Mais bien-tot amoureux d'un plus noble métier,
Fils, frere, oncle, cousin, beau-frere de Greffier,
Pouvant charger mon bras d'une utile liasse,
J'allay loin du Palais errer sur de Parnasse.
La famille en pâlit, & vit en frémissant,
Dans la Poudre du Greffe un poete naissant.
On vit avec horreur une muse effrenée
Dormir chez un Greffier la grasse matinée.*

10. But why then publish? Granville, the polite,
And knowing Walsh, would tell me I could write;
Well-natur'd Garth + inflam'd with early praise;
And Congreve lov'd, and Swift endur'd my lays :
The courtly Talbot, Somers, Sheffield read;
Even mitred Rochester would nod the head;
And St. John's self (great Dryden's friends before)
With open arms receiv'd one poet more.

To the three first names, that encouraged his earliest writings, he has added other friends, whose acquaintance

* He was a great sleeper; got up late, and always was accustomed to sleep after dinner: as also was POPE.

+ Every word and epithet here used, is characteristical, and peculiarly appropriated to the temper and manner of each of the persons here mentioned; the elegance of Lansdown, the open free benevolence of Garth, the warmth of Congreve, the difficulty of pleasing Swift, the very gesture that Atterbury used when he was pleased, and the animated air and spirit of Bolingbroke.

Ver. 135.

quaintance with him did not commence till he was a poet of established reputation. From the many commendations which Walsh, and Garth, and Granville, bestowed on his Pastorals, it may fairly be concluded, how much the public taste has been improved, and with how many good compositions our language has been enriched since that time. When Gray* published his exquisite Ode on Eton College, his first publication, little notice was taken of it; but I suppose no critic can be found, that will not place it far above POPE's Pastorals.

11. From these the world will judge of men and books; Not from the Burnets, Oldmixons, and Cooks.+

* Sweet BARD! who shun'st the noise of folly;
Most musical, most melancholy!

Thee oft, the lonely woods among,

I woo to hear thy even-song;

And think thy thrilling strains have power

To raise MUSEUS from his bower;

Or bid the tender SPENSER come

From his lov'd haunt, sweet Fancy's tomb!

† Ver. 145.

Such

Such authors as the two last, are a kind of literary harpies; whatever subject they touch, they debase and defile:

-Magnis quatiunt clangoribus alas,
Diripiuntque dapes, contactûque omnia fædunt
Immundo; tum vox tetrum dira inter odorem.*

As to Burnet, his character is thus drawn the very sensible and judicious translator of Polybius, Mr. Hampton, in a pamphlet that deserves to be more known, entitled, Reflections on Ancient and Modern History: printed in quarto, at Oxford, 1746. "His personal resentment put him upon writing history. He relates the actions of a persecutor and benefactor: and it is easy to believe, that a man in such circumstances must violate the laws of truth. The remembrance of his injuries is always present, and gives venom to his pen. Let us add to this, that intemperate and malicious curiosity, which penetrates into the most private recesses of vice. The greatest of his triumphs is to draw the veil of secret infamy, and expose to view transactions that were before concealed

VOL. II.

*

Q

Virg. Æn. iii. v. 226.

concealed from the world; though they serve not in the least either to embellish the style, or connect the series, of his history; and will never obtain more credit, than, perhaps, to suspend the judgment of the reader, since they are supported only by one single, suspected testimony." P. 28.*

12. Yet then did Gildon draw his venal quill;
I wish'd the man a dinner, and sat still:
Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret;
I never answer'd, I was not in debt:

If want provok'd, or madness made them print,
I wag'd no war with Bedlam or the Mint.†

The unexpected turn in the second line of each of these three couplets, contains as cutting and bitter strokes of satire, as perhaps can be written.

It

* These animadversions obviously relate to the History of his own Times, and not to his History of the Reformation, and his other important works.

+ Ver. 151.

Ingenii plurimum est in eo, & acerbitas mira, & urbanitas, & vis súmma; sed plus stomacho quam consilio dedit. Præterea ut amari sales, ita frequenter amaritudo ipsa ridicula M. F. Quintil. lib. x. c. 1.

est.

It is with difficulty we can forgive our author for upbraiding these wretched scribblers for their poverty and distresses, if we do not keep in our minds the grossly abusive pamphlets they published, without previous provocation from him; and even, allowing this circumstance, we ought to separate rancour from reproof.

13. Yet ne'er one sprig of laurel grac'd these ribalds, From slashing Bently.*.

SWIFT imbibed from SIR W. TEMPLE, and POPE from SWIFT, an inveterate and unreasonable aversion and contempt for BENTLEY; whose admirable Boyle's Lectures, Remarks on COLLINS, Emendations of MENANDER and CALLIMACHUS, and Tully's Tuscul. Disp. whose edition of HoRACE, and, above all, Dissertation on the Epistles of PHALARIS, (in which he gained the most complete victory over a whole army of wits,) all of them exhibit the most striking marks of accurate and extensive erudition, and a vigorous and acute understanding. He degraded himself much by his edition of the Paradise Lost, and by his strange

Q 2

* Ver. 163.