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T may be proper to acquaint the English Reader, that the Words Sermo and Satira (which we tran

flate Satire) have a more extenfive Senfe in Latin than in English. This cannot be better explained than in the words of Mr. Dryden:

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Among the Romans (fays he) not only those Dif 'courses went by the Name of Satire, which decried Vice, or expofed Folly, but others alfo where Virtue was recommended. But, in English, we apply it only " to invective Poems, where the very Name of Satire is • formidable to those Perfons who would appear to the " World what they are not in themselves. With us, to fay Satire, is to mean Reflection, as we use that Word in the worst Sense; or, as the French call it more properly, Medifance. In the Criticifm of Spelling, it ought to be with i, and not with y; to diftinguish its true Derivation from Satura, not from Satyrus.' Preface to Juvenal, p. 74.

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The following Paffage alfo from the fame Preface deferves a Place here: Horace is always on the Amble, Juvenal on the Gallop. He goes with more Impetuofity than Horace, but as fecurely; and the Swiftness adds a lively Agitation to the Spirits. The low 'Style of Horace is agreeable to his Subject. I queftion ⚫ not but he could have raised it: For the First Epistle of the Second Book, addreffed to Auguftus, (a moft inftructive Satire concerning Poetry,) is of fo much 'Dignity in the Words, and of fo much Elegance in the Numbers, that the Author plainly fhows, fermo pedeftris [Profaic Style] in his other Satires was rather Choice than Neceffity.'

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