thing of that Nature, which would make this Satire a general one upon any dull Writers in any Age: This was refused by _Pope_, and he chose rather to treat a Set of Gentlemen as Vermin, Reptiles, _&c._ at a Time when he had no Provocation to do so, when he had closed his Labours, finish’d his great Subscriptions, and was in a fashionable Degree of Reputation: Several Gentlemen, who are there ranked with the dullest Men, or dullest Beasts, never did appear in Print against him, or say any thing in Conversation which might affect his Character: Some Replies, which were made to the _Profund_, occasioned the Publication of the _Dunciad_, which was first of all begun with a general Malice to all Mankind, and now appears under an Excuse of Provocations, which he had received, after he himself had struck the first Blow in the above-mentioned Miscellanies._ _I cannot indeed say much in Praise of some Performances, which appear’d against him, and am sorry that Voluntiers enter’d into the War, whom I could wish to have been only Spectators: But the Cause became so general, that some Gentlemen, who never aim’d at the Laurel, grew Poets merely upon their being angry: A Militia, in Case of publick Invasion, may perhaps be thought necessary, but yet one could always wish for an Army of regular Troops: I should not have touched upon this Circumstance, but to obviate some Imputations, which he had suggested, of my Writing several Pieces, which I never heard of, till I saw them with the rest of the Town: But these Suggestions shall be considered in the Preface to the next Epistle, in which, among other Things, I intend to state several Matters of Fact, in Contradiction to the Notes of the _Dunciad_, particularly as they concern the Writers of the following Poem._ [Decoration] [Decoration] One E P I S T L E to Mr. _A. P O P E_, Occasion’d By Two Lately Publish’d. If noble _B----m_, (a) in Metre known, With Strains has grac’d thee, humble as thy own; Who (b) _G--l--n_’s Dullness did for thine discard, A better Critick, for as bad a Bard! Not unregarded let this Tribute be, Tho’ humble, just; well-bred, tho’ paid to Thee.