The Ax methinks would have been a good Figure for a Lampoon, had the Edge of it consisted of the most satyrical Parts of the Work; but as it is in the Original, I take it to have been nothing else but the Posy of an Ax which was consecrated to _Minerva_, and was thought to have been the same that _Epeus_ made use of in the building of the _Trojan_ Horse; which is a Hint I shall leave to the Consideration of the Criticks. I am apt to think that the Posy was written originally upon the Ax, like those which our modern Cutlers inscribe upon their Knives; and that therefore the Posy still remains in its ancient Shape, tho' the Ax it self is lost. The Shepherd's Pipe may be said to be full of Musick, for it is composed of nine different Kinds of Verses, which by their several Lengths resemble the nine Stops of the old musical Instrument, [that [2]] is likewise the Subject of the Poem. [3] The Altar is inscribed with the Epitaph of _Troilus_ the Son of _Hecuba_; which, by the way, makes me believe, that these false Pieces of Wit are much more ancient than the Authors to whom they are generally ascribed; at least I will never be perswaded, that so fine a Writer as _Theocritus_ could have been the Author of any such simple Works. It was impossible for a Man to succeed in these Performances who was not a kind of Painter, or at least a Designer: He was first of all to draw the Out-line of the Subject which he intended to write upon, and afterwards conform the Description to the Figure of his Subject. The Poetry was to contract or dilate itself according to the Mould in which it was cast. In a word, the Verses were to be cramped or extended to the Dimensions of the Frame that was prepared for them; and to undergo the Fate of those Persons whom the Tyrant _Procrustes_ used to lodge in his Iron Bed; if they were too short, he stretched them on a Rack, and if they were too long, chopped off a Part of their Legs, till they fitted the Couch which he had prepared for them. Mr. _Dryden_ hints at this obsolete kind of Wit in one of the following Verses, [in his _Mac Flecno_;] which an _English_ Reader cannot understand, who does not know that there are those little Poems abovementioned in the Shape of Wings and Altars. ... _Chuse for thy Command Some peaceful Province in Acrostick Land; There may'st thou Wings display, and_ Altars _raise, And torture one poor Word a thousand Ways._