Excite impetuous laughter's gay rebuke;
The sportive province of the comic muse.
See! in what crouds the uncouth forms advance;
Each would outstrip the other, each prevent
Our careful search, and offer to your gaze,80
Unask'd his motley features. Wait awhile,
My curious friends! and let us first arrange
In proper order your promiscuous throng.
Behold the foremost band;[1] of slender thought,
And easy faith; whom flatt'ring fancy sooths85
With lying spectres, in themselves to view
Illustrious forms of excellence and good,
That scorn the mansion. With exulting hearts
They spread their spurious treasure to the sun
And bid the world admire! but chief the glance90
Of wishful envy draws their joy-bright eyes,
- ↑ Behold the foremost band, &c.] The first and most general source of ridicule in the characters of men, is vanity or self-applause for some desirable quality or possession which evidently does not belong to those who assume it.
well as on learning and the sciences, it has been almost constantly neglected or misrepresented, by divines especially. The manner of treating these subjects in the science of human nature should be precisely the same as in natural philosopy; from particular facts to investigate the stated order in which they appear, and then apply the general law, thus discovered, to the explication of other appearances and the improvement of useful arts.
