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OCCASION'D by an EPISTLE _Of Mr._ POPE'_s_ On that Subject. _By the Author of the_ ART OF POLITICKS. _LONDON_: Printed by _J. Wright_, for LAWTON GILLIVER at _Homer's Head_ against _St. Dunstan's Church_ in _Fleet Street_, 1733. Price 1 _s._ Where may be had the _Art of Politicks_, In Imitation of _Horace_'s Art of Poetry. Price 1 _s._ The Man of Taste. Whoe'er he be that to a _Taste_ aspires, Let him read this, and be what he desires. In men and manners vers'd from life I write, Not what was once but what is now polite. Those who of courtly _France_ have made the tour, Can scarce our _English_ awkwardness endure. But honest men who never were abroad, Like _England_ only, and its _Taste_ applaud. Strife still persists, which yields the better _gout_; Books or the world, the many or the few. True _Taste_ to me is by this touchstone known, That's always best that's nearest to my own. To shew that my pretensions are not vain, My Father was a play'r in _Drury-lane_. Pears and Pistachio-nuts my Mother sold, He a Dramatick-poet, She a Scold. His tragick muse could Countesses affright, Her wit in boxes was my Lord's delight. No mercenary _Priest_ e'er join'd their hands, Uncramp'd by wedlock's unpoetick bands. _Laws_ my Pindarick parents matter'd not, So I was tragi-comically got. My infant tears a sort of measure kept, I squal'd in Distichs, and in Triplets wept. No youth did in I education waste, Happy in an _Hereditary Taste_. Writing ne'er cramp'd the sinews of my thumb, Nor barb'rous birch e'er brush'd my brawny bum. My guts ne'er suffer'd from a college-cook, My name ne'er enter'd in a buttery-book. _Grammar_ in vain the sons of _Priscian_ teach, Good Parts are better than _Eight Parts of Speech_: Since these declin'd those undeclin'd they call, I thank my Stars, that I declin'd 'em all. To _Greek_ or _Latin Tongues_ without pretence, I trust to mother Wit, and father Sense. _Nature_'s my guide, all Sciences I scorn, Pains I abhor, I was a _Poet born_. Yet is my _gout_ for criticism such, I've got some _French_, and know a little _Dutch_. Huge commentators grace my learned shelves, Notes upon books out-do the books themselves. Criticks indeed are valuable men, But hyper-criticks are as good agen. Tho' _Blackmore_'s works my soul with raptures fill, With notes by _Bent
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