mp_ and _Gold_.
Yet in this Pomp discretion must be had;
Tho' _grave_, not _stiff_; tho' _whimsical_, not _mad_:
In Works like these if _Fustian_ might appear,
Mock-Epics, _Blackmore_, would not cost thee dear.

We grant, that _Butler_ ravishes the Heart,
As _Shakespear_ soar'd beyond the reach of Art;
(For Nature form'd those Poets without Rules,
To fill the world with _imitating Fools_.)
What _Burlesque_ could, was by that Genius done;
Yet faults it has, impossible to shun:
Th' unchanging strain for want of grandeur cloys,
And gives too oft the horse-laugh mirth of Boys:
The short-legg'd verse, and double-gingling Sound,
So quick surprize us, that our heads run round:
Yet in this Work peculiar Life presides,
And _Wit_, for all the world to glean besides.

Here pause, my Muse, too daring and too young!
Nor rashly aim at Precepts yet unsung.
Can Man the Master of the _Dunciad_ teach?
And these new Bays what other hopes to reach?
'Twere better judg'd, to study and explain
Each ancient Grace he copies not in vain;
To trace thee, Satire, to thy utmost Spring,
Thy Form, thy Changes, and thy Authors sing.

All Nations with this Liberty dispense,
And bid us shock the Man that shocks Good Sense.
Great _Homer_ first the Mimic Sketch design'd
What grasp'd not _Homer's_ comprehensive mind?
By him who _Virtue_ prais'd, was _Folly_ curst,
And who _Achilles_ sung, drew _Dunce the First_.[26]

Next him _Simonides_, with lighter Air,
In Beasts, and Apes, and Vermin, paints the _Fair_:
The good _Scriblerus_ in like forms displays
The reptile Rhimesters of these later days.

More fierce, _Archilochus_! thy vengeful flame;
Fools read and _dy'd_: for Blockheads then had _Shame_.

The Comic-Satirist[27] attack'd his Age,
And found low Arts, and Pride, among the Sage:
See learned _Athens_ stand attentive by,
And _Stoicks_ learn their Foibles from the Eye.

_Latium's fifth Homer_[28] held the _Greeks_ in view;
Solid, tho' rough, yet incorrect as new.
_Lucilius_, warm'd with more than mortal flame
Rose next[29], and held a torch to ev'ry shame.
See stern _Menippus_, cynical, unclean;
And _Grecian Cento_'s, mannerly obscene.
Add the last efforts of _Pacuvius'_ rage,
And the chaste decency of _Varro_'s page.[30]

See _Horace_ next, in each reflection nice,
Learn'd, but not vain, the Foe of Fools nor Vice.
Eac