Spence, Joseph; Tindal, Nicholas [Editor]; Dodsley, James [Oth.]: A Guide To Classical Learning: Or, Polymetis Abridged: Containing, I. By Way of Introduction, the Characters of the Latin Poets and their Work ... II. An Inquiry concerning the Agreement between the Works of the Roman Poets and the Remains of the Antient Artists ... Being a Work absolutely necessary, not only for the Right Understanding of the Classics, but also for forming in Young Minds a True Taste for the Beauties of Poetry, Sculpture, and Painting (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1786)

[ xvii ]
a statue was erected, he was applied to for an
inscription. These were the common offices of
his mule. If he {truck a fault, he marked it down
in a few* lines; and if he had a mind to please a
friend or a patron, his style was turned to pane-
gyric ; and these were his highest employments.
However, he was a good writer in his way, and
wrote with dignity on higher occasions.
JUVENAL.
Juvenal comes aster all that have been men-
tioned, and writes with a greater spirit of poetry
than any os them. He has scarce any thing of
Horace’s genteelness, yet is not without humour.
vHc is the most sevete of all the satirists, and in-
deed he ssaflies too much like an angry execu-
tioner: but the depravity of the times, and thes
vices then in fashion, may often excuse his rage.
However, his satires have a great deal of spirit in
them, and sheW a strong hatred of vice, with somo
very fine and high sentiments of virtue. They*
are indeed so animated, that no poem of that age
can be read with near so much pleasure as his
satires.
Juvenal may be well called the laft of the
Roman poets. After his time poetry continued
declining more and more, to the time of Constan-
tine, when all the arts were so far lost, that the
Romans then had scarce any thing to distinguisti
them from the Barbarians*

There