A

LETTER

TO THE

PUBLISHER,

Occafioned by the

First correct EDITION of the DUNCIAD.

IT

T is with pleasure I hear, that you have procured a correct copy of the DUNCIAD, which the many furreptitious ones have rendered fo neceffary; and it is yet with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a COMMENTARY: A work fo requifite, that I cannot think the Author himfelf would have omitted it, had he approved of the firft appearance of this Poem.

Such Notes as have occurred to me I herewith fend you: You will oblige me by inferting them amongst thofe which are, or will be, tranfmitted to you by others; fince not only the Author's friends, but even frangers, appear engaged by humanity, to take fome care of an Orphan of fo much genius and fpirit, which its parent seems to have abandoned from the very beginning, and fuffered to ftep into the world naked, unguarded, and unattended.

It was upon reading fome of the abufive papers lately published, that my great regard to a Perfon, whose Friendship I efteem as one of the chief honours of my life, and a much greater refpect to Truth, than to him or any man living, engaged me in inquiries, of which the enclosed Notes are the fruit.

I perceived that most of these Authors had been (doubtless very wifely) the first aggreffors. They had tried, till they were weary, what was to be got by railing at each other: Nobody was either concerned or furprised, if this or that fcribbler was proved a dunce. But every one was curious to read what could be faid to prove Mr. POPE one, and was ready to pay fomething for fuch a difcovery: A ftratagem, which would they fairly own, it might not only reconcile them to me, but screen them from the resentment of their lawful Superiors, whom they daily abufe, only (as I charitably hope) to get that by them, which they cannot get from them.

I found this was not all: Ill fuccefs in that had transported them to perfonal abufe, either of himself, or (what I think he could lefs forgive) of his Friends. They had called Men of virtue and honour bad Men, long before he had either leisure or inclination to call them bad writers: And fome had been fuch old offenders, that he had quite forgotten their perfons as well as their flanders, till they were pleased to revive them.

Now what had Mr. POPE done before, to incenfe them? He had published those works which are in the hands of every body, in which not the least mention is made of any of them. And what has he done fince? He has laughed, and written the DUNCIAD. What has that faid of them? A very serious truth, which the Public had faid before, that they were dull: And what it had no fooner faid, but they themselves were at great

pains to procure, or even purchase room in the prints, to teftify under their hands to the truth of it.

I should still have been filent, if either I had seen any inclination in my friend to be ferious with fuch accusers, or if they had only meddled with his Writtings; fince whoever publishes, puts himself on his trial by his Country. But when his Moral character was attacked, and in a manner from which neither truth nor virtue can fecure the most innocent; in a manner, which, though it annihilates the credit of the accufation with the just and impartial, yet aggravates very much the guilt of the accufers; I mean by Authors without names; then I thought, fince the danger was common to all, the concern ought to be fo; and that it was an act of justice to detect the Authors, not only on this account, but as many of them are the fame who for several years past have made free with the greatest names in Church and State, exposed to the world the private misfortunes of Families, abufed all, even to Women, and whose prostituted papers (for one. or other Party, in the unhappy divifions of their Country) have infulted the Fallen, the Friendless, the Exiled, and the Dead.

Befides this, which I take to be a public concern, Ia have already confeffed I had a private one. I am one of that number who have long loved and esteemed Mr.: POPE; and had often declared it was not his capacity or writings (which we ever thought the least valuable part of his character), but the honeft, open, and beneficent man, that we most efteemed, and loved in him. Now, if what these people fay were believed, I must appear to all my friends either a fool, or a knave; either impofed on myself, or impofing on them; so that I am as much interested in the confutation of these calumnies, as he is himself.

I am no Author, and confequently not to be fufpected either of jealoufy or refentment against any of the Men, of whom fcarce one is known to me by fight; and as for their Writings, I have fought them (on this one occafion) in vain, in the clofets and libraries of all my acquaintance. I had ftill been in the dark, if a Gentleman had not procured me (I fuppofe from fome of themselves, for they are generally much more dangerous friends than enemies) the paffages I fend you. 1 folemnly proteft I have added nothing to the malice or abfurdity of them; which it behoves me to declare, fince the vouchers themfelves will be fo foon and fo irrecoverably loft. You may in fome meafure prevent it, by preferving at leaft their Titles, and discovering (as far as you can depend on the truth of your information) the Names of the concealed authors.

The first objection I have heard made to the Poem is, that the perfons are too obfcure for fatire. The perfons themselves, rather than allow the objection, would forgive the fatire; and if one could be tempted to af-> ford it a ferious anfwer, were not all affaffinates, popu lar infurrections, the infolence of the rabble without doors, and of domeftics within, meft wrongfully chaf tifed, if the Meannefs of offenders indemnified them from punishment? On the contrary, Obfcurity renders them more dangerous, as le's thought of: Law can pronounce judgment only on open facts: Morality alone can pafs cenfure on intentions of Mischief; so that for fecret calumny, or the arrow flying in the dark, there is no public punishment left, but what a good Writer inflicts.

The next objection is, that these fort of authors are poor. That might be pleaded as an excufe at the Old

a Which we have done in a Lift printed in the Appendix.