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Atheist, and rebel too, fhe does oppose

(God and the king have always the fame foes).
Legions of verfe you raise in their defence,
And write the factious to obedience;
You the bold Arian to arms defy,

A conquering champion for the Deity
Against the whigs firft parents, who did dare
To difinherit God-Almighty's heir.

And what the hot-brain'd Arian firft began,
Is carried on by the Socinian,

Who ftill affociates to keep God a man.

But 'tis the prince of poets' task alone

T'affert the rights of God's and Charles's throne.
Whilft vulgar poets purchase vulgar fame

By chaunting Chloris' or fair Phyllis' name;

Whofe reputation fhall last as long,

As fops and ladies fing the amorous fong.

A nobler fubject wifely they refuse,

The mighty weight would crush their feeble Mufe.
So, story tells, a painter once would try
With his bold hand to limn a deity:
And he, by frequent pratifing that part,

Could draw a minor-god with wondrous art :
But when great Jove did to the workman fit,
'The thunderer fuch horror did beget,
That put the frighted artist to a stand,
And made his pencil drop from 's baffled hand.

To

To Mr. DRYDEN, upon his Tranflation of the Third Book of VIRGIL'S GEORGICKS.

W!

A PINDARIC O D E.

By Mr. JOHN DENNIS.

HILE mounting with expanded wings

The Mantuan fwan unbounded heaven explores,
While with feraphic founds he towering fings,
Till to divinity he soars :

Mankind ftands wondering at his flight,
Charm'd with his musick, and his height:
Which both tranfcend our praife.
Nay Gods incline their ravish'd ears,
And tune their own harmonious fpheres,
To his melodious lays.

Thou, Dryden, canft his notes recite
In modern numbers, which express
Their musick, and their utmost might:
Thou, wondrous poet, with fuccefs
Canft emulate his flight.

II.

Sometimes of humble rural things,

Thy Mufe, which keeps great Maro ftill in fight,
In middle air with varied numbers fings;
And sometimes her fonorous flight

To heaven fublimely wings.

But first takes time with majefty to rise,
Then, without pride, divinely great,
She mounts her native skies;
And, Goddefs like, retains her state
When down again the flies.

Com

Commands, which judgment gives, fhe ftill obeys,
Both to deprefs her flight, and raise.

Thus Mercury from heaven defcends,
And to this under world his journey bends,

When Jove his dread commands has given :
But, ftill, defcending, dignity maintains,
As much a God upon our humble plains,
As when he, towering, re-afcends to heaven.

III.

But when thy Goddess takes her flight, With fo much majefty, to fuch a height, As can alone fuffice to prove,

That the defcends from mighty Jove :

Gods! how thy thoughts then rife, and foar, and shine! Immortal spirit animates each line;

Each with bright flame that fires our fouls is crown'd, Each has magnificence of found,

And harmony divine.

Thus the first orbs, in their high rounds,
With fhining pomp advance;

And to their own coeleftial founds

Majeftically dance.

On, with eternal fymphony, they roll,

Each turn'd in its harmonious course,

And each inform'd by the prodigious force
Of an empyreal foul.

CON

CONTENT S

OF THE

SECOND VOLUME.

HE Hind and the Panther, in three Parts.

THE

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Britannia Rediviva, a Poem on the Prince, born on

the 10th of June 1688

Mac-Flecnoe

97

109

EPISTLE S.

Epistle I. To Sir Robert Howard

II. To Dr. Charleton

III. To the Lady Caftlemain

IV. To Mr. Lee

117

121

123

125

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