following letter, which criticifes the works of a great poet, whofe very faults have more beauty in them than the moft elaborate compofitions of many more correct writers. The remarks are very curious and juft; and introduced by a compliment to the work of an author, who I am fure would not care for being praised at the expence of another's reputation, I must therefore defire my correfpondent to excufe me, if I do not publish either the preface or conclufion of his letter, but only the critical part of it, SIR, UR tragedy writers have been notoriously defective in giving proper fentiments to the perfons they introduce. Nothing is more common, than to hear an Heathen talking of angels and devils, the joys of hea ven and the pains of hell, according to the Chriftian fyftem. Lee's Alcander discovers himself to be a Cartefian in the first page of Oedipus. The fun's fick too, Shortly he'll be an earth As Dryden's Cleomenes is acquainted with the Copernican hypothefis two thoufand years before its invention. I'm pleas'd with my own work; Jove was not more • With infant nature, when his fpacious hand • Had rounded this huge ball of earth and feas, I have now Mr Dryden's Don Sebaftian before me, ia which I find frequent allusions to ancient history, and the old mythology of the Heathen. It is not very natural to fuppofe a King of Portugal would be borrowing thoughts out of Ovid's Metamorphofes, when he talked even to thofe of his own court; but to allude to thefe Roman fables when he talks to an Emperor of Barbary, feems very extraordinary. But obferve how he defies him out of the claffics in the following lines. Why didft not thou engage me man to man, " And try the virtue of that Gorgon face 6 To ftare me into statue? Almeyda at the fame time is more book learned than Don Sebastian She plays an Hydra upon the Emperor that is full as good as the Gorgon. O that I had the fruitful heads of Hydra, She afterwards, in allufion to Hercules, bids him "lay "down the lion's skin, and take the diftaff;" and in the following fpeech utters her paffion ftill more learnedly. No, were we join'd, even though it were in death, 'Our bodies burning in one funeral pile, • The prodigy of Thebes would be renew'd, And my divided flame should break from thine. The Emperor of Barbary fhows himself acquainted with the Roman poets as well as either of his prifoners, and answers the foregoing fpeech in the fame claffic (train. Serpent, I will engender poifon with thee; Ovid feems to have been Muley Molock's favourite author; witness the lines that follow. • She still inexorable, ftill imperious, And loud, as if like Bacchus born in thunder. I shall conclude my remarks on this part with that poetical complaint of his being in love, and leave my reader to confider how prettily it would found in the mouth of an Emperor of Morocco. • The god of love once more has shot his fires Into my foul, and my whole heart receives him. Muley Zeydan is as ingenious a man as his brother Muley Molock; as where he hints at the ftory of Caftor and Pollux. May we ne'er meet ! For like the twins of Leda, when I mount, • He gallops down the skies As for the Mufti, we will fuppofe that he was bred up a scholar; and not only verfed in the law of Mahomet, but acquainted with all kinds of polite learning. For this reafon he is not at all furprised when Dorax calls him a Phaeton in one place, and in another tells him he is like Archimedes. The poet The Mufti afterwards mentions Ximenes, Albornoz, and Cardinal Wolfey by name. feems to think he may make every person in his play know as much as himfelf, and talk as well as he could have done on the fame occafion. At least I believe every reader will agree with me, that the above mentioned fentiments, to which I might have added feveral others, would have been better fuited to the court of Auguftus, than that of Muley Molock. I grant they are beautiful in themfelves, and much more fo in that noble language which was peculiar to this great poet. I only obferve, that they are improper for the perfons that make use of them Dryden is indeed generally wrong in his fentiments. Let any one read the dialogue between Octavia and Cleopatra, and he will be amazed to hear a Roman lady's mouth filled with fuch obfcene rallery. If the virtuous Octavia departs from her character, the loofe Dolabella is no lefs inconfiftent with himfelf, when, all of a fudden, he drops the Pagan, and talks in the fentiments of revealed religion. Heav'n has but Our forrow for our fins, and then delights ⚫ And Infinite would rather want perfection I might (how feveral faults of the fame nature in the celebrated Aurenge Zebe. The impropriety of thoughts in the fpeeches of the Great Mogul and his Emprefs, has been generally cenfured. Take the fentiments out of the fhining drefs of words, and they would be too coarse for a fcene in Billingfgate. I I am, &c. ဘိုးဦးဦးဦးဦး ဦးဦးဦးဦးဦးဦးဦးဦးဦး ဦး Saturday, July 18. Hic aliquis de gente hircola centurionum Perf. Sat. 3.v. 77. But, here, fome captain of the land or fleet, Gries, I have fense, to serve my turn, in store ; Damme, whate'er thefe book-learn'd blockheads fay, Dryden A M very much concerned when I fee young gentlemen of fortune and quality fo wholly fet upon plea fures and diverfions, that they neglect thofe improvements in wildom and knowledge which may make them easy to themfelves, and useful to the world The greatest part of our British youth lofe their figure, and grow out of fashion, by that time they are five and twenty. As foon as the natural gaiety and amiablenefs of the young man wears off, they have nothing left to recommend them, but lie by the rest of their lives among the lumber and refufe of the fpecies. It fometimes happens indeed, that for want of applying themselves in due time to the pure VOL. U. K faits of knowledge, they take up a book in their declining years, and grow very hopeful scholars by that time they are threefcore. I must therefore earnestly prefs my readers who are in the flower of their youth, to labour at those accomplishments which may fet off their perfons when their bloom is gone, and to lay in timely provifions for manhood and old age. In fhort, I would advise the youth of fifteen to be dreffing up every day the man of fifty, or to confider how to make himfelt venerable at threefcore. Young men, who are naturally ambitious, would do well to obferve how the greateft men of antiquity made it 1) eir ambition to excel all their contemporaries in knowledge. Julius Cæfar and Alexander, the most celebrated inftances of human greatnefs, took a particular care to diftinguish themselves by their fkill in the arts and fciences. We have ftill extant feveral remains of the former, which justify the character given him by the learned men of his age. As for the latter, it is a known faying of his, that he was more obliged to Aristotle who had inftructed him, than to Philip who had given him life and empire. There is a letter of his recorded by Plutarch and Aulus Gellius, which he wrote to Aristotle upon hear ing that he had published those lectures he had given him in private. This letter was written in the following words, at a time when he was in the height of his Perlian conquests. Alexander to Ariftotle, greeting." OU have not done well to publish your books of fe W can furpass others, if thofe things which I have been in ftructed in are communicated to every body? For my own part, I declare to you, I would rather excel others in knowledge than power. Farewel. We fee by this letter, that the love of conqueft was but the fecond ambition in Alexander's foul. Knowledge is indeed that which, next to virtue, truly and effentially railes one man above another. It finishes one half of the human foul. It makes being pleafant to us, fills the mind with entertaining views, and adminifters to it a perpetual |