LXXIN. ON GRACE IN COMP 
ACLET TER. 
Fane 26, 1785. 
To your book, fir, Iam much obk ‘ged 
en many accounts, particularly for 4 ¥- 
ing recalled my mind to fubje&s of 
‘Light, to which it was grown dulled by 
age and indolence. 
your reclaiming it, T afked myfelf whence 
you feel fo much difregard fee certain au- 
thors whofe fame is eftablithed. You 
have affigned good reafons for withhold- 
ing your approbation from fome, on the 
plea of their being imitators—it was na- 
tural then, to afk my‘felf again, when 
they had obtained fo much celebrity ? tT 
think I have difcovered a caule, which I 
do net remember to have feen noted ; and 
zhat caule I fufpeét to have been, that cer- 
tain of thefe authors pofleffed grace—do 
not take ine for a difciple of Lord Chef 
terfield, nor imagine that I mean to eres 
grace into a capital ingredient of writing 
—but I do believe that it is a perfume 
that will preferve from putreta¢ction ; and 
is ene even irom ftyle, which regards 
xpreficn; grace I think belongs to maz- 
wr. itis irom the charm of grace that 
i believe fome authors, not in your fa- 
vour, obtained part of their renown. 
Virgil in particular—and yet I am far 
from difagreeing with you on his fubject 
an general, ‘There is fuch a dearth of in- 
vention in the AEneid fand when he did 
Inyent, it was often {fo foolifhly] ; fo little 
good fenfe, fo little variety, oad fo little 
power over the pafiions, that A have fre- 
quently faid, from eee for his mat- 
-ter, and from the charm ot his harmony, 
that I believe I fhould like his poem bet- 
ter, if I was to hear it repeated, and did 
not underftand Latin. On the other hand 
2¢ has more than harmony; whatever he 
piters ts faid gra cefully, and he esobles 
his’ images, efpecially in the Georgics, 
or at leat it is more fenfi ible there trom 
the numility-of the fubjést. A Roman 
farmer might net indeed his diétion 
Im 2eri he made a Roman 
vourtt ere sides AWE farming, the farming 
‘that age; and coud captivate a lord 
Avugeltus’ 5 bedchamber, and tempt 
an to liffen ta themes of ruiticity. Sta- 
tius and Claudian, though talking of war, 
wovid make a foldier defpife them as 
bullies. a 
inp in Vi irgil feems to me to’be more than 
ftyle, if °F do not refine too much ; and 
i admire, ¥ eonfefs, Mr. Addifon’s 
‘phrafe, that Virgil toiled about his dun 
with an air of majefty. A ityle may be 
excelient witheut grace~for uftance, Dr. 
4 
CSITION. 
eres 
txyr0 esate 

Uiie 

Welpoliana, No. Iv. : z 
In pouieqEenee of 
In portraits in oil large as life. 
at eraceful manner of think- 
; 
Swift's. Eloquence may beftow an im= 
mortal ftyle, and one of more dignity ; 
ret eloquence may want that eafe, that 
genteel air that flows from, or conttitutes, 
grace. Addifon himfelf was mafter of 
that grace, even in his pieces ot humour, 
and which donot owe their merit to ftyle ; 
and from that combined feeret he excelis 
all men that everlived, but Shakefpeare, 
in humour, by never dropping into an 
approach towards burlefeve and buts 
fconery, even when his humeur defcended 
to characters that in -any ether hands 
would have been vulgarly low. Is it not 
clear thar Will Whimble was a gentle- 
roan, though he always lived ata diitance™ 
from good company? Fielding’ had as 
much humoer perhaps 2s Additon; but 
having no idea of grace, is perpet tually dif- 
guiting. His eh and parfons are 
the srofiet of their profefh 100; and his 
gentlemen are awkward when they fhoud 
be at their eafe. 
The Grecians had grace in every thing, 
in poetry, in oratory, in itatuary, in a 
chite&ture, and probably in mufic and 
painting. The Romans, itis true, were 
their imitators; but having grace too, 
imparted it to their copies, which gave 
them a merit, that almoft raifes them to 
the rank of originals. Horace’s Odes 
acquired their fame, no doubt, from the 
graces of his manner and purity of his 
ityle; the chief praife cf Tibullus and 
Propertius, who certainly cannot beaft of 
more ae than Horace’s Odes. 
- Waller, whom you profecribe, fir, owed 
his reputation to the graces of his man- 
ner, though he frequently ftumbled, and 
even fell flat: but a few of his fmall 
Pieces are as gracefull as poffible: one 
might fay, that he excelled in- painting 
ladies in enamel, but could not fucceed 
Milton 
had fuch fuperior merit, that I will only 
fay, that it his Angels, his Satan, and 
his Adam, have as much dignity as the 
Apollo Belvedere, his Eve has all the de- 
licacy and graces of the Venus of Medici, 
as his | defcription ef Eden has the colour- 
ing of Albano. Milton’s tendernefs im- 
prints ideas as gracefull as Guido’s Ma- 
-donnas ; and the Allegro, Penferofo, and 
Comus, might be denoted from the three 
Graces; as the Italians give fingular 
titles to two or three of Petrarch’s beft 
fonnets. 
Cowley, I think, would have had grace 
(for his mind was graceful) if he had had 
any ear, or if his tafte had not been vi- 
tiated by the purfuit of wit ; which, 
wien it Goes not offer itfelf naturally, ie! 
generates — 
