Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/206

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The critic Eye, that microscope of Wit,
Sees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit:
235 How parts relate to parts, or they to whole,
The body's harmony, the beaming soul,
Are things which Kuster, Burman, Wasse shall see,
When Man's whole frame is obvious to a Flea.
 Ah, think not, Mistress! more true Dulness lies
240 In Folly's Cap, than Wisdom's grave disguise.^{[R 2]}
Like buoys, that never sink into the flood,
On Learning's surface we but lie and nod.^{[R 3]}
Thine is the genuine head of many a house,
And much Divinity without a Νοῦς.

Remarks

the third an author, who gave his Common-place book to the public, where we happen to find much Mince-meat of old books.

1. Ver. 232. Or chew'd by blind old Scholiasts o'er and o'er.] These taking the same things eternally from the mouth of one another.
2. Ver. 239, 240. Ah, think not, Mistress, &c.–In Folly's Cap, &c.] By this it would seem the Dunces and Fops mentioned ver. 139, 140. had a contention of rivalship for the Goddess's favour on this great day. Those got the start, but these make it up by their Spokesmen in the next speech. It seems as if Aristarchus here first saw him advancing with his fair Pupil. Scribl.
3. Ver. 241, 242. Like buoys, &c.—On Learning's surface, &c.] So that the station of a Professor is only a kind of legal Noticer to inform us where the shatter'd hulk of Learning lies at anchor; which after so long unhappy navigation, and now without either Master or Patron, we may wish, with Horace, may lie there still.
    ——— Nonne vides, ut
    Nudum remigie latus?
   ——— non tibi sunt integra lintea;
   Non Di, quos iterum pressa voces malo.
    Quamvis pontica pinus,
   Sylvae filia nobilis,
   Jactes & genus, & nomen inutile. Hor.Scribl.