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Then a FULLER.

-th' exhaling reeks, that fecret rife,

"Borne on rebounding fun-beams thro' the skies, "Are thicken'd, wrought, and whiten'd, till they

66 grow

"A heav'nly fleece."

A MERCER, or PACKER.

+ "Did'st thou one end of air's wide curtain hold, "And help the Bales of Ether to unfold;

66

Say, which cærulean pile was by thy hand un"roll'd?"

A BUTLER.

"He measures all the drops with wond'rous skill, "Which the black clouds, his floating bottles, fill.”’

And a B AKER.

"God in the wilderness his table spread,
"And in his airy Ovens bak'd their bread."

CH A P. VI.

Of the feveral Kinds of Geniuses in the Profund, and the Marks and Characters of each.

I DOUBT not but the reader, by this Cloud of examples, begins to be convinced of the truth of our affertion, that the Bathos is an Art; and that the Genius

*Blackm. Pf. civ. p. 18. † Page 174. Blackm. Song of Mofes, p. 218.

+ Page 131.

of no mortal whatever, following the mere ideas of Na-. ture, and unaffifted with an habitual, nay laborious peculiarity of thinking, could arrive at images fo wonderfully low and unaccountable. The great author from whofe treasury we have drawn all these instances (the Father of the Bathos, and indeed the Homer of it) has, like that immortal Greek, confined his labours to the greater Poetry, and thereby left room for others to acquire a due fhare of praife in inferior kinds. Many painters who could never hit a nose or an eye, have with felicity copied a fmall-pox, or been admirable at a toad or a red-herring. And feldom are we without geniufes for Still-life, which they can work up and ftiffen with incredible accuracy.

An univerfal Genius rifes not in an age; but when he rifes, armies rife in him! he pours forth five or fix Epic Poems with greater facility, than five or fix pages can be produced by an elaborate and fervile copier after Nature or the Ancients. It is affirmed by Quintilian, that the fame genius which made Germanicus fo great a general, would with equal application have made him an excellent Heroic Poet. In like manner, reasoning from the affinity there appears between Arts and Sciences, I doubt not but an active catcher of butterflies, a careful and fanciful pattern-drawer, an industrious collector of fhells, a laborious and tuneful bag-piper, or a diligent breeder of tame rabbits, might feverally excel in their respective parts of the Bathos.

I fhall range these confined and lefs copious Geniuses under proper claffes, and (the better to give their pictures to the reader) under the names of Animals of fome fort or other; whereby he will be enabled, at the firft fight of fuch as fhall daily come forth, to know to what kind to refer, and with what authors to compare them.

1. The Flying Fishes: Thefe are writers who now and then rife upon their fins, and fly out of the Profund; but their wings are foon dry, and they drop down to the bottom. G. S. A. H. C. G.

2. The Swallows are authors that are eternally skimming and fluttering up and down, but all their agility is employed to catch flies. L. T. W. P. Lord H.

3. The Ostriches are fuch, whofe heavinefs rarely permits them to raise themselves from the ground; their wings are of no ufe to lift them up, and their motion is between flying and walking; but then they run very fast. D. F. L. E. The Hon. E. H.

4. The Parrots are they that repeat another's words, in such a hoarse odd voice, as makes them feem their W. B. W.H. C. C. The Reverend D. D.

own.

The Didapper's are authors that keep themfelves long out of fight, under water, and come up now and then where you least expected them. L. W. G. D. Efq. The Hon. Sir W. Y.

6. The Porpoifes are unwieldy and big; they put all their numbers into a great turmoil and tempeft, but whenever they appear in plain light (which is feldom) they are only shapelefs and ugly monsters. I. D. C. G. I. O.

7. The Frogs are fuch as can neither walk nor fly, but can leap and bound to admiration: They live generally in the bottom of a ditch, and make a great noife whenever they thruft their heads above water. E. W. I. M. Efq. T. D. Gent.

8. The Eels are obfcure authors, that wrap themfelves up in their own mud, but are mighty nimble and pert. L. W. L. T. P. M. General C.

9. The Tortoifes are flow and chill, and, like paftoral writers, delight much in gardens: they have for the most part a fine embroidered fhell, and underneath it, a heavy lump. A. P. W.B. L. E. The Right Hon. E. of S.

Thefe are the chief Characteristicks of the Bathos: and in each of thefe kinds we have the comfort to be bleffed with fundry and manifold choice Spirits in this our island.

CHAP. VII.

Of the Profund, when it confifts in the Thought.

WE have already laid down the Principles upon which our author is to proceed, and the manner of forming his Thought by familiarizing his mind to the lowest objects; to which it may be added, that Vulgar Converfation will greatly contribute. There is no queftion but the Garret or the Printer's boy may often be difcerned in the compofitions made in fuch fcenes and company; and much of Mr. Curl himself has been infenfibly infufed into the works of his learned writers.

The Physician, by the ftudy and infpection of urine and ordure, approves himself in the fcience; and in like fort fhould our author accuftom and exercise his imagination upon the dregs of nature..

This will render his thoughts truly and fundamentally low, and carry him many fathoms beyond Mediocrity. For, certain it is (though fome lukewarm heads imagine they may be fafe by temporizing between the extremes) that where there is not a Triticalnefs or Mediocrity in the Thought, it can never be funk into the genuine and perfect Bathos, by the most elaborate low Expreffion. It can, at most, be only carefully obscured, or metaphorically debafed. But 'tis the Thought alone that strikes, and gives the whole that spirit, which we admire and ftare at. For instance, in that ingenious piece on a lady's drinking the Bath-waters:

* "She drinks! She drinks! Behold the matchlefs "dame!

"To her 'tis water, but to us 'tis flame :

"Thus fire is water, water fire by turns,

"And the fame ftream at once both cools and burns."

What can be more easy and unaffected than the Dic. tion of these verfes? 'Tis the Turn of Thought alone, and the Variety of Imagination, that charm and furprife us. And when the fame lady goes into the Bath, the Thought (as in justness it ought) goes ftill deeper.

+ "Venus beheld her, 'midst her crowd of flaves, "And thought herself just risen from the waves."

How much out of the way of common fenfe is this reflection of Venus, not knowing herfelf from the lady? Of the fame nature is that noble mistake of a frighted ftag in a full chace, who (faith the Poet)

"Hears his own feet, and thinks they found like more; "And fears the hind feet will o'ertake the fore."

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