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up; the minute, and foolish criticifms,
that ftare me in the face in almost every
book of the prefent day that treats on
the fubject; put me out of all patience.
What, 1 confefs, brought the matter
more immediately to my mind, was
turning over the long and tedious con-
troverty in fome of your late volumes*,
between Mr. Wefton and Mifs Seward;
-a difcuffion I would not on any ac-
count wish to be renewed; for which
reafon I fhall decline expreffing my
opinion upon a point, on which I own
I wonder how, but on what are now
the fashionable criticisms of merit, there
can be a doubt. In our times the fha-,
dow is mistaken for the fubftance; the
drefs for the thought; the mechanical
incidents for the principal; and, as Dr.
Johnfon applies it,

"-Pars minima eft ipfa puella fui.” Perpetual perfoniñcation, metaphors, though trite, unceafing, thick-cluffered imagery, un-original, and ill-comb ned, like a gaudy nofegay of flowers of all kinds, borrowed from all quarters, and arranged without tafte, attempt to fupply the place of natural and energetic flights of imagination, of the elevated and pathetic fentiments, and the bold reflections of genius. Alas! how eafy is it to be a POET, if that divine name

may be applied to the authors of fuch compofitions! I do not add to my complaint the monotonous and mechanical harmony of POPE-that fashion, it feems, like other meteors of a day, has van thed; but I add, what is equally cenfurable, a harshness of language, encumbered with confonants, and almost enigmatically involved; unpointed, unfinished, fo as to puzzle the fenfe, and difappoint, if not difguft, the ear. Yet fashion loves to combine extremes: the fame age that applauds these things applauds alfo profe hitched into rhyme,' and, extolling the moft vapid tales, the moft infipid fentiments, and the most common place remarks, expreffed in a language the moft unelevated, debased by terms the moft cant and familiar, added to the laxeft verfification, rings their prailes for fimplicity, manlinefs, and clafficality. Johnton, of the mag nitude and comprehenfion of whole mind I find every day more reason to be convinced, fomewhere fays, that definitions of poetry are dangerous. What he thought difficult, I fhall not

* See Vol. LIX.

attempt. But he, who, with a loftinefs of fentiment, a copioufnefs of fancy, and an exquifite fenfibility, poffeffes that attention which can arreft the operations of his own mind and heart," and that command of language, and of ear, which can cloath them in words and in rhyme, may be fafely pronounced a true poet. Such were Spenfer and Shakespeare, Milton and Cowley, of which atter Pope fo happily fays, "Forgot his Epic, nay Pindaric art, "Yet ftill we love the language of the heart." Yes! I will affirm, that every man of tafte will continue through life to read his moral effays, both in profe and verfe, with increafing delight; while bis Davideis, and too many of his odes, are neglected, as the ill-directed efforts of the most energetic understanding, and the richest imagination. And why? Here he fet up artificial models of excellence; he facrificed fimplicity to the fashion of the day; "he plucked," as the great biographer fays, "a deciduous laurel;" and the natural confequence has followed.-Dryden, it may be faid, is injured, by not being claffed with the four poets already named;-his faculties of ratiocination were undoubtedly and inexhauftible; his powers of diction great; his fancy was truly brilliant, were in general nervous, comprehenfive, and happy beyond all praife; his ear was exquifite ;-but then-(with fear and diffidence I fpeak it) he wanted that extreme fufceptibility of heart, and richest directions; its tenderet, its which gives to imagination its wildest moft delicate, and interefting hues. Pope appears to me to have had fimilar deindeed, he wrote on a fubject that came fects, though not fimilar merits. Once, home to his own bofom; and then how did he exceed himfelf! I mean the "Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady." But this only adds ftrength to my pofition. Were it not for that, and the "Eloifa to Abelard," I dare not fay in which clafs I fhould be inclined to place him. Yet even thefe will not avail to me, who prefer thought to expreffion, the fire and vehemence of natural eloquence to the ftiff periods of labour, and the harmony of nature to the monotonous inftrument, fo long as I recollect the Tancred and Sigifmunda; the Theodore and Honoria; and the Ode on Alexander's Feaft. And, if to fuch a writer objections can be made, how rare must be the combination of faculties, that can produce a perfect poem !

GRAY,

to whofe merit he thinks adequate juftice has not been done, are not altogether forgotten. There are many perfons, befides G, who prefer the "venerable ancient pfalm-inditers" to the Poet Laureat of William and his co-adjutor, and even to the elegant Merrick, for the purpose which called for their homely, but nervous and animated, ftrains.

Allow me to repeat my unanfwered query, as to the age of our bleffed Saviour at the time of the crucifixion. He is faid to have been born four years before the vulgar Chriflian ra; to have fuffered thirty three years after it; and yet no one harmonizer of the Gospels, or chronological enquirer, affigns to his abode on earth a period exceeding three and thirty years. Yours, &c. G.

WITH

mode of expreffing my hope, that the publick may fill not be deprived of thofe papers, which, in his laft letter, he kindly offered to let pafs, through my hands, to a very refpectable gentle man; who has already printed, and most dilinterefledly difperfed, two different fets of extracts from Bifhop Taylor's works, and who means fhortly to pub. lih, with continued liberality, the entire colle&tion, abridged, in a quarto volume. I think I place Mr. N. but in the amiable light in which, I must be. lieve, he deferved to appear alfo, as a father and a husband, when I give you, from a letter now before me, his account of the first article he fent you; to which (as he alluded to it in the fecond, p. 301.) I had defired to be directed; as, not fufpecting it to be poetical, I had omitted to fearch for it in that department of your Magazine. His choice of subject for a first effay is to be confidered.

Mr. URBAN, Jan. 16. ITH much regret, I read in the papers, that, on the 26th ult. died at Liverpool, the Rev. Ralph Nicholfon, rector of Dudcote, Berks. Such was this gentleman's diffidence, and great unwillingness to appear in print, that, notwithstanding his great zeal for a fa vourite fubject, fuch encouragement only, and fuch a repofitory as yours, could have overcome it, by allowing him to take fhelter there under the initials, or a fimilar cover, of his name; as he had on his mind, for feven years together, a wifh to fee a question in it answered (which was started vol. LIII. p. 144 ) ; and, after confulting the fucceffive volumes, not to have brought forward the question himself till vol. LX. p. 301. Not being perfonally known to him (and I fpeak it with concern, as I hoped better), I owe the pleasure of a correfpondence with him to the communications he gave the publiek in your Magazine, under his initials R. N. (of which more will be found vol. LXI. pp. 313. 1017.), and to his active zeal, which traced the initials of another writer therein, whofe fituation cafually enabled him to give fome authentic information, relating to the favourite object of his repeated enquiries-Bishop Jeremy Taylor. In confequence of this difcovery, I have been able, in the courfe of the last fummer, to receive from him, and communicate the refult of farther mutual refearches on that fubject. As I wish to be in time for your firft notice of his death in your obituary, I hope I do not too early intrude on the feelings of his relict and family, if I tske this indirect fearch shall affuredly be made. EDIT.

"The lines, with the fignature of Arren at the feet of them, occur p. 165, Gent. Mag. 1799, and refer to p. 12, though not worthy your enquiry. The circumftance that gave birth to them was this: My eldest daughter, whilst I was giving a profe translation of the Latin verfes to her mother, defired I would give her one in verfe; on which I haftily took a piece of paper, and scratched off the lines as you fee them. The gratification of this request was followed by another, that I would fend them to Mr. Úrban. His infertion of "the trifle" encouraged me to fend him my fubfequent papers on the Bishop, &c. &c.; fome of which he has not yet admitted."

From thofe fpecimens we have feen, and from the certainty that they must now be the last from himleif, it may be hoped, that, if any with that fignature fhould occur to your revifal *, they might be thought not unsuitable to the purposes of your publication, and their infertion would probably oblige many of your readers, but certainly your con ftant reader, E. J.

I believe I ought not to withhold from you an obfervation which he lately communicated to me, with an apparent defign of tranfmitting it to you at his leifure; his great unwillingness to let any thing too harsh escape him, having in.. duced him to defire me to give " my. fentiments on the paffage; and, if I thought there was too much afperity in it, to foften it as I pleased; nay, even to

*We do not recollect any; but a diligent

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"Amidst the variety of my thoughts on this fubject, I have taken occafion to remark, it is fomewhat wonderful that the editor of a Biographical Chart has not noticed our hiibop in the 17th century. But that diftinction forfooth was referved for Taylar, the founder of the Warrington Academy. It had been kind to have allowed the bishop one little niche in his temple of fame, that the great and good man might have had his chance for immortality in the fame tablet with the Doctor's favourite name; but, if the editor knew (and amazing his ignorance if he did no) their comparative merits, he muft be affured that the memory of the lat ter will not long furvive the academy he fanded; whilst the bishop, in his mellifluous writings,

Lebitur, & labetur in omne volubilis ævum." Notwithstanding the learned editor's Laboured, ingenious, and apparently canad, manner of obviating this or fimilar remarks (from recollection of which I purpofely referred to the paffage in his pamphlet before I would give Mr. N. my fentiments, and again before I tranfcribed the remark for you), I cannot avoid concurring in opinion with my correfpondent, and requesting that you will take fome convenient opportunity to infert it.

Mr. URBAN,

common with his vaffals in Wepham*. They app:ar alfo to have pofleffed a meffuage and 80 acres of land in Warblington, with other poffeffions in Pernfted, Bourn, and Woodemanent. The number of the religious is no where mentioned (except four in their firft charter). The church of the priory was dedicated to St. Bartholomew; it was one of the fmall monafteries which Cardinal Wolfey procured to be fuppreffed, and obtained a grant of, 17 H.VIII. for the better endowment of his college in Oxford, being then valued in fpiritualities at 11 1. per annum, and in temporalines 321. os. 10d4. The fite was granted, 5 Jac. I. to Anthony lord vifcount Mountague, to whose defcendants it now belongs. It stands near a mile South of Arundel, at the end of the road, through the meadows called The Caufeway, leading from the bridge, of which fituation is low, on the verge of the it appears they had the cuflody. Its meadows, and clofe under a rifing ground. It is now known by the name of Hell House, and is reduced to the fquare building reprefented in the view, which is taken from the South-welt. T. S.

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E. J. Imade more than once (fo often per-
T is an obfervation which you have

Jan. 10.

THE fmall priory of De Calceto, or
Pynham, for regular canons of St.
Auguftine (Pl. II. fig. 1.) was founded by
queen Adeliza, fecond wife to Henry 1,
and, after his demife, married to William
Albini, fecond Earl of Arundel (of that
same), for the health of the foul of her
lord and husband, Henry I. Ranulph,
bishop of Chichester, approved the faid
charter, which was confirmed and en-
larged by William earl of Arundel, for
the good of the fouls of king Henry 1.
queen Adeliza, his heirs, and his own.
He gave to the priory annually one
buthel of corn from out of his mills de
Swanbourn, 13 cords of wood, to be cut
in his foreft of Arundel, for fuel, and
timber for the repairing f Arundel
bridge, when his forefter fhould think it
neceffary. He granted them the privi-
lege of fishing on both fides of the bridge
a furlong's length, and the right of p.
ture, in common with his burghers, in his
meadows of Arundel, for 14 cows and.
2 bulls, with liberty to feed their hogs
in the park and foreft cf Arundel, in
GENT. MAG. January, 1793.

kaps, as to render unneceffary the trou-
ble of proving it to you); you must
have oblerved. Sir, how much, in all the
tranfactions of our lives, in all we fay,
and in ail we do, we are influenced by
the power of imitation. Why does the
child, both in his drpofitions and his
manners, bear to great a refemblance
to thofe of his parents? The most pro-
bable caufe winch we can align for
it is that of imitation. Why is the fer-
vant, in thede refpects, to proverbially
like his matter? The only or most pro-
babie crufe is that of imitation. And
the fame caule that produces this fimili-
tude between the child and pa.ent, the
fervant and after. prod ces it i
equal degree between ourfelves and thofe
with whom we allocate; intouch, that
the nofcitur a fecio"s an adage, the
truth of which is univerally allowed,
and replete with wifdom and obfervation.
We are, in truth, a king of planet, “re-
flecting the luftre of hat fun, with a
whole (phere we happ n to move; w

* A charter of foundation.
+ See Tanner.

an

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