MR. JAMES MOORE-SMITH. ***The Memoirs of a Parish Clerk was a very "dull and unjust abuse of a person who wrote in "defence of our religion and constitution, and who "has been dead many years." This seemeth also most untrue, it being known to divers that the e Memoirs were written at the seat of the Lord Harcourt, in Oxfordshire, before that excellent person's (Bishop Burnet) death, and many years before the appearance of that history of which they are pretended to be an abuse. Most true it is, that Mr. Moore had such a design, and was himself the man who pressed Dr. Arburthnot and Mr. Pope to assist them therein; and that he borrowed those Memoirs of our Author, when that history came forth, with intent to turn them to such abuse: but being able to obtain from our Author but one single hint, and either changing his mind, or having more mind than ability, he contented himself to keep the said Memoirs, and read them as his own to all his acquaintance. A noble person there is, into whose company Mr. Pope once chanced to introduce him, who well remembereth the conversation of Mr. Moore to have turned upon the Contempt he "had for the work of that reverend prelate, and how "full he was of a design he declared himself to have "of exposing it." This noble person is the Earl of Peterborough. 66 Here, in truth, should we crave pardon of all the * Daily Journal, April 3, 1728. aforesaid Right Honourable and worthy personages, for having mentioned them in the same pages with such weekly riff-raff railers and rhymers, but that we had their ever-honoured commands for the same; and that they are introduced not as witnesses in the controversy, but as witnesses that cannot be controverted; not to dispute, but to decide, Certain it is, that dividing our writers into two classes, of such who were acquaintance, and of such who were strangers, to our Author, the. former are those who speak well, and the other those who speak evil of him, Of the first class, the most noblę JOHN DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, sums up his character in these lines: And yet so wondrous, so sublime a thing, A good companion, and as firm a friend. So also is he decyphered by the Honourable SIMON HARCOURT. "Say, wondrous youth, what column wilt thou chuse, Though each great ancient court thee to his shrine, "Thy soul's delight.-- Recorded in like manner, for his virtuous disposition, and gentle bearing, by the ingenious * Verses to Mr. P. on his. Translation of Homer. Poem prefixed to his Works. MR. WALTER HART, in this apostrophe: O! ever worthy, ever crown'd with praise! The witty and moral satirist DR. EDWARD YOUNG, wishing some check to the corruption and evil manners of the times, calleth out upon our Poet, to undertake a task so worthy of his virtue: "Why slumbers Pope, who leads the Muses' train, MR. MALLET, in his Epistle on Verbal Criticism: "Whose life, severely scan'd, transcends his lays; MR. HAMMOND, that delicate and correct imitator of Tibullus, in his Love Elegies, Elegy xiv. "Now fir'd by Pope and Virtue, leave the age, "And trace the Author through his moral page, MR. THOMSON, in his elegant and philosophical poem of the Seasons: "Although not sweeter his own Hʊmer sings, *In his Poems, printed for B. Lintot. To the same tune, also, sings that learned clerk of Suffolk, MR. WILLIAM BROOME, "Thus nobly rising in fair Virtue's cause, "From thy own life transcribe th' unerring laws." And, to close all, hear the Reverend Dean of St. Patrick's: A soul with ev'ry virtue fraught, By patriots, priests, and poets taught; Whatever Grecian story tells. A genius for each business fit, "Whose meanest talent is his wit," &c. Let us now recreate thee, by turning to the other side, and shewing his character, drawn by those with whom he never conversed, and whose countenances he could not know, though turned against him: first again commencing with the high-voiced and never-enough-quoted MR. JOHN DENNIS, who, in his Reflections on the Essay on Criticism, thus describeth him: "A little affected hypocrite, "who has nothing in his mouth but candour, truth, friendship, good-nature, humanity, and magnani mity. He is so great a lover of falsehood, that "whenever he has a mind to calumniate his contem"poraries, he brands them with some defect which is just contrary to some good quality for which all their friends and their acquaintance commend "them. He seems to have a particular pique to "people of quality, and authors of that rank. He * In his Poems, and at the end of the Odyssey. "must derive his religion from St. Omer's."---But in the character of Mr. P. and his writings, (printed by S. Popping, 1716,) he saith, "Though he is a 86 professor of the worst religion, yet he laughs at it;" "but that, nevertheless, he is a virulent Papist; and "yet a pillar of the Church of England." Of both which opinions MR. LEWIS THEOBALD seems also to be; declaring, in MIST'S JOURNAL, of June 22, 1718, "That, if he is not shrewdly "abused, he made it his practice to cackle to both "parties in their own sentiments." But as to his pique against people of quality, the same Journalist doth not agree, but saith, (May 8, 1728,) "He had, by some means or other, the acquaint<6 ance and friendship of the whole body of our no"bility." .. However contradictory this may appear, Mr. Dennis and Gildon, in the character last cited, make it all plain, by assuring us, "That he is a creature "that reconciles all contradictions: he is a beast, " and a man; a Whig, and a Tory; a writer (at one and the same time) of Guardians and Exa*miners*: an asserter of liberty, and of the dis86 pensing power of kings; a Jesuitical professor "of truth; a base and a foul pretender to candour." So that upon the whole account, we must conclude him either to have been a great hypocrite, or a very * The names of two weekly papers.. |