It fuits a Poet, when he paints,
To strip the Mask from covert Saints,
And follow Nature thro' his Labours:

His Mufe may feem a common Whore,
Because she knows as much, or more;
Himself be virtuous as his Neighbours.

I have hitherto been speaking of fuch Tales only, as have Intrigue and Gallantry for their Subject. There are, befides thefe, Heroic Tales, fuch as that of PALAMON and ARCITE, written by CHAUCER, and rendered into modern ENGLISH by Mr. DRYDEN; whofe Preface to his Fables may be confulted for the Character of this Piece, and its great Similitude to the true Epic. There are alfo LoveTales of a serious Kind, of which Mr. Prior's HENRY and EMMA is an excellent Patern. Others there are, which are calculated only to alleviate the Mind, without fo much as the mock Appearance of an Application. Of this kind 1 take to be the BAUCIS and PHILEMON of the excellent Dr. SWIFT: For the Moral of OVID is of too ferious a Nature, to be once thought of in a Piece of the ludicrous Kind. There is likewife a Sort of Tale, that partakes much of the Character of the Fable, being a Narrative in Verfe that conveys a direct and true Moral, like Mr. PRIOR'S PROTOGENES and APELLES. I have attempted fomewhat of this kind in the Modern Judge, and a Piece or two more. Several of PHÆDRUS'S SOPIAN Fables, and, if I am not mistaken, fome of LA FONTAINE'S, are

in reality Tales of this kind. Both of thefe Authors had admirable Talents for fuch Sort of Writings, tho' each of them in a Manner peculiar to himfelf. The fine and elegant Tafte of the ROMAN fufficiently appears in his natural Manner of Thinking, and the extreme Purity and Brevity of his Diction. The FRENCHMAN, as he declares himfelf incapable to imitate thofe extraordinary Qualities, has fhewn himself no lefs a Master of others altogether as extraordinary. The inimitable Sprightlinefs and Gaiety which every where shine in his other Compofitions, give him alfo the Character of an Original in those Fables that he has taken from the Antients. Tho' I have ventured at an Imitation or two of each of these great Men, I am far from thinking I have done it with any Advantage: The utmoft I can fuppofe is, that while I kept them in my Eye, I was able to do better than I fhould have done without their Affiftance.

I fhall have faid enough concerning Tales and Fables, both by Way of Apology and Criticifm, when I have obferved, that a Writer in this Way can be either moral or fatirical, lafcivious or only humourous, pathetic or truly fublime, according to the Subject he chufes, the Turn he gives to his Compofition, or his Application of the Story at laft; for a Variation in either of thefe Particulars, may give a new Character to his Performance. But I have not yet done with that indirect Stile, that fort of Mockferious, which I mentioned in fpeaking of ludicrous Tales, and which MAROT, VOITURE, DE LA

FONTAINE, and our own PRIOR, have made ufe of fo happily on other Occafions. This Manner is admirably adapted to familiar Epiftles, and differs from the low Burlesque, as the Behaviour of a genteel humourous Companion from that of a MERRY-ANDREW, or as polite Comedy from the mean Drollery of BARTHOLOMEW FAIR. There is no Sort of Writ-. ing in which it is harder to excel than this. Few, very few that attempt it, are able to keep a true Medium between Stiffnefs and Affectation on the one Hand, and an injudicious Negligence, a groveling distasteful Barrennefs on the other. A native Gaiety of Temper, an honeft Opennefs of Soul (both which are fometimes lodg'd under a referved and penfive Countenance) join'd with a lively and fubtile Imagination, a very confiderable Knowledge of Books and Men in general, and a familiar Acquaintance with those of both that are most worthy of Imitation in this Way, must have entered into the Character of each of thofe excellent Authors, that were last mentioned.

But the Word Epistle has a very extenfive Signification. There is no Subject, no Stile or Manner whatever, but may be proper to Pieces with this Title. HORACE, BOILEAU, and Mr. POPE, have given us moral and fatirical Epiftles in great Number. OVID and Old DRAYTON have written Epiftles, under feign'd Names, in the amorous Way; and they have had many Imitators in their respective Languages. As to the few Love Epiftles that are in thefe Volumes, they confift rather of paffionate

Addrefs than foft and tender Defcription, and there fore are of a different Kind from the Writings that were cenfured in a preceding Paragraph. All thefe, as well as the familiar ones, are reducible to their feveral Claffes, and have their proper and diftinguifhing Stile. But there may be a thoufand Occafions given us of writing to our Friends, and every Occafion may make fome Variation in the epiftolary Character. Most of the Poems that come out on public Occurrences, or on Matters of Condoleance and Congratulation, are addrefs'd to particular Perfons: And do they not, on that very Account, become a Sort of Epiftles? Even Prologues and Epilogues, by the fame Rule, are they not a Species of Epiftles, addrefs'd to the whole Town?

There are in the FRENCH Collections, a confiderable Number of Letters in Profe and Verfe. Whether or no the Writers of them, like the Author of *ASTREA, compofed the Profe Parts merely to introduce and connect Verses which they had already by them, I cannot pretend to fay: But as to my own Particular, I freely confefs, that if I could have rym'd all I had to fay with equal Facility, and in the neceffary Time, I should never have attempted any Thing of this mix'd Character. However, when it was done, I thought a Specimen of what had fo often been well received in FRENCH, might be fufferable, at leaft, in ENGLISH.

1

Epigram, tho' the smallest, and, in the Opinion of many, the leaft confiderable Species of Poetry, is, nevertheless, not the most easy to excel in. So far from it, that the Jefuit RAPIN has declared it fo difficult to make an admirable one, as that it is fufficient for a Man to have done it once in his Life. CATULLUS and MARTIAL, among the ROMANS, are the most eminent Paterns in the epigrammatic Way: And as the Manners of these two are widely different, the Criticks have been much divided which of them to prefer. Without entering into the Particulars of the Controverfy, it is fufficient to observe, that the most delicate and polite Judges have ranged themselves on the Side of CATULLUS, who makes the Epigram to confift in a natural Turn of Sentiment,' but fine and fubtle, agreeable to the Practice of the GREEKS; whereas MARTIAL introduced the Point, which concludes a common Thought with an unexpected and poignant Expreffion. A few Inftances of both Kinds will be met with in these Volumes, but most of them Tranflations or Imitations, and the whole Number too inconfiderable to be more than barely mentioned. I would only observe, that as Infcription feems a just Translation of the Word Epigramma, it may ferve for a Title to fuch fhort Pieces, as the Admirers of MARTIAL will not receive under their Definition of an Epigram.

Such Occafional Verfes in this Collection, as feem not reducible to any of the Species already mention'd, might eafily have been brought into the epiftolary Clafs. Perhaps they had been fo, if I had metho