our country's arms, had almost the afcendant in point of letters. I mention these things only to put you in mind that hardly one of our poets has been in a condition to do without, or certainly to be above the fufpicion of learned imitation. And the obfervation is so true, that even in this our age, when good letters, they fay, are departing from us, the Greek or Roman stamp is still visible in every work of genius, that has taken with the public. Do you think one needed to be told in the title-page, that a late DRAMA, or fome later ODES were form'd on the ancient model? The drift of all this, you will fay, is to overturn the former difcourfe; for that now I pretend, every degree of likeness to a preceding writer is an argument of imitation. Rather, if you pleafe, conclude that, in my opinion, every degree of likeness is expofed to the fufpicion of imitation. To convert this fufpicion into a proof, it is not enough to say, that a writer might, but that his circumftances make it plain or probable at least, that he did imitate. Of these circumstances then, the first I should think deferving our attention, is the AGE in which the writer lived. One should know if it were an age addicted to much study, and in which it was creditable for the best writers to make a fhew of their reading. Such especially was the age fucceeding to that memorable æra, the revival of letters in these western countries. The fashion of the time was to interweave as much of antient wit as poffible in every new work. work. Writers were fo far from affecting to think and speak in their own way, that it was their pride to make the admired antients think and speak for them. This humour continued very long, and in fome fort even ftill continues; with this difference indeed, that, then, the antients were introduced to do the honours, fince to do the drudgery of the entertainment. But several caufes confpired to carry it to its height in England about the beginning of the last century. You may be fure then, the writers of that period abound in imitations. The best poets boasted of them as their fovereign excellence. And you will eafily credit, for inftance, that B. Johnson was a fervile imitator, when you find him on fo many occafions little better than a painful translator. I foresee the occafion I fhall have, in the course of this letter, to weary you with citations; and would not therefore go out of my way for them. Yet, amidft a thousand inftances of this fort in Johnson, the following, I fancy, will entertain you. The Latin verfes, you know, are of Catullus. Ut flos in feptis fecretus nafcitur hortis, It came in Johnson's way, in one of his masks, to tranflate this passage; and obferve with what industry he he has fecured the fenfe, while the spirit of his author escapes him. Look, how a flower that clofe in clofes grows, Hid from rude cattle, bruifed with no plows, Which th'air doth ftroke, fun ftrengthen, fhow'rs fhoot high'r, It many youths, and many maids defire; The fame, when cropt by cruel hand is wither'd, No youths at all, no maidens have defir❜d. -It was not thus, you remember, that Ariofto and Pope have tranflated these fine verfes. But to return to our purpose: To this confideration of the Age of a writer, you may add, if you please, that of his EDUCATION, Tho' it might not, in general, be the fashion to affect learning, the habits acquired by a particular writer might difpofe him to do so. What was less esteemed by the enthusiasts of Milton's time (of which however he himself was one of the greateft) than prophane or indeed any kind of learning? Yet we, who know that his youth was spent in the study of the best writers in every language, want but little evidence to convince us that his great genius did not difdain to stoop to imitation. You affent, I dare fay, to Dryden's compliment, tho' it be an invidious one, "That no man has fo copiously tranflated Homer's "Grecisms, and the Latin elegancies of Virgil.” Nay, don't you remember, the other day, that we were half of a mind to give him up for a fhameless plagiary plagiary, chiefly because we were fure he had been a great reader? But no great writer, it will be faid, has flourished out of a learned age, or at least without fome tincture of learning. It may be fo. Yet every writer is not disposed to make the most of these advantages. What if we pay fome regard then to the CHARACTER of the writer? A poet, enamoured of himself, and who fets up for a great inventive genius, thinks much to profit by the sense of his predeceffors, and even when he fteals, takes care to diffemble his thefts and to conceal them as much as poffible. You know I have inftanced in fuch a poet in Sir William D'Avenant. In detecting the imitations of fuch a writer one must then proceed with fome caution. But what if our concern be with one, whofe modefty leads him to revare the fense and even the expreffion of approved authors, whofe tafte enables him to felect the finest paffages in their works, and whose judgment determines him to make a free use of them? Suppose we know all this from common fame, and even from his own confeffion? Would you fcruple to call that an imitation in him, which in the other might have pass'd for refemblance only? As the character is amiable, you will be pleased to hear me own, there are many of the modern poets to whom it belongs. Perhaps, the first that occurred to my thoughts was Mr. Addison. But the observation holds of others, and of one, in particular, very much his fuperior in true genius. I know not whe ther ther you agree with me, that the famous line in the Effay on man; "An honest man's the nobleft work of God, is taken from Plato's, Πάντων ἱερώτατόν ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος ayalós. But I am sure you will, that the still more famous lines, which fhallow men repeat without up. derstanding, "For modes of Faith let graceless zealots fight, "His, can't be wrong whofe life is in the right," are but copied, tho' with vaft improvement in the force and turn of expreffion, from the excellent, and let it be no difparagement to him to say, from the orthodox Mr. Cowley. The poet is fpeaking of his friend CRASHAW, "His Faith perhaps in fome nice tenets might "Be wrong; his life, I'm fure, was in the right.' Mr. Pope who found himself in the fame circumftances with Crafhaw, and had fuffered no doubt from the like uncharitable constructions of graceles zeal, was very naturally tempted to adopt this candid fentiment, and to give it the further heightening of his own spirited expreffion. Let us fee then how far we are got in this inquiry. We may say of the old Latin poets, that they all came out of the Greek fchools. It is as true of the moderns in this part of the world, that they, in general, have had their breeding in both the Greek and Latin |