neither weakly credulous, nor wantonly fceptical; his morality is neither dangerously lax, nor impracticably rigid. All the enchantment of fancy, and all the cogency of argument, are employed to recommend to the reader his real intereft, the care of pleafing the Author of his being. "Truth is fhown fometimes as the phantom of a vifion, fometimes appears half veiled in an allegory; fometimes attracts regard in the robes of fancy, and fometimes steps forth in the confidence of reason. She wears a thousand dreffes; and in all is pleafing. Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet. "His profe is the model of the middle ftyle; on grave fubjects not formal, on light occafions not grovelling; pure without fcrupulofity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always equable, and always eaty, without glowing words or pointed fentences. Addifon never deviates from his track to fnatch a grace; he feeks no ambitious ornaments, and tries no hazardous innovations. His page is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected fplendor. "It feems to have been his principal endeavour to avoid all harfhness and feverity of diction; he is fometimes therefore verbofe in his trar.fitions and connections, and fometimes defcends too much to the language of converfation; yet if his language had been lefs idiomatical, it might have loft fomewhat of its genuine anglicifm. What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His fentences have neither ftudied amplitude, nor affected brevity; his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and eafy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarfe,and elegant but not oftentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addifon." We could not refift the temptation of tranfcribing fo large a portion, as it exhibits, with a peculiar happiness, the character of a mafterly writer, drawn by a masterly hand. The fixth volume contains the lives of Granville, Rowe, Tickell, Congreve, Fenton, and Prior. Granville is defcribed as an amiable and accomplished character, but an indifferent poet; and his fame is with juftice afcribed rather to the elevation of his rank, than to the intrinfic merit of his works. "Granville was a man illuftrious by his birth, and therefore attracted notice: fince he is by Pope ftyled the polite, he must be fuppofed elegant in his manners, and generally loved. He was in times of conteft and turbulence fteady to his party, and obtained that efteem which is always conferred upon firmnefs and confiftency. With thefe advantages, having learned the art of verfifying, he declared himfelf a poet; and his claim to the laurel was allowed." After a minute and ingenious inveftigation of the merits and faults of his dramatic works, the character of Rowe as a writer is fummed up in the following words: words: Whence then has Rowe his reputation? From the reafonableness and propriety of fome of his fcenes, from the elegance of his diction, and the fuavity of his verfe. He feldom moves either pity or terror, but he often elevates the fentiments; he feldom pierces the breast, but he always delights the ear, and often improves the understanding." He adds, "The verfion of Lucan is one of the greatest productions of Englifh poetry; for there is perhaps none that fo completely exhibits the genius and fpirit of the original. Lucan is diftinguifhed by a kind of dictatorial or philofophic dignity, rather, as Quintilian obferves, declamatory than poetical; full of ambitious morality and pointed fentences, comprifed in vigorous and animated lines. This character Rowe has very diligently and fuccefsfully preferved. His verfification, which is fuch as his cotemporaries practifed, without any attempt at innovation or improvement, feldom wants either melody or force: his author's fenfe is fometimes a little diluted by additional infufions, and fometimes weakened by too much expanfion. But fuch faults are to be expected in all translations, from the conftraint of measures and difimilitude of languages. The Pharfalia of Rowe deferves more notice than it obtains; and as it is more read, will be more esteemed." . To Tickell, Congreve, and Prior, is affigned a portion of this work fuitable to their rank; and their respective merits are characterised with great truth and ac curacy; but the life of Pope stands eminently diftinguished by the minutenefs with which it has been traced, by the variety of informa tion it contains, and the valuable criticifm it abounds with. The curiofity of the biographer has followed him through the fhade of retirement, through the pleafantry of convivial fociety, and the tumult of his literary warfare; and the whole is interfperfed with reflections peculiarly interefting to the scholar and the moralift. The following extracts cannot be unacceptable to the reader. "Of his intellectual character, the confiftent and fundamenta! principle was good fenfe, a prompt and intuitive perception of confonance and propriety. He faw immediately, of his own conceptions, what was to be chofen, and what to be rejected; and in the works of others, what was to be fhunned,andwhatwas to be copied, "But good fente alone is a fedate and quiefcent quality, which manages its paffions well, but does not increase them; it collects few materials for its own operations, and preferves fafety, but never gains fupremacy. Pope had likewife genius; a mind active, ambitious, and adventurous, always inveftigating, always afpiring; in its wildeft fearches ftill longing to go forward; in its highest flights ftill wifhing to be higher; always imagining fomething greater than it knows; always endeavouring more than it can do. "To affift thefe powers, he is faid to have had great ftrength and exactness of memory. That which he had heard or read was not eafly loft; and he had before him not only only what his own meditation fuggefted, but what he had found in other writers that might be accommodated to his prefent purpose." "Thefe benefits of nature he improved by inceffant and unwearied diligence; he had recourfe to every fource of intelligence, and loft no opportunity of information; he confulted the living as well as the dead; he read his compofitions to his friends, and was never content with mediocrity when excellence could be attained. He confidered poetry as the business of his life, and however he might feem to lament his occupation, he followed it with conftancy to make verfes was his firft labour, and to mend them - was his laft. "He was one of those few whofe labour is their pleafure: he was never elevated to negligence, nor wearied to impatience: he never paffed a fault unamended by indifference, nor quitted it by defpair he laboured his works first to gain reputation, and afterwards to keep it. "He profeffed to have learned his poetry from Dryden, whom, whenever an opportunity was prefented, he praised through his whole life with unwearied libe. rality; and perhaps his character may receive fome illuftration, if he be compared with his mafter. Integrity of understanding and nicety of difcernment were not allotted in a lefs proportion to Dryden than to Pope. The rectitude of Dryden's mind was fufficiently fhewn by the difmiflion of his poetical prejudices, and the rejection of unnatural thoughts and rugged numbers. But Dry den never defired to apply all the judgment he had. He wrote, and profeffed to write, merely for the people; and when he pleased others, he contented himself. He fpent no time in ftruggles to rouse latent powers; he never attempted to make that better which was already good, nor often to mend what he muft have known to be faulty. He wrote, as he tells us, with very little confideration:When neceffity or occafion called upon him, he poured out what the prefent moment happened to fupply; and when once it had paffed the prefs, ejected it from his mind; for when he had no pecuniary intereft, he had no further folicitude. "Pope was not content to fatiffy; he defired to excel, and therefore always endeavoured to do his beft: he did not court the candour, but dared the judgment of his reader; and expecting no indulgence from others, he fhowed none to himfelf. He examined lines and words with minute and punctilious obfervation, and retouched every part with indefatigable diligence, till he had left nothing to be forgiven. "In acquired knowledge the fuperiority must be allowed to Dryden, whofe education was more fcholaftic, and who, before he became an author, had been allowed more time for ftudy, with better means of information. His mind has a larger range; and he collects his images and illuftrations. from a more extenfive circumference of fcience. Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of Dry den den were formed by comprehenfive speculation, and those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope. Of genius, that power which conftitutes a poet; that quality, without which judgment is cold and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates; the fuperiority muft, with fome hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred that of this poetical vigour Pope had only a little, becaufe Dryden had more; for every other writer fince Milton muft give place to Pope; and even of Dryden it must be said, that if he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. "Dryden's performances were always hafty; either excited by fome external occafion, or extorted by domeftic neceffity: he compofed without confideration, and published without correction what his mind could fupply at call, or gather in one excurfion, was all that he fought, and all that he gave. The dilatory crution of Pope enabled him to condenfe his fentiments, to multiply his images, and to accummulate all that ftudy might produce, or chance might fupply. If the flights of Dryden therefore are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and conftant. Dryden often furpaffes expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent aftonifhment, and Pope with perpetual delight." The life of the unfortunate Savage exhibits a melancholy inftance of uncommon ability united with uncommon distress, and what is ftill more remarkable, and more to be lamented, of a mother moft unnaturally anxious to accomplish the mifery of her own child. It would be difficult to mention a narrative throughout the whole compafs of English biography, calculated fo powerfully to awaken the reader's feelings, to excite his compaffion on the one fide, and his deteftation on the other. The ftory is here told in a manner ftrikingly pathetic, and interwoven with reflections that do honour to the writer. It concludes with the following extract: "This relation will not be wholly without its use, if thofe who languifh under any part of his fufferings, fhall be enabled to fortify their patience, by reflecting that they feel only thofe afflictions from which the abilities of Savage did not exempt him; or thofe, who, in confidence of fuperior capacities or attainments, difregard the common maxims of life, fhall be reminded, that nothing will fupply the want of prudence; and that negligence and irregularity, long continued, will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible." Of the intermediate and subfequent lives, the most eminent are thofe of Swift and Young. In the former, though well executed, little new was to be expected; and the latter was written by a friend of the author, and in no indifferent style of imitation. An Efay on the Genius and Writings of Popic. HE performance before us is the fequel of a work publifhed fome years ago, the avowed intention of which was to decide. upon the merits of Pope, to determine in what clafs of our English poets he should be ranked, or at least to fhew, that he is not entitled to a place amongst the firft. The plan adopted by the author to prove his pofition is candid and judicious; the whole of the poet's works being diftinctly examined, and the particular beauties and defects of each in general accurately remarked. But we cannot help thinking that the object of this publication would have been more fuccefsfully anfwered, had the learned critic lefs frequently indulged his peculiar turn for digreffions; which, though they are often ingenious, and generally entertaining, ferve only to divert the reader from his main purpose, by incumbering the memory, and diffipating the attention. It is not meant to infinuate that the paffages we allude to have not, upon the whole, a natural connection with the fubject in confideration; but we think they are often purfued too far; and it even happens fometimes, that a train of unexpected reflections is fo introduced, that we are furprifed at length to refume the thread of the original work. Dr. Warton difcovers an extenfive knowledge of Italian literature, and an elegant tafte for the fine arts-but remarks on Ariofto and Petrarch, are not remarks upon Pope; and the most accurate difquifition on architecture or painting, is at beft VOL. XXV. but unfeafonable, if it has no relation to, or is but flightly connected with the proper object of Among the re our attention. marks on the Temple of Fame, are the following: High on his car Sefoftris ftruck my view, Whom feeptred taves in golden harness drew.; His hands a bow and pointed jav'lin hold; His giant limbs are arm'd in fcales of gold. "This coloffal ftatue of the celebrated eastern tyrant is not very faid to have received his ideas of ftrongly imagined. As Phidias is majefty in his famous Jupiter, from a paffage in Homer, fo it is to be wifhed that our author's imagination had been inflamed and ennificent Picture of Satan. The larged, by ftudying Milton's magword hold, in the third line, is par ticularly feeble and flat-It is well known that the Egyptians, in all their productions of art, mif took the gigantic for the fublime, and greatnefs of bulk for greatnefs of manner." fome part is appofite enough, and Of what we have here quoted, the reft is without doubt true ;but the application of the follow ing extract is not quite to ob vious. |