But whither am I ftraid? I need not raife
Trophies to thee from other Mens Difpraise;
Nor is thy Fame on leffer Ruins built,
Nor needs thy jufter Title the foul Guilt
Of Eastern Kings, who to fecure their Reign
Must have their Brothers, Sons, and Kindred flain.

I am forry to find that an Author, who is very juftly esteemed among the best Judges, has admitted fome Stroaks of this Nature into a very fine Poem, I mean The Art of Criticism, which was published fome Months fince, and is a Mafter-piece in its Kind. The Obfervations follow one another like thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical Regularity which would have been requisite in a Profe Author. They are fome of them uncommon, but fuch as the Reader muft affent to, when he fees them explained with that Elegance and Perfpicuity in which they are delivered. As for those which are the moft known, and the most received, they are placed in fo beautiful a Light, and illuftrated with such apt Allufions, that they have in them all the Graces of Novelty, and make the Reader, who was before acquainted with them, ftill more con. vinced of their Truth and Solidity. And here give me Leave to mention what Monfieur Boileau has fo very well enlarged upon in the Preface to his Works, that Wit and finc Writing doth not confift fo much in advancing Things that are new, as in giving things that are known an agreeable Turn. It is impoffible, for us

who

who live in the later Ages of the World, to make Observations in Criticifm, Morality, or in any Art or Science, which have not been touched upon by others. We have little elfe left us, but to reprefent the common Sense of Mankind in more strong, more beautiful, or more uncommon Lights. Ifa Reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but very few Precepts in it, which he may not meet with in Ariftotle, and which were not commonly known by all the Poets of the Auguftan Age. His Way of Expreffing and Applying them, not his Invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire.

FOR this Reafon I think there is nothing in the World fo tiresome as the Works of those Criticks, who write in a pofitive dogmatick Way, without either Language, Genius or Imagination. If the Reader would fee how the beft of the Latin Criticks writ, he may find their Manner very beautifully defcribed in the Characters of Horace, Petronius, Quintilian and Longinus, as they are drawn in the Effay of which I am now speaking.

SINCE I have mentioned Longinus, who in his Reflections has given us the fame Kind of Sublime, which he obferves in the feveral Paffages that occafioned them; I cannot but take notice, that our English Author has after the fame manner exemplified feveral of his Precepts in the very Precepts themfelves. I fhall produce two or three Instances of this Kind, Speaking of the infipid

Smooth

Smoothness which fome Readers are fo much in Love with, he has the following Verses.

Thefe Equal Syllables alone require,
Tho' oft the Ear the open Vowels tire,
While Expletives their feeble Aid do join,
And ten low Words oft creep in one dull Line.

THE gaping of the Vowels in the second Line, the Expletive do in the third, and the ten Monofyllables in the fourth, give fuch a Beauty to this Paffage, as would have been very much admired in an Ancient Poet. The Reader may obferve the following Lines in the fame View:

(long.

A needless Alexandrine ends the Song,
That like a wounded Snake, drags its flow Length a-

And afterwards,

'Tis not enough no Harshness gives Offence,
The Sound must feem an Eccho to the Sense.
Soft is the Strain when Zephir gently blows,
And the smooth Stream in fmoother Numbers flows;
But when loud Surges lafh the founding Shore,

The hoarfe, rough Verfe fhou'd like the Torrent roar
When Ajax frives, fome Rock's vaft Weight to throw,
The Line too labours, and the Words move flow ;
Not fo, when Swift Camilla fcours the Plain,
Flies o'er th'unbending Corn, and skims along the Main,

The beautiful Diftich upon Ajax in the fore

going Lines, puts me in mind of a Description in Homer's Odyffey, which none of the Criticks have taken notice of. It is where Sisyphus is reprefented lifting his Stone up the Hill, which is no fooner carried to the Top of it, but it immediately tumbles to the Bottom. This double Motion of the Stone is admirably defcribed in the Numbers of thefe Verses. As in the four first it is heaved up by feveral Spondees, intermixed with proper Breathing-places, and at last trundles down in a continued Line of Dactyls.

Καὶ μία Σίσυφον εἰσείδον, κρατέρ ̓ ἄλλο ἔχοντα,
Λάαν βαςάζοντα πελώριον ἀμφοτέρησιν.
Ἔτσι ὁ μου, σκηνοπομ @ χερσίν τε ποσίν τε,
Λάιμ άνω ὤθεσκε ποτὶ λόφον. 'δη ̓ ὅτε μέλλοι
Ακρον υπερβαλέειν, τίτ ̓ αποτρέψασκε Κρατίς,
Αὖτις ἔπειτα πέδονδε κυλίνδετο λάας αναιδής.

IT would be endless to quote Verses out of Virgil which have this particular Kind of Beauty in the Numbers; but I may take an Occafion in a future Paper to fhew feveral of them which have escaped the Obfervation of others.

I cannot conclude this Paper without taking notice that we have three Poems in our Tongue, which are of the fame Nature, and each of them a Master-piece in its Kind; the Effay on Tranflated Verfe, the Effay on the Art of Poetry, and the Effay upon Criticifm.

C

Friday,

N° 254.

Friday, December 21.

t

Σεμνὸς ἔξως ἀρετῆς, ὁ 5 κυωρίδα & gs ὀφέλλες.

W

HEN I confider the falfe Impreffions which are received by the Generality of the World, I am troubled at none more than a certain Levity of Thought which many young Women of Quality have entertained, to the Hazard of their Characters and the certain Misfortune of their Lives. The firft of the following Letters may best represent the Faults I would now point at, and the Answer to it the Temper of Mind in a contrary Character.

My dear Harriot,

I

F thou art fhe, but oh how fall'n, how 'chang'd, what an Apoftate! How lost to all that's gay and agreeable! To be marry'd I find is to be bury'd alive; I can't con'ceive it more difmal to be fhut up in a Vault to converse with the Shades of my Ancestors, than to be carried down to an old Mannor 'House in the Country, and confin'd to the Conversation of a fober Husband and aukward Chambermaid. For Variety I fuppose you may entertain your felf with Madam in her Grogram Gown, the Spoufe of your Parifh Vicar, who has by this Time I am

an

fure