A LETTER to Mr. MASON. DEAR SIR, I IMITATION, CHANC'D to say in the discourse on POETICAL IMITATION," that coincidencies of a certain "kind, and in a certain degree, cannot fail to convict a writer of Imitation." You are fometimes curious to know what thefe coincidencies are, and have thought that an attempt to point them out would furnifh an useful Supplement to what I have written on this fubject. You urge me too to this attempt by the promise, it feems, I made of engaging in it. But have you obferv'd what I faid at the fame time, "That fuch a defign would require, befides a care"ful examination of the workings of the human "mind, an exact scrutiny of the most original and "moft imitative writers." a And, with all your para DISC. ON POET. IMIT. p. 209. 2a Ed.. 0 2 tiality 41 X111 tiality for me, can you, in earnest, think me capable of fulfilling the firft of these conditions; Or, if I were, do you imagine that, at this time o' day, I can have the leifure to perform the other? My younger years, indeed, have been spent in turning over those authors which young men are moft fond of; and amongst these I will not difown that the Poets of antient and modern fame have had their full share in my affection. But You, who love me fo well, would not wish me to pass more of my life in these flowery regions; which tho' You may yet wander in without offence, and the rather as you wander in them with so pure a mind and to so moral a purpose, there feems no decent pretence for me to loiter in them any longer. Yet in faying this I would not be thought to affume that severe character; which, tho' fometimes the garb of reason, is oftener, I believe, the mafk of dullness, or of fomething worse. No, I am too fenfible to the charms, nay to the ufes of your profeffion, to affect a contempt for it. The great Roman faid well, Haec ftudia adolefcentiam alunt; seneEtutem oblectant. We make a full meal of them in our youth. And no philosophy requires so perfect a mortification as that we should wholly abstain from them in our riper years. But should we reverse the obfervation; and take this light food not as the refreshment only, but as the proper nourishment of Age; fuch a name, as Cicero's, I am afraid, would be wanting, and not eafily found, to justify the practice. Let Let us own then, on a greater authority than His, "That every thing is beautiful in it's feafon." The Spring hath it's buds and bloffoms: But, as the year runs on, You are not difpleas'd, perhaps, to see them fall off; And would certainly be disappointed not to find them, in due time, fucceeded by those mellow hangings, the poet somewhere speaks of. I could alledge ftill graver reafons. But I would only fay, in one word, that your friend has had his share in these amusements. I may recollect with pleasure, but must never live over again Pieriofque dies, et amantes carmina fomnos. Yet fomething, you infift, is to be done; and, if it amount to no more than a specimen or flight sketch, such as my memory, or the few notes I have by me, would furnish, the defign, you think, is not totally to be relinquished. I understand the danger of gratifying you on these terms. Yet, whatever it be, I have no power to excuse myself from any attempt, by which, you tell me at least, I may be able to gratify you. I will do my best, then, to draw together fuch observations, as I have fometimes thought, in reading the poets, moft material for the certain discovery of Imitations. And I addrefs them to you, not only as You are the propereft judge of the subject; You, who understand fo well in what manner the Poets are us'd to imitate each other, and who yourself fo finely imitate the best of them; But as I would give You this small |