were then
Dispensing Competence to Men;
The gentle Trade was left to Churls,
Your frowsy TONSONS and your CURLLS;
Mere Wolves in Ambush to attack
The AUTHOR in a Sheep-skin Back;
Then SAVAGE and his Brother-Sinners
In _Porridge-Island_ div'd for Dinners;
Or doz'd on _Covent Garden_ Bulks,
And liken'd Letters to the Hulks;--
You know that by-gone Time, I say,
That aimless easy-moral'd Day,
When rosy Morn found MADAM still
Wrangling at _Ombre_ or _Quadrille_,
When good Sir JOHN reel'd Home to Bed,
From _Pontack's_ or the _Shakespear's Head_;
When TRIP _convey'd_ his Master's Cloaths,
And took his Titles and his Oaths;
While BETTY, in a cast _Brocade_,
Ogled MY LORD at Masquerade;
When GARRICK play'd the guilty _Richard_,
Or mouth'd _Macbeth_ with Mrs. PRITCHARD;
When FOOTE grimac'd his snarling Wit;
When CHURCHILL bullied in the Pit;
When the CUZZONI sang--
But there!
The further Catalogue I spare,
Having no Purpose to eclipse
That tedious Tale of HOMER'S Ships;--
This is the MAN that drew it all
From _Pannier Alley_ to the _Mall_,
Then turn'd and drew it once again
From _Bird-Cage Walk_ to _Lewknor's Lane_;--
Its Rakes and Fools, its Rogues and Sots;
Its brawling Quacks, its starveling Scots;
Its Ups and Downs, its Rags and Garters,
Its HENLEYS, LOVATS, MALCOLMS, CHARTRES;
Its Splendour, Squalor, Shame, Disease;
Its _quicquid agunt Homines_;--
Nor yet omitted to pourtray
_Furens quid possit Foemina_;--
In short, held up to ev'ry Class
NATURE'S unflatt'ring looking-Glass;
And, from his Canvass, spoke to All
The Message of a JUVENAL.

Take Him. His Merits most aver:
His weak Point is--his Chronicler!

Nov^r. 1, 1879.

HENRY FIELDING.

(To James Russell Lowell.)

Not from the ranks of those we call
Philosopher or Admiral,--
Neither as LOCKE was, nor as BLAKE,
Is that Great Genius for whose sake
We keep this Autumn festival.

And yet in one sense, too, was he
A soldier--of humanity;
And, surely, philosophic mind
Belonged to him whose brain designed
That teeming COMIC EPOS where,
As in CERVANTES and MOLIERE,
Jostles the medley of Mankind.

Our ENGLISH NOVEL'S pioneer!
His was the eye that first saw clear
How, not in natur