the most fatirical, were written principally with a view to correct their foibles, to improve their taste, and to make them as agreeable companions at threescore, as at the age of five and twenty. By what I can hear, the most exceptionable of his poems in that way have produced fome very extraordinary effects in the polite world. This was in truth the ultimate defign of his writing The lady's dreffing-room, and other pieces, which are acknowledged to be fontewhat liable to cenfure on account of their indelicacy. Among the admirers of Dr Swift, many have compared him to Horace, making proper allowances for the refpective ages in which they feverally flourished. The resemblance however between them is not fo exceedingly strong, as that a fimilitude and manner of writing could have excited the leaft degree of emulation between them, further than to be equally renowned for their peculiar excellencies. Each of them had, independent of what is generally called a fine taste, a thorough knowledge of the world, fuperadded to an abundance of learning. Both the one and the other of thefe great men held the numerous tribe of poets, as well as that motley generation of men called critics, in the utmost contempt; and at. the fame time have manifefted themfelves to be incomparable judges of all that is truly excellent, whether in books or men. Neither of them had the leaft regard for the Stoics: and whatever, may be faid of their being of the Epicurean tafte, which, if rightly, understood, is far from being inconfiftent with the highest virtue; neither of them was attached to any particular fyftem of philofo-, phy. Homer was the darling author both of Horace and Swift. Horace declares in his epiftle to Lollius, that Homer had abundantly more good fenfe and wisdom than all the philofophers; and Swift's opinion was, that Homer had more genius than all the rest of the world put together. Yet neither the one nor the other of them have attempted to imitate his manner; but, like heroes of a bold and true fpirit, have industriously followed the bent of nature, and ftruck out originals of their own. But however ftrong may be fuppofed the refemblance between Horace and Swift, they were in fact upon the whole quite different men. Their tempers, their complexions, and their fortunes, were totally unlike. Each of, them had in many refpects greatly the advantage of the other. Poetry was in Horace the bufinefs of his life; every defire, every comfort, and every paffion of his mind, were centered in the mufes: he followed the example of the Greek poets, præter laudem nullius avaras. Poetry in Swift was only an appendage to his character: he wore it as an emblem of wit and fpirit, which gave him an, air of grandeur in the republic of letters. Horace, by diverting his thoughts from all fublunary affairs, and perpetually ranging about from flower to flower, among the gardens, and groves, and wilderneffes of the Greeks, with infinite labour extracted, like an industrious bee, the quinteffence of their sweets; and by frequent ly experimenting all the changes of harmony, is defervedly the. joy and admiration of the poetical world, for the mufic of his lines, and the variety of his numbers. His addreffes to the Emperor, to Agrippa, to Pollio, and his panegyric on Drufus, are prodigioutly : prodigiously fublime but his hymns to the muses, to Mercury, to Pan, to Apollo and Diana, to Venus, to his lyre, and to Bacchus, are abfolutely raptures of poetry, even the divine spirit of that amabilis infania, "that delightful madness," which is only to be felt, impoffible to be defcribed. His verfes nevertheless are but few in number; the whole of his works, at a random computation, amounting only to about 7000 lines; whereof not above one half are of that fpecies of poetry on which he defired to fix all his pretenfions to fame. And it was upon thefe only that he bestowed the greater part of his life. Swift, on the contrary, from the age of one and twenty, was deeply immerfed in politics during his whole life; fometimes fighting the battles of church and state against a virulent, oppofing faction, which threatened to undermine the conftitution; fometimes refifting the torrent of ecclefiaftical, and frequently the torrent of minifterial power, whenever - the rights of the clergy, or the liberties of his country, were occafionally invaded; and generally fighting with beafts of one fpecies or other, like a fierce and bold champion, refolutely bent on either death or victory: yet ftill he could find opportunities, by fnatching hours of leifure, to write poetry for his amufement. He had read many of the Greek and Latin poets; relished and admired what was agreeable to his own tafte; but never devoted either his thoughts or his time to Apollo and the muses. Throughout his whole works there is no fuch thing as an ode to Calliope, to Mercury, to Venus, to Apollo and Diana, to his lyre, to Bacchus, or to Pan; nothing which was ever intended as a rapture of poetry. Is it not then fomething very amazing, if we confider him in this fair and true light, that he should produce, by the mere force of talte and abilities, without any laboured correction at all, fuch wonders in the poetic ftrain, as to make any the most partial of his admirers, not only prefer him to all the poets of these later centuries, but compare him to that immortal genius of the Auguftan age, whofe whole delight, fpeculation, and amufement, whether in bed or in the fields, was in meditating, writing, polihing, or correcting his verses? Swift. MIS MISCELLANIES IN VERSE*. N. B. Whatever verfes are marked with an afte zisk* prefixed, are not Dr Swift's. CADENUS AND VANESSA†. T Written anno 1713. HE hepherds and the nymphs were feen Accufing the false creature man. 5 That *The following poems chiefly confift either of humour or fatire, and very often of both together. What merit they may have, we confefs ourselves to be no judges of in the least, but, out of due regard to a writer, from whose works we hope to receive fome be nefit, we cannot conceal what we have heard from several perfons of great judgment, that the author never was known, either in verfe or profe, to borrow any thought, funile, epithet, or particular manner of style; but whatever he writ, whether good, bad, or indifferent, is an original itself.—Altho' we are very sensible, that, in fome of the following poems, the ladies may refent certain fatirical touches against the mistaken conduct in fome of the fair fex; and that fome warm perfons on the prevailing fide may cenfure this author, for not thinking in public matters exactly like themfelves; yet we have been affured, by feveral judicious and learned gentlemen, that what the author hath here writ, on either of those two fubjects, hath no other aim than to reform the errors of both fexes. If the public be right in its conjectures of the author, nothing is better known in London, than that while he had credit at the court of Q. Anne, he employed fo much of it in favour of Whigs in both kingdoms, that the miniftry used to rally him as the 'That Cupid now has lost his art, 10 This the advocate of that party; for feveral of whom he got employments, and preserved others from lofing what they had: of which fome inftances remain even in this kingdom. Befides, he then writ and declared against the Pretender with equal zeal, tho' not with equal fury, as any of our modern Whigs; of which party he always professed himself to be as to politics, as the reader will fand in many parts of his works. Dub. edit. 1735. + See an account of the occasion of this poem in Swift's life, prefixed to vol. i. This poem is founded upon an offer of marriage made by a young lady to her preceptor. Whether fuch an incident really happened, er what gave the poet occafion to fuppofe it, need not here be inquired. His principal defign is to expofe the faults and follies in both fexes, by which love is degraded, and marriage rendered subfervient to fordid purposes. Hawkef. This poem, one of the greatest length, and, I believe, the longest ever composed by the Dean, is of a very extraordinary nature, and upon a very extraordinary fubject. As a poem, it is excellent in its kind, perfectly correct, and admirably conducted. Vanity makes terrible devastation in a female breast. It batters down all restraints of modefty, and carries away every feed of virtue. Vaneffa was exceffively vain. The character given of her by Cadenus is fine painting, but in general fictitious. She was fond of drefs; impatient to be admired; very romantic in her turn of mind; fuperior, in her own opinion, to all her fex; full of pertnefs, gaiety, and pride; not without fome agreeable accomplishments, but far from being either beautiful or genteel; ambitious, at any rate, to be efteemed a wit; and, with that view, always affecting to keep company with wits; a great reader, and a violent admirer of poetry; happy in the thoughts of being reputed Swift's concubine; but still aiming and intending to be his wife: by nature haughty and difdainful, looking with the pity of contempt upon her inferiors, and with the fmiles of felf approbation upon her equals; but upon Dr Swift with the eyes of love. Her love was founded in vanity, or, to ufe a more fafhionable phrase, in tafte. His own lines are the best proof of my affertion. [Here the particular paffage is inserted, beginning thus, Cadenus This tempts freethinkers to refine, And bring in doubt their pow'rs divine; And marriage grown a money-league. Cadenus many things had writ, 1. 510. and ending thus, Nor farther locks, but thinks him young, 1.531.] Which The poem itself is dated in the year 1713, when Swift was in his meridian altitude; favoured by the courtiers; flattered, feared, and admired by the greatest men in the nation. By the verfes which I have already recited, it may be prefumed, that the lady was first fmitten with the fame and character of Cadenus, and afterwards with his person. Her first thoughts pursued a phantom; her later paffion defired a fubftance. The manner in which the discovered her inclinations, is poetically described in thefe lines. [The paffage here inferted, begins thus, She own'd the wand'ring of her thoughts, 1. 602. and ends thus, Aim'd at the head, but reach'd the heart, 1. 623.] Suppofing this account to be true, and I own I can fearce think it otherwife, it is evident, that the fair Vaneffa had made a furprifing progrefs in the philofophic doctrines, which he had received from her preceptor. His rules were certainly of a most extraordinary kind. He taught her, that vice, as foon as it defied fhame, was immediately changed into virtue; that vulgar forms were not binding upon certain choice fpirits, to whom either the writings or the perfons of men of wit were acceptable. She heard the leffon with attention, and imbibed the philofophy with eagernefs. The maxims fuited her exalted turn of mind. She ima gined, that if the theory appeared fo charming, the practice must be much more delightful. The close connection of soul and body feemed to require, in the eye of a female philofopher, that each fhould fucceed the other in all pleasurable enjoyments. The former had been fufficiently regaled; why muft the latter remain unfatisfied?" Nature," faid Vaneffa," abhors a vacuum, and Na"ture ought always to be obeyed." She communicated these fentiments to her tutor; but he feemed not to comprehend her meaning, nor to conceive the diftin&tio rationis that had taken rife in his own fchool. He anfwered her in the non effential modes. He |