but the third, fourth, and seventh, are the best; the eighth seems to involve a contradiction; the tenth is exquisitely beautiful; the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, are partly mythological and partly religious, and therefore not suitable to each other he might better have made the whole merely philosophical. There are two stanzas in this poem where Yal den may be suspected, though hardly convicted, of having consulted the "Hymnus ad Umbram" of Wowerus, in the sixth stanza, which answers in some sort to these lines: Illa suo præest nocturnis numine sacris- And again, at the conclusion: Illa suo senium secludit corpore toto His "Hymn to Light" is not equal to the other. He seems to think that there is an east absolute and positive where the morning rises. In the last stanza, having mentioned the sudden eruption of new-created light, he says, A while th' Almighty wond'ring stood. He ought to have remembered that infinite know. ledge can never wonder. All wonder is the effect of novelty upon ignorance. Of his other poems it is sufficient to say, that they deserve perusal, though they are not always exactly polished, though the rhymes are sometimes 91 very ill sorted, and though his faults seem rather TICKELL THOMAS TICKELL, the son of the Reverend Rich- Tickell was not one of those scholars who wear To those verses it would not have been just to Let joy salute fair Rosamonda's shade, Alike they mourn, alike they bless their fate, Since love, which made them wretched, made them great; Nor longer that relentless doom bemoan, Tickell. Then future ages with delight shall see Pope. He produced another piece of the same kind at the appearance of "Cato," with equal skill, but not equal happiness. When the ministers of Queen Anne were negociating with France, Tickell published "The Prospect of Peace," a poem, of which the tendency was to reclaim the nation from the pride of conquest to the pleasures of tranquillity. How far Tickell, whom Swift afterwards mentioned as Whiggissi mus, had then connected himself with any party, I know not; this poem certainly did not flatter the practices or promote the opinions of the men by whom he was afterwards befriended. Mr. Addison, however he hated the men then in power, suffered his friendship to prevail over his public spirit, and gave in the "Spectator" such praises of Tickell's poem, that when, after having long wished to peruse it, I laid hold on it at last, I thought it unequal to the honours which it had received, and found it a piece to be approved rather than admired. But the hope excited by a work of genius being general and indefinite, is rarely gra tified. It was read at that time with so much fa vour, that six editions were sold. At the arrival of King George he sung "The Royal Progress;" which being inserted in the "Spectator" is well known; and of which it is just to say, that it is neither high nor low. 93 The poetical incident of most importance in- Addison declared that the rival versions were Pope did not long think Addison an impartial "There had been a coldness (said Mr. Pope) be- it ill of Mr. Tickell that he was going to publish his translation; that he certainly had as much right to translate any author as myself; and that publishing both was entering on a fair stage. I then added, that I would not desire him to look over my first book of the Iliad,' because he had look. ed over Mr. Tickell's; but could wish to have the benefit of his observations on the second, which I had then finished, and which Mr. Tickell had not touched upon. Accordingly I sent him the second book the next morning; and Mr. Addison a few days after returned it, with very high commenda. tions. Soon after it was generally known that Mr. Tickell was publishing the first book of the Iliad,' I met Dr. Young in the street; and, upon our falling into that subject, the Doctor expressed a great deal of surprise at Tickell's having had such a translation so long by him. He said, that it was inconceivable to him, and that there must be some mistake in the matter; that each used to communicate to the other whatever verses they wrote, even to the least things; that Tickell could not have been busied in so long a work there without his knowing something of the matter; and that he had never heard a single word of it till on this occasion. The surprise of Dr. Young, together with what Steele has said against Tickell, in relation to this affair, make it highly probable that there was some underhand dealing in that business; and indeed Tickell himself, who is a very fair worthy man, has since in a manner as good as owned it to me. When it was introduced into a conversation be tween Mr. Tickell and Mr. Pope, by a third person, Tickell did not deny it; which, considering his honour and zeal for his departed friend, was the same as owning it." Upon these suspicions, with which Dr. Warbur ton hints that other circumstances concurred, Pope always in his "Art of Sinking" quotes this book as the work of Addison. I |