ticularly encouraged me by your perufal and approbation of the fixth and tenth fatires of Juvenal, as I have tranflated them. My fellow-labourers have likewife commiffioned me to perform in their behalf this of fice of a dedication to you, and will acknowledge with all poffible refpect and gratitude, your acceptance of their work. Some of them have the honour to be known to your Lordship already; and they who have not yet that happiness, defire it now. Be pleafed to receive our common endeavours with your wonted candour, without intitling you to the protection of our common failings, in fo difficult an undertaking. And allow me your patience, if it be not already tired with this long epistle, to give you, from the beft authors, the origin, the antiquity, the growth, the change, and the compleatment of fatire among the Romans. To defcribe, if not define, the nature of that Poem, with its feveral qualifications and virtues, together with the feveral forts of it. To compare the excellencies of Horace, Perfius, and Juvenal, and fhew the particular manners of their fatires. And laftly, to give an account of this new way of version which is attempted in our performance. All which, according to the weakness of my ability, and the best lights which I can get from others, shall be the fubject of my following discourse.

The most perfect work of Poetry, fays our mafter Ariftotle, is Tragedy. His reafon is, because it is the moft united; being more feverely confined within the rules of action, time, and place. The action is entire,

of a piece, and one, without episodes: the time limited to a natural day; and the place cireumfcribed at least within the compafs of one town or city. Being exactly proportioned thus, and uniform in all its parts, the mind is more capable of comprehending the whole beauty of it without distraction.

But after all thefe advantages, an Heroic Poem is certainly the greatest work of human nature. The beauties and perfections of the other are but mechanical; thofe of the Epic are more noble. Though Homer has limited his place to Troy and the fields about it; his action to forty-eight natural days, whereof twelve are holidays, or ceffation from business, during the funerals of Patroclus. To proceed, the action of the Epic is greater: the extenfion of time enlarges the pleasure of the reader, and the episodes give it more ornament, and more variety. The inftruction is equal; but in the firft is only inftructive, the latter forms a hero and a prince.

If it fignifies any thing which of them is of the more ancient family, the best and most abfolute Heroic Poem was written by Homer long before Tragedy was invented but if we confider the natural endowments, and acquired parts, which are neceffary to make an accomplished writer in either kind, Tragedy requires a lefs and more confined knowledge: moderate learning, and obfervation of the rules is fufficient, if a genius be not wanting. But in an Epick Poet, one who is worthy of that name, befides an univerfal genius, is required univerfal learning, together with all thofe qualities

qualities and acquifitions which I have named above, and as many more as I have, through hafte or negligence, omitted. And after all, he must have exa&ty. ftudied Homer and Virgil as his patterns, Aristotle and Horace as his guides, and Vida and Bossu as their commentators, with many others, both Italian and French critics, which I want leifure here to recommend.

In a word, what I have to fay in relation to this fubject, which does not particularly concern fatire, is, that the greatness of an Heroic Poem, beyond that of a Tragedy, may eafily be difcovered, by obferving how few have attempted that work, in comparison of thofe who have written drama's; and of those few, how fmall a number have fucceeded. But, leaving the critics on either fide, to contend about the preference due to this or that fort of Poetry; I will haften to my prefent bufinefs, which is the antiquity and origin of satire, according to those informations which I have received from the learned Cafaubon, Heinfius, Rigaltius, Dacier, and the Dauphin's Ju-, venal; to which I fhall add fome obfervations of my '

own.

There has been a long difpute among the modern critics, whether the Romans derived their fatire from the Grecians, or first invented it themfelves. Julius Scaliger, and Heinfius, are of the firft opinion; Cafaubon, Rigaltius, Dacier, and the publisher of the Dauphin's Juvenal, maintain the latter. If we take fatire in the general fignification of the word, as it is used in all modern languages for an invective,

it is certain that it is almost as old as verfe; and, though hymns, which are praises of God, may be allowed to have been before it, yet the defamation of others was not long after it. After God had curfed Adam and Eve in Paradife, the hufband and wife excufed themfelves, by laying the blame on one another; and gave a beginning to thofe conjugal dialogues in profe, which the Poets have perfected in verfe. The third chapter of Job is one of the first inftances of this Poem in Holy Scripture: unless we will take it higher, from the latter end of the fe cond; where his wife advifes him to curfe his Maker,

The original, I confefs, is not much to the honour of fatire; but here it was nature, and that depraved! When it became an art, it bore better fruit. Only we have learnt thus much already, that fcoffs and revilings are of the growth of all nations; and confequently that neither the Greek Poets borrowed from other people their art of railing, neither needed the Romans to take it from them. But confidering fatire as a fpecies of Poetry, here the war begins amongst the Critics. Scaliger the father will have it defcend from Greece to Rome; and derives the word Satire from Satyrus, that mixt kind of animal, or, as the ancients thought him, rural god, made up betwixt a man and a goat; with a human head, hooked nofe, powting lips, a bunch or ftruma under the chin, pricked ears, and upright horns; the body fhagged with hair, especially from the waist, and ending in a goat, with the legs and feet of that creature. But

Cafaubon,

Cafaubon, and his followers, with reafon, condemn this derivation; and prove that from Satyrus, the word fatira, as it fignifies a pocm, cannot poffibly defcend, For fatira is not properly a fubftantive, but an adjective; to which the word lanx, in English a charger, or large platter, is understood: fo that the Greek poem, made acccording to the manner of a fatyr, and expreffing his qualities, must properly be called fatyrical, and not fatyr. And thus far it is allowed that the Grecians had fuch poems; but that they were wholly different in fpecies from that to which the Romans gave the name of fatyr.

:

Ariftotle divides all poetry, in relation to the progrefs of it, into nature without art, art begun, and art compleated. Mankind, even the most barbarous, have the feeds of poetry implanted in them. The first specimen of it was certainly fhewn in the praises of the Deity, and prayers to him and as they are of natural obligation, fo they are likewife of divine inftitution. Which Milton obferving, introduces Adam and Eve every morning adoring God in hymns and prayers. The first poetry was thus begun, in the wild notes of natural poetry, before the invention of feet and meafures. The Grecians and Romans had no other original of their poetry. Festivals and holidays foon fuc ceeded to private worship, and we need not doubt but they were enjoined by the true God to his own people; as they were afterwards imitated by the heathens; who by the light of reafon knew they were to invoke fome fuperior Being in their neceflities, and to thank him

for