OCCASION'D by an

EPISTLE

_Of Mr._ POPE'_s_

On that Subject.

_By the Author of the_ ART OF POLITICKS.

_LONDON_:

Printed by _J. Wright_, for LAWTON GILLIVER at _Homer's Head_ against
_St. Dunstan's Church_ in _Fleet Street_, 1733.

Price 1 _s._

Where may be had the _Art of Politicks_, In Imitation of _Horace_'s
Art of Poetry. Price 1 _s._

The Man of Taste.

Whoe'er he be that to a _Taste_ aspires,
Let him read this, and be what he desires.
In men and manners vers'd from life I write,
Not what was once but what is now polite.
Those who of courtly _France_ have made the tour,
Can scarce our _English_ awkwardness endure.
But honest men who never were abroad,
Like _England_ only, and its _Taste_ applaud.
Strife still persists, which yields the better _gout_;
Books or the world, the many or the few.
True _Taste_ to me is by this touchstone known,
That's always best that's nearest to my own.
To shew that my pretensions are not vain,
My Father was a play'r in _Drury-lane_.
Pears and Pistachio-nuts my Mother sold,
He a Dramatick-poet, She a Scold.
His tragick muse could Countesses affright,
Her wit in boxes was my Lord's delight.
No mercenary _Priest_ e'er join'd their hands,
Uncramp'd by wedlock's unpoetick bands.
_Laws_ my Pindarick parents matter'd not,
So I was tragi-comically got.
My infant tears a sort of measure kept,
I squal'd in Distichs, and in Triplets wept.
No youth did in I education waste,
Happy in an _Hereditary Taste_.
Writing ne'er cramp'd the sinews of my thumb,
Nor barb'rous birch e'er brush'd my brawny bum.
My guts ne'er suffer'd from a college-cook,
My name ne'er enter'd in a buttery-book.
_Grammar_ in vain the sons of _Priscian_ teach,
Good Parts are better than _Eight Parts of Speech_:
Since these declin'd those undeclin'd they call,
I thank my Stars, that I declin'd 'em all.
To _Greek_ or _Latin Tongues_ without pretence,
I trust to mother Wit, and father Sense.
_Nature_'s my guide, all Sciences I scorn,
Pains I abhor, I was a _Poet born_.
Yet is my _gout_ for criticism such,
I've got some _French_, and know a little _Dutch_.
Huge commentators grace my learned shelves,
Notes upon books out-do the books themselves.
Criticks indeed are valuable men,
But hyper-criticks are as good agen.
Tho' _Blackmore_'s works my soul with raptures fill,
With notes by _Bent