of fondness, and their lamentation of forTheir wish was only to fay what they

row.

hoped had been never said before.

Nor was the fublime more within their reach than the pathetick; for they never attempted that comprehenfion and expanse of thought which at once fills the whole mind, and of which the first effect is fudden aftonishment, and the second rational admiration. Sublimity is produced by aggregation, and littlenefs by difperfion. Great thoughts are always general, and confift in positions not limited by exceptions, and in defcriptions not descending to minutenefs. It is with great propriety that Subtlety, which in its original import means exility of particles, is taken in its metaphorical meaning for nicety of diftinction. Those writers who lay on the watch for novelty could have little hope of greatnefs; for great things cannot have escaped former obfervation. Their attempts were always analytick; they broke every image into fragments; and could no more reprefent, by their flender conceits and laboured particularities, the profpects of nature, or the scenes of life, than he, who diffects a fun-beam

with a prism, can exhibit the wide effulgence of a fummer noon.

What they wanted however of the fublime, they endeavoured to fupply by hyperbole; their amplification had no limits; they left not only reason but fancy behind them; and produced combinations of confused magnificence, that not only could not be credited, but could not be imagined.

Yet great labour, directed by great abilities, is never wholly loft; if they frequently threw away their wit upon falfe conceits, they likewife fometimes ftruck out unexpected truth: if their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage. To write on their plan, it was at laft neceffary to read and think. No man could be born à metaphyfical poet, nor affume the dignity of a writer, by defcriptions copied from defcriptions, by imitations borrowed from imitations, by traditional imagery, and hereditary fimilies, by readiness of rhyme, and volubility of fyllables.

In perufing the works of this race of authors, the mind is exercifed either by recollection or inquiry; either fomething already learned is to be retrieved, or fomething new is to be examined. If their greatnefs feldom elevates, their acutenefs often furprises; if the imagination is not always gratified, at leaft the powers of reflexion and comparison are employed; and in the mafs of materials which ingenious abfurdity has thrown toge ther, genuine wit and ufeful knowledge may be fometimes found buried perhaps in grofsnefs of expreffion, but ufeful to those who know their value; and fuch as, when they are expanded to perfpicuity, and polished to elegance, may give luftre to works which have more propriety though lefs copiousness of fentiment.

This kind of writing, which was, I believe, borrowed from Marino and his followers, had been recommended by the example of Donne, a man of a very extensive and various knowledge; and by Jonfon, whofe manner refembled that of Donne more in the ruggedness of his lines than in the caft of his fentiments.

VOL. I.

D

When

When their reputation was high, they had undoubtedly more imitators than time has left behind. Their immediate fucceffors, of whom any remembrance can be faid to remain, were Suckling, Waller, Denham, Cowley, Cleiveland, and Milton. Denham and Waller fought another way to fame, by improving the harmony of our numbers. Milton tried the metaphyfick ftyle only in his lines upon Hobfon the Carrier. Cowley adopted it, and excelled his predeceffors, having as much fentiment and more mufick. Suckling neither improved verfification, nor abounded in conceits. The fashionable style remained chiefly with Cowley; Suckling could not reach it, and Milton difdained it.

CRITICAL REMARKS are not easily underflood without examples; and I have therefore collected inftances of the modes of writ

ing by which this fpecies of poets, for poets they were called by themselves and their admirers, was eminently diftinguished.

AS the authors of this race were perhaps more defirous of being admired than under

2

ftood,

ftood, they fometimes drew their conceits from receffes of learning not very much frequented by common readers of poetry. Thus Cowley on Knowledge:

The facred tree midft the fair orchard grew; The phoenix Truth did on it reft,

And built his perfum'd neft,

That right Porphyrian tree which did true logic fhew.

Each leaf did learned notions give,

And th' apples were demonftrative:

So clear their colour and divine,

The very fhade they caft did other lights outshine.

On Anacreon continuing a lover in his old age:

Love was with thy life entwin'd,
Close as heat with fire is join'd,
A powerful brand prefcrib'd the date
Of thine, like Meleager's fate.

Th' antiperistasis of age

More enflam'd thy amorous rage.

In the following verfes we have an allufion to a Rabbinical opinion concerning Manna:

Variety I ask not give me one

To live perpetually upon.