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herent in my conftitution, and that I have nothing for it but patience *.

As to your advice about writing Panegyric, 'tis what I have not frequently done. I have indeed done it fometimes against my judgment and inclinations, and I heartily repent of it. And at prefent, as I have no defire of reward, and fee no juft reason of praise, I think I had better let it alone. There are flatterers good enough to be found, and I would not interfere in any Gentleman's profef fion. I have feen no verses upon thefe fublime occafions; so that I have no emulation: Let the patrons enjoy the authors, and the authors their patrons, for I know myfelf unworthy.

I

I am, &c.

LETTER XXV.

Mr. CLELAND to Mr. GAY †.

Decemb. 16, 1731.

Am astonish'd at the complaints occafion'd by a late Epiftle to the Earl of Burlington; and I fhould be afflicted were there the least just ground for them. Had the writer attack'd Vice, at a time when it is not only tolerated but triumphant, and fo far from being conceal'd as a Defect, that it is proclaimed with oftentation as a Merit; I fhould have been apprehenfive of the confequence: Had he fatyrized Gamefters of a hundred thoufand pounds fortune, acquir'd by fuch methods as are in daily practice, and almost universally encouraged :

Mr Gay died the November following at the Duke of Queensberry's houfe in London, aged 46 years.

P. This was written by the fame hand that wrote the Letter to the Publisher, prefixed to the Dunciad,

had

had he overwarmly defended the Religion of his country, against fuch books as come from every prefs, are publicly vended in every fhop, and greedily bought by almost every rank of men; or had hẹ called our excellent weekly writers by the fame names which they openly beftow on the greatest men in the Ministry, and out of the Ministry, for which they are all unpunished, and most rewarded: In of thefe cafes, indeed, I might have judged him too prefumptuous, and perhaps have trembled for his rafhness.

any

I could not but hope better for this small and modest Epistle, which attacks no one Vice whatfoever; which deals only in Folly, and not Folly in general, but a fingle fpecies of it; the only branch, for the oppofite excellency to which, the Noble Lord to whom it is written muft neceffarily be celebrated. I fancied it might escape cenfure, especially feeing how tenderly thefe Follies are treated, and really lefs accused than apologized for.

Yet hence the Poor are cloath'd, the Hungry fed,
Health to himself, and to his Infants Bread
The Lab'rer bears.

Is this fuch a crime, that to impute it to a man must be a grievous offence? 'Tis an innocent Folly, and much more beneficent than the want of it; for ill Tafte employs more hands, and diffufes expence more than a good one. Is it a moral defect? No, it is but a natural one; a want of taste. It is what the beft good man living may be liable to. The worthieft Peer may live exemplarily in an ill-favour'd houfe, and the best reputed citizen be pleased with a vile garden. I thought (I fay) the author had the common liberty to obferve a defect, and to compliment a friend for a quality that diftinguishes him: which I know not how any quality fhould do, if we were not to remark that it was wanting in others.

But, they fay, the fatire is perfonal. I thought it could not be fo, because all its reflections are on things. His reflections are not on the man, but his houfe, garden, &c. Nay, he refpects (as one may fay) the Perfons of the Gladiator, the Nile, and the Triton: he is only forry to fee them (as he might be to fee any of his friends) ridiculous by being in the wrong place, and in bad company. Some fancy, that to say, a thing is Perfonal, is the fame as to fay, it is Injuft, not confidering, that nothing can be Juft that is not perfonal. I am afraid that "all fuch writings and difcourfes as "touch no man, will mend no man." The goodnatured, indeed, are apt to be alarmed at any thing like fatire; and the guilty readily concur with the weak for a plain reafon, because the vicious look upon folly as their frontier:

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No wonder those who know ridicule belongs to them, find an inward confolation in removing it from themfelves as far as they can; and it is never fo far, as when they can get it fixed on the best characters. No wonder those who are Food for Satirifts should rail at them as creatures of prey; every beaft born for our use would be ready to call a man fo.

I know no remedy, unless people in our age would as little frequent the theatres, as they begin to do the churches; unlefs comedy were forfaken, fatire filent, and every man left to do what seems good in his own eyes, as if there were no King, no Priest, no Poet, in Ifrael.

But I find myself obliged to touch a point, on which I must be more ferious; it well deferves I should : I mean the malicious application of the character of Timon, which, I will boldly fay, they would im

pute

pute to the person the most different in the world from a Man-hater, to the person whose taste and encouragement of wit have often been fhewn in the righteft place. The author of that epiftle muft certainly think fo, if he has the fame opinion of his own merit as authors generally have; for he has been diftinguished by this very person.

Why, in God's name, muft a Portrait, apparently collected from twenty different men, be applied to one only? Has it his eye? no, it is it is very unlike. Has it his nose or mouth?

What then, I

totally differing.
Why, it has the mole on his chin.
but muft the picture therefore be his,
other man that blemish?

no, they are beseech you ? Very well; and has no

Could there be a more melancholy inftance how much the taste of the public is vitiated, and turns the most falutary and feasonable phyfic into poison, than if amidst the blaze of a thousand bright qualities in a great man, they should only remark there is a shadow about him; as what eminence is without? I am confident the author was incapable of imputing any such to one, whose whole life (to ufe his own expreffion in print of him) is a continued feries of good and generous actions.

I know no man who would be more concerned, if he gave the leaft pain or offence to any innocent perfon; and none who would be lefs concerned, if the fatire were challenged by any one at whom he would really aim at. If ever that happens, I dare engage, he will own it, with all the freedom of one whose cenfures are just, and who fets his name to them.

LET

LETTER XXVI.

To the Earl of BURLINGTON.

MY LORD,

TH

March 7, 1731

HE clamour rais'd about my Epiftle to you, could not give me fo much pain, as I receiv'd pleasure in feeing the general zeal of the world in the cause of a Great man who is beneficent, and the particular warmth of your Lordship in that of a private man who is innocent.

It was not the Poem that deferv'd this from you; for as I had the honour to be your Friend, I could not treat you quite like a Poet: but fure the writer deferv'd more candour, even from those who knew him not, than to promote a report, which in regard to that noble perfon, was impertinent; in regard to me, villainous. Yet I had no great cause to wonder, that a character belonging to twenty fhould be applied to one; fince, by that means, nineteen would escape the ridicule.

I was too well content with my knowledge of that noble perfon's opinion in this affair, to trouble the public about it. But fince Malice and Miftake are fo long a dying, I have taken the opportunity of a third edition to declare his belief, not only of my innocence, but their malignity; of the former of which my own heart is as confcious, as, I fear, fome of theirs must be of the latter. His humanity feels a concern for the Injury done to me, while his greatnefs of mind can bear with indifference the infult offered to himself *.

Alludes to the letter the Duke of Ch wrote to Mr. Pope on this occafion.

P.

How

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