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Then at Aurora, whose fair hand
Remov'd them from the skies,

He gazing tow'rds the East did stand,
She entertain'd his eyes.

But when the bright sun did appear,
All those he 'gan despise;

His wonder was determin'd there,
And could no higher rise.

Which of the French writers has produced any thing at once so gallant and so lofty? The English versification was much smoothed by Waller, who used to own that he derived the harmony of his numbers from Fairfax's Tasso, who wellvowelled his lines; though Sandys was a melodious versifier; and Spenser has, perhaps, more variety of music than either of them.* A poet who addresses his pieces to living characters, and confines himself to the subjects and anecdotes of his own times, like this courtly author, bids fairer to become popular, than he that is employed

*Even little poems (said POPE) should be written by a plan. This method is evident in Tibullus, and Ovid's Elegies, and almost all the pieces of the ancients. A poem on a slight subject requires the greater care, to make it considerable enough to be read."

ployed in the higher scenes of poetry and fiction, which are more remote from common manners. It may be remarked, lastly, of Waller, that there is no passion in his love verses; and that one elegy of Tibullus, so well imitated by Hammond, excels a volume of the most refined panegyric.

The next imitation is of COWLEY, in two pieces, on a garden, and on weeping, in which POPE has properly enough, in conformity to his original, extorted some moral, or darted forth some witticism, on every object he mentions. It is not enough to say that the laurels sheltered the fountain from the heat of the day, but this idea must be accompanied with a conceit.

-Daphne, now a tree, as once a maid,
Still from Apollo vindicates her shade.

The flowers that grow on the water-side, could not be sufficiently described without saying,

that

The pale Narcissus on the bank, in vain,
Transformed, gazes on himself again.

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In the lines on a lady weeping, you might expect a touching picture of beauty in distress; you will be disappointed. Wit, on the present occasion, is to be preferred to tenderness; the babe in her eye is said to resemble Phaeton so much,

That heaven, the threat'ned world to spare,
Thought fit to drown him in her tears:
Else might th' ambitious nymph aspire
To set, like him, the world on fire.

Let not this strained affectation of striving to be witty upon all occasions, be thought exaggerated, or a caricatura of Cowley. It is painful to censure a writer of so amiable a mind, such integrity of manners, and such a sweetness of temper. His fancy was brilliant, strong, and sprightly; but his taste false and unclassical, even though he had much learning. In his Latin compositions, his six books on plants, where the subject might have led him to a contrary practice, he imitates Martial rather than Virgil, and has given us more Epigrams than Descriptions. I do not remember to have seen it enough observed, that Cowley had a most happy talent of imitating the easy manner of Horace's epistolary writings;

I must therefore insert a specimen of this, his excellence :

Ergo iterum versus? dices. O Vane! quid ergo
Morbum ejurasti toties, tibi qui insidet altis,
Non evellendus, vi vel ratione, medullis?
Numne poetarum (merito dices) ut amantum
Derisum ridere deum perjuria censes?

Parcius hæc, sodes, neve inclementibus urge
Infelicem hominem dictis; nam fata trahunt me
Magna reluctantem, et nequicquam in vincla minacem.
Helleborum sumpsi, fateor, pulchreque videbar
Purgatus morbi; sed Luna potentior herbis
Insanire iterum jubet, et sibi vendicat ægrum.

There is another epistle also, well worthy perusal, to his friend Mat. Clifford,* at the end of the same volume. POPE,† in one of his imitations

of

* Settle was assisted in writing the Anti-Achitophel by Clifford, and others, the best wits of that time, who combined against Dryden.

† Another line likewise of POPE exactly characterises him : The pensive Cowley's moral lay.Vol. VI. p. 37.

His general preface; his discourse concerning Cromwell; his essays on liberty; on obscurity; on agriculture; on greatness; and on himself; are full of pleasing and virtuous sentiments, expressed without any affectation; so that he appears to be one of the best prose writers of his time.

of Horace, has exhibited the real character of Cowley, with delicacy and candour:

Who now reads Cowley? If he pleases yet,
His moral pleases, not his pointed wit;
Forgot his epic, nay, Pindaric art,

But still I love the language of his heart.

His prose works give us the most amiable idea both of his abilities and his heart. His Pindaric odes cannot be perused with common patience by a lover of antiquity. He that would see Pindar's manner truly imitated, may read Masters's noble and pathetic ode on the Crucifixion; and he that wants to be convinced that these reflections on Cowley are not too severe, may read also his. epigrammatic version of it;

Η εκ οράας ολο πορφυρον

Στιλβοντ' 8 φλογι

Σιδονίης αλός, αλ

-λ, αιματι ςαζομένω

Dost thou not see thy prince in purple clad all o'er,

Not purple brought from the Sidonian shore?

But made at home with richer gore.

COWLEY,

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