5. Another instance, ftill more remarkable, may be taken from Mr. Pope. One of the most striking paffages in the Effay on Man is the following,

Superior Beings, when of late they faw
A mortal man unfold all nature's law,
Admir'd fuch wisdom in an earthly shape,
And fhew'd a NEWTON, as we shew an ape.
Ep. ii. 31.

Can you doubt, from the fingularity of this fentiment, that the great poet had his eye on Plato? who makes Socrates fay, in allu fion to a remark of Heraclitus, "Ori avope των ὁ σοφώτατα πρὸς θεὸν πίθηκος φανεῖται. Hipp. Major.

The application indeed is different. And it could not be otherwife. For the obfervation, which the Philofopher refers pès. Sov, is in the Poet given to fuperior Beings, only. The confequence is, that the Ape is an object of derifion in the former cafe, of admiration, in the latter.

To conclude this head, I will just observe to you, that, tho' the fame uncommon fentiment in two writers be ufually the ef

fect

fect of imitation, yet we cannot affirm this of Actors in real life. The reason is, when the fituation of two men is the fame, Nature will dictate the fame fentiments more invariably than Genius. To give a remarkable inftance of what I mean.

Tacitus relates; in the first book of his Annals, what paffed in the fenate on its first meeting after the death of Auguftus. His politic fucceffor carried it, for fome time, with much apparent moderation. He wished, befides other reafons, to get himself folemnly recognized for Emperor by that Body, before he entered on the exercise of his new dignity. Dabat famæ, fays the hiftorian, ut vocatus electusque potius a Re publicâ videretur, quàm per uxorium ambitum et. fenili adoptione irrepfiffe. One of hist courtiers would not be wanting to himself on fuch an occafion. When therefore feveral motions had been made in the Senate, concerning the honours to be paid to the memory of their late Prince, VALERIUS MESSALLA Moved RENOVANDUM PER ANNOS SACRAMENTUM IN NOMEN TIBERII; in other words, that the oath of allegiance fhould

fhould be taken to Tiberius. This was the very point that Tiberius drove at. And the consciousness of it made him fufpect that this motion might be thought to proceed from himself. He therefore afk'd Meffalla, "Num, fe mandante, eam fententiam promfiffet?" His anfwer is in the following words. "Spontè dixiffe, refpondit; neque "in iis, quæ ad rempublicam pertinerent, "confilio nifi fuo ufurum, vel cum periculo "offenfionis." Ea, concludes the hiftorian, fola fpecies adulandi fupererat.

Now it is very remarkable, that we find, in Ludlow's memoirs, one of Cromwell's officers, on the very fame occafion, answering the Protector in the very fame fpecies of flattery.

Colonel WILLIAM JEPHSON moved in the Houfe, that Cromwell might be made King. Cromwell took occafion, soon after, to reprove the Colonel for this proposition, telling him, that he wonder'd what he could mean by it. To which the other replied, "That while he was permitted the bonour of fitting in that Houfe, he must de

fire the liberty to difcharge his confcience, though his opinion fhould happen to difpleafe." Here we have a very ftriking coincidence of fentiment, without the leaft probability of imitation. For no body, I dare fay, fufpects Colonel William Jephfon of ftealing this refined stroke of adulation from Valerius Meffalla. The truth is, the fame fituation, concurring with the fame corrupt difpofition, dictated this peculiar fentiment to the two courtiers. Yet, had these fimilar thoughts been found in two dramatic poets of the Auguftan and Oliverian ages, we fhould probably have cried out, "An Imi"tation." And with good reafon. For, befides the poffibility of an Oliverian poet's knowing fomething of Tacitus, the speakers had then been feigned, not real perfonages. And it is not fo likely that two fuch fhould agree in this fentiment: I mean, confidering how new and particular it is. For, as to the more common and obvious fentiments, even dramatic speakers will very frequently employ the fame, without affording any just reason to conclude that their prompters had turned plagiaries.

VIII.

VIII. If to this fingularity of a sentiment, you add the apparent harshness of it, efpecially when not gradually prepar'd (as fuch fentiments always will be by exact writers, when of their own proper invention), the fufpicion grows ftill ftronger. I juft glanc'd at an inftance of this fort in Milton's curl'd grove. But there are others ftill more remarkable. Shall I prefume for once to take an instance from yourself?

Your fine Ode to Memory begins with thefe very lyrical verfes :

Mother of Wisdom! Thou whofe fway

The throng'd ideal hosts obey;

Who bidft their ranks now vanish, now appear, Flame in the van, and darken in the rear,

This fublime imagery has a very original air. Yet I, who know how familiar the beft antient and modern critics are to you, have no doubt that it is taken from STRADA.

“

'Quid accommodatius, fays he, speaking of your fubject, Memory, quàm fimulachrorum ingentes copias, tanquàm addictam ubique tibi facramento militiam, eo inter fe nexu ac fide conjunctam cohærentemque

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habere;