did nor forget these two Lines of _Boileau_ to the King: _Serene himself the stormy War he guides, And o'er the Battle like a God presides._ I shall all along, through this Discourse, take the Liberty to pass from one Subject to another as the Hint offers, without any Method, according to the Freedom of _Essays_. Mr. _Dryden_ excuses this Freedom, by the Example of _Horace_'s Epistle to the _Piso's_, which is immethodical and I must excuse my self by Mr. _Dryden_'s-- The Taste and Appetite of these straw Criticks, may justly be compar'd to Ravens and Crows, who neglecting clean Food, are always searching after Carrion. _Horace_'s Rule is very well worth observing, when we are about to give Judgement on a Poem or History, where the _Will_ is not concern'd: Ubi plura nitent in Carmine non ego paucis Offendor maculis, quas aut incuria fudit, Aut humana parum cavit natura. _When in a Poem most are shining Thoughts, I'm not offended if I find some Fau'ts; Such as are Slips of Negligence, or where The Poet may through humane Frailty erre._ As it is much easier to discern Blemishes than Beauties, so is it to censure than to commend, as the Duke of _Buckingham_ tells us: _Yet whatsoe'er is by vain Criticks thought, Praising is harder much than finding Fau't: In homely Pieces ev'n the_ Dutch _excel,_ Italians _only can draw Beauty well_. Such Criticks need not be in Pain, if a Poem or History makes its Way in the World a little; if it is not good, it will lose Ground of it self faster than it got it. If imperfect Pieces have gain'd Credit, and kept it for some Time, it was not for what was bad in them, but what, if not really good, was at least agreeable. _Dryden_'s Translation of _Virgil_ was generally liked for the Diction and Versification, though it was dislik'd on Account of Equality and Truth; and to have made a _Critick_ upon it, as _Milbourn_ did, without doing justice to his Numbers and Language, shew'd the Spirit of the Man was more engaged in it than his Judgement. All Criticisms on _Dryden_'s Language and Numbers are in Defiance of _Horace_'s Rule above-mention'd, because there is no Body but knows that it was impossible for _Dryden_ to make an ill Verse, or to want an apt and musical Word, if he took the least Care about it. I could very easily mark out a thousand Slips and Negligences of that Kind in his _Virgil_; yet for all that, there are more good Verses in that Translation than in any other, if Mr. _Pope_'s _Homer_ is not to be excepted. It has been often said by very good Judges, that _Cato_ was no proper Subject for a Dramatick Poem: That the Character of a Cynick Philosopher, is very inconsistent with the Hurry and Tumult of Action and Passion, which are the Soul of Tragedy. That the ingenious Author miscarried in the Plan of his Work, but supported it by the Dignity, the Purity, the Beauty, and the Justness of the Sentiments and the Diction.