This he with starry vapours sprinkles all,
Took in their prime ere they grow ripe and fall;
Of a new rainbow, ere it fret or fade,

The choiceft piece cut out, a scarfe is made.

This is a juft fpecimen of Cowley's imagery: what might in general expreffions be great and forcible, he weakens and makes ridiculous by branching it into fmall parts. That Gabriel was invefted with the foftest or brightest colours of the fky, we might have been told, and dismissed to improve the idea in our different proportions of conception; but Cowley could not let us go till he had related where Gabriel got firft his fkin, and then his mantle, then his lace, and then his fcarfe, and related it in the terms of the mercer and the taylor.

Sometimes he indulges himself in a digreffion, always conceived with his natural exuberance, and commonly, even where it is not long, continued till it is tedious:

I' th' library a few choice authors ftood,
Yet 'twas well ftor'd; for that small store was
good;

Writing, man's fpiritual phyfic, was not then
Itfelf, as now, grown a disease of men.

Learning

Learning (young virgin) but few fuitors knew ; The common prostitute fhe lately grew,

And with the spurious brood loads now the prefs; Laborious effects of idleness!

As the Davideis affords only four books, though intended to confift of twelve, there is no opportunity for fuch criticisms as Epick poems commonly fupply. The plan of the whole work is very imperfectly fhewn by the third part. action cannot be known. Of characters either not yet introduced, or fhewn but upon few occafions, the full extent and the nice difcriminations cannot be ascertained. The fable is plainly implex, formed rather from the Odyffey than the Iliad; and many artifices of diversification are employed, with the skill of a man acquainted with the best models. The paft is recalled by narration, and the future anticipated by vifion: but he has been fo lavish of his poetical art, that it is difficult to imagine how he could fill eight books more without practising again the fame modes of difpofing his matter; and perhaps the per-ception of this growing incumbrance inclined him to ftop. By this abruption, posterity

The duration of an unfinished

loft more inftruction than delight. If the continuation of the Davideis can be miffed, it is for the learning that had been diffused over it, and the notes in which it had been explained.

Had not his characters been depraved like every other part by improper decorations, they would have deferved uncommon praise. He gives Saul both the body and mind of a hero:

His way once chofe, he forward thruft outright, Nor turn'd afide for danger or delight,

And the different beauties of the lofty Merah and the gentle Michol are very juftly conceived and strongly painted.

Rymer has declared the Davideis fuperior to the Jerufalem of Taffo, which," fays he, the poet, with all his care, has not totally "purged from pedantry." If by pedantry is meant that minute knowledge which is derived from particular fciences and ftudies, in oppofition to the general notions supplied by a wide furvey of life and nature, Cowley certainly errs, by introducing pedantry far

more

more frequently than Taffo. I know not, indeed, why they fhould be compared; for the resemblance of Cowley's work to Taffo's is only that they both exhibit the agency of celestial and infernal fpirits, in which however they differ widely; for Cowley fuppofes them commonly to operate upon the mind by fuggeftion; Taffo reprefents them as promoting or obftructing events by external

agency.

Of particular paffages that can be properly compared, I remember only the defcription of Heaven, in which the different manner of the two writers is fufficiently dif cernible. Cowley's is fcarcely description, unless it be poffible to describe by negatives; for he tells us only what there is not in heaven; Taffo endeavours to reprefent the fplendours and pleasures of the regions of happiness. Taffo affords images, and Cowley fentiments. It happens, however, that Taffo's defcription affords fome reason for Rymer's cenfure. He fays of the Supreme Being,

Hà fotto i piedi e fato e la natura
Miniftri humili, e'l moto, e ch'il misura.

The fecond line has in it more of pedantry than perhaps can be found in any other ftanza of the poem.

In the perufal of the Davideis, as of all Cowley's works, we find wit and learning unprofitably fquandered. Attention has no relief; the affections are never moved; we are sometimes surprised, but never delighted, and find much to admire, but little to ap prove. Still however it is the work of Cowley, of a mind capacious by nature, and replenished by study.

In the general review of Cowley's poetry it will be found, that he wrote with abundant fertility, but negligent or unfkilful felection; with much thought, but with little imagery; that he is never pathetick, and rarely fublime, but always either ingenious or learned, either acute or profound.

It is faid by Denham in his elegy,

To him no author was unknown;
Yet what he writ was all his own,