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He laugh'd himself from court; then fought relief, In forming parties, but cou'd ne'er be chief.

The fatire in this portrait is keen to the laft degree; and the poetry nervous and elegant. The peculiar marks of the Duke of Buckingham's character are here expofed with the fineft fpirit of ridicule. But this nobleman had his revenge. The character of Achitophel is alfo drawn with great art and power of poetry; how fevere are these lines?

And all to leave, what with his toil he won,
To that unfeather'd two legg'd thing, a fon:
Got, while his foul did huddled notions try;
And born a shapeless lump like anarchy.
In friendship false, implacable in hate;
Refolv'd to ruin, or to rule the state.

And how beautiful is the thought, in the paffage where he celebrates the fofter virtues of Abfalom? He says,

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In peace, the thoughts of war he could remove,
And feem'd as he were only born for love.
Whate'er he did, was done with so much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please.

I could produce many more fpecimens out of this beautiful poem to ftrengthen my affertions; but as the nature of this work lays me under a neceffity of quoting many paffages, I fhall be as fparing of thofe that are not remarkable as I can confiftently with my plan.

Swift poffeffed a genius naturally turned for fatire, and had he cultivated it with that care and decency which true fatire requires, he might poffibly have proved the greatest master in that species of writing that ever appeared in the world. No mortal had ever more wit; but that wit was not employed in the cause of virtue; his poignant fatire was levelled

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levelled against human nature in ge neral; and tho' the vivacity of Swift's wit can never fail to entertain the imagination; yet every reader, whose breast is warmed with more exalted notions of the dignity of human nature, muft deteft his principles. Gulliver's travels, that celebrated production of a fine irregular genius, is certainly in point of wit and fatire one of the most exquifite works of imagination that ever was composed; and had Swift wrote it only to fatirize the vices and follies of human nature, he would have bore away the palm from every other fatirift, in antient or modern times: fome parts of these travels are not exceptionable, and deferve the greateft praife, when the wit is properly directed; but the voyage to the country of the Houyhnhnms, is fuch a laboured argument, to perfuade

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us that mankind are no better than brutes, that every honeft mind must abominate fo vile an attempt. In this part Swift's wit appears to the greatest difadvantage; it feems to defert the fubject, and no where fo evidently flaggs. Indelicacy is another great ftain in the pages of this admired author's writings. In the journey to the flying ifland, are feveral unpardonable frokes, and fome in the voyage to Brobdingnag. As to the peculiar beauties of this celebrated ros mance, the lively flashes of wit, the keennefs of fatire, the penetrating touches: of the human heart, together with the more exterior beauties of compofition, every one muft allow it a moft exquifite performance. Many of Swift's poems are wrote with that fharp fatire and vivacity of wit, which diftinguishes

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all his writings, but fome of them are greatly wanting in point of delicacy *.

Garth

This writer, fays Dr. Young, has fo fatirized human nature, as to give a demonftration in himself, that it deferves to be fatirized. But, fay his wholefale admirers, few could so have written; true, and fewer would. If it required great abilities to commit the fault, greater ftill would have faved him from it. But whence arife fuch warm advocates for fuch a performance? From hence, viz. before a character is eftablifhed, merit makes fame; afterwards fame makes merit. Swift is not commended for this piece, but this piece for Swift. He has given us fome beauties which deferve all our praife; and our comfort is, that his faults will not become common; for none can be guilty of them, but who have wit as well as reputation to spare. His wit had been lefs wild, if his temper had not jostled his judgment. If his favourite Houyhnhnms could write, and Swift had been one of them, every horfe with him would have been an afs, and he would have written a panegyric on mankind, faddling with much re

proach

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