Page:A Key to the Lock. Or, A Treatise Proving, Beyond All Contradiction, the Dangerous Tendency of a Late Poem, Entituled, The Rape of the Lock, to Government and Religion - Pope (1715).djvu/22

 all that happens, 'tis plain they represent promiscuously the Heads of Parties, whom he makes to be the Authors of all those Changes in the State, which are generally imputed to the Levity and Instability of the British Nation.

But of this he has given us a plain Demonstration; for speaking of these Spirits, he says in express Terms.

And here let it not seem odd, if in this mysterious way of Writing, we find the same Person, who has before been represented by the Baron, again described in the Character of Ariel; it being a common way with Authors, in this fabulous Manner, to take such a Liberty. As for instance, I have read in the English St. Evremont, that all the different Characters in Petronius are but Nero in so many different Appearances. And in the Key to the curious Romance of Barclay's Argenis, that both Poliarchus and Archombrotus mean only the King of Navarre.