and o'erwhelm'd. Others, in frantic mood, wling thro' the streets: their hideous yells he dark welkin; Horror ftalks around, taring, and his fad concomitant,

of nameless beauties."

220

-It derives its old British name Gwye,

tin name Vaga, from its finuofity.

eandering course of the Wye is particularly noticed by Drayton, lyolbion. Poffibly Philips had the paffage in his mind, and from it the old word CRANKLE.

Wye (from her dear Lug, whom nothing can restrain,
any a pleasant fhade her joy to entertain)

Rofs her courfe directs, and, well her name to fhew,
windeth in her way, as back fhe meant to go.
nder, who is said so intricate to be,

not fo many turns and CRANKLING nooks as fhe.

- To Thor and Woden.]

POLYOLBION, Song. vii.

and Woden were deities of our Saxon ancestors, and the antient nations. They are fuppofed to have given names to the fourth and s of the week, which from them are called Wednesday, or day, and Thursday, or Thor's day.

Horror ftalks around

Wild-ftaring, and his fad concomitant,

Despair,

Despair, of abject look: at ev'ry gate
The thronging populace with hasty strides
Prefs furious, and, too eager of escape,

Obstruct the easy way; the rocking town

Supplants their footsteps; to, and fro, they reel 225

Defpair, of abject look.]

This perfonification of the paffions is in the boldeft ftyle of poetry. Indeed this whole description of the deftruction of Ariconium is admirable, and shews what our Author could have done, had he taken a subject of more extent, and trufted more to himself. And here it may

not be improper to notice the late Dr. Johnson's uncandid application of a very doubtful reading of a paffage in Cicero, where, in the conclufion of his account of the life and writings of Philips, he fays, "Perhaps "to his laft Poem may be applied what Tully faid of the work of Lu"cretius, that IT IS WRITTEN WITH MUCH ART, THOUGH WITH 66 FEW BLAZES OF GENIUS."

The learned Reader need not be told, but the English Reader fhould know, that there are three various readings of the paffage alluded to, and that thofe readings which are found in the earliest editions, and are fupported by fome of the moft refpectable commentators, give a very oppofite fenfe to that exhibited by the Biographer of our English Poets. The more judicious critics have confidered the Poetry of Lucretius as ftrongly marked with the VIVIDA VIS ANIMI, as more replete with fire, energy, and fpirit, than that of any other Latin Poet, not excepting Virgil himself; and it seems moft probable that the Roman Orator not only thought, but expreffed himself, so respecting it. As the moft accurate critic would, probably, thus read the paffage in Cicero's letter to his brother Quintius, fo may we prefume, the more candid one would, thus, apply it to the Poem of our Author.

Lita funt multis luminibus ingenii, multæ tamen artis.

EPIST. AD QUINT. FRATR. L. ii. Ep. 11. They are enriched with many blazes of genius, and at the fame "time are compofed with much poetic skill."

66

Dr. Warton, indeed, fuppofes Cicero to have confidered Lucretius as one of the greatest ornaments of Rome; and to this conviction of his great poetical talents he refers as an explanation of the compliment he paid Virgil when, on hearing him read his fixth Eclogue, he cried out in an extafy of admiration, that the author was MAGNE SPES ALTERA ROME.

See the Life of Virgil prefixed to DR. WARTON'S TRANSLATION OF THE ECLOGUES AND GEORGICS.)

Astonish'd,

oet had here in his mind the Plalmift's language in his fhort, but defcription of a ftorm at fea. Pfalm, cvii.

ey are carried up to the heavens and down again to the deep: their melteth away because of the trouble.

HEY REEL TO AND FRO, AND STAGGER LIKE A DRUNKEN : and are at their wits end.”

Meanwhile the loofen'd winds,

Infuriate, molten rocks and flaming globes
Hurl'd high above the clouds]

ng the caufes of earthquakes affigned by Buffon, in his Natural , a principal one is the action of fubterraneous fires. Earthquakes fort, he obferves, generally precede the eruptions of volcanoes, metimes ceafe the moment the fire opens a paffage through the

Poet feems here to have had an eye to Virgil's fublime defcripMount Etna in his third ÆNEID, V. 571.

horrificis juxta tonat Ætna ruinis,

Interdumque atram prorumpit ad æthera nubem,
Turbine fumantem piceo et candente favillâ :
Attollitque GLOBOS FLAMMARU м, et fidera lambit;
Interdum fcopulos avulfaque vifcera montis
Erigit eructans, LIQUEFACTAQUE SAXA fub auras
Cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exæftuat imo.

But Etna roars with dreadful ruin nigh,
Now hurls a bursting cloud of cinders high,
Involv'd in fmoky whirlwinds, to the sky;
With loud difplofion to the ftarry frame
Shoots fiery globes and furious floods of flame:
E

}

Now

235

Confum'd, her ravenous jaws th' earth fatiate clos'd.
Thus this fair city fell, of which the name
Survives alone; nor is there found a mark,
Whereby the curious passenger may learn
Her ample fite, fave coins, and moldering urns,
And huge unwieldy bones, lasting remains
Of that gigantic race; which, as he breaks
The clotted glebe, the ploughman haply finds,
Appall'd. Upon that treacherous tract of land
She whilom stood; now Ceres, in her prime,

Now from her bellowing caverns burst away
Vaft piles of melted rocks in open day,

Her fhatter'd entrails wide the mountain throws,
And deep in hell her burning centre glows.

238.

fave coins, and moldering urns,
And huge unwieldy bones, lafting remains
Of that gigantic race; which, as he breaks
The clotted glebe, the ploughman haply finds,
Appall' d.]

PITT.

240

This is a very fine imitation of a very fine paffage in Virgil's firft GEORGIC, V. 493.

Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis
Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro,
Exefa inveniet fcabrâ rubigine pila :
Aut gravibus raftris galeas pulfabit inanes,
Grandiaque effofis mirabitur offa fepulchris.

The time at length fhall come when lab'ring fwains,
As with their ploughs they turn thefe guilty plains,
'Gainft hollow helms their heavy drags fhall ftrike,
And clafh 'gainft many a fword and rusty pike,
View the vaft graves with horror and amaze,
And at huge bones of giant heroes gaze.

242.

upon that treacherous tract of land She whilom food; now Ceres, in her prime,

WARTON.

Smiles

BOOK I.

CIDER.

27

245

Smiles fertile, and, with ruddieft freight bedeck'd,
The Apple-tree, by our forefather's blood
Improv'd, that now recalls the devious Mufe,
Urging her deftin'd labors to pursue.

The prudent will obferve, what paffions reign
In various plants; for not to man alone,
But all the wide creation, Nature gave
Love and averfion. Everlasting hate
The Vine to Ivy bears, nor less abhors

250

The Colewort's ranknefs, but with amorous twine
Clafps the tall Elm. The Pæftan Rofe unfolds

Smiles fertile, and, with ruddieft freight bedeck'd,
The Apple-tree, by our forefather's blood

Improv'd

Thus Ovid, EPIST. HEROIC. I. 53,

Nunc feges eft ubi Troja fuit, refecandaque falce
Luxuriat Phrygio fanguine pinguis humus.

Now Ceres fmiles where Troy town whilom ftood;
The fertile foil, improv'd by Phrygian blood,
Abundant crops in rich luxuriance yields,

And calls the fickle to its loaded fields.

253.

But with amorous twine

Clafps the tall Elm-]

The Ancients ufed elms as props to their vines. Hence the expreffion of marrying the vine to the elm was fo common, that not only the Roman Poets, but their Profe-writers on agriculture, frequently use the phrases of NUPTA VITIS and MARITA ULMUS, the wedded vine and the bufband elm.

Milton makes the marrying the vine to the elm one of the employments of Adam and Eve in Paradife, where, after they had fung their beautiful morning hymn, in the fifth book of the PARADISE LOST, he defcribes them proceeding to their "morning's rural work"

Among sweet dews and flow'rs; where any row
Of fruit-trees, over-woody, reach'd too far
Their pamper'd boughs, and needed hands to check
Fruitless embraces: or they led the VINE
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