_The Courtly_ Waller _next commands my Lays, Muse, tune thy Verse with Art to_ Waller_'s Praise. While tender Airs, and lovely Dames inspire Soft melting Thoughts, and propagate Desire; So long shall_ Waller_'s Strains our Passion move, And_ Sacharissa_'s Beauties kindle Love. Thy Verse, harmonious Bard, and flatt'ring Song, Can make the Vanquish'd great, the Coward strong: Thy Verse can shew ev'n_ Cromwell_'s Innocence, And complement the Storms that bore him hence. Oh! had thy Muse not come an Age too soon, But seen great_ Nassau _on the_ British _Throne, How had his Triumphs glitter'd in thy Page, And warm'd thee to a more exalted Rage. What Scenes of Death,_ &c. So little Danger is there of learning to be insipid by imitating _Waller_, that he is praised by the Editor of St. _Evremond_'s Works, for the Elevation of his Genius, Mr. _Edmond Waller; s'est generallement fait admirer par l'Elevation de son Esprit_. I do not in this _Essay_ aim at any Thing more, than, as I have said before, to put several critical Hints, which I had collected, together, and not to form a regular Discourse, but take them as they come in my way. If the _Spectator_, by the Passage above-mentioned, insinuates that a Man must be able to perform himself in an Art, to be a good Judge of the Performances of others; consequently, that I ought to be a masterly Historian, to make Remarks on Mr. _Echard_'s History, he divests me at once of the Right I pretend to in the following Treatise. Let us therefore enquire into the Reason of this Reflection. _Horace_, whom no _English_ Author could understand better than the _Spectator_, as appears by his admirable Translation, teaches us otherwise, _Munus & Officium, nil scribens ipse, docebo._ Yet without writing, I may teach to write. [_Rosc._ _Dacier_'s Notes upon _Hippocrates_, as I have been informed by my worthy Friend Dr. _Allen_, are much better than any others, though made by Men of the _Faculty_, which _Dacier_ did not profess. Monsieur _Corneille_, the greatest Genius in _France_ for Tragedy, wrote _Examens_ of his Pieces, which, like _Dryden_'s Prefaces, were adapted to the several Tragedies, and very often clashed with one another, as the Subject required: but because he would prevent as much as possible any Attack of Criticism, he declares in one of his Discourses, _That the Knowledge which is acquired by Study and Speculation, is of little or no Use without Experience_. Thus an Author must produce a Tragedy himself, before he presumes to criticise on another's. If it be the same Thing in History too, I began at the wrong End, and should have written three or four Folio Histories, before I had presum'd to make Remarks on Archdeacon _Echard_'s, this would bear very hard upon me, and I must beg Leave to enquire a little whether the Case be really so or not.