Thyer of Manchefter, indubitably genuine. From none of these pieces can his life be traced, or his character discovered. Some verses, in the last collection, fhew him to have been among thofe who ridiculed the institution of the Royal Society, of which the enemies were for fome time very numerous and very acrimonious, for what reafon it is hard to conceive, fince the philofophers profeffed not to advance doctrines, but to produce facts; and the moft zealous enemy of innovation must admit the gradual progrefs of experience, however he may oppose hypothetical temerity.

In this mist of obscurity paffed the life of Butler, a man whose name can only perifh with his language. The mode and place of his education are unknown; the events of his life are varioufly related; and all that can be told with certainty is, that he was

poor.

THE poem of Hudibras is one of thofe compofitions of which a nation may juftly boaft; as the images which it exhibits are domeftick, the fentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the strain of diction original and peculiar. We muft nct, however, fuffer the pride, which we affume as the countrymen of Butler, to make any encroachment upon justice, nor appropriate thofe honours which others have a right to fhare. The pocm of Hudibras is not wholly English; the original idea is to be found in the hiftory of Don Quixote; a book to which a mind of the greatest powers may be indebted without difgrace.

Cervantes fhews a man, who having, by the inceffant perusal of incredible tales, fubjected his understanding

ftanding to his imagination, and familiarifed his mind by pertinacious meditation to trains of incredible events, and scenes of impoffible exiftence; goes out in the pride of knighthood to redrefs wrongs, and defend virgins, to rescue captive princeffes, and tumble ufurpers from their thrones; attended by a fquire, whofe cunning, too low for the fufpicion of a generous mind, enables him often to cheat his mafter.

of

The hero of Butler is a Prefbyterian Juftice, who, in the confidence of legal authority and the rage zealous ignorance, ranges the country to reprefs fuperftition and correct abufes, accompanied by an Independent Clerk, difputatious and obftinate, with whom he often debates, but never conquers him.

Cervantes had fo much kindness for Don Quixote, that, however he embarraffes him with abfurd diftreffes, he gives him fo much fenfe and virtue as may preserve our efteem; wherever he is, or whatever he does, he is made by matchlefs dexterity commonly ridiculous, but never contemptible.

But for poor Hudibras, his poet had no tenderness; he chufes not that any pity fhould be fhewn or refpect paid him he gives him up at once to laughter and contempt, without any quality that can dignify or protect him.

In forming the character of Hudibras, and defcribing his perfon and habiliments, the author feems to labour with a tumultuous confufion of diffimilar ideas. He had read the hiftory of the mock knights-errant ; he knew the notions and manners of a Prefbyterian magiftrate, and tried to unite the abfurdities of both, however

however diftant, in one perfonage. Thus he gives him that pedantic oftentation of knowledge which has no relation to chivalry, and loads him with martial encumbrances that can add nothing to his civil dignity. He fends him out a colonelling, and yet never brings him within fight of war.

If Hudibras be confidered as the reprefentative of the Prefbyterians, it is not easy to say why his weapons fhould be reprefented as ridiculous or useless; for, whatever judgement might be paffed upon their knowledge or their arguments, experience had sufficiently fhewn that their fwords were not to be defpifed.

The hero, thus compounded of fwaggerer and pedant, of knight and juftice, is led forth to action, with his fquire Ralpho, an Independent Enthusiast.

Of the contexture of events planned by the author, which is called the action of the poem, fince it is left imperfect, no judgement can be made. It is probable, that the hero was to be led through many luckless adventures, which would give occafion, like his attack upon the bear and fiddle, to expofe the ridiculous rigour of the fectaries; like his encounter with Sidrophel and Whacum, to make fuperftition and credulity contemptible; or, like his recourfe to the low retailer of the law, difcover the fraudulent practices of different profeffions.

What series of events he would have formed, or in what manner he would have rewarded or punished his hero, it is now vain to conjecture. His work muft have had, as it feems, the defect which Dryden imputes to Spenfer; the action could not have been one; there could only have been a fuccef

fion of incidents, each of which might have happened without the reft, and which could not all co-operate to any fingle conclufion.

The difcontinuity of the action might however have been easily forgiven, if there had been action enough: but I believe every reader regrets the paucity of events, and complains that in the poem of Hudibras, as in the hiftory of Thucydides, there is more faid than done. The fcenes are too feldom changed, and the attention is tired with long converfation.

It is indeed much more eafy to form dialogues, than to contrive adventures. Every pofition makes way for an argument, and every objection dictates an anfwer. When two difputants are engaged upon a complicated and extenfive question, the difficulty is not to continue, but to end the controverfy. But whether it be that we comprehend but few of the poffibilities of life, or that life itfelf affords little variety, every man who has tried knows how much labour it will coft to form fuch a combination of circumftances as fhall have at once the grace of novelty and credibility, and delight fancy without violence to reafon.

Perhaps the Dialogue of this poem is not perfect. Some power of engaging the attention might have been added to it by quicker reciprocation, by feafonable interruptions, by fudden queftions, and by a nearer approach to dramatic fpritelinefs; without which, fictitious fpeeches will always tire, however fparkling with fentences, and however variegated with allufions.

VOL. IX.

The

The great fource of pleasure is variety. Unifor mity must tire at laft, though it be uniformity of excellence. We love to expect; and, when expectation is difappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting. For this impatience of the prefent, whoever would please must make provifion. The fkilful writer irritat, mulcet, makes a due diftribution of the ftill and animated parts. It is for want of this artful intertexture, and thofe neceffary changes, that the whole of a book may be tedious, though all the parts are praised.

If inexhauftible wit could give perpetual pleasure, no eye would ever leave half-read the work of Butler; for what poet has ever brought fo many remote images fo happily together? It is fcarcely poffible to perufe a page without finding fome affociation of images that was never found before. By the firft paragraph the reader is amufed, by the next he is delighted, and by a few more ftrained to aftonishment; but aftonishment is a toilfome pleasure; he is foon weary of wondering, and longs to be diverted.?

Omnia vult belle Matho dicere, dic aliquando
Et bene, die neutrum, dic aliquando male.

Imagination is useless without knowledge: nature gives in vain the power of combination, unless study and obfervation fupply materials to be combined. Butler's treafures of knowledge appear proportioned to his expence: whatever topick employs his mind, he fhews himself qualified to expand and illuftrate it with all the acceffaries that books can furnish: he is found not only to have travelled the beaten road, but the bye-paths of literature; not only to have