Epistle III. To Aristo.
by
B.G. Esq;
[_]
On some of his own Writings.
AS all your good Offices are both agreeable and obliging, so this especially,
that you did not conceal from me, that my Verses had been the Subject of much Conversation,
at your House, and that drawn to a great Length by the Difference of Opinions:
That there were some, who did not find Fault, with what were wrote but in a friendly and well-meaning way with me,
that I should write and repeat such: With whom, to encrease my Fault,
I own, I sometimes write Verses, none of the gravest. I make Comedies,
I both hear and see Mimicks, I read Lyricks, and I relish Satyr; besides,
I laugh, joke, and am merry;
and to confess, I indulge all innocent Relaxations, I am Man. Nor am I concern'd,
that those (who are ignorant that the most learned, the wisest and best of Men,
have wrote such) should entertain such an Opinion of my Manners, as to wonder that I do.
But from those, who know what, and how great Authors I follow, I am satisfy'd I shall easily have leave to err:
since it is in Company, whose Light as well as serious works, it is a Credit to copy after.
To avoid the Suspicion of Flattery, I will name no Body living; but shall,
I fear, that will be indecent in me, that became
M. Tully, C. Calvus,
A. Pollio, M. Messala, Q. Hortensius, M. Brutus, L. Sulla, Q. Catullus,
Q. Scævola, Ser. Sulpitius, Varro, Torquatus, all the
Torquati,
Memmicus, Lentulus, Gætulicus, Annæus Seneca, Luceius, and in fine,
Virginius Rufus, and if private Examples will not justify,
Julius Cæsar, Augustus, Nerva, T. Cæsar, for of
Nero I say nothing,
tho' I know Things do not lose their Value, that
are sometimes the Works of bad, but maintain their Credit, as they have more often the Authority of good Men.
Among whom, the most remarkable are
P. Virgilius, C. Nepos, Ennius,
and
Accius, who shou'd have been first mentioned: These, indeed,
were not Senators, but Sanctity of Manners little differs from Honour.
I own I repent my Writings; whether they did theirs or not, I cannot tell,
they might rely on
their own Judgment, I have too modest an Opinion of my self, to think any Performance of mine perfect,
that has only my Approbation. These, therefore are my Reasons for repeating;
First, that he who repeats, is, in Respect to the Auditors, more careful in his Composition:
then, what he is doubtful of, he fixes as upon an Opinion given; he is admonish'd of many Things by many;
and if he is not so admonish'd, as to know what every one thinks, yet he perceives by their countenance their Eyes,
their Nod, the Motion of their Hands, the Murmur, their Silence, which by sufficient Signs distinguish Opinion from good Will,
and that in such a Manner, that if any present, have a Desire to read the same,
he will easily find me to have chang'd and left out many Things, and perhaps from the Judgment he made,
tho' he said nothing to me. And these Things I thus argue, as if I had call'd the People to the Audience,
not my Friends in private, of whom, to have many, has been an Honour to all,
was never a Discredit to any.
