own epitaph, expreffes his zeal for good poe try thus: -Molliter offa quiefcent Sint modo carminibus non onerata malis. His works are not common, and therefore I fhall fubjoin his verses. In examining this performance, Nothing must be confidered as having not only a negative but a kind of pofitive fignification; as I need not fear thieves, I have nothing, and nothing is a very powerful protector. In the first part of the fentence it is taken negatively; in the second it is taken positively, as an agent. In one of Boileau's lines it was a question, whether he should use à rien faire, or à ne rien faire; and the firft was preferred because it gave rien a fenfe in fome fort pofitive. Nothing can be a fubject only in its pofitive fenfe, and fuch a fenfe is given it in the first line: Nothing, thou elder brother ev'n to fhade. In this line, I know not whether he does not allude to a curious book de Umbra, by Wowerus, which, having told the qualities of of Shade, concludes with a poem, in which are these lines: Jam primum terram validis circumfpice clauftris. The positive fenfe is generally preferved, with great fkill, through the whole poem; though fometimes in a fubordinate fenfe, the negative nothing is injudiciously mingled. Pafferat confounds the two fenfes. Another of his moft vigorous pieces is his Lampoon on Sir Car Scroop, who, in a poem called The Praife of Satire, had fome lines like thefe *: He who can push into a midnight fray Then put This was meant of Rochester, whose buffoon conceit was, I fuppofe, a faying often * I quote from memory. Dr. J. X 2 mentioned, mentioned, that every Man would be a coward if he durft; and drew from him those furious verses; to which Scroop made in reply an epigram, ending with these lines: Thou canst hurt no man's fame with thy ill word; Thy pen is full as harmless as thy fword. Of the fatire against Man, Rochester can only claim what remains when all Boileau's part is taken away. In all his works there is fpriteliness and vigour, and every where may be found tokens of a mind which study might have carried to excellence. What more can be expected from a life spent in oftentatious contempt of regularity, and ended before the abilities of many other men began to be displayed? Poema Poema CI. V. JOANNIS PASSERATII, Regii in Academia Parifienfi Profefforis, Ad ornatiffimum virum ERRICUM MEMMIUM. Janus adeft, feftæ pofcunt fua dona Kalendæ, Ufque adeò ingenii nostri est exhausta facultas, 3 E cœlo quacunque Ceres fua profpicit arva, Aut genitor liquidis orbem complectitur ulnis Oceanus, NIHIL interitus & originis expers. Immortale NIHIL, NIHIL omni parte beatum. Quòd fi hinc majeftas et vis divina probatur, Numquid honore deûm, num quid dignabimur aris? Confpectu lucis NIHIL eft jucundius almæ, Vere NIHIL, NIHIL irriguo formofius horto, Floridius pratis, Zephyri clementius aura; In bello fanctum NIHIL eft, Martisque tumultu: Juftum in pace NIHIL, NIHIL eft in fœdere tutum. Pura liquefaciunt fimul, & patrimonia miscent, 3 Humano |