Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/329

Rh he wrote a Hyrm to the Pillory, as a kind of defiance of their power. ‘The reader (ſays he) is deſired to obſerve this poem was the author’s declaration, even when in the cruel hands of a mercileſs, as well as unjuſt miniſtry; that the treatment he had from them was unjuſt, exorbitant, and conſequently illegal.’ As the miniſtry did not think proper to proſecute him for this freſh inſult againſt them, that forbearance was conſtrued a confeſſion of guilt in their former proceedings.

In the ſecond volume of our author’s works, is a piece entitled More Reformation, a ſatire upon himſelf. We have already taken notice of a ſatire of his called Reformation of Manners, in which ſome perſonal characters are ſtigmatized, which drew much odium on Mr. De Foe. This ſatire called More Reformation, is a kind of ſupplement to the former. In the preface he complains of the ſevere uſage he had met with, but, ſays he, ‘that the world may diſcern that I am not one of thoſe who practiſe what they reprove, I began this ſatire with owning in myſelf thoſe ſins and misfortunes which I am no more exempted from, than other men; and as I am far from pretending to be free from human frailties, but forwarder to confeſs any of the errors of my life, than any man can be to accuſe me; I think myſelf in a better way to reformation, than thoſe who excuſe their own faults by reckoning up mine.

‘Some that have heard me complain of this hard uſage, have told me, there is ſomething of a retaliation of providence in it, for my being ſo very free with the characters of other men in a late ſatire called The Reformation of