Mean though I am, not wholly fo, Since quicken'd by thy Breath; Oh lead me wherefoe'er I go, Through this day's Life or Death! This day, be Bread and Peace my Lot: 45 Thou know'ft if best bestow'd or not, And let Thy Will be done. VER. 39. That Mercy] It has been faid that our Poet, in this Prayer, chofe the Lord's Prayer for his model; but there is no resemblance but in this paffage, and in the last flanza but one. M. Le Franc de Pompignan, a celebrated avocat at Montauban, anthor of Dido a tragedy, was feverely cenfured in France for tranflating this Universal Prayer, as a piece of Deism; which, having been printed in London, in 4to. by Vaillant, was conveyed to the Chancellor Agueffau, who immediately fent a strong reprimand to M. Le Franc, and he vindicated his orthodoxy in a laboured letter to that learned Chancellor. Voltaire reproached Le Franc with making this tranflation. His brother, Bishop of Puy au Velei, has called Locke an atheist. WARTON. WARTON feems to have violated his own principles of estimating tne character of genuine poetry, when he praises fo highly the poetry of this Hymn. The two laft ftanzas are fublime; but I fear, if we were to examine the greater part by the Horatian rule, which Warton recommends, that is, altering the rhyme and measure, we should not find the "disjecti membra Poeta." This Prayer was tranflated into Latin by J. Sayer. MORAL ESSAYS, IN FOUR EPISTLES TO SEVERAL PERSONS. Eft brevitate opus, ut currat fententia, neu se HOR. |