acquiefcence, Dryden with turbulent delight; Pope hangs upon the ear, and Dryden finds the paffes of the mind. Both the odes want the effential conftituent of metrical compofitions, the ftated recurrence of fettled numbers. It may be alleged, that Pindar is faid by Horace to have written numeris lege folutis: but as no But hark! he ftrikes the golden lyre; And the pale spectres dance! The Furies fink upon their iron beds, And fnakes uncurl'd hang lift'ning round their heads. fuch lax performances have been tranfmitted to us, the meaning of that expreffion cannot be fixed; and perhaps the like return might properly be made to a mo dern Pindarift, as Mr. Cobb received from Bentley, who, when he found his criticisms upon a Greek Exercife, which Cobb had prefented, refuted one after another by Pindar's authority, cried out at last, Pindar was a bold fellow, but thou art an impudent one. If Pope's ode be particularly infpected, it will be found that the first stanza confifts of founds well chofen indeed, but only founds. The second confifts of hyperbolical common-places, cafily to be found, and perhaps without much difficulty to be as well expreffed. In the third, however, there are numbers, images, harmony, and vigour, not unworthy the antagonist of Dryden. Had all been like this-but every part cannot be the best. The next ftanzas place and detain us in the dark and difmal regions of mythology, where neither hope nor fear, neither joy nor forrow, can be found: the poet however faithfully attends us; we have all that can be performed by elegance of diction, or fweetness of verfification; but what can form avail without better matter? The laft ftanza recurs again to common-places. The conclufion is too evidently modelled by that of Dryden; and it may be remarked that both end with the fame fault, the comparison of each is literal on one fide, and metaphorical on the other. Poets do not always exprefs their own thoughts; Pope, with all this labour in the praife of Mufick, was ignorant of its principles, and infenfible of its effects. One of his greateft though of his earliest works is the Efay on Criticism, which, if he had written nothing elfe, would have placed him among the first criticks and the firft poets, as it exhibits every mode of excellence that can embellish or dignify didactick compofition, felection of matter, novelty of arrangement, juftness of precept, fplendour of illuftration, and propriety of digreffion. I know not whether it be pleafing to confider that he produced this piece at twenty, and never afterwards excelled it: he that delights himself with obferving that fuch powers may be foon attained, cannot but grieve to think that life was ever after at stand. To mention the particular beauties of the Effay would be unprofitably tedious: but I cannot forbear to obferve, that the comparifen of a ftudent's progrefs in the fciences with the journey of a traveller in the Alps, is perhaps the best that English poetry can fhew. A fimile, to be perfect, muft both illuftrate and ennoble the fubject; muft fhew it to the understanding in a clearer view, and difplay it to the fancy with greater dignity; but either of thefe qualities may be fufficient to recommend it. In didactick poetry, of which the great purpofe is inftruction, a fimile may be praised which illuftrates, though it does not ennoble; in heroicks, that may be admitted which ennobles, though it does not illuftrate. That it may be complete, it is required to exhibit, independently of its references, a pleafing image; for a fimile is faid to be a fhort epifede. To this antiquity was fo attentive, that circumstances were fometimes added, which, having no parallels, ferved only to fill the imagination, and produced what Perrault ludicrously called comparilans with a long tail In their families the greateft writers have fometimes failed; the fhip-race, compared with the chariot-race, is neither illuftrated nor aggrandifed; land and water make all the difference: when Apollo, running after Daphne, is likened to a greyhound chafing a hare, there is nothing gained; the ideas of purfuit and flight are too plain to be made plainer; and a god and the daughter of a god are not reprefented much to their advantage by a hare and dog. The fimile of the Alps. has no useless parts, yet affords a striking picture by itfelf; it makes the foregoing pofition better underftood, and enables it to take fafter hold on the attention; it affists the apprehenfion, and elevates the. fancy. Let me likewife dwell a little on the celebrated paragraph, in which it is directed that the found should seem an echo to the fenfe; a precept which Pope is allowed to have obferved beyond any other English poet. This notion of reprefentative metre, and the defire of discovering frequent adaptations of the found to the fense, have produced, in my opinion, many wild conceits and imaginary beauties. All that can furnish this representation are the founds of the words confidered fingly, and the time in which they are pronounced. Every language has fome words framed to exhihit the noises which they exprefs, as thump, rattle, growl, hifs. These however are but few, and the poet cannot make them more, nor can they be of any ufe but when found is to be mentioned. The time of pronunciation was in the dactylick measures of the learned languages capable of confiderable variety; but that variety could be accommodated only to motion or duration, and different degrees of motion were perhaps expreffed by verfes rapid or flow, without much attention of the writer, when the image had full poffeffion of his fancy; but our language having little flexibility, our verfes can differ very little in their cadence. The fancied refemblances, I fear, arife fometimes merely from the ambiguity of words; there is fuppofed to be fome relation between a foft line and a foft couch, or between hard fyllables and hard fortune. Motion, however, may be in fome fort exemplified; and yet it may be fufpected that even in fuch refemblances the mind often governs the ear, and the founds are estimated by their meaning. One of the most fuccefsful attempts has been to defcribe the labour of Sifyphus: With many a weary step, and many a groan, Up a high hill he heaves a huge round ftone; The huge round ftone, refulting with a bound, Thunders impetuous down, and fmoaks along the ground. Who does not perceive the ftone to move flowly upward, and roll violently back? But fet the fame numbers to another fenfe; While many a merry tale, and many a fong, Chear'd the rough road, we wifh'd the rough road long. The rough road then, returning in a round, Mock'd our impatient steps, for all was fairy ground. We have now furely loft much of the delay, and much of the rapidity. But, to fhew how little the greatest master of numbers can fix the principles of reprefentative harmony, it will be fufficient to remark that the poet, who tells us, that When |