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that a writer, profeffing to revive the nobleft and highest writing in verfe, makes this addrefs to the

new year:

Nay, if thou lov'ft me, gentle year,

Let not fo much as love be there,

Vain, fruitless love I mean; for, gentle year,
Although I fear,

There's of this caution little need,

Yet, gentle year, take heed

How thou doft make

Such a mistake;

Such love I mean alone

As by thy cruel predeceffors has been shewn;
For, though I have too much caufe to doubt it,

I fain would try, for once, if life can live without it.

The reader of this will be inclined to cry out with Prior

Ye Criticks, fay,

How poor to this was Pindar's ftyle!

Even those who cannot perhaps find in the Ifthmian or Nemæan fongs what Antiquity has difpofed them to expect, will at least see that they are ill reprefented by fuch puny poetry; and all will determine that, if this be the old Theban ftrain, it is not worthy of revival.

To the disproportion and incongruity of Cowley's, fentiments must be added the uncertainty and loosenefs of his measures. He takes the liberty of ufing in any place a verse of any length, from two fyllables to twelve. The verfes of Pindar have, as he obferves, very little harmony to a modern ear; yet by examining the fyllables we perceive them to be E 2 regu

regular, and have reafon enough for fuppofing that the ancient audiences were delighted with the found. The imitator ought therefore to have adopted what he found, and to have added what was wanting; to have preserved a conftant return of the fame numbers, and to have fupplied fmoothness of tranfition and continuity of thought.

It is urged by Dr. Sprat, that the irregularity of numbers is the very thing which makes that kind of poefy fit for all manner of fubjects. But he should have remembered, that what is fit for every thing can fit nothing well. The great pleasure of verfe arifes from the known measure of the lines, and uniform ftructure of the ftanzas, by which the voice is regulated, and the memory relieved.

If the Pindarick ftyle be, what Cowley thinks it, the highest and noblest kind of writing in verfe, it can be adapted only to high and noble fubjects; and it will not be easy to reconcile the poet with the critick, or to conceive how that can be the highest kind of writing in verfe which, according to Sprat, is chiefly to be preferred for its near affinity to profe.

This lax and lawless verfification fo much concealed the deficiences of the barren, and flattered the laziness of the idle, that it immediately overspread our books of poetry; all the boys and girls caught the pleafing fashion, and they that could do nothing else could write like Pindar. The rights of antiquity were invaded, and disorder tried to break into the Latin: a poem * on the Sheldonian Theatre,

First published in quarto, 1669, under the title of "Car"men Pindaricum in Theatrum Sheldonianum in folennibus mag"nifici Operis Encaniis. Recitatum Julii die 9, Anno 1669, a " Corbetto Owen, A. B. Ed. Chr. Alumno Authore." R.

in which all kinds of verfe are fhaken together, is unhappily inferted in the Mufe Anglicana. Pindarifm prevailed about half a century; but at last died gradually away, and other imitations fupply its place.

The Pindarick Odes have fo long enjoyed the highest degree of poetical reputation, that I am not willing to dismiss them with unabated cenfure; and furely though the mode of their compofition be erroneous, yet many parts deferve at leaft that admiration which is due to great comprehenfion of knowledge, and great fertility of fancy. The thoughts are often new, and often striking; but the greatness of one part is difgraced by the littlenefs of another; and total negligence of language gives the noblest conceptions the appearance of a fabrick auguft in the plan, but mean in the materials. Yet furely those verfes are not without a juft claim to praife; of which it may be said with truth, that no man but Cowley could have written them..

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The Davideis now remains to be confidered; a poem which the author defigned to have extended to twelve books, merely, as he makes no fcruple of declaring, because the Æneid had that number; but he had leifure or perfeverance only to write the third part. Epick poems have been left unfinished by Virgil, Statius, Spenfer, and Cowley. That we have not the whole Davideis is, however, not much to be regretted; for in this undertaking Cowley is, tacitly at least, confeffed to have miscarried. There are not many examples of fo great a work, produced by an author generally read, and generally praised, that has crept through a century with fo little

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little regard. meant of his other works. Of the Davideis no mention is made; it never appears in books, nor emerges in converfation. By the Spectator it has been once quoted; by Rymer it has once been praised; and by Dryden, in "Mac Flecknoe," it has once been imitated; nor do I recollect much other notice from its publication till now in the whole fucceffion of English literature.

Whatever is faid of Cowley, is

Of this filence and neglect, if the reafon be inquired, it will be found partly in the choice of the fubject, and partly in the performance of the work.

Sacred History has been always read with fubmiffive reverence, and an imagination over-awed and controlled. We have been accustomed to acquiefce in the nakednefs and fimplicity of the authentic narrative, and to repofe on its veracity with such humble confidence as fuppreffes curiofity. We go with the hiftorian as he goes, and ftop with him when he ftops. All amplification is frivolous and vain; all addition to that which is already fufficient for the purposes of religion feems not only useless, but in fome degree profane.

Such events as were produced by the vifible interpofition of Divine Power are above the power of human genius to dignify. The miracle of Creation, however it may teem with images, is beft defcribed with little diffufion of language; He fpake the word, and they were made,

We are told that Saul was troubled with an evil Spirit; from this Cowley takes an opportunity of defcribing hell, and telling the hiftory of Lucifer, who was, he fays,

Once

Once general of a gilded host of sprites,
Like Hefper leading forth the spangled nights;
But down like lightning, which him ftruck, he came,
And roar'd at his first plunge into the flame.

Lucifer makes a fpeech to the inferior agents of mifchief, in which there is fomething of Heathenifm, and therefore of impropriety; and, to give efficacy to his words, concludes by lashing his breaft with his long tail. Envy, after a paule, fteps out, and among other declarations of her zeal utters these lines:

Do thou but threat, loud ftorms fhall make reply,
And thunder echo to the trembling sky;

Whilst raging feas fwell to fo bold an height,
As fhall the fire's proud element affright.

Th' old drudging Sun, from his long-beaten way,
Shall at thy voice ftart, and mifguide the day.
The jocund orbs shall break their meafur'd pace,
And stubborn poles change their allotted place.
Heaven's gilded troops fhall flutter here and there,
Leaving their boafting fongs tun'd to a sphere.

Every reader feels himself weary with this useless talk of an allegorical Being.

It is not only when the events are confeffedly miraculous, that fancy and fiction lofe their effect: the whole fyftem of life, while the Theocracy was yet visible, has an appearance fo different from all other scenes of human action, that the reader of the Sacred Volume habitually confiders it as the peculiar mode of existence of a diftinct fpecies of mankind, that lived and acted with manners uncommu nicable; so that it is difficult even for imagination to place us in the state of them whose story is related,

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