Prior the admiring reader entertains With Chaucer's humour, and with Spenser's strains. Waller in Granville lives; when Mira sings, With Waller's hand he strikes the sounding strings, With sprightly turns his noble genius shines, And manly sense adorns his easy lines. On Addison's sweet lays attention waits, And silence guards the place while he repeats; His Muse alike on every subject charms, Whether she paints the god of love, or arms: In him pathetic Ovid sings again, And Homer's _Iliad_ shines in his _Campaign_. Whenever Garth shall raise his sprightly song, Sense flows in easy numbers from his tongue; Great Phoebus in his learned son we see, Alike in physic, as in poetry. When Pope's harmonious Muse with pleasure roves Amidst the plains, the murmuring streams, and groves, Attentive Echo, pleased to hear his songs, Through the glad shade each warbling note prolongs; His various numbers charm our ravished ears, His steady judgement far out-shoots his years, And early in the youth the god appears. From these successful bards collect thy strains; And praise with profit shall reward thy pains: Then, while calf's-leather-binding bears the sway, And sheepskin to its sleeker gloss gives way; While neat old Elzevir is reckoned better Than Pirate Hill's brown sheets and scurvy letter; While print-admirers careful Aldous choose, Before John Morphew, or the Weekly News; So long shall live thy praise in books of fame, And Tonson yield to Lintott's lofty name. J. GAY. VERSES TO BE PREFIXED BEFORE BERNARD LINTOTT'S NEW MISCELLANY Some Colinaeus praise, some Bleau, Others account them but so so; Some Plantin to the rest prefer, And some esteem old Elzevir; Others with Aldous would besot us; I, for my part, admire Lintotus.-- His character's beyond compare, Like his own person, large and fair. They print their names in letters small, But LINTOTT stands in capital: Author and he with equal grace Appear, and stare you in the face. Stephens prints Heathen Greek, 'tis said, Which some can't construe, some can't read; But all that comes from Lintott's hand, Even Rawlinson might understand. Oft in an Aldous, or a Plantin, A page is blotted, or leaf wanting: Of Lintott's books this can't be said, All fair, and not so much as read. Their copy cost 'em not a penny To Homer, Virgil, or to any; They ne'er gave sixpence for two lines To them, their heirs, or their assigns: But Lintott is at vast expense, And pays prodigious dear for--sense. Their books are useful but to few, A scholar or a wit or two; Lintott's for general use are fit. A. POPE. TO MR. MURRAY