one broken line in the heat of recitation; because in one the fenfe is now unfinished; and because all that can be done by a broken verfe, a line interfected by a cefura and a full ftop will equally effect.

Of triplets in his Davideis he makes no ufe, and perhaps did not at first think them allowable; but he appears afterwards to have changed his mind, for in the verfes on the government of Cromwel he inferts them liberally with great happiness.

After fo much criticism on his Poems, the Effays which accompany them muft What is faid by

not be forgotten.

Sprat of his converfation, that no man

could draw from it any fufpicion of his excellence in poetry, may be applied

to thefe compofitions. No author ever kept his verfe and his profe at a greater diftance from each other. His thoughts are natural, and his ftile has a smooth and placid equability, which has never yet obtained its due commendation. Nothing is far-fought, or hard-laboured; but all is easy without feeblenefs, and familiar without groffness.

It has been obferved by Felton, in his Effay on the Clafficks, that Cowley was beloved by every Muse that he courted; and that he has rivalled the Ancients in every kind of poetry but tragedy.

It may be affirmed, without any encomiaftick fervour, that he brought to his poetick labours a mind replete with learning, and that his pages are embel

lished with all the ornaments which books could fupply; that he was the first who imparted to English numbers the enthufiafm of the greater ode, and the gaiety of the lefs; 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 likewise from time to time fuch fpecimens of excellence as enabled fucceeding poets to improve it.

WALL E R.

DMUND WALLER was born on

ED

on the third of March, 1605, at Colfhill in Hertfordshire. His father was Robert Waller, Efquire, of Agmondesham in Buckinghamshire, whofe family was originally a branch of the Kentish Wallers; and his mother was the daughter of John Hampden, of Hampden in the fame county, and fifter to Hampden, the zealot of rebel

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