proposed to execute it in the manner of Cervantes (the
original author of this species of satire) under a continued narrative
of feigned adventures. They had observed that those abuses still kept
their ground against all that the ablest and gravest authors could say
to discredit them; they concluded, therefore, the force of ridicule was
wanting to quicken their disgrace; and ridicule was here in its place,
when the abuses had been already detected by sober reasoning; and
truth in no danger to suffer by the premature use of so powerful an
instrument."]

"The design of this work, as stated by Pope himself, is to ridicule all
the false tastes in learning under the character of a man of capacity
enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but injudiciously
in each. It was begun by a club of some of the greatest wits of the
age--Lord Oxford, the Bishop of Rochester, Pope, Congreve, Swift,
Arbuthnot, and others. Gay often held the pen; and Addison liked it very
well, and was not disinclined to come into it."]

[Footnote 108: accounted for the operation of the meat-jack: from the
paper "To the learned inquisitor into nature, Martinus Scriblerus: the
society of free thinkers greeting." Elwin and Courthope, Pope's works,
vol. ?, p. 332.]

[Footnote 109: The remainder of the essay endeavors to meet the charge
of materialism. The following is the conclusion:--"In itself it is of
little moment whether we express the phaenomena of matter in terms of
spirit; or the phaenomena of spirit in terms of matter: matter may be
regarded as a form of thought, thought may be regarded as a property of
matter--each statement has a certain relative truth. But with a view to
the progress of science, the materialistic terminology is in every way
to be preferred. For it connects thought with the other phaenomena of
the universe, and suggests inquiry into the nature of those physical
conditions, or concomitants of thought, which are more or less
accessible to us, and a knowledge of which may, in future, help us
to exercise the same kind of control over the world of thought, as
we already possess in respect of the material world; whereas, the
alternative, or spiritualistic, terminology is utterly barren, and leads
to nothing but obscurity and confusion of ideas.

"Thus there can be little doubt, that the further science advances, the
more extensively and consistently will all the phaenomena of Nature
be represented by materialistic formula