[ 48 ]

to fix it, in what thou callest — *His
daring Figure in Speech, which is taken from
the Name of God!* A very singular Descrip-
tion of *Impudence*, truly! What a Galima-
tias! This indeed is one of those choice
Specimens of thy Willingneſs to be Witty
which thou frequently prefenteſt us with!
Here we plainly see thee, Heavily Groan-
ing, and Writing in Labour of ſome ſting-
ing Sarcaſm, which the Weakneſs of its Pa-
rent, has not ſtrength enough to bring into
the World! All the Meaning, then, we can
pick out of this Abortive Paragraph is—That
he is a Swearer — I dare ſay, if it be true, he
will not have the *Impudence* to juſtify the Im-
putation: But be it true or false, I cannot see
how it will at all ſerve thy Purpofe; or what
Inference thou canſt draw from it, more than
that, He is a Sinner! But thou shouldſt con-
fider that his Title to the Throne thou haſt
given him, is not founded on his *Wickedneſs*,
but his *Stupidity!* And farther, that Swearing
is a Sin, which Men of quick Spirits are more
apt to be guilty of than *Blockheads!* Now as
thou haſt allow'd him

— Form'd by Nature, Stage, and Town to bleſs,
And act, and be the Coxcomb with Success.

Dun. B. i. v. 109.

Even this involuntary Compliment destroys
thy Satyr! in as much as to act a Coxcomb
well, requires a Justneſs of Imagination, which

Dunces

[ 49 ]

Dunces will never arrive at. Therefore these
Inconsistences of which thou haſt form'd his
Character, I cannot but ſay, are more unfortu-
nate Proofs of thy own, than of his Stupidity!
And as in thy Index (in the Article of Cibber)
thou has farther allow'd that — *He was once
thought to have Wrote a good Play* — Does not
this Confeſſion too (cold as it is) coming from
thee, admit a yet ſtronger Flaw in his Title ?
Truſt me, Alexander, if thou goeſt on at this
wild rate, thou wilt ſoon make the Throne of
thy Laureat Vacant; and who knows, then,
but the ſecond Thought of thy Readers may
humorouſly mount thee into it; as the merry
Mob, at a Cock-match hoiſt up a Cheat in-
to the Basket, for having loft a Bet he was
not able to pay.

And this being thy Cafe, I do not find,
when his Impudence and thine are compared,
but that thine, by this long Stride, of Slander,
muſt be, by far, the more enormous of the
two! Have a care! The Qualities of thy Hero
are cloſe at thy Heels, and if thou doſt not
make ſome better ſhift to conceal thy ſelf, will
ſoon be within they Haunches—Here they
come again.

The next ingredient thou ſayſt, in his Com-
poſition, is *gentle Love*: In the Definition of
which, thy dark Wit has made ſuch a pe-
dantick, jumbling Jargon of narrow Pofitions,
and wide Inferences, and obſcure Similitudes,
that thy real Meaning, like the old Woman's

G

Affair,