heat of recitation; because in one the sense is now unfinished; and because all that can be done by a broken verfe, a line interfected by a cæfura and a full ftop will equally effect. Of triplets in his Davideis he makes no use, and perhaps did not at first think them allowable; but he appears afterwards to have changed his mind, for in the verses on the government of Cromwell he inferts them liberally with great happiness. After fo much criticifm on his Poems, the Effays which accompany them must not be forgotten. What is faid by Sprat of his converfation, that no man could draw from it any fufpicion of his excellence in poetry, may be applied to these compofitions. No author ever kept his verse and his profe at a greater distance from each other. His thoughts are natural, and his style has a smooth and placid equability, which has never yet obtained its due commendation. Nothing is far-fought, or hard-laboured; but all is eafy without feeblenefs, and familiar without groffhefs. It has been obferved by Felton, in his Effay on the Clafficks, that Cowley was beloved by every Mufe that he courted; and that he has rivalled the Ancients in every kind of poetry but tragedy. It may be affirmed, without any enco miaftick fervour, that he brought to his poetick labours a mind replete with learning, and that his pages are embellished with all the ornaments which books could supply; that he was the firft who imparted to Englifh numbers the enthufiafm of the greater ode, and the gaiety of the less; that he was equally qualified for fpritely fallies, and for lofty flights; that he was among those who freed tranflation from fervility, and, instead of following his author at a distance, walked by his fide; and that if he left verfification yet improvable, he left likewife from time to time fuch fpecimens of excellence as enabled fucceeding poets to improve it. DENHAM, DEN HA M. OF Sir JOHN DENHAM very little is known but what is related of him by Wood, or by himself. He was born at Dublin in 1615; the only fon of Sir John Denham, of Little Horfely in Effex, then chief baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, and of Eleanor, daughter of Sir Garret Moore baron of Mellefont. Two years afterwards, his father, being made one of the barons of the Exchequer in England, brought him away from his native country, and educated him in London. In 1631 he was fent to Oxford, where he was confidered "as a dreaming young man, |