On planets now I cease to pore,
Philosophy has charms no more,
Fie upon yonder meadow;

I mind not Jove's nor Venus' ftations,
Struck with more beauteous conftellations
Of DELIA and LUCINDA.

I

I know not as the globes I roll,

The fouthern from the northern pole,
What course each Bear is urging;
And in the zodiac's circling line
Remember not a fingle fign,

Except the TWINS and VIRGIN.

Hang up philofophy, I fay,
With Romeo in the lover's play,
(Th' expreffion hits my fancy)
Unless philofophy can make
('Gainft which I fet my all at ftake)
A BETSEY or a NANCY.

VERSES upon Dr. BENTLEY's new Edition of his Sermons againft Atheism, preached at Mr. BOYLE'S Lectures, published at the Time the Dr. likewife was correcting MANILIUS's Aftronomical Poems for the Prefs.

W

HEN Ifrael's leader to the promis'd land,
Reveal'd God's will, and open'd his command;

The Hebrew race the facred-rule obey'd,

To God alone they sacrific'd and pray'd;

Q02

But,

But, when the law no longer was retain❜d,
And but one copy to twelve tribes remain❜d,
Vice rear'd her head, idolatry return'd,
And incence to a thoufand dæmons burn'd;
Till good JosIAH, from the temple drew
The fcarce record, and publifh'd it anew.
By that, th' ungrateful Jews again were taught,
Who their forefathers out of bondage brought,
And who their many glorious battles fought.

At the recital fmit, the nation mourn'd
Its daring guilt, and zeal rekindled, burn'd;
That facred warmth urg'd their just rage to fall
On the carv'd idols, and the priests of Baal.
The curs'd feducers at their fhrines expire,
The victims they, and their own gods the fire,

}

When BENTLEY thus, explain'd the world's defign,
And forming nature prov'd a hand DIVINE;
As final caufes the great agent fhow'd

A virtuous life from the difclofure flow'd.
God's being in his attributes furvey'd,
His power was dreaded, and his will obey'd
But as thefe oracles (deferving well
Of tone a table, and a pen of steel)
On paper's filmy fheets recorded lay,
A thousand accidents, with wanton play,
Like tempefts, puff'd the scatter'd leaves away.
Or poring youths wore out the letter'd flamps,
Blurr'd with their ink, and footed with their lamps;
Or nice librarians fhew'd the volumes high,
And private value robb'd the public eye:
Thus Conquerors arms, return'd in triumph home,
Far above reach, ruft in the vaulted dome.

}

This weight remov'd, no longer crush'd and bent, Elaftic error reach'd its old extent.

New

New heads from vice, that wounded Hydra, sprung,

And filenc'd herefy refum'd a tongue.

Atheists to form their rallied troops began,

BLUNTS in the rear, and TOLANDS in the van.
Some banners worlds by atoms fram'd display,
Bent in their fall by nothing in their way.
Some infants fpringing, to mankind's disgrace,
From vegetable wombs, a mushroom race.
Grofs matter makes itself, and then the whole,
But foar'd to thought, and boulted into foul.

、 * ་

But, whilft the factious chiefs, with warm debate,
All beauteous order wrangle to tranflate,
From Providence to chance, or rigid fate,
The jarring noife, born by the wings of fame,
Spread to the peaceful banks of filver CAM.
There BENTLEY fat within his trophy's fhade,
With fpoils of deifts and free-thinkers made,
Guarding his learned charge, and pleas'd to view
Afpiring youths his glorious tract pursue;

To fee new BARROWS, and young NEWTONS rife,
Fathom th' abyfs, and pierce the boundless skies.
Icarian flight! yet fafe whilft they obey

For BENTLEY wax'd their wings, and mark'd their way.

But, by loud clamours rous'd, to arms he starts,
And leaves th'unfinish'd plans of future arts.
Heaven is affail'd, to urge th' affailants fate,
The birth of unknown fciences muft wait.
Ye ftars, fays he, and thou MANILIUS' fun,
Stand ftill and view God's enemies undone,
Whilst I compleat the conquefts I begun.
Then, from his ftores, the danger to fupprefs,
He draws try'd weapons, wonted to fuccefs,
Their fplendor with new furbishing repairs,
And gives a keener edge with fecond cares.

}

Thus

Thus twice ALCIDES' arms were brought to Troy, Firft to fubdue, and after to destroy.

Fortune and luck, two fifter-nothings, made,
By fancy, deities of play and trade,
His nervous reasons diffipate to shade:
Prove chance deriv'd from an unheeded cause,
And winning hits produc'd by motion's laws.
How new refiftance, and a vary'd blow,
Change the die's fpotted face, and shift the throw.
Then he rich nature's volume open lays,
And God in ev'ry fhining leaf displays.
He ftoops and makes the earth its mafter own;
He foars, and draws confeffions from the fun.
By him light atoms' verging dance deftroy'd;
They fall, without cohesion, through the void.
The atheists fyftems to a chaos hurl'd,

Heav'n they difown, and he diffolves their world.
TOLAND, aghaft, at the vaft ruin quakes,

}

TINDAL looks pale, and harden'd COLLINS shakes.

Thus when, inflam'd with wine, the lawless guests Difturb'd, with arms, Pirithous' nuptial feafts, No foft perfuafions could their heats affwage, Nor a light miffive war correct their rage, Till Danae's fon, on the tumultuous field, Unbar'd the ghaftly horror of his fhield; Strait, with the numbing view, the Hero froze The impious hoft, and petrify'd his foes.

E. VERNON, jun. A. B.

TRIN. COL. CANTAB. ALUMN.

1718.

MA

MASON's ELEGIES.

T

DODSLEY. Price 1 s.

is.

HE critics have been very laborious in fettling the boundaries of paftoral writing; and in the delicacy of their judgment, have ftruck many compofitions both of THEOCRITUS and VIRGIL out of the lift, of which it may be faid, as POPE handsomely says of his own, if they are not paftorals, they are fomething better. It were to be wifhed that they had used also the fame judicial feverity, in ascertaining the nature of Elegy; though by that means, many a putter together of long and fhort verfe in Latin, and many an alternate rhymift in English, had been at a lofs to know what fpecies of poetry he writ in. The poems of TYRTEUS are, it is true, called Elegies, but with much the fame propriety, as if we were to call the pifcatory eclogues of SANNAZARIUS, Paftorals; they walk, indeed, in the measure of elegy, but breathe all the spirit of the ode.

The elegiac muse seems to be the natural companion of diftrefs, and the immediate feelings of the heart, the object of all her expreffion. Hence the is generally called in to the affiftance of defpairing lovers, who, having received their death's wound from their mistrefs's eyes, beathe out their amorous ditties, and, like the dying swan, expire in harmony. What the elegies of CALLIMACHUS were, the learned can only conjecture; but they must have been better than those of his profeffed imitator PROPERTIUS, or antiquity had never been fo lavish in their commendation. In PROPERTIUS, we fee the verfifying scholar, who perhaps never loved any woman at all: In Ovid, the poet, and the man of gallantry, who would in