His precepts teach but what his works inspire.
Our critics take a contrary extreme,

660

They judge with fury, but they write with phlegm :
Nor suffers Horace more in wrong translations
By wits, than critics in as wrong quotations.
See Dionysius Homer's thoughts refine,1
And call new beauties forth from every line
Fancy and art in gay Petronius please,
The scholar's learning, with the courtier's ease.
In grave Quintilian's copious work, we find
The justest rules, and clearest method joined:
Thus useful arms in magazines we place,
All ranged in order, and disposed with grace,
But less to please the eye, than arm the hand,
Still fit for use, and ready at command.

Thee, bold Longinus! all the nine inspire,
And bless their critic with a poet's fire.
An ardent judge, who zealous in his trust,
With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just;
Whose own example strengthens all his laws;
And is himself that great sublime he draws.

Thus long succeeding critics justly reigned,
Licence repressed, and useful laws ordained.
Learning and Rome alike in empire grew;
And arts still followed where her eagles flew;
From the same foes, at last, both felt their doom,
And the same age saw learning fall, and Rome.
With tyranny, then superstition joined,.
As that the body, this enslaved the mind;
Much was believed, but little understood,
And to be dull was construed to be good;

1 Of Halicarnassus.

670

680

690

A second deluge learning thus o'er-run,
And the Monks finished what the Goths begun.

At length Erasmus, that great injured name,
(The glory of the priesthood, and the shame!)
Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age,
And drove those holy Vandals off the stage.

But see! each muse, in Leo's golden days,
Starts from her trance, and trims her withered bays,
Rome's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread,
Shakes off the dust, and rears his reverend head. 700
Then sculpture and her sister-arts revive;

Stones leaped to form, and rocks began to live;
With sweeter notes each rising temple rung;
A Raphael painted, and a Vida sung.1
Immortal Vida: on whose honoured brow
The poet's bays and critic's ivy grow:
Cremona now shall ever boast thy name,
As next in place to Mantua, next in fame!

But soon by impious arms from Latium chased,
Their ancient bounds the banished muses passed; 710
Thence arts o'er all the northern world advance,
But critic-learning flourished most in France:
The rules a nation, born to serve, obeys;
And Boileau still in right of Horace sways.

But we, brave Britons, foreign laws despised,
And kept unconquered, and uncivilized;
Fierce for the liberties of wit, and bold,
We still defy the Romans, as of old.
Yet some there were, among the sounder few
Of those who less presumed, and better knew,
Who durst assert the juster ancient cause,

1 Chiefly known by his Art of Poetry.

720

And here restored wit's fundamental laws.

Such was the muse, whose rules and practice tell,1 "Nature's chief master-piece is writing well."

Such was Roscommon, not more learned than good,
With manners generous as his noble blood;

To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known,
And every author's merit, but his own.

Such late was Walsh-the muse's judge and friend,
Who justly knew to blame or to commend;
To failings mild, but zealous for desert;

730

The clearest head, and the sincerest heart.
This humble praise, lamented shade! receive,
This praise at least a grateful muse may give :
The muse, whose early voice you taught to sing,
Prescribed her heights, and pruned her tender wing,

1 Essay on Poetry by the Duke of Buckingham. Our poet is not the only one of his time who complimented this essay, and its noble author. Mr. Dryden had done it very largely in the dedication to his translation of the Eneid: and Dr. Garth in the first edition of his Dispensary says,

-

"The Tiber now no courtly Gallus sees,

But smiling Thames enjoys his Normanbys. Though afterwards omitted, when parties were carried so high in the reign of Queen Anne, as to allow no commendation to an opposite in politics. The Duke was all his life a steady adherent to the Church of England party, yet an enemy to the extravagant measures of the court in the reign of Charles II. On which account after having strongly patronized Mr. Dryden, a coolness succeeded between them on that poet's absolute attachment to the court, which carried him some lengths beyond what the Duke could approve of. This nobleman's true character had been very well marked by Mr. Dryden before,

"The muse's friend,

True to his prince, but not a slave of state."

Abs. and Achit.

Our author was more happy, he was honoured very young with his friendship, and it continued till his death in all the circumstances of a familiar esteem.

(Her guide now lost) no more attempts to rise,

But in low numbers short excursions tries:

Content, if hence the unlearned their wants may view,

The learned reflect on what before they knew:

Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame;
Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame,
Averse alike to flatter, or offend;

Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.

740

Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos;
Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.1

MART., Epigr. xii. 84.

TO MRS. ARABELLA FERMOR.2

MADAM,-It will be in vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece, since I dedicate it to you. Yet you may bear me witness, it was intended only to divert a few young ladies, who have good sense and good humour enough to laugh not only at their

1 It appears, by this motto, that the following poem was written or published at the lady's request. But there are some further circumstances not unworthy relating. Mr. Caryl (a gentleman who was secretary to Queen Mary, wife of James II., whose fortunes he followed into France, author of the comedy of Sir Solomon Single, and of several translations in Dryden's Miscellanies) originally proposed the subject to him in a view of putting an end, by this piece of ridicule, to a quarrel that was risen between two noble families, those of Lord Petre and of Mrs. Fermor, on the trifling occasion of his having cut off a lock of her hair. The author sent it to the lady, with whom he was acquainted; and she took it so well as to give about copies of it. That first sketch (we learn from one of his letters) was written in less than a fortnight, in 1711, in two cantos only, and it was so printed; first, in a miscellany of Bern, Lintot's, without the name of the author. But it was received so well that he made it more considerable the next year by the addition of the machinery of the sylphs, and extended it to five cantos.

This insertion he always esteemed, and justly, the greatest effort of his skill and art as a poet.- Warburton.

Miss Arabella Fermor was, in 1714, married to Francis Perkins, Esq. of Ufton Court, Berks. Her portrait is still preserved at her father's seat, Tusmore.

C