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HAVING thus endeavoured to exhibit a general representation of the style and fentiments of the metaphyfical poets, it is now proper to examine particularly the works of Cowley, who was almost the last of that race, and undoubtedly the best.

His Mifcellanies contain a collection of fhort compofitions, written fome as they were dictated by a mind at leisure, and fome as they were called forth by different occafions; with great variety of ftyle and fentiment, from burlesque levity to awful grandeur. Such an affemblage of diverfified excellence no other poet has hitherto afforded. To choose the best, among many good, is one of the most hazardous attempts of criticifm. I know not whether Scaliger himself has perfuaded many readers to join with him in his preference of the two favourite odes, which he estimates in his raptures at the value of a kingdom. I will however venture to recommend Cowley's firft piece, which ought to be infcribed To my Mufe, for want of which the fecond couplet is without reference, When

When the title is added, there will ftill remain a defect; for every piece ought to contain in itself whatever is neceffary to make it intelligible. Pope has fome epitaphs without names; which are therefore epitaphs to be lett, occupied indeed for the present, but hardly appropriated.

The ode on Wit is almost without a rival. It was about the time of Cowley that Wit, which had been till then used for Intellection, in contradistinction to Will, took the meaning, whatever it be, which it now bears.

Of all the paffages in which poets have exemplified their own precepts, none will eafily be found of greater excellence than that in which Cowley condemns exuberance of Wit;

Yet 'tis not to adorn and gild each part,

That fhews more coft than art.

Jewels at nofe and lips but ill appear;

Rather than all things wit, let none be there.
Several lights will not be seen,

If there be nothing else between.

Men doubt, because they stand fo thick i'th fky,
If those be stars which paint the galaxy.

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In his verses to Lord Falkland, whom every man of his time was proud to praife, there are, as there must be in all Cowley's compofitions, fome ftriking thoughts, but they are not well wrought. His elegy on Sir Henry Wotton is vigorous and happy, the series of thoughts is easy and natural, and the conclufion, though a little weakened by the intrufion of Alexander, is elegant and forcible.

It may be remarked, that in this Elegy, and in most of his encomiaftic poems, he has forgotten or neglected to name his heroes,

In his poem on the death of Harvey, there is much praise, but little paffion, a very just and ample delineation of fuch virtues as a studious privacy admits, and fuch intellectual excellence as a mind not yet called forth to action can display. He knew how to diftinguish, and how to commend the qualities of his companion; but when he wishes to make us weep, he forgets to weep himself, and diverts his forrow by imagining how his crown of bays, if he had it, would crackle in the

fire. It is the odd fate of this thought to be worfe for being true. The bay-leaf crackles remarkably as it burns; as therefore this property was not affigned it by chance, the mind must be thought fufficiently at ease that could attend to fuch minuteness of phyfiology. But the power of Cowley is not fo much to move the affections, as to exercise the understanding.

The Chronicle is a compofiton unrivalled and alone: fuch gaiety of fancy, fuch facility of expreffion, fuch varied fimilitude, such a fucceffion of images, and fuch a dance of words, it is in vain to expect except from Cowley. His ftrength always appears in his agility; his volatility is not the flutter of a light, but the bound of an elastic mind. His levity never leaves his learning behind it; the moralift, the politician, and the critick, mingle their influence even in this airy frolick of genius. To fuch a performance Suckling could have brought the gaiety, but not the knowledge; Dryden could have fupplied the knowledge, but not the gaiety.

The

The verses to Davenant, which are vigoroufly begun, and happily concluded, contain fome hints of criticifm very justly conceived and happily expreffed. Cowley's critical abilities have not been fufficiently ob-, ferved the few decifions and remarks which his prefaces and his notes on the Davideis fupply, were at that time acceffions to English literature, and fhew fuch skill as raises. our wifh for more examples.

The lines from Jerfey are a very curious and pleasing specimen of the familiar descending to the burlesque.

His two metrical difquifitions for and against Reafon are no mean fpecimens of metaphyfical poetry. The ftanzas against knowledge produce little conviction. In those which are intended to exalt the human faculties, Reafon has its proper task affigned it; that of judging, not of things revealed, but of the reality of revelation. In the verses for Reafon is a paffage which Bentley, in the only English verfes which he is known to have

written

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