out any of his diction, which is his princi pal beauty: 'tis that vivacity in his style, and particularly in his epithets, which Petronius Arbiter calls a curiofa felicitas*, and in which no man ever (in my opinion) refembled him fo much as Petronius himself, whose profe is as inimitable as Horace's Indeed in the time of pope poetry. Urban VIII (who was a poet himself) Cafimire, a Polander and a Jefuit, wrote feveral odes in imitation of Horace, in which there appears a good genius; but his Latin is not pure; and besides the difadvantages of a dead language, he is defective in judgment, and his fancy is not well-governed. Those who have fucceeded best in their attempts on Horace in English, have chofen the way of paraphrase as the most proper, for his sense is clofe - wrought, and would appear stiff and obfcure in a literal tranflation (if fuch • This expreffion (however celebrated) is furely a very unclaffical inverfion, for it ought to have been called the "happy carefulness" of Horace, rather than his careful happiness." Warton's Effay on Pope, p. 175. a one a one could be made) and there are many good hints in him worth the pursuing. None have pretended to copy his numbers; for the Pindaric, which feems the fittest for us, and gives us a greater liberty and variety, does not anfwer the Latin measures. Yet I remember, I once faw an attempt to write English Sapphics, (but it was never printed,) and fir Philip Sidney has composed hexameters, and other verfes, after the Latin measure, but they are unnatural to our language, for this reafon chiefly, because we abound fo much in monofyllables. The Sapphic measure is indeed very mufical, and what Horace feems best to have practised, but it seems too foft, and fit only to be employed on love, and pleasant easy fubjects; it is too much confined, like the ufual measure of our fongs; and the lofty fense of fome of his odes foars above it. Our English Pindaric is undoubtedly more majeftic, and the various length and shortnefs of the lines, as well as the mixture and returns of the rhyme, well-chofen; and therefore, as I faid before, it is the most proper proper for fuch odes as have any thing of the fublime in them. I wonder Horace did not introduce fomething like it into his language, being fo great an admirer of Pindar, and having, in other respects, imitated him fo finely, notwithstanding his de claration, (Pindarum quifquis, &c.) that Pindar was inimitable; in which ode he commends him in these words; Laurea donandus Apollinari, Seu per audaces nova dithyrambos Lege folutis. Thus tranflated by Mr. Cowley, Lib. iv, ode z. So Pindar does new words and figures roll Which in no channel deigns t' abide, Which neither banks nor dykes controvł. But this does not answer to the mumeris lege folutis, by which Horace means only, that Pindar's numbers were unlimited, and not confined to any fet measure, in thofe odes that that were called dithyrambic, which had the most heat and fury, being first invented in honour of Bacchus. And, methinks, Horace might fometimes have attempted this dithyrambic measure, especially in that ode, Quo me Bacche, rapis, &c. But to return to the ode which I have here endeavoured to imitate: I have taken a liberty in the paraphrafe; the first stanza is added, and a fimile or two; but nothing more than what is agreeable to his fenfe, and what I thought would make him appear to the best advantage. Such as it is, Sir, I fubmit it entirely to your judgment, fince it was first attempted for your pleafure. 'Tis upon an agreeable fubject, "tranquillity"; and if it fails giving you any entertainment, I will readily acknowledge it to be my own fault; for I know you to be mafter of fo much fenfe, fo good a tafte, and fuch juft notions of human life, that, I am fure, Horace must please you, if he be not murdered in an ill translation. You may perceive, Sir, that as I cannot think the time long which I spend in your company, fo neither can I think a letter long which I am writing to you; but I may be tempted to trefpafs upon you in one, as well as the other; therefore I will do, as perfons fhould after a tedious vifit, use a short ceremony, and withdraw. I am, Sir, your very humble fervant, J. HUGHES. LETTER VIII. Mr. HUGHES to the Countefs Dowager of DONEGALL*. MADAM, I SHOULD have ventured to write to your ladyship sooner, to exprefs my con This lady (the only daughter and heiress of John Itchingham, of Dunbrody in the county of Wexford, efq; who was first married to Arthur, fecond earl of Donegall, and who was now the wife of Richard Rooth, efq; of Epfom) had just loft three of her grand F |