Α

LETTER

TO THE

PUBLISHER,

Occafioned by the first correct

Edition of the DUNCIAD.

I

T is with pleasure I hear, that you have pro

cured a correct copy of the DUNCIAD, which

the many furreptitious ones have rendered fo neceffary; and it is yet with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a COMMENTARY: A Work fo requifite, that I cannot think the Author himself would have omitted it, had he approved of the firft appearance of this Poem.

Such Notes as have occurred to me I herewith fend you: You will oblige me by inferting them amongst those which are, or will be, tranfmited to you by others; fince not only the Author's

friends, but even strangers, appear engaged by humanity, to take fome care of an Orphan of fa much genius and fpirit, which its parent seems to have abandoned from the very beginning, and fuffered to step into the world naked, unguarded, and unattended.

It was upon reading fome of the abufive papers lately published, that my great regard to a Perfon, whose Friendship I efteem as one of the chief honours of my life, and a much greater refpect to Truth, than to him or any man living, engaged me in enquiries, of which the enclosed Notes are the fruit.

I perceived, that most of these Authors had been (doubtless very wifely) the first aggreffors, They had tried, 'till they were weary, what was to be got by railing at each other: Nobody was either concerned or furprized, if this or that fcri bler was proved a dunce. But every one was curious to read what could be faid to prove Mr. POPE one, and was ready to pay fomething for fuch a discovery: A ftratagem, which would they fairly own, it might not only reconcile them to me, but fcreen them from the refentment of their lawful Superiors, whom they daily abuse, only (as I charitably hope) to get that by them, which they cannot get from them.

I found this was not all: Ill fuccefs in that had transported them to Personal abuse, either of himfelf, or (what I think he could less forgive) of his

Friends. They had called Men of virtue and ho nour bad Men, long before he had either leisure or inclination to call them bad Writers: And fome had been fuch old offenders, that he had quite forgotten their perfons as well as their flanders, 'till they were pleased to revive them.

Now what had Mr. POPE done before, to incense them? He had published those works which are in the hands of every body, in which not the least mention is made of any of them. And what has he done fince? He has laughed, and written the DUNCIAD. What has that said of them? A very serious truth, which the public had said before, that they were dull: And what it had no fooner faid, but they themselves were at great pains to procure, or even purchase room in the prints, to testify under their hands to the truth of it.

I should still have been filent, if either I had seen any inclination in my friend to be serious with fuck accufers, or if they had only meddled with his Writings; fince whoever publishes, puts himself on his trial by his Country. But when his Moral character was attacked, and in a manner from which neither truth nor virtue can secure the most innocent; in a manner, which, though it annihilates the credit of the accufation with the just and impartial, yet aggravates very much the guilt of the accusers ; I mean by Authors without names; then I thought, fince the danger was common to all, the concern ought to be fo; and that it was an act

of justice to detect the Authors, not only on this account, but as many of them are the fame who for feveral years paft have made free with the greatest names in Church and State, exposed to the world the private misfortunes of Families, abused all, even to women, and whose prostituted papers (for one or other Party, in the unhappy divisions of their Country) have infulted the Fallen, the Friendlefs, the Exil'd, and the Dead.

Befides this, which I take to be a public concern, I have already confeffed I had a private one. I am one of that number who have long loved and esteemed Mr. POPE; and had often declared it was not his capacity or writings (which we ever thought the least valuable part of his character) but the honeft, open, and beneficent man, that we most esteemed, and loved in him. Now, if what thefe people fay were believed, I must appear to all my friends either a fool, or a knave; either impofed on myself, or impofing on them; fo that I am as much interested in thé confutation of these calumnies, as he is himself.

any

I am no Author, and confequently not to be fufpected either of jealoufy or resentment against of the Men, of whom scarce one is known to me by fight; and as for their Writings, I have fought them (on this one occafion) in vain, in the clofets and libraries of all my acquaintance. I had ftill been in the dark, if a Gentleman had not procured me (I fuppofe from fome of themselves,

for they are generally much more dangerous friends than enemies) the paffages I fend you. I folemnly proteft I have added nothing to the malice or ab→ furdity of them; which it behoves me to declare, fince the vouchers themselves will be fo foon and fo irrecoverably loft. You may in some measure prevent it, by preferving at least their Titles 2, and discovering (as far as you can depend on the truth of your information) the Names of the concealed

authors.

The first objection I have heard made to the Poem is, that the perfons are too obfcure for fatire. The perfons themselves, rather than allow the objection, would forgive the fatire; and if one could be tempted to afford it a ferious answer, were not all affaffinates, popular infurrections, the infolence of the rabble without doors, and of domestics within, moft wrongfully chastised, if the Meannefs of offenders indemnified them from punishment? On the contrary, Obscurity renders them more dangerous, as lefs thought of: Law can pronounce judgment only on open facts: Morality alone can pass cenfure on intentions of Mischief; fo that for fecret calumny, or the arrow flying in the dark, there is no public punishment left, but what a good Writer inflicts.

The next objection is, that these fort of authors are poor. That might be pleaded as an excuse at

⚫ Which we have done in a Lift printed in the Appendix.