Thus has he put himself above _Homer_, _Sophocles_, _Virgil_, _Horace_, _Corneille_, _Racine_, _Boileau_, &c. Notwithstanding we were so happy in Mr. _Dryden_'s Criticisms, Doctor _Felton_ is of Opinion the Art is not brought enough to Perfection among us; and therefore earnestly sollicites Sir _Richard Steel_ to write Comments upon _Homer_ and _Virgil_, as Mr. _Addison_ has done upon _Milton_. I am satisfied Sir _Richard Steel_ did not keep his Countenance if ever that Passage of the Doctor's came in his Way. I will not say the same of Mr. _Trap_, who, they tell me, is a Poet by his Place, or a _made_ Poet, better by half than one born so; but if Doctor _Felton_ had foreseen that the ingenious Gentleman would have came off as He did with _Virgil_, and in what a sad Place Doctor _Swift_ would find his Translation, I believe he would have postpon'd the Encomium, _What a polite Critick may do if he pleases_, says the Doctor, _and in how different an Aspect_ Criticism _appears, when formed by Men of Parts and Fire, we may see in Mr._ Trap; and the Encomium continues for a Page or two: But the aforesaid Translation having cut the Matter short, I will repeat no more of it. _Cowley_ was in as great Vogue 60 or seventy Years ago, as any Composer or Translater of our Time has been, and Doctor _Felton_ without knowing that his Character is worn, informs us, that his _Davideis_ is as good an Epick Poem as the _Ilias_, that his Lyricks are as good as _Pindar_'s or _Horace_'s, that he wrote Elegies as well as _Tibullus_, Epistles as well as _Ovid_, Pastorals as well as _Theocritus_; and that his _Cutter of Colmanstreet_ is as good a Comedy as the _Adelphi of Terence_. The Doctor's own Words are; _He rivalled the_ Greek _and_ Latin _Poets in every Thing but Tragedy._ His saying so is the more remarkable, for that he had seen the Preface to _Dryden_'s Fables, wherein that incomparable Critick, as he terms him, says _Cowley_ is sunk in his Reputation, and the late Duke of _Bucks_ in his Essay acknowledges as much: Cowley _might boast to have perform'd his Part, Had he with Nature joyn'd the Rules of Art: But ill Expression gives sometimes Allay To noble Thoughts------------ Tho' All appears in Heat and Fury done, The Language still must soft and easy run._