which was prefcrib'd him by his own Genius; which was sharp and eager; he could not rally, but he could declaim: And as his Provocations were great, he has reveng'd them tragically. This notwithstanding, I am to fay another Word, which, as true as it is, will yet displease the partial Admirers of our Horace. I have hinted it before; but 'tis Time for me now to speak more plainly,

This Manner of Horace is indeed the beft; but Horace has not executed it altogether fo happily, at least not often. The Manner of Juvenal is confeffed to be inferior to the former; but Juvenal has excelled him in his Performance. Juvenal has rail'd more wittily than Horace has rally'd. Horace meant to make his Reader laugh; but he is not fure of his Experiment. Juvenal always intends to move your Indignation; and he always brings about his Purpose. Horace, for ought I know, might have tickled the People of his Age; but amongst the Moderns he is not fo fuccessful. They who say he entertains fo pleasantly, may perhaps value themselves on the Quickness of their own Understandings, that they can see a Jeft farther off than other Men: They may find occafion of Laughter in the Wit-battle of the two Buffoons, Sarmentus and Cicerrus; and hold their Sides for fear of Burfting, when Rupilius and Perfius are fcolding. For my own Part, I can only like the Characters of all Four, which are judiciously given: Buc for my Heart I cannot fo much as fmile at their infipid Raillery. I fee not why Perfius fhould call upon Brutus, to revenge him on his Adversary; and that because he had killed Julius Cæfar for endeavouring to be a King; therefore he shou'd be defir'd to murder Rupilius, only because his Name was Mr. King. A miferable Clench, in my Opinion, for Horace to record: I have heard honest Mr. Swan make many a better, and yet have had the Grace to hold my Countenance. But it may be Punns

were then in Fashion, as they were Wit in the Sermons of the laft Age, and in the Court of King Charles II. I am forry to lay it, for the fake of Horace; but certain it is, he has no fine Palate who can feed fo heartily on Garbage.

But I have already wearied my felf, and doubt not but I have tir'd your Lordship's Patience, with this long, rambling, and I fear trivial Difcourfe. Upon the one half of the Merits, that is, Pleasure, I cannot but con clude that Juvenal was the better Satyrift: They whə will defcend into his particular Praises, may find them at large in the Differtation of the Learned Rigaltius to Thuanus. As for Perfius, I have given the Reasons why 1 think him inferior to both of them: Yet I have one thing to add on that Subject.

Barten Holiday, who, tranflated both Juvenal and Perfius, has made this Diftinction betwixt them, which is no less true than witty; That, in Perfius, the Difficulty is to find a Meaning; in Juvenal to chufe a Meaning: So Crabbed is Perfius, and fo Copious is Juvenal: So much the Understanding is employ'd in one, and fo much the Judgment in the other. So difficult it is to find any Şenle in the former, and the best Sense of the latter.

If on the other fide, any one fuppofe I have commended Horace below his Merit, when I have allow'd him but the Second Place, I defire him to confider, if Juvenal, a Man of excellent Natural Endowments, befides the Advantages of Diligence and Study, and coming after him, and building upon his Foundations, might not probably, with all these Helps furpafs him? And whether it be any Dishonour to Horace to be thus furpaffed; fince no Art, or Science, is at once begun and perfected, but that it muft pafs firft through many Hands, and even through feveral Ages? If Lucilius cou'd add to Ennius, and Horace to Lucilius, why, without any Diminution to the Fame of Horace, might not Juvenal

give the laft Perfection to that Work? Or rather, what Difreputation is it to Horace, that Juvenal excels in the Tragical Satyr, as Horace does in the Comical? I have read over attentively both Heinfius and Dacier, in their Commendations of Horace; but I can find no more in either of them, for the preference of him to Juvenal, than the inftructive Part; the Part of Wisdom, and not that of Pleasure; which therefore is here allow'd him, notwithstanding what Scaliger and Rigaltius have pleaded to the contrary for Juvenal. And to fhew that I am impartial, I will here Translate what Dacier has faid on that Subject.

I cannot give a more just Idea of the Two Books of Satyrs made by Horace, than by comparing them to the Statues of the Sileni, to which Alcibiades compares Socrates, in the Symposium. They were Figures, which had nothing of Agreeable, nothing of Beauty on their Out-fide: But 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 ferioùs Confideration of Men: But when we take away his Cruft, and that which hides him from our Sight,. when we discover 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 seriously endeavour to correct their Vices.

'Tis easy to observe, that Dacier, in this noble Similitude, has confin'd the Praise of his Author wholly to the Inftructive Part: The Commendation turns on this, and fo does that which follows.

In these two Books of Satyr, 'tis the Bufinefs of Hi• race to inftruct us how to combat our Vices, to regulate our Paffions, to follow Nature, to give Bounds to our

Defires,

Defires, to diftinguish betwixt Truth and Falfhood, and betwixt our Conceptions of Things, and Things themfelves: 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 Reason.

To

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 those with whom we are oblig'd to live, and to converse. make his Figures intelligible, to conduct his Readers through the Labyrinth of fome perplex'd Sentence, or obfcure Parenthefis, is no great Matter: And, as Epictetus fays, there is nothing of Beauty in all this, or what is worthy of a prudent Man. The principal Business, 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 themfelves, acGording to fo exact a Model; are just like the Patients, who have open before them a Book of admirable Receipts for their Difeafes, 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 thefe Encomiums, which he has fo well deferv'd.

To conclude the Contention betwixt our three Poets, I will ufe the Words of Virgil, in his Fifth Æneid, where Eneas propofes the Rewards of the Foot Race, to the three first, who fhould reach the Goal. Tres præmia. primi accipient, flavaque Caput nectentur Oliva: Let thefe three Ancients be preferred to all the Moderns; as firit arriving at the Goal: Let them all be Crown'd as Vistors, with the Wreath that properly belongs to Satyr..

Buta

But, after that, with this Diftinction amongst themfelves, Primus equum phaleris infignem Victor habeto. Let Juvenal ride first in Triumph. Alter Amazoniam pharetram, plenamque Sagittis Threiciis, lato quam circumplectitur auro Balteus, & tereti fubnetit Fibula gemma. Let Horace who is the fecond, and but just the Second, carry off the Quivers and the Arrows, as the Badges of his Satyr; and the Golden Belt, and the Diamond Button. Tertius, Argolico hoc Clypeo contentus abito. And let Perfius, the laft of the first three Worthies, 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 from Ennius, to your Lordship; that is, from its first Rudiments of Barbarity, to its laft Polishing and Perfection: Which is, with Virgil, in his Address to Auguftus,

nomen famâ tot ferre per annos,

Tithoni prima quot abeft ab origine Cafar.

I faid only from Ennius; but I may safely 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 beft Chronologers, that Plutus, the laft of Arifophanes's Plays, was Reprefented at Athens, in the Year of the 97th Olympiad ; which agrees with the Year Urbis 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

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