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the credit of his encomiaft, or left others should endea vour to obtain the like praises by the fame means.

But though these excufes may be often plausible, and fometimes juft, they are very feldom fatisfactory to mankind; and the writer, who is not conftant to his fubject, quickly finks into contempt, his fatire loses its force, and his panegyrick its value, and he is only confidered at one time as a flatterer, and as a calumniator at another.

To avoid thefe imputations, it is only neceffary to follow the rules of virtue, and to preferve an unvaried. regard to truth. For though it is undoubtedly poffible that a man, however cautious, may be fometimes deceived by an artful appearance of virtue, or by false evidences of guilt, fuch errors will not be frequent; and it will be allowed, that the name of an author would never have been made contemptible, had no man ever faid what he did not think, or misled others but when he was himself deceived,

The Author to be let was first published in a single pamphlet, and afterwards inferted in a collection of pieces relating to the Dunciad, which were addressed by Mr. Savage to the Earl of Middlefex, in a * dedication which he was prevailed upon to fign, though he did not write it, and in which there are some positions, that the true author would perhaps not have published under his own name, and on which Mr. Savage afterwards reflected with no great fatisfaction; the enumeration of the bad effects of the uncontroled freedom of the prefs, and the affertion that the "liberties taken by the writers of Journals with their fuperiors were "exorbitant and unjustifiable," very ill became men,

See his Works, vol. II. p. 233.

whe

who have themselves not always fhewn the exacteft regard to the laws of fubordination in their writings, and who have often fatirifed thofe that at least thought themselves their fuperiors, as they were eminent for their hereditary rank, and employed in the highest offices of the kingdom. But this is only an inftance of that partiality which almost every man indulges with regard to himfelf: the liberty of the prefs is a bleffing, when we are inclined to write against others, and a calamity when we find ourfelves overborne by the multitude of our affailants; as the power of the crown is always thought too great by those who suffer by its influence, and too little by thofe in whofe favour it is exerted; and a standing army is generally accounted neceffary by those who command, and dangerous and oppreffive by those who fupport it.

Mr. Savage was likewife very far from believing, that the letters annexed to each fpecies of bad poets in the Bathos were, as he was directed to affert, " fet down "at random;" for when he was charged by one of his friends with putting his name to fuch an improbability, he had no other answer to make, than that "he did 66 not think of it;" and his friend had too much tenderness to reply, that next to the crime of writing contrary to what he thought, was that of writing without hinking.

After having remarked what is falfe in this dedica tion, it is proper that I obferve the impartiality which I recommend, by declaring what Savage afferted, that the account of the circumftances which attended the publication of the Dunciad, however ftrange and improbable, was exactly true.

The

The publication of this piece at this time raised Mr, Savage a great number of enemies among those that were attacked by Mr. Pope, with whom he was confidered as a kind of confederate, and whom he was fufpected of fupplying with private intelligence and fecret incidents: fo that the ignominy of an informer was added to the terror of a fatirift.

That he was not altogether free from literary hypoerify, and that he fometimes fpoke one thing, and wrote another, cannot be denied; because he himself confeffed, that, when he lived in great familiarity with Dennis, he wrote an epigram* against him.

Mr. Savage however fet all the malice of all the pigmy writers at defiance, and thought the friendship of Mr. Pope cheaply purchased by being expofed to their cenfure and their hatred; nor had he any reason to repent of the preference, for he found Mr. Pope a fteady and unalienable friend almost to the end of his life.

About this time, notwithstanding his avowed neutrality with regard to party, he published a panegyrick on Sir Robert Walpole, for which he was rewarded by him with twenty guineas, a fum not very large, if either the excellence of the performance, or the affluence of the patron be confidered; but greater than he

*This epigram was, I believe, never published.

Should Dennis publish you had stabb'd your brother,
Lampoon'd your monarch, or debauch'd your mother;
Say, what revenge on Dennis can be had,
Too dull for laughter, for reply too mad?

On one fo poor you cannot take the law,

On one fo old your fword you scorn to draw.
Uncag'd, then let the harmless monster rage,

Secure in dulnefs, madness, want, and age. Orig. Edit.

after

afterwards obtained from a perfon of yet higher rank, and more defirous in appearance of being diftinguished as a patron of literature.

As he was very far from approving the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole, and in converfation mentioned him fometimes with acrimony, and generally with contempt; as he was one of those who were always zealous in their affertions of the justice of the late oppofition, jealous of the rights of the people, and alarmed by the long-continued triumph of the court; it was natural to ask him what could induce him to employ his poetry in praise of that man who was, in his opinion, an enemy to liberty, and an oppreffor of his country? He alleged, that he was then dependent upon the Lord Tyrconnel, who was an implicit follower of the miniftry; and that being enjoined by him, not without menaces, to write in praise of his leader, he had not refolution fufficient to facrifice the plerfure of affluence to that of integrity.

On this, and on many other occafions, he was ready to lament the mifery of living at the tables of other men, which was his fate from the beginning to the end of his life; for I know not whether he ever had, for three months together, a fettled habitation, in which he could claim a right of refidence.

To this unhappy state it is just to impute much of the inconftancy of his conduct; for though a readiness to comply with the inclination of others was no part of his natural character, yet he was fometimes obliged to relax his obftinacy, and fubmit his own judgement, and even his virtue, to the government of those by whom he was fupported: fo that, if his miferies were fometimes the confequences of his faults, he

ought

ought not yet to be wholly excluded from compassion, because his faults were very often the effects of his miffortunes.

In this gay period

rounded by affluence and

of his life, while he was fur

pleasure, he published, The

Wanderer, a moral poem, of which the design is com prifed in thefe lines:

I fly all public care, all venal ftrife,

To try the ftill compar'd with active life;
To prove, by these the fons of men may owe
The fruits of blifs to bursting clouds of woe;
That ev'n calamity by thought refin'd,
Infpirits and adorns the thinking mind.

And more diftinctly in the following paffage:
By woe, the foul to daring action fwells;
By woe, in plaintless patience it excels;
From patience prudent, clear experience springs,
And traces knowledge through the course of things!
Thence hope is form'd, thence fortitude, fuccefs,
Renown-whate'er men covet and carefs.

This performance was always confidered by himself as his master-piece; and Mr. Pope, when he asked his opinion of it, told him, that he read it once over, and was not displeased with it, that it gave him more pleafure at the fecond perufal, and delighted him ftill more at the third.

It has been generally objected to The Wanderer, that the difpofition of the parts is irregular; that the defign is obfcure, and the plan perplexed; that the images, however beautiful, fucceed each other withut order; and that the whole performance is not

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