amica veritas. In verity, the whole ftory of the libel is a lye; witness thofe perfons of integrity, who, feveral years before Mr Addison's deceafe, did fee and approve of the faid verfes, 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 this 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, Plagiarifm, from the inventive and quaint-conceited JAMES-MOORE SMITH, Gent. ❝z 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) pu"blished 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 stealing "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 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. 1 26-7, that "Thefe verfes, which he had z Daily Journal, March 18. 1728. before given him leave to infert in it, would be "known for his, fome copies being got abroad. He de"fires, nevertheless, that fince the lines had been read " in his comedy to several, Mr P. would not deprive "it of them," &c. Surely, if we add the teftimonies 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 fo honourable perfonages. And yet followeth another charge, infinuating no less than his enmity both to Church and State, which could come from no other informer than the said Mr JAMES-MOORE SMITH. "a The Memoirs of a Parish clerk was a very dull " and unjust abuse of a person 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 thefe Memoirs were written at the feat of the Lord Harcourt in Oxfordhire, before that excellent perfon (Bishop Burnet's) 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 such a design, and VOL. III. F a Daily Journal, April 3. 1728. was himself the man who preft Dr Arbuthnot and Mr Pope to affift him therein; and that he borrowed thofe Memoirs of our author, when that history 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 himself 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 prelate, and how full he was "of a defign he declared himself to have of expo"fing it." This noble Perfon is the Earl of PETER BOROUGH. Here in truth fhould we crave pardon of all the forefaid right honourable and worthy perfonages, 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 witnesses 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 such who were strangers to our author; the former are those who fpeak well, and the other those who speak evil of him. Of the firft clafs, the most noble JOHN Duke of BUCKINGHAM ❝b And yet fo wond'rous, fo fublime a thing, So alfo is he decyphered by the honourable SIMON HARCOURT. "e Say, wond'rous youth, what column wilt thou "chufe, "What laurel'd arch, for thy triumphant Muse? "Tho' each great ancient court thee to his shrine, "Tho' ev'ry laurel thro' the dome be thine, "Go to the good and just, an awful train! "Thy foul's delight.- Recorded in like manner for his virtuous difpofition, and gentle bearing, by the ingenious Mr WALTER HART, in this apostrophe: ❝d O! ever worthy, ever crown'd with praise! b Verfes to Mr P. on his tranflation of Homer. c Poem prefixed to his works. In his poems, printed for B. Lintot. "Yet envy still with fiercer rage pursues, "Obfcures the virtue, and defames the Mufe. "A foul like thine, in pain, in grief, refign'd, "Views with just scorn the malice of mankind.” The witty and moral satirist Dr EDWARD YOUNG, wishing fome check to the corruption and evil manners of the times, calleth out upon our poet to undertake a task so worthy of his virtue: Le Why flumbers Pope, who leads the Mufe's "train, "Nor hears that Virtue, which he loves, complain? Mr MALLET, In his Epiftle on Verbal Criticism: "Whofe life, feverely fcan'd, tranfcends his lays : "For wit fupreme, is but his fecond praife.". Mr HAMMOND, That delicate and correct imitator of Tibullus, in his Love Elegies, Elegy xiv. "Now, fir'd by Pope, and Virtue, leave the age, "In low purfuit of felf-undoing wrong, "And trace the author thro' his moral page, "Whose blameless life ftill answers to his fong." e Univerfal Paffion, fat. 1. |