51. Si curtatus inæquali tonsore capillos,

Occurro; rides: si forte subucula pexæ

Trita subest tunicæ, vel si toga dissidet impar;
Rides*

You laugh, half beau, half sloven, if I stand,
My wig all powder, and all snuff my band;
You laugh, if coat and breeches strangely vary,
White gloves, and linen worthy Lady Mary!†

I am inclined to think that Horace laughs at himself (not at Virgil, as has been supposed) for the ungraceful appearance he sometimes made, and the incongruity of his dress. Perhaps our little, round, fat, oily man, was somewhat of a sloven. Poor POPE was so weak and infirm, and his body required so many wrappers and coverings, that it was hardly possible for him to be neat. No poet, except Malherbe, ever wore so many pair of stockings. Thomson speaks elegantly of his person, in that delightful poem, The Castle of Indolence, stanza the 33d.

* Ver. 94.

Y 3

+ Ver. 161.

Ten in number, according to his friend RACAN, in the

account of his life.

He

He came, the bard, a little Druid-wight,
Of wither'd aspect; but his eye was keen,
With sweetness mix'd. In russet brown bedight,
As is his sister of the copses green,

He crept along, unpromising of mien.
Gross he who judges so.

52. Nil admirari, prope res est una, Numici,
Solaque quæ possit facere & servare beatum.*

"Not to admire, is all the art I know,

"To make men happy, and to keep them so."
Plain truth, dear MURRAY,† needs no flowers of speech,
So take it in the very words of CREECH.

Who, in truth, is a much better § translator than he is usually supposed and allowed to be.

He

* Epist. vi.

+ He knew the exact taste and learning of the person he ad dresses, and has laboured this imitation accordingly.

Ver. 1.

Mr. Christopher Pitt has imitated the 7th sat. of Hor. b. ii.; the 19th epistle, b. ii. ; the 4th epistle, b. i.; the 10th epistle, b. i.; the 18th epistle, b. i. (see his poems, vol. xliii. of the English Poets) with a freedom and a facility of versifi Perhaps it may deserve consideration,

cation truly Horatian.

whether

He is a nervous and vigorous writer and many parts, not only of his Lucretius, but of his Theocritus and Horace, (though now decried,) have not been excelled by other translators. One of his pieces may be pronounced excellent; his translation of the thirteenth satire of Juvenal; equal to any that Dryden has given us of that author.

53. Hunc solem & stellas & decedentia certis Tempora momentis, sunt qui formidine nullâ Imbuti spectent.

This vault of air, this congregated ball,
Self-center'd sun and stars, that rise and fall:
There are, my friend, whose philosophic eyes
Look through, and trust the Ruler with his skies.t

This last line is quaint and obscure; the two first vigorously expressed. Horace thought of

whether the best manner of imitating these satires and epistles, which approach so near to comedy, and to common conversation, would not be to adopt the familiar blank verse, which Mr. Colman has so successfully employed in his Terence; a sort of verse no more resembling that of Milton, than the Hexameters of Homer resemble those of Theocritus,

* Ver. 3

+ Ver. 5.

a noble passage

1185.

* in Lucretius, book v. line

In cœloque, Deum sedes, & templa locârunt,
Per cœlum volvi quia sol, & luna videntur :
Luna, dies, & nox, & noctis signa serena,
Noctivagæque faces coeli, flammæque volantes,
Nubila, ros, imbres, nox, venti, fulmina, grando,
Et rapida fremitus, & murmura magna minarum.

54. Ludicra quid, plausus, & amici dona Quiritis.t

Or popularity or stars and strings?
The mob's applauses, or the gifts of kings.

Considering the present state of politics, the abilities of politicians in this country, and the number of those who think themselves completely qualified to guide the state, might I be pardoned

for

*To those who know the number of thoughts that breathe, and words that burn, in this animated writer, it is surprising that Tully could speak of him in so cold and tasteless a manner Lucretii poemata non sunt lita multis luminibus Ingenii, multæ tamen Artis. Ep. ad Fratrem, Lib. ii. Ep. 11. Lucretius seems to have thought of the fine passage in the Sisyphus of Euripides, quoted by Grotius, Excerpta, p. 402. Sextus Empirius ascribes the lines to Critias; but Plutarch, with bet ter reason, to Euripides.

+ Ver. 7.

Ver. 14.

for the pedantry of recommending to them the few following words of Socrates; who thus addresses Alcibiades: Γυμνασαι πρώτον, ω μακάριε, και μαθε α δει μαθοντα είναι επι τα της πολεως, προτερον δε μη. Alcibiad. 2d. p. 133. Serr. Platon. T. 2.

55.

Cum bene notum

Porticus Agrippæ, & via te conspexerit Appî;
Ire tamen restat, Numa quo devenit & Ancus.*

Grac❜d as thou art with all the pow'r of words,
So known, so honour'd, at the House of Lords;
Conspicuous scene!-another yet is nigh,
(More silent far!) where kings and poets lie;
Where MURRAY, long enough his country's pride,t
"Shall be no more than TULLY, or than HYDE.‡

Much beyond the original; particularly on account of the very happy and artful use POPE has made of the neighbourhood of the House of Parliament

* Ver. 25.

What would our author have said and thought, had he lived long enough to see the house of this venerable magistrate, like that of Tully, plundered and burnt, by an infamous band of bigots, rebels, ruffians, and enthusiasts? What a subject for the severest and deepest tones of his indignant Muse!

Ver. 48.