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His verses to Mr. Edward Howard, to Sir Thomas St. Serfe, his epilogue to the Tartuffe, his fong written at fea in the first Dutch war, his ballad on knotting, and on Lewis XIV. may be named as examples of this happy talent, and as confutations of a fentiment of the judicious M. de Montefquieu, who in his noble chapter on the English nation, speaks thus of our writers. "La fociete nous apprend a fentir les ridicules; la retraite nous rend plus propres a fentir les vices. LEUR ECRITS SATYRIQUES feroient fanglans, et l'on verroit bien des JUVENALS chez eux avant d'avoir trouve un HORACE."

THE DESCRIPTION of the LIFE of a Country Parfon is a lively imitation of Swift*, and

See a Pipe of Tobacco, p. 282. vol. 2. Dodsley's Miscell. where Mr. Hawkins Brown has imitated fix later English poets with fuccefs, viz. Swift, POPE, Thompson, Young, Phillips, Cibber. Some of these writers thinking themselves burlesqued, are faid to have been mortified. But POPE obferved on the occafion, "Brown is an excellent copyift, and those who take his imitations amifs, are much in the wrong; they are very ftrongly mannered, and few perhaps could write fo well if they were not fo.". -In POPE's imitation of the fixth epifle of

Vol. II.

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Horace

1 full of humour. The point of the likeness confifts in describing the objects as they really exist in life, without heightening or enlarging them, and without adding any imaginary circumstances. In this way of writing, Swift excelled; witness his description of a morning in the city, of a city fhower, of the house of Baucis and Philemon, and the verfes on his own death. These are of the fame species with the piece before us. In this also confifts the chief beauty of Gay's Trivia, a fubject Swift defired him to write upon, and for which he furnished him with many hints. The character of Swift has been fcrutinized in fo many late writings, that it is fuperfluous to enter upon it, especially as from many materials ju

Horace, there were two remarkable lines, the fecond of which was thought to contain a heavy anti-climax.

Grac'd as thou art with all the power of words,
Known to the Courts, the Commons and the Lords.

The unexpected flatnefs and familiarity of the last line was thus ridiculed by Mr. Brown with much humour.

Perfuafion tips his tongue whene'er he talks,
And he has chambers in the King's-Bench walks.

diciously

"

diciously melted down and blended together, Dr. Hawksworth has fet before the public, fo complete a figure of him. I cannot however forbear to mention a fact lately published at Geneva, in the additions to Voltaire's works. He affirms," that the famous Tale of a Tub is an imitation of the old ftory of the three invifible rings, which a father bequeathed to his three children. These three rings were the Jewish, Chriftian, and Mahometan religions. It is moreover, an imitation of the history of Mero and Enegu, by Fontenelle. Mero was the anagram of Rome, and Enegu of GeneThese two fifters claimed the fucceffion to the throne of their fathers. Mero reigned first, Fontenelle represents her as a forceress or jugler who could convey away bread, and perform acts of conjuration with dead bodies: This is precisely the Lord Peter of Swift, who prefents a piece of bread to his two brothers, and says to them, This, my good friends, is excellent Burgundy, these partridges have an admirable flavour.' The fame lord Peter in Swift, performs throughout the

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very part that

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Mero plays in Fontenelle. Thus all is imitation. The idea of the Perfian letters is taken. from the Turkish Spy. Boiardo has imitated Pulci, Ariofto has imitated Boiardo. The geniuses, apparently moft original, borrow from each other *.'

I SHALL conclude this fection with a story, which POPE himself related, because it is characteristical of his old friend, and I shall give it in the very words which POPE used, when he told it." Dr. Swift has an odd blunt way "that is mistaken by strangers for ill-nature; "it is fo odd that there is no defcribing † it "but by facts. I'll tell you one, the first that " comes into my head. One evening Gay and "I went to see him. On our coming in,

Hey-day, gentlemen, fays the Dean, what " can be the meaning of this vifit? How came you to leave all the great lords you are fo

* Oeuvres de Voltaire a Geneve. Tom. 4 pag. 223. 1756. The late archbishop of Armagh, happening to object one day in Swift's company to an expreffion of POPE, as not being the pureft English, Swift answered with his ufual roughness"I could never get the blockhead to study his grammar.”

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" fond of, to come hither to fee a poor fcurvey "Dean?-Because we would rather fee you. "than any of them.-Ay, any one that did "not know you fo well as I do, might poffibly "believe you; but fince you are come I must get fome fupper for you I suppose.-No "Doctor we have fupped already—Supped already, that is impoffible, why it is not eight o'clock-Indeed we have-That's very strange; but if you had not fupped, "I must have got something for you; let me fee, a couple of lobsters would have done very well, two fhillings; tarts, a fhilling: "but you will drink a glass of wine with me,

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though you fupped fo much before your "time only to fpare my pocket.-No, we "had rather talk with you, than drink with "you. But if you had supped with me, as " in all reason you ought to have done, you "must then have drank with me.-A bottle "of wine two fhillings-two and two are

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four, and one is five; just two and fixpence "a-piece; there Pope, there's half a crown "for you, and there's another for you, Sir;

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