could come from no other informer than the faid Mr. JAMES-MOORE SMITH. "a The Memoirs of a Parish Clerk was a very dull "and unjust abuse of a perfon who wrote in defence "of our Religion and Conftitution, and who has been "dead many years." This feemeth alfo moft untrue; it being known to divers that these Memoirs were written at the feat of the Lord Harcourt in Oxfordshire, before that excellent perfon (bishop Burnet's) death, and many years before the appearance of that hiftory, of which they are pretended to be an abuse. Most true it is, that Mr. Moore had fuch a defign, and was himfelf the man who preft Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Pope to affift him therein; and that he borrowed those Memoirs of our author, when that hiftory came forth, with intent to turn them to fuch abufe. But being able to obtain from our author but one fingle hint, and either changing his mind, or having more mind than ability, he contented himself to keep the faid Memoirs, and read them as his own to all his acquaintance. A noble perfon there is, into whofe company Mr. Pope once chanced to introduce him, who well remembereth the converfation of Mr. Moore to have turned upon the "Con tempt he had for the work of that reverend prelate, "and how full he was of a defign he declared himself "to have of expofing it.". This noble Perfon is the Earl of PETERBOROUGH. VOL. III. a Daily Journal, April 3, 1728. Here Here in truth fhould we crave pardon of all the fore faid right honourable and worthy perfonages, for having mentioned them in the fame page with fuch weekly riff-raff railers and rhymers; but that we had their ever-honoured commands for the fame; and that they are introduced not as witneffes in the controversy, but as witneffes that cannot be controverted: not to difpute, but to decide. Certain it is, that dividing our writers into two claffes, of fuch who were acquaintance, and of such who were ftrangers to our author; the former are those who speak well, and the other those who speak evil of him. Of the first clafs, the moft noble JOHN DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM fums up his character in these lines: ❝b And yet fo wondrous, so sublime a thing, "A good companion, and as firm a friend; [chufe, "Say, wondrous youth, what column wilt thou "What laurel'd arch, for thy triumphant Muse? "Though each great ancient court thee to his shrine, "Though every laurel through the dome be thine, b Verfes to Mr. P. on his tranflation of Homer. "Go "Go to the good and juft, and awful train! "Thy foul's delight,' Recorded in like manner for his virtuous difpofition, and gentle bearing, by the ingenious. Mr. WALTER HART. in this apoftrophe: d Oh! ever worthy, ever crown'd with praife! "Bleft in thy life, and bleft in all thy lays, "Add, that the Sifters every thought refine, "And ev'n thy life be faultlefs as thy line, Yet envy still with fiercer rage pursues, "Obfcures the virtue, and defames the Mufe. "A foul like thine, in pain, in grief, refign'd, Views with juft fcorn the malice of mankind." The witty and moral fatirift Dr. EDWARD YOUNG, wishing fome check to the corruption and evil manners of the times, calleth out upon our poet to undertake a task fo worthy of his virtue: 66 0 Why flumbers Pope, who leads the Mufe's train, "Nor hears that Virtue, which he loves, complain?" Mr. MALLET, in his Epiftle on Verbal Criticism: "Whofe life, feverely fcan'd, tranfcends his lays That delicate and correct imitator of Tibullus, in his In his Poems, printed for B. Lintot. "Now, "Now, fir'd by Pope and Virtue, leave the age, "In low purfuit of felf-undoing wrong, "And trace the author through his moral page, "Whofe blamelefs life ftill anfwers to his fong." Mr. THOMSON, in his elegant and philofophical poem of the Seafons: "Although not fweeter his own Homer fings, "Yet is his life the more endearing fong." To the fame tune alfo fingeth that learned clerk, of Suffolk, Mr. WILLIAM BROOME, "Thus, nobly rifing in fair Virtue's caufe, "From thy own life transcribe th' unerring laws." And, to clofe all, hear the reverend dean of St. Patrick's: "A Soul with every virtue fraught, "By Patriots, Priefts, and Poets taught. "Whofe filial Piety excells "Whatever Grecian ftory tells. "A genius for each bufinefs fit, "Whose meaneft talent is his Wit," &c. Let us now recreate thee by turning to the other fide, and fhewing his Character drawn by thofe with whom he never converfed, and whofe countenances he could not know, though turned against him: First again commencing with the high voiced and never enough quoted Mr. JOHN DENNIS, f In his Poems, and at the end of the Odyssey. Who, Who, in his Reflections on the Effay on Criticism, thus describeth him: "A little affected hypocrite, who has "nothing in his mouth but candour, truth, friendship, "good-nature, humanity, and magnanimity. He is "fo great a lover of falfehood, that, whenever he has "a mind to calumniate his contemporaries, he brands "them with fome defect which was juft contrary to fome "good quality, for which all their friends and acquaint"ance commend them. He feems to have a particular "pique to People of quality, and authors of that rank. "He muft derive his religion from St. Omer's."But in the Character of Mr. P. and his writings, (printed by S. Popping, 1716) he faith, "Though "he is a professor of the worst religion, yet he laughs "at it;" but that, "nevertheless, he is a virulent Pa"pift; and yet a Pillar for the Church of England." Of both which opinions Mr. LEWIS THEOBALD seems alfo to be; declaring, in Mist's Journal of June 22, 1718, “That, if he is not fhrewdly abused, he “made it his practice to cackle to both parties in their "own fentiments." But, as to his pique against People of Quality, the fame Journalist doth not agree, but faith (May 8, 1728) "He had, by fome means or "other, the acquaintance and friendship of the whole "body of our nobility." However contradictory this may appear, Mr. Dennis and Gildon, in the character laft cited, make it all plain, by affuring us, "That he is a creature that re"conciles all contradictions: he is a beaft, and a man; "a Whig, D 3 |