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MISCELLANIES.

The Basset-table. An Eclogue.........

Verbatim from Boileau.........

Page

139

142

Answer to a Question of Mrs. Howe........... 143

Occasioned by some Verses of his Grace the

Duke of Buckingham........

Prologue to a Play for Mr. Dennis's Benefit,

in 1733, when he was old, blind, and in

143

great Distress, a little before his Death 141

Macer. A Character..

145

Song, by a Person of Quality. 1733......

146

On a certain Lady at Court......

147

On his Grotto at Twickenham..

AN

ESSAY ON CRITICISM.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1709.

PART I.

Introduction.-That it is as great a fault to judge ill as to write ill, and a more dangerous one to the public.-That a true taste is as rare to be found as a true genius.-That most men are born with some taste, but spoiled by false education.The multitude of critics, and causes of them.-That we are to study our own taste, and know the limits of it.Nature the best guide of judgment.-Improved by art and rules, which are but methodized Nature.-Rules derived from the practice of the ancient poets.-That therefore the ancients are necessary to be studied by a critic, parti cularly Homer and Virgil.-Of licences, and the use of them by the ancients.-Reverence due to the ancients, and praise of them.

"TIs hard to say if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill;
But of the two, less dangerous is the' offence
To tire our patience than mislead our sense;
Some few in that, but numbers err in this,
Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss;
A fool might once himself alone expose,
Now one in verse makes many more in prose.
'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.

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