66 pieces are nothing but a pert, insipid heap of common place. Horace has, even in his Art of Poetry, "thrown out several things which plainly shew he thought an Art of Poetry was of no use, even while "he was writing one." 66 To all which great authorities we can only oppose that of MR. ADDISON. "The Art of Criticism," saith he, "which was "published some months since, is a masterpiece in its kind. The observations follow one another "like those in Horace's Art of Poetry, without "that methodical regularity which would have "been requisite in a prose writer. They are some "of them uncommon, but such as the reader must "assent to, when he sees them explained with that ease and perspicuity in which they are delivered. "As for those which are the most known, and the "most received, they are placed in so beautiful a "light, and illustrated with such apt allusions, "that they have in them all the graces of novelty, "and make the reader, who was before acquainted "with them, still more convinced of their truth and "solidity. And here give me leave to mention "what Mons: Boileau has so well enlarged upon "in the Preface to his Works; that wit and fine "writing doth not consist so much in advancing things that are new, as in giving things 66 * Spectator, No. 253. 66 "that are known an agreeable turn. It is impossible for us, who live in the latter ages of "the world, to make observations in criticism, morality, or any art or science, which have "not been touched upon by others; we have 66 little else left us but to represent the common "sense of mankind in more strong, more beau"tiful, or more uncommon lights. If a reader "examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find "but few precepts in it which he may not meet "with in Aristotle, and which were not commonly "known by all the poets of the Augustan age. "His way of expressing and applying them, not "his invention of them, is what we are chiefly to ad"mire. "Longinus, in his Reflections, has given us the same kind of sublime which he observes in the "several passages that occasioned them: I can not but take notice that our English Author "has, after the same manner, exemplified se"veral of the precepts in the very precepts them"selves." He then produces some instances of a peculiar beauty in the Numbers, and concludes with saying, that "There are three poems in our "tongue of the same nature, and each a masterI piece in its kind; the Essay on Translated Verse, the Essay on the Art of Poetry, and the "Essay on Criticism." 66 Of Windsor Forest, positive is the judgment of the affirmat.ve, MR. JOHN DENNIS. "That it is a wretched rhapsody, impudently "writ in emulation of the Cooper's Hill of Sir "John Denham: the author of it is obscure, is "ambiguous, is affected, is temerarious, is barba"rous." But the author of the Dispensary, DR. GARTH, in the Preface to his poem of Claremont †, differs from this opinion: "Those who have seen these 66 two excellent poems of Cooper's Hill and Windsor Forest, the one written by Sir John Denham, "the other by Mr. Pope, will shew a great deal of "candour if they approve of this." 86 "That Of the Epistle of Eloisa, we are told by the obscure writer of a pcem called Sawney, "because Prior's Henry and Emma charmed the "finest tastes, our Author writ his Eloise in op'position to it, but forgot innocence and virtue: "if you take away her tender thoughts, and her "fierce desires, all the rest is of no value." In which, methinks, his judgment resembleth that of a French tailor on a villa and gardens by the Thames: "All this is very fine; but take away the river, and "it is good for nothing." But very contrary hereunto was the opinion of MR. PRIOR himself, saying in his Alma ‡, * Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remarks on Pope's Homer, 1717. Printed 1728, p. 12. Ama, canto :. "O Abelard! Ill fated youth, Thy tale will justify this truth: "Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev`d, "Its colours: gently has he laid "The mantle o'er thy sad distress, "And Venus shall the texture bless," &c. Come we now to his Translation of the Iliad, ce'ebrated by numerous pens; yet shall it suffice to mention the indefatigable SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE, KT, who (though otherwise a severe censurer of our Author) yet styleth this "A laudable Translation*." That ready writer, MR. OLDMIXON, in his fore-mentioned Essay, frequently commends the same. And the painful 64 MR. LEWIS THEOBALD thus extols itt: "The spirit of Homer breathes all through this Translation.---I am in doubt whe-. "ther I should most admire the justness to the Original, or the force and beauty of the language, or the sounding variety of the Numbers; but when I find all these meet, it puts me in mind of what the poet says of one of his he"roes, that he alone raised and slung with ease a 66 weighty stone that two common men could not * In his Essays, vol. I. printed for E. Curl. + Censor, vol. II. No. 33. Volume I' C lift from the ground; just so one single person "has performed, in this Translation, what I once "despaired to have seen done by the force of se"veral masterly hands." Indeed the same gentleman appears to have changed his sentiment in his Essays on the Art of Sinking in Reputation, (printed in MIST'S JOURNAL, March 30, 1728,) where he says thus: "In order to sink in reputation, let "him take it into his head to descend into Homer, "let the world wonder, as it will, how the devil " he got there) and pretend to do him into Eng"lish, so his version denotes his neglect of the manner how." Strange variation! We are told in MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8. "That this Translation of the Iliad was not in all "respects conformable to the fine taste of his friend "Mr. Addison; insomuch that he employed a younger Muse in an undertaking of this kind, "which he supervised himself.” Whether Mr. Addison did find it conformable to his taste or not, best appears from his own testimony the year following its publication, in these words: MR. ADDISON, FREEHOLDER, NO. 40. When I consider myself as a British Freeholder, "I am in a particular manner pleased with the "labours of those who have improved our lan guage with the translations of old Greek and “Latin authors.---We have already most of their |