ADVERTISEMENT. THE reflections of Horace, and the judg ments paft in his Epiftle to Auguftus, feem'd fo feasonable to the present times, that I could not help applying them to the use of my own country. The author thought them confiderable enough to address them to his princes whom he paints with all the great and good qualities of a monarch, upon whom the Romans depended for the encrease of an absolute empire. But to make the poem entirely English, I was willing to add one or two of thofe which contribute to the happiness of a free people, and are more confiftent with the welfare of our neighbours. This Epiftle will show the learned world to have fallen into two mistakes: one, that Auguftus was a patron of poets in general; whereas he not only prohibited all but the best writers to name him, but recommended that care even to the civil magiftrate: Admonebat praetores, ne paterentur nomen fuum obfolefieri, etc. The other, that this piece was only a general difcourfe of poetry; whereas it was an apology for the poets, in order to render Auguftus more their patron. Horace here pleads the caufe of his cotemporaries, first against the taste of the town, whofe humour it was to magnify the authors of the preceding age; fecondly, against the court and nobility, who encouraged only the writers for the theatre; and lastly against the emperor himself, who had conceived them of little ufe to the government. He shews (by a view of the progrefs of learning, and the change of taste among the Romans) that the introduction of the polite arts of Greece had given the writers of his time great advantages over their predeceffors; that their morals were much improved, and the licence of those antient poets reftrained: that fatire and comedy were become more just and ufeful; that whatever extravagancies were left on the ftage, were owing to the ill tafte of the nobility; that poets, under due regulations, were in many refpects useful to the ftate; and concludes, that it was upon them the emperor himself muft depend, for his fame with pofterity. We may farther learn from this Epiftle, that Horace made his court to this great prince by writing with a decent freedom. toward him, with a juft contempt of his low flatterers, and with a manly regard to his own character. |