgments, do so infinitely excel the said ancients.

Nevertheless, too true it is, that while a plain and direct road is paved to their os, or sublime; no track has been yet chalked out to arrive at our ßáðos, or profound. The Latins, as they came between the Greeks and us, make use of the word altitudo, which implies equally height and depth. Wherefore, considering, with no small grief, how many promising geniuses of this age are wandering (as I may say) in the dark, without a guide, I have undertaken this arduous, but necessary task, to lead them as it were by the hand, and step by step, the gentle down-hill way to the bathos; the bottom, the end, the central point, the non plus ultra, of true modern poesy! When you consider (my dear coun

trymen) the extent, fertility, and populousness of our lowlands of Parnassus, the flourishing state of our trade, and the plenty of our manufacture; there are two reflections, which administer great occasion of surprise ; the one, that all diguities and honours should be bestowed upon the exceeding few meagre inhabitants of the top of the mountain; the other, that our own nation should have arrived to that pitch of greatness it now possesses, without any regular system of laws. As to the first, it is with great pleasure I have observed of late the gradual decay of delicacy and refinement among mankind, who are become too reasonable to require, that we should labour with infinite pains to come up to the taste of these mountaineers, when they without any may condescend to ours. But as we have now an unquestionable majority on our side, I doubt not, but we shall shortly be able to level the highlanders, and procure a farther vent for our own product, which is already so much relished, encouraged, and rewarded by the nobility and gentry of Great Britain.

Therefore, to supply our former defect, I purpose to collect the scattered rules of our art into regular institutes, from the example and practice of the deep geniuses of our nation; imitating herein my predecessors, the master of Alexander, and the secretary of the renowned Zenobia and in this my undertaking I am the more animated, as I expect more success than has attended even those great critics; since their laws, though they might be good, have ever been slackly executed; and their precepts, however strict, obeyed only by fits, and by a very small number.

At the same time I intend to do justice upon our neighbours, inhabitants of the upper Parnassus; who taking advantage of the rising ground, are perpetually throwing down rubbish, dirt, and stones upon us, never