well off to have got so much from a man of this Lord's station, who does not live in a garret, but 'has the sway' of Newstead Abbey. Again, we say, let us be thankful; and, with honest Sancho, bid God bless the giver, nor look the gift horse in the mouth.

END OF HOURS OF IDLENESS.

ENGLISH BARDS,

AND

SCOTCH REVIEWERS;

A SATIRE.

I had rather be a kitten, and cry, mew!
Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers.
SHAKSPEARE.

Such shameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true,
There are as mad, abandon'd Critics too.

IV.

POPE.

ALL my friends, learned and unlearned, have

urged me not to publish this Satire with my name. If I were to be « turn'd from the career of my humour by quibbles quick, and paper bullets of the brain, » I should have complied with their counsel. But I am not to be terrified by abuse, or bullied by reviewers, with or without arms. I can safely say that I have attacked none personally who did not commence on the offensive. An Author's works are public property he who purchases may judge, and publish his opinion if he pleases; and the Authors I have endeavoured to commemorate may do by me as I have done by them: I dare say they will succeed better in condemning my scribblings, than in mending their own. But my object is not to prove that I can write well, but, if possible, to make others write better.

As the Poem has met with far more success than I expected, I have endeavoured in this edition to make some additions and alterations to render it more worthy of public perusal.

In the first edition of this Satire, published anonymously, fourteen lines on the subject of Bowles's Pope were written and inserted at the request of an ingenious friend of mine, who has now in the press a volume of poetry. In the present edition they are erased, and some of

(1) This Preface was written for the second edition of this poem, and printed with it.