[ 9^ ] 



liigher rank it is owing, that we have fo few jufl rcprefcntations 

 of their manners exhibited on the ftage. 



The age of the author at which his fevcral works were compofed 

 is generally diftinguifhable by the works themfelves. In juvenile 

 compofitions we have common-place remark, poetic mythology, 

 extravagant fentiment, and improbable ftory. Scholaflic infor- 

 mation is all which their authors, at that period of their lives, 

 have attained ; and vivacity and fancy are their only excellencies. 

 Hence it is that the juvenile works of all our poets have fo great 

 a fimilitude to each other ; for to a certain age the knowledge of 

 all men differs only in degree, and not until after that does it 

 differ in kind. Age and dignified experience fupply information 

 and mature the judgment. The paflorals even of Pope fall far 

 fhort of the excellence of his other poems. To the praife of 

 Swift's early good fcnfe let it be obfervcd, that his firft compo- 

 fitions are free from the ufual faults of immaturity, and almofl 

 entirely treat of topics conneiled with human life. Yet even in 

 thefe poems we have an evidence that they were juvenile per- 

 formances ; for what but the licentioufnefs of a juvenile mind, 

 the propenfity to imitate without feledion whatever has been 

 admired, and to be taken with what is mofl dazzling, could 

 have induced Swift to undertake the difcurfive views, vehement 

 tranfitions and florid didion of the Pindaric odes. 



But it is now time to conclude thefe eflays. I have done my 

 duty to the Academy in enquiring into the fubjed they had 



recommended- 



