Emtum mulus aprum. crudi, tumidique lavemur, Quid deceat, quid non, obliti; Caerite cera W Vive, vale. fi quid novifti rectius iftis, Candidus imperti: fi non, his utere mecum. NOTES. VER. 127. Wilmot] Earl of Rochester. Ibid. 129. And SWIFT fay wifely, Vive la Bagatelle!"] Our Poet, fpeaking in one place of the purpofe of his fatire, Lays, In this impartial glafs, my Mufe intends Fair to expofe myself, my foes, my friends. and, in another, he makes his Court-Advifer fay, Laugh at your Friends, and if your Friends be fore, because their impatience under reproof would fhew, they had deal which wanted to be fet right. a great On this principle, Swift falls under his correction. He could not bear to fee a Friend he fo much valued, live in the miferable abufe of one of Nature's beft gifts, unadmonifhed of his folly. Swift (as we may fee by fome pofthumous Volumes, lately publifhed, fo difhonourable and injurious to his memory) trifled away his old age in a diffipation that women and boys might be ashamed of. For when men have given into a long habit of employing their wit only to fhew their parts, to edge their fpleen, to pander to a faction; or, in fhort, to any thing but that for which Nature beftowed it, namely, to recommend, and fet off Truth; old age, which abates the paflions, will never rectify Or fhall we' ev'ry Decency confound, Thro' Taverns, Stews, and Bagnio's take our round, Go dine with Chartres, in each Vice out-do 121 'K---l's lewd Cargo, or Ty---y's Crew, From Latian Syrens, French Circæan Feafts, Return well travell'd, and transform'd to Beafts, Or for a titled Punk, or foreign Flame, 125 t Renounce our Country, and degrade our Name? V If, after all, we must with Wilmot own, The Cordial Drop of Life is Love alone, The Man that loves and laughs, must fure do well. w Adieu---if this advice appear the worst, E'en take the Counsel which I gave you firft: Or better Precepts if you can impart, Why do, I'll follow them with all NOTES. my heart. 131 the abuses they occafioned. But the remains of wit, instead of seeking and recovering their proper channel, will run into that miferable depravity of tafte here condemned: and in which Dr. Swift seems to have placed no inconfiderable part of his wisdom. "I chufe (fays he, in a Letter to Mr. Pope) my Com"panions amongst those of the least confequence, and most "compliance: I read the most trifling Books I can find: and "whenever I write, it is upon the most trifling subjects." And again, "I love La Bagatelle better than ever. I am always writ"ing bad profe or worse verses, either of rage or raillery," etc. And again, in a letter to Mr. Gay, "My rule is, Vive la “Bagatelle., TH HE Reflections of Horace, and the Judgments paft in his Epistle to Auguftus, feem'd fo feafonable to the prefent Times, that I could not help applying them to the ufe of my own Country. The Author thought them confiderable enough to addrefs them to his Prince; whom he paints with all the great and good qualities of a Monarch, upon whom the Romans depended for the Encrease of an Abfolute Empire. But to make the Poem entirely English, I was willing to add one or two of thofe which contribute to the Happiness of a Free People, and are more confiftent with the Welfare of our Neighbours. This Epiftle will fhew the learned World to have fallen into Two mistakes: one, that Auguftus was a Patron of Poets in general; whereas he not only prohibited all but the Best Writers to name him, but recommended that Care even to the Civil Magiftrate: Admonebat Praetores, ne paterentur Nomen fuum obfolefieri, etc. The other, that this Piece was only a general Difcourfe of Poetry; whereas it was an Apology for the Poets, in order to render Auguftus more their Patron. Horace here pleads the Caufe of his Cotemporaries, first against the Tafte of the Town, whose humour it was to magnify the Authors of the preceding Age; fecondly against the Court and Nobility, who encouraged only the Writers for the Theatre; and laftly against the Emperor himfelf, who had conceived them of little Ufe to the Government. He fhews (by a View of the Progrefs of Learning, and the Change of |