fatires of Ariofto, are more read than the Orlando Furiofo, or even Dante. Are there fo many cordial admirers of Spenfer and Milton, as of Hudibras ?--If we strike out of the number of these fuppofed admirers, those who appear fuch out of fashion, and not of feeling. Swift's rhapsody on poetry is far more popular, than Akenfide's noble ode to Lord Huntingdon. The EPISTLES on the Characters of men and women, and your fprightly fatires, my good friend, are more frequently perufed, and quoted, than L'Allegro and Il Penferofo of Milton. Had you written only these fatires, you would indeed have gained the title of a man of wit, and a man of fenfe; but, I am confident, would not infist on being denominated a POET, MERELY on their

account.

NON

NON SATIS EST PURIS VERSUM PERSCRIBERE VERBIS. 14

It is amazing this matter fhould ever have been mistaken, when Horace has taken particular and repeated pains, to fettle and adjust the opinion in question. He has more than once difclaimed all right and title to the name of POET, on the fcore of his ethic and fatiric pieces.

NEQUE ENIM CONCLUDERE VERSUM
DIXERIS ESSE SATIS——————

are lines, often repeated, but whofe meaning is not extended and weighed as it ought to be. Nothing can be more judicious than the method he prescribes, of trying whether any compofition be effentially poetical or not; which is, to drop entirely the measures and numbers, and tranfpofe and invert the order of the

K

words:

words: and in this unadorned manner
to perufe the paffage. If there be really
in it a true poetical spirit, all your inver-
fions and tranfpofitions will not difguife
and extinguish it; but it will retain its
luftre, like a diamond, unfet, and thrown
back into the rubbish of the mine. Let
us make a little experiment on the fol-
lowing well-known lines;
"Yes, you
defpife the man that is confined to books,
"who rails at human kind from his study;
"tho' what he learns, he speaks; and
"may perhaps advance fome general
"maxims, or may be right by chance.
The coxcomb bird, fo grave and fo talk-

"ative, that cries whore, knave, - and
"cuckold, from his cage, tho' he rightly
"call many a paffenger, you hold him no

(c

philofopher. And yet, fuch is the fate

(6

66

of all extremes, men may be read too much, as well as books. We grow more partial, for the fake of the observer, to "obfervations which we ourselves make; lefs, fo, to written wisdom, because "another's. Maxims are drawn from no"tions, and thofe from guess." What fhall we fay of this paffage? --Why, that it is moft excellent fenfe, but juft as poetical as the Qui fit

"Mæcenas" of the author who recommends this method of trial. Take any ten lines of the Iliad, Paradife Loft, or even of the Georgics of Virgil, and fee whether by any procefs of critical chymistry, ! you can lower and reduce them to the tamenefs of profe. You will find that they will appear like Ulyffes in his dif

b

guife

guise of rags, still a hero, tho' lodged in the cottage of the herdsman Eumæus.

THE Sublime and the Pathetic are the two chief nerves of all genuine poefy. What is there very fublime or very Pathetic in POPE? In his works there is indeed, nihil inane, nihil arceffitum ;-puro tamen fonti quam magno flumini propior;" as the excellent Quintilian remarks of Lyfias. And because I am perhaps afhamed or afraid to speak out in plain English, I will adopt the following paffage of Voltaire, which, in my opinion, as exactly characterizes POPE, as it does his model Boileau, for whom it was originally defigned. " INCAPABLE

PEUTETRE DU SUBLIME QUI ELEVE L' AME, ET DU
SENTIMENT QUI L' ATTENDRIT, MAIS FAIT POUR
ECLAIRER CEUX A QUI LA NATURE ACCORDA L' UN

ET