.

little touches of nature it is no wonder VOLTAIRE Could not relifh, who affords no example of this beauty in his Henriäde, and gives no proofs of a picturefque fancy, in a work that abounds more in declamation, in moral and political reflections, than in poetic images; in which there is little character and lefs nature, and in which the author himself appears throughout the piece, and is bimfelf the bero of his poem*.

I HAVE dwelt the longer on this fubject, because I think I can perceive many fymptoins, even among writers of eminence, of departing from theic true and lively, and minute, representations of Nature, and of dwelling in generalitics. To these I oppose the teftimony of, perhaps, the most judicious and elegant critic among the ancients. Proculdubio qui dicit expugnatam effe civitatem, complectitur omnia quæcunque talis fortuna recipit : fed in affectus minus pene

• As much as the author has ventured to cenfure the epic poem of Voltaire, yet he greatly admires many of his Hagedies.

trat

trat brevis hic velut nuntius. At fi aperias hæc quæ verbo uno inclufa erant, apparebunt effufæ per domos ac templa flamma; & ṛuentium tectorum fragor, & ex diverfis clamoribus unus quidam fonus; aliorum fuga incerta; alii in extremo complexû suorum cohærentes, & infantium fæminarum→ que ploratus, & malè ufque in illum diem servati fato fenes; tum illa profanorum facrorumque direptio, efferentium prædas, repetentiumque difcurfus, & acti ante fuum quifque prædonem catenati, & conata retinere infantem fuum mater, & ficubi majus lucrum eft, pugna inter victores. Licet enim hæc omnia, ut dixi, complectatur everfio, MINUS EST TAMEN TOTUM DICERE, QUAM OMNIA *.

21. Who hung with woods yon mountain's fultry brow!
From the dry rock who bade the waters flow?
Not to the + fkies in useless columns toft,
Or in proud falls magnificently loft;

But

QUINTILIAN, lib. viii. cap. 3. And tee alfo a paffage of exquifite tafte in DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS. Pag. 122 and 123. Oxon. 1675.

.

+ Has not the learned commentator, in his note on this paffage, given an illustration rather bard and far-fought, in the following words?

"The

But clear and artlefs, pouring thro the plain,
Health to the fick, and folace to the fwains.
Whose causeway parts the vale with thady rows ?
Whose feats the weary traveller repose?
Who taught that heav'n-directed fpire to rife!
"The MAN of Ross," each lifping babe replies.
Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread ]
The Man of Rofs divides the weekly bread.
He feeds yon alms-house, neat, but void of state,
Where AGE and WANT fit fmiling at the gate:
Him portion'd maids, apprentic'd orphans bleft,
The young who labour, and the old who reft.

THESE lines, which are eminently beautiful, particularly one of the three laft,

"The intimation in the first line well ridicules the madnefs of fashionable magnificence; thefe columns afpiring to prop the skies, in a very different fenfe from the heavendirected spire in the verse that follows; as the expreffiom in the fecond line exposes the meanness of it, in falling proudly, to no purpose."-Perhaps the fame may be said of a note that follows, on verse 333.

"Cutler and Brutus, dying, both exclaim,

Virtue and wealth! what are ye' but a name!

There is a greater beauty in this comparison than the common reader is aware of. Brutus was, in morals at leaft, s Stoic, like his uncle.-Now Stoical virtue was, as our author truly tells us, not exercife but apathy. Contracted all, retiring to the breaft. In a word, like Sir J. Cutler's purfe, nothing for ufe, but kept clofe fhut, and centered all within himself. Now virtue and wealth, thus circumftanced, are indeed no other than mere names.”

• Ver. 253.

containing

containing a fine profopopæia, have conferred immortality on a plain, worthy, and ufeful citizen of Herefordshire, Mr. John Kyrle, who spent his long life in advancing and contriving plans of public utility. The HOWARD of his time: who deferves to be celebrated more than all the heroes of PINDAR. The particular reafon for which I quoted them, was to observe the pleasing effect that the ufe of common and familiar words and objects, judiciously managed, produce in poetry. Such as are here the words, causeway, feats, fpire, market-place, alms-boufe, apprentic'd. A faftidious delicacy, and a falfe refinement, in order to avoid meanness, have deterred our writers from the introduction of such words; but DRYDEN often hazarded it, and gave by it a fecret charm, and a natural air to his verses, well knowing of what confequence it was fometimes to foften and fubdue his tints, and not to paint and adorn every object he touched, with perpetual pomp and unremitted splendor.

22. Sir Balaam now, he lives like other folks,

He takes his chirping pint, and cracks his jokes :

" Live

"Live like yourself," was foon my Lady's word; And lo! two puddings fmok'd upon the board *.

THIS tale of Sir Balaam, his progress and change of manners, from being a plodding, fober, plain, and punctual citizen, to his becoming a debauched and diffolute courtier and fenator, abounds in much knowledge of life, and many strokes of true humour, and will bear to be compared with the exquisite history of Eugenio and Corufodes, in one of SWIFT's Intelligencers.

LORD BATHURST, Lord LYTTELTON, SPENCE, HARTE, and other of his friends, have affured me, that among intimates POPE had an admirable talent for telling a ftory. In great companies he avoided speaking much. And in his examination before the House of Lords, in ATTERBURY'S trial, he faultered fo much as to be hardly intelligible.

23. You show us, Rome was glorious, not profuse, And pompous buildings once were things of use: