wifheft to speak of games, look not in the defert fky for a planet hotter than the fun, nor shall we tell of nobler games than thofe of Olympia. He is sometimes too paraphrastical. Pindar bestows upon Hiero an epithet, which, in one word, fignifies delighting in horfes; a word which, in the translation, generates these lines: Hiero's royal brows, whofe care Tends the courfer's noble breed, Pleas'd to nurse the pregnant mare, Pleas'd to train the youthful steed. Pindar fays of Pelops, that he came alone in the dark to the White Sea; and West, Near the billow-beaten fide Of the foam-befilver'd main, which however is lefs exuberant than the former paffage. A work of this kind muft, in a minute examination, discover many imperfections; but Weft's verfion, fo far as I have confidered it, appears to be the product of great labour and great abilities. His Inftitution of the Garter (1742) is written with fufficient knowledge of the manners that prevailed in the age to which it is referred, and with great elegance of diction; but, for want of a procefs of events, neither knowledge nor elegance preferve the reader from weariness. His Imitations of Spenfer are very fuccefsfully performed, both with respect to the metre, the language, and the fiction; and being engaged at once by the excellence of the fentiments, and the artifice of the copy, the mind has two amufements at once: But fuch compofitions are not to be reckoned among the great atchievements of intellects, because their effect is local and temporary; they appeal not to reafon or paffion, but to memory, and pre-fuppofe an accidental and artificial state of mind. An Imitation of Spenfer is nothing to a reader, however acute, by whom Spenfer has never been perufed. Works of this kind may deferve praise, as proofs of great industry, and great nicety of obfervation; but the highest praife, the praife of genius, they cannot claim. The nobleft beauties beauties of art are thofe of which the effect is co-extended with rational nature, or at least with the whole circle of polished life; what is less than this can be only pretty, the plaything of fashion, and the amufement of a day. THERE is in the Adventurer a paper of verfes given to one of the authors as Mr. Weft's, and fuppofed to have been written by him. It should not be concealed, however, that it is printed with Mr. Jago's name in Dodfley's Collection, and is mentioned as his in a Letter of Shenftone's. Perhaps Weft gave it without naming the author; and Hawkefworth, receiving it from him; thought it his; for his he thought it, as he told me, and as he tells the publick. COLLINS. |