_Virgil_ were Honour'd in _Rome_; the first, by _Scipio_ and _Lælius_,
the other by _Augustus_ and _Mecænas_; how much _Francis_ the First, and
Cardinal _Richelieu_, encourag'd the Wits of _France_; and drawing his
Argument more home, he relates to you, how in this Island the
_Buckinghams_, the _Orrerys_, the _Roscommons_, the _Normanbys_, the
_Dorsets_, the _Hallifaxs_, and several other Illustrious Persons have
not only encouraged Poetry, but ennobled the Art itself by their
Performances.

"True _Eubulus_; we allow Poetry to be a Divine Art, and the name of
_Poet_ to be _Sacred_ and Honourable, when a _Sophocles_, a _Terence_, a
_Virgil_, a _Corneille_, a _Boileau_, a _Shakespear_, a _Waller_, a
_Dryden_, a _Wycherly_, a _Congreve_, or a _Garth_ bears it: But then we
intend it as a Scandal, when we give it to _Mævius, Chapelain, Ogilby_,
W---- D----, D----, S----, and _your self_.

"I question whether some Poets allow any other Poets to have Perform'd
better, than themselves, in that kind of Poetry which they profess. Sir
_R---- B----_, I suppose, tho' he has declaim'd against Wit, yet is not
so conceited, as to Vie with _Horace_ and _Juvenal_ for _Satyr_; but as
to _Heroick Poetry_, methinks he Reasons thus with himself; _Homer_ has
writ the _Ilias_ and the _Odysseis_, and _Virgil_ only the _Æneid_; I
have writ _Prince Arthur_, and _King Arthur_; am I not then equal to
_Homer_, and Superior to _Virgil_? No, _B----re_, we judge of _Poetry_
as we do of _Metals_, nor by the _Lump_, but the intrinsick Value. New
cast your Poems; purge 'em of their Dross; reduce 'em to the Bulk of the
_Dispensary_, and if then they weigh in the Balance with _that_, we will
allow you a Place among the First-Rate _Heroick Poets_.

"The _Wits_ of mean Descent and scanty Fortune, are generally apt to