Oftentimes it so
falls out, that they have a particular pique to some one amongst us,
and then they immediately interest heaven in their quarrel; as it is
an usual trick in courts, when one designs the ruin of his enemy, to
disguise his malice with some concernment of the kings; and to revenge
his own cause, with pretence of vindicating the honour of his master.
Such wits as they describe, I have never been so unfortunate as to
meet in your company; but have often heard much better reasoning at
your table, than I have encountered in their books. The wits they
describe, are the fops we banish: For blasphemy and atheism, if they
were neither sin nor ill manners, are subjects so very common, and
worn so threadbare, that people, who have sense, avoid them, for fear
of being suspected to have none. It calls the good name of their wit
in question as it does the credit of a citizen when his shop is filled
with trumperies and painted titles, instead of wares: We conclude them
bankrupt to all manner of understanding; and that to use blasphemy, is
a kind of applying pigeons to the soles of the feet; it proclaims
their fancy, as well as judgment, to be in a desperate condition. I am
sure, for your own particular, if any of these judges had once the
happiness to converse with you,--to hear the candour of your opinions;
how freely you commend that wit in others of which you have, so large
a portion yourself; how unapt you are to be censorious; with how much
easiness you speak so many things, and those so pointed, that no other
man is able to excel, or perhaps to reach by study;--they would,
instead of your accusers, become your proselytes. They would reverence
so much sense, and so much good nature in the same person; and come,
like the satyr, to warm themselves at that fire, of which they were
ignorantly afraid when they stood at a distance. But you have too
great a reputation to be wholly free from censure: it is a fine which
fortune sets upon all extraordinary persons, and from which you should
not wish to be delivered until you are dead. I have been used by my
critics much more severely, and have more reason to complain, because
I am deeper taxed for a less estate. I am, ridiculously enough,
accused to be a contemner of universities; that is, in other words, an
enemy of learning; without the foundation of which, I am sure, no man
can pretend to be a poet. And if this be not enough, I am made a
detractor from my predecessors, whom