179'^. LITERARY lyTELLICENCER. 29 



*' ed. Among others, I (hewed your propofals to an 

 " ingenious friend, who feemed much pleafed with 

 " the fcheme, and who, at my requeft, promifed his 

 " affiftance moil readily. But I fuggefted to him that 

 " you appeared to do no great honour to his favourite 

 " art, Poetry, which is alfo mine; and that he was 

 " called upon to defend it by a fpirited remcnftrance, 

 " and with all the enthufiafm of the irritctbile genus. 

 " He told me he would think of it ; and though he is 

 " as great an enemy to the mere rhyming race as you 

 " can be, and does not wifli to fee them encouraged, 

 *' a few days after he fent me the inclpfed ode, which 

 " I have tranfcribed. In my opinion it will do no 

 " difcredit to your work, nor to any publication what- 

 " ever. And I think you, as a profefTed patron of the 

 " mufes, are in juftice and generofity called upon to 

 *' let THE MUSE be heard in defending her honour at 

 *' your bar. 



" M^CENAS." 



The ode alluded to in this epiflle follows. What 

 merit it poflelTcs, the reader is left to decide. As to 

 the editor, he would have been well pleafed if the ir- 

 ritated mufe had defended her rights with a flill great- 

 er degree of energy and ardour. A ftrift attention to 

 nature, he thinks he has obferved, has much more 

 power over the human heart, than tlie moft fludied or- 

 naments of art, or the nicefl allufions to heathen my- 

 thology, which, he is afraid, too often leads the ima- 

 gination aftray in purfuit of ideal phantoms inftead of 

 real objects. 



