AN

ESSAY

ON

SATIR E

Written in the Year 1675.

AN

ESSAY on SATIRE.

OW vain, and how infen

fible a Beaft

Is Man! who yet would

lord it o'er the rest!

Philofophers and Poets

vainly ftrove

In every Age, the lumpish Mass to move:

But

But those were Pedants, if compar'd with these,

Who knew not only to inftruct, but please :
Poets alone found the delightful Way,

Mysterious Morals gently to convey

In charming Numbers, that when once Men grew
Pleas'd with their Poems, they grew wiser too.
Satire has always fhin'd among the reft,

;

And is the boldest Way, perhaps the best,
To fhew Men freely all their fouleft Faults
To laugh at their vain Deeds and vainer Thoughts.
In this great Work the Wife took diff'rent ways,
Tho' each deferving its peculiar Praise:
Some did our Follies with juft Sharpness blame;
While others laugh'd, and scorn'd us into Shame;
But, of these two, the last succeeded beft;
As Men hit righteft, when they shoot in jest.

Yet, if we may prefume to blame our Guides,
And cenfure those who cenfur'd all befides:
In all things elfe they justly are preferr'd;
In this alone methinks the Ancients err'd:

Against