142
The Dunciad.
Book III.
215 'Tis yours, a Bacon or a Locke to blame,
A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame:
But oh! with One, immortal one dispense,
The source of Newton's Light, of Bacon's Sense!
Content, each Emanation of his fires
220 That beams on earth, each Virtue he inspires,
Each Art he prompts, each Charm he can create,
Whate'er he gives, are giv'n for you to hate.
Persist, by all divine in Man unaw’d,
But, “Learn, ye Dunces! not to scorn your God.”[R 1][R 2]
225 Thus he, for then a ray of Reason stole
Half thro’ the solid darkness of his soul;
But soon the cloud return'd—and thus the Sire:
See now, what Dulness and her sons admire!
See what the charms, that smite the simple heart
230 Not touch'd by Nature, and not reach'd by Art.
His never-blushing head he turn’d aside,
(Not half so pleas'd when Goodman prophesy'd)[R 3]
A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame:
But oh! with One, immortal one dispense,
The source of Newton's Light, of Bacon's Sense!
Content, each Emanation of his fires
220 That beams on earth, each Virtue he inspires,
Each Art he prompts, each Charm he can create,
Whate'er he gives, are giv'n for you to hate.
Persist, by all divine in Man unaw’d,
But, “Learn, ye Dunces! not to scorn your God.”[R 1][R 2]
225 Thus he, for then a ray of Reason stole
Half thro’ the solid darkness of his soul;
But soon the cloud return'd—and thus the Sire:
See now, what Dulness and her sons admire!
See what the charms, that smite the simple heart
230 Not touch'd by Nature, and not reach'd by Art.
His never-blushing head he turn’d aside,
(Not half so pleas'd when Goodman prophesy'd)[R 3]
Remarks
- ↑ Ver. 224. But, "Learn, ye Dunces! not to scorn your God."] Virg. Æn. vi. puts this precept into the mouth of a wicked man, as here of a stupid one
Discite justitiam meniti, & non temnere dives!
- ↑ Ibid. "not to scorn your God"] See this subject pursued in Book 4.
- ↑ Ver. 232. (Not half so pleas'd when Goodman prophesy'd)] Mr. Cibber tells us, in his Life, p. 149. that Goodman being at the rehearsal of a play, in which
existing brethren, is, as the Poet rightly intimates, not out of tenderness to the ears of others, but their own. And so we see that when that danger is removed, on the open establishment of the Goddess in the fourth book, she encourages her sons, and they beg assistance to pollute the Source of Light itself, with the same virulence they had before done the purest emanations from it.
