our coarsest poets a reputation abroad, which they never had at home. Had his conversation in the town been more general, he had certainly received other ideas on that subject; and not transmitted those names into his own country, which will be forgotten by posterity in ours. Thus I have contracted my thoughts on a large subject: for whatever has been said falls short of the true character of Monsieur St. Evremont* and his writings: and if the translation you are about to read does not every where come up to the original, the translator desires you to believe, that it is only because that he has failed in his undertaking. "Monsieur St. Evremont would talk for ever. He was a great epicure, and as great a sloven. He lived, you know, to a great old age, and in the latter part of his life, used to be always feeding his ducks, or the fowls that he kept in his chamber. He had a great variety of these and other sorts of animals all over the house, and used always to say, that when we grow old, and our own spirits decay, it reanimates one to have a number of living creatures about one, and to be much with them." ANECDOTES by Spence, who here quotes the words of Pope. A DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGINAL AND PROGRESS OF SATIRE: ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, EARL OF DORSET AND MIDDLESEX, s MY LORD, THE 5 This Discourse was prefixed to a poetical translation p. 25. He was created Earl of Middlesex, in 1675 of the Household, and was made a Knight of the Garter. Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (says Prior, in his "Heads of an Essay on Learning," MSS.) was too much inclined to burlesque; Sir Fleetwood Shephard ran too which appear. the age of 1692, eng adver in the London Gazellig, much into romance and improbability, and the late Earl 2013 of Ranelagh into quibble and banter: yet each of these dober, had a good deal of wit; and if they had had more study on the death of his mother' Erother, Fronel "Cranfield, lail of Middlesex, he was in 1675, J in his father's lifetime, horound with that title 27, 1692 dignities which you have so long deserved. There are no factions, though irreconcileable to one another, that are not united in their affection to you, and the respect they pay you. They are equally pleased in your prosperity, and would be equally concerned in your afflictions. Titus Vespasian was not more the delight of human kind. The universal empire made him only more known, and more powerful, but could not make him more beloved. He had greater ability of doing good, but your inclination to it is not less: and though you could not extend your beneficence to so many persons, yet you have lost as few days as that excellent emperor; and never had his complaint to make when you went to bed, that the sun had shone upon you in vain, when had the opportunity of relieving some unhappy man. This, my lord, has justly acquired you as many friends as there are persons who have the honour to be known to you. Mere acquaintance you have none; you have drawn them all into a nearer line: and they you than generally a court life allows, as their ideas would have been more numerous, their wit would have been more perfect. The late Earl of Dorset was indeed a great exception to this rule; for he had thoughts which no book could lend him, and a way of expressing them, which no man ever knew how to prescribe.” 46 Macky observes in his CHARACTERS, (published in 8vo. 1733, but written in 1703,) that Lord Dorset was very fat, and troubled with the spleen; he is still one of the pleasantest companions in the world, when he likes his company."-"Not of late years, but a very dull one,' says Swift, in a manuscript note on that work. |