guftus fo fond of him, though he had been fo avowed an enemy, and ferved under Brutus. I have seen some manuscript Let ters of Shaftesbury, in which he has ranged in three different classes the Ethical writings of Horace, according to the different periods of his life in which he fuppofes them to have been written. The firft, during the time he professed the Stoic philofophy, and was a friend of Brutus. The fecond, after he became diffolute and debauched, at the court of Auguftus. The third, when he repented of this abandoned Epicurean life, wished to retire from the city and court, and become a private man and a philofopher. 16. et fragili quærens illidere dentem, Offendet folido- * POPE has omitted this elegant allusion. Horace feems to have been particularly fond of those exquifite morfels of wit and genius, the old Efopic + fables. He fre • Ver: 77. † See the learned Dissertation, DE BABRIO, lately pub. lifhed by Mr. Tyrwhit; in which are feveral of the greatest elegance. quently quently alludes to them, but always with a brevity, very different from our modern writers of fable; even the natural La Fontaine has added a quaint and witty thought to this very fable. The File fays to the Viper, Fab. 98, Tu te romprois toutes les dents. Je ne crains que celles du Temps. 17. Si mala condiderit in quem quis carmina, jus eft Judiciumque. H. Efto fi quis mala, sed bona fi quis Judice condiderit laudatus Cæfare To laugh at the folemnity of Trebatius, Horace puts him off with a play upon words: But our important lawyer takes no notice of the jeft, and finishes with a gravity fuited to his character. Solventur rifû tabulæ, Tu miffus abibis, THIS dialogue I heard lately spoken + with so much spirit and propriety, that if our author could have been present, he perhaps might have been inclined to alter an opinion, of which he seems very fond, • Ver. 82. At Eton School. in "that in the fourth book of the Dunciad, WORDS only are learnt at our GREAT SCHOOLS." 18. Non meus hic fermo; fed quæ præcepit Ofellus Hear Bethel's fermon, one not vers'd in schools, THIS difcourfe in praise of Temperance lofes much of it's grace and propriety, by being put into the mouth of a person of a much higher rank in life than the honest countryman Ofellus; whofe patrimony had been feized by Auguftus, and given to one of his foldiers named Umbrenus; and whom, perhaps, Horace recommended to the emperor, by making him the chief Speaker in this very fatire. We may imagine that a difcourfe on temperance from Horace, raised a laugh among the courtiers of Augustus; and we fee, he could not venture to deliver it in his own perfon. This imitation of Pope is not equal to most of his others. • Sat. ii. lib. 2. v. 2. + Ver. 10. 19. Leporem 19. Leporem fectatus, equove Go hunt, work, exercife! he thus began, If then plain bread and milk will do the feat, THIS paragraph is much inferior to the original; in which the mention of many particular exercises gives it a pleafing va * We are informed by Mr. Stuart, in his Athens, thaf the honey of Hymettus, even to this time, continues to be in vogue, and that the feraglio of the Grand Seignor is ferved with a quantity of it yearly. + Ver. 9. ↑ Ver. 11. riety. riety. The fixth and feventh lines in Horace are nervous and ftrong. The third in Pope languid and wordy, which renders foris eft promus. Defendens, & latrantem, & caro, & pinguem, & album, are all of them very expreffive epithets. And the allufion to Socrates's conftant exercise, tu pulmentaria, &c. ought not to have been omitted. Pope's two laft lines in this paffage are very exceptionable. 20. Vix tamen eripiam, pofito pavone, velis quin Preach as I please, I doubt our curious men He might have inferted the original word peacocks, as many of our English epicures are fond of them. Q. Hortenfius had the honour of being the first Roman that introduced this bird to the table as a great dainty, in a magnificent feast which he made on his being created Augur. The price of a peacock, fays Arbuthnot, page 129, was 50 denarii, that is, 17. 125. 3d. • Ver. 23. + Ver, 17. |