THE other Lover's Estate is lefs than this Gentleman's, but he exprefs'd himfelf as follows,'

Madam,

I Have given in my Eftate to your Counfel, and defired my own Lawyer to infift upon no Terms 'which your Friends can propose for your certain Eafe and Advantage: For indeed I have no Notion of making 'Difficulties of prefenting you with 'what cannot make me happy without you.

I am, Madam,

Your most devoted humble Servant,
B. T.

YOU must know the Relations have met upon this, and the Girl being mightily taken with the Latter Epiftle, the is laugh'd out, and Uncle Edward is to be dealt with to make her a suitable Match to the worthy Gentleman who has told her he does not care a farthing for her. All I hope for is, that the Lady Fair will make use of the first light Night to fhow B. T. fhe understands a Marriage is not to be confider'd as a common Bargain. T

Thursday,

न

No 523. Thursday, October 30.

Nunc augur Apollo,

Nunc Lycia fortes, nunc & Jove missus ab ́ipso.

Interpres Divûm fert horrida jussa per auras. Scilicet is fuperis labor

Virg.

Am always highly delighted with the Discovery of any

I

rifing Genius among my Countrymen. For this Reafon I have read over, with great pleasure, the late Mifcellany publifh'd by Mr. Pope, in which there are many excellent Compofitions of that ingenious Gentleman. I have had a Pleasure of the fame kind in perusing a Poem that is juft publish'd on the ProSpect of Peace, and which, I hope, will meet with fuch a Reward from its Patrons, as fo noble a Performance deferves. I was particularly well-pleased to find that the Author had not amufed himself with Fables out of the Pagan Theology, and that when he hints at a

ny

ny thing of this nature, he alludes to it only as to a Fable.

8

MANY of our modern Authors, whose Learning very often extends no farther than Ovid's Metamorphofis, do not know how to celebrate a great Man, without mixing a parcel of fchool-boy Tales with the Recital of his Actions. If you read a Poem on a fine Woman, among the Authors of this Clafs, you fhall fee that it turns more upon Venus or Helen, than on the Party concerned. I have known a Copy of Verfes on a great Hero highly commended; but upon asking to hear fome of the beautiful Paffages, the Admirer of it has repeated to me a Speech of Apollo, or a Defcription of Polypheme. At other times when I have fearch'd for the Actions of a great Man, who gave a Subject to the Writer, Í have been entertain'd with the Exploits of a River-God, or have been forced to attend a Fury in her mischievous Progrefs, from one end of the Poem to the other. When we are at School, it is neceffary for us to be acquainted with the Syftem of Pagan Theology, and may be allow'd to enliven a Theme, or point an Epigram with a

Hea

Heathen God; but when we would write a manly Panegyrick, that should carry in it all the Colours of Truth, nothing can be more ridiculous than to have recourse to our Jupiters and Ju

nos.

NO Thought is beautiful which is not juft, and no Thought can be juft which is not founded in Truth, or at least in that which paffes for fuch.

IN Mock-Heroick Poems, the Ufe of a Heathen Mythology is not only excufable but graceful, because it is the Defign of fuch Compofitions to divert, by adapting the fabulous Machines of the Ancients to low Subjects, and at the fame time by ridiculing fuch kinds of Machinery in modern Writers. If any are of opinion, that there is a Neceffity of admitting these claffical Legends in to our ferious Compofitions, in order to give them a more Poetical Turn; I would recommend to their Confidera tion the Paftorals of Mr. Philips. One would have thought it impoffible for this kind of Poetry to have fubfifted without Fawns and Satyrs, WoodNymphs and Water-Nymphs, with all the Tribe of rural Deities. But we fee

he

he has given a new Life, and a more natural Beauty to this way of Writing, by fubftituting in the place of these antiquated Fables, the fuperftitious Mythology which prevails among the Shepherds of our own Country.

VIRGIL and Homer might compliment their Heroes, by interweaving the Actions of Deities with their Atchievements; but for a Christian Author to write in the Pagan Creed, to make Prince Eugene à Favourite of Mars, or to carry a Correspondence between Bellona and the Marshal de Villars, would be downright Puerility, and unpardonable in a Poet that is paft fixteen. It is want of fufficient Elevation in a Genius to defcribe Realities, and place them in a fhining Light, that makes him have recourse to fuch trifling antiquated Fables; as a Man may write a fine Defcription of Bacchus or Apollo, that does not know how to draw the Character

of any of his Contemporaries.

IN order therefore to put a stop to this abfurd Practice, I fhall publish the following Edict, by virtue of that Spectatorial Authority with which I ftand invested.

"WHERE