m, that it is one thing to tell
the Spirit of Dulness to depart; and another to get rid of her in
reality. Like GLENDOWER's Spirits, any one may order them away; "but will
they go, when you do order them?"

But let us suppose for a moment that the Parnassian decree is obeyed;
and, according to the letter of the _Order_ (which is as precise and
wordy as if Justice SHALLOW himself had drawn it) that the obnoxious
female is sent back to the place of her birth,

'Mongst horrid shapes, shrieks, sights, &c.

At which we beg our fair readers not to be alarmed; for we can assure
them they are only words of course in all poetical Instruments of this
nature, and mean no more than the "force and arms" and "instigation of
the Devil" in a common Indictment.

This nuisance then being abated; we are left at liberty to contemplate a
character of a different complexion, "buxom, blithe, and debonair": one
who, although evidently a great favourite of the Poet's and therefore to
be received with all due courtesy, is notwithstanding introduced under
the suspicious description of an _alias_.

In heaven, ycleped EUPHROSYNE;
And by men, heart-easing Mirth.

Judging indeed from the light and easy deportment of this gay Nymph; one
might guess there were good reasons for a change of name as she changed
her residence.

But of all vices there is none we abhor more than that of slanderous
insinuation. We shall therefore confine our moral strictures to the
Nymph's mother; in whose defence the Poet has little to say himself. Here
too, as in the case of the _name_, there is some doubt. For the
uncertainty of descent on the Father's side having become trite to a
proverb; the Author, scorning that beaten track, has left us to choose
between two mothers for his favourite and without much to guide our
choice; for, whichever we fix upon, it is plain she was no better than
she should be. As he seems however himself inclined to the latter of the
two, we will even suppose it so to be.

Or whether (as some sager say)
The frolic _wind that breathes the Spring_,
ZEPHYR with AURORA playing,
_As he met her once a Maying_;
There on beds of violets blue,
And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, _&c._

Some dull people might imagine that _the wind_ was more like _the breath
of Spring_; than _Spring, the breath of the wind_: but we are more
disposed to question the Author's Ethics than his Physics; and
accordingly cannot di