Virgiliani Carminis non accedunt: argutiis enim nimium indulget, ut
Epigrammaticum potius quod interdum scribat, quam planum carmen: Ac
præterea non ubique purus est: quanquam Angli illum omnes veterum
Poetarum numeros implevisse sibi persuadeant._

Foreigners, I am apt to think, frequently judge with more Exactness of
our Countrymen's Performances than the generality of the Natives. I
think the Judgment of another learned Foreigner very sensible, when he
says upon reading _Virgilium Dryd[)e]ni_, "That if the Original had
been no better than the Copy, _Augustus_ would have done well to have
committed it to the Flames." But the Author's own Words are worth
perusing.

"_Sæpe, Maro, dixi, quantum mutatus ab illo es!
Romani quondam qui stupor orbis eras.
Si te sic tantum voluisset vivere Cæsar,
Quam satius, flammis te periisse foret._
_Vid._ Fabric. Bib. Lat.

December 4. 1736,

_I am_, SIR, _&c._




LETTER X.


_SIR,_