登陆注册
25528600000008

第8章

All things violently tending to a decisive battle, Fame, who much frequented, and had a large apartment formerly assigned her in the regal library, fled up straight to Jupiter, to whom she delivered a faithful account of all that passed between the two parties below; for among the gods she always tells truth. Jove, in great concern, convokes a council in the Milky Way. The senate assembled, he declares the occasion of convening them; a bloody battle just impendent between two mighty armies of ancient and modern creatures, called books, wherein the celestial interest was but too deeply concerned. Momus, the patron of the Moderns, made an excellent speech in their favour, which was answered by Pallas, the protectress of the Ancients. The assembly was divided in their affections; when Jupiter commanded the Book of Fate to be laid before him. Immediately were brought by Mercury three large volumes in folio, containing memoirs of all things past, present, and to come. The clasps were of silver double gilt, the covers of celestial turkey leather, and the paper such as here on earth might pass almost for vellum. Jupiter, having silently read the decree, would communicatethe import to none, but presently shut up thebook.

Without the doors of this assembly there attended a vast number of light, nimble gods, menial servants to Jupiter: those are his ministering instruments in all affairs below. They travel in a caravan, more or less together, and are fastened to each other like a link of galley-slaves, by a light chain, which passes from them to Jupiter's great toe: and yet, in receiving or delivering a message, they may never approach above the lowest step of his throne, where he and they whisper to each other through a large hollow trunk. These deities are called by mortal men accidents or events; but the gods call them second causes. Jupiter having delivered his message to a certain number of these divinities, they flew immediately down to the pinnacle of the regal library, and consulting a few minutes, entered unseen, and disposed the parties according to their orders.

Meanwhile Momus, fearing the worst, and calling to mind an ancient prophecy which bore no very good face to his children the Moderns, bent his flight to the region of a malignant deity called Criticism. She dwelt on the top of a snowy mountain in Nova Zembla; there Momus found her extended in her den, upon the spoils of numberless volumes, half devoured. At her right hand sat Ignorance, her father and husband, blind with age; at her left, Pride, her mother, dressing her up in the scraps of paper herself had torn. There was Opinion, her sister, light of foot, hood- winked, and head-strong, yet giddy and perpetually turning. About her played her children, Noise and Impudence, Dulness and Vanity, Positiveness, Pedantry, and Ill-manners. The goddess herself had claws like a cat; her head, and ears, and voice resembled those of an ass; her teeth fallen out before, her eyes turned inward, as if she looked only upon herself; her diet was the overflowing of her own gall; her spleen was so large as to stand prominent, like a dug of the first rate; nor wanted excrescences in form of teats, at which a crew of ugly monsters were greedily sucking; and, what is wonderful to conceive, the bulk of spleen increased faster than the sucking could diminish it. "Goddess," said Momus, "can you sit idly here while our devout worshippers, the Moderns, are this minute entering into a cruel battle,and perhaps now lying under the swords of their enemies? who then hereafter will ever sacrifice or build altars to our divinities? Haste, therefore, to the British Isle, and, if possible, prevent their destruction; while I make factions among the gods, and gain them over to our party."Momus, having thus delivered himself, stayed not for an answer, but left the goddess to her own resentment. Up she rose in a rage, and, as it is the form on such occasions, began a soliloquy: "It is I" (said she) "who give wisdom to infants and idiots; by me children grow wiser than their parents, by me beaux become politicians, and schoolboys judges of philosophy; by me sophisters debate and conclude upon the depths of knowledge; and coffee-house wits, instinct by me, can correct an author's style, and display his minutest errors, without understanding a syllable of his matter or his language; by me striplings spend their judgment, as they do their estate, before it comes into their hands. It is I who have deposed wit and knowledge from their empire over poetry, and advanced myself in their stead. And shall a few upstart Ancients dare to oppose me? But come, my aged parent, and you, my children dear, and thou, my beauteous sister; let us ascend my chariot, and haste to assist our devout Moderns, who are now sacrificing to us a hecatomb, as I perceive by that grateful smell which from thence reaches my nostrils."The goddess and her train, having mounted the chariot, which was drawn by tame geese, flew over infinite regions, shedding her influence in due places, till at length she arrived at her beloved island of Britain; but in hovering over its metropolis, what blessings did she not let fall upon her seminaries of Gresham and Covent-garden! And now she reached the fatal plain of St. James's library, at what time the two armies were upon the point to engage; where, entering with all her caravan unseen, and landing upon a case of shelves, now desert, but once inhabited by a colony of virtuosos, she stayed awhile to observe the posture of both armies.

同类推荐
  • 五木经

    五木经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 八识规矩纂释

    八识规矩纂释

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 天台山志

    天台山志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 马致远元曲全集

    马致远元曲全集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 围炉夜话

    围炉夜话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 跨越灵魂来爱你

    跨越灵魂来爱你

    一场车祸让平凡的她占据了富家小姐的身体,同一个灵魂,不一样的容貌,怎样可以回到那个爱她如痴的人儿身边?但……计划永远赶不上变化,在她回到爱人身边时,却带来了好几只蜜蜂,这样,他们的爱还能不能强如磐石?
  • 王爷在上:美人有点凉

    王爷在上:美人有点凉

    她笑颜如花,抵不过江山如画。她倾国倾城,抵不过一句质问。初见,他的一句告白,惹她一阵波澜。再见,他的倾城一吻,使她情定今生。又见,他的一句娶你,使她心花怒放。殊不知,那一刻,所为的捉弄便由此开始;殊不知,一句至死不渝,一生爱恨情仇。为他,她亲手毁了另一个爱她的人!为他,她亲手断送了自己的一生!“你既爱我,为何伤我至深?”“过去了,都已经是从前了。我只是把你当作一个棋子而已。”“棋子?桃花树,你许下的承诺,你会爱我…果然…”最后的最后,她所有为他做的一切,竟做了别人的嫁衣……“我自认自负,冰冷无情,却终究再毁在你的手中。只望我东山再起之时,能亲手断送你的江山,你的一切!”
  • 我的三国之旅

    我的三国之旅

    主要讲述一对情侣由于时空错乱穿越到了三国时代,与三国中的各位豪杰发生的一系列故事,绝对良心作品,小说虽是穿越题材,但没有和平时的穿越剧一样那么扯,绝对没有任何黑历史人物的意思,纯属小说剧情需要,希望各位读者多看看有意见可以给我提,如果正确在下绝对虚心受教。。。
  • 刑法

    刑法

    袁继红、楼伯坤主编的《刑法(第三版)》是法学专业的一门核心教材,包括刑法总论和刑法分论两门课程,本教材在编写的总体思路上采用新颖的编写体例,在核心理论的基础上,充分体现理论的应用性和实践性,将法律的程序性规范与司法解释中的具体规定融会贯通,通过典型生动的真实案例分析训练学生的刑事法学的实务应用能力。
  • 唐宋词选释

    唐宋词选释

    《唐宋词选释(最新修订本)》由国学大师俞平伯先生选注,选录唐宋词二百五十一首,分上、中、下三卷。上卷为唐、五代词,共八十七首。中、下卷为宋词,共一百六十四首。中卷题为“宋词之一”,下卷题为“宋词之二”,即相当于北宋和南宋。《唐宋词选释(最新修订本)》选词面广,力求体现词家之风格与词之发展。注释精当权威,尤其重视对词作真义的揭示和用语源头的发掘。是唐宋词的权威选本,也是不可多得的经典文学读物。
  • 无境尊途

    无境尊途

    阴阳颠倒,乾坤难辨,大江滔去,风云辟易。……武极大陆以武为尊,净洗练,掌元灵,控阴阳,转乾坤,历九劫,方登尊位大道。天相紊乱,风云兴起,乱像将生,且看朝天,搅动苍生。
  • 粒子空间

    粒子空间

    “我们真的活着吗?”“世界是真实的吗?”“我们所知道的历史真的发生过吗?”“我们真的存在着吗?”“世界是怎样诞生的?”“世界为什么诞生?”“我们真的不是被创造出来的吗?”无数的疑问充满着人类的脑海,有些人看到了真实,而有些人沉迷于虚幻,是命运的捉弄还是打破命运的追寻,当韩枫带着无数的疑问前行在未知的道路上,他看到了真实所散发的光芒,也看到了虚幻带来的绝望。
  • 游清远禺峡飞来寺记

    游清远禺峡飞来寺记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 大犬神

    大犬神

    年近三十的家里蹲,整天撩猫逗狗,找不到人生方向,家里老爸忽然失踪,留下一屋子钞票,我打开老爹茶壶之后晕倒,竟然变成了一条狗。什么?我竟然是统御诸天的大犬神!
  • 情劫契丹王

    情劫契丹王

    她——个女儿身却要肩负起整个家族庞大的生意!他——冷酷的契丹王,却不小心陷入一个汉人女子的温柔里!到底是契丹劫了她的货品,还是她劫走了契丹王的情?国与家,爱与恨,当两个人的感情里有太多不得已,当两国纷争湮灭了爱与温柔,他们是否还能如最初的相遇?人生若只如初见,多好!