“In these raw mornings, when I’m freezing ripe, What can compare with a tobacco pipe? Primed, cock’d, and touch’t, ’twould better heat a man Than ten Bath faggots, or Scotch warming pan. For the toothache ’tis a specific aid, For every amorous boy, or lovesick maid. Sometimes another way to work ’twill go, Up spouts a deluge from the abyss below;— This physic is more safe, (though not so fine,) Than bumpers crown’d too oft with sparkling wine. A glass is not a better cure than that, For care, or toothache, both of which would kill a cat. Surely when Prometheus climb’d above the poles, Slyly to learn their art of making souls, When of his fire he fretting Jove did wipe, He stole it thence in a tobacco pipe; Which, predisposed to live, as down he ran, By the soul’s plastic power, from clay was turn’d to man.” In the “Dunciad”[21] of Alexander Pope, there is a line which seems to refer to Samuel Wesley’s “Maggots.” The reference is not clear and undeniable; but still it has an air of probability. In his first book, line 53, Pope writes:— “Here she beholds the chaos dark and deep, Where nameless somethings in their causes sleep, ’Till genial Jacob, or a warm third day Call forth each mass, a poem or a play. How hints, like spawn, scarce quick in embryo lie! How new-born nonsense first is taught to cry! _Maggots_ half form’d, in rhyme, exactly meet, And learn to crawl upon poetic feet! Here one poor word a hundred clenches makes, And ductile dulness new meanders takes; There motley images her fancy strike, Figures ill-pair’d, and similes unlike.” ----- Footnote 21: Edition 1729. -----