that the benefit of this Propofal is not folely for my "own ufe, but for that of two of my friends, whọ "have affifted me in this work." But thefe very gentlemen are extolled above our Poet himself in another of MIST'S JOURNALS, March 30, 1728, faying, "That he would not advife Mr. Pope to try the experi"ment again of getting a great part of a book done by "affiftants, left thofe extraneous parts fhould unhap"pily afcend to the fublime, and retard the declenfion of the whole." Behold! thefe underlings are become good writers! If any fay, that before the faid Propofals were printed, the fubicription was begun, without declaration of fuch affiftance; verily thofe who fet it on foot, or (as the term is) fecured it, to wit, the right Honourable Lord Viscount Harcourt, were he living, would testify, and the Right Honourable the Lord Bathurst, now living, doth teftify, the fame is a falfehood. Sorry I am that perfons profeffing to be learned, or of whatever rank of authors, fhould either falfely tax, or be falfely taxed. Yet let us, who are only reporters, be impartial in our citation, and proceed. MIST's JOURNAL, June 8, 1728. "Mr. Addison raised this Author from obfcurity, "obtained him the acquaintance and friendship of the "whole body of our nobility, and transferred his "powerful interefts with those great men to this rifing "bard, who frequently levied, by that means, unusual "contributions on the Public." Which furely cannot be, if, as the author of the Dunciad Diffected reporteth, Mr. Wycherly had before introduced him into "a familiar acquaintance with the greatest peers and "brightest wits then living." "No fconer (faith the fame Journalist) was his body lifeleis, but this Author, reviving his refent"ment, libelled the memory of his depaited friend; "and, what was ftill more heinous, made the icandal "public." Grievous the accufation! unknown the accufer! the perfon accufed no witness in his ow H 2 caufe in caufe! the perfon, in whofe regard accufed, dead! But if there be living any one nobleman whofe friendship, yea, any one gentleman whofe fubfcription, Mr. Addifon procured to our Author, let him itand forth, that truth may appear! Amicus Plato, amicus Socrates, fed magis amica veritas. In verity, the whole ftory of the libel is a lie; witnefs thofe perfons of integrity who, feveral years before Mr. Addifon's deceafe, did fee and approve of the faid verses, in no wife a libel, but a friendly rebuke, fent privately, in our Author's own hand, to Mr. Addison himself, and never made public, till after their own Journals and Curl had printed the fame. One name alone, which I am here authorised to declare, will fufficiently evince the truth, that of the Right Honourable the Earl of Burlington. Next is he taxed with a crime, (in the opinion of fome authors, I doubt, more heinous than any in morality,) to wit, Plagiarism, from the inventive and quaint-conceited JAMES MOORE-SMITH, Gent. "Upon reading the third volume of Pope's Mif"cellanies, I found five lines which I thought excel"lent; and happening to praise them, a gentleman "produced a modern comedy (the Rival Modes) pub« lished last year, where were the fame verfes to a " tittle. “These gentlemen are undoubtedly the first plagia"ries, that pretend to make a reputation by ftealing "from a man's works in his own life-time, and out of a public print." Let us join to this what is written by the the author of the Rival Modes: the faid Mr. James Moore-Smith, in a letter to our Author himself, who had informed him, a month before that play was acted, Jan. 27, 1726-7, "That these verses, which he "had before given him leave to infert in it, would be "known for his, fome copies being got abroad. He "defires, nevertheless, that fince the lines had been "read in his Comedy to feveral, Mr. P. would not de"prive it of them," &c. Surely if we add the testi* Daily Journal, March 18, 1728. monies of the Lord Bolingbroke, of the lady to whom the faid verfes were originally addreffed, of Hugh Bethel, Efq. and others, who knew them as our Author's, long before the faid gentleman compofed his play, it is hoped the ingenuous, that affect not error, will rectify their opinion by the fuffrage of fuch ho-` nourable perfonages. And yet followeth another charge, infinuating no lefs than his enmity both to Church and State, which could come from no other informer than the faid MR. JAMES MOORE-SMITH. "The Memoirs of a Parish Clerk was a very dull "and unjust abuse of a perfon who wrote in defence "of our religion and constitution, and who has been "dead many years." This feemeth also most untrue, it being known to divers that these Memoirs were written at the feat of the Lord Harcourt, in Oxfordshire, before that excellent perfon's (Bishop Burnet) death, and many years before the appearance of that hiftory of which they are pretended to be an abuse. Most true it is that Mr. Moore had fuch a defign, and was himfelf the man who preffed Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Pope to affift him therein; and that he borrowed thofe Memoirs of our Author, when that hiftory came forth, with intent to turn them to fuch abuse: but being able to obtain from our Author but one fingle hint, and either changing his mind, or having more mind than ability, he contented himfelf to keep the faid Memoirs, and read them as his own to all his acquaintance. A noble perfon there is into whofe company Mr. Pope once chanced to introduce him, who well remembereth the converfation of Mr. Moore to have turned upon the Contempt he had for the work of that reverend pre"late, and how full he was of a defign he declared himfelt to have of expofing it." This noble perfon is the Earl of Peterborough. 66 Here, in truth, fhould we crave pardon of all the aforefaid Right Honourable and worthy perfonages, Daily Journal, April, 3, 1728. for having mentioned them in the fame page with fuch weekly riff-raff railers and rhymers, but that we had their ever-honoured commands for the fame! and that they are introduced not as witneffes in the controversy, but as witneffes that cannot be controverted; not to difpute, but to decide. Certain it is, that dividing our writers into two claffes, of fuch who were acquaintance, and of fuch who were were ftrangers, to our Author, the former are those who speak well, and the other those who speak evil of him. Of the firft clafs the most noble fums JOHN DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM up his character in thefe lines; And yet fo wondrous, fo fublime a thing, "As the great Iliad, fcacre could make me fing, So alfo is he deciphered by the Honourable SIMON HARCOURT. "Say, wondrous youth, what column wilt thou chufe, "Though each great ancient court thee to his fhrine, "Though every laurel through the dome be thine-- Go to the good and juft, an awful train: "Thy foul's delight.----- Recorded in like manner, for his virtuous difpofition, and gentle bearing, by the ingenious wishing fome check to the corruption and evil manner's * Verfes to Mr. P. on his Tranflation of Homer, + Poem prefixed to his Works. In his Poems, printed for B, Lintot. of the times, calleth out upon our Poet to undertake a task so worthy of his virtue: "Why flumbers Pope, who leads the Mufes' train, MR. MALLET, in his Epiftle on Verbal Criticism: "Whofe life, feverely fcan'd, tranfcends his lays; MR. HAMMOND, that delicate and correct imitator of Tibullus, Now fir'd by Pope and Vi tue, leave the age, "And trace the Author through his moral page, MR. THOMSON, in his elegant and philofophical poem of the Seafons: "Although not fweeter his own Homer fings, To the fame tune alfo fingeth that learned MR. WILLIAM BROOME, "Thus nobly rifing in fair Virtue's caufe, And, to close all, hear the Reverend Dean A foul with ev'ry virtue fraught, By patriots, priests, and poets taught: "Whatever Grecian ftory tells. "A genius for each bus nefs fit, Whofe meaneft talent is his wit," &c. Let us now recreate thee by turning to the other fide, and fhewing his Character drawn by thofe with whom he never converfed, and whofe countenances he could not know, though turned against him: first again commencing with the high-voiced and never-enough_quoted *Univerfal Paffion, Sat. I. MR. |