hat a deal of candied Courtesie
This fawning Greyhound then did proffer me!
Look, when his infant Fortune came to Age,
And gentle_ Harry Percy--_and kind Cousin_--_The
Devil take such Cozeners_.--

_Shakespear_ found the Stage, and all the People of his Days, infected
with these Puerillities, and he very well knew how (though perhaps he
never read it in _Epictetus_) [Greek: ] to attune, or harmonize his
Mind to the Things which happen.

I now remember one of these shining Strokes, which I have seen quoted
in several Works of Taste, and even in the Treatise of Studies by the
late Mr. _Rollin_. This _Morceau_ is taken from the beautiful Funeral
Oration of the great _Turenne_: The whole Piece is very fine, but it
seems to me that the Stroke I am speaking of should not have been made
Use of by a Bishop.--This is it:

"O Sovereigns! Enemies of _France_, ye live, and the Spirit
of Christian Charity forbids me to wish your Deaths,
&c.--But ye live, and I mourn in this Pulpit the Death of a
virtuous Captain, whose Intentions were pure, &c.--"

An Apostrophe in this Taste would have been very proper at _Rome_ in
the Civil Wars, after the Assassination of _Pompey_; or at _London_
after the Death of _Charles_ the First. But is it decent, in a Pulpit,
to wish for the Death of the Emperor, the King of _Spain_, and the
Electors; to put them in Balance with the General of a King's Army,
who is their Enemy? Or ought the Intentions of a Captain, which can be
no other than to serve his Prince, to be compared with the Politick
Interests of the crown'd Heads against which he serves? What would be
said of a _Frenchman_, who had wished for the Death of the King of
_England_, because of the Loss of the Chevalier _Belleisle_, whose
Intentions were pure?

For what Reason has this Passage been always praised by the Criticks?
'Tis because the Figure is in itself beautiful and pathetick, but they
did not examine into the Congruity and Bottom of the Thought.

I return to my Paradox--That all these shining Strokes, to which they
give the Name of Wit, never ought to be introduced into great Works
made to instruct or to move; I'll even say they ought not to be found
in Odes for Musick. Musick expresses Passions, Sentiments and Images:
but what are the Concords that can be giv'n an Epigram? _Dryden_ was
sometimes negligent, but he was always natural.

In a Sermon of Doctor _South_, where he speaks of Man's Rectitude