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His lives of the poets will probably give birth, in this or the next century, to a work of literary retaliation. Whenever a poet arifes with as large a portion of spleen towards the critical writers of paft ages, as Johnfon indulged towards the poets in his poetical biography, the literature of England will be enriched with "the Lives of the Critics," a work from which you, my dear Warton, will have little to apprehend; you, whofe effay teaches, as the critical biographer very truly and liberally obferved, "how the brow of criticifm may be finoothed, and how the may be enabled, with all her severity, to attract and delight."

Yet to fhew how apt a writer of verses is to accufe a profeft critic of feverity, we may both recollect, that when I had occafion to speak of your entertaining and inftructive Effay on Pope, I fcrupled not to confider the main scope of it a little too fevere; and in truth, my dear friend, I think fo ftill; because it is the aim of that charining Effay to prove, that Pope poffeffed not those very high poetical talents, for which the world, though fufficiently inclined to difcover and magnify his defects, had allowed him credit. You

confider

confider him as the poet of reason, and intimate that "he ftooped to truth, and moralized his "fong," from a want of native powers to fupport a long flight in the higher province of fancy. To me, I confefs, his Rape of the Lock appears a fufficient proof that he poffeffed, in a superlative degree, the faculty in which' you would reduce him to a fecondary rank; he chofe, indeed, in many of his productions, to be the poet of reason rather than of fancy; but I apprehend his choice was influenced by an idea (I believe.a mistaken idea) that moral fatire is the fpecies of poetry by which a poet of modern times may render the greateft fervice to 'mankind. But if in one article you have been not so kind, as I could with, to the poet of morality, I rejoice in recollecting, that you are on the point of making him confiderable amends, and of fulfilling a prediction of mine, by removing from the pages of Pope a great portion of the lumber with which they were amply loaded by Warburton. You will foon, I trust, prove to the literary world, as you perfectly proved to me fome years ago, that the poet has fuffered not a little from the abfurdities of his arrogant

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It is hardly poffible for a man of letters, who affectionately venerates the name of Milton, and recollects fome expreffions of Warburton concerning his poetry and his moral character, to fpeak of that fupercilious prelate without catching fome portion of his own fcornful fpirit: you will immediately perceive that I allude to his having bestowed upon Milton the opprobrious title of a time-ferver*. Do you recollect, my dear learned critic, extenfive as your ftudies have been; do you recollect, in the wide range of ancient and modern defamation, a more unpardonable abufe of language? Milton, a poet of the most powerful,

*With what peculiar propriety Warburton applied this name to Milton, the reader will beft judge, who recollects the humorous Butler's very admirable character of a time-ferver, which contains the following paffage: "He is very zealous to "fhew himself, upon all occafions, a true member of the church "for the time being, and has not the leaft fcruple in his con "science against the doctrine and difcipline of it, as it stands at "prefent, or fhall do hereafter, unfight unfeen; for he is "refolved to be always for the truth, which he believes is never

fo plainly demonftrated as in that character that fays 'it is "great, and prevails; and in that fenfe only fit to be adhered "to by a prudent man, who will never be kinder to truth than fhe is to him; for fuffering is a very evil effe, and not likely "to proceed from a good caufe." Butler's Remains, vol. ii. p. 220.

and,

and, perhaps, the most independent mind that was ever given to a mere mortal, infulted with the appellation of a time-ferver; and by whom? by Warburton, whose writings, and whofe fortune-but I will not copy the contemptuous prelate in his favourite exercise of reviling the literary characters, whofe opinions were dif ferent from his own; his habit of indulging a contemptuous and dogmatical spirit has already drawn upon his name and writings the natural punishment of fuch verbal intemperance; and the mitred follower of his fame and fortune, who has lately endeavoured to prop his reputation by a tenderly partial, but a very imperfect life of his precipitate and quarrelfome patron, has rather leffened, perhaps, his own credit, than increased that of his master, by that affected coldness of contempt with which he describes, or rather disfigures, the illuftrious chaftifer of Warburtonian infolence, the more accomplished critic, of whom you eminent scholars of Winton are very juftly proud; I mean the eloquent and graceful LoWTH,

But as I am not fond of literary ftrife, however dignified and diftinguished the antagonists

may

may be, I will haften to extricate myself from this little group of contentious critics'; for it must be matter of regret to every fincere votary of peace and benevolence to obferve, that the field of literature is too frequently a field of cruelty, which almost realizes the hyperbolical expreffion of Lucan, and exhibits

"Plufquam civilia bella ;"

where men, whofe kindred ftudies fhould humanize their temper, and unite them in the ties of fraternal regard, are too apt to exert all their faculties in ferocioufly mangling each other; where we sometimes behold the friendship of years diffolved in a moment, and converted into furious hoftility, which, though it does not endanger, yet never fails to embitter life; and perhaps the fource of such contention,

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inftead of being a fair and faithlefs Helen, is nothing more than a particle of grammar in a dead language. O that the fpleen-correcting powers of mild and friendly ridicule could annihilate such hostilities !—-Cannot you, my dear Warton,

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