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relpondency it self were merely fictitious. Let the bestof Tutty % Epistles be read in such a narrow View as this,and they will certainly prove very insipid. If a real Bru- ,tus , a real Atckus be not supposed, there will be no realCicero . The elegant Writer will disappear, as well thevast Labour and Art with which this eloquent Romanwrote those Letters to his illustrious Friends. There wasno Kind of Composition in which this great Author 'prided or pleased himself more than this ; where he en-deavoured to throw off the Mein of the Philosopher andOrator, whilst in Effect he employed both his Rhetorickand Philosophy with the greatest Force.

They who can read an Epistle or Satyr of Horace , insomewhat better than a mere scholastick Relish, willcomprehend that the Concealment of Order and Method/in this Manner of Writing makes the chief Beauty ofthe Work. They will own, that unless a Reader be insome Measure appriz’d of the Characters of an Augustus ,a Mœcenasy a Florus , or a Trebatius , there will be littleRelish in those Satyrs or Epistles addressed in particularto the Courtiers, Ministers and great Men of the Times.Even the latyrick or miscellaneous Manner of the politeAncients, required as much Order as the most regularPieces. But the Art was to destroy every such Token orAppearance, give an extemporary Air to what was writ,and make the Effect of Art be felt, without disooveringthe Artifice.

This excellent Author makes some admirable Obser-vations on several Passages of Horace , which strew atonce what Criticism ought to do, and how well skilledone must be in the ancient Philosophy to understand

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