writers are not here included) have fhewn a profound knowledge of man; and many pourtraits of ADDISON may be compared with the most finished touches of LA BRUYERE. But the Epistles we are now entering upon will place the matter beyond a difpute; for the French can boast of no author who has fo much exhausted the fcience of morals, as POPE has in thefe five Epiftles. They indeed contain all that is folid and valuable in the above-mentioned French writers, of whom our author was remarkably fond: But whatever obferva tions he has borrowed from them, he has made his own by the dexterity of his appli cation. 1. Men may be read, as well as books, too much *. "STUDY life;" cry the unlettered men of the world: but that world cannot be known merely by that ftudy alone. The dread of pedantry is a characteristic folly of the present age. We adopted it from the French, without confidering the reasons that give rise to it among that people: the religious, and particularly the Jefuits, perceiving that a taste for learning began widely to diffuse itself among the laity, could find no furer method of repreffing it, than by treating the learned character as ridiculous. This ridicule was carried fo far, that, to mention one inftance out of ten thousand, the publisher of La Rochfoucault's maxims makes a grave apology in form, for quoting Seneca in Latin. 2. At half mankind, when gen'rous Manly raves, All know 'tis virtue, for he thinks them knaves* THE character alluded to is the principal one in the Plain Dealer of Wycherly, a comedy taken from the Misanthrope of Moliere, but much inferior to the original. Alceftes has not that bitterness of spirit, and has much more humanity and honour than Manly. Writers transfufe their own characters into their works: Wycherly was a vain and profligate libertine; Moliere was beloved for his candour, fweetnefs of temper and integrity. It is re markable that the French did not relish this incomparable comedy for the three first representations. The ftrokes of its fatire were too fubtle and delicate to be felt by the generality of the audience, who expected only the grofs diverfion of laughing; so that at the fourth time of its being acted, the author was forced to add to it one of his coarfest farces; but Boileau in the mean time affirmed that it was the capital work of their stage, and that the people would one time be induced to think fo. 3. Unthought-of frailties cheat us in the wife *. FOR who could imagine that Locke was fond of romances; that NEWTON Once ftudied aftrology; that Roger ASCHAM and Dr. WHITBY were devoted lovers of cock-fighting; that Dr. CLARKE valued himself for his agility, and frequently amused himself in a private room of his house in leaping over the tables and chairs: and that our author himself was a great VOL. II. • Ver. 69. epicure? epicure? When he fpent a fummer with a certain nobleman, he was accustomed to lie whole days in bed on account of his head-achs, but would at any time rife with alacrity, when his fervant informed him there were stewed lampreys for dinner. On the eve of an important battle, the Duke of MARLBOROUGH was heard chiding his fervant for having been fo extravagant as to light four candles in his tent, when Prince Eugene came to confer with him.. ELIZABETH was a coquet, and BACON received a bribe. Dr. BUSBY had a violent paffion for the ftage; it was excited in him by the applauses he received in acting the Royal Slave before the King at Chrift-Church; and he declared, that if the rebellion had not broke out, he had certainly engaged himself as an actor. LuTHER was fo immoderately paffionate, that he fometimes boxed MELANCTHON's ears; and MELANCтHON himself was a believer in judicial aftrology, and an interpreter of dreams. RICHLIEU and MAZARIN were fo fuperftitious as to employ and penfion MORIN, MORIN, a pretender to aftrology, who cast the nativities of these two able politicians. Nor was TACITUS himself, who generally appears fuperior to superstition, untainted with this folly, as may appear from the twenty-second chapter of the fixth book of his annals. Men of great genius have been somewhere compared to the pillar of fire that conducted the Ifraelites, which frequently turned a cloudy fide towards the spectator. 4: See the fame man, in vigour, in the gout; Early at bufinefs, and at hazard late; Mad at a fox-chafe, wife at a debate ; THE unexpected inequalities of our minds and tempers are here exhibited in a lively manner, and with a perfect knowledge of nature. I cannot forbear placing before the reader Tully's pourtrait of Cataline, whofe inconfiftencies and varieties of conduct are thus enumerated: * Ute |