In the lines on a lady weeping, you might expect a touching picture of beauty in diftrefs; you will be disappointed. Wit on the present occafion is to be preferred to tenderness; the babe in her eye is faid to resemble Phaeton fo much, That heav'n the threat'ned world to spare, His Let not this ftrained affectation of striving to be witty upon all occafions, be thought exaggerated, or a caricatura of Cowley. It is painful to cenfure a writer of fo amiable a mind, such integrity of manners, and such a sweetness of temper. fancy was brilliant, ftrong, and sprightly; but his tafte falfe and unclaffical, even though he had much learning. In his latin compofitions, his fix books on plants, where the subject might have led him to a contrary practice, he imitates Martial rather than Virgil, and has given us more Epigrams than Descriptions. I do not remember 5 member to have feen it enough obferved, that Cowley had a most happy talent of imitating the cafy manner of Horace's cpiftolary writings; I must therefore infert a fpecimen of this, his excellence. Ergo iterum verfus? dices. O Vane! quid ergo Parcius hæc, fodes, neve inclementibus urge nacem. Helleborum fumpfi, fateor, pulchreque videbar Purgatus morbi; fed Luna potentior herbis Infanire iterum jubet, et fibi vendicat ægrum. There is another epiftle alfo, well worthy perufal, to his friend Mat. Clifford *, at the end of the fame volume. POPE †, in * Settle was affifted in writing the Anti-Achitophel by Clifford, and others the best wits of that time, who combined against Dryden. ↑ Another line likewife of POPE exactly characterises him. The penfive Cowley's moral lay.Vol. VI. p. 37His general preface; his discourse concerning Cromwell; his effays on liberty, on obfcurity, on agriculture, on greatnefs, and on himself, are full of pleafing and virtuous fentiments, expressed without any affectation, fo that he appears to be one of the best profe writers of his time. one one of his imitations of Horace, has exhibited the real character of Cowley, with delicacy and candour. Who now reads Cowley? if he pleases yet, But ftill I love the language of his heart. His profe works give us the most amiable idea both of his abilities and his heart. His Pindaric odes cannot be perused with common patience by a lover of antiquity He that would fee Pindar's manner truly imitated, may read Masters's noble and pathetic ode on the Crucifixion; and he that wants to be convinced that these reflections on Cowley are not too fevere, may read alfo his epigrammatic version of it. Η εκ οράας όλο πορφυρον Σιδονίης αλες, αλο πλ, αιματι ταζομενω Doft thou not fee thy prince in purple clad all o'er, Not purple brought from the Sidonian shore ? But made at home with richer gore. COWLEY. • Avory', • Avory', avorys Πυλας οπωπων Και πηγας βλεφάρων Λύσαι, ψεκαζε, δευε γαιαν. Open, oh! open wide the fountains of thine eyes, And let them call Their stock of moisture forth where e'er it lies, 'Twould all alas! too little be, Though thy falt tears came from a sea. Compare Cowley's ode on prefenting his book to the Bodleian library, with one of Milton on the same subject, Ad Johannem Rouseium, 1646, written in the true spirit of the ancient Lyrics, and an excellent imitation of Pindar. One allufion to Euripides of whom Milton is known to have been fo fond, I cannot omit. Æternorum operum cuftos fidelis, Quam cui præfuit Ion, Clarus Erechtheides, Opulenta dei per templa parentis, Ion Actea genitus Creusa. Nothing can more strongly characterize the different manner and turn of these two writers, than the pieces in queftion. It is remarkable, that Milton ends his ode with a kind of prophecy importing, that however he may be at present traduced, yet pofterity will applaud his work. At ULTIMI Nepotes, SERIQUE POSTERI, Judicia rebus QUIORA forfitan Adhibebunt INTEGRO finu, Tum, livore fepulto, Si quid MEREMUR, SERA POSTERITAS fciet. COWLEY COWLEY being early disgusted with the perplexities and vanities of a court life, had a strong defire to enjoy the milder pleasures of folitude and retirement; he therefore escaped from the tumults of London, to a little house at Wandsworth; but finding that place too near the metropolis, he left it for Richmond, and at last fettled at Chertsey. He feems to have thought that the fwains of Surry had the innocence of thofe of Sydney's Arcadia ; but the perverfeness and debauchery of his own workmen foon undeceived him, with whom, it is faid, he was fometimes fo far provoked, as even to be betrayed into an oath. His income was about three hundred pounds a year. Towards the latter part of his life, he fhewed an averfion to the company of women, and would often leave the room if any happened to enter it whilst he was present, but still he retained a fincere affection for Leonora. His death was occafioned by a fingular accident *; he * There is something remarkable in the circumftances that occafioned the deaths of three others of our poets. OTWAY |