Besides this tale, there is another of his own invention, after the manner of the Provencals, call'd _The Flower and the Leaf_,[33] with which I was so particularly pleas'd, both for the invention and the moral, that I cannot hinder myself from recommending it to the reader.
As a corollary to this preface, in which I have done justice to others, I owe somewhat to myself: not that I think it worth my time to enter the lists with one M----,[34] or one B----,[35] but barely to take notice, that such men there are who have written scurrilously against me, without any provocation.

M----, who is in orders, pretends amongst the rest this quarrel to me, that I have fallen foul on priesthood: if I have, I am only to ask pardon of good priests, and am afraid his part of the reparation will come to little.

Let him to satisfied that he shall not be able to force himself upon me for an adversary.

I contemn him too much to enter into competition with him.
His own translations of Virgil have answer'd his criticisms on mine.
If (as they say he has declar'd in print) he prefers the version of Ogleby to mine, the world has made him the same compliment: for 't is agreed on all hands, that he writes even below Ogleby: that, you will say, is not easily to be done; but what cannot M---- bring about?
I am satisfied, however, that while he and I live together, I shall not be thought the worst poet of the age.

It looks as if I had desir'd him underhand to write so ill against me; but upon my honest word I have not brib'd him to do me this service, and am wholly guiltless of his pamphlet.