mains that juftice be done to his delicacy. "For his acquaintance (fays Dennis) he "names Mr. Walfh, who had by no means

"the qualification which this author rec"kons abfolutely neceffary to a critick, it "being very certain that he was, like

this Effayer, a very indifferent poet;

"he loved to be well-dreffed; and I re"member a little young gentleman "whom Mr. Walfh ufed to take into "his company, as a double foil to his "perfon and capacity.-Enquire be"tween Sunninghill and Oakingham for a young, fhort, fquab gentleman, the very bow of the God of Love, and "tell me whether he be a proper author "to make perfonal reflections?—He

σε

may extol the antients, but he has

❝ reafon

"reafon to thank the gods that he was "born a modern; for had he been born

"of Grecian parents, and his father

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confequently had by law had the ab"folute difpofal of him, his life had "been no longer than that of one of "his poems, the life of half a day.— "Let the perfon of a gentleman of his

parts be never fo contemptible, his "inward man is ten times more ridi"culous; it being impoffible that his "outward form, though it be that of

66

downright monkey, fhould differ fo

"much from human fhape, as his un"thinking immaterial part does from "human understanding." Thus began the hoftility between Pope and Dennis, which, though it was fufpended for a

fhort

fhort time, never was appeafed. Pope feems, at first, to have attacked him wantonly; but though he always profeffed to defpife him, he discovers, by mentioning him often, that he felt his force or his venom.

Of this Effay Pope declared that he did not expect the fale to be quick, becaufe not one gentleman in fixty, even of liberal education, could understand it. The gentlemen, and the education of that time, feem to have been of a lower cha racter than they are of this. He mentions a thousand copics as a numerous impreffion.

Dennis was not his only cenfurer; the zealous papifts thought the monks treated with too much contempt, and Eraf

mus

mus too ftudioufly praised; but to these objections he had not much regard.

The Efay has been tranflated into French by Hamilton, author of the Comte de Grammont, whofe verfion was never printed, by Robotham, fecretary to the King for Hanover, and by Refnel; and commented by Dr. Warburton, who has discovered in it fuch order and connection as was not perceived by Addifon, nor, as is faid, intended by the author.

pre

Almost every poem, confifting of cepts, is fo far arbitrary and immetho dical, that many of the paragraphs may change places with no apparent inconvenience; for of two or more pofitions, depending upon fome remote and ge

neral

neral principle, there is feldom any cogent reason why one fhould precede the other. But for the order in which they stand, whatever it be, a little ingenuity may easily give a reafon. It is poffible, fays Hooker, that by long circumduction, from any one truth all truth may be inferred. Of all homogeneous truths at leaft, of all truths refpecting the fame general end, in whatever feries they may be produced, a concatenation by intermediate ideas may be formed, fuch as when, it is once fhewn, fhall appear natural; but if this order be reverfed, another mode of connection equally fpecious may be found or made.. Aristotle is praised for naming Fortitu de firft of the cardinal virtues, as that with

out