1792. on several eminent 'writers. lirZ' 



ter. How hard is it not to be carried away with 

 the current of the times ! Even a grave profefsor of 

 rhetoric has blown his wind into the trumpet of 

 fame in favour of Mr Pope. Can a man of true 

 taste hear him with patience ? " Few poets ever 

 " had more wit than Mr Pope, and, at the same 

 " time, more judgement to direct the employment of 

 " that wit. This renders his Rape of the Lock the 

 " greatest masterpiece that, perhaps, ever was com- 

 " posed in the gay and sprightly style." The rape 

 OF THE LOCK, Sir ! The very poem, in the reading, 

 of which your Old Correspondent declares, justly 

 and truly, that he, and the critics of his acquain- 

 tance, found nothing but wearinefs and disgust. I 

 ftiall fairly tell you my mind on the subject, in two 

 lines which I am very fond of, for the knack that 

 they have of exprefsing almost every one's senti- 

 ments who repeats them : 



«• True t35te to me ii by tWs touchstone known, 

 " That's always best that'^ nearest to my own." ' 



Shakespeare seems to be your Apollo, a man who 

 has written more bad lines, when taken singly, not 

 excepting even Mr Pope * himself, than almost any 

 author that I knov/ whom the foolifh world has so 



• If our correspondent will not admit that single good lines will con- 

 itltute a good poet, perhaps he will aUo allow thdt single bad lints 

 ought nr)t to exclude him tVom that honour. Indeed it has been gene- 

 rally admltied, that it U not the want of faults, but the abunJanvC of 

 beautits which constitutes excellence in literary compositions. 1 am 

 atways glad, however, to fni a man who thinks for himself. Should he 

 even be wrong, he avoids the disgusting monotony of "fauMiJs ti:ed:(,- 

 criiy," which, to a man who thinks at all, is the mcst tircsonie of ail 

 •.;:c:omt thl.'.g:. ^'''"- 



