If an affected zeal inspires you with so much veneration for a saint of the _Italian_ fashion, in truth you ought to have burnt your incense so privately, that the smoke might not have offended others. How can the bard that boasts of eating no flesh in _Lent_, that would frankly discipline himself in the face of the godly, like one of the [28] militia of St. _Francis_, adore a golden cow, and adorn an idol each blast of wind can overthrow, with those garlands which should be preserv’d for _the statues of the greatest heroes_! She is, it is true, very singular in her kind; but will you stain your name, of _illustrious poet_, by creeping before a walking mummy of her superannuated gallantry? your sordid interest has made you a traytor to _Satire_; and thereby you occasion here continual divisions, [29] _Chaquelian_ and _St. Amant_ have been at cuffs with [30] _Moliere_ and _Cornielle_, because you have not treated them so civilly as your [31] _Urgande_. The two first ridicule your sordid covetous humour, and say you learnt that baseness while you belong’d to the _Register’s Office_. The other two, who were perhaps of your trade, defend the honour of your extraction. But _St. Amant_[32], who will never forget the unworthy character you have given him concerning his poverty, which he swears is false; and submitting his verses to the judgment of unprejudiced persons, for which you ridicule him, said in a haughty tone, (which set us all a laughing) that when he was a gentleman of the chamber in ordinary to the queen of _Poland_, and embassador extraordinary at the coronation of the queen of _Sweden_, he kept several footmen of better quality than yourself. _Chaquelian_, who cannot say so much for himself, is content with singing the terrible valour of the duke _de Nevers_’s lackeys, who kept time with their cudgels on your shoulders. We were forced to call for a bottle to appease this war; and _St. Amant_, taking the glass in his hand, swore by his maker, he had rather you had call’d him drunkard than fool, tho’ he drinks very moderately in this place, where it is no great scandal to be thirsty. Be not concerned at this paragraph, because the rest of my letter sufficiently testifies the esteem I have for you, and my concern for your welfare: therefore to preserve both, renounce your sordid way of praising vice, and employ your happy talent in teaching good manners, and correcting the bad, which will be an employment worthy of your great genius, and is the only way to recommend you to the good opinion of the learned ancients. BOILEAU_’s Answer to_ JUVENAL. _Illustrious Ghost_,