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immortalised by the infertion of their names in his addreffes to Stella, or in other mifcellaneous pieces, written in an eafy, though not in a careless manner. His more

exalted friends, whofe ftations and characters did him honour, are treated in a different ftyle; there will be found a real dignity, and moft delicate kind of wit, in all his Poems to those friends.

The two Poems, entitled, The Life and genuine Character of Dr. Swift; and Verfes on the Death of Dr. Swift, are Poems of great wit and humour. That on the Death of Dr. Swift is a moft poignant piece of farcasm; not any of the Dean's Poems have more wit, nor any of them more feverity; in it he has fummoned together his whole powers of fatire and poetry; combined together they have an admirable effect.

and 4

One of the most distinguished characters of Dr. Swift, was a bright and clear genius, so extremely piercing that the most ftriking circumftance, arifing from any fubject, quickly occurred to his imagination, and thefe he fre quently accumulated in fuch a manner that he deferves, in this particular, to be univerfally admired; and his choice of circumftances, if any ftrefs can be laid on the opinion of Longinus, that great director of our taste and judgment, renders a compofition truly noble and fub. lime. The most remarkable pieces of this kind are-The Furniture of a Weman's Mind-Betty the GrifetteThe Journal of a Modern Lady-His Poem on Reading Dr. Young's Satire-Mordante-The Defcription of a City Shower-The Defcription of Quilca--and, The Defcription of the Morning.

This power of the mind gave him alfo that desperate hand, as Pope terms it, in taking off all forts of characters, which is abundantly exemplified in, The Second Part of Traulus-The Progress of Love - The Chara&er of Corinna-and the beautiful young Nymph just going to Bed-From the fame inexhauftible fund of wit he ac quired the hiftoric arts, both of defigning and colour. ing, either in groups or in fingle portraits. How exact, how lively and fpirited is that group of figures in The Journal

Journal of a Modern Lady; and, for a fingle portrait if we confider the defign, the attitude, the drapery or the colouring, what is there that can excel the reprefentation of Čaffimis, in the Tragical Elogy.

Throughout all Swifts' poetical writings, although many of them are dedicated immediately to the fair fex, there can hardly be found a diftich addreffed in the character of a lover to any one perfon. Thofe verfes upon women which are deemned the most fatirical were written principally with a view to correct their foibles, to improve their taste, and to make them as agreeable companions at the age of threefcore as at five and twenty: and it has been remarked, that the most exceptionable of his Poems in that line have produced fome very extraordinary effects in the polite world. This was no doubt the ultimate defign of his writing, The Lady's Dreig room, and other pieces, which area knowledged to be fomewhat liable to cenfure on account of their feverity.

Among the admirers of Swift many have compared him to Horace, and particularly Lord Orrery, who says that, had Swift lived in the fame age with Horace, he would have approached nearer to him than any other poet; and if we may make an allowance for the different courfe of ftudy, and different form of government to which each of thefe great men were fubje&t, we may obferve, in the feveral inftances, a strong refemblance between them. Both Poets are equally dif tinguished for wit and humour; each difplays a peculiar felicity in diction; and each was the delight and admiration of the principal perfons of his age. To have lived with the great was not more applicable to Horace than to Swift. They both were temperate, both were frugal. Horace had his Lydia; Swift had his Vanefla : Horace had his patrons, Maecenas and Agrippa; Swift had his patrons, Oxford and Bolingbroke: Horace had his literary friend, Virgil; Swift had his literary friend, Pope.

Upon the whole, it appears furprising, that Swift

fhould

fhould produce, by the mere force of taste and abilities, without any laboured correction at all, fuch wonders in the poetic train, as to make fome of his moft partial admirers not only prefer him to most of the poets of thefe latter centuries, but compare him to Horace, that immortal genius of the Auguftan age.

END OF THE LIFE OF SWIFT.

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AN

APOLOGY

FOR THE

AUTHOR.

IF good and ill-nature equally operated upon

:

mankind, I might have faved myself the trouble of this apology for it is manifeft, by the re ception the following difcourfe hath met with, that those who approve it are a great majority among the men of taste. Yet there have been two or three Treatifes written exprefsly against it, befides many others that have flirted at it occafionally, without one syllable having been ever published in its defence, or even quotation to its advantage, that I can remember; except by the polite author of a late Discourse between a Deift and a Socinian.

Therefore, fince the book feems calculated to live at least as long as our language and our tafte, admits no great alterations, I am content to convey fome apology along with it.

The greatest part of that book was finished above thirteen years fince, 1696; which is eight A 3

years

years before it was published. The author was then young, his invention at the height, and his reading fresh in his head. By the affistance of fome thinking, and much conversation, he had endeavoured to ftrip himself of as many real prejudices as he could: I fay, real ones; because, under the notion of prejudices, he knew to what dangerous height fome men have proceeded. Thus prepared, he thought the numerous and grofs corruptions in religion and learning might furnish matter for a satire, that would be useful and diverting. He refolved to proceed in a manner that fhould be altogether new; the world having been already too long naufeated with endless repetitions upon every fubject. The abuses in religion he proposed to set forth in the allegory of the coats and the three brothers; which was to make up the body of the diicourfe. Thofe in learning he chofe to introduce by way of digreffions. He was then a young gentleman, much in the world; and wrote to the taste of those who were like himfelf: therefore, in order to allure them, he gave a liberty to his pen, which might not fuit with maturer years, or graver characters; and which he could have easily corrected with a very few blots, had he been mafter of his papers for a year or two before their publication.

Not that he would have governed his judgment by the ill-placed cavils of the four, the envious,

the

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