have of him, is a very polite
Speaker, and as metaphorical as Mr. Trapp.

"This Place may seem for Shepherds Leisure made,
So lovingly these Elms unite their Shade!
Th'ambitious Woodbine! how it climbs, to breathe
Its balmy Sweets around, on all beneath!"

But, alas! this Fit of Eloquence, like most other Blessings, is
of very short Continuance; It holds him but Just one Speech: In
the beginning of the next, he is as very a Rustick, as Colin
Clout, and has forgot all his Breeding.

"No Skill of Musick can I, simple Swain,
No fine Device, thine Ear to entertain;
Albeit some deal I pipe, rude though it be,
Sufficient to divert my, Sheep, and Me."

There is no Transformation In Ovid more sudden, or surprizing; He
has Reason indeed to say, that, when he "pipes some deal," his
'Sheep' are 'diverted' with him. His Readers, I am afraid too,
are as merry as his Sheep; If he was but as skilful in Change of
Time, as he is in Change of Dialect, commend me to him for a
Musician! The pied Piper, who drew all the Rats of a City out,
after his Melody, came not near him for Variety.

If the late excellent Mr. Addison, whose Verses abound in Graces,
which can never be too much admir'd, shall be, often, found
liable to an Overflow of his Meaning, by this Dropsical
Wordiness, which we so generally give into, it will serve at the
same time, as a Comfort, and a Warning; and incline us to a
severe Examination of our Writings, when we venture out upon a
World, that will, one time or other, be sure to censure us
impartially; In That Gentleman's Works, whoever looks close, will
discover Thorns on every Branch of his Roses; For Example, we all
hear, with Delight, in his celebrated Letter from Italy, that,
there,

... The Muse so oft her Harp has strung,
That not a Mountain rears its Head unsung.

But, he adds, in the very next Line, that every shady Thicket
too, grows renown'd in Verse; now one can never help remembering,
that Thickets are Births, as it were of Yesterday; the mere
Infancy of Woods! and that the oldest Woods in Italy may be
growing on Foundations of ruin'd Cities, which flourish'd in the
Times he there speaks of; whence it must naturally be inferr'd,
that to say, the Italian Thickets grow renown'd in Roman Verse,
though the Mountains really do so, is to make Use of Words,
without Regard to their Meaning; A Lapse of dangerous
Consequence, because, when