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"Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anfer
"Porticibus, Gallos in limine adeffe canebat."

A paffage I have always fufpected, Who fees not the antithefis of auratis and argenteus to be unworthy the Virgilian majefty? And whit abfurdity to fay goofe Angs? canebat. Virgil gives a contrary character of the voice of this filly bird, in Ecl. ix.

σε ➡argutos inter ftrepere anfer olores."

Read it, therefore, adeffe ftrepebat. And why auratis porticibus? does not the very verse preceding this inform us,

"Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo.”.

Is this thatch in one line, and gold in another, confiftent? I fcruple not (repugnantibus omnibus manufcriptis) to correct it auritis. Horace ufes the fame epithet in the fame fenfe,

Auritas fidibus canoris "Ducere quercus."

This brazen Brightness, to the 'Squire fo dear ;
This polish'd Hardness, that reflects the Peer: 10
This arch Abfurd, that wit and fool delights;
This Mefs, tofs'd up of Hockley-hole and White's;
Where Dukes and Butchers join to wreathe my

crown,

At once the Bear and Fiddle of the Town.

O born in fin, and forth in folly brought! 2:5 Works damn'd, or to be damn'd! (your father's fault)

Go, purify'd by flames afcend the sky,
My better and more chriftian progeny!
Unftain'd, and untouch'd, and yet in maiden fheets
While all your smutty fifters walk the streets. 230
Ye fhall not beg, like gratis-given Bland,
Sent with a Pafs, and vagrant through the land;
Nor fail with Ward, to Ape-and-monkey climes,"
Where vile Mundungus trucks for viler thymes:
Not fulphur-tipt, emblaze an Ale houfe fire; 235
wrap up Oranges, to pelt your fire!

Nor

REMARKS.

by out Poet for his great Modefty-modest CibberRead, therefore, at my peril, Cerberian forehead, This is perfectly claffical, and, what is more, Ho americal; the Dog was the ancient, as the bitch is the modern, fymbol of Impudence: (Kuvas oppet Ex, fays Achilles to Agamemnon) which, when in a fuperlative degree, may well be denominated from Cerberus, the Dog with three heads.-But as to the latter part of this verfe, Cibberian brain, that is certainly the genuine reading.

BENTL

Ver. 225. O born in fin, &c.] This is a tender and paffionate Apostrophe to his own works, which he is going to facrifice, agreeable to the nature of mon is great affliction; and reflecting like a parent on the many miferable fates to which they would otherwise be fubject.

Ver. 228. My better and more chriftian pregeny! It may be obfervable, that my mufe and

my fpoufe were equally prolific; that the ost "was feldom the mother of a Child, but in the "fame year the other made me father of a Play. "I think we had a dozen of each fort between us; of both which kinds fome died in their infancy, &e". Life of C. C. p. 217. 8vo. edit. Ver. 231. gratis-given Bland-Sent with a País,] was a practice fo to give the Daily Gazetteer and ministerial Pamphlets (in which this B. was a wri ter) and to send them Poft-free to all Towns in the kingdom.

It

And to fay that walls have ears is common even to a proverb. SCRIBL. Ver. 212. And cackling fave the Monarchy of" Tories? Not out of any preference or affection to the Tories. For what Hobbes fo ingenuously confelles of himself, is true of all Minifterial writers whatfoever: "That he defends the fupreme powers, <as the Geefe by their cackling defended the Ro"mans, who held the Capitol; for they favoured Ver. 233 with Ward, to Ape-and-monkey them no more than the Gauls, their Enemies, climes,] Edward, a very voluminous poet ia <but were as ready to have defended the Gauls," Hudibraftic verfs, but best known by the London if they had been poffeffed of the Capitol."" Epit. Dedic. to the Leviathan.

Spy, in profe. He has of late years kept a public "houfe in the City (but in a genteel way) and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (ale) af

forded his guefts a pleasurable entertainment, el "pecially thofe of the high church party.' JACOB, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 225. Great

Ver. 215. Gazetteers] A band of Minifterial writers, hired at the price mentioned in the note on book ii ver. 316. who, on the very day their patron quitted his post, laid down their paper, and declared they would never more meddle with Po-number of his works were yearly fold into the Plane liticks.

Ver. 218. Cibberian forehead] So indeed all the MSS. read, but I make no fcruple to pronounce them all wrong, the Laureate being elsewhere celebrated

tations.Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falfity, pro testing that his public houfe was not in the City, but in Moor-fields,

240

O! pafs more innocent, in infant state,
To the mild Limbo of our Father Tate:
Or peaceably forget, at once he bleft
In Shadwell's bofom with eternal reft!
Soon to that mafs of Nonfenfe to return,
Where things destroy'd are swept to things unborn.
With that, a Tear (portentous fign of Grace!)
Stole from the mafter of the feven-fold Face:
And thrice he lifted high the Birth-day brand, 245
And thrice he dropt it from his quivering hand;
Then lights the ftructure, with averted eyes:
The rolling fmokes involve the facrifice.
The opening clouds difclofe each work by turns,
Now flames the Cid, and now Perolla burns;
Great Cæfar roars, and hiffes in the fires;
King John in filence modeftly expires:
No merit now the dear Nonjuror claims,
Moliere's old ftubble in a moment flames.
Tears gufh'd again, as from pale Priam's eyes, 255
When the last blaze fent Jlion to the fkies.
Rouz'd by the light, old Dulnefs
head,

250

heav'd the

Then fnatch'd a fheet of Thule from her bed; Sudden the flies, and whelms, it o'er the pyre; Down funk the flames, and with a hifs expire. 260 Her ample prefence fills up all the place;

A veal of fegs dilare her awful face:

Great in Her charms as when on Shrieves and Mayors

She looks, and breaths herfelf into their airs.

REMARKS.

Ver. 238, 240. Tate-Shadwell] Two of his predeceffors in the Laurel.

Ver. 250.

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Here food her Opium, here the nurs'd her Owls,
And here fe plann'd th' Imperial feat of Fools.

Here to her Chofen all her works the shows;
Prof fwell'd to verte, verfe loitering into profe:
How random thoughts now meaning chance to find,
275
Now leave all memory of fenfe behind :
How Prologues into Prefaces decay,
And thefe to Notes are fritter'd quite away:
How Index-learning turns no student pale,
Yet holds the eel of icie ce by the tail:
How, with lefs reading than makes felons 'fcape,
Lefs human genius than God gives an ape,
Small thanks to France, and none t Rome or Greece,
A past, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, new piece,
'Twixt Plautus, Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Cor

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Ver. 269. Great Mother] Magna mater, here applied to Dulness The Quidnuncs, a name given to the ancient members of certain political clubs, who were constantly inquiring Quid nunc? What news?

Ver. 286 Tibbald,] Lewis Tibbald (as pronounced) or Theobald (as written) was bred an Attorney, and fon to an Attorney (fays Mr. Jacob) of Sittenburn in Kent. He was Author of fome forgotten Plays, Tranflations, and other Pieces. He was concerned in a paper called the Cenfor, and a There is a notorious Idiot, Translation of Ovid. one hight Wachum, who, from an under-fpurleather to the law, is become an under-ftrapper "to the Play-houfe, who hath lately burlesqued the "Metamorphofes of Ovid by avile Translation, &c. "This fellow is concerned in an impertinent paper "called the Cenfor." DENNIS, Rem. on Pope's Hom. p. 9. 10.

Now flames the Cid, &c.] In the firft Notes on the Dunciad it was faid, that this Author was particularly excellent at Tragedy. This "(fays he) is as unjust as to fay I could not dance on a Rope "But certain it is that he had attempted, to dance on this Rope, and fell mott fhamefully," having produced no less than four Tragedies (the names of which the Poet preferves in these few lines); the three first of them were faithfully printed, acted, and damned; the fourth fuppreffed in fear of the like treatment.

Ver. 253. the dear Nonjuror-Moliere's old ftubble] A Comedy threshed out of Moliere's Tartuffe, and fo much the Tranflator's favourite, that he affures us all our author's diflike to it could only arife from difaffection to the Government. He affures

Ibid. Ozell]" Mr. John Ozell (if we credit Mr. Jacob) did go to school in Leicestershire, where fomebody left him fomething to live on, when he fhall retire from bufinefs. He was defigned to be

us, that when he had the honour to kiss his Ma-fent to Cambridge, in order for Priesthood; but he

"jesty's hand upon prefenting his dedication of it, "he was graciously pleafed, out of his Royal boun

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ty, to order him two hundred pounds for it. And "this he doubts not grieved Mr. P."

Ver. 258. Thule] An unfinished poem of that name, of which one sheet was printed many years ago, by Ambrofe Philips, a Northern Author. It is an ufual method of putting out a fire, to caft wet sheets upon it. Some critics have been of opinion that this fheet was of the nature of the Asbestos, which cannot be confumed by fire: But I rather think it an alle gorical allufion to the coldness and heaviness of the writing.

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chofe rather to be placed in an office of accounts, in the City, being qualified for the fame by his skill in arithmetic, and writing the neceffary hands. "He has obliged the world with many translations of French Plays." JACOB, Lives of Dram Poets, p. 198.

Mr. Jacob's character of Mr. Ozell feems vaftly fhort of his merits, and he ought to have further juftice done him, having fince fully confuted all Sarcafms on his learning and genius, by an advertisement of Sept. 20, 1729, in a paper, called the Weekly "As to my learning, this envious Medley, &c. << wretch knew, and every body knows, that the 3K

290

The Goddefs then, o'er his anointed head,
With myftic words, the facred Opium shed.
And lo! her bird (a monster of a fowl,
Something betwixt a Heidegger and Owl)
Perch'd on his crown. All hail! and hail again,
My Son the promis'd land expects thy reign.
Know, Eufden thirts no more for fack or praife;
He fleeps among the dull of ancient days;
Safe, where no Critics damn, no duns moleft, 295
Where wretched Withers, Ward, and Gildon reft,
And high-born Howard, more majeftie fire,
With Fool of Quality completes the quire.
Thou Cibber thou, his Laurel fhalt fupport,
Folly, my fon, has ftill a Friend at Court.
Lift up your Gates, ye Princes, fee him come!
Sound, found ye Viols, be the Cat-call dumb!
Bring, bring the madding Bay, the drunken Vine;
The creeping, dirty, courtly ivv join.

And thou! his Aid de camp, lead on my fons, 305
Light arm'd with Points, Antithefes, and Puns.
Let Bawdry, Billinfgate, my daughters dear,
Support his front, and Oaths bring up the rear:

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REMARKS.

And under his, and under Archer's wing,
Gaming and Grub-street fkulk behind the King, 310

O' When shall rife a Monarch all our own,
And I, a Nurfing-mother, rock the throne;
"Twixt Prince and People clofe the Curtain draw,
Shade him from Light, and cover him from Law:
Fatten the Courtier, starve the learned band, 315
And fuckle Armies, and dry-nurse the land:
Till Senates nod to Lullabies divine,
And all be fleep, as at an Ode of thine.

She ceas'd. Then fwells the Chapel-royal throat:
God fave kirg Cibber! mounts in every note. 320
Eamiliar White's, God fave king Colley! cries;
God fave king Colley! Drury-lane eplies:
To Needham's quick the voice triumphant rode,
But pious Needham drept the name of God;
Back to the Devil the last echoes roll,
And Coll i tach Butcher roars at Hockley-hole.

REMARKS.

Ver. 309, 310. under Archer's wing,-Gaming, &c.] When the Statute of Gaming was drawn up, it was reprefented, that the King, by ancient cuftom, plays at Hazard once a year; and therefore a claufe was inferted, with an exemption as to that

**whole Bench of Bishops, not long ago, were "pleased to give me a purse of guineas, for difcover-particular. Under this pretence, the Groom-porter ❝ing the erroneous tranflations of the Common- had a Room appropriated to Gaming all the fum prayer in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, mer the Court was at Kenfington, which his Ma* &c. As for my genius, let Mr. Cleland fhew jefty accidentally being acquainted with, with a ju better verfès in all Pope's works, than Ozell's indignation, prohibited. It is reported the fame verfion of Boileau's Lutrin, which the late Lord practice is yet continued wherever the Court refides, Halifax was fo pleafed with, that he compli-and the Hazard Table there open to all the profet "mented him with leave to dedicate it to him, &c. Gamefters in town. Let him fhew better and truer Poetry in the Rape of the Lock, than in Ozell's Rape of the Bucket (la Secchia rapita). And Mr. Toland and Mr. Gildon publicly declared Ozell's tranflation of Homer to be, as it was prior, fo likewife fupe*rior to Pope's.-Surely, furely, every man is <free to deferve well of his country!" JOHN OZELL:

We cannot but fubfcribe to fuch reverend teftimonies, as thofe of the Bench of Bishops, Mr. Toland, and Mr. Gildon.

Ver. 290. a Heidegger] A ftrange bird from Switzerland, and not (as fome have fuppofed) the name of an eminent perfon who was a man of parts, and, as was faid of Petronius, Arbiter Elegantiarum. Ver. 296. Withers,] See on ver. 146.

"Greatest and jufteft SOVEREIGN: know you

<< this?

"Alas! no more, than Thames' calm head "can know,

"Whofe meads his arms drown, or whofe corn "o'erflow."

DONNE to Queen Eliza

Ver. 319. Chapel-royal] The Voices and Inftruments used in the fervice of the Chapel-royal being alfo employed in the performance of the Birthday, and New-year Odes.

Ver. 324. But pious Needham] a Matron of great fame, and very religious in her way; whose conftant prayer it was, that the might get enough " by her profeffion to leave it off in time, and make

her peace with God." But her fate was not lo happy; for being convicted, and fet in the pillory, fhe was (to the lasting shame of all her great Friends and Votaries) fo ill ufed by the populace, that it put an end to her days.

Ver. 296. Gildon] Charles Gildon, a writer of criticisms and libels in the laft age, bred at St. Omer's with the Jefuits; but renouncing popery, he publifhed Blount's books against the Divinity of Christ, the Oracles of Reafon, &c. He fignalized himself as a critic, having written fome very bad Plays; doufed Mr. P. very fcandaloufly in an anonymous Ver 325 Back to the Devil] The Devil Tavern pamphlet of the Life of Mr. Wycherley, printed by in Fleet-ftreet, where these Odes are usually reCurll; in another, called the New Rehearsal, printed hearfed before they are performed at Court. Upon in 1734; in a third, entitled the Complete Art of which a Wit of thofe times made this Epigram: English Poetry, in two volumes; and others.

Ver. 297. Howard] Hon. Edward Howard, author of the British Princes, and a great number of wonderful pieces, celebrated by the late Earls of Dorfet and Rochester, Duke of Buckingham, Mr. Waller, &c.

"When Laureates make Odes, do you ask of << what fort?

"Do you afk if they're good, or are evil? "You may judge-Erom the Devil they come "to the Court,

And go from the Court to the Devil.”

So when Jove's block defcended from on high (As fings thy great forefather Ogilby) Loud Thunder to its bottom shook the bog, And the hoarfe nation croak'd, God fave king Log!

REMARKS.

Yer. 328-Ogilby)--God fave king Log!] See Ogilby's fop's Fables, where. in the ftory of the Frogs and their King, this excellent hemiftich is to be found.

Our author manifefts here, and elfewhere, a prodigious tendernefs for the bad writers. We fee he felects the only good paffage, perhaps, in all that Ogilby writ! which fhews how candid and patient a reader he must have been. What can be more kind and affectionate than the words in the preface to his Poems, where he labours to call up all our humanity, and forgiveness toward thefe unlucky men, by the

moft moderate representation of their cafe, that has ever been given by any author?

But how much all indulgence is loft upon these people may appear from the juft reflection made on their conftant conduct and conftant fate, in the following Epigram;

"Ye little Wits, that gleam'd a-while,
"When Pope vouchfaf'd a ray,
"Alas! depriv'd of his kind (mile,
"How foon ye fade away!
"To compafs Phoebus' car about,

Thus empty vapours rife,
"Each lends his cloud to put him out,
"That rear'd him to the skies.

Alas! thofe fkies are not your sphere;
"There he ball ever burn:

Weep, weep, and fall! for Earth you were,
"And muft to Earth return."

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of tickling, vociferating, diving: The first holds forth the arts and practices of Dedicators, the fecond of Difputants and fuftian Poets, the third of profound, dark, and dirty Party-writers. Lafly, fer the Critics, the Goddess propofes (with great propriety) an Exercife, not of their parts but of their patience, in hear ing the works of true roluminous Authors, one in verfe, and the other in profe, deliberately read without fleeping: The various effects of which, with the je veral degrees and manners of the operation," are here fet forth till the whole number, not of Critics only, but of fpectators, alors, and all prefent, fall faft afleep; which naturally and neceffarily ends the games.

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which the very bafis of all criticifm is founded and Two things there are, upon the fuppofition of fupported: The firit, that an author could never fail to ufe the beft word on every occafion; the fecond, that a Critic cannot chofe but know which that is. This being granted, whenever any word doth not fully content us, we take upon us to conclude, first that the author could never have used it ; and, fecondly, that he must have used that very one, which we conjecture, in its stead.

We cannot, therefore, enough admire the learned Scriblerus for his alteration of the text in the two laft verfes of the preceding book, which in all the former editions stood thus:

Hoarfe thunder to its bottom fhook the bog
And the loud nation croak'd, God fave King Log.

He has, with great judgment, tranfpofed these two epithets; putting hourfe to the nation, and loud to the thunder; And this being evidently the true reading,

D:he vouchfafed not fo much as to mention the former ;

D:

THE King being proclaimed, the folemnity is graced with public Games and ports of various kinds; not inflituted by the Hero, as by Ancas in Vrgil, but for greater bonour by the Goddess in perfon (in like manner as the games Pythia, Ijihmia, &c. were an. tiently faid to be ordained by the Gods, and as Thetis herself appearing, according to Homer, Ody. xxi. propofed the prizes in honour of her fon Achilles). Hither flock the Poets and Critics, attended, as is but juft, with their Patrons and Bookjellers. The Goddejs is firft pleased, for her dijpert, to propofe games to the Bookfellers, and jetteth up the Phantom of a Poet, which they contend to overtake. The races defcribed, with their divers accidents. Next, the Game far a Poetefs. Then follow the Exercises for the Poets,

for which affertion of the just right of a Critic he merits the acknowledgment of all found Commentators. Ver. 2. Henley's gilt tub,] The pulpit of a Diffenter is ufually called a tub; but that of Mr. Orator Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold. He had allo a fair altar, and over it this extraordinary infcription, The Primitive Eucharift. See the History of this perfon, book iii.

Ver. 2. or Fleckno's Irish Throne,] Richard Fleckno was an Irish Prieft, but had laid afide (as himself expreffed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed fome plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not, our author took occafion to mention him in respect to the Poem of Mr. Dryden, to whom this bears fome refemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Æneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Defeat de Bouts rimées of Sarazin.

It may be just worth mentioning, that the Eminence from which the ancient Sophifts entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous-name of a throng. Themiftius, Orat. 1.

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Ver. 3. Or that where on her Curlls the Public pours,] Edmund Curll food in the pillory at Charingcrofs, in March 1727-8. This (faith Edmund Curll) is a false Affertion-I had indeed the cor"poral punishment, of what the Gentlemen of the "long Robe are pleafed jocofely to call mounting the ❝ Roftrum for one hour: but that fcene of action ❝was not in the month of March, but in February [Curlliad, 12mo, p. 19 ] And of the Hiftory of his being toft in a Blanket, he faith," Here Scriblerus' thou leefeft in what thou afferteft concerning the blanket: it was not a blanket, bit a rug," p. 25. Much in the fame manner Mr. Cibber remonitrated, that his Brothers, at Bedlam, mentioned Booki. were not Brazen, but Blocks; yet our author let it pafs unaltered, as a trifle that no way altered the relationship.

We should think (gentle Reader) that we but ill performed our part, if we corrected not as well, our own errors now, as formerly thofe of the Printer. Since what moved us to this Work, was folely the Love of Truth, not in the leaft any Vain-glory, or Defire to contend with Great Authors. And further, Our Mistakes, we conceive, will the rather be pardoned, as fcarce poffible to be avoided in writing of fuch Perfons and Works as do ever shun the Light. How-❘ ever, that we may not any way foften or extenuate the fame, we give them thee in the very Words of our Antagonists: not werending, but retracting them from our heart, and craving excufe of the Parties offended: For furely in this work, it hath been above all things our defire to provoke no Man. SCRIBL. Ver. 15. Rome in her Capitol faw Querno fit,] Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who hearing the great Encouragement which Leo X. gave to Poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and fung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a Buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the Laurel ; a jest which the Court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into fo far, as to caufe him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a folemn feftival on his coronation; at which it is recorded the Pope himself was fo tranfported as to weep for joy. He was ever after a conftant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abun

See Life of C. C. chap. yi. p. 149.

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And now the Queen, to glad her fons, proclaims
By herald Hawkers, high heroic Games.
They fummon all her Race: An endless band
Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land. 20
A motley mixture ! in long wigs, in bags,
In filks, in crapes, in Garters, and in rags,
From drawing-rooms, from colleges, from garrets,
On horse, on foot, in hacks, and gilded chariots =
All who true Dunces in her caufe appear'd, 25
And all who knew thofe Dunces to reward.
Amid that area wide they took their stand,
Where the tall May-pole once o'erlook'd the Strand,
But now (fo ANNE and Piety ordain)

35

A Church collects the faints of Drury-lane.
With Authors, Stationers obey'd the call
(The field of glory is a field for all).
Glory and gain, th' induftrious tribe provoke ;
And gentle Dulnefs ever loves a joke.
A Poet's form the plac'd before their eyes,
And bade the nimbleft racer win the prize;
No me gre, mufe-rid mope, adult and thin,
in a dun night-gown of his own hofe fkin;
But fuch a Bulk as no twelve bards could raife,
Twelve ftarveling bards of thefe degenerate days. 40
All as a partridge plump, full-fed and fair,
She form'd this image of well-body'd air;
With pert flat eyes the window'd well its head;
A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead ;
And empty words the gave, and founding ftrain, 45
But fenfelefs, lifeless! idol void and vain !
Never was dash'd out at one lucky hit,
A Fool, fo juft a copy of a Wit;
So like, that critics faid, and courtiers fwore,
A Wit it was, and call'd the phantom More. so

REMARRS.

dantly and poured forth verfes without number. PAULUS JOVIUS, Elog. Vir. doct. cap. lxxxiii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolufions.

Ver. 34. And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke.] This fpecies of mirth called a joke, arifing from a Mal-entendu, may be well fuppofed to be the delight of Duinefs.

Ver. 47. Never was dafh'd out, at one lucky hit.] Our author here seems willing to give fome account of the poffibility of Dulness making a Wit (which could be done no other way than by chance). The fiction is the more reconciled to probability by the known ftory of Apelles, who being at a loss to exprefs the foam of Alexander's horfe, dafhed his pencil in defpair at the picture, and happened to du it by that fortunate stroke.

Ver. 50. and call'd the Phantom More.] CURLL, in his Key to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James Moore Smith, Efq. and it is probable (confidering what is faid of him in the Teftimonies) that fome might fancy our author obliged to reprefent this gen tleman as a plagiary, or 10 pafs for one himself. His cafe indeed was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was fitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had ftolen his handkerchief: « Siry" (faid the thief, finding himself detected)" do not expofe me, I did it for mere want; be fo good "but to take it privately out of my pocket again

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