Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/235

Rh The declenſion of poetry in Greece and Rome was ſoon followed by that of liberty and empire; according to Roſcommon in his Eſſay on Tranſlated Verſe.

In 1711 Mr. Dennis publiſhed an Eſſay upon Public Spirit, being a ſatire in proſe, upon the Manners and Luxury of the Times, the chief ſources of our preſent Parties and Diviſions. This is one of the moil finiſhed performances of our author; the intention is laudable, and the execution equal to the goodneſs of the deſign. He begins this Eſſay, with a definition of the love of our country, ſhews how much the phraſe has been proſtituted, and how ſeldom underſtood, or practiſed in its genuine ſenſe. He then observes how deſtructive it is to indulge an imitation of foreign faſhions; that faſhions are often followed by the manners of a people from whom they are borrowed; as in the beginning of king Charles the IId's reign. After the general diſtraction which was immediately conſequent upon the Reſtoration, lord Halifax informs us, the people began to ſhake off their ſlavery in point of dreſs, and to be aſhamed of their ſervility in that particular; ‘and that they might look the more, ſays his lordſhip, like a diſtinct people, they threw off their faſhions, and put on veſts: The French did not like this independence, this flight ſhewn to their taſte, as they thought it portended no good to their politics, conſidering that it is a natural introduction, firſt to make the world their aſſes, that they may afterwards make them