are lefs afraid of novelty, had already poffeflion of thofe dreadful images. Waller had defcribed a fea-fight. Milton had not yet transferred the invention of fire-arms to the rebellious angels.

This poem is written with great diligence, yet does not fully anfwer the expectation raifed by fuch fubjects and fuch a writer. With the ftanza of Davenant he has fometimes his vein of parenthefis, and incidental difquifition, and flops his narrative for a wife remark.

The general fault is, that he affords more fentiment than defcription, and does not fo much imprefs fcenes upon the fancy, as deduce confequences and make comparisons.

The initial ftanzas have rather too much resemblance to the ' firft lines of Waller's poem on the war with Spain; perhaps fuch a beginning is natural, and could not be avoided without affectation. Both Waller and Dryden might take their hint from the poem on the civil war of Rome," Orbem jam to"tum," &c.

Of the King collecting his navy, he says,

It feems, as every fhip their fovereign knows,
His awful fummons they fo foon obey:
So hear the fcaly herds when Proteus blows,

And fo to pafture follow through the fea.

It would not be hard to believe that Dryden had written the two first lines feriously, and that fome wag had added the two latter in burlefque. Who would expect the lines that immediately follow, which are indeed perhaps indecently hyperbolical, but certainly in a mode totally different?

To fee this fleet upon the ocean move,

Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies;
And Heaven, as if there wanted lights above,
For tapers made two glaring comets rife.

The defcription of the attempt at Bergen will afford a very complete specimen of the descriptions in this poem :

And now approach'd their fleet from India, fraught
With all the riches of the rifing fun :

And precious fand from Southern climates brought,
The fatal regions where the war begun.

Like hunted caftors, confcious of their store,

Their way-laid wealth to Norway's coaft they bring :
Then firft the North's cold bofom fpices bore,
And winter brooded on the F.aftern spring.

By the rich fcent we found our perfum'd prey,
Which, flank'd with rocks, did close in covert lie;
And round about their murdering cannon lay,
At once to threaten and invite the eye.

Fiercer than cannon, and than rocks more hard,
The English undertake th' unequal war :
Seven fhips alone, by which the port is barr'd,
Befiege the Indies, and all Denmark dare.

Thefe fight like husbands, but like lovers thofe :
These fain would keep, and thofe more fain enjoy:
And to fuch height their frantick paffion grows,
That what both love both hazard to destroy:

Amidft whole heaps of fpices lights a ball,
And now their odours arm'd against them fly;
Some preciously by fhatter'd porcelain fall,
And fome by aromatick splinters die :

And though, by tempefts of the prize bereft,
In Heaven's inclemency fome ease we find :
Our foes we vanquish'd by our valour left,
And only yielded to the feas and wind.

In this manner is the fublime too often mingled with the ridiculous. The Dutch feek a fhelter for a wealthy fleet: this furely needed no illuftration; yet they muft fly, not like all the rest of mankind on the fame occafion, but " like hunted caftors;" and they might with strict propriety be hunted

for we winded them by our nofes-their perfumes betrayed them. The Hufband and the Lover, though of more dignity than the caftor, are images too domestick to mingle properly with the horrors of war. The two quatrains that follow are worthy of the author.

The account of the different fenfations with which the two fleets retired, when the night parted them, is one of the faireft flowers of English poetry :

The night comes on, we eager to purfue

The combat ftill, and they afham'd to leave;
Till the last streaks of dying day withdrew,
And doubtful moon-light did our rage deceive.
In th' English fleet each fhip refounds with joy,
And loud applause of their great leader's fame;
In fiery dreams the Dutch they still destroy,

And, flumbering, smile at the imagin'd flame.
Not fo the Holland fleet, who, tir'd and done,
Stretch'd on their decks, like weary oxen lie;
Faint fweats all down their mighty members run,
(Vast bulks, which little fouls but ill supply).
In dreams they fearful precipices tread,

Or, fhipwreck'd, labour to fome diftant fhore;
Or, in dark churches, walk among the dead;

They wake with horror, and dare sleep no more.

It is a general rule in poetry, that all appropriated terms of art should be funk in general expreffions, because poetry is to speak an univerfal language. This rule is ftill ftronger with regard to arts not liberal, or confined to few, and therefore far removed from common knowledge; and of this kind, certainly, is technical navigation. Yet Dryden was of opinion, that a fea-fight ought to be defcribed in the nautical language; " and certainly," fays he, " as thofe, who in a "logical difputation keep to general terms, would hide a fal

lacy, fo those who do it in poetical description would veil their ignorance."

Let us then appeal to experience; for by experience at last we learn as well what will please as what will profit. In the battle his terms seem to have been blown away; but he deals them liberally in the dock:

So here fome pick out bullets from the fide,
Some drive old okum thro' each seam and rift:
Their left-hand does the calking-iron guide,
The rattling mallet with the right they lift.

With boiling pitch another near at hand

(From friendly Sweden brought) the feams in-ftops;
Which, well laid o'er, the falt-fea waves withstand,
And shake them from the rifing beak in drops.

Some the gall'd ropes with dawby marling bind,
Or fear-cloth mafts with ftrong tarpawling coats;
To try new shrouds one mounts into the wind,
And one below their ease or stiffness notes.

I fuppofe there is not one term which every reader does not with away.

His digreffion to the original and progress of navigation, with his profpect of the advancement which it shall receive from the Royal Society, then newly instituted, may be confidered as an example feldom equalled of seasonable excursion and artful return.

One line, however, leaves me discontented; he fays, that, by the help of the philofophers,

Inftructed ships fhall fail to quick commerce,

By which remoteft regions are allied.

Which he is constrained to explain in a note "by a more ex"act measure of longitude." It had better become Dryden's learning and genius to have laboured science into poetry, and have fhewn, by explaining longitude, that verse did not refufe the ideas of philosophy.

His description of the Fire is painted by refolute meditation, out of a mind better formed to reason than to feel. The conflagration of a city, with all its tumults of concomitant diftress, is one of the most dreadful spectacles which this world can offer to human eyes; yet it seems to raise little emotion in the breast of the poet; he watches the flame coolly from street to ftreet, with now a reflection, and now a fimile, till at last he meets the King, for whom he makes a speech, rather tedious in a time fo bufy; and then follows again the progress of the fire.

There are, however, in this part fome paffages that deserve attention; as in the beginning;

The diligence of trades and noifeful gain,
And luxury, more late, afleep were laid!
All was the Night's, and in her filent reign
No found the rest of Nature did invade
In this deep quiet-

The expreffion" All was the Night's" is taken from Seneca, who remarks on Virgil's line,

Omnia noctis erant, placida composta quiete,

that he might have concluded better,

Omnia noctis erant.

The following quatrain is vigorous and animated :

The ghofts of traitors from the bridge defcend
With bold fanatick spectres to rejoice;

About the fire into a dance they bend,

And fing their fabbath notes with feeble voice.

His prediction of the improvements which shall be made in the new city is elegant and poetical, and with an event which Poets cannot always boaft has been happily verified. The poem concludes with a fimile that might have better been omitted.