thofe very high poetical talents, for which the world, though fufficiently inclined to difcover and magnify his defects, had allowed him credit. You confider him as the poet of reason, and intimate that "he ftooped to truth, and moralized his fong," from a want of native powers to fupport a long flight in the higher province of fancy. To me, I confefs, his Rape of the Lock appears a fufficient proof that he poffeffed, in a fuperlative degree, the faculty in which you would reduce him to a secondary rank; he chose, indeed, in many of his productions, to be the poet of reason rather than of fancy; but I apprehend his choice was influenced by an idea (I believe a mistaken idea) that moral fatire is the species of poetry by which a poet of modern times may render the greatest service to mankind. But if in one article you have been not fo kind, as I could wifh, to the poet of morality, I rejoice in recollecting, that you are on the point of making him confiderable amends, and of fulfilling a prediction of mine, by removing from the pages of Pope a great portion of the lumber with which they were amply loaded by Warburton. You will foon, I truft, prove to the literary world, as you perfectly proved to me fome years ago, that the poet has fuffered not a little from the absurdities of his arrogant annotator. It is hardly poffible for a man of letters, who affectionately. venerates the name of Milton, and recollects fome expreffions of Warburton concerning his poetry and his moral character, to speak of that fupercilious prelate without catching fome portion of his own scornful spirit: you will immediately perceive that I allude to his having bestowed upon Milton the opprobrious title of a time-server*. Do: you recollect, my dear learned critic, extensive us your ftudies have been; do you recollect, in * With what peculiar propriety Warburton applied this name to Milton, the reader will beft judge, who recollects the humorous Butler's very admirable character of a time-ferver, which contains the following paffage: "He is very zealous to fhow himself, upon al! occasions, a true member of the church for the time being, and " has not the leaft fcruple in his confcience against the "doctrine and discipline of it, as it ftands at prefent, "or fhall do hereafter, unfight unfeen; for he is refolved "to be always for the truth, which he believes is never "fo plainly demonftrated as in that character that says "'it is great, and prevails;' and in that fenfe only fit the wide range of ancient and modern defamation, a more unpardonable abuse of language? Milton, a poet of the most powerful, and, perhaps the most independent mind that was ever given to a mere mortal, insulted with the appellation of a time-server; and by whom? by Warburton, whose writings, and whofe fortune-but I will not copy the contemptuous prelate in his favorite exercise of reviling the literary characters, whofe opinions were different from his own; his habit of indulging a contemptuous and dogmatical spirit has already drawn upon his name and writings the natural punishment of fuch verbal intemperance; and the mitred follower of his fame and fortune, who has lately endeavoured to prop his reputation by a tenderly partial, but a very imperfect life of his precipitate and quarrelsome patron, has rather leffened, perhaps, his own credit, than increased that of his mafter, by that affected coldnefs of contempt with which he describes, or CC to be adhered to by a prudent man, who will never "be kinder to truth than fhe is to him; for fuffering is " a very evil effect, and not likely to proceed from a "good caufe." Butler's Remains, vol. ii. p. 220. rather rather disfigures, the illuftrious chastiser of Warburtonian infolence, the more accomplished critic, of whom you eminent scholars of Winton are very juftly proud; I mean the eloquent and graceful LOWTH. But as I am not fond of literary ftrife, however dignified and diftinguished the antagonists may be, I will haften to extricate myself from this little group of contentious critics; for it must be matter of regret to every fincere votary of peace and benevolence to observe, that the field of literature is too frequently a field of cruelty, which almoft realizes the hyperbolical expreffion of Lucan, and exhibits where men, whofe kindred ftudies fhould humanize their temper, and unite them in the ties of fraternal regard, are too apt to exert all their faculties in ferociously mangling each other; where we fometimes behold the friendship of years diffolved in a moment, and converted into furious hoftility, which, though it does not endanger, yet never fails to embitter life; and perhaps the fource of fuch contention, teterrima belli "Caufa-" instead of being a fair and faithless Helen, is nothing more than a particle of grammar in a dead language. O that the spleen-correcting powers of mild and friendly ridicule could annihilate fuch hoftilities! Cannot you, my dear Warton, who have the weight and authority of a pacific Neftor in this tumultuous field, cannot you fuggeft effectual lenitives for the genus irritabile scriptorum. The celebrated Saxon painter Mengs has, I think, given us all an admirable hint of this kind in writing to an ingenious but petulant Frenchman, who had provoked him by speaking contemptuoufly of his learned and enthufiaftic friend Winkelman. Se io poffedeffi il talento di fcriver bene (fays the modest painter) vorrei esporre ragioni, e fatti, e insegnar cofe utili senza perdermi a contradir veruno poichè mi sembra, the si possan fare buoni libri senza dire che il tale, o il tal foggetto s' inganna; e finalmente fe ella mi può dimoftrare, |