THE colloquial and burlesque style and measure of Swift here adopted did not suit the genius and manner of our author, who frequently falls back, as was natural, from the familiar into his own more laboured, high, and pompous manner. See particularly line 125, and alfo 189:

"Tell how the moon beams, &c."

And this difference of ftyle is more ftriking and perceiveable, from the circumftance of their being immediately fubjoined to the lighter and lefs ornamental verses of Swift.

The four epiftles which Mr. Pitt tranflated; namely, the 19th, 4th, 10th, and 18th, of the first book, and which are inferted in the 43d volume of the Works of English Poets, if they were carefully and candidly infpected, will be found really equal to any of Pope's Imitations, and are executed with a dignified familiarity and ease, in the very manner of Horace.

After all that has been faid of Horace by so many critics, ancient and modern, perhaps no words can describe him fo exactly and juftly as the following of Tully, spoken on another fubject (Lib. 1. de Oratore): "Accedit lepos quidam, facetiæque, et eruditio libero digna, celeritafque et brevitas refpondendi et laceffendi, fubtili venustate et urbanitate conjuncta."

B 2

EPISTOLA VII.

UINQUE dies tibi pollicitus me rure futurum,
Sextilem totum mendax defideror. atqui,

Si me vivere vis fanum recteque valentem;
Quam mihi das aegro, dabis aegrotare timenti,
Maecenas, veniam : num ficus prima calorque
Defignatorem decorat lictoribus atris:

Dum pueris omnis pater, et matercula pallet;
Officiofaque fedulitas, et opella forenfis
Adducit febris, et teftamenta refignat.
Quod fi bruma nives Albanis illinet agris;
Ad mare defcendet vates tuus, et fibi parcet,
Contractufque leget; te, dulcis amice, revifet
Cum Zephyris, fi concedes, et hirundine prima.

Non,

EPISTLE VII.

IMITATED IN THE MANNER OF DR. SWIFT.

'T

Is true, my Lord, I gave my word,
I would be with you, June the third;
Chang'd it to Auguft, and (in fhort)
Have kept it as you do at Court.
You humour me when I am fick,
Why not when I am splenetick?
In town, what objects could I meet?
The fhops fhut up in ev'ry street,
And Fun'rals black'ning all the Doors,
And yet more melancholy Whores :
And what a duft in ev'ry place?
And a thin Court that wants your Face,
And Fevers raging up and down,

And W* and H** both in town!

"The Dog-days are no more the cafe." 'Tis true, but Winter comes apace: Then fouthward let your Bard retire, Hold out fome months 'twixt Sun and Fire, And you fhall fee, the first warm Weather, Me and the Butterflies together.

5

10

15

20

Non, quo more pyris vefci Calaber jubet hofpes, Tu me fecifti locupletem. Vefcere fodes.

Jam fatis eft. At tu quantumvis tolle. Benigne.
Non invifa feres pueris munufcula parvis.
Tam teneor dono, quam fi dimittar onustus.
Ut libet haec porcis hodie comedenda relinques:
Prodigus et ftultus donat quae fpernit et odit :
Haec feges ingratos tulit et feret omnibus annis.
Vir bonus et fapiens, dignis ait effe paratus?
Nec tamen ignorat, quid diftent aera lupinis?
Dignum praeftabo me, etiam pro laude merentis,

Quod

My Lord, your Favours well I know; 'Tis with diftinction you bestow;

And not to ev'ry one that comes,

Just as a Scotsman does his Plums.

Pray take them, Sir.-Enough's a Feaft:
"Eat fome, and pocket up the rest❞—
What rob your Boys? those pretty rogues?
"No, Sir, you'll leave them to the Hogs."
Thus Fools with Compliments befiege ye,
Contriving never to oblige ye.
Scatter your Favours on a Fop,
Ingratitude's the certain crop;

25

30

And 'tis but juft, I'll tell ye wherefore,

You give the things you never care for.
A wife man always is or fhou'd

35

Be mighty ready to do good:

But makes a difference in his thought
Betwixt a Guinea and a Groat.

Now this I'll fay, you'll find in me
A fafe Companion, and a free;
But if you'd have me always near-
Honour's ear.

A word, pray, in your

NOTES.

40

I hope

VER. 21. My Lord,] Shaftesbury laughs at modern authors for being compelled to use such terms, as His Grace, His Excellency, His Honour, and My Lord. Horace, in this paffage, says to the greatest man in Rome only Tu, and at the beginning only Mecanas, without any epithet whatsoever. So alfo speaks Virgil at the beginning of the Georgics, "Terram vertere, Mecenas."

VER. 40. And a free ;] Johnfon always carped at our adding the word one after an adjective, and thought it useless and ineleganta free one. This is unexceptionable-a free.