Air, by a famous
Performer, a Coxcombly Connoisseur, at my Elbow, was so fond of shewing
his own Taste, that by his continual Remarks, and prating in Praise of
every Grace and Cadence, my Attention and Pleasure in the Song was quite
lost and confounded.

It is almost amazing, that you, who have writ with such masterly Spirit,
upon the _Ruling Passion_, should be so blind a Slave to your own, as
not to have seen, how far a low Avarice of Praise might prejudice, or
debase that valuable Character, which your Works, without your own
commendatory Notes upon them, might have maintained. _Laus propria
sordet_, is a Line we learn in our Infancy. How applicable to your self
then is what you say of another Person, _viz._

_Whose Ruling Passion is the lust of Praise;
Born, with whate'er could win it from the Wise,
Women and Fools must like him, or he dies._
Epist. to Ld. _Cobham_ Vers. 183.

How easily now can you see the Folly in another, which you yourself are
so fond of? Why, Sir, the very Jealousy of Fame, which (in the best
cruel Verses that ever fell from your Pen) you have with so much
Asperity reproved in _Addison_ (_Atticus_ I mean) falls still short of
yours, for though you impute it to him as a Crime, That he could----

_Bear, like the_ Turk, _no Brother near the Throne._
Vers. 190 of the same Epist.

Yet you, like outragious _Nero_, are for whipping and branding every
poor Dunce in your Dominions, that had the stupid Insolence not to like
you, or your Musick! If this is not a greater Tyranny than that of your
_Atticus_, at least you must allow it more ridiculous: For what have you
gain'd by it? a mighty Matter! a Victory over a parcel of poor Wretches,
that were not able to hurt or resist you, so weak, it was almost
Cowardice to conquer them; or if they actually _did_ hurt you, how much
weaker have you shewn yourself in so openly owning it? Besides, your
Conduct seems hardly reconcileable to your own Opinion: For after you
have lash'd them (in your Epistle to Dr. _Arburthnot_, ver. 84.) you
excuse the Cruelty of it in the following Line.

------_Take it for a Rule,
No Creature smarts so little as a Fool._

Now if this be true, to what purpose did you correct them? For wise Men,
without your taking such Pains to tell them, knew what they were
before. And that publick-spirited Pretence of your only chastising them,
_in terrorem_ to o