Others, I am told, pretend to have been once bis Friends. Surely they are their enemies who fay fo, fince nothing can be more odious than to treat a friend as they have done. But of this I cannot perfuade myfelf, when I confider the conftant and eternal averfion of all bad writers to a good one.

Such as claim a merit from being his Admirers I would gladly afk, if it lays him under a perfonal obligation? At that rate he would be the most obliged humble fervant in the world. I dare fwear for these in particular, he never defired them to be his admirers, nor promifed in return to be theirs: That had truly been a fign he was of their acquaintance; but would not the malicious world have fufpected fuch an approbation of fome motive worse than ignorance, in the author of the Effay on Criticism? Be it as it will, the reafons of their Admiration and of his Contempt are equally fubfifting, for his works and theirs are the very fame that they were.

One, therefore, of their affertions I believe may be true, "That he has a contempt for their writings." And there is another, which would probably be fooner allowed by himself than by any good judge befide, "That his own have found

too much fuccefs with the public." But as it cannot confist with his modesty to claim this as a Juftice, it lies not on him, but entirely on the public, to defend its own judgment.

There remains what in my opinion might feem a better plea for thefe people, than any they have made use of. If Obfcurity or Poverty were to exempt a man from fatire, much more fhould Folly or Dulnefs, which are still more involuntary; nay, as much so as perfonal Deformity. But even this will not help them: Deformity becomes an object of Ridicule when a man fets up for being handfome; and fo muft Dulnefs when he fets up for a Wit. They are not ridiculed because Ridicule in itfelf is, of ought to be, a pleasure; but because it is just to undeceive and vindicate the honest and unpretending part of mankind from impofition, because particular interest ought to yield to general, and a great number who are not naturally Fools, ought never to be made so, in complaisance to a few who are. Accordingly we find that in all ages, all vain pretenders, were they ever so poor or ever fo dull, have been conftantly the topics of the moft candid fatirists, from the Codrus of JUVENAL to the Damon of BOILEAU.

Having mentioned BOILEAU, the greatest Poet and most judicious Critic of his age and country, admirable for his Talents, and yet perhaps more admirable for his judgment in the proper application of them; I cannot help remarking the refemblance betwixt him and our author, in Qualities, Fame, and Fortnne; in the distinctions fhewn them

by their Superiors, in the general esteem of their Equals, and in their extended reputation among Foreigners; in the latter of which ours has met with the beter fate, as he has had for his Tranf lators perfons of the most eminent rank and abilities in their respective nations. But the refemblance holds in nothing more, than in their being equally abused by the ignorant pretenders to Poetry of their times; of which not the least memory will remain but in their own Writings, and in the Notes made upon them. What BOILEAU has done in almost all his Poems, our author has only in this: I dare anfwer for him he will do it in no more; and on this principle, of attacking few but who had flandered him, he could not have done it at all, had he been confined from cenfuring obfcure and worthless perfons, for scarce any other were his enemies. However, as the parity is fo remarkable, I hope it will con

b Effay on Criticism in French verfe, by General Hamilton; the fame, in verfe alfo, by Monfieur Roboton, Counsellor and Privy Secretary to King George I. after by the Abbé Reynel, in verfe, with notes. Rape of the Lock, in French, by the Princess of Conti, Paris 1728. and in Italian verse, by the Abbé Conti, a Noble Venetian; and by the Marquis Rangoni, Envoy Extraordinary from Modena to King George II. Others of his works by Salvini of Florence, &c. His Effays and Differtations on Homer, feveral times translated into French. Effay on Man, by the Abbé Reynel, in verfe; by Monfieur Silhouet, in profe, 1737. and fince by others in French, Italian, and Latin.

tinue to the laft; and if ever he should give us an edition of this Poem himself, I may fee fome of them treated as gently, on their repentance or better merit, as Perrault and Quinault were at last by BOILEAU.

In one point I must be allowed to think the character of our English Poet the more amiable. He has not been a follower of Fortune or Success; he has lived with the Great without flattery; been a friend to Men in power, without penfions, from whom, as he asked, fo he received, no favour, but what was done Him in his Friends. As his Satires were the more just for being delayed, so were his Panegyrics; bestowed only on fuch perfons as he had familiarly known, only for fuch virtues as he had long observed in them, and only at such times as others cease to praise, if not begin to calumniate them, I mean when out of power or out of fashion S A fatire, therefore, on writers fo notorious for the contrary practice, became no man fo well as himfelf; as none, it is plain, was fo little in their friendships, or fo much in that of those whom they

As Mr. Wycherly, at the time the Town declaimed against his book of Poems; Mr. Walsh, after his death; Sir William Trumbull, when he had refigned the Office of Secretary of State; Lord Bolingbroke, at his leaving England after the Queen's death; Lord Oxford in his laft decline of life; Mr. Secretary Craggs, at the end of the South-Sea year, and after his death: Others only in Epitaphs.

had most abused, namely the Greatest and Best of all Parties. Let me add a further reason, that, though engaged in their Friendships, he never espoused their Animofities; and can almost fingly challenge this honour, not to have written a line of any man, which, through Guilt, through Shame, or through Fear, through variety of Fortune, or change of Interefts, he was ever unwilling to own.

I fhall conclude with remarking what a pleasure it must be to every reader of Humanity, to fee all along, that our Author in his very laughter is not indulging his own ill-nature, but only punishing that of others. As to his Poem, thofe alone are capable of doing it juftice, who, to use the words of a great writer, know how hard it is (with regard both to his fubject and his manner) VETUSTIS DARE NOVITJATEM, OBSOLETIS NITOREM, OBSCURIS LUCEM, FASTIDITIS I am

GRATIAM.

St. James's Dec. 220, 1728.

Your most humble Servant,

WILLIAM CLELAND.

This Gentleman was of Scotland, and bred at the University of Utrecht, with the Earl of Mar. He ferved in Spain under Earl Rivers. After the Peace, he was made one of the Commiffioners of the Customs in Scotland, and then of Taxes in England; in which, having fhewn himself for twenty years diligent, punctual, and incorruptible, (though without any other affiftance of Fortune) he was fuddenly difplaced by the Minifter, in the fixtyeighth year of his age; and died two months after, in 1741. He was a perfon of Univerfal Learning, and an enlarged Converfation; no man had a warmer heart for his Friend, or a fincerer attachment to the Conftitution of his Country.