will easily fee that this Account which I have given of the Lutrin is not without Foundation. But you know very well, Sir, that there is not the least Shadow of a Moral or Fable in the Rape.

As nothing could be more ridiculous than the writing a full, an exact, and a regular Criticifm upon fo empty a Bufinefs as this trifling Poem; I will fay but a Word or two concerning the Incidents, and fo have done with what relates immediately to the Defign. The Intention of the Author in writing this Poem, as we find in the Title-Page, is to raise the Mirth of the Reader; and we find by the Effects. which Hudibras and the Lutrin produce in us, that Butler and Boileau wrote with the fame Intention. Now you know very well, Sir, that in a Poem which is built upon an Action, Mirth is chiefly to be rais'd by the Incidents. For Laughter in Comedy is chiefly to be excited by Surprize, when Things. fpring from one another against our Expectation. Now whereas there are feveral ridiculous Incidents in the Lutrin, as, The Owl in the Pulpit frighting the nocturnal Champions; the Prelate's giving his Benediction to his Adverfary, by Way of Revenge and Infult; The Battle in the Bookfeller's Shop, &c. And whereas there are a thousand fuch in Hudibras, there is not fo much as one, nor the Shadow of one in the Rape of the Lock: Unless the Author's Friends. will object here, That his perpetual Gravity, after the Promife of his Title, makes the whole Poem one continued Jeft. I am Your's, &c.

Being refolv'd before-hand to be pleas'd with nothing, in his fourth Letter he falls foul of the Machinery.

The Practice of the greatest modern Heroick-Poets is conformable to that of the antient.

1. They

1. They take their Machines from the Religion of their Country; witnefs Milton, Cowley, Taffo. 2. They make them Allegorical.

3. They oppofe them to one another.

4. They fhew a juft Subordination among them, and a juft Proportion between their Functions.

The Author of the Rape has run counter to this Practice both of the Antients and Moderns. He has not taken his Machines from the Religion of his Country, nor from any Religion, nor from Morality. His Machines contradict the Doctrines of the Chriftian Religion, contradict all found Morality; there is no allegorical nor fenfible Meaning in them; and for thefe Reasons they give no Inftruction, make no Impreffion at all upon the Mind of a fenfible Rea der. Inftead of making the Action wonderful and delightful, they render it extravagant, abfurd, and incredible. They do not in the least influence that Action; they neither prevent the Danger of Belinda, nor promote it, nor retard it, unless, perhaps, it may be faid, for one Moment, which is ridiculous. And if here it be objected, that the Author defign'd only to entertain and amufe; To that I answer, That for that very Reafon he ought to have taken the utmoft Care to make this Poem probable, according to the important Precept of Horace.

Ficta voluptatis caufâ fint proxima veris.

And that we may be fatisfy'd that this Rule is founded in Reason and Nature, we find by conftant Experience, that any thing that shocks Probability is moft infufferable in Comedy.

There is no Oppofition of the Machines to one another in this Rape of the Lock. Umbriel the Gnome is not introduc'd till the Action is over, and till Ariel and the Spirits under him, have quitted Belinda.

E 4

There

There is no juft Subordination among these Machines, nor any juft Proportion between their Functions. Ariel fummons them together, and talks to them as if he were their Emperor.

Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, to your Chief give ear, Fays, Fairies, Genii, Elves, and Dæmons, hear; Ye know the Spheres and various Tasks affign'd, By Laws eternal to th' aerial Kind.

Some in the Fields of pureft Ether play,
And bafk and whiten in the Blaze of Day.
Some guide the Courfe of wandring Orbs on high,.
Or roll the Planets thro' the boundless Sky-
Or brew fierce Tempefts on the watry Main,
Or o'er the Glebe diftill the kindly Rain.
Others on Earth o'er human Race prefide,
Watch all their Ways, and all their Actions guide:
Of thefe the Chief the Care of Nations own,
And guard with Arms Divine the British Throne.

Now, Sir, give me leave to ask you one Queftion: Did you ever hear before that the Planets were roll'd by the aerial Kind? We have heard indeed of Angels and Intelligences who have perform'd these Functions: But they are vaft glorious Beings, of Celestial Kind, and Machines of another Syftem. Pray which of the aerial Kind have these fublime Employments? For nothing can be more ridiculous, or more contemptible, than the Employments of those whom he harangues.

To fave the Powder from too rude a Gale,
Nor let th' imprifon'd Effences exhale.

There is a Difference almoft infinite between thefe vile Functions and the former fublime ones,

and

and therefore they can never belong to Beings of the fame Species. Which of the aerial Kinds are the Movers of Orbs on high, or the Guardians of Empires below; when he who calls himself their Chief, is only the Keeper of a vile Ifeland Cur, and has not fo much as the Intendance of the Lady's Favourite Lock, which is the Subject of the Poem? But that is entrusted to an inferior Spirit, contrary to all manner of Judgment and Decorum.

The Machines that appear in this Poem are infinitely lefs confiderable than the human Perfons, which is without Precedent. Nothing can be fo contemp tible as the Perfons, or fo foolish as the Understand ings of thefe Hobgoblins. Ariel's Speech for the first thirty Lines, is one continu'd Impertinence: For, if what he fays is true, he tells them nothing but what they knew as well as himself before. And when he comes at length to the Point, he is full as impertinent as he was in his Ramble before; for after he has talk'd to them of black Omens and dire Difafters that threaten his Heroine, thefe Bugbears dwindle to the breaking a Piece of China, the ftaining a Petticoat, the lofinga Necklace, a Fan, or a Bottle of Sal Volatile. But we fhall confider this Paffage further when we come to examine the Sentiments; and then we fhalll fee, that Sawney takes the Change here, and 'tis He, a little Lump of Flesh, that talks; inftead of a little Spirit.

That which makes this Speech more ridiculous, is the Place where it is fpoken, and that is upon the Sails and Cordage of Belinda's Barge; which is certainly taken from the two Kings of Brentford defcending in Clouds, and finging in the Style of our modern Spirits.

I King,

1 King. O ftay, for you need not as yet go aftray, The Tide, like a Friend, has brought Ships in our And on their high Ropes we will play. [Way,

But now, Sir, for the Perfons of these Sylphs and Sylphids, you fee what Ideas the Threats of Ariel, give us of them, when he threatens them, that for their Neglect they fhall

Be ftopt in Viols, or transfix'd with Pins,
Or plung❜d in Lakes of bitter Washes lie,
Or wedg'd whole Ages in a Bodkin's Eye.

Difcord is defcrib'd by Homer with her Feet upon the Earth, and Head in the Skies: Upon which Longinus cries out, That this is not fo much the Meafure of Difcord, as of Homer's Capacity, and Elevation of Genius. Ev'n fo thefe diminitive Beings of the intellectual World, may be faid to be the Meafure of Mr. Pope's Capacity and Elevation of Genius. They are, indeed, Beings fo diminutive, that they bear the fame Proportion to the reft of the intellectual, that Eels in Vinegar do to the rest of the material World. The latter are only to be feen thro' Microfcopes, and the former only thro' the falfe Optics of a Rocfirucian Understanding.

I fhall mention but one or two more of the numerous Defects which are to be found in the Machines of this Poem; the one is, The Spirits, which he intends for benign ones, are malignant, and thofe, which he defigns for malignant, are beneficent to Mankind. The Gnomes he intends for malignant, and the Sylphs for beneficent Spirits. Now the Sylphs in this Poem promote that Female Vanity which the Gnomes mortify. And Vanity is not only a great Defect in

Human