to be the most penetrating of all the
_French_ Criticks, has taken pains to shew, that it is impossible for
any Thought to be beautiful which is not just, and has not its
Foundation in the Nature of things: That the Basis of all Wit is Truth;
and that no Thought can be valuable, of which good Sense is not the
Ground-work. [4] _Boileau_ has endeavoured to inculcate the same Notions
in several Parts of his Writings, both in Prose and Verse. [5] This is
that natural Way of Writing, that beautiful Simplicity, which we so much
admire in the Compositions of the Ancients; and which no Body deviates
from, but those who want Strength of Genius to make a Thought shine in
its own natural Beauties. Poets who want this Strength of Genius to give
that Majestick Simplicity to Nature, which we so much admire in the
Works of the Ancients, are forced to hunt after foreign Ornaments, and
not to let any Piece of Wit of what kind soever escape them. I look upon
these writers as _Goths_ in Poetry, who, like those in Architecture, not
being able to come up to the beautiful Simplicity of the old _Greeks and
Romans_, have endeavoured to supply its place with all the
Extravagancies of an irregular Fancy. Mr. _Dryden_ makes a very handsome
Observation, on _Ovid_'s writing a Letter from _Dido_ to _AEneas_, in the
following Words. [6]

'_Ovid_' says he, (speaking of _Virgil's_ Fiction of _Dido_ and
_AEneas_) 'takes it up after him, even in the same Age, and makes an
Ancient Heroine of _Virgil's_ new-created _Dido_; dictates a Letter
for her just before her Death to the ungrateful Fugitive; and, very
unluckily for himself, is for measuring a Sword with a Man so much
superior in Force to him on the same Subject. I think I may be Judge
of this, because I have translated both. The famous Author of the Art
of Love has nothing of his own; he borrows all from a greater Master
in his own Profession, and, which is worse, improves nothing which he
finds: Nature fails him, and being forced to his old Shift, he has
Recourse to Witticism. This passes indeed with his soft Admirers, and
gives him the Preference to _Virgil_ in their Esteem.'

Were not I supported by so great an Authority as that of Mr. _Dryden_, I
should not venture to observe, That the Taste of most of our _English_
Poets, as well as Readers, is extremely _Gothick_. He quotes Monsieur
_Segrais_ [7] for a threefold Distinction of the Readers of Poetry: In
the first of whi