[437] 'First, slave to words:' a recapitulation of the whole course of modern education described in this book, which confines youth to the study of words only in schools, subjects them to the authority of systems in the universities, and deludes them with the names of party distinctions in the world,--all equally concurring to narrow the understanding, and establish slavery and error in literature, philosophy, and politics. The whole finished in modern free-thinking; the completion of whatever is vain, wrong, and destructive to the happiness of mankind, as it establishes self-love for the sole principle of action.--P. W. [438] 'Smiled on by a queen:' i.e. this queen or goddess of Dulness.--P. [439] 'Mr Philip Wharton, who died abroad and outlawed in 1791. [440] 'Nothing left but homage to a king:' so strange as this must seem to a mere English reader, the famous Mons. de la Bruyere declares it to be the character of every good subject in a monarchy; 'where,' says he, 'there is no such thing as love of our country; the interest, the glory, and service of the prince, supply its place.'--De la Republique, chap. x.--P. [441] 'The balm of Dulness:' the true balm of Dulness, called by the Greek physicians [Greek: Kolakeia], is a sovereign remedy against inanity, and has its poetic name from the goddess herself. Its ancient dispensators were her poets; and for that reason our author, book ii. v. 207, calls it the poet's healing balm; but it is now got into as many hands as Goddard's Drops or Daffy's Elixir.--W. [442] 'The board with specious miracles he loads:' these were only the miracles of French cookery, and particularly pigeons _en crapeau_ were a common dish.--P. W. [443] '_Seve_ and _verdeur_:' French terms relating to wines, which signify their flavour and poignancy.--P. W. [444] 'Bladen--Hays:' names of gamesters. Bladen is a black man. Robert Knight, cashier of the South Sea Company, who fled from England in 1720 (afterwards pardoned in 1742). These lived with the utmost magnificence at Paris, and kept open tables frequented by persons of the first quality of England, and even by princes of the blood of France.--P. W. The former note of 'Bladen is a black man,' is very absurd. The manuscript here is partly obliterated, and doubtless could only have been, Wash blackmoors white, alluding to a known proverb.--Scribl. P. W. Bladen was uncle to Collins the poet. See our edition of 'Collins.' [445] 'Gregorian, Gormogon:' a sort of lay-brothers, slips from the root of the freemasons.--P. W. [446] 'Arachne's subtile line:' this is one of the most ingenious employments assigned, and therefore recommended only to peers of learning. Of weaving stockings of the webs of spiders, see the Phil. Trans.--P. W. [447] 'Sergeant call:' alluding perhaps to that ancient and solemn dance, entitled, A Call of Sergeants.--P. W.