Wit kindled by the fulph'rous breath of Vice,
Like the blue Light'ning, while it fhines, destroys:
But Genius, fir'd by Truth's eternal ray,

Burns clear and conftant, like the fource of day:
Like this, its beam prolific and refin'd,
Feeds, warms, infpirits, and exalts the mind;
Mildly difpels each wintry Paffion's gloom,
And opens all the Virtues into bloom.

491

495

This Praise, immortal POPE, to thee be giv'n:
Thy Genius was indeed a Gift from Heav'n.
Hail, Bard unequal'd, in whofe deathless line
Reason and Wit, with ftrength collected fhine; 500
Where matchlefs Wit but wins the second praise,
Loft, nobly loft, in Truth's fuperior blaze.

Did FRIENDSHIP e'er mislead thy wand'ring Mufe?
That Friendship fure may plead the great excuse:
That facred Friendship which infpir'd thy Song,
Fair in defect, and amiably wrong.

Error like this ev'n Truth can scarce reprove;

'Tis almost Virtue when it flows from Love.

you infpire,

Ye deathless Names, ye Sons of endless praise,
By Virtue crown'd with never-fading bays!
Say, fhall an artless Muse, if
Light her pale lamp at your immortal fire?
Or if, O WARBURTON! infpir'd by You,
The daring Mufe a nobler path pursue,
By You infpir'd, on trembling pinion foar,
The facred founts of focial blifs explore,

506

510

515

In

In her bold numbers chain the Tyrant's rage,
And bid her Country's Glory fire her page:
If fuch her fate, do thou, fair Truth, descend,
And watchful guard her in an honest end:
Kindly fevere, inftruct her equal line

520

To court no Friend, nor own a Foe but thine.

But if her giddy eye fhould vainly quit

Thy facred paths, to run the maze of wit;

If her apoftate heart should e'er incline

525

To offer incenfe at Corruption's fhrine;

Urge, urge thy pow'r, the black attempt confound, And dash the fmoaking Cenfer to the ground.

Thus aw'd to fear, inftructed Bards may fee,

That Guilt is doom'd to fink in Infamy.

530

A LETTER.

то

A NOBLE LORD',

ON OCCASION OF SOME LIBELS WRITTEN AND PROPAGATED AT COURT, IN THE YEAR 1732-3.

MY LORD,

Nov. 30, 1733.

YOUR Lordship's epistle has been published some days, but I had not the pleasure and pain of feeing it till yesterday: Pain, to think your Lordship should attack me at all; Pleasure, to find that

you

This Letter (which was first printed in the Year 1733) bears the fame place in our Author's profe that the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot does in his poetry. They are both Apologetical, repelling the libellous flanders on his Reputation: with this difference, that the Epiftle to Dr. Arbuthnot, his friend, was chiefly directed against Grub-street Writers, and this Letter to the Noble Lord, his enemy, against Court Scribblers. For the reft, they are both Master-pieces in their kinds; That in verse, more grave, moral, and fublime; This in profe, more lively, critical, and pointed; but equally conducive to what he had moft at heart, the vindication of his moral Character: the only thing he thought worth his care in literary altercations; and the first thing he would expect from the good offices of a furviving Friend. WARBURTON.

Lord Hervey, who, together with Lady M. W. Montagu, had written fome fevere lines on him, but certainly after provocation on his part. Lord Hervey is fatirized by him under the name of Lord Fanny, and Sporus. He was certainly affected. In one of his Letters from Bath, he fays, "The Duchefs of

Marlborough,

you can attack me fo weakly. As I want not the humility, to think myself in every way but one your inferior, it seems but reasonable that I should take the only method either of self-defence or retaliation, that is left me against a person of your quality and power. And

Marlborough, Congreve, and Lady Rich, are the only people whofe faces I know, whose names I ever heard, or who, I believe, have any names belonging to them. The rest are a fwarm of wretched beings, fome with half-limbs, fome with none, the ingredients of Pandora's Box PERSONIFIED," &c. Again, "I do not meet a creature without faying to myself, as Lady - did of her femme de chambre, Regardez cet animal, confiderez ce neant, voila un bel ame pour etre immortel !”

He was also very effeminate in perfon, and ufed paint. His fpeeches in Parliament prove he had more than "florid impotence." He was Vice-Chamberlain and Privy-Seal to George II. There was an excellent caricature-print published of the combatants, when he fought with Pulteney. Sir Robert Walpole was drawn ftanding as Lord Hervey's Second. For further particulars of this Nobleman, I must refer to Mr. Coxe's Memoirs.

Intitled, An Epifle to a Doctor of Divinity from a Nobleman at Hampton-Court, Aug. 28, 1733, and printed the November following for J. Roberts. Fol.,

The following advertisement appeared in the Papers, 1733, refpecting this Letter:

a

"Whereas a great demand hath been made for an Answer to certain fcurrilous Epiftle from a Nobleman to Dr. Sh-r-n; "this is to acquaint the Public, that it hath been hitherto hin"dered by what seemed a denial of that Epistle by the Noble "Lord, in the Daily Courant of Nov. 22., affirming that no fuch Epiftle was written by him. But whereas that declaration hath "fince been undeclared by the Courant; this is to certify, that "unlefs the faid Noble Lord fhall this next week, in a manner as

66

public as the injury, deny the said Poem to be his, or contra"dict the afperfions therein contained, there will with all speed be published, a most proper reply to the same.

"1733."