cacy of his Turns, his Choice of Words, and perhaps the Purity of his Latin. He who fays that Pindar is inimitable, is himself inimitable in his Odes. But the

Contention betwixt thefe two great Mafters, is for the Prize of Satyr: In which Controverfy, all the Odes and Epodes of Horace are to ftand excluded. I fay this, becaule Horace has written many of them Satyrically, against his private Enemies: Yet thefe, if july confider'd, are fomewhat of the Nature of the Greek Silli, which were Invectives against particular Se&s and Perfons. But Horace had purg'd himself of this Choler, before he enter'd on thofe Difcourfes, which are more properly call'd the Roman Satyr: He has not now to do with a Lyce, a Canidia, a Caffius Severus, or a Menas; but is to correct the Vices and the Follies of his Time, and to give the Rules of a happy and virtuous Life. In a word, that former fort of Satyr, which is known in England by the Name of Lampoon, is a dangerous fort of Weapon, and for the most part unlawful. We have no moral Right on the Reputation of other Men. Tistaking from them what we cannot reftore to them. There are only two Reasons, for which we may be permitted to write Lampoons; and I will not promife that they can always juftify us: The firft is Re. venge, when we have been affronted in the fame nature, or have been any ways notoriously abus'd, and can make ourselves no other Reparation. And yet we know, that, in Chriflian Charity, all Offences are to be forgiven, as we expect the like Pardon for those which we daily commit against Almighty GOD. And this Confideration has often made me tremble when I was faying our Saviour's Prayer; for the plain Condition of the Forgiveness which we beg, is the pardoning of others the Offences which they have done to us: For which Reason I have many times avoided the Commiffion of that Fault, even when I have been notoriously provok'd

provok'd. Let not this, my Lord, pafs for Vanity in me; for 'tis Truth, More Libels have been written against me, than almost any Man now living: And I had Reafon on my fide, to have defended my own Innocence: I speak not on my Poetry, which I have wholly given up to the Criticks; let them ufe it as they pleafe: Pofterity, perhaps, may be more favourable to me: For Intereft, and Paffion will lie bury'd in another Age; and Partiality and Prejudice be forgotten. I fpeak of my Morals, which have been fufficiently afpers'd; that any fort of Reputation ought to be dear to every honeft Man, and is to me. But let the World witnefs for me, that I have been often wanting to myfelf in that particular; I have feldom anfwer'd any fourrilous Lampoon; when it was in my Power to have expos'd my Enemies: And being naturally vindicative, have fuffer'd in filence, and poffeis'd my Soul in quiet.

Any thing, tho' never fo little, which a Man fpeaks of himself in my Opinion, is ftill too much; and therefore I will wave this Subject, and proceed to give the fecond Reafon, which may juftify a Poet, when he writes against a particular Perfon; and that is, when he is become a Publick Nuifance. And thofe, whom Horace in his Satyrs, and Perfius and Juvenal have mention'd in theirs, with a Brand of Infamy, are wholly fuch. 'Tis an Action of Virtue to make Examples of vicious Men. They may and ought to be upbraided with their Crimes and Follies: Both for their own Amendment, if they are not yet incorrigible and for the Terror of others, to hinder them from falling into thofe Enormities, which they fee are fo feverely punish'd, in the Perfons of others. The firft Reafon was only an Excufe for Revenge; but this fecond is abfolutely of a Poet's Office to perform: But how few Lampooners are there now living, who are capable of this Duty! When they come in my way, 'tis impoffible fometimes to avoid reading

reading them. But, good God! how remote they are in common Justice, from the Choice of fuch Perfons as are the proper Subject of Satyr! And how little Wit they bring, for the Support of their Injuftice! The weaker Sex is their moft ordinary Theme; and the best and fairest are sure to be the most feverely handled. Amongst Men, thofe who are profperously unjuft, are intitled to Panegyrick; but afflicted Virtue is infolently stabb'd with all manner of Reproaches; no Decency is confider'd, no Fulfomeness omitted; no Venom is wanting, as far as Dulnefs can fupply it: For there is a perpetual Dearth of Wit; a Barrenness of good Senfe and Entertainment. The Neglect of the Readers, will foon put an end to this fort of Scribbling. There can be no Pleafantry where there is no Wit: No Impreffion can be made, where there is no Truth for the Foundation. To conclude, they are like the Fruits of the Earth in this unnatural Seafon: The Corn which held up its head, is fpoil'd with Rankness; but the greater part of the Harvest is laid along, and little of good Income and wholesome Nourishment is receiv'd into the Barns. This is almoft a Digreffion, I confess to your Lordship; but a juft Indignation forc'd it from me Now I have remov'd this Rubbish, I will return to the Comparison of Juvenal and Horace.

I wou'd willingly divide the Palm betwixt them, upon the two Heads of Profit and Delight, which are the two Ends of Poetry in general. It must be grant ed by the Favourers of Juvenal, That Horace is the more copious and profitable in his Inftructions of Human Life: But in my particular Opinion, which I fet not up for a Standard to better Judgments, Juvenal is the more delightful Author. I am profited by both, I am pleas'd with both; but I owe more to Horace, for my Instruction; and more to Juvenal, for my Pleasure, This, as I faid is my particular Taste of these two Authors: They who will have either of them to excel the other in both Qualities,

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Qualities, can scarce give better Reasons for their Opinion, than I for mine: But all unbiafs'd Reader's will conclude, that my Moderation is not to be condemn'd: To fuch impartial Men I must appeal: For they who have already form'd their Judgment, may justly ftand fufpected of Prejudice; and tho' all who are my Readers, will fet up to be my Judges, I enter my Caveat against them, that they ought not fo much as to be of my Jury: Or, if they be admitted, 'tis but Reason that they fhould first hear what I have to urge in the Defence of my Opinion.

That Horace is fomewhat the better Inftructor of the two, is prov'd from hence, That his Inftructions are more general: Juvenal's more limited. So that granting, that the Counfels which they give are equally good for Moral Ufe; Horace, who gives the most various Advice, and moft applicable to all Occafions which can occur to us in the Course of our Lives; as including in his Difcourfes not only all the Rules of Morality, but also of Civil Conversation; is, undoubtedly, to be preferred to him, who is more circumfcrib'd in his Instructions, makes them to fewer People, and on fewer Occafions, than the other. I may be pardon'd for ufing an old Saying, fince 'tis true, and to the purpofe, Bonum quo communius, eo melius. Juvenal, excepting only his firft Satyr, is in all the reft confin'd, to the expofing of some particular Vice; that he lafhes, and there he sticks. His Sentences are truly fhining and inftructive: But they are sprinkled here and there. Horace is teaching us in every Line, and is perpetually moral; he had found out the Skill of Virgil, to hide his Sentences: To give you the Virtue of them, without fhewing them in their full Extent: Which is the Oftentation of a Poet, and not his Art: And this Petronius charges on the Authors of his Time, as a Vice of Writing, which was then growing on the Age. Ne Sen tentia extra Corpus Orationis emineant: He wou'd have

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them weav'd into the Body of the Work, and not appear embofs'd upon it, and ftriking directly on the Reader's View. Folly was the proper Quarry of Horace, and not Vice: And, as there are but few notoriously wicked Men, in Comparison with a Shoal of Fools and Fops; fo 'tis a harder thing to make a Man wife, than to make him honeft: For the Will is only to be reclaim'd in the one; but the Understanding is to be inform'd in the other. There are Blind fides and Follies, even in the Profeffors of Moral Philofophy; and there is not any one Sect of them that Horace has not expos'd. Which, as it was not the Defign of Juvenal, who was wholly employ'd in lashing Vices, fome of them the most enormous that can be imagin'd; fo perhaps, it was not fo much his Talent. Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico, tangit, & admiffus circum præcordia ludit. This was the Commendation which Perfius gave him; where by Vitium, he means thofe little Vices, which we call Follies, the Defects of Human Underflanding, or at moft the Peccadillo's of Life, rather than the Tragical Vices, to which Men are hurry'd by their unfuly Paffions and exorbitant Defires. But in the Word Omne, which is univerfal, he concludes with me, that the Divine Wit of Horace left nothing untouch'd; that he enter'd into the inmoft Receffes of Nature; found out the Imperfections even of the most Wife and Grave, as well as of the the Common People; difcovering, even in the great Trebatius, to whom he addreffes the firft Satyr, his hunting after Bufinefs, and following the Court, as well as in the Perfecutor Crifpinus, his Impertinence and Impoportunity. 'Tis true, he expofes Crifpinus openly, as a common Nuisance: But he rallies the other as a Friend, more finely. The Exhortations of Perfius are confin'd to Noblemen: And the Stoick Philofophy is that alone which he recommends to them: Juvenal exhorts to particular Virtues, as they are oppos'd to thofe Vices against