note upon this place tells us, he alludes to a fceptre ; and the verfes are fo plain, they need no remark.

The fame (his antient perfonage to deck)
Her great great grandfire wore about his neck
In three feal rings, which, after melted down,
Form'd a vaft buckle for his widow's gown;
Her infant grandame's whistle next it grew,
The bells fhe gingled, and the whistle blew ;
Then in a bodkin grac'd her mother's hairs,
Which long she wore, and now Belinda wears.

An open fatire upon hereditary right! The three feal rings plainly allude to the three kingdoms.

Thele are the chief paffages in the battle, by which, as hath before been said, he means the fquabble of parties, Upon this occafion he could not end the defcription with. out teftifying his malignant joy at thofe diffenfiors, from which he forms the profpect that both should be disappointed, and cries out with triumph, as if it were already accomplished,

Behold how oft ambitious aims are croft,

And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost.

The lock at length is turn'd into a far, or the old barrier-treaty into a new and glorious peace. This, no doubt, is what the author, at the time he printed this poem, would have been thought to mean; in hopes by that compliment to efcape the punishment for the reft of this piece. It puts me in mind of a fellow, who concluded a bitter lampoon upon the prince and court of his days, with these lines:

God fave the king, the commons, and the peers,
And grant the author long may wear his ears.

Whatever this author may think of that peace, I ima gine it the most extraordinary ftar that ever appeared in our hemifphere. A ftar, that is to bring us all the wealth and gold of the Indies; and from whofe influence, not Mr John Partridge alone (whofe worthy labours this

writer fo ungenerously ridicules) but all true Britons, may, with no less authority than he, prognofticate the fall of Lewis in the restraint of the exorbitant power of France, and the fate of Rome in the triumphant condition of the church of England.

We have now confidered this poem in its political view, wherein we have fhown, that it hath two different walks of fatire; the one in the story itself, which is a ridicule on the late tranfactions in general, the other in the machie nery, which is a fatire on the minifiers of flate in particular. I shall now fhew that the fame poem, taken in another light, has a tendency to popery, which is fecretly infinu. ated thro' the whole.

In the first place, he has conveyed to us the doctrine of guardian angels and patron faints in the machinery of his Sylphs, which being a piece of popish fuperftition that hath been exploded ever fince the reformation, he would revive under this difguife. Here are all the particulars which they believe of thofe beings, which I fhall fum up in a few heads.

1ft, The fpirits are made to concern themfelves with all human actions in general.

2dly, A diftinct guardian fpririt or patron is affigned to each person in particular.

Of these am I, who thy protection claim,

A watchful Sprite

3dly, They are made directly to infpire dreams, vifions, and revelations.

Her guardian Sylph prolonged her balmy refl,
'Twas he had fummon'd to her filent bed

The morning dream

4thly, They are made to be fubordinate in different degrees, fome prefiding over others. So Ariel Las his fe veral under-officers at command,

Superior by the head was Ariel plac'à.

5thly, They are employed in various offices, and each hath his office affigned him.

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Some

Some in the fields of pureft æther play,
And bask and whiten in the blaze of day;
Some guide the course, etc.

6thly, He hath given his fpirits the charge of the feve ral parts of drefs; intimating thereby, that the faints prefide over the several parts of human bodies. They have one faint to cure the tooth-ach, another the gripes, another the gout, and fo of the reft.

The flutt'ring fan be Zephyretta's care,

The drops to thee, Brillante, we confign, etc.

7thly, They are represented to know the thoughts of

men:

As on the nofegay in her breaft reclin'd,

He watch'd th' ideas rifing in her mind.

8thly, They are made protectors even to animal and irational beings:

Ariel himself fhall be the guard of shock.

So St Anthony prefides over hogs, &c.

9thly, They are made patrons of whole kingdoms and

provinces:

Of these the chief, the care of nations own.

So St George is imagined by the papifis to defend Eng land, St Patrick Ireland, St James Spain, &c. New what is the confequence of all this? By granting that they have this power, we must be brought back again to pray to them.

The tollite is an artful recommendation of the mafs and pompous ceremonics of the church of Rome. The in veiling of the altar, the filver vafes upon it, being robe. in white as the pricfts are upon the chief feflivals, and the head uncovered, are manift marks of this.

A heav'nly image in the glafs appears,

To that the bends

plainly denotes image worship.

The

The goddess, who is decked with treasures, jewels, and the various offerings of the world, manifeftly alludes to the Lady of Loretto. You have perfumes breathing from the incenfe-pot in the following line..

And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.

The character of Belinda, as we take it in this third view, reprefents the popifh religion, or the whore of Ba bylon; who is defcribed in the ftate this malevolent author wishes for, coming forth in all her glory upon the Thames, and overfpreading the whole nation with cere.

monies.

Not with more glories in th' atherial plain
The fun firft rifes o'er the purple main,
Then iffuing forth the rival of his beams
Launch'd on the bofom of the filver Thames.

She is dreffed with a croft on her breaft, the enfign of popery, the adoration of which is plainly recommended in the following lines:

On her white breaft a fparkling cross he wore,
Which Jews might kils, and infidels adore.

Next he reprefents her as the univerfal church, accor ding to the boasts of the papifts:

And like the fun fhe fhines on all alike,

After which he tells us,

If to her fhare fome female errors fall,
Look on here face, and you'll forget them all.

Though it fhould be granted fome errors fall to her flare, look on the pompous figure the makes throughout the world, and they are not worth regarding. In the facri. fice following you have these two lines:

For this, ere Phabus rofe, he had implor'd
Propitious heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r ador'd.

In the first of them he plainly hints at their rifing to ma

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tins ;

tins; in the fecond, by adoring every power, the invocation of faints.

Benda's vifits are described with numerous wax-lights, which are always used in the cerimonial part of the Ro inith worship.

-Vifits shall be paid on folemn days,

When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze.

The lunar Sphere he mentions, opens to us their purga ory, which is feen in the following line:

Since all things loft on earth are treasur'd there.

It is a popish doctrine, that fearce any perlon quits this world, but he muft touch at purgatory in his way to hea ven, and it is here allo reprefented as the treafury of the Romish church, Nor is it much to be wondered at, that the moon thould be purgatory, when a learned divine hath iu late treatife proved the fun to be hell *.

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I thall now, before I conclude, delire the reader to compare this key with those upon any other pieces, which are fuppofed to have been fecret fatires upon the state, either ancient or modern; in particular with the keys to Petronius Arbiter, Lucian's true Hiflory, Barclay's Argenis, and Rabelais's Garagantua, and I doubt not he will do me the juftice to acknowlege, that the explanations here laid down, are reduced as naturally, and with as little violence, both from the general scope and bent of the work, and from the feveral particulars: furthermore, that they are every way as confiftent and undeniable, every way as candid, as auy modern interpretation of either party on the conduct and writings of the other. And I appeal to the most eminent and able fiate decypherers themselves, if, according to their art, any thing can be more fully proved, or more fafely fworn to!

To fum up my wl ole charge against this author in a few words: he has ridiculed both the prefent ministry and the laft; abufed great ftatefinen and great generals; pay, the treaties of whole nations have not escaped him, or has the royal dignity itself been omitted in the progress

*The Reverend Dr Swinden.

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