And yet but lately have I seen ev’n here,
  The winter in a lovely dress appear. 
  Ere yet the clouds let fall the treasur’d snow,
  Or winds begun through hazy skies to blow;
  At ev’ning a keen eastern breeze arose;
  And the descending rain unsully’d froze. 
  Soon as the silent shades of night withdrew,
  The ruddy morn disclos’d at once to view,
  The face of nature in a rich disguise,
  And brighten’d every object to my eyes: 

    And ev’ry shrub, and ev’ry blade of grass,
  And ev’ry pointed thorn seem’d wrought in glass. 
  In pearls and rubies rich, the hawthorns show,
  While through the ice the crimson berries glow. 
  The thick sprung reeds, the watry marshes yield,
  Seem polish’d lances in a hostile field. 
  The flag in limpid currents with surprize,
  Sees crystal branches on his fore-head rise. 
  The spreading oak, the beech, and tow’ring pine,
  Glaz’d over, in the freezing aether shine. 
  The frighted birds, the rattling branches shun. 
  That wave and glitter in the distant sun.

    When if a sudden gust of wind arise,
  The brittle forest into atoms flies: 
  The crackling wood beneath the tempest bends,
  And in a spangled show’r the prospect ends. 
  Or, if a southern gale the region warm,
  And by degrees unbind the wintry charm,
  The traveller, a miry country sees,
  And journeys sad beneath the dropping trees.

    Like some deluded peasant, Merlin leads
  Thro’ fragrant bow’rs, and thro’ delicious meads;
  While here inchanted gardens to him rise,
  And airy fabrics there attract his eyes,
  His wand’ring feet the magic paths pursue;
  And while he thinks the fair illusion true,
  The trackless scenes disperse in fluid air,
  And woods, and wilds, and thorny ways appear: 
  A tedious road the weary wretch returns,
  And, as he goes, the transient vision mourns.

But it was not enough for Sir Richard to praise this performance of Mr. Philips.  He was also an admirer of his Pastorals, which had then obtained a great number of readers:  He was about to form a Critical Comparison of Pope’s Pastorals, and these of Mr. Philips; and giving in the conclusion, the preference to the latter.  Sir Richard’s design being communicated to Mr. Pope, who was not a little jealous of his reputation, he took the alarm; and by the most artful and insinuating method defeated his purpose.

The reader cannot be ignorant, that there are several numbers in the Guardian, employed upon Pastoral Poetry, and one in particular, upon the merits of Philips and Pope, in which the latter is found a better versifier; but as a true Arcadian, the preference is given to Philips.  That we may be able to convey a perfect idea of the method which Mr. Pope took to prevent the diminution of his reputation, we shall transcribe the particular parts of that paper in the Guardian, Number XL.  Monday April the 27th.