Pope had in his mind, when he wrote the couplet, Creech's Hor., Ode xxxv. lib. 1.
I blush at the dishonest show,
I die to see the wounds and scars,
Those glories of our civil wars.
[138] Thus in the MS.
Till Anna rose, and bade the Furies cease;
Let there be peace—she said, and all was peace.—Warburton.
It may be presumed that Pope varied the couplet from perceiving the impropriety of a parody on the fiat of the Creator.
[139] Dryden's Annus Mirabilis:
Old Father Thames raised up his rev'rend head.
And again, at the conclusion of his Threnodia Augustalis:
While, starting from his oozy bed,
Th' asserted ocean rears his rev'rend head.—Wakefield.
The gods of rivers are invariably represented as old men.