tent and the nice difcriminations cannot be ascertained. The fable is plainly implex, formed rather from the Odyffey than the Iliad; and many artifices of diverfification are employed, with the fkill 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 withoutpractising again the fame modes of difpofing his matter; and perhaps the perception of this growing in, cumbrance inclined him to ftop. By this abruption, pofterity 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 praife. He gives Saul both the body and mind of a hero:

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

And the different beauties of the lofty Merah and the gentle Michol are very justly 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 sciences and studies, in oppofition to the general notions fupplied by a wide furvey of life and nature, Cowley certainly errs, by introducing pedantry far more frequently than Taffo. I know not, indeed, why they fhould be compared;

for the refemblance of Cowley's work to Taffo's is only that they both exhibit the agency of celeftial 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 obstructing events by external agency.

Of particular paffages that can be properly compared, I remember only the description of Heaven, in which the different manner of the two writers is fufficiently difcernible. Cowley's is fcarcely description, unless it be poffible to defcribe by negatives; for he tells us only what there is not in heaven. Taffo endeavours to reprefent the splendours and pleafures of the regions of happinefs. Taffo affords images, and Cowley fentiments. It happens, however, that Taffo's description affords fome reafon 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 mifura.

The fecond line has in it more of pedantry than perhaps can be found in any other stanza 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 fometimes furprifed, but never delighted, and find much to admire, but little to approve. 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

and rarely fublime, but always either ingenious OF 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.

This wide position requires less limitation, when it is affirmed of Cowley, than perhaps of any other poetHe read much, and yet borrowed little.

His character of writing was indeed not his own: he unhappily adopted that which was predominant. He faw a certain way to prefent praife, and not sufficiently enquiring by what means the ancients have continued to delight through all the changes of human manners, he contented himself with a deciduous laurel, of which the verdure in its fpring was bright and gay, but which time has been continually ftealing from his brows.

He was in his own time confidered as of unrivalled excellence. Clarendon reprefents him as having taken a flight beyond all that went before him; and Milton is faid to have declared, that the three greatest English poets were Spenfer, Shakspeare, and Cowley.

His manner he had in common with others: but his fentiments were his own. Upon every fubject he thought for himself; and fuch was his copiousness of knowledge, that fomething at once remote and applicable rushed into his mind; yet it is not likely that he always rejected a commodious idea merely because another had ufed it: his known wealth was fo great, that he might have borrowed without lofs of credit.

In his elegy on Sir Henry Wotton, the last lines have fuch resemblance to the noble epigram of Grotius upon the death of Scaliger, that I cannot but think them

1

copied from it, though they are copied by no fervile hand.

One paffage in his Miftrefs is fo apparently borrowed from Donne, that he probably would not have written it, had it not mingled with his own thoughts, fo as that he did not perceive himself taking it from another. Although I think thou never found wilt be, Yet I'm refolv'd to fearch for thee; The fearch itself rewards the pains. So, though the chymic his great fecret mifs, (For neither it in Art nor Nature is)

Yet things well worth his toil he gains:
And does his charge and labour pay

With good unfought experiments by the way.

COWLEY,
Some that have deeper digg'd Love's mine than I,
Say, where his centric happiness doth lie:

I have lov'd, and got, and told;
But fhould I love, get, tell, till I were old,
I should not find that hidden mystery;

Oh, 'tis imposture all;

And as no chymic yet th' elixir got,
But glorifies his pregnant pot,
If by the way to him befal
Some odoriferous thing, or medicinal,

So lovers dream a rich and long delight,

But get a winter-feeming summer's night.

Jonfon and Donne, as Dr. Hurd remarks, were then in the highest esteem.

It is related by Clarendon, that Cowley always acknowledges his obligation to the learning and industry of Jonfon; but I have found no traces of Jonfon in his works: to emulate Donne, appears to have been his purpofe; and from Donne he may have learned that familiarity with religious images, and that light allufion to

facred

facred things, by which readers far fhort of fanctity are frequently offended; and which would not be born in the prefent age, when devotion, perhaps not more fervent, is more delicate.

Having produced one paffage taken by Cowley from Donne, I will recompenfe him by another which Milton feems to have borrowed from him. He fays of Goliah,

His fpear, the trunk was of a lofty tree,

Which Nature meant fome tall fhip's maft fhould be.
Milton of Satan:

His fpear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Offome great admiral, were but a wand,
He walk'd with,

His diction was in his own time cenfured as negligent. He seems not to have known, or not to have confidered that words being arbitary muft owe their power to affociation, and have the influence, and that only, which custom has given them. Language is the dress of thought: and as the nobleft mien, or moft graceful action, would be degraded and obfcured by a garb appropriated to the grofs employments of rufticks or mechanicks; fo the most heroick fentiments will lofe their efficacy, and the moft fplendid ideas drop their magnificence, if they are conveyed by words ufed commonly upon low and trivial occafions, debafed by vulgar mouths, and contaminated by inelegant applica

tions.

Truth indeed is always truth, and reafon is always reafon; they have an intrinfick and unalterable value, and conftitute that intellectual gold which defies de

ftruction: