'I should imagine the Dunciad meant you a real compliment, and so it has
been thought by many who have ask'd to whom that passage made that
oblique panegyric. As to the notes, I am weary of telling a great truth,
which is, that I am not author of them, &c.'

Which paragraph was answer'd by the following in Mr. Hill's reply.

'As to your oblique panegyric, I am not under so blind an attachment to
the goddess I was devoted to in the Dunciad, but that I know it was a
commendation; though a dirtier one than I wished for; who am neither
fond of some of the company in which I was listed--the noble reward, for
which I was to become a diver;--the allegorical muddiness in which I was
to try my skill;--nor the institutor of the games you were so kind to
allow me a share in, &c.'--A genteel severe reprimand.

Much about the same time he wrote another poem, called Advice to the
Poets; in praise of worthy poetry, and in censure of the misapplication
of poetry in general. The following lines here quoted, are the motto of
it, taken from the poem.

Shame on your jingling, ye soft sons of rhyme,
Tuneful consumers of your reader's time!
Fancy's light dwarfs! whose feather-footed strains,
Dance in wild windings, thro' a waste of brains:
Your's is the guilt of all, who judging wrong,
Mistake tun'd nonsense for the poet's song.

He likewise in this piece, reproves the above named celebrated author,
for descending below his genius; and in speaking of the inspiration of