THE LOGICIANS REFUTED. IN IMITATION OF DEAN SWIFT. LOGICIANS have but ill defin'd By ratiocinations specious, Have strove to prove with great precision, With definition and division, Homo est ratione preditum ; But for my soul I cannot credit 'em. Than reason, boasting mortals' pride; Who ever knew an honest brute O'er plains they ramble unconfin'd, They eat their meals, and take their sport, They never to the levee go To treat as dearest friend a foe: Nor draw the quill to write for Bob,1 Sir Robert Walpole. H He promises with equal air, At court, the porters, lacqueys, waiters, ON A BEAUTIFUL YOUTH STRUCK BLIND BY LIGHTNING. IMITATED FROM THE SPANISH. 1 SURE 'twas by providence design'd, 1 See The Bee, p. 8, ed. 1759. A NEW SIMILE. IN THE MANNER OF SWIFT.' LONG had I sought in vain to find A likeness for the scribbling kind: The modern scribbling kind, who write, In wit, and sense, and nature's spite: Till reading, I forget what day on, A chapter out of Took's Pantheon, I think I met with something there, To suit my purpose to a hair; But let us not proceed too furious, First please to turn to god Mercurius; You'll find him pictur'd at full length In book the second, page the tenth: The stress of all my proofs on him I lay, And now proceed we to our simile. Imprimis, pray observe his hat, Wings upon either side-mark that. Well! what is it from thence we gather? Why these denote a brain of feather. Printed among the Essays (the xxviith). VARIATIONS. a I long had rack'd my brains to find. A brain of teather! very right, In the next place, his feet peruse, Wings grow again from both his shoes; Design'd, no doubt, their part to bear, And waft his godship through the air: And here my simile unites, For in the modern poet's flights, Lastly, vouchsafe t' observe his hand, Though ne'er so much awake before, Now to apply, begin we then; His wand's a modern author's pen; The serpents round about it twin'd |