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been quoted, and by Rymer it has once been praised; nor do I recollect much other notice from its publication till now, in the whole fucceffion of English literature.

Of this obfcurity and neglect, if the reason be inquired, it will be found partly in the choice of the subject, and partly in the performance of the work.

Sacred History has been always read with fubmiffive reverence, and an imagination overawed and controlled. We have been accuftomed to acquiefce in the nakedness and fimplicity of the authentic narrative, and to repose on its veracity with fuch humble confidence, as fuppreffes curiofity. We go with the historian as he goes, and stop with him when he stops. All amplification is frivolous and vain; all addition to that which is already fufficient for the purposes of religion, feems not only useless, but in fome degree profane.

Such events as were produced by the vifible interpofition of Divine Power are above the power of human genius to dignify. The miracle of Creation, however it may teem with images, is best described with little diffufion of lan, guage: He fpake the word, and they were made.

We are told that Saul was troubled with an

evil fpirit: from this Cowley takes an opportunity of defcribing hell, and telling the hiftory of Lucifer, who was, he fays,

Once general of a gilded host of sprites, Like Hefper leading forth the Spangled nights;

But

But down like lightning, which him struck,

he came,

And roar'd at his first plunge into the flame.

Lucifer makes a fpeech to the inferior agents of mischief, in which there is fomething of heathenifm, and therefore of impropriety; and, to give efficacy to his words, concludes by lashing his breaft with his long tail. Envy, after a paufe, fteps out, and among other declarations of her zeal utters these lines:

Do thou but threat, loud storms shall make reply,

And thunder echo to the trembling sky. Whilst raging feas fwell to so bold an height, As fhall the fire's proud element affright. Th' old drudging Sun, from his long-beaten

way,

Shall at thy voice start, and misguide the day.

The jocund orbs fhall break their measur'd

pace,

And stubborn Poles change their allotted

place.

Heaven's gilded troops fhall flutter here and

there,

Leaving their boasting fongs tun'd to a sphere.

Every reader feels himself weary with this uselefs talk of an allegorical Being.

It is not only when the events are confeffedly miraculous, that fancy and fiction lofe their effect the whole fyftem of life, while the Theocracy

Theocracy was yet visible, has an appearance fo different from all other scenes of human action, that the reader of the Sacred Volume habitually confiders it as a peculiar mode of existence of a diftinct fpecies of mankind, that lived and acted with manners uncommunicable; fo that it is difficult even for imagination to place us in the ftate of them whofe ftory is related, and by confequence their joys and griefs are not easily adopted, nor can the attention be often interested in any thing that befals them.

To the subject, thus originally indifpofed to the reception of poetical embellishments, the writer brought little that could reconcile impatience, or attract curiofity. Nothing can be more disgusting than a narrative spangled with conceits, and conceits are all that the Davideis fupplies.

One of the great fources of poetical delight is description, or the power of presenting pictures to the mind. Cowley gives inferences inftead of images, and fhews not what may be supposed to have been feen, but what thoughts the fight might have fuggefted. When Virgil describes the stone which Turnus lifted against Eneas, he fixes the attention on its bulk and weight:

Saxum circumfpicit ingens,

Saxum antiquum, ingens, campo qui forte jacebat,

Limes agro pofitus, item ut difcerneret arvis.

Cowley

Cowley fays of the ftone with which Cain flew his brother,

I saw him fling the ftone, as if he meant
At once his murther and his monument.

Of the sword taken from Goliah, he says,

A sword so great, that it was only fit
To cut off his great head that came with it.

Other poets describe death by fome of its common appearances; Cowley fays, with a learned allufion to fepulchral lamps real or fabulous,

'Twixt his right ribs deep pierc'd the furious blade,

And open'd wide those secret vessels where Life's light goes out, when first they let in air.

But he has allufions vulgar as well as learned. In a visionary fucceffion of kings:

Joas at first does bright and glorious show,
In life's fresh morn his fame does early crow.

Defcribing an undifciplined army, after having faid with elegance,

His forces feem'd no army, but a crowd Heartless, unarm'd, diforderly, and loud; he gives them a fit of the ague.

The allufions however are not always to vulgar things:

The king was plac'd alone, and o'er his head A well-wrought heav'n of filk and gold was spread.

Whatever he writes is always polluted with fome conceit :

Where the fun's fruitful beams give metals birth,

Where he the growth of fatal gold does fee, Gold, which alone more influence has than he.

In one paffage he starts a fudden question, to the confufion of philosophy :

Ye learned heads, whom ivy garlands grace, Why does that twining plant the oak embrace?

The oak, for courtship most of all unfit, And rough as are the winds that fight with it.

His expreffions have fometimes a degree of meannefs that furpaffes expectation:

Nay, gentle guests, he cries, fince now you're in,

The ftory of your gallant friend begin.

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