Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/158

For this our Queen unfolds to vision true
Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view:^{[I 1]}
Old scenes of glory, times long cast behind
Shall, first recall'd, rush forward to thy mind:
65 Then stretch thy sight o'er all her rising reign,
And let the past and future fire thy brain.
Ascend this hill^{[R 1]}, whose cloudy point commands
Her boundless empire over seas and lands.
See, round the Poles where keener spangles shine^{[R 2]},
70 Where spices smoke beneath the burning Line,
(Earth's wide extremes) her sable flag display'd,
And all the nations cover'd in her shade!

Remarks

1. Ver. 67. Ascend this hill, &c.] The scenes of this vision are remarkable for the order of their appearance. First, from ver. 67 to 73, those places of the globe are shewn where Science never rose; then from ver. 73 to 83, those where she was destroyed by Tyranny; from ver. 85 to 95, by inundations of Barbarians; from ver. 96 to 106, by Superstition. Then Rome, the Mistress of Arts, described in her degeneracy; and lastly Britain, the scene of the action of the poem; which furnishes the occasion of drawing out the Progeny of Dulness in review.
2. Ver. 69. See round the Poles, &c.] Almost the whole Southern and Northern Continent wrapt in ignorance.

Imitations

1. Ver. 61, 62. For this our Queen unfolds to vision true
   Thy mental eye, for thou has much to view:]
   This has a resemblance to that passage in Milton, book xi, where the Angel.
   To nobler sights from Adam's eye remov'd
   The film; then purg'd with Euphrasie and Rue
   The visual nerve—For he had much to see.
   There is a general allusion in what follows to that whole Episode.