121 Or fhall we 41 ev'ry Decency confound, The Man that loves and laughs, muft fure do well. Or better Precepts if you can impart, Why do, I'll follow them with all my heart. 41 Crudi, tumidique lavemur, 125 Quid deceat, quid non, obliti: Cerite cera Digni, 42 remigium vitiofum Ithacenfis Ulyffei, Cui potior 43 patria fuit interdita voluptas. 44 Si (Mimnermus ati cenfet) fine amore jocifque, Nil eft jucundum; vivas in amore, jocifque. 45 Vive, vale! fi quid novifti rectius iftis, Candidus imperti: fi non, his utere mecum. THE ADVERTISEMENT. T HE Reflections of Horace and the Judgments paft in his Epistle to Auguftus, feem'd fo feafonable to the prefent Times, that I could not help applying them to the ufe of my own Country. The Author thought them confiderable enough to address them to His Prince; whom he paints with all the great and good Qualities of a Monarch, upon whom the Romans depended for the Encreafe of an Abfolute Empire. But to make the Poem entirely English, I was willing to add one or two of thofe Virtues which contribute to the Happiness of a Free-People, and are more confiftent with the Welfare of our Neighbours. This Epiftle will show the Learned World to have fallen into Two mistakes: one, that Auguftus was a Patron of Poets in general; whereas he not only prohibited all but the Best Writers to name him, but recommended that Care even to the Civil Magiftrate: Admonebat Prætores, ne paterentur Nomen fuum obfolefieri, &c. The other, that this Piece was only a general Difcourfe of Poetry; whereas it was an Apology for the Poets, in order to render Auguftus more their Patron. Horace here pleads the Caufe of his Cotemporaries, first against the Taste of the |