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midable an union, however, was foon oppofed by Tibbald. Tibbald afferted, that the tragedies of one had faults, and the comedies of the other fubftituted wit for vivacity; the combined champions flew at him like tygers, arraigned the cenfurer's judgment, and impeached his fincerity. It was a long time a difpute among the learned, which was in fact the greatest man, Jacob, Johnfon, or Tibbald; they had all written for the stage with great fuccefs, their names were seen in almost every paper, and their works in every coffee-house. However, in the hotteft of the difpute, a fourth combatant made his appearance, and fwept away the three combatants, tragedy, comedy, and all, into undistinguished ruin.

From this time, they seemed configned into the hands of criticism, fcarce a day paffed in which they were not arraigned as detefted writers. The critics, thefe enemies of Dryden and Pope, were their enemies. So Jacob and Johnson, instead of mending by criticism, called it envy; and because Dryden and Pope were cenfured, they compared themselves to Dryden and Pope.

But, to return, the weapon chiefly used in the present controverfy is epigram, and certainly never was a keener made ufe of. They have discovered surprising sharpness on both fides. The firft that came out upon this occafion, was a kind of new compofition in this way, and might more properly be called an epigramatic thefis, than an epigram. It confifts, firft, of an argument in profe; next follows a motto from Rofcommon; then comes the epigram; and laftly, notes ferving to explain the epigram. But you shall have it with all its decorations.

AN EPIGRAM.

Addreffed to the gentleman reflected on in the ROCIAD, a poem, by the author.

Worry'd with debts, and past all hopes of bail,
His pen he prostitutes t'avoid a jail.

ROSCOM.

"Let not the hungry Bavius' angry stroke,
Awake refentment, or your rage provoke ;
But, pitying his distress, let virtue (1) shine,
And, giving each your bounty, (2) let him dine;
For thus retain'd as learned counsel can,
Each cafe, however bad, he'll new japan;
And by a quick transition plainly show
'Twas no defect of yours, but pocket low,
That caus'd his putrid kennel to o'erflow."

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The laft lines are certainly executed in a very mafterly manner. It is of that fpecies of argumentation, called the perplexing. It effectually flings the antagonist into a mist; there is no answering it: the laugh is raised against him, while he is endeavouring to find out the jeft. At once he fhews, that the author has a kennel, and that this kennel is putrid, and that this putrid kennel overflows. But why does it overflow? It overflows, because the author happens to have low pockets!

There was also another new attempt in this way, a profaic epigram which came out upon this occafion.

(1) Charity.

(2) Settled at one fhilling, the price of the poem.

This is fo full of matter, that a critic might split it into fifteen epigrams, each properly fitted with its fting. You fhall fee it.

To G. C. and R. L.

"'Twas you, or I, or he, or altogether,

'Twas one, both, three of them, they know not whether. This I believe, between us, great or small,

You, I, he, wrote it not,-'twas Churchill's all."

There, there's a perplex! I could have wifhed to make it quite perfect, the author as in the cafe before, had added notes. Almoft every word admits a fcholion, and a long one too. I, YOU, HE! Suppose a ftranger should ask, and who are you? Here are three obfcure perfons spoken of, that may in a fhort time be utterly forgotten. Their names should have consequently been mentioned in notes at the bottom. But when the reader comes to the words great and small, the maze is inextricable. Here the ftranger may dive for a mystery, without ever reaching the bottom. Let him know then, that small is a word purely introduced to make good rhyme, and great was a very proper word to keep small company.

Yet, by being thus a spectator of others dangers, I must own I begin to tremble at this literary conteft for my own. I begin to fear that my challenge to Doctor Rock was unadvised, and has procured me more antagonists than I had at firft expected. I have received private letters from feveral of the literati here, that fill my foul with apprehenfion. I may safely aver, that I never gave any creature in this good city offence, except only my rival,

Doctor Rock; yet, by the letters I every day receive, and by fome I have feen printed, I am arraigned at one time as being a dull fellow, at another as being pert; I am here petulant, there I am heavy; by the head of my ancestors, they treat me with more inhumanity than a flying-fish. If I dive and run my nose to the bottom, there a devouring shark is ready to fwallow me up; If I skim the surface, a pack of dolphins are at my tail to fnap me; but when I take wing and attempt to escape them by flight, I become a prey to every ravenous bird that winnows the bofom of the deep. Adieu.

LETTER CXIV.

TO THE SAME.

THE formalities, delays, and difappointments, that

precede a treaty of marriage here, are usually as numerous as those previous to a treaty of peace. The laws of this country are finely calculated to promote all commerce, but the commerce between the fexes. Their encouragement for propagating hemp, madder, and tobacco, are indeed admirable! Marriages are the only commodity that meet with none.

Yet from the vernal softness of the air the verdure of the fields, the tranfparency of the ftreams, and the beauty of the women, I know few countries more proper to invite to courtship. Here love might sport among painted lawns and warbling groves, and revel upon gales, wafting at once both fragrance and harmony. Yet it seems he has forfaken the island; and when a couple

are now to be married, mutual love, or union of minds, is the last and most trifling confideration. If their goods and chattels can be brought to unite, their fympathetic fouls are ever ready to guarantee the treaty. The gentleman's mortgaged lawn becomes enamoured of the lady's marriageable grove; the match is ftruck up, and both parties are piously in love-according to act of parliament.

Thus, they who have fortune are poffeffed at least of fomething that is lovely; but I actually pity thofe that have none. I am told their was a time, when ladies, with no other merit but youth, virtue, and beauty, had a chance for husbands at least among the minifters of the church, or the officers of the army, The blush and innocence of fixteen was faid to have a powerful influence over these two profeffions. But of late all the little traffic of blushing, ogling, dimpling, and smiling has been forbidden by an act in that case wifely made and provided. A lady's whole cargo of fmiles, fighs, and whispers, is declared utterly contraband, till fhe arrives in the warm latitudes of twenty-two, where commodities of this nature are too often found to decay. She is then permitted to dimple and smile, when the dimples and fmiles begin to forfake her; and when perhaps grown ugly, is charitably entrusted with an unlimited use of her charms. Her lovers, however, by this time have forfaken her; the captain has changed for another mistress; the priest himself, leaves her in folitude to bewail her virginity, and fhe dies even without the benefit of clergy.

Thus you find the Europeans difcouraging love with as much earnestness as the rudeft favage of Sofala. The

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