" in which our Poets were claffed under their

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fuppofed respective schools. The late la"mented Mr. Gray had alfo projected a work "of this kind, and tranflated fome Runic odes "for its illuftration, now published: but foon

relinquishing the prosecution of a design, "which would have detained him from his "own noble inventions, he moft obligingly con"defcended to favour me with the fubftance of "his plan, which I found to be that of Mr. Pope, confiderably enlarged, extended, and improved.

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"It is vanity in me to have mentioned these "communications. But I am apprehenfive my vanity will justly be thought much greater, "when it shall appear, that, in giving the Hif"tory of English Poetry, I have rejected the "ideas of men, who are its moft diftinguished "ornaments. To confefs the real truth, upon "examination and experiment, I foon discovered "their mode of treating my subject, plausible "as it is and brilliant in theory, to be attended "with difficulties and inconveniencies, and pro"ductive of embarrassment both to the reader "and the writer. Like other ingenious fyf"tems, it facrifices much ufeful intelligence to "the obfervance of arrangement; and in the

place of that fatisfaction, which refults from a "clearness and a fulness of information, seemed

"only to fubftitute the merit of difpofition, and the praise of contrivance. The constraint, impofed by a mechanical attention to this diftribution, appeared to me to destroy that "free exertion of research, with which fuch a hiftory ought to be executed, and not easily "reconcileable with that complication, variety, "and extent of materials, which it ought to "comprehend.

"The method, I have purfued, on one ac"count at least, seems preferable to all others. My performance, in its prefent form, exhi"bits without tranfpofition the gradual improve"ments of our poetry, at the fame time that it uniformly reprefents the progreffion of our language."

"

These reasons for the preference, which Warton has given to his own method, will probably appear conclufive. The practice of reducing the feveral painters under their respective schools may have inclined Pope, who is well known to have been fond and studious of the art of painting, "to introduce a fimilar method in examining the fifter art of poetry; and a like propensity may have influenced Gray and Mafon, when they adopted and improved on this method. Probably it is more fpecious, and more gratifying

to the fancy; but the merit of it fhould be estimated by its practicability, of which experiment is the fureft, and, it may be, the only, criterion. Warton affures us he made the experiment, and was thereby deterred from proceeding in it: Pope himself, the original projector, does not appear to have attempted to embody his plan : Gray, as we have already feen, found that a work of the kind in queftion,

purfued on fo very extenfive a plan, would "become almoft endlefs:" and Mafon may be confidered as having given a tacit approbation, at least he forbore to object, to the chronological arrangement of Warton".

If it should appear that this account of circumstances, connected with " the History of

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English Poetry," has been drawn to an unexpected length, I fhall fhelter myself under a plea not only of the importance of the subject itself, but also of the fatisfaction derived from the contemplation of fuch diftinguished men, liberally communicating their thoughts in order to promote the general interests of literature; and free from the feelings of envy and ill-natured rivalry, to which little minds are fubject,

z See the note annexed to the paffage quoted above from the 4th volume of his Memoirs.

confpiring to promote, and participating in the fatisfaction confequent on, the well-earned reputation of each other.

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But the treatment, which Mr. Warton met with in return for his hiftorical labours, was not always of this mild and gentle complexion. The publication of the work raised him up an antagonist in the anonymous writer of " Ob"fervations on the three firft Volumes of the Hiftory of English Poetry, in a familiar Let"ter to the Author." A writer, of whom it is no harsh judgment to pronounce, that the acuteness of his mind is greater than its elegance; and that, whatever other obligations he may be under to his learning, he certainly is not indebted to it for any peculiar softness of manner. I would not willingly fpeak of any man otherwise than with temper; but I feel it incumbent on me to mention this tract, and impoffible to mention it but with severity. With respect to the specific accufations urged in this anonymous attack, fome of the inaccuracies and errors pointed out had been before noticed and corrected by the hiftorian himself; fome of

a

See the Gentleman's Magazine for 1782 and 1783, in which are several letters in vindication of Mr. Warton. Thofe figned A. S. are from the elegant pen of Mr. Ruffell, fellow of New College, the author of fome Sonnets and very beautiful pieces of mifcellaneous poetry, published after his death.

the charges have been fhown to be groundless, and some at least of a questionable nature; and all of them, without an exception, are obtruded on public notice with such asperity of language, with fuch hardinefs of affertion, and in fuch a fpirit of exaggeration and (it fhould feem) of perfonal acrimony, as no one who has not read them will readily conceive.

In the mean time, with refpect to many of the charges, as I am not prepared to prove them to be false, I do not hesitate to fuppofe, and to allow, them to be true. Nor do I think that hereby much is detracted from the merit of the hiftorian for 'in a work of fuch a nature as to require the exertions of a mind poffeffed of the united powers of research, comprehenfion, felection, combination, and arrangement, warmed by a lively taste, and chaftifed by a correct judgment, to make it tolerably perfect, a man of common fenfe will expect to meet with errors, which a man of common ingenuousness will forbear to condemn with harfhnefs. And if, after the deduction of thofe charges which cannot be fubftantiated, and a decent qualification of thofe which can, the remainder shall be neither very numerous nor very material, then may it, on the other hand, be not unfairly argued, that the very adduction of these errors from a work of fuch magnitude and difficulty,