Epistle XV. To Proclus.
by
the Same. [Mr. Henley]
YOU desire me to read your Performances in my Retirement, and examine whether they deserve a more publick Light;
you importune me to it, and alledge your Precedents for the Purpose. You ask me to cut off a Pittance of leisure Time from my own Studies,
and bestow it on yours. You add, that Tully encourag'd the Genius of Poets with an amazing good Nature:
But I am neither to be courted nor exhorted to it; for I have both a religious Veneration for Poetry it self,
and a
particular Respect for you: Therefore I will satisfy your Desire with equal Care and Inclination.
But I think I am now capable of answering, That it is fine Composition,
and not to be suppress'd, as far as I can reckon up the Part you recited before me,
if your Rehearsal did not impose upon me, for you read with the utmost Skill and Sweetness:
Yet I am confident, that I am not so charm'd by the Hearing, as to have all the Points of my Judgment broken off by the Allurements of it;
they may be turn'd a little, and blunted, but torn away and destroy'd they cannot be;
for this Reason, I do not at present rashly pronounce on the whole, but shall find by Observation what the Parts are,
in the Perusal.
