animal, from Homer, Virgil, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Oppian, and Nemesian, he contrasts them minutely with the picture in the sacred writer, and gives a decided preference to the latter. In this decision we cannot absolutely acquiesce; we are willing to acknowledge, that in sublimity and grandeur the Hebrew poet is superior; but as a zoologist he is not sufficiently characteristic and picturesque; his descriptions, in short, are not, in general, such as a painter could copy from. An elegant living critic has placed the subject in a very different light from that in which Dr. Young seems to have viewed it, and in one which strikes me as more accordant with the truth.

"The genius of the western poets," he remarks, "bold, ardent, and precipitate, was peculiarly averse to precision and accuracy. Hurried away by the warm emotions arising from an idea forcibly impressed upon their minds, they often seem entirely to lose sight of the train of thought which the proposed subject would seem naturally to suggest. Hence their descriptions, however animated and striking in certain points, are seldom full and distinct enough to form accurate representations. I will venture

See the Bishop of Oxford's truly classical and ingenious Prelections on Sacred Poetry,'

to cite those highly celebrated zoological paintings in the book of Job, in confirmation of this remark. In all of these it is found, that some one property of the animal, which it indeed possesses in an eminent degree, but not exclusively, gives the leading tone to the description, and occupies the whole attention of the poet, to the neglect of every minuter, though perhaps more discriminating, circumstance. Thus, the sole quality of the horse which is dwelt upon, is his courage in war. This, indeed, is pictured with great force and sublimity, but by images, many of which are equally applicable to any other warlike creature. Even the noble expression of 'his neck being clothed with thunder,' is not so finely descriptive, because it is less appropriated than the 'luxuriat toris animosum pectus' of Virgil; and, for the same reason, I can scarcely. agree with Mr. Warton in preferring the passage, 'He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage, neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet,' to the lines

Stare loco nescit; micat auribus, et tremit artus;
Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem,

"The indistinctness of most of the other descriptions in this book may be inferred from the very different opinions entertained by critics concern

ing the animals which the writer intended. 'Thus, the behemoth is by some supposed to be the elephant, by others the hippopotamus. The reem, absurdly in our version rendered the unicorn, is variously interpreted the rhinoceros, urus, oryx, and bison. What is more extraordinary, the leviathan, to which a whole chapter is appropriated, has, with almost equal plausibility, been maintained to be the whale and the crocodile-a fish, and an amphibious quadruped. It may, indeed, be alledged, that the design of the poet in this place, which was to inculcate sublime ideas of the Divine Power and Majesty from considerations of the grandeur of his works, and sentiments of humiliation from the comparison of human strength and courage to those of other creatures, did not require, or even admit of, minuteness in zoological description. Still, however, such want of precision in the great outlines of his figures, must be imputed to the preva lence of a characteristic manner, rather than to the decision of the judgment."

13. AMBROSE PHILIPS, descended from a family of some antiquity in Leicestershire, was, after the usual grammatical education, sent to

* Aikin's Essay on the Application of Natural History to Poetry, 8vo. 1777, p. 11, et seq.

St. John's College in Cambridge. He early became a student and a writer of English poetry, and, previous to the year 1708, had published one of his most celebrated works, his six pastorals. These, notwithstanding the irony of Pope, of which we have related the consequences in a preceding part of this volume, are much beyond mediocrity. They are inferior, it is true, in point of versification, to the pastorals of his rival; but it will not now, I think, be denied, that, in the delineation of rural scenery and manners, he is beyond comparison more original and faithful than the jealous bard of Twickenham.

Philips, soon after the composition of his pastorals, left the University for London; and, frequenting Button's Coffee-house, which was then resorted to by the most eminent literary characters, he became acquainted with Steele and Addison, and having embraced with ardour their political principles, a close intimacy was the result.

In 1709, he published, in No 12 of the Tatler, a "Poetical Letter from Copenhagen," addressed to the Duke of Dorset. It is a winter-piece, finished in a style of great accuracy and beauty, and is, perhaps, the best of all our author's performances; even Pope, who was accustomed to

ridicule without mercy the poetry of Philips, condescends to praise this production.

The pecuniary circumstances of Philips were probably at this period very limited; as he refused not to translate for Tonson the "Persian Tales" from the French, at a price so low, that he was afterwards unwilling to be reminded of the transaction. He attempted, likewise, to attract the attention of the public to his political opinions, by publishing the "Life of Archbishop Williams;" a plan which, I believe, nearly, if not altogether, failed. He neglected no means, indeed, to improve his situation; and we find him about this time soliciting Swift to procure him a place under government. "This evening," says the Dean, in his Journal to Stella, dated June the 30th, 1711, "I have had a letter from Mr. Philips, the pastoral poct, to get him a certain employment from lord treasurer. I have now. had almost all the whig-poets my solicitors; and I have been useful to Congreve, Steele, and Harrison: but I will do nothing for Philips; I find he is more a puppy than ever; so do not solicit for him."*

The production which principally contributed towards making Philips known and popular,

Swift's Works, vol. xv. p. 80.