beauty, which gives fo inexpreffible a pleasure to him who beft underftands their force; this Diction of his, I must once again fay, is never to be Copied; and fince it cannot, he will appear but lame in the best Tranflation. The turns of his Verfe, his breakings, his propriety, his numbers, and his gravity, I have as far imitated, as the poverty of our Language, and the haftiness of my Performance wou'd allow. I may feem fometimes to have varied from his Senfe; but I think the greatest Variations may be fairly deduc'd from him; and where I leave his Commentators, it may be I understand him better: At least I Writ without confulting them in many places. But two particular Lines in Mezentius and Laufus I cannot fo eafily excufe; they are indeed remotely ally'd to Virgil's Senfe; but they are too like the tenderness of Ovid; and were Printed before I had confider'd them enough to alter them: The firft of them I have forgotten, and cannot easily retrieve, because

the Copy is at the Prefs: The fecond is this;

-When Laufus dy'd, I was already lain.

This appears pretty enough at first fight, but I am convinc'd for many reasons, that the Expreffion is too bold, that Virgil wou'd not have said it, though Ovid wou'd. The Reader may pardon it, if he pleafe, for the freeness of the confeffion; and inftead of that, and the former, admit these two Lines which are more according to the Author,

Nor ask I Life, nor fought with that defign;

As I had us'd my Fortune, ufe thou thine.

Having with much ado got clear of Virgil, I have in the next place to confider the Genius of Lucretius, whom I have Tranflated more happily in thofe parts of him which I undertook. If he was not of the beft Age of Roman Poetry, he was at leaft of that which preceded it;

and he himfelf refin'd it to that degree of Perfection, both in the Language and the Thoughts, that he left an eafie Task to Virgil, who as he fucceeded him in time, fo he Copy'd his Excellencies; for the method of the Georgicks is plainly deriv'd from him. Lucretius had cho fen a Subject naturally crabbed; he therefore adorn'd it with Poetical Defcriptions, and Precepts of Morality, in the beginning and ending of his Books. Which you fee Virgil has imitated with great Succefs, in thofe Four Books, which in my Opinion are more perfect in their kind, than even his Divine Eneids. The turn of his Verfes he has likewife follow'd, in thofe places which Lucretius has moft labour'd, and fome of his very Lines he has tranfplanted into his own Works, without much Variation. If I am not mistaken, the diftinguishing Character of Lucretius, (I mean of his Soul and Genius) is a certain kind of noble Pride, and pofitive Affertion of his Opinions. He is every where confident of his

own Reason, and affuming an abfolute Command not only over his vulgar Reader, but even his Patron Memmius. For he is always bidding him attend, as if he had the Rod over him; and ufing a Magifterial Authority, while he inftructs him. From his Time to ours, I know none fo like him, as our Poet and Philofopher of Malmsbury. This is that perpetual Dictatorship, which is exercis'd by Lucretius; who though often in the wrong, yet feems to deal bond fide with his Reader, and tells him nothing but what he thinks; in which plain fincerity, I believe he differs from our Hobbs, who could not but be convinc'd, or at leaft doubt of fome Eternal Truths which he has oppos'd. But for Lucretius, he feems to difdain all manner of Replies, and is fo confident of his Cause, that he is before hand with his Antagonists: Urging for them, whatever he imagin'd they could fay, and leaving them, as he fuppofes, without an Objection for the future. All this too, with fo much Scorn,

and Indignation, as if he were affur'd of the Triumph, before he enter'd into the Lifts. From this fublime and daring Genius of his, it must of neceffity come to pafs, that his Thoughts must be Mafculine, full of Argumentation, and that fufficiently warm. From the fame fiery Temper proceeds the Loftinefs of his Expreffions, and the perpetual Torrent of his Verfe, where the barrenness of his Subject does not too much conftrain the quickness of his Fancy. For there is no doubt to be made, but that he could have been every where as Poetical, as he is in his Defcriptions, and in the Moral part of his Philofophy, if he had not aim'd more to inftruct in his Syftem of Nature, than to delight. But he was bent upon making Memmius a Materialift, and teaching him to defie an invifible Power: In fhort, he was fo much an Atheist, that he forgot fometimes to be a Poet. These are the Confiderations which I had of that Author, before I attempted to tranflate fome parts of him. And