lines, gives a fhort fummary of his precepts for true tafte. ""Tis Ufe alone that fanctifies Expence, "And Splendor borrows all her rays from "Senfe." How juft the thought! How poetical the expreffion! This is to attain the true end of poetry; for at the fame time that it convinces the judgment, it charms the imagination. The character of Timon, as might well have been expected, raifed a violent outcry * against the poet, on a fuppofition that his fatire was pointed at a noble Duke, who was, in fact, more diftinguished by his magnificence, than his elegance. It was impoffible for our poet to prove the innocence of his intention, which refted only in his own mind. But every thing was done to palliate the matter, and, as far as poffible, to remove the imputation." This cflay, however, was fo well received by the public, that in a fhort time, it paffed into a third edition. On the publication of it, our author addreffed a letter to Lord Burlington, wherein he takes notice that the clamour raised about his epiftle, could not give him fo much *It was after the violent outcry againft our author on this occafion, that the first Epiftle on the ufe of Riches, was written. pain, as he received pleasure in feeing the general zeal of the world in the cause of a great man who is beneficent,, and the particular warmth of his noble friend in that of a private man who was innocent. 29 It was not the poem," fays he, " that de ferved this from you, for as I had the honour "to be your friend, I would not treat you quite "like a poet: but fure the writer deferved more "candor even from thofe who knew him not, "than to promote a report which in regard to that noble perfon, was impertinent, in regard to me, villainous. Yet I had no great caufe to wonder, that a character belonging to twenty fhould be applied to one, fince, by that means, nineteen would efcape the ridicule. I was too "well content with my knowledge of that noble "perfon's opinion in this affair to trouble the "public about it. "Since malice and miftake," he continues, are fo long dying, I have, taken the oppor"tunity of a third edition, to declare his be"lief, not only of my innocence, but of their "malignity; of the former of which my own "heart is as confcious, as I fear fome of theirs "must be of the latter. His humanity feels a concern for the injury done to me, while his "greatness of mind can bear with indifference "the infult offered to himself.” wicked than ridiculous; and therefore it may "be safer to attack vices than follies. I will therefore leave my betters in the quiet poffef"fion of their idols, their groves, and their "high places and change my fubject from "their pride to their meannefs, from their vani"ties to their miferics; and as the only way to avid mifconftructions, to leffen offences, and not to multiply ill-natured applications, I may probably in my next, make use of real names, instead of fictitious ones." ́i longot In the third volume of his works, now under confideration, there is a fifth epiftle addreffed to Mr. Addifon, occafioned by his Dialogues on Medals; and, as the fourth epiftle treated of one particular branch of profufion, that is, the vanity of expence in people of fortune and condition, for this ridicules one branch of that vanity, which is displayed in the collection of old coins, and may therefore very properly be confidered as a corollary to the fourth epiftle. The extreme folly of the wrong directed VirtuofoTafte for medals, is finely ridiculed in the following lines. With-fharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore, Th' infcription value, but the ruft adore. "This the blue varnifh, that the green en29 dears, "The facred ruft of twice ten hundred years! "To gain Pefcennius one employs his יד : "schemes, "Poor V Poor Vadius, long with learned fpleen dewvour'd, and giv dor's of trad Can taste no pleafure fince his field was fcour'den deb sir, to not 1 And Curio, reftlefs by the Fair One's fide, "Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his bride." 01 79H to al 1. bitt bg b The pleasant raillery of thefe lines is admirable, and is more likely to correct fuch an abfurd and prepofterous tafte, than a grave and formal reproof,... This was the laft of our author's moral effays; and in one of his letters to Dean Swift, he accounts for his declining them. 111 I am," fays he, "almoft at the end of Ce 1 'my morals, as I have been long ago of my "wit; my fyftem is a short one, and my circle "narrow. Imagination has no limits; that is a fphere in which you may move on to eternity: but where one is confined to truth, or "to speak more like a human creature, to the appearances of truth, we foon find the fhort"nefs of our tether." Among the leffer pieces in this volume, we must not omit taking notice of the little ode, intitled, The dying Chriftian to his Soul, in imitation of the Emperor Adrian's; which is very poetical and fublime, and much fuperior to the original, wherein there is fomething little and puerile. 1 The publication of the Ethic Epiftles having raised a vaft clamour against the author, he took occafion X 3 occafion to anfwer the flanderers in fome fatires in imitation of Horace. He thought, as he tells us, that an answer from Horace was both more full and of more dignity than any he could have made in his own perfon; and the example of much greater freedom in fo eminent a divine as Dr. Donne, feemed a proof with what indignation and contempt a Christian may treat vice or folly, in ever fo low, or ever fo high, a station. These fatires are by no means equal in point of verfification to his other compofitions *; but they abound in ftrokes of wit and fpirit. They are not, as his learned Commentator obferves, a paraphrafe of Horace, or a faithful copy of his genius and manner of writing. In many places, nevertheless, the imitation is fuperior to the original. For instance, in the following paffage from the imitation of the firfl Satire of the fecond Book of Horace, addreffed to Mr. Fortefcue †. "Nec It must be confidered, however, that as the originals were fermoni propriora, the Poet would have tranfgreffed every rule of imitation, had he given them all the force and harmony of his verfification. Nevertheless he could not forbear to do it on many occafions. This eminent lawyer, who afterward became a judge, appears to have been among our author's most familiar and efteemed friends. He was, though a lawyer, a man of fome wit and fancy. The whimfical cafe of the pied Horfes, penned in ridicule of the old mufty Reports, was the joint compofition of this gentleman and Mr. POPE. Our author frequently mentions him in his familiar correfpondence, in terms of the most cordial esteem. In a letter to Mr. Allen, he fays, "You must affure judge Fortefcue of my friend " Chips |