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the Errors of other Men: But 'tis your Prerogative to pardon them; to look with Pleasure on thofe things, which are fomewhat congenial, and of a remote Kindred to your own Conceptions: And to forgive the many Failings of thofe, who with their wretched Art, cannot arrive to thofe Heights that you poffefs, from a happy, abundant, and native Genius: Which are as inborn to you, as they were to Shakespear; and for ought I know, to Homer; in either of whom we find all Arts and Sciences, all Moral and Natural Philofophy, without knowing that they ever study'd them.

There is not an English Writer this Day living, who is not perfectly convinc'd, that your Lordship excels all others, in all the feveral parts of Poetry which you have undertaken to adorn. The most Vain, and the moft Ambitious of our Age, have not dar'd to affume fo much, as the Competitors of Themiftocles: They have yielded the firft Place without difpute; and have been arrogantly content to be efteem'd as Second to your Lordship; and even that also with a Longo fed proximi Intervallo. If there have been, or are any, who go farther in their Self-conceit, they must be very fingular in their Opinion: They must be like the Of ficer, in a Play, who was call'd Captain, Lieutenant and Company. The World will eafily conclude, whether fuch unattended Generals can ever be capable of making a Revolution in Parnaffus.

I will not attempt, in this place, to fay any thing particular of your Lyrick Poems, tho' they are the Delight and Wonder of this Age, and will be the Envy of the next. The Subject of this Book confines mè to 'Satyr; and in that, an Author of your own Quality, (whose Ashes I will not disturb,) has given you all the Commendation, which his Self-fufficiency cou'd afford to any Man: The beft good Man, with the worknatur'd Mufe. In that Character, methinks, I am reading

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reading Johnfon's Verses to the Memory of Shakespear: An Infolent, Sparing, and Invidious Panegyrick: Where good Nature, the moft Godlike Commendation of a Man, is only attributed to your Perfon, and deny'd to your Writings: For they are every-where so full of Candor, that, like Horace, you only expofe the Follies of Men, without arraigning their Vices; and in this excel him, that you add that Pointedness of Thought, which is vifibly wanting in our great Røman, There is more of Salt in all your Verses, than I have feen in any of the Moderns, or even of the Ancients : But you have been fparing of the Gall; by which means you have pleas'd all Readers, and offended none. Donn alone, of all our Country-men, had your Talent; but was not happy enough to arrive at your Verfification. And were he tranflated into Numbers, and English, he wou'd yet be wanting in the Dignity of Expreffion. That which is the Prime Virtue, and chief Ornament of Virgil, which diftinguishes hin from the rest of Writers, is fo confpicuous in your Verfes, that it cafts a Shadow on all your Contemporaries; we cannot be feen, or but obfcurely, while you are prefent. You equal Donn in the Variety, Multiplicity, and Choice of Thoughts; you excel him in the Manner and the Words. I read you both, with the fame Admiration, but not with the fame Delight. He affects the Metaphyficks, not only in his Satyrs, but in his amorous Verfes, where Nature only fhould reign ; and perplexes the Minds of the fair Sex with nice Speculations of Philofophy, when he fhou'd engage their Hearts, and entertain them with the Softness of Love. In this (if I may be pardon'd for fo bold a Truth) Mr. Cowley has copy'd him to a Fault; fo great a one in my Opinion, that it throws his Mistress infinitely below his Pindariques, and his latter Compofitions, which are undoubtedly the best of his Poems, and the most correct,

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correct. For my own part, I must avow it freely to the World, that I never attempted any thing in Satyr, wherein I have not study'd your Writings as the moft perfect Model. I have continually laid them before me; and the greatéft Commendation, which my own Partiality can give to my Productions, is, that they are Copies, and no farther to be allow'd, than as they have fomething more or lefs of the Original. Some few Touches of your Lordship, fome fecret Graces which I have endeavour'd to express after your manner, have made whole Poems of mine to pafs with Approbation But take your Verfes altogether, and they are inimitable. If therefore I have not written better, 'tis becaufe you have not written more. You have not fet me fufficient Copy to transcribe; and I cannot add one Letter of my own Invention, of which I have not the Example there.

'Tis a general Complaint against your Lordship, and I must have leave to upbraid you with it, that, becaufe you need not write, you will not. Mankind that wishes you fo well, in all things that relate to your Profperity, have their Intervals of wifhing for themselves, and are within a little of grudging you the Fulness of your Fortune: They wou'd be more malicious if you us'd it not fo well, and with fo much Generosity.

Fame is in itself a real Good, if we may believe Cicero, who was perhaps too fond of it. But even Fame, as Virgil tells us, acquires ftrength by going forward. Let Epicurus give Indolency as an Attribute to his Gods, and place in it the Happiness of the Bleft: The Divinity which we worship, has given us not only a Precept against it, but his own Example to the contrary. The World, my Lord, wou'd be content to allow you a Seventh Day for Reft; or if you thought that hard upon you, we wou'd not refufe you half your time: If you came out, like fome Great

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Monarch, to take a Town but once a Year, as it were for your Diverfion, tho' you had no need to extend your Territories: In fhort, if you were a bad, or which is worse, an indifferent Poet, we wou'd thank you for our own Quiet, and not expose you to the want of yours. But when you are fo great and fo fuccefsful, and when we have that neceffity of your Writing, that we cannot fubfift intirely without it; any more (I may almoft fay) than the World without the daily Courfe of ordinary Providence, methinks this Argument might prevail with you, my Lord, to forego a little of your Repofe for the publick Benefit. 'Tis not that you are under any force of working daily Miracles, to prove your Being; but now and then fomewhat of extraordinary, that is any thing of your Production, is requifite to refresh your Character.

This, I think, my Lord, is a fufficient Reproach to you; and fhou'd I carry it as far as Mankind wou'd authorize me, wou'd be little less than Satyr. And, indeed, a Provocation is almoft neceffary, in behalf of the World, that you might be induc'd fometimes to write; and in relation to a multitude of Scriblers, who daily pefter the World with their infufferable ftuff, that they might be difcouraged from Writing any more. I complain not of their Lampoons and Libels, tho' I have been the publick Mark for many Years. I am vindictive enough to have repelled Force by Force, if I cou'd imagine that any of them had ever reach'd me; but they either fhot at Rovers, and therefore miffed, or their Powder was fo weak, that I might fafely ftand them, at the nearest Distance. I answer'd not the Rehearsal, because I knew the Author fate to himself when he drew the Picture, and was the very Bays of his own Farce. Because also I knew, that my Betters were more concerned than I was in that Satyr : and, laftly, because Mr. Smith and Mr. Johnson, the

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main Pillars of it, were two fuch languishing Gentlemen in their Conversation, that I cou'd liken them to nothing but to their own Relations, those Noble Characters of Men of Wit and Pleafure about the Town. The like Confiderations have hinder'd me from dealing with the lamentable Companions of their Profe and Doggrel; I am fo far from defending my Poetry againk them, that I will not fo much as expofe theirs. And for my Morals, if they are not Proof against their Attacks, let me be thought by Pofterity, what thofe Authors wou'd be thought, if any Memory of them, or of their Writings, cou'd endure fo long, as to another Age. But thefe dull Makers of Lampoons, as harmlefs as they have been to me, are yet of dangerous Example to the Publick: fome witty Men may perhaps fucceed to their Defigns, and mixing Sense with Malice, blaft the Reputation of the most innocent amongst Men, and the most Virtuous amongst Women.

Heaven be prais'd, our common Libellers are as free from the imputation of Wit, as of Morality; and therefore whatever Mischief they have defign'd, they have perform'd but little of it. Yet thefe ill Writers, in all Justice, ought themselves to be expos'd: As PerBus has given us a fair Example in his Firft Satyr; which is levell'd 'particularly at them: And none is fo t to correct their Faults, as he who is not only clear from any in his own Writings, but also so just, that he will never defame the Good; and is armed with the Power of Veríe, to punish and make Examples of the Bad. But of this I fhall have occafion to speak fursher, when I come to give the Definition and Character of true Satyrs.

In the mean time, as a Counsellor bred up in the Knowledge of the Municipal and Statute-Laws, may bonefly inform a Juft Prince how far his Prerogative extends; fo I may be allowed to tell your Lordship,

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