the violence of party. Prior, who set out a zealous Whig, not contented with the ridicule which, in one, but in which a wrong sense, and a fatall delusion, soe generally prevail'd? For have not too many of us lately appear'd to contemn every thing that is great and glorious, and to prize and exalt every thing that is base and infamous? Have not too many made it plain to the world by a manifest execrable choice, that they preferr weaknesse to power, folly to wisdom, poverty to wealth, infamy to glory, subinission to victory, slavery to liberty, idolatry to religion; the Duke of O[rmond] to the Duke of Marlborough]; the empty Pretender to Royall George, our only rightfull King; and the little Mr. Pope to the illustrious Mr. Dryden ? "If I appear a little too warm, I hope you will excuse my affection for the memory, and my zeal for the repu. tation, of my departed friend, whom I infinitely esteem'd when living, for the solidity of his thought, for the spring and the warmth, and the beautifull turn of it; for the power, and variety, and fulnesse of his harmony; for the purity, the perspicuity, the energy of his expression; and, whenever these great qualities are requir'd, for the pomp, and solemnity, and majesty, of his style. But Pope is the very reverse of all this: he scarce ever thought once solidly, but is an empty eternall babbler: and as his thoughts almost always are false or trifling, his expression is too often ob scure, ambiguous, and uncleanly. He has indeed a smooth verse and a ryming jingle, but he has noe power or variely of harmony; but always the same dull cadence, and a continuall bagpipe drone. Mr. Dryden's expressions are always worthy of his thoughts: but Pope never speaks nor thinks at all: or, which is all one, his language is frequently as barbarous, as his thoughts are false. "This I have ventured to say, in spight of popular errour. conjunction with his friend Montague, he aimed at Dryden by the parody on THE HIND AND THE PANTHER, represented this great writer as a misera But popular errour can be of noe significancy either to you or me, who have seen Mr. Settle in higher reputation than Mr. Pope is at present. And they who live thirty years hence, will find Mr. Pope in the same classe in which Mr. Settle is now; unlesse the former makes strange improvements. Good sense is the sole foundation of good writing; and noe authour who wants solidity, can ever long endure. This I have ventur'd to say in spight of popular errour; and this is in my power, when ever I please, to prove to all the world. “ You may now see, Sir, by this letter, how little men know one another, who converse daily together. How many were there in Mr. Dryden's life-time, who made him believe that I should be the foremost, if I surviv'd him, to arreign his reputation ? whereas it is plain, that I am he, of all his acquaintance, who flattered him least while living, yet was always ready to doc him justice both behind his back, and before his enemies' face; and now he is gone, am the most ready of all his acquaintance to assert his merit, and to vindicate his glory. ،، If Mr. Dryden has faults, (as where is the mortall who has none?) I, by searching for them, perhaps could find them. But whatever the mistaken world may think, I am always willing to be pleas'd; nay, am always greedy of pleasure as any Epicure living; and whenever I am naturally touch'd, I never look for faults. But whenever a cryed-up authour does not please me, upon the first impression, I am apt to seek for the reasons of it, to see if the fault is in him or in me. Wherever genius rans thro' a work, I forgive its faults; and wherever that is wanting, noe beauties can touch me. Being struck by Mr. Dryden's genius, I have noe eyes for his errours; ble poetaster, in an anonymous satire written some years before the Revolution; on which probably, and I have noe eyes for his enemies' beauties, because I am not struck by their genius. "I am, Sir, June the 4th, 1715, "Your most humble "and faithful servant, J. DENNIS." Sce A SATIRE ON THE MODERN TRANSLATORS: "But what excuse, what preface can atone 66 Bayes, whose Rose-Alley ambuscade enjoin'd "To be to vices which he practis'd kind; "And brought the venom of a spiteful satire "To the safe innocence of a dull translator: Bayes, who by all the club was thought most fit "To violate the Mantuan Prophet's wit, "And more debauch what loose Lucretius writ. "Her follies louder than her father roars; } when he became a Tory, he did not reflect with much satisfaction; and on the same ground, "To bear a second death, and greater pain, May he still split on some unlucky coast, "And have his works or dictionary lost; "That he may know what Roman authors mean, See also p. 519, n. 4. Prior never published any satire but this, and one ON THE MODERN POETS, which he wrote in 1687 or 1688. From his HEADS OF A TREATISE UPON Learning, a manuscript formerly in the possession of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, it appears, that he abstained from this dangerous exercise of his talents, on prudential considerations. The latter part only of the passage to which I allude, relates to the subject before us; but as it contains some anecdotes of this poet, from his own pen, which have never been printed, I shall give it entire : "..As to poetry, I mean the writing of verses, it is another thing. I would advise no man to attempt it, except he cannot help it; and if he cannot, it is in vain to dissuade him from it. This genius is perceived so soon, even in our childhood, and increases so strongly in our youth, that he who has it never will be brought from it, do what you will. Cowley felt it at ten years, and Waller could not get rid of it at sixty. As to my own part, I felt this impulse very soon, and shall continue to feel it as long as I can think. I remember nothing farther in life, than that I made verses. I chose Guy of Warwick for my first hero; and killed Colborn, the Giant, before I was big enough for Westminster. But I had two accidents in youth, which hindered me from being quite Rowe, who had too exquisite a taste to have been insensible to our author's powers, in a poetical epistle, published a few years before his death,' possessed with the Muse. I was bred in a college, [St. John's, Cambridge,] where prose was more in fashion than verse; and as soon as I had taken my first degree, was sent the King's Secretary to the Hague. There I had enough to do in studying my French and Dutch, and altering my Terentian and original style into that of Ar. ticles and Convention. So that poetry, which by the bent of my mind might have become the business of my life, was, by the happiness of my education, only the amusement of it: and in this too, from the prospect of some little fortune to be made, and friendship to be cultivated with the great men, I did not launch much into satire; which, however agreeable for the present to the writers or encouragers of it, docs in time do neither of them good; considering the uncertainty of fortune and the various changes of Ministry, and that every man, as he resents, may punish in his turn of greatness;-and that in England a man is less safe as to politicks, than he is in a bark upon the coast, in regard to the change of the wind, and the danger of shipwreck." In the latter part of this passage Prior had perhaps Arthur Maynwaring in his thoughts; who set out a strong Tory, and soon after the Revolution, wrote a very severe satire against King William and Queen Mary, entitled TARQUIN AND TULLIA; of which, probably, when he afterwards was connected with the Whigs, and became a member of the Kit-kat Club, he was thoroughly ashamed. In the STATE POEMS, vol. iii. p. 319, it is attributed to Dryden; but Pope told Mr. Spence, that it was written by Maynwaring. "That very hot copy of verses," Pope calls it. 9 EPISTLE TO FLAVIA. Oldmixon, in his "Arts of |