How many great Genius's have mifcarry'd, by not thinking rightly on Subjects they were otherwife well able to handle and adorn, and for Want of confidering that Truth, in all the Productions of the Mind, is what only renders them agreeable and useful, and that the falfe Brillant of Thoughts is like the Glare of Lightning, which dazles and hurts the Sight, as that does the Understanding!

THUS it was that Bishop Andrews, and the moft eminent Divines at the Beginning of the laft Century, reduc'd Preaching to Punning, and the Eloquence of the Chair to the Buffoonry of the Stage. Thus it was that Dr. Donne, and Mr. Cowley, confounded Metaphyficks and Love, and turn'd Wit into Point.

IT was thus that Dryden alfo confounded Epick Poetry and Elegy, Tragedy and Farce, and taught his Contemporary Poets, by his Example, to make their Heroes and Heroines, in the Agonies of Defpair and Death, figh out their This Vice in great Souls in Simile and Rhime. Thought is the most obvious, and yet the most common, in English Poetry, occafion'd either by the Poets Ignorance of it, or their Dependance on the Ignorance of their Hearers and Readers, tho' they have been taught better, as by the laft Duke of Bucks,

Figures

Figures of Speech, which Poets think so fine,
Are all but Paint upon a beauteous Face,
And in Defcription only claim a Place;
But to make Rage declaim, and Grief difcourfe,
From Lover in Defpair fine Things to force,
Muft needs fucceed; for who can choose but pity
A dying Hero miferably witty?

And again,

Or else the Bells eternally they chime,
They figh in Simile, and die in Rhime.

I SHOU'D not have prefum'd to have touch'd the Chair, which is facred even its Faults,but that I found the Lord Lanfdown had been more free with it on the like Occafion, where he speaks of Truth in Thought, or Right-thinking; without which the Poet's and Orator's Brain is always delirious.

But let the bold Adventurer be fure

That every Line the Teft of Truth endure.
On this Foundation may the Fabrick rife,
Firm and unfhaken, till it touch the Skies.
From Pulpits banish'd, from the Court and Love,
Abandon'd Truth feeks Shelter in the Grove.
Cherish, ye Mufes, the forfaken Fair,

And take into your Train the beauteous Wanderer,

THE noble Critick plainly alludes to the punning Sermons in the Reign of King James I. and the Metaphyfical Love-Verfes by which

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Donne

Donne and Cowley acquir'd fo much Fame. Cowley especially, with as much Wit as ever Man had, fhews as little Judgment, by which his Poetry is in our Days fo funk in the Opinion of good Judges, that there is no Hope of its rifing again. The following Verfes of his on Despair, is an Instance how little he knew of Right-thinking, though he knew fo much of Thought.

Beneath this gloomy Shade,

By Nature only for my Sorrows made,
I'll spend my Voice in Cries,

In Tears I'll waste my Eyes,
By Love fo vainly fed;

So Luft, of old, the Deluge punished.
When Thoughts of Love I entertain,

I meet no Words but Never and In vain.
Never, Alas! that dreadful Name,

Which fuels the eternal Flame,

Never, my Time to come must waste,

In vain torments the Prefent and the Paft, &c.

A LIVELY Inftance of what the Duke of Buckingham fays, That a Lover in Despair cannot have fuch fine Things forc'd from him, and that, like Rage, it expreffes it felf in Rants and Breaks; the Mind being too busy with its own Mifery, to have Leifure for foreign Objects. Such Examples will explain what is meant by Thinking and Speaking rightly, better than Reafonings and Rules. Figures, indeed, feem to be too little understood by the Moderns, and

lefs

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lefs by English Writers than Italian or French, whofe Wit lying pretty near the Surface, one wou'd think fhou'd be more apt to rise up in Metaphor; but ours in England, tho' it has more Depth, ferments fooner, and then with a great deal of Spirit there will be fome Lee, from whence proceeds that Huddle of Metaphors which Collier and the most celebrated Writers of Essays mistake for a fruitful Fancy, tho' they leave no diftinct Idea in the Mind of the Things they wou'd exprefs.

FOR Want of knowing how to think rightly, Painting and Declamation have pafs'd lately for the Perfection of Hiftory, both in Fact and Expreffion, tho' nothing is more contrary to that Simplicity which is the very Effence

of it.

SIR, I do not tell you thefe Things as News: You are too well acquainted with them, to learn from Pere Bouhours, or the beft of his Difciples; tho' Mr. ADDISON look'd upon him to be the most penetrating of all the French Criticks. I only lay them before You, as a Judge to decide, Whether it was not fit that fuch Errors, being found in the Writings of Authors of the greatest Eminence, fhou'd be known, that they may be avoided; and, if poffible, there may be a little Order obferved to make fome Amends for what is wanting in Genius and Eloquence, which are not to be learn'd, and hardly to be expected, in the Decay which is coming faft upon all Kinds

of

of polite Literature. Good Judges forefaw it twenty or thirty Years ago, and mark'd the Gradations by which this Decay wou'd appear fenfibly. They, probably, made thofe Reflections from what they had obferv'd of the Fate of Poetry and Eloquence; when, after the Age of AUGUSTUS, Mimes, Cudgel-Players, and Bears, were preferr'd to true Comedy; the Points of Martial to the happy Turns of Catullus; when Sound got the better of Senfe, and folid Reason gave Way to Tales and Trifles; when the Degeneracy reach'd their Morals as well as their Arts and Sciences, (as it will always do in all Countries) and the Lofs of their Tafte was follow'd with the Lofs of their Liberty.

WHAT Danger we are in of lofing our Goût is too vifible; and if there is any Way to prevent or delay it, 'twill not be fo inconfiderable a Piece of Service to the Publick as may at first be imagined; for whatever ferves to fet People in a right Way of Thinking on one Subject, will be helpful to them on all; and to bring them to the Standard of Truth, is a fure Way to make them afham'd of Falfhood, which, when known, is as ridiculous and contemptible in Letters, as it is pernicious and odious in Life.

THERE is nothing fo likely to gain the Reader's Attention to fuch new and ftrange Notions, as my venturing to start them before You; for whatever Opinion the World has of my Capacity, they have so just a one of Your Judgment,

that