Garth, in his Difpenfary, has employed a great deal of wit to ridicule the phy

ficians.

proach the prefent heroes of his pen : on the contrary, being born amongst men, and, of confequence, piqued by many, and peevish at more, he has blafphemed a nature little lower than that of angels, and affumed by far higher than they; but furely the contempt of the world is not a greater virtue, than the contempt of mankind is a vice. Therefore I wonder that, though foreborn by others, the laughter-loving Swift was not reproved by the venerable Dean, who could fometimes be very grave.

For I remember, as I and others were taking with him an evening's walk, about a mile out of Dublin, he ftopt fhort; we paffed on; but perceiving he did not follow us, I went back; and found him fixed as a ftatue, and earneftly gazing upwards at a noble elm, which in its uppermost branches was much withered and decayed: pointing at it, he faid, "I fhall be like that tree, I fhall die at top." As in this he feemed to prophefy like the Sybils; if, like one of them, he had

burnt

ficians. 'Tis a well wrote poem, although little more than an imitation of Boileau's Lutrin, but greatly inferior. There are some faults in it, which must difguft a reader of difcernment. The following lines contain a great deal of just criticism:

But in your lines let energy be found,
And learn to rise in sense and fink in found.
Harsh words, tho' pertinent, uncouth appear,
None please the fancy who offend the ear.
In fenfe and numbers if you would excel,
Read Wycherley, confider Dryden well.
In one what vigorous turns of fancy fhine,
In th' other, Syrens warble in each line.
If Dorfet's fprightly mufe but touch the lyre,
The fmiles and graces melt in soft defire,
And little loves confefs their am'rous fire t

The

burnt part of his works, efpecially this blafted branch of a noble genius, like her too he might have risen in his demand for the reft *.

• Conjectures on Original Compofition, p. 65. Difpenfary, canto iv.

The verfification is mufical, and the whole paffage truly poetic; but who in

the name of wonder would imagine Garth could have offended against the plaineft rules of propriety, fo much as to put the above paffage into the mouth of the fury Disease. In his fight of the physicians, he confulted propriety with great nicety, when he armed them so much in character. But the poem in general abounds with a great deal of wit, and some manly and keen fatire. I must agree in opinion with the ingenious author of the Efay on the writings and genius of Pope, that the. Difpenfary is not fo good a fatire as the Sangrado of Le Sage. The latter contains infinitely more wit, and is worked up to a fine pitch of fatire, by a great number of little ftrokes of humour. Le Sage was an excellent fatirift.

Pope

Pope deferves to be confidered more particularly. His fatires are the most excellent that ever appeared in the English language, and fome of them the best pieces that Pope wrote. The genius of this celebrated writer nearly resembled that of Horace and Boileau, the former of whom he made his pattern in poetry, all famous for their abilities in fatire. A learned gentleman that has lately examined fome of Pope's works, and amongst others the Rape of the Lock, makes no fcruple to affert, that that piece is the beft fatire extant *. And when we confider

Upon the whole, I hope it will not be thought an exaggerated panegyric to say, that the Rape of the Lock is the best fatire extant; that it contains the trueft and livelieft picture of modern life; and that the fubject is of a more ele gant nature, as well as more artfully conducted, than that of any other heroi-comic poem. Pope

here

fider the invention that poem difplays, the correctness of the verfification, the exquifite judgment of the author in in troducing the machinery of the Sylphs in their proper places (for at firft it was: published without them) and the elegant raillery with which it abounds, we have great reafon to acquiefce in his opinion.

Pope's

here appears in the light of a man of gallantry, and of a thorough knowledge of the world; and indeed he had nothing in his carriage or deportment of that affected fingularity, which has induced fome men of genius to defpife, and depart from, the established rules of politenefs and civil life; for all poets have not practifed the fober and rational advice of Boileau,

Que les vers ne foient pas votre eternel emploi:
Cultivez vos amis, foyez homme de foi.

C'eft peu d'etre agréable & charmant dans un

livre ;

11 fait favoir encore, & converfer, & vivre.