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ed by his fellow beings, and very few have, by magnanimity or piety, been fo raised above it, as to act wholly without regard to cenfure or opinion.

4. Parts may be prais`d, good nature is ador'd; Then draw your wit as feldom as your fword, And never on the weak; or you'll appear As there no hero, no great genius here. As in fmooth oil the razor best is whet, So wit is by politenefs fharpeft fet: Their want of edge from their offence is feen ; Both pain us leaft when exquifitely keen. †

These lines are poetic, and contain excellent advice to those whose wit is directed by their ill-nature; and the fimile of the razor expreffive and juft. Addifon has fomewhere in the Spectator drawn a kind of parallel between a good natural man and a wit, and has shown

* Rambler, vol. iv. Numb. 193.

Sat. 2.

with

with his ufual penetration, how contemp tible a figure wit must make when not founded in good nature. Burfts of laughter at a club may crown the cause of ill-natured wit; but it is too much. admired to be efteemed. Surely the man who exposes thofe failings in human nature which humanity fhould teach him to throw a veil over; who laughs at vices which ought either to be excused or concealed, and falling indifferently upon friends or foes, expofes the perfon who has obliged him, and in short sticks. at nothing that may establish his character of a wit; fuch a man, I fay, ought rather to be detefted than admired.

5. And what fo foolish as the chace of fame ? How vain the prize? How impotent our aim ? For what are men who grafp at praife fublime, But bubbles on the rapid ftream of time?

That

That rife and fall, that fwell and are no more,
Born and forgot ten thousand in an hour.*

These lines are much more poetic and harmonious, and the thought better expreffed, than is ufual in Dr. Young's poetry. The metaphor of comparing the life of man to the bubble of a stream, although not new, is here extremely beautiful.

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