thofe learned and polite focieties with which he had been acquainted abroad. In this defign his friend Dryden is faid to have affifted him. The fame defign, it is well known, was revived by Dr. Swift in the miniftry of Oxford; but it has never fince been publicly mentioned, though at that time great expectations were formed by fome of its eftablishment and its effects. Such a fociety might, perhaps, without much difficulty, be collected; but that it would produce what is expected from it may be doubted. The Italian academy feems to have obtained its end. The language was refined, and fo fixed that it has changed but little. The French academy thought that they refined their language, and doubtlefs thought rightly; but the event has not fhewn that they fixed it; for the French of the present time is very different from that of the last century. In this country an academy could be expected to do but little. If an academician's place were profitable, it would be given by intereft; if attendance were gratuitous, it would be rarely paid, and no man would endure the least disguft. Unanimity is impoffible, and debate would separate the affembly. But fuppofe the philological decree made and promulgated, what would be its authority? In abfolute governments, there is fometimes a general reverence paid to all that has the fanction of power, and the countenance of greatnels. How little this is the ftate of our country needs not to be told. We live in an age in which it is a kind of publick sport to refufe all refpect that cannot be enforced. The edicts of an English academy would probably be read by many, only that they might be fure to disobey them. That our language is in perpetual danger of corruption cannot be denied; but what prevention can be found? The prefent manners of the nation would deride authority; and therefore nothing is left but that every writer fhould criticife himself. All hopes of new literary inftitutions were quickly fuppreffed by the contentious turbulence of King James's reign; and Rofcommon, forefeeing that fome violent concuffion of the State was at hand, purposed to retire to Rome, alleging, that it was beft to fit near the chimney when the chamber Smoked; a fentence, of which the application feems not very clear. His departure was delayed by the gout; and he was fo impatient either of hindrance or of pain, that he fubmitted himself to a French empirick, who is faid to have repelled the difeafe into his bowels. At the moment in which he expired, he uttered, with an energy of voice that expreffed the moft fervent devotion, two lines of his own verfion of Dies Ira: My God, my Father, and my Friend, Do not forfake me in my end. He died in 1684; and was buried with great pomp in Westminster-Abbey. His poetical character is given by Mr. Fenton: "In his writings," fays Fenton, "we view the "image of a mind which was naturally ferious and "folid; richly furnished and adorned with all the "ornaments of learning, unaffectedly difpofed in the "moft "moft regular and elegant order. His imagination might have probably been more fruitful and fprightly, if his judgement had been lefs fevere. "But that severity (delivered in a masculine, clear, "fuccinct ftyle) contributed to make him fo emi"nent in the didactical manner, that no man, with 'juftice, can affirm he was ever equalled by any of "our nation, without confeffing at the fame time "that he is inferior to none. In fome other kinds "of writing his genius feems to have wanted fire "to attain the point of perfection; but who can " attain it ?" 66 From this account of the riches of his mind, who would not imagine that they had been displayed in large volumes and numerous performances? Who would not, after the perufal of this character, be furprised to find that all the proofs of this genius, and knowledge, and judgement, are not fufficient to form a fingle book, or to appear otherwife than in conjunction with the works of fome other writer of the fame petty fize*? But thus it is that characters are written we know fomewhat, and we imagine · the reft. The obfervation, that his imagination would probably have been more fruitful and fprightly, *They were publifhed, together with thofe of Dake, in an octavo volume, in 1717. The editor, whoever he was, profeffes to have taken great care to procure and infert all of his lordship's poems that are truly genuine. The truth of this affertion is flatly denied by the author of an account of Mr. John Pomfret, prefixed to his Remains; who afferts, that the Profpect of Death was written by that perfon many years after Lord Rofcommon's deceafe; as alfo, that the paraphrafe of the Prayer of Jeremy was written by a gentleman of the name of Southcourt, living in the year 1724. H. if his judgement had been lefs fevere, may be anfwered, by a remarker fomewhat inclined to cavil, by a contrary fuppofition, that his judgement would probably have been lefs fevere, if his imagination had been more fruitful. It is ridiculous to oppose judgement to imagination; for it does not appear that men have neceffarily lefs of one as they have more of the other. We must allow of Rofcommon, what Fenton has not mentioned fo diftinctly as he ought, and what is yet very much to his honour, that he is perhaps the only correct writer in verfe before Addison; and that, if there are not fo many or fo great beauties in his compofitions as in thofe of fome contemporaries, there are at least fewer faults. Nor is this his highest praife; for Mr. Pope has celebrated him as the only moral writer of King Charles's reign: Unhappy Dryden ! in all Charles's days, His great work is his Effay on Tranflated Verfe; of which Dryden writes thus in the preface to his Mifcellanies: 86 "It was my Lord Rofcommon's Effay on Tranf"lated Verfe," fays Dryden, "which made me uneafy, till I tried whether or no I was capable of following his rules, and of reducing the fpecu "lation into practice. For many a fair precept poetry is like a feeming demonftration in mathe"maticks, very fpecious in the diagram, but fail in ing in the mechanick operation. I think I have "generally obferved his inftructions: I am fure my "reafon is fufficiently convinced both of their truth .. and "and usefulness; which, in other words, is to "confefs no lefs a vanity than to pretend that I "have, at leaft in fome places, made examples to "his rules." This declaration of Dryden will, I am afraid, be found little more than one of thofe curfory civilities which one author pays to another; for when the fum of lord Rofcommon's precepts is collected, it will not be eafy to difcover how they can qualify their reader for a better performance of tranflation than might have been attained by his own reflections. He that can abftract his mind from the elegance of the poetry, and confine it to the fenfe of the precepts, will find no other direction than that the author fhould be fuitable to the tranflator's genius; that he fhould be fuch as may deserve a translation; that he, who intends to tranflate him, fhould endeavour to understand him; that perfpicuity should be ftudied, and unusual and uncouth names fparingly inferted; and that the ftyle of the original fhould be copied in its elevation and depreffion. Thefe are the rules that are celebrated as fo definite and important; and for the delivery of which to mankind fo much honour has been paid. Rofcommon has indeed deferved his praifes, had they been given with difcernment, and beftowed not on the rules themselves, but the art with which they are introduced, and the decorations with which they are adorned. The Effay, though generally excellent, is not without its faults. The ftory of the Quack, borrowed from Boileau, was not worth the importation; he has confounded the British and Saxon mythology: I grant |