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-
Perque vias errare novis dat spectra figuris,
Manesque excitos medios ululare per agros
Sub noctem, et questu notos complere penates.

And again, at the conclusion:

Illa suo senium secludit corpore toto
Haud numerans jugi fugientia secula lapsu,
Ergo ubi postremum mundi compage solutâ
Hanc rerum molem suprema absumpserit hora
Ipsa leves cineres nube amplectetur opaca,
Et prisco imperio rursus dominabitur UMBRA.

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
the omissions of idleness than the negligences of
enthusiasm.

TICKELL

THOMAS TICKELL, the son of the Reverend Rich-
ard Tickell, was born in 1686, at Bridekirk, in
Cumberland; and in April, 1701, became a member
of Queen's College, in Oxford; in 1708 he was made
master of arts; and, two years afterwards, was
chosen fellow; for which, as he did not comply
with the statutes by taking orders, he obtained
a dispensation from the crown. He held his fel-
lowship till 1726, and then vacated it, by marrying,
in that year, at Dublin.

Tickell was not one of those scholars who wear
away their lives in closets; he entered early into
the world, and was long busy in public affairs, in
which he was initiated under the patronage of Ad-
dison, whose notice he is said to have gained by
his verses in praise of "Rosamond."

To those verses it would not have been just to
deny regard, for they contain some of the most
elegant encomiastic strains; and, among the innu-
merable poems of the same kind, it will be hard to
find one with which they need to fear a compari-
son. It may deserve observation, that, when
Pope wrote long afterwards in praise of Addison,
he has copied, at least has resembled, Tickell:

Let joy salute fair Rosamonda's shade,
And wreaths of myrtle crown the lovely maid,
While now perhaps with Dido's ghost she roves,
And hears and tells the story of their loves:

Alike they mourn, alike they bless their fate,

Since love, which made them wretched, made them

great;

Nor longer that relentless doom bemoan,
Which gain'd a Virgil and an Addison.

Tickell.

Then future ages with delight shall see
How Plato's, Bacon's, Newton's, looks agree;
Or in fair series laurell'd bards be shewn,
A Virgil there, and here an Addison.

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-
Tickell's life was his publication of the first book
of the "Iliad," as translated by himself, an appa-
rent opposition to Pope's "Homer," of which the
first part made its entrance into the world at the
same time.

Addison declared that the rival versions were
both good, but that Tickell's was the best that ever
was made; and with Addison, the wits, his adhe
rents and followers, were certain to concur. Pope
does not appear to have been much dismayed;
"for," says he, "I have the town, that is the mob,
on my side." But he remarks, that "it is common
for the smaller party to make up in diligence what
they want in numbers; he appeals to the people
as his proper judges; and, if they are not inclined
to condemn him, he is in little care about the high-
Ayers at Button's."

Pope did not long think Addison an impartial
judge; for he considered him as the writer of Tick-
ell's version. The reasons for his suspicion I will
literally transcribe from Mr. Spence's Collection.

"There had been a coldness (said Mr. Pope) be-
tween Mr. Addison and me for some time; and
we had not been in company together, for a good
while, any where but at Button's Coffee-house,
where I used to see him almost every day-On his
meeting me there one day in particular, he took
me aside, and said he should be glad to dine with
me, at such a tavern, if I stayed till those people
were gone (Budgell and Philips).. We went ac-
cordingly; and after dinner Mr. Addison said,
"That he had wanted for some time to talk with
me; that his friend Tickell had formerly, whilst at
Oxford, translated the first book of the Iliad ;'
that he designed to print it, and had desired him
to look it over; that he must therefore beg that I
would not desire him to look over my first book,
because, if he did, it would have the air of double-
dealing. I assured him that I did not at all take

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