thing in other Words: For in his Ode concerning Wit, he writes thus of it; Much lefs can that have any place The Author blush, there where the Reader muft. Here indeed Mr. Cowley goes farther than the Effay; for he afferts plainly that Obfcenity has no place in Wit; the other only fays, 'tis a poor Pretence to it, or an ill fort of Wit, which has nothing more to fupport it than bare-fac'd Ribaldry; which is both unmannerly in it felf, and fulfome to the Reader. But neither of these will reach my cafe: For in the first place, I am only the Tranflator, not the Inventor; fo that the heaviest part of the Cenfure falls upon Lucretius, before it reaches me: In the next place, neither he nor F have us'd the groffeft Words, but the cleanlieft Metaphors we could find, to palliate the broadnefs of the Meaning; and, to conclude, have carried the Poetical part no farther, than the Philofophical exacted. There is one Mistake of mine which I will not lay to the Printer's charge, who has enough to anfwer for in falfe Pointings: 'Tis in the Word Viper: I would have the Verfe run thus, The Scorpion, Love, muft on the Wound be bruis'd. There are a fort of blundering halfwitted People, who make a great deal of noife about a Verbal Slip; tho' Horace would inftruct them better in true Criticism: Non ego paucis offendor maculis quas aut incuria fudit, aut bumana parùm cavit natura. True Judgement in Poetry, like that in Painting, takes a view of the whole together, whether it be good or not; and where the Beauties are more than the Faults, concludes for the Poet against the little Judge: 'Tis a fign that Malice is hard driven, when 'tis forc'd to lay hold on a Word or Syllable to arraign a Man is one thing, and to cavil at him is ano ther. In the midst of an ill-natur'd Generation of Scribblers, there is always Juftice enough left in Mankind, to protect good Writers: And they too are oblig'd, both by Humanity and Intereft, to efpoufe each others caufe, against falfe Criticks, who are the common Enemies. This laft Confideration puts me in mind of what I owe to the Ingenious and Learned Tranflator of Lucretius; I have not here defign'd to rob him of any part of that Commendation which he has fo juftly acquir'd by the whole Author, whofe Fragments only fall to my Portion. What I have now perform'd, is no more than I intended above twenty Years ago: The ways of our Translation are very different; he follows him more closely than I have done, which became an Interpreter of the whole Poem. I take more liberty, because it best suited with my Defign, which was to make him as pleafing as I could. He had been too voluminous had he us'd my Method in fo long a work, and I had certainly taken his, had I made it my business to Tranflate the whole. The Preference then is juftly his; and I join with Mr. Evelyn in the confeffion of it, with this additional Advantage to him; that his Reputation is already eftablish'd in this Poet, mine is to make its Fortune in the World. If I have been any where obfcure, in following our common Author, or if Lucretius himfelf is to be condemn'd, I refer my felf to his excellent Annotations, which I have often read, and always with fome new Pleasure. My Preface begins already to fwell upon me, and looks as if I were afraid of my Reader, by fo tedious a bespeaking of him; and yet I have Horace and Theocritus upon my Hands; but the Greek Gentleman fhall quickly be difpatch'd, because I have more business with the Román. That which diftinguishes Theocritus from all other Poets, both Greek and Latin, and which raises him even above Virgil in his Eclogues, is the inimitable Tenderness of his Paffions; and the natural Expreffion of them in Words fo becoming of a Paftoral. A Simplicity thines thro' all he writes; he fhews his Art and Learning by difguifing both. His Shepherds never rife above their Country Education in their complaints of Love: There is the fame difference betwixt him and Virgil, as there is betwixt Taffo's Aminta, and the Paftor Fido of Guarini. Virgil's Shepherds are too well read in the Philofophy of Epicurus and of Plato; and Guarini's feem to have been bred in Courts. But Theocritus and Tafo have taken theirs from Cottages and Plains. It was faid of Taffo, in relation to his Similitudes, Mai efce del Bofco; that he never departed from the Woods, that is, all his Comparisons were taken from the Country: The fame may be faid of our Theocritus; he is fofter than Ovid, he touches the Paflions more delicately; and performs all this out of his own Fond, without diving into the Arts and Sciences for a Sup |