AN EPIST. TO A YOUNG CRITIC.

First printed in the Year 1753.

Proferre quae sentiat cur quisquam liber dubitet? Malim, Mehercule,
solus insanire, quam sobrius aut plebis aut patrum deliberationibus
ignaviter assentari.
AUTOR. ANONYM. FRAGM.

RANGE from Tow'r-hill all London to the Fleet, Thence round the Temple t'utmostGrosvenor-street, Take in your route both Gray's and Lincoln's Inn, Miss not be sure my Lords and Gentlemen, You'll hardly raise, as I with Petty * guess, 5 Above twelve thousand men of taste, unless In desp'rate times a Connoisseur may pass. "A Connoisseur! what's that?" 'Tis hard to say: But you must oft amidst the fair and gay Have seen a would-be rake, a flutt'ring fool, Who swears he loves the sex with all his soul. Alas, vain Youth! dost thou admire sweet Jones? Thou be gallant without or blood or bones! You'd split to hear th' insipid coxcomb cry "Ah charming Nanny! it is too much! I die!"-15 “Die and be d—n'd,” says one, “but let me tell ye "I'll pay the loss if ever rapture kill ye.” 'Tis easy learn'd the art to talk by rote,

At Nando's it will but cost you half a groat;

10

*Sir William Petty, author of The Political Arithmetic,

90

24

30

The Bedford school at threepence is not dear, Sir;
A: White's-the stars instruct you for a tester: 21
But he whom Nature never meant to share
One spark of Taste will never catch it there-
Nor no where else, howe'er the booby beau
Grows great with Pope, and Horace, and Boileau.
Good native Taste tho' rude is seldom wrong,
Be it in music, painting, or in song:
But this as well as other faculties
Improves with age and ripens by degrees.
I know, my Dear, it is needless to deny 't,
You like Voiture; you think him wondrous bright;
But sev'n years hence, your relish more matur'd,
What now delights will hardly be endur’d.
The boy may live to taste Racine's fine charms,
Whom Lee's bald orb or Rowe's dry rapture warms;
But he enfranchis'd from his tutor's care,
Who places Butler near Cervantes' chair,
Or with Erasmus can admit to vie
Brown of Squabhall, of merry memory,
Will die a Goth, and nod at Woden's * feast
Th'eternal Winter long on Greg'ry's † breast.

36

40

Alluding to the Gothic heaven, Woden's Hall, where the happy are for ever employed in drinking beer, mum, and other comfortable liquors, out of the skulls of those whom they had slain in battle.

+ Pope Gregory VI. distinguished by the name of St. Gregory, whose pious zeal in the cause of barbarous ignorance and priestly tyranny exerted itself in demolishing to the utmost of his power all the remains of Heathen genius.

I

Th

His

Go

TH

W

B

Y

Long may he swill this patriarch of the dull
The drowsy mum-but touch not Maro's skull !
His holy barb'rous dotage sought to doom,
Good Heav'n! th'immortal Classics to the tomb !-
Those sacred lights shall bid new genius rise 46
When all Rome's saints have rotted from the skies.
Be these your guides if at the ivy crown

55

You aim, each country's classics and your own;
But chiefly with the Ancients pass your prime, 50
And drink Castalia at the fountain's brim.
The man to genuine Burgundy bred up.
Soon starts the dash of Methuen in his cup.
Those sov'reign masters of the Muses' skill
Are the true patterns of good writing still:
Their ore was rich and sev'n times purg'd of lead;
Their art seem'd Nature, it was so finely hid.
Tho' born with all the pow'rs of writing well
What pains it cost they did not blush to tell.
Their ease (myLords!) ne'er loung'd for want of fire,
Nor did their rage thro' affectation tire;
Free from all tawdry and imposing glare
They trusted to their native grace of air:
Rapt'rous and wild the trembling soul they seize,
Or sly coy beauties steal it by degrees :

65 The more you view them still the more they please.

61

Yet there are thousands of scholastic merit Who worm their sense out but ne'er taste their spirit, Witness each pedant under Bentley bred,

Each commentator that e'er commented:

༡༠

Fear not & sad met If you can,

A 38 mm hore shit leads the one
24 sila nimie sur past er spacious name,
Frage wrong de aten`s the same,

saciousmu zines. - Sacitfool hasheard

Tr Homer vas 1 vnter of a murd.
Despise men cally with al my tent-
3 a ne cien s 1 tsp race part.
Wir stud you tease me for went secret cause
Che loves more on Hedions?

se, dr. s excess, to enderour To send 1 80000 Teste de kogus ne favour. 98 Jisunite i recher wish per hoge

A subbers acckhead from his far rite fop:
Yes-ion I say, were Maro's seat before 'em,
Fyr Miro's suit grows coil as they pore o'er him.

But hear their raptures o'er some specious rhyme Dubbla or the musk'd and greasy mob sublime; 99 For stigen's dear sake hear how a coxcomb prates As dam'rous o'er his joys as fifty cats

"Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, "To soften rocks and oaks,"

and all the rest: 100 "I'ave heard"-Bless these long ears!—"Heav'ns, "what a strain !

"GoodGod! what thundersburst in this Campaign! "Hark, Waller warbles! Ah! how sweetly killing! "Then that inimitable Splendid Shilling! 104 "Rowe breathes all Shakspere here!-That ode of "Is Spenser quite! egad his very fire !- [Prior “As like”—Yes, faith! as gumflow'rs to the rose, Or as to claret flat Minorca's dose;

As like as (if I am not grossly wrong)

Erle Robert's Mice to aught e'er Chaucer sung. 110
Read boldly, and unprejudic'd peruse

Each fav'rite modern ev'n each ancient Muse.
With all the comic salt and tragic rage
The great stupendous genius of our stage,
Boast of our island, pride of humankind,
Had faults to which the boxes are not blind;
His frailties are to ev'ry gossip known,
Yet Milton's pedantries not shock the Town.
Ne'er be the dupe of names however high,
For some outlive good parts some misapply.
Each elegant Spectator you admire,

115

120

But must you therefore swear by Cato's fire?
Masks for the court, and oft a clumsy jest,
Disgrac'd the Muse that wrought the Alchemist.
"But to the Ancients."-Faith! I am not clear,
For all the smooth round type of Elzevir,

126