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But as in perspective we beauties fee,
Which in the glass, not in the picture, be;
So here our fight obligingly mistakes

That wealth, which his your bounty only makes.

Thus vulgar difhes are, by cooks disguis'd,

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More for their dreffing, than their substance priz'd.

Your curious notes fo fearch into that age,
When all was fable but the facred page,

That, fince in that dark night we needs muft ftray,

We are at least mifled in pleasant way.

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But what we moft admire, your verse no less
The prophet than the poet doth confefs.
Ere our weak eyes difcern'd the doubtful
ftreak

Of light, you faw great Charles his morning

break.

So fkilful feamen ken the land from far,

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Which fhews like mifts to the dull paffenger. To Charles your muse first pays her duteous love,

As ftill the antients did begin from Jove. With Monk you end, whofe name preferv'd shall be,

As Rome recorded Rufus' memory,

Who thought it greater honor to obey

His country's intereft, than the world to fway.

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But to write worthy things of worthy men,
Is the peculiar talent of your pen:

Yet let me take your mantle up, and I
Will venture in your right to prophefy.
"This work, by merit first of fame secure,
"Is likewife happy in its geniture:

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"For, fince 'tis born when Charles afcends the throne,

"It shares at once his fortune and its own."

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CULARLY HIS TREATISE OF STONE-HENGE, BY HIM RESTORED TO THE TRUE FOUNDER.

THE longeft tyranny that ever sway'd,
Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd

* The book that occafioned this epiftle made its appearance in quarto in 1663. It is dedicated to King Charles II. and entitled, "Chorea Gigantum; or, The most famous Antiquity of Great Britain, Stone-Henge, ftanding on Salisbury-plain, reftored to the Danes by Dr. Walter Charleton, M. D. and Phyfician in Ordinary to his Majefty." It was written in answer to a treatise of Inigo Jones's, which attributed this ftupendous pile to the Romans, fuppofing it to be a temple, by them dedicated to the god Cœlum, or Cœlus; and here that great architect let his imagination outrun his judgment, nay, his fenfe; for he described it not as it is, but as it ought to be, in order to make it confiftent with what he delivered. Dr. Charleton, who will have this to be a Danish monument, was countenanced in his opinion by Olaus Wormius, who wrote him feveral letters upon the fubject;

Their free-born reafon to the Stagirite,
And made his torch their univerfal light.

yet, that he was mistaken, appears by the mention made of Stone-Henge in Nennius's Hift. Britonum, a writer who lived two hundred years before the Danes came into England. Though his book was approved of by many men of great erudition, and is not only very learned, but abounds with curious obfervations, it was but indifferently received, and raifed many clamours against the author.

Envy, however, could not prevent Dr. Charleton's merits from being feen, nor divide him from the intimacy of Mr. Hobbes, the philofopher; Sir George Ent, a celebrated phyfi, cian; the noble family of the Boyle's; and Dr. William Harvey, whofe claim to the difcovery of the eirculation of the blood, he forcibly defended against the claim thereto fet on foot by father Paul. Thus he

"From dark oblivion Harvey's name fhall fave."

As that eminent physician was now dead, the doctor's beha. viour upon this point was as generous an inftance of gratitude and refpect to his friend's memory, as it was a proof of his capa city and extenfive learning. He was prefident of the college of phyficiaus, from 1689 to 1691, when his affairs being not in the moft flourishing state, he retired to the ifle of Jerfey, and died in 1707, aged eighty-eight years. DERRICK.

Ver. 1. The longeft tyranny] The rude magnitude of StoneHenge has rendered it the admiration of all ages; and as the enormous ftones which compofe it appear too big to land-carriage, and as Salisbury-plain, for many miles round, fcarce affords any stones at all, it has been the opinion of fome antiquaries, that these ftones are artificial, and were made on the fpot; but most authors are now agreed, that these stones are all natural, and that they were brought from a collection of stones called the Grey Wethers, growing out of the ground, about fif teen miles from Stone-Henge,

The ufe and origin of this work have been the fubjects of va❤ rious conjectures and debates; and much it is to be lamented, that a tablet of tin, with an infeription, which was found here in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and might probably have fet thefe points in a clear light, fhould not be preferved; for as the cha racters were not understood by fuch as were confulted upon the occasion, the plate was deftroyed, or at least thrown by and loft, The common tradition is, that Stone-Henge was built by Ambro fius Aurelianus. Some will have it to be a funeral monument

VOL. II.

So truth, while only one fupply'd the state, 5 Grew scarce, and dear, and yet fophifticate. Still it was bought, like emp'ric wares, or

charms,

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Hard words feal'd up with Aristotle's arms.
Columbus was the firft that shook his throne,
And found a temperate in a torrid zone:
The feverish air fann'd by a cooling breeze,
The fruitful vales fet round with fhady trees;
And guiltless men, who danc'd away their time,
Fresh as their groves, and happy as their clime.

raifed to the memory of fome brave commander; and others maintain that it was erected to the honour of Hengift, the Saxon general; but this structure is probably more ancient,

Sammes, in the antiquities of Britain, conjectures it to have been a work of the Phoenicians; and the famous Inigo Jones, in a treatife called "Stonchenge Reftored," attempts to prove, that it was a temple of the Tufcan order, built by the Romans, and dedicated to the god Cœlum, or Terminus, in which he is confirmed by its having been open at top. Dr. Charlton, physician in ordinary to King Charles the Second, wrote a treatise called "Stonehenge reftored to the Danes," attempting to prove that this was a Danish monument, erected either for a burialplace, as a trophy for fome victory, or for the election and coronation of their kings. And foon after the publication of Dr. Charlton's treatife, Mr. Webb, fon-in-law of Inigo Jones, published a vindication of the opinions of his father-in-law upon this fubject. But antiquaries have fince agreed, that it was an ancient temple of the Druids, built, as Dr. Stukely thinks, before the Belgæ came to Britain, and not long after Cambyfes invaded Egypt, where he committed fuch horrid outrages among the priefts and inhabitants in general, that they dispersed themselves to all quarters of the world, and fome, no doubt, came into Britain. At this time, the Doctor conjectures the Egyptians introduced their arts, learning, and religion, among the Druids, and probably had a hand in this very work, being the only one of the Druids where the ftones are chiffeled: all their other works confifting of rude ftones, not touched by any tool.

Dr. J. WARTON.

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