APPENDIX. 181 



it was written in three weeks : " How the Devil could he be 

 fo long about it ? for that Poem was infamoufly bad," and I 

 doubt this Parallel is little better; and then the mortnefs of 

 the time is fo far from being a commendation, that it is 

 fcarcely an excufe. But if 1 have really drawn a portrait to 

 the knees, or an half-length, with a tolerable likenefs, then 

 I may plead with fome juftice for myfelf, that the reft is left 

 to the Imagination. Let fome better Artift provide himfelf 

 of a deeper canvas; and taking thefe hints which I have given, 

 fet the figure on its legs, and finiih it in the Invention, De- 

 fign, and Colouring. 



EPISTLE 



