And a little after; _I cannot but conclude, to the Honour of our Nation, that we have invented, encreased, and perfected, a more pleasant Way of Writing than was ever known to the Antients or Moderns of any Nation, which is_ Tragi-Comedy. _One of the most monstrous Inventions_, says the _Spectator_, _that ever enter'd into the Poet's Thought. An Author might as well think of weaving the Adventures of_ Æneas _and_ Hudibras _into one Poem, as of writing such a motley Piece of Mirth and Sorrow_. Whatever others thought of Mr. _Dryden_'s Criticisms, he did himself full Justice, and seem'd to despise all other Criticks at the same Time that he laid himself most open to them. _These little Criticks do not well consider what the Work of the Poet is, and what the Graces of a Poem; the Story is the least Part of either._ Pref. to _Moch-Astrol._ Against him is every Critick, ancient and modern, from _Aristotle_ to _Rimer_, and more than all of them against him is his own self. In another Place he writes thus; _The Fable is without doubt the chief Part of a Tragedy, because it contains the Action, and the Action contains the Happiness or Misery, which is the End of Tragedy. Without the Fable the Poet, who had otherwise good Manners, Sentiments, and Diction, would no more have made a regular Poem, than a Painter would have made a good Picture that had mingled Blue, Yellow, Red, and other Colours confusedly together._ I do not mention these Things to lessen Mr. _Dryden_'s great Character as a Poet; but to shew how well Dr. _Felton_ could judge of it, when he recommended him to us as a Critick. Against Mr. _Dryden_, as to the _Story_, _is Rapin_, who he assures us would _be alone sufficient, were all other Criticks lost, to teach a-new the Rules of Writing_. Against his _Rapin_ we find the Translator of _Homer_ in an extraordinary Manner in his Notes on the Fifth _Iliad_. I hope it did not arise from any Resentment for that Jesuit's reflecting on those Poets who seem to place the Essence of Poetry in fine Language, and smooth Verse, to which he ascribes its present Decay. _As if the Art consisted only in Purity and Exactness of Language: This indeed pleased well, and was much to the Advantage of Women that had a Mind to be tampering in Writing Verse: They found it their Concern to give Vogue to this Kind of Writing, of which they were as capable as the most Part of Men: For all the Secret was no more than to make some little easy Verses, in which they were content if they cou'd dress some soft passionate Thoughts_, &c. The most of our modern Poets being interested in this Affair, I shall say no more of it.