]
I have not thought it out of my Province, whenever Occasion offer'd,
to take notice of some of our Poet's grand Touches of Nature: Some,
that do not appear superficially such; but in which he seems the
most deeply instructed; and to which, no doubt, he has so much ow'd
that happy Preservation of his _Characters_, for which he is justly
celebrated. If he was not acquainted with the Rule as deliver'd by
_Horace_, his own admirable Genius pierc'd into the Necessity of
such a Rule.
----Servetur ad imum
Qualis ab incoepto processerit, & sibi constet.
For what can be more ridiculous, than, in our modern Writers, to
make a debauch'd young Man, immers'd in all the Vices of his Age and
Time, in a few hours take up, confine himself in the way of Honour
to one Woman, and moralize in good earnest on the Follies of his
past Behaviour? Nor can, that great Examplar of _Comic_ Writing,
_Terence_ be altogether excused in this Regard; who, in his
_Adelphi_, has left _Demea_ in the last Scenes so unlike himself:
whom, as _Shakespeare_ expresses it, _he has turn'd with the seamy
Side of his Wit outward_. This Conduct, as Errors are more readily
imitated than Perfections, _Beaumont_ and _Fletcher_ seem to
have follow'd in a Character in their _Scornful Lady_. It may be
objected, perhaps, by some who do not go to the Bottom of our Poet's
Conduct, that he has likewise transgress'd against the Rule himself,
by making Prince _Harry_ at once, upon coming to the Crown, throw
off his former Dissoluteness, and take up the Practice of a sober
Morality and all the kingly Virtues.
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