By this most precious relick, here I pledge
Myself to save him from the halter's edge:
And not myself alone, but ev'ry friend
Shall all his interest and assistance lend.
Quaint B——, beholding the rude mob with scorn,
Shall tell how Irish bards are gentle born;
Next I, to captivate the learned bench,
Will strait affirm that Nyky writes good French;[15]
Thy timid nature Johnson shall maintain,[16]
In words no dictionary can explain.
Goldsmith, good-natur'd man, shall next defend,
His foster-brother,[17] countryman, and friend:
Shall prove the humbler passions, now and then,
Are incidental to us little men;
IMITATIONS.
Hanc ego magnanimi spolium Didymaonis hastam,
Ut semel est avulsa jugis à matre perempta,
Quæ neque jam frondes virides neque proferet umbras,
Fida ministeria et duras obit horrida pugnas
Testor.
Val. Flac.
NOTES.

[15] See the Sessions-paper; in which this admirable plea is made use of by Roscius to exculpate a culprit accused of murder.

[16] See the same; in which this pompous pseudo-philosopher affects to suppose cowardice incompatible with the character of an Italian bravo.

[17] So called from having not long since made one in a poetical triumvirate, which gave occasion to the following verses in imitation of Dryden's famous epigram on Milton;
"Three poets in three distant ages born," &c.

And that the part our gentle Nyky play'd
Was but philosophy in masquerade.[18]
Let me no longer, then, my loss deplore,
But to his Roscius, Muse, my Nyk restore.
IMITATIONS.
Ducite ab urbe domum mea carmina ducite Daphnim.
NOTES.
Poor Dryden! what a theme hadst thou,
Compar'd to that which offers now?
What are your Britons, Romans, Grecians,
Compar'd with thorough-bred Milesians?
Step into Griffin's shop, he'll tell ye
Of Goldsmith, Bickerstaff, and Kelly,
Three poets of one age and nation,
Whose more than mortal reputation,
Mounting in trio to the skies
O'er Milton's fame and Virgil's flies.
Nay, take one Irish evidence for t'other,
Ev'n Homer's self is but their foster-brother.

[18] It seems indeed to be growing into fashion for philosophy to go in masquerade, if there be any truth in the subject of the following; which lately appeared in the public prints.

To Doctor Goldsmith, on seeing his name in the list of the mummers at the late masquerade.

"Say should the philosophic mind disdain
That good which makes each humbler bosom vain;
Let school-taught pride dissemble all it can,
Such little things are great to little man."
Goldsmith.
How widely different, Goldsmith, are the ways
Of doctors now, and those of ancient days!
Theirs taught the truth in academic shades,
Ours haunt lewd hops, and midnight masquerades!
So chang'd the times! say philosophic sage,
Whose genius suits so well this tasteful age,
Is the Pantheon, late a sink obscene,
Become the fountain of chaste Hippocrene?
Or do thy moral numbers quaintly flow
Inspir'd by th' Aganippe of Soho?