University of Virginia Library

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.