the Moderns. If any man from the frequency of the former, may think the Poem too much a Cento; our Poet will but appear to have done the fame thing in jeft, which Boileau did in earneft; and upon which Vida, Fracaftorius, and many of the most eminent Latin Poets profelfedly valued themselves.

[6]

A

LETTER

TO THE

PUBLISHER,

Occafioned by the prefent

EDITΙΟΝ

OF THE

DUNCI A D.

I

Tis with Pleasure I hear that you have procured a correct Edition of the DUNCIAD, which the many furreptitious ones have rendered fo neceffary and it is yet with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a COMMENTARY: work fo neceffary, that I cannot think the Author himself would have omitted it, had he approv'd of the first appearance of this Роспь

Such

Such Notes as have occurr'd to me I herewith fend you; you will oblige me by inferting them amongst those which are, or will be, tranfmitted to you by others: fince not only the Author's Friends, but even strangers, appear ingag'd by humanity, to fome care of an orphan of fo much genius and fpirit, which its parent feems to have abandoned from the very beginning, and fuffered to step into the World naked, unguarded, and unattended.

It was upon reading fome of the abusive papers lately publifh'd, that my great regard to a perfon whose friendship I fhall ever efteem as one of the chief honours of my life, and a much greater refpect to Truth than to him or any man living, ingag'd me in Enquiries, of which the inclos'd Notes are the fruit.

I perceiv'd, that most of these authors had been (doubtlefs very wifely) the first Aggreffors: they had try'd till they were weary, what was to be got by railing at each other; no body was either concern'd, or furpriz'd, if this or that Scribler was prov'd a Dunce: but every one was curious to read what could be faid to prove Mr. POPE one, and was ready to pay fomething for fuch a discovery: A ftratagem which would they fairly own, might not only reconcile them to me, but fcreen them from the resentment of their lawful fuperiors, whom they daily abuse, only (as I charitably hope) to get A 4

that

that by them, which they cannot get from them.

I found this was not all: ill fuccefs in that had tranfported them to perfonal abuse, either of himself, or (what I think he could lefs forgive) of his Friends. They had called men of virtue and honour Bad Men, long before he had either leisure or inclination to call them Bad Writers: and fome had been fuch old offenders, that he had quite forgotten their perfons as well as their flanders, till they were pleas'd to revive

them.

Now what had Mr. POPE done before to incenfe them? He had publish'd those works which are in the hands of every body, in which not the leaft mention is made of any of them: And what has he done fince? He has laugh'd and written the DUNCIAD. What has that faid of them? a very ferious truth which the publick had said before, that they were dull: and what it had no fooner faid, but they themselves were at great pains to procure or even purchase room in the prints, to testify under their hands to the truth of it,

I should still have been filent, if either I had feen any Inclination in my friend to be ferious with fuch accufers, or if they had only attack'd his writings: fince whoever publishes, puts himself on his tryal_by his country. But when his moral character was attack'd, and in a manner from which nei

ther

ther Truth nor Virtue can fecure the most Innocent, in a manner which though it annihilates the credit of the accufation with the juft and impartial, yet aggravates very much the guilt of the accufer, (I mean by authors without Names :) Then I thought, fince the danger is common to all, the concern ought to be fo; and that it was an act of justice to detect the Authors, not only on this account, but as many of them are the fame, who for feveral years paft, have made free with the greatest Names in Church and State, expos'd to the world the private misfortunes of Families, abus'd all even to Women, and whofe prostituted papers (for one or other Party, in the unhappy Divifions of their Country) have infulted the Fallen, the Friendlefs, the Exiled, and the Dead.

Befides this, which I take to be a publick concern, I have already confefs'd I had a private one. I am one of that number who have long lov'd and efteem'd Mr. POPE, and had often declared it was not his Capacity or Writings (which we ever thought the leaft valuable part of his character) but the honeft, open, and beneficient Man, that we most esteem'd and lov'd in him. Now if what these people fay were believ'd, I muft appear to all my friends either a fool or a knave, either impos'd on my self, or impofing on them: So that I am as much

interested