Fancy and art in gay Petronius please,
The scholar's learning with the courtier's ease.

In grave Quintilian's copious work, we find
The justest rules and clearest method join'd: 670
Thus useful arms in magazines we place,
All ranged in order and disposed with grace ;
But less to please the eye than arm the hand;
Still fit for use, and ready at command.

Thee, bold Longinus ! all the Nine inspire, 675 And bless their critic with a poet's fire. An ardent judge, who, zealous in his trust, With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just : Whose own example strengthens all his laws; And is himself that great sublime he draws. 680

Thus long succeeding critics justly reign’d, License repress’d, and useful laws ordain'd. Learning and Rome alike in empire grew; And arts still follow'd where her eagles flew ; 684

From the same foes, at last, both felt their doom,
And the same age saw learning fall and Rome.
With tyranny then superstition join'd;
As that the body, this enslaved the mind;
Much was believed, but little understood ;
And to be dull was construed to be good :
A second deluge learning thus o'er-run,
And the monks finish'd what the Goths begun.

At length Erasmus, that great injured name,
The glory of the priesthood and the shame!
Stemm’d the wild torrent of a barbarous age, 695
And drove those holy Vandals off the stage.
But see! each Muse, in Leo's golden days,
Starts from her trance and trims her wither'd

bays; Rome's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread, Shakes off the dust, and rears his reverend head. Then Sculpture and her sister-arts revive; 701 Stones leap'd to form, and rocks began to live; With sweeter notes each rising temple rung; A Raphael painted, and a Vida sung. Immortal Vida ; on whose honor'd brow 705 The poet's bays and critic's ivy grow :

Cremona now shall ever boast thy name,
As next in place to Mantua, next in fame!

But soon by impious arms from Latium chased,
Their ancient bounds the banish'd Muses pass'd :
Thence arts o'er all the northern world advance,
But critic-learning florish's most in France;
The rules, a nation born to serve, obeys;
And Boileau still in right of Horace sways :
But we, brave Britons, foreign laws despised, 715
And kept unconquer'd and uncivilised :
Fierce for the liberties of wit, and bold,
We still defied the Romans, as of old.
Yet some there were, among the sounder few
Of those who less presumed and better knew, 720
Who durst assert the juster ancient cause,
And here restored wit's fundamental laws.
Such was the Muse, whose rules and practice

tell, • Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.'

the more important bishopric of his native city. But the pope died : Vida's poetic fire, his fame, or the pontifical fondness for poetry, passed away with him; and the author of the Scacchia,' of all modern Latinity, perhaps the most dexterous and the most popular specimen, remained in Alba, where, in 1566, at the age of seventy-six, he died. He was a vigorous critic, an active political writer, and a learned controversialist; but his poetry was the foundation of his fortune.

723 Such was the Muse. The duke of Buckingham's rank, opulence, and love of literature, intitled him to more distinction than he deserved by his ability: but he was the object of panegyric to the whole living generation of poets. Yet not to all with equal success. Pope's insertion of this couplet in his second edition, touched the feeling or the vanity, which had been so often wooed in vain; and from that period this powerful nobleman was his friend.

Such was Roscommon, not more learn'd than good;
With manners generous as his noble blood; 726
To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known,
And every author's merit but his own.
Such late was Walsh the Muse's judge and

friend,
Who justly knew to blame or to commend; 730
To failings mild, but zealous for desert;
The clearest head, and the sincerest heart.
This humble praise, lamented shade! receive ;
This praise at least a grateful Muse may give :
The Muse, whose early voice you taught to sing,
Prescribed her heights, and pruned her tender

wing, Her guide now lost, no more attempts to rise, But in low numbers short excursions tries; Content, if hence the unlearn'd their wants may

view, The learn'd reflect on what before they knew : 740 Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame; Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame: Averse alike to flatter or offend; Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.

725 Such was Roscommon. An •Essay on Translated Verse' seems, at first sight, to be a barren subject; yet Roscommon has decorated it with many precepts of utility and taste, and enlivened it with a tale in imitation of Boileau.

744 Nor yet too vain to mend. Probably adopted from the concluding lines of Boileau's' Art of Poetry:'

Censeur un peu facheux, mais souvent nécessaire ;
Plus enclin à blamer, que savant à bien faire.

MORAL ESSAYS,

IN FOUR EPISTLES :

TO SEVERAL PERSONS.

Est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia, neu se
Impediat verbis lassis onerantibus aures :
Et sermone opus est modo tristi, sæpe jocoso,
Defendente vicem modo rhetoris atque poetæ ;
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque
Extenuantis eas consulto.

HORACE.