when any one took the pains to open them, and fearch into them, he there found the Figures of all the Deities. So, in the Shape that Horace prefents himself to us, in his Satyrs, we fee nothing at the first View which deferves our Attention. It seems that he is rather an Amusement for Children, than for the serious Confideration of Men: But when we take away his Cruft, and that which hides him from our Sight; when we difcover him to the Bottom, then we find all the Divinities in a full Affembly: That is to fay, all the Virtues which ought to be the continual Exercise of thofe, who feriously endeavour to correct their Vices.

'Tis eafy to obferve, that Dacier, in this noble Similitude, has confin'd the Praife of his Author wholly to the Inftructive Part: The Commendations turns on this, and fo does that which follows.

In these two Books of Satyr, 'tis the Bufinefs of Horace to inftru&t us how to combat our Vices, to regulate our Paffions, to follow Nature, to give Bounds to our Defires, to diftinguish betwixt Truth and Falfhood, and betwixt our Conceptions of Things, and Things themselves: To come back from our prejudicate Opinions, to understand exactly the Principles and Motives of all our Actions; and to avoid the Ridicule, into which all Men neceffarily fall, who are intoxicated with thofe Notions which they have receiv'd from their Masters; and which they obftinately retain, without examining whether or no they be founded on right Reafon.

In a Word, he labours to render us happy in relation to our felves, agreeable and faithful to our Friends, and difcreet, ferviceable, and well-bred in relation to thofe with whom we are oblig'd to

live, and to converfe. To make his Figures intelligible, to conduct his Readers through the Labyrinth of fome perplex'd Sentence, or obfcure Parenthefis, is no greater Matter: And, as Epictetus fays, there is nothing of Beauty in all this, or what is worthy of a prudent Man. The principal Bufinefs, and which is of moft Importance to us, is to fhew the Ufe, the Reason, and the Proof of his Precepts.

They who endeavour not to correct themselves, according to fo exact a Model; are just like the Patients, who have open before them a Book of admirable Receipts for their Diseases, and please themselves with reading it, without comprehending the Nature of the Remedies; or how to apply them to their Cure.

Let Horace go off with these Encomiums, which he has fo well deferv'd.

To conclude the Contention betwixt our three Poets, I will use the Words of Virgil, in his Fifth Eneid, where Aneas proposes the Rewards of the Foot Race, to the three firft, who should reach the Goal. Tres præmia primi, accipient; flavaque Caput nectentur Oliva: Let these three Ancients be preferred to all the Moderns; as first arriving at the Goal: Let them all be Crown'd as Victors, with the Wreath that properly belongs to Satyr. But, after that, with this Diftinction amongst themfelves, Primus equum phaleris infignem, Victor babeto. Let Juvenal ride firft in Triumph. Alter Amazoniam pharetram; plenamque Sagittis Threiciis, lato quam circumplectitur auro Balteus, & teriti fubnectit Fibula gemma. Let Horace who is the Second, and but juft the Second, carry off the Quivers and the Arrows, as the Badges of his Satyr; and the Golden Belt and the Diamond Btu

ton. Tertius, Argolico hoc Clypeo contentus abito And let Perfius, the laft of the first three Wothies, be contented with this Grecian Shield, and with Victory not only over all the Grecians, who were ignorant of the Roman Satyr, but over all the Moderns in fucceeding Ages; excepting Boileau and your Lordship.

And thus I have given the History of Satyr, and deriv'd it as from Ennius, to your Lordship; that is, from its first Rudiments of Barbarity, to its last Polishing and Perfection: Which is, with Virgil, in his Addrefs to Auguftus;

nomen famâ tot ferre per annos,

Tithoni primâ quot abeft ab origine Cafar.

I faid only from Ennius; but I may fafely carry it higher, as far as Livius Andronicus; who, as I have faid formerly, taught the firft Play at Rome, in the Year ab Urbe condita CCCCCXIV. I have fince defir'd my Learned Friend Mr. Maidwell, to compute the Difference of Times, betwixt Ariftophanes and Livius Andronicus; and he affures me from the best Chronologers, that Plutus, the last of A riftophanes's Plays, was Reprefented at Athens, in the Year of the 97th Olymyiad; which agrees with the Year Ubis Condita CCCLXIV. So that the difference of Years betwixt Ariftophanes and Andronicus is 150; from whence I have probably deduc'd, that Livius Andronicus, who was a Grecian, had read the Plays of the Old Comedy, which were Satyrical, and alfo of the New; for Menander was fifty Years before him, which muft needs be a great light to him, in his own Plays, that were of the Satyrical Nature. That the Romans had Farces before this, 'tis true; but then they had no Com

munication

munication with Greece: So that Andronicus was the first who wrote after the inanner of the Old Comedy, in his Plays; he was imitated by Ennius, about thirty Years afterwards. Tho' the former writ Fables; the latter, fpeaking properly, began the Roman Satyr. According to that Defcription, which Juvenal gives of it in his Firft; Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, Gaudia, difcurfus, noftri eft farrago libelli. This is that in which I have made bold to differ from Cafaubon, Rigaltius, Dacier, and indeed from all the Modern Criticks, that not Ennius, but Andronicus was the first; who by the Archea Comedia of the Greeks, added many Beauties to the firft Rude and Barbarous Roman Satyr: Which fort of Poem, tho' we had not deriv'd from Rome, yet Nature teaches it Mankind, in all Ages, and in every Country.

'Tis but neceffary, that after fo much has been faid of Satyr, fome Definition of it should be given. Heinfius, in his Differtations on Horace, makes it for me, in thefe Words; Satyr is a kind of Poetry, without a Series of Action, invented for the purging of our Minds; in which Human Vices, Ignorance, and Errors, and all things befides, which are produc'd from them, in every Man, are feverely Reprebended; partly Dramatically, partly Simply, and Sometimes in both kinds of fpeaking; but for the most part Figuratively, and Occultly; confifting in a low familiar way, chiefly in a fharp and pungent manner of Speech; but partly, alfo, in a Facetious and Civil way of Jefting; by which either Hatred, or Laughter, or Indignation is moved. Where I cannot but obferve, that this obfcure and perplex'd Definition, or rather Description of Satyr, is wholly accommodated to the Horatian way; and excluding the Works of Juvenal and Perfius, as foreign from

that

that kind of Poem: The Claufe in the Beginning of it (without a Series of Action) diftinguishes Satyr properly from Stage-Plays, which are all of one Action, and one continued Series of Action. The End or Scope of Satyr is to purge the Paffions; fo far it is common to the Satyrs of Juvenal and Perfius: The reft which follows, is also generally belonging to all three; 'till he comes upon us, with the excluding Claufe (confifting in a low familiar way of Speech) which is the proper Character of Horace; and from which, the other two, for their Honour be it fpoken, are far diftant. But how come Lownefs of Style and the Familiarity of Words to be fo much the Propriety of Satyr, that without them, a Poet can be no more a Satyrift, than without Rifibility he can be a Man? Is the Fault of Horace to be made the Virtue and standing Rule of this Poem? Is the Grande Sophos of Perfius, and the Sublimity of Juvenal to be Circumfcrib'd, with the Meannefs of Words and Vulgarity of Expreffion? If Horace refufed the pains of Numbers, and the loftinefs of Figures, are they bound to follow fo ill a Precedent? Let him walk a-foot with his Pad in his hand, for his own Pleafure; but let not them be accounted no Poets, who chufe to mount, and fhew their Horfemanfhip. Holiday is not afraid to fay, that there never was such a fall, as from his Odes to his Satyrs, and that he, injuriously to himself, unturn'd his Harp. The Majeftique way of Perfius and Juvenal was new when they began it; but 'tis old to us; and what Poems have not, with Time, received an Alteration in their Fashion? Which Alteration, fays Holiday, is to after-times, as good a Warrant as the firft. Has not Virgil chang'd the Manners of Homer's Heroes in his Eneid? certainly he has, and

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