ance. moirs, and read them as his own to all his acquaintA noble perfon there is, into whofe company Mr. Pope once chanced to introduce him, who well remembereth the converfation of Mr. Moore to have turned upon the "Contempt he had for the "work of that reverend prelate, and how full he "was of a defign he declared himself to have of "expofing it." This noble perfon is the Earl of PETERBOROUGH. Here in truth fhould we crave pardon of all the forefaid right honourable and worthy perfonages, for having mentioned them in the fame page with such weekly riff-raff railers and rhymers; but that we had their ever-honoured commands for the fame; and that they are introduced not as witneffes in the controversy, but as witnesses that cannot be controverted; not to difpute, but to decide. Certain it is, that dividing our writers into two claffes, of fuch who were acquaintance, and of fuch who were ftrangers to our author; the former are those who speak well, and the other those who speak evil of him. Of the first class, the most noble JOHN Duke of BUCKINGHAM fums up his character in these lines: "And yet fo wond'rous, fo fublime a thing, As the great Iliad, fcarce could make me fing, ▸ Verfes to Mr. P. on his tranflation of Homer. "Unless I justly could at once commend So alfo is he decyphered by the honourable "Say, wondrous youth, what column wilt thou "chufe, "What laurel'd arch, for thy triumphant Muse? "Tho' each great ancient court thee to his shrine, "Tho' ev'ry laurel thro' the dome be thine, "Go to the good and juft, an awful train! "Thy foul's delight. Recorded in like manner for his virtuous difpofition, and gentle bearing, by the ingenious Mr. WALTER HART, in this apostrophe: O! ever worthy, ever crown'd with praise! "Bleft in thy life and blest in all thy lays. Add, that the Sifters ev'ry thought refine, "And ev'n thy life, be faultless as thy line. "Yet envy ftill with fiercer rage pursues, «Obfcures the virtue, and defames the Mufe. "A foul like thine, in pain, in grief, refign'd, «Views with juft fcorn the malice of mankind." Poem prefixed to his works. In his poems, printed for B. Lintet, The witty and moral fatirift Dr. EDWARD YOUNG, wifhing fome check to the corruption and evil man. ners of the times, calleth out upon our poet to undertake a task so worthy of his virtue: 66 e Why flumbers Pope, who leads the Mufe's "train, Nor hears that Virtue, which he loves, complain? In his epiftle on Verbal Criticifm: "Whose life, severely fcan'd, tranfcends his lays; That delicate and correct imitator of Tibullus, in his Loves Elegies, Elegy xiv. "Now, fir'd by Pope and Virtue, leave the age, "And trace the author thro' his moral page, In his elegant and philofophical poem of the Sea, fons: "Altho' not sweeter his own Homer fings, "Yet is his life the more endearing fong." To the fame tune alfo fingeth that learned clerk of Suffolk, e Univerfal paffion, Sat, i, Mr. WILLIAM BROOME. "Thus, nobly rising in fair Virtue's cause, "From thy own life tranfcribe th' unerring laws.” And, to close all, hear the reverend dean of St. Patrick's: "A Soul with ev'ry virtue fraught, "By Patriots, Priefts, and Poets taught. "A genius for each bus'nefs fit, Let us now recreate thee by turning to the other fide, and fhewing his Character drawn by those with whom he never converfed, and whofe countenances he could not know, though turned against him: First again commencing with the high voiced and never enough quoted Mr. JOHN DENNIS, Who, in his Reflections on the Effay on Criticism, thus defcribeth him: "A little affected hypocrite, "who has nothing in his mouth. but candour, 66 truth, friendship, good-nature, humanity, and magnanimity. He is fo great a lover of falshood, "that, whenever he has a mind to calumniate his "cotemporaries, he brands them with fome defect "which is just contrary to fome good quality, for In his Poems, and at the end of the Odyffey. "which all their friends and their acquaintance com"mend them. He feems to have a particular pique "to People of Quality, and authors of that rank.--"He muft derive his religion from St. Omer's.". But in the Character of Mr. P. and his writings, (printed by S. Popping, 1716,) he faith, "Though "he is a profeffor of the worft religion, yet he "laughs at it;" but that "nevertheless, he is a "airulent Papift; and yet a Pillar for the Church of "England." Of both which opinions Mr. LEWIS THEOBALD feems alfo to be; declaring, in Mift's Journal of June 22, 1718. That, if he is not fhrewdly abused, " he made it his practice to cackle to both parties " in their own fentiments." But, as to his pique against People of Quality, the fame Journalist doth not agree, but faith, (May 8, 1728.) "He had, by "fome means or other, the acquaintance and friendIfhip of the whole body of our nobility." 66 However contradictory this may appear, Mr. Dennis and Gildon, in the character laft cited, make it all plain, by affuring us, "That he is a "creature that reconciles all contradictions; he is a "beast, and a man; a Whig, and a Tory; a writer (at one and the same time) of 8 Guardians and 66 The Names of two weekly Papers. |