Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/241

Rh He mentions him again ſlightly in his ſecond Book, line 230, and in his third Book, line 165, taking notice of a quarrel between him and Mr. Gildon, he ſays,

Our author gained little by his oppoſition to Pope, in which he muſt either have violated his judgment, or been under the influence of the ſtrongeft prejudice that ever blinded the eyes of any man; for not to admire the writings of this excellent poet, is an argument of a total depravation of taſte, which in other reſpects does not appear to be the caſe of Mr. Dennis.

We ſhall now take a view of our author in the light of a dramatiſt. In the year 1697 a comedy of his was acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, called A Plot and No Plot, dedicated to the Earl of Sunderland. The ſcope of this piece is to ridicule the credulity and principles of the Jacobites, the moral of which is this, ‘That there are in all parties, perſons who find it their intereſt to deceive the reſt, and that one half of every faction makes a property in fee-ſimple of the other, therefore we ought never to believe any thing will, or will not be, becauſe it is agreeable, or contrary to our humours, but becauſe it is in itſelf likely, or improbable. Credulity in men, engaged in a party, proceeds oftner from pride than weakneſs, and it is the hardeſt thing in the world to impoſe upon a humble man.’ In