Say, Daphnis, fay in what glad foil appears With what propriety could the tree, whofe shade protected the king, be faid to be prolific of princes? THAT POPE has not equalled Theocritus, will indeed appear lefs surprising, if we reflect, that no original writer ever remained fo unrivalled by fucceeding copyifts, as this Sicilian master. If it fhould be objected, that the barrennefs of invention imputed to POPE from a view of his PASTORALS, is equally imputable to the Bucolics of Virgil, it may be answered, that whatever may be determined of the rest, yet the first and laft Eclogues of Virgil are indifputable proofs of true genius, and power of fancy. The influence of war on the tranquility of rural life, rendered the subject of the first new, and interefting: its compofition is truly dramatic; and the characters of of its two fhepherds are well fupported, and happily contrafted: and the last has expreffively painted the changeful refolutions, the wild wishes, the paffionate andabrupt exclamations, of a difappointed and despairing lover. UPON the whole, the principal merit of the PASTORALS of POPE confifts, in their correct and mufical verfification; musical, to a degree of which rhyme could hardly be thought capable: and in giving the firft fpecimen of that harmony in English verse, which is now become indifpenfibly neceffary; and which has fo forcibly and univerfally influenced the public ear, as to have rendered every moderate rhymer melodious. POPE lengthened the abruptness of Waller, and at the fame time contracted the exuberance of Dryden. I REMEMBER to have been informed, by an intimate friend of POPE, that he had once laid a defign of writing AMERICAN ECLOGUES: ECLOGUES: The fubject would have been fruitful of the most poetical imagery; and, if properly executed, would have rescued the author from the accufation here urged, of having written Eclogues without invention. OUR author, who had received an early tincture of religion, a reverence for which he preserved to the laft, was with justice convinced, that the Scriptures of God contained not only the pureft precepts of morality, but the most elevated and fublime ftrokes of genuine poefy; ftrokes, as much fuperior to any thing Heathenifm can produce, as is Jehovah to Jupiter. This is the cafe more particularly in the exalted prophefy of Ifaiah, which POPE has fo fuccefsfully versified in an Eclogue, that incontestably furpaffes the Pollio of Virgil: although perhaps the dignity, the energy, and the fimplicity of the original are in a few paffages weakened and diminished by florid epithets, and useless circumlocutions. See See nature haftes her earliest wreaths to bring, are lines, which have too much prettiness, and too modern an air. The judicious addition of circumstances and adjuncts is what renders poefy a more lively imitation of nature than profe. POPE has been happy in introducing the following circumstance: the prophet fays, "The parched ground shall "become a pool ;" Our author expreffes this idea by faying, that the fhepherd, fball START amid the thirsty wild to hear New falls of water murmuring in his car †. A ftriking example of a fimilar beauty may be added from Thompfon. Melifander, in the Tragedy of AGAMEMNON, after telling us he was conveyed in a vessel, at mid-night to the wildest of the Cyclades, adds, when the pitiless mariners had left him in that. dreadful folitude, I never heard A found so dismal as their parting oars ! *MESS. V. 23. tv. 70. ON On the other hand, the prophet has been fometimes particular, when POPE has been only general. "Lift up thine eyes round "about, and see; all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: The "multitude of CAMELS fhall cover thee: "the DROMEDARIES of Median and Ephah: "all they from Sheba fhall come: they "shall bring gold and incenfe, and they "fhall fhew forth the praises of the Lord. "All the FLOCKS of Kedar fhall be ga"thered together unto thee; the RAMS of "Nebaioth fhall minifter unto thee *." In imitating this paffage, POPE has omitted the different beafts that in so picturesque a manner characterize the different countries which were to be gathered together on this important event, and fays only in undistinguishing terms, See, barbarous nations at thy gates attend, Ifaiah, c. lx. v. 4, 6, 7. + Ver. 91. As |