There is a peculiar eafe and jocularity likewife in the imitation of the following lines, though our author has made free with the fense of the original. Quanto cum faftu, quanto molimine circum- "Lord! how we ftrut through Merlin's Cave, "to fee "No Poets there, but Stephen *, you, and me." Our and fubduing an inveterate and over-bearing prejudice.Indeed the world was ever unwilling to allow any man to excell in more than one accomplishment. This fprings from envy univerfally. As for the judgment itfelf, when particularly applied, it is fometimes true, and fometimes falfe. Thus, for inftance, when the public would not allow the great lawyer Coke, to be a claffic and a wit likewife (of which he had given fo many delectable fpecimens) they were perhaps in the right; but when they affumed, though they spoke by the organ of Queen Elizabeth herself, that though Bacon was a great Philofopher, yet he was no Lawyer, they were certainly as much in the wrong. * Mr. Stephen Duck, was a modeft and worthy man, who had the bonour (which many who thought themselves his betters in poetry had not) of being efteemed by Mr. POPE." The Queen, who moderated in a fovereign manner be<tween two great philofophers, Clarke and Leibnitz, in the moft profound and fublime points in metaphyfics and natural philofophy, chofe for her favourite Poet this Stephen Duck, then a threfher. She thought his poetry excellent, and fent the Z 3 Our poet's verfification of Dr. Donnels * fecond and fourth fatires, which remain next to be the manufcript to Mr. POPE for his judgment, having first required his word of honour that he would not unftitch the two first leaves, which fhe had fewed down to conceal the name of the author. He foon difcovered the condition of the poet by the quality of the poetry, and told the Lady who brought it to him, that he fuppofed moft villages could supply verses of the fame force. But being told who the writer was, and receiving a fair character of his modefty and innocence, he generously did all he could to establish him at court; and had the condefcenfion and humility frequently to call of him at Richmond. * The wit, the vigour, and the honefty of Mr. POPE'S fatiric writing, had raised a great clamour against him, as if this Supplement, as he calls it, to the public Laws, was a violation of the rules of morality and fociety. In answer to this ignorant and prejudiced complaint, it was his purpose to fhew, that two of the moft refpectable characters in the modeft and virtuous age of Elizabeth, Dr. Donne and Bifhop Hall, had both arraigned vice publickly, and painted it in ftronger colours" (Whether they found it On the Pillory or near the Throne) than he had done. In pursuance of this purpofe, he admirably verified, as he called it, two or three fatires of Donne, who with all his wit and strong sense could not verify. He intended to have given two or three of Hall's likewife, whofe force and claffical elegance he much admired; but as Hall was a better verfifier, and being a mere academic, had not his vein vitiated like Donne's, by living in courts and at large, Mr. POPE's purpose here was only to correct and fmooth the verfification. In the first edition of thefe fatires which was in Mr. POPE's library, we find that long fatire, called the First of the Sixth Book, entirely corrected, and 1 be confidered, afford a striking proof how much the force of fentiment depends on the power of expreffion. There are fome indelicacies however, in the verfification of the fecond fatire, which Mr. POPE'S chafter pen might, nay ought to, have corrected. But in the next fatire, our author makes us amends by the following invocation, which is admirably fublime. "Bear me, fome God! oh quickly bear me ❝hence "To wholesome Solitude, the nurse of Sense: "Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled "wings ‡, "And the free foul looks down to pity Kings !" In the verfification mended, to fit it for his ufe. He intitles it, in the beginning of his corrections, by the name of Sat. opt. This author, Hall, had a fevere examiner of his wit and reasoning in our famous Milton. For Hall, a little before the unhappy breach between Charles the rft and his long parliament, had written in defence of Epifcopacy, when Milton fet up for the advocate of Prefbytery, and took Hall's defence to task. As Milton gave no quarter to his adverfaries, from the Bishop's theologic writings, he fell upon his Satires. But a ftronger proof cannot be given of their fuperior excellence, than Milton's being unable to find in them any thing to cavil at, except the title of his three first books of fatires, which the author, ridiculously enough, calls TOOTHLESS SATIRES: and this, for want of better hold, Milton fufficiently mumbles. Our author here feems to have had Milton in view In the next lines the poet again difplays the becoming pride and dignity of conscious merit. "Bafe Fear becomes the guilty, not the free; "Suits Tyrants, Plunderers, but suits not me "Shall I, the Terror of this finful town, "Care, if a liv'ry'd Lord or fmile or frown?" Thus our author, notwithstanding the many admonitions of his friends, who were anxious for his fafety, continued to wage war against vice and folly, with all the firmnefs and perfeverance of intrepid virtue, till the year 1739. About that time, he published the Epilogue tp his Satires, with a refolution, as the learned editor of his works affures us, to publifh no more poems of that kind; but to enter, by his Epilogue, in the moft plain and folemn manner he could, a fort of proteft against that infuperable corruption and depravity of manners, which he had unhappily lived to fee. Could he have hoped to have amended any, he had continued thofe attacks; but bad men were grown fo fhameful and fo powerful, that ridicule was become as unfafe as it was ineffectual *. This "Where, with her beft nurse, Contemplation, *Were all too ruff'd, and fometimes impair'd." *That our author laboured with an honeft zeal to reform the corruption of morals, and that he fincerely bewailed that depra This Epilogue is divided into two dialogues, and contains an apology for the feverity of his fatires. It is, indeed, a kind of recapitulation of his fatirical pieces. Most of the characters whom he had lafhed before, here receive the parting fcourge: on the other hand, he pays the laft tribute of praife, to several whofe virtues he had before applauded. In fhort, in this epilogue, he vindicates the juftice of his writings, alledging that, whether he cenfured or commended, his pen was guided by truth and virtue. The spirit of the following lines is admirable. depravity which he at length defpaired of correcting, is evident from many of his familiar letters, more especially from one to Mr. Allen, wherein he fays "I have two great tasks on my hands; I am trying to "benefit myself, and to benefit pofterity; not by works of 66 my own, God knows: I can but fkirmifh, and maintain a flying fight with vice; its forces augment, and will drive "me off the ftage, before I fhall fee the effects complete, "either of divine providence or vengeance: For fure we can "be quite faved only by the one, or punished by the other": the condition of morality is fo defperate, as to be above ❝ all human hands." In another letter to the fame gentleman, after having afked his advice about printing fome letters, he adds— "I am fure, if you thought they would be of any service "to virtue, or answer any one good purpose, whether (con"fidered as writings) they brought me any credit or not, έσ they should be given to the world: and let them make me "a worse writer, provided they could but make one better man." "Afk |