To the AUTHOR OF THE POLITE PHILOSOPHER. W Velat materna tempora myrto. VIRG. HEN Vice the Shelter of a Mask disdain'd, When Folly triumph'd, and a Nero reign'd, Petronius rofe, fatyric, yet polite, And fhew'd the glaring Monster full in Sight; In your correcter Page his Wit we fee, And Vice, with Proteus Art, in one conceals The griping Wretch, whofe Av'rice robs the Town, To gain his Point, a holy Look puts on; To Earth directs his Hands, to Heav'n his Eyes, And, with a fhew of Grace, defrauds and lyes. Th' ambitious Courtier, but for diff'rent Ends, The Question, Forrefter, is fomething hard; How fhall the wife the motly Scene regard? While Men ourselves, can we unmov'd ftand by? Pain'd while we fmile? or guiltlefs fhall we cry? Humanity to Grief wou'd give the Rule ; But stronger Reason fides with Ridicule. O! that thy Work, inftructive, but refin'd, The pleafing Image of your eafy Mind; (Which, like the Statues wrought by Phidian Art, Is one fair whole, complete in every Part,) May cure the lighter Follies of the Age, Cool Bigot Zeal, and foften Party Rage; Expofe Ill nature, Pedantry o'ercome, Strike Affectation dead, and Scandal dumb; Reftore free Converfe to its native Light, And teach Mankind with Eafe to grow polite. Then Then round thy Brow the Myrtle Garland twine, The grateful Recompence of Toils like thine : Secure in all you write or do, to please ; Join Wit with Sense, with Understanding, Ease. And the Belles read you with transported Eyes. As Paris, loft in paffionate Surprise, THE POLITE PHILOSOPHER. M ETHOD requires, that, in my Entrance on this Work, I should explain the Nature of that Science to which I have given the Name of POLITE PHILOSOPHY: And though I am not very apt to write methodically, yet I think it becomes me, on this Occasion, to shew that my Title is somewhat à propos. Folks who are skilled in Greek, tell us, that Philofophy means no more than the Love of Wisdom; and I, by the Adjunction of polite, would be understood to mean that Sort of Wisdom, which teaches Men to be at Peace in themselves, and neither by their Words or Behaviour to disturb the Peace of others. Academical Critics may, perhaps, expect that I fhould at least quote fome Greek Sage or other, as the Patron of that kind of Knowledge, which I am about to restore; and as I pique myself on obliging every Man in his Way, I fhall put them in mind of one ARISTIPPUS, who was Profeffor of Polite Philofophy at Syracufe, in the Days of the famous King Dionyfius, in whose Favour he stood higher than even Plato |