IT was CRAGGS, who in the most friendly and alluring manner offered our author a pension of three hundred pounds per annum; which if he had accepted, we should have been deprived of his best fatires. Poets have a high spirit of liberty and independence. They neither feek or expect rewards. MECENASES do not create geniuses. Neither SPENCER or MILTON, or DANTE or TASSO, or CORNEILLE*, were patronized by the governments under which they lived. And HORACE and VIRGIL and BOILEAU were formed, before they had an opportunity of flattering AUGUSTUS and LEWIS XIV.

THOUGH POPE enlifted under the banner of BOLINGBROKE, in what was called the country party, and in violent oppofition to the measures of WALPOLE, yet his clear and good fenfe enabled him to fee the fol

Il n' aimoit point le Cour, (fays Fontenelle, fpeaking of his uncle Corneille) il y apportoit un visage presqu' inconnu, un grand nom qui ne s' attiroit que des louanges, & un merite qui n' etoit point le merite de ce pays-là. Tom. iii. p. 126.

lies

lies and virulence of all parties; and it was his favourite maxim, that, however factious men thought proper to distinguish themfelves by names, yet when they got into power they all acted much in the fame manner; faying,

I know how like Whig ministers to Tory.

And among his manuscripts were four very fenfible, though not very poetical, lines, which contain the most folid apology that can be made for a minister of this country:

Our minifters like gladiators live;

'Tis half their business blows to ward, or give;
The good their virtue would effect, or fenfe,
Dies, between exigents and felf-defence.

Yet he appears fometimes to have forgotten this candid reflection.

SECT. XI.

Of the EPISTLE to DR. ARBUTHNOt.

1.

HUT, shut the door, good John! fatigu'd, I said,

SHUT,

Tie up

the knocker, fay I'm fick, I'm dead!

The dog-ftar rages! nay, 'tis paft a doubt,
All Bedlam or Parnaffus is let out:

Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand,
They rave, recite, and madden round the land ❤.

THIS abrupt exordium is animated and dramatic. Our poet, wearied with the impertinence and flander of a multitude of mean fcribblers that attacked him, fuddenly breaks out with this fpirited complaint of the ill ufage he had sustained. This piece was published in the year 1734, in the form of an epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot; it is now given as a Dialogue,

• Ver. 1.

With this motto, fince omitted: Neque fermonibus Valgi dederis te, nec in premiis humanis fpem posueris rerum tuarum : fuis te oportet illecebris ipfa Virtus trahat ad verum decus. Quid de te alii loquantur, ipfi videant, fed loquentur tamen.

TULLY.

in

in which a very small share indeed is allotted to his friend. Arbuthnot was a man of confummate probity *, integrity, and sweetnefs of temper: he had infinitely more learning than POPE or SWIFT, and as much wit and humour as either of them. He was an excellent mathematician and physician, of which his letter on the ufefulness of mathematical learning, and his treatise on air and aliment, are fufficient proofs. His tables of ancient coins, weights, and measures †, are the work of a man intimately acquainted with ancient history and literature, and are enlivened with many curious and interefting particulars of the manners and ways of living of the ancients. The Hiftory of John Bull, the best parts of the Memoirs of Scriblerus, the Art of Political Lying, the Freeholders

• Swift said, "he was a man that could do every thing but walk." His chearfulness was remarkable: “ As for your humble fervant, with a great flone in his kidneys, and a family of men and women to provide for, he is as chéafful as ever in public affairs." Letters, vol. xx. p. 2c6.

Oh, fays Swift, if the world had but a dozen of Arbuthnots in it, I would burn my Travels! Letters, vol. ix.

P. 58.

P 4

Catechifm,

Catechism, It cannot rain but it pours, &os abound in ftrokes of the most exquifita humour. It is known that he gave numberlefs hints to Swift, and Pope, and Gay, of fome of the most striking parts of their works. He was so neglectful of his write ings, that his children tore his manuscripts and made paper-kites of them. Few letters in the English language are fo interesting, and contain fuch marks of Chriftian refignation and calmness of mind, as one that he wrote to Swift a little before his death, and is inferted in the 3d vol. of Letters, page 157. He frequently, and ably, and warmly, in many conversations, defended the cause of revelation against the

"I make it my last request (fays Arbuthnot in his laft letter to POPE) that you will continue that noble disdain and abhorrence of vice, which you fcem naturally endued with; but ftill with a due regard to your own fafety; and Audy more to reform than cbaftife, though the one cannot be effected without the other." Letters, vol. viii. p. 290. The words are remarkable, and cannot fail of raising many réfections in the mind of the reader. POPE, in his answer, fays, "To reform, and not to chafife, is impoffible; and the best precepts, as well as the best laws, would prove of fmail ufe, if there were no examples to enforce them.” This is not a fufficient and solid defence of perfinal satire.