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MISCELLANIES.
Thus wisely careless, innocently gay,
Chearful, he play'd the trifle, life, away,
Till death scarce felt his gentle breath supprest,
As smiling infants sport themselves to rest:
Ev'n rival wits did Voiture's fate deplore,
And the gay mourn'd who never mourn'd before;
The truest hearts for Voiture heav'd with sighs,
Voiture was wept by all the brightest eyes;
The Smiles and Loves had dy'd in Voiture's death,
But that for ever in his lines they breath.
Let the strict life of graver mortals be
A long, exact, and serious comedy,
In ev'ry scene some moral let it teach,
And, if it can, at once both please and preach:
Let mine, like Voiture's; a gay farce appear,
And more diverting still than regular,
Have humour, wit, a native ease and grace;
No matter for the rules of time and place.
Criticks in wit, or life, are hard to please,
Few write to those, and none can live to these.
Chearful, he play'd the trifle, life, away,
Till death scarce felt his gentle breath supprest,
As smiling infants sport themselves to rest:
Ev'n rival wits did Voiture's fate deplore,
And the gay mourn'd who never mourn'd before;
The truest hearts for Voiture heav'd with sighs,
Voiture was wept by all the brightest eyes;
The Smiles and Loves had dy'd in Voiture's death,
But that for ever in his lines they breath.
Let the strict life of graver mortals be
A long, exact, and serious comedy,
In ev'ry scene some moral let it teach,
And, if it can, at once both please and preach:
Let mine, like Voiture's; a gay farce appear,
And more diverting still than regular,
Have humour, wit, a native ease and grace;
No matter for the rules of time and place.
Criticks in wit, or life, are hard to please,
Few write to those, and none can live to these.
Too
