The indignation he expreffes against the ing human guardian is very ftriking and affecting. "But thou, falfe Guardian of a charge too "good, "Thou, mean deferter of thy brother's blood! "Sec on these ruby lips the trembling breath, "These cheeks now fading at the blast of "death." Then follows a fudden execration, fo forcible, that it instantly strikes the mind with terror. "Thus, if eternal Juftice rules the ball, "Thus fhall your wives, and thus your chil"dren fall." The poet farther defcribing the fudden vengeance which fhall await fuch inhumanity, breaks forth into the following bold profopopoeia. "There paffengers fhall ftand, and pointing "fay, : "(While the long fun rals blacken all the way) "Lo! these were they, whofe fouls the Furies " fteel'd, "And curs'd with hearts unknowing how to " yield. "Thus un amented país the proud away, "The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day! "So perifh all, whose breast ne'er learn'd to "glow "For others good, or melt at others woe." How How inimitably has the poet contrived to temper the horror of the dire execrations he vented, by closing with a paffage of exquifite humanity and sympathy! With what inexpreffible tenderness likewife, and with what moving accents does he aggravate her deplorable fate, by introducing the affecting circumstance of her dying in a foreign land, unattended by any mournful friend to grace her obfequies. "No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear "Pleas'd thy pale ghoft, or grac'd thy mourn"ful bier. "By foreign hands thy dying eyes were clos'd, By foreign hands thy decent limbs compos'd, By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd, "By ftrangers honour'd, and by ftrangers. "mourn'd!" The forcible repetition of the word foreign, has, as the critic obferves, an admirable effect conftantly to recall to mind the aggravating circumftance which the poet would imprefs on the reader's fenfibility. There is another, though not fo obvious, beauty in these lines. It is obfervable that in all thefe lines, except the laft, the paufe is uniformly at the fourth fyllable; and this farther contributes to rivet in the mind the feveral parts or amplifications of the mournful circumftance which the poet defcribes. For as an acute * critic has obferved, uniformity in the members of a thought, requires equal uniformity in the members of the period which expreffes that thought. In the fucceeding lines, the poet has skilfully contrived to blend the most moving fentiments, with a juft indignant fatire on the modes of affected lamentation: "What tho' no friends in fable weeds appear, "Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn a (6 year, "And bear about the mockery of woe “To midnight dances, and the public show? "What though no weeping Loves thy afhes 66 grace, "Nor polifh'd marble emulate thy face!" It is difficult to fay, whether the pathos of the fentiments, the keennefs of the fatire, or the beauty of the poetry, is moft admirable in these lines. The poet, with great judgment and addrefs, referves the affecting circumftance of her being denied the rites of fepulture, with which he closes these moving exclamations. "What tho' no facred earth allow thee room, "Nor hallow'd dirge be mutter'd o'er thy "tomb! Lord Kaims. "Yet "Yet fhall thy grave with rifing flow'rs be "dreft, "And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast: "There hall the Morn her earlieft tears " beftow, "There the first roses of the year shall blow."- What a delicate poetical fancy is displayed in thefe concluding lines! In fhort, a reader of any tafte and fenfibility, muft thrill at every line of this excellent elegy, which produces that fympathetic effect arifing from all heart-felt compofitions. The Prologue to Addifon's tragedy of Cato, ftands next in order among Mr. POPE's poetical compofitions. This, which was written at Mr. Addifon's requeft, the author of the effay very candidly admits to be fuperior even to any of Dryden's. It is, as he obferves, folemn and fublime; and appropriated to the tragedy alone which it was defigned to introduce. The moft ftriking images and allufions it contains, are taken with judgment from fome paffages in the life of Cato himfelf. Such is that fine ftroke, more lofty than any thing in the tragedy itself, where the poet says, that when Cæfar, amid the pomp and magnificence of a triumph, "Show'd Rome her Cato's figure drawn in "state; "As her dead Father's rev'rend figure paft, "The pomp was darken'd, and the day o'ercaft; "The "The Triumph ceas'd-tears gufh'd from “ ev'ry eye; "The world's great victor pafs'd unheeded by; "Her laft good man dejected Rome ador'd, And honour'd Caefar's lefs than Cato's fword." Such again is the happy allufion to an old ftory mentioned in Martial, of Cato's coming into the theatre, and prefently going out again. 74 "Such Plays alone fhould win a British ear, From whence he draws an artful panegyric on the purity and excellence of the play he was recommending *. As * When Mr. Addifon had finifhed this Tragedy of Cato, he brought it to Mr. POPE, and left it with him three or four days for his opinion. Mr. POPE, with his wonted ingenuous candor, told him he thought he had better not exhibit it on the ftage; and added, that by printing it only as a claffical performance, he might make it turn to a profitable account, as the piece was very well penned, though not theatrical enough to fucceed on the ftage. Mr. Addifon affured him that he coincided with him in opinion, and feemed difpofed to follow his advice: but fome time after he told him that fome friends, whom he was cautious of difobliging, infifted on his bringing it on the ftage. He affured Mr. POPE, however, that it was with no party views, and preffed him to fhew it to the Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke, and to repeat his affurances to them, that he did not by any means intend it as a party play. Our |