great measure hereafter seem to pay her a kind of an indirect Compliment. She has often told me, you know, that I am one of the loyalest Subjects the Sex ever had, and, I dare fay, will not be displeased with this fresh Proclamation of their Dominion. You may add farther, that I think Women are the Fountains from whence flow the blended Streams of Tafte and Pleasure, and that the Draught of Life is more or lefs fweet as they are mingled in the Cup. Adieu.

LET

LETTER V.

You

To the SAME.

U feem to think, EUPHEMIUS, that I contradicted in Conversation the other Day, in a great Measure what I advanced in a former Letter to you, by allowing CRONOPHILUS to be a Man of a ftrong Understanding and great Erudition, and yet at the fame time afferting he had little or no Tafte. But according to my Obfervation, what I wrote, and what I faid, are very reconcileable. For Tafte does not wholly depend upon the natural Strength and acquired Improvement of the Intellectual Powers; nor wholly upon a fine Construction of the Organs of the Body; nor wholly upon the intermediate Powers of the Imagination; but upon a Union of them all happily blended, without too great a Prevalency in either. Hence it falls out, that one Man may be a very great Reasoner; another have the fineft Genius for Poetry; and a third be bleffed with the most

delicate

delicate Organs of Sense; and yet every one of these be deficient in that internal Sensation called Tafte. On the contrary, a fourth, in whofe Frame indulgent Nature has twisted this triple Cord, fhall feel it conftantly vibrate within, whenever the fame Unifon of Harmony is ftruck from without; either in the original Works of Nature; in the mimetic Arts; or in Characters and Manners. That worthy Man, and amiable Writer, Mr. ADDISON, was no great Scholar; he was a very indifferent Critic, and a worfe Poet; yet from the happy Mixture, just mentioned, he was bleffed with a Tafte truly delicate and refined. This rendered him capable of diftinguishing what were Beauties in the Works of others, tho' he could not account fo well why they were so, for want of that deep Philofophical Spirit which is requifite in Works of Criticifm. He likewife tranflated the Poetical Descriptions of OVID very elegantly and faithfully into his own Language, tho' he fell infinitely fhort of them in his own original Compofitions, for want of that unconfirained Fire of Imagination which constitutes

constitutes the true Poet. Hence we may be enabled to account for that peculiar Fatality which attends Mr. ADDISON'S poetical Writings, that his Translations feem Originals, whilft his own Compofitions have the confined Air of Tranflations. Nor think that I exemplify too far by observing that your Friend POPE was a better Tranflator than he was a Poet. Many Inftances might be produced from his Tranflation of the ILIAD to prove the Truth of this Affertion. One I will particularly mention, which is the fublime Defcription of NEPTUNE in the xiiith Book.

"In Samothracia on a Mountain's Brow,

"Whofe waving Woods o'er-hung the Deeps below, "He fate; and round him caft his Azure Eyes "Where Ida's mifty Tops confus'dly rise; "Beneath fair Ilion's glitt'ring Spires were seen ; "The crouded Ships, and fable Seas between. "There from the cryftal Chambers of the Main "Emerg'd he fate; and mourn'd his Argives slain. "At Jove incens'd with Grief and Fury ftung, "Prone down the fleepy Rock, he pour'd along, "Fierce as he pafs'd the lofty Mountains nod, "The Forefts fhake, Earth trembled as he trod, "And felt the Footsteps of th' immortal God."

}

I chose

I chose to select this Paffage in Preference to any other, as the Original is a favorite one with LONGINUS, who had the most Taste of all the ancient Critics. In my Opinion the Tranflation is not at all inferior to the Original. From which you may infer that I do not degrade Mr. POPE, tho' I fay he is a better Tranflator than he is a Poet.---I have this Morning read over the Latin Poem you fent me, which gave me no fmall Entertainment. The Author has fhewed his Tafte and Command of the Stile of LuCRETIUS, HORACE, and VIRGIL, but more particularly of the former, all which he has elegantly blended, or, as his Subject occafionally required, used separately. I thank you likewise for the two Tranflations of the fame Poem, tho' I must confess they did not give me equal Satisfaction, if any at all. at all. If the two Gentlemen, who have charitably undertaken to do it into English, for the Benefit of those who do not understand the Original, had poffeffed Tafte or even common Judgment enough, to have diftinguished that the chief Merit of that Poem confifts in