EPISTOLA I. C Ad AUGUSTUM. UM tot UM Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes, Legibus emendes; in publica commoda peccem, Si longo fermone morer tua tempora, Caefar. • Romulus, et Liber pater, et cum Castore Pollux, Post ingentia facta, d Deorum in templa recepti, Dum terras hominumque colunt genus, aspera bella Componunt, agros adfignant, eppida condunt; • Ploravere suis non refpondere favorem Speratum meritis. diram qui contudit Hydram, Notaque fatali portenta labore fubegit, a sustineas et tanta negotia solus, Comperit invidiam fupremo fine domari. NOTES. Book ii. Epift. 1.) The Poet always rises with his original; and very often, without. This whole Imitation is extremely noble and fublime. VER. 7. Edward and Henry, etc.] Romulus, et Liber Pater, etc. Horace very judiciously praises Augustus for the colonies he founded, not for the victories he won; and therefore compares him, not to those who defolated, EPISTLE I. W To AUGUSTUS. Hile you, great Patron of Mankind! a sustain • Edward and Henry, now the Boaft of Fame, f Finds Envy never conquer'd, but by Death. NOTES. 15 but to those who civilized mankind. The imitation wants this grace: and, for a very obvious reason, could not aim at it. : VER. 13. Clas'd their long Glories with a figh,] The expreffion is extremely beautiful; and the ploravere judicioufly placed. VER. 16. Finds envy never conquer'd, etc.] It hath been * Urit enim fulgore fuo, qui praegravat artes Infra se positas: extinctus amabitur idem. Praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores, Jurandasque tuum per numen ponimus aras, * Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes. Sed tuus hoc populus sapiens et justus in uno, * Te noftris ducibus, te Graiis anteferendo, Caetera nequaquam fimili ratione modoque NOTES. the common practice of those amongst us, who have distinguished theinselves in the learned world, to ascribe the ill treatment they meet with, from those they endeavour to oblige, to so bad a cause as envy. But furely without reason; for we find our Countrymen of the fame candid difpofition which Socrates, in the Euthypbro of Plato, ascribes to the Athenians of his time, They are well content (fays he) to allow the Pretenfions of reputed eminence ; it is only when a man will write, and presume to give a proof of it, that they begin to grow angry. And how readily do we allow the reputation of eminence, in all the Arts, to those whose modesty has made them decline giving us a specimen of it in any. A temper surely very distant from envy. We ought not then to ascribe that violent ferment good men are apt to work themselves into, and the struggle they make to suppress the reputation } The great Alcides, ev'ry Labour paft, NOTES. 20 25 30 of him who pretends to give a proof of what they are so willing to take for granted, to any thing but an eager concern for the public welfare. This, nothing better fecures than the early damping that dangerous thing, Popularity; which when joined to what is as easily abused, great Talents, may be productive of, one does not know what, mischief. SCRIBL. VER. 17. The great Alcides,] This instance has not the same grace here as in the original, where it comes in well after those of Romulus, Bacchus, Castor, and Pollux, tho' aukwardly after Edward and Henry. But it was for the sake of the beautiful thought in the next line; which, yet, does not equal the force of his original. Aestimat; et, nifi quae terris semota suisque NOTES. VER. 38. And beastly Skelton, etc.] Skelton, Poet Laureat to Hen. VIII. a volume of whose verses has been lately reprinted, confifting almost wholly of ribaldry, ob scenity, and feurrilous language. P. |