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their feveral periods, and a juft difcernment to estimate their ftate in them, will hardly dispute with me, "that, though

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many causes concur to produce a thorough "degeneracy of taste in any country; yet "the principal ever is, THIS ANXIOUS

"DREAD OF IMITATION IN POLITE AND CULTIVATED WRITERS.'

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And, if fuch be the cafe, among the other uses of this Effay, it may perhaps ferve for a feasonable admonition to the poets of our time, to relinquish their vain hopes of originality, and turn themselves to a ftricter imitation of the best models. fay, a feafonable admonition; for the more polished a nation is, and the more generally these models are understood, the greater danger there is, as was now observed, of running into that worst of literary faults, affectation. But, to ftimulate their endeavours to this practice, the judgment of the public should first be set right; and their readers prepared to place a juft value upon it. In this refpect too I would willingly contribute, in fome fmall degree, to the fervice of letters. For the poet, VOL. III. whofe

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whofe object is fame, will always adapt himself to the humour of those who con. fer it. And till the public tafte be reduced by fober criticism to a just standard, ftrength of genius will only enable a writer to pervert it ftill further, by a too fuccessful compliance with its vicious expectations.

DIS

DISSERTATION IV.

On the MARKs of IMITATION.

To Mr. MASON.

Have faid, in the discourse on POETICAL IMITATION," that coincidencies of a "certain kind, and in a certain degree, can"not fail to convict a writer of Imitation." [z]-You are curious, my friend, to know what these coincidencies are, and have thought that an attempt to point them out would furnish an useful Supplement to what I have written on this fubject. But the juft execution of this defign would require, befides a careful examination of the workings of the human mind, an exact fcrutiny of the moft original and moft imitative writers. And, with all your partiality for me, can you, in earnest, think me capable of fulfilling the first of these conditions; or, if I were, do you imagine that, at this timet o' day, I can have the leifure to perform the other? My younger years, indeed, have [x] P. 115, 116.

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been spent in turning over thofe authors which young men are most fond of; and among thefe I will not, difown that the Poets of ancient and modern fame have had their full fhare in my affection. But You, who love me fo well, would not with me to pafs more of my life in thefe flowery regions; which though You may yet wander in without offence, and the rather as you wander in them with fo pure a mind and to fo moral a purpofe, there feems no decent pretence for me to loiter in them any longer.

Yet in faying this I would not be thought to affume that fevere character; which, though fometimes the garb of reafon, is oftener, I believe, the mafk of dulnefs, or of fomething worfe. No, I am too fenfible to the charms, nay to the ufes of your profeffion, to affect a contempt for it. The great Roman faid well, Haec ftudia adolefcentiam alunt; fenectutem oblectant. We make a full meal of them in our youth. And no philofophy requires fo perfect a mortification as that we should wholly abftain from them in our riper years. But fhould we invert the obfervation, and take this light food not as

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the refreshment only, but as the proper nourishment of Age; fuch a name as Cicero's, I am afraid, would be wanting, and not eafily found, to justify the practice.

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Let us own then, on a greater authority than His, "That every thing is beautiful in "its feafon." The Spring hath its buds and bloffoms: But, as the year runs on, You are not displeased, perhaps, to see them fall off; and would certainly be disappointed not to find them, in due time, fucceeded by: thofe mellow hangings the poet fomewhere speaks of.

I could alledge ftill graver reasons. But I would only fay, in one word, that your friend has had his share in these amusements. I may recollect with pleasure, but must never live over again,

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Pieriosque dies, et amantes carmina fomnos. Yet fomething, you infift, is to be done; and, if it amount to no more than a fpecimen or flight sketch, fuch as my memory, or the few notes I have by me, would furnish, the defign, you think, is not totally to be relin quifhed.

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