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fome paffages which Pope has imitated or tranflated with the imitation or verfion, and gives the preference to the originals, perhaps not always upon convincing arguments.

Theocritus makes his lover wish to be a bee, that he might creep among the leaves that form the chaplet of his mistreís. Pope's enamoured fwain longs to be made the captive bird that fings in his fair one's bower, that the might liften to his fongs, and reward them with her kiffes. The critick prefers the image of Theocritus as more wild, more delicate, and more

uncommon.

It is natural for a lover to wifh that he might be any thing that could come near to his lady. But we more naturally defire to be that which the fondles and careffes, than that which fhe would avoid, at least would neglect. The fuperior delicacy of Theocritus I cannot discover, nor can indeed find, that either in the one or the other image there is any want of delicacy. Which of the two images was lefs common in the time of the poet who used it, for on that confideration the merit of novelty depends, I think it is now out of any critick's power to decide.

He remarks, I am afraid with too much justice, that there is not a fingle new thought in the paftorals; and with equal reafon declares, that their chief beauty confifts in their correct and mufical verfification, which has fo influenced the English ear, as to render every moderate rhymer harmonious.

In his examination of the Meffiah, he juftly obferves fome deviations from the infpired author, which weaken the imagery, and difpirit the expreffion.

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On Windfor-foreft, he declares, I think without proof, that defcriptive poetry was by no means the excellence of Pope; he draws this inference from the few images introduced in this poem, which would not equally belong to any other place. He muft inquire whether Windfor-forest has in reality any thing pe

culiar.

The Stag-chafe is not, he fays, fo full, fo animated, and fo circumftantiated as Somerville's. Barely to fay, that one performance is not fo good as another, is to criticife with little exactnefs. But Pope has directed that we should in every work regard the author's end. The Stag-chafe is the main fubject of Somerville, and might therefore be properly dilated into all its circumstances; in Pope it is only incidental, and was to be dispatched in a few lines.

He makes a juft obfervation, " that the defcription of the external beauties of nature is ufually the first effect of a young genius, before he hath ftudied nature and paffions. Some of Milton's moft early as well as most exquifite pieces are his Lycidas, l'Allegro, and Il Penferofo, if we may except his ode on the Nativity of CHRIST, which is indeed prior in order of time, and in which a penetrating critick might have obferved the feeds of that boundless imagination which was one day to produce the Paradife Loft."

Mentioning Thomson and other defcriptive poets, he remarks, that writers fail in their copies for want of acquaintance with originals, and juftly ridicules those who think they can form juft ideas of valleys, mountains, and rivers, in a garret of the Strand. For this reafon I cannot regret with this author, that Pope laid afide his defign of writing American pafto

rals;

rals; for as he must have painted fcenes which he never faw, and manners which he never knew, his performance, though it might have been a pleasing amufement of fancy, would have exhibited no reprefentation of nature or of life.

After the paftorals, the critick confiders the lyrick poetry of Pope, and dwells longeft on the ode of St. Ceci lia's day, which he, like the reft of mankind, places next to that of Dryden, and not much below it. He remarks after Mr. Spence, that the first stanza is a perfect concert. The fecond he thinks a little flat; he justly commends the fourth, but without notice of the beft line in that ftanza or in the poem :

Tranfported demigods flood round,

And men grew heroes at the found.

In the latter part of the ode he objects to the ftanza of triumph;

Thus fong could reveal, &c.

as written in a measure ridiculous and burlefque, and juftifies his answer by obferving that Addifon ufes the fame numbers in the scene of Rofamond, between Grideline and Sir Trusty:

How unhappy is he, &c.

That the measure is the fame in both paffages must be confeffed, and both poets perhaps chofe their numbers properly; for they both meant to exprefs a kind of airy hilarity. The two paffions of merriment and exultation are undoubtedly different; they are as different as a gambol and a triumph, but each is a fpecies of joy; and poetical measures have not in any language been fo far refined as to provide for the subdivifions of paffion. They can only be adapted to

general

general purposes; but the particular and minuter propriety must be fought only in the fentiment and language. Thus the numbers are the fame in Colin's complaint, and in the ballad of Darby and Joan, though in one sadness is reprefented, and in the other tranquillity; fo the measure is the fame of Pope's Unfortu nate Lady and the Praife of Voiture.

He obferves very juftly, that the odes both of Dryden and Pope conclude unsuitably and unnaturally with epigram.

He then spends a page upon Mr. Handel's mufic to Dryden's ode, and speaks of him with that regard which he has generally obtained among the lovers of found. He finds fomething amifs in the air "With ravished 66 ears, " but has overlooked or forgotten the groffeft fault in that compofition, which is that in this line:

Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries.

He has laid much ftrefs upon the two latter words, which are merely words of connection, and ought in mufic to be confidered as parenthetical.

From this ode is flruck out a digreffion on the nature of odes, and the comparative excellence of the ancients and moderns. He mentions the chorus which Pope wrote for the duke of Buckingham; and thence takes occafion to treat of the chorus of the ancients. He then comes to another ode of "The dying Chriftian to "his Soul," in which finding an apparent imitation of Flatman, he falls into a pleafing and learned fpeculation on the resembling paffages to be found in different poets.

He mentions with great regard Pope's ode on Soirtude, written when he was but twelve years old, but VOL. II.

A a

omits

omits to mention the poem on Silence, compofed, I think, as early, with much greater elegance of diction, mufic of numbers, extent of observation, and force of thought. If he had happened to think on Baillet's chapter of Enfans celebres, he might have made on this occafion a very entertaining differtation on early

excellence.

He comes next to the Effay on Criticifm, the ftupendous performance of a youth not yet twenty years old; and after having detailed the felicities of condition, to which he imagines Pope to have owed his wonderful prematurity of mind, he tells us that he is well informed this effay was firft written in profe. There is nothing improbable in the report, nothing indeed but what is more likely than the contrary; yet I cannot forbear to hint to this writer and all others, the danger and weaknefs of trufting too readily to information. Nothing but experience could evince the frequency of falfe information, or enable any man to conceive that fo many groundless reports fhould be propagated as every man of eminence may hear of himself. Some men relate what they think as what they know; fome men of confufed memories and habitual inaccuracy afcribe to one man what belongs to another; and fome talk on without thought or care. A few men are fufficient to broach fallehoods, which are afterwards innocently dif'fufed by fucceffive relaters.

He proceeds on examining paffage after paffage of this eflay; but we must pass over all thefe criticisms to which we have not fomething to add or to object, or whe this uthor does not differ from the general voice of mankind. We cannot agree with him in his cenfure of the comparison of a student advancing in

fcience

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