whofe object is fame, will always adapt

7

himself to the humour of thofe, who confer it. And till the public tafte be reduced, by fober criticism, to a just standard, ftrength of genius will only enable a wri ter to pervert it ftill further, by a too fuccefsful compliance with its vicious expectations.

-noo odw słode lo zuord odros Vetmet DISSERTATION IV,

On the MARKS of IMITATION. -low selcros Vico liiw

2ut out and To Mr. MASON.

I

Have said, in the discourse on POETICAL IMITATION, "that coincidencies of a "certain kind, and in a certain degree, can"not fail to convict a writer of Imitation." [z] You are curious, my friend, to know what these coincidencies are, and have thought that an attempt to point them out would furnish an useful Supplement to what I have written on this fubject. But the just execution of this defign would require, befides a careful examination of the workings of the human mind, an exact fcrutiny of the most original and most imitative writers. And, with all your partiality for me, can you, in earnest, think me capable of fulfilling the first of these conditions; Or, if I were, do you imagine that, at this time o'day, I can have the leisure to perform the other? My younger years, indeed, have [z] P. 115, 116.

been fpent in turning over thofe authors which young men are most fond of; and among these I will not difown that the Poets of ancient and modern fame have had their full fhare in my affection. But You, who love me fo well, would not with me to pafs more of my life in these flowery regions; which tho' You may yet wander in without offence, and the rather as you wander in them with fo pure a mind and to fo moral a purpose, there feems no decent pretence for me to loiter in them any longer.

Yet in faying this I would not be thought to affume that severe character; which, tho' fometimes the garb of reason, is oftner, I believe, the mafk of dulnefs, or of fomething worse. No, I am too fenfible to the charms, nay to the ufes of your profeffion, to affect a contempt for it. The great Roman faid well, Haec ftudia adolefcentiam alunt; fenectutem oblectant. We make a full meal of them in our youth. And no philoབ་ fophy requires so perfect a mortification as that we should wholly abftain from them in our riper years. But fhould we invert the obfervation; and take this light food not as

the

the refreshment only, but as the proper nourishment of Age; fuch a name as Cicero's, I am afraid, would be wanting, and not eafily found, to justify the practice.

Let us own then, on a greater authority than His, "That every thing is beautiful in "it's feafon." The Spring hath it's buds and bloffoms: But, as the year runs on, You are not difpleas'd, perhaps, to fee them fall off; and would certainly be difappointed not to find them, in due time, fucceeded by thofe mellow hangings, the poet fomewhere speaks of.

I could alledge ftill graver reafons. But I would only fay, in one word, that your friend has had his fhare in thefe amufements.

I

may recollect with pleasure, but muft never live over again

Pieriosque dies, et amantes carmina fomnos.

Yet fomething, you infift, is to be done; and, if it amount to no more than a fpecimen or flight fketch, fuch as my memory, or the few notes I have by me, would furnish, the defign, you think, is not totally to be relinquifhed.

*** I understand the danger of gratifying you on thefe terms. Yet, whatever it be, I have

ha

no power to excufe myself from any attempt, by which, you tell me at least, I may be able to gratify you. I will do my beft, then, to draw together fuch obfervations, as I have fometimes thought, in reading the poets, moft material for the certain difcovery of Imitations. And I addrefs them to you, not only as You are the propereft judge of the fubject; You, who understand fo well in what manner the Poets are us'd to imitate each other, and who yourself fo finely imistate the best of them; But as I would give You this fmall proof of my affection, and have perhaps the ambition of publishing to the world in this way the entire friendship, that fubfifts between us.

You tell me I have fucceeded not amifs in explaining the difficulty of detecting Imitations. The materials of poetry, You own, lie fo much in common amongst all writers, and the feveral ways of employing them are fo much under the controul of common fenfe, that writings will in many refpects be fimilar, where there is no thought or defign of Imitating. I take advantage of this concef