"cuckold, from his cage, tho' he rightly "call many a passenger, you hold him no philofopher. And yet, fuch is the fate

of all extremes, men may be read too "much, as well as books. We grow more partial, for the fake of the obferver, to "obfervations which we ourselves make ; "less fo to written wisdom, because an«nother's. Maxims are drawn from "notions, and thofe from guess." What fhall we say of this paffage? ---Why, that it is most excellent sense, but just as poetical as the "Qui fit "Mæcenas" of the author who recommends this method of trial. Take ten lines of the Iliad, Paradife Loft, or even of the Georgics of Virgil, and fee whether by any process of critical chymistry, you can lower and reduce them to the Lameness of profe. You will find that

they will appear like Ulyffes in his difguise of rags, still a hero, tho' lodged in the cottage of the herdsman Eumæus.

THE Sublime and the Pathetic are the two chief nerves of all genuine poefy. What is there tranfcendently Sublime or Pathetic in POPE? In his works there is indeed, "nihil inane, nihil arceffitum ;-puro tamen fonti quam magno flumini proprior;" as the excellent Quintilian remarks of Lyfias. And because I am perhaps unwilling to speak out in plain English, I will adopt the following paffage of Voltaire, which, in my opinion, as exactly characterizes POPE, as it does his model Boileau, for whom it was originally defigned. "INCAPABLE PEUT

ETRE DU SUBLIME QUI ELEVE L' AME, ET DU SENTIMENT QUI L'ATTENDRIT, MAIS FAIT POUR ECLAIRER CEUX A QUI LA NATURE ACCORDA L' UN ET L' AUTRE, LABORIEUX, SEVERE, PRECIS,

PUR,

PUR, HARMONIEUX, IL DEVINT, ENFIN, LE POETE DE LA RAISON."

OUR English poets may, I think, be difpofed in four different claffes and degrees. In the first class, I would place, our only three fublime and pathetic poets; SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE, MILTON. In the fecond clafs fhould be ranked, fuch as poffeffed the true poetical genius, in a more moderate degree, but had noble talents for moral, ethical, and panegyrical poefy. At the head of these are DRYDEN, PRIOR, ADDISON, COWLEY, WALLER, GARTH, FENTON, GAY, DENHAM, PARNELL. In the third class may be placed, men of wit, of elegant taste, and lively fancy in describing familiar life, tho' not the higher scenes of poetry. Here may be numbered, BUTLER, SWIFT, ROCHESTER, DONNE, DORSET, OLDHAM.

In the fourth clafs, the mere verfifiers, however fmooth and mellifluous fome of them may be thought, fhould be difpofed. Such as PITT, SANDYS, FAIRFAX, BROOME, BUCKINGHAM, LANSThis enumeration is not in

DOWN.

tended as a complete catalogue, but only to mark out briefly the different fpecies of our celebrated writers. In which of these claffes POPE deferves to be placed, the following work is intended to determine.

I am, DEAR SIR,

Your affectionate

And faithful fervant,

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HENEVER a quotation is made in the French language, throughout the following remarks, the author defires to be understood, that he is far from thinking the use of that language any particular decoration to his ftyle; he only uses French words, when the force and meaning of the paffages fo quoted depend on the peculiar turn and idiom of the original.