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"Rofcommon was often pleafed with this "reflexion, &c." p. 50.

His apology for the ufe of this fimile, and his concluding with Lord Rofcommon's fatisfaction at his remark, betray, I think, an anxiety to pafs for original, under the consciousness of being but an imitator. So that if we were to meet with a paffage, very like this, in a celebrated antient, we could hardly doubt of its being copied by Mr. Dryden. What think you then of this obfervation in one of Pliny's Letters, "Ut quasdam artes, ità eloquentiam nihil magis quàm ancipitia commendant. Vides "qui fune in fumma nituntur, quantos “foleant excitare clamores, cùm jam jamque cafuri videntur." L. ix. Ep. 26.

PRIOR, one may obferve, has acted more naturally in his Alma, and by fo doing, though the resemblance be full as great, one is not fo certain of his being an Imitator. The verses are, of BUTLER:

He perfect Dancer climbs the Rope,
And balances your fear and hope:
If after fome diftinguish'd leap,
He drops his Pole and feems to slip;
Strait gath'ring all his active strength
He rifes higher half his length.

With wonder You approve his flight, And owe your pleasure to your fright. C. 11. Though the two laft lines feem taken from the application of this fimilitude in "Pliny, "Sunt enim maximè mirabilia, quæ " maximè inexpectata, et maximè, pericu lofa."

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XI. Writers are, fometimes, follicitous to conceal themselves: At others, they are fond to proclaim their Imitation." It is "when they have a mind to fhew their dexterity in contending with a great original."

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You remember these lines of Milton in'

his Comus,

Wisdom's felf

Oft feeks to fweet retired Solitude,

Where, with her beft nurse, Contemplation, She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,

That in the various buftle of refort

Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impair'd. On which Dr. Warburton has the following note. "Mr. Pope has imitated this. thought and (as was always his way. when he imitated) improved it.

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5 Toowholefome Solitude, the nurfe of Senfe); Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled 10toval" wings,

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"And the free Soul looks down to pity Kings,

"Mr. Pope has not only improved the har

mony, but the fenfe. In Milton, Contemplation is called the Nurfe; in Pope, more *properly Solitude: In Milton, Wifdam is "faid to prune her wings; in Pope, Contemplation is faid to do it, and with much greater propriety, as the is of a foaring "nature, and on that account is called by Milton himself, the Cherub Contemplationing

One Tees that Mr. Pope's view was to furpafs his original;" which, it is faid, was "always his way when he imitated."The meaning is, when he purposely and profeffedly bent himself to Imitation; for then his fine genius taught him to feize every beauty, and his wonderful judgment, to avoid every defect or impropriety, in his author. And this diftinction is very material to our paffing a right judgment on the merit of Imitators. It is commonly faid,

that

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thats their imitations fall fhort of their originals. And they will do fo, whatever the Genius of the Imitator be, if they are formed only on a general resemblance of the thought imitated. For an Inventor comprehends his own idea more diftinctly and fully, and of courfe expreffes his purpose better, than a cafual Imitator. But then cafe is different, when a good writer ftudies the paffage from which he borrows. For then he not only copies, but improves on the firft idea; and thus there will frequently (as in the cafe of Pope) be greater merit in the Copyift, than the original.

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XII. We fometimes catch an Imitation lurking" in a licentious Paraphrafe." The ground of Sufpicion lies in the very complacency with which a writer expatiates on a borrowed fentiment. He is ufually more referved in adorning one of his own. ro. AURELIUS VICTOR obferves of Fabricius, quòd difficiliùs ab honeftate, quàm Sol à fuo curfu, averti poffet."s

zid Tasso flourishes a little on this thought; -Prima dal corfo diftornar la Luna no Edle ftelle potrà, che dal diritto biTorcere un fol mio paffo

C. x. S. 24.

Mr.

Mr. Waller rifes upon the Italian,

"where her love was due,

So fast, so faithful, loyal, and so true,
That a bold hand as foon might hope to force
The rowling lights of heav'n, as change her
courfe." On the Death of Lady RICH.

But Mr. COWLEY, knowing what authority he had for the general fentiment, gives the reins to his fancy and wantons upon it without measure.

Virtue was thy Life's centre, and from thence - Did filently and constantly dispense

The gentle vigorous influence

To all the wide and fair circumference:
And all the parts upon it lean'd so easilie,
Obey'd the mighty force fo willinglie,
That none could difcord or diforder fee
In all their contrarietie.

Each had his motion natural and free,

And the whole no more mov'd, than the whole world could be. BRUTUS.

2. The ingenious author of the Obfervations on Spenfer (from which fine fpecimen of his critical talents one is led to expect great things) directs us to another imitation of this fort.

Taffo had faid,

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