cannot understand: it does but discover that selftormenting passion of envy, than which the greatest tyrant never invented a more cruel torment: Invidia Siculi non invenere. Tyranni: I must be so bold to tell my criticks and witlings, that they can no more judge of this, than a man that is born blind, can have any true idea of colours. I have always observed, that your empty vessels sound loudest I value their lashes as little as the sea did those of Xerxes, when he whipped it. The u most favour a man can expect from them is, that which Polyphemus promised Ulysses, that he would devour him the last: they think to subdue a writer, as Cæsar did his enemy, with a Veni, vidi, vici. I confess I value the opinion of the judicious few, a Rymer, a Dennis, or a W—k; but for the rest, to give my judgment at once, I think the long dispute among the philosophers about a vacuum, may be determined in the affirmative, that it is to be found in a critick's head. They are at best but the drones of the learned world, who devour the honey, and will not work themselves;. a writer need no more regard them, than the moon does the barking of a little senseless cur., For, in spite of their terrible roaring, you may, with half an eyé, discover the ass under the lion's skin.. : and But to return to our discourse: Demosthenes being asked what was the first part of an orator, replied, action: what was the second, action: what was the third, action and so on ad infinitum. This may be true in oratory; but contemplation, in other things,, exceeds action. And therefore a wise man is never less alone, than when he is alone: Nunquam minus solus, quam cùm solus. * Juvenal. And Archimedes, the famous mathematician, was so intent upon his problems, that he never minded the soldiers who came to'kill him. Therefore, not to detract from the just praise which belongs to orators, they ought to consider that nature, which gave us two eyes to see, and two ears to hear, has given us but one tongue to speak; wherein however some do so abound, that the virtuosi, who have been so long in search for the perpetual motion, may. infallibly find it. there. Some men admire republicks, because orators flourish there, most, and are the greatest enemies of tyranny; but my opinion is, that one tyrant is better than a hundred. Besides, these orators inflame the.. people, whose anger is really but a short fit of madness, Ira furor brevis est *. After which, laws are like cobwebs, which may, catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. But in oratory the greatest art is to hide art, Artis est celare artem. But this must be the work of time, we must lay hold on all opportunities, and let slip no occasion; else we shall be forced to weave Penelope's web, unravel in the night, what we spun in the day. And therefore I have observed, that time is painted with a lock before, and bald behind, signifying thereby, that we must take time (as we say) by the forelock, for when it is once past, there is no recalling it. The mind of man is at first (if you will pardon the expression) like a tabula rasa, or like wax, which, while it is soft, is capable of any impression, till time has hardened it. And at length death, that grim tyrant, stops us in the midst of our career. The greatest conquerors have at last been conquered * Horace. by death, which spares none, from the sceptre to the spade: Mors omnibus communis. All rivers go to the sea, but none return from it. Xerxes wept when he beheld his army, to consider that in less than a hundred years, they would be all dead. Anacreon was choked with a grapestone; and violent joy kills as well as violent grief. There is nothing in this world constant, but inconstancy; yet Plato thought, that if virtue would appear to the world in her own native dress, all men would be enamoured with her. But now, since interest governs the world, and men neglect the golden mean, Jupiter himself, if he came to the earth, would be despised, unless it were, as he did to Danaë, in a golden shower for men now-a-days worship the rising sun, and not the setting: Donec eris felix multos numeralis amicos. Thus have I, in obedience to your commands, ventured to expose myself to censure, in this critical age. Whether I have done right to my subject, must be left to the judgment of my learned reader : however I cannot but hope, that my attempting of it, may be encouragement for some able pen, to perform it with more success. A MEDITATION UPON A BROOMSTICK. 1 ACCORDING TO THE STYLE AND MANNER OF THE HONOURABLE ROBERT BOYLE'S MEDITATIONS. In the Posthumous Works of the Author of Hudibras, 1759, vol. I. p. 404, we find a satirical imitation of Mr. Boyle's style, under the title of "An Occasional Reflection on Dr. Carleton's feeling a Dog's Pulse at Gresham College, by R. B. esq. to Lyndamore;" a performance in which there appeared so striking a resemblance to the present one of our Author, as to induce the Editor of those volumes to imagine the Dean must have either seen or heard of this piece by his witty predecessor. But, as few writers are so little liable to the charge of plagiarism as the Dean, it may not be improper to set down what the above-mentioned Editor has offered upon the subject: "It is great pity but Mr. Boyle's merit, which it must be owned was very great both in his learned and moral capacity, had pleaded his excuse for any little defects in his manner of writing; but, as my lord Orrery observes, the sword of Wit, like the scythe of Time, cuts down friend and foe, and attacks every object that accidentally lies in its way. However, in justice to the wit of our Satirist, we must acknowledge that he has hit upon the weak side of Boyle's character as an Author, since his greatest admirers must confess that his style is rather too copious, diffusive, and circumstantial, and that his reasoning and reflec tions are sometimes, too puerile and trifling. Whoever will take the pains to examine his writings with this view, will find that Butler has very archly imitated him, both in the flimsy long-winded turn of the sentences, and in the too, pompous manner of moralizing upon every occasion that offers. "It is something very singular that Dean Swift should have attempted the same thing, in the very same manner too, in his Meditation upon a Broomstick.' Butler and Swift were indeed geniuses pretty much of the sanie turn, and might possibly be led by that into the same vein of thinking and writing; but I think it more probable that Swift took the hint from having either seen or heard of this performance of our Author's. What led me into this conjecture is the certain information I have received that these manuscripts were communicated to Bishop Atterbury, whose well-known intimacy with Swift would give him opportunities of mentioning the nature and subjects of them." So far Mr. Thyer. For the further information of his Reader, it is to be regretted that he did not mention the time when these manuscripts were communicated to the Bishop. Mr. Deane Swift, p. 131, says the Meditation, &c. was written in the year 1703; and it is very certain that the Dean's acquaintance with the Bishop did not commence till a much later period. See Journal to Stella, Jan. 6, 1710 II. N. |