Page images
PDF
EPUB

in a higher Clafs. He was one of the nobleft works of God. He was an honeft Man *. A man who alone poffeffed more real virtue than, in very corrupt times, needing a Satirift like him, will fometimes fall to the share of multitudes. In this history of his life, will be contained a large account of his writings; a critique on the nature, force, and extent of his genius, exemplified from these writings; and a vindication of his moral character, exemplified by his more distinguished virtues : his filial piety, his difinterested friendship, his reverence for the conftitution of his country, his love and admiration of virtue, and (what was the necessary effect) his hatred and contempt of vice, his extensive charity to the indigent, his warm benevolence to mankind, his fupreme veneration of the Deity, and, above all, his fincere belief of Revelation. Nor fhall his faults be concealed. It is not for the interests of his virtues that they fhould. Nor indeed could they be concealed, if we were fo minded, for they shine through his Virtues; no man being more a dupe to the specious appearances of Virtue in others. In a word, I mean not to And may I,

be his Panegyrift, but his Hiftorian. when Envy and Calumny take the fame advantage of my absence (for, while I live, I will freely trust it to my Life to confute them) may I find a friend as careful of my honest fame as I have been of His! Together with his Works, he hath bequeathed me his Dunces.

"A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod,

"An honest Man's the nobleft work of God."

So

So that as the property is transferred, I could wish they would now let his memory alone. The veil which Death draws over the Good is fo facred, that to throw dirt upon the fhrine fcandalizes even Barbarians. And though Rome permitted her Slaves to calumniate her beft Citizens on the day of Triumph, yet the fame petulancy at their funeral would have been rewarded with execration and a gibbet. The Public may be malicious; but is rarely vindictive er ungenerous. It would abhor these insults on a writer dead, though it had borne with the ribaldry, or even fet the ribalds on work, when he was alive. And in this there was no great harm : for he must have a strange impotency of mind whom fuch miferable fcribblers can ruffle. Of all that grofs Baotian phalanx who have written fcurrilously against me, I know not fo much as one whom a writer of reputation would not wish to have his enemy, or whom a man of honour would not be ashamed to own for his friend. I am indeed but flightly converfant in their works, and know little of the particulars of their defamation. To my Authorship they are heartily welcome. But if any of them have been fo abandoned by Truth as to attack my moral character in any inftance whatsoever, to all and every one of these, and their abettors, I give the lye in form, and in the words of honeft Father Valerian, Mentiris impudentiffime."

[blocks in formation]

RECOMMENDATORY POEMS.

To Mr. POPE, on his PASTORALS.

IN thofe more dull, as more cenforious days,
When few dare give, and fewer merit praise,
A Mufe fincere, that never Flattery knew,
Pays what to friendship and desert is due.
Young, yet judicious ; in your verfe are found
Art ftrengthening Nature, Senfe improv'd by Sound.
Unlike thofe Wits, whofe numbers glide along
So fmooth, no thought e'er interrupts the fong:
Laboriously enervate they appear,

And write not to the head, but to the ear:
Our minds unmov'd and unconcern'd they lull,
And are at best most musically dull :
So purling streams with even murmurs creep,
And hush the heavy hearers into sleep.
As fmootheft fpeech is most deceitful found,
The smoothest numbers oft are empty sound.
But Wit and Judgment join at once in you,
Sprightly as Youth, as Age confummate too:
Your ftrains are regularly bold, and please
With unforc'd care, and unaffected ease,
With proper thoughts, and lively images:
Such as by Nature to the Ancients shewn,
Fancy improves, and judgment makes your own:
For great men's fashions to be follow'd are,
Although difgraceful 'tis their cloaths to wear,

5

ΤΟ

[ocr errors]

•}

20

25 Some

Some in a polish'd style write Pastoral,
Arcadia speaks the language of the Mall.
Like some fair Shepherdefs, the Sylvan Muse
Should wear those flowers her native fields produce;
And the true measure of the shepherd's wit

Should, like his garb, be for the Country fit:
Yet muft his pure and unaffected thought

30

More nicely than the common swain's be wrought,
So, with becoming art, the Players dress

In filks the fhepherd, and the fhepherdess;

35

Yet ftill unchang'd the form and mode remain,

Shap'd like the homely ruffet of the swain.
Your rural Mufe appears to justify
The long-loft graces of fimplicity :

So rural beauties captivate our fense

With virgin charms, and native excellence.

40

Yet long her Modesty those charms conceal'd;
Till by men's Envy to the world reveal'd;
For Wits induftrious to their trouble seem,
And needs will envy what they must esteem.

'Live, and enjoy their spite! nor mourn that fate, Which would, if Virgil liv'd, on Virgil wait; Whose Muse did once, like thine, in plains delight, Thine fhall, like his, foon take a higher flight; So larks, which first from lowly fields arise, Mount by degrees, and reach at last the skies.

45

50

W. WYCHERLEY.

Το

« PreviousContinue »