With wit, not spleen, indulgently fevere,
To reach the heart he charm'd the liftening ear.
When foothing themes each milder note employ,
Each milder note fwells foft to love and joy;
Smooth as the fame-prefaging doves* that spread
Prophetick wreathes around his infant head.

Ye numerous bards unfung (whofe various lays
A genius equal to your own should praise)
Forgive the Mufe, who feels an inbred flame
Refiftlefs, to exalt her country's fame;

A foreign clime the leaves-and turns her eyes
Where her own Britain's favourite towers arise;
Where Thames rolls deep his plenteous tides around,
His banks with thick- afcending turrets crown'd;
Yet not these scenes th' impartial mufe could boaft,
Were liberty, thy great diftinction, loft.

Britannia, hail! o'er whofe luxuriant plain,
For the free natives waves the rip'ning grain :
'Twas facred Liberty's celeftial fmile
First lur'd the muses to thy generous
'Twas Liberty bestow'd the power to fing,
And bid the verfe-rewarding laurel fpring.

ifle;

Here Chaucer first his comick vein display'd,
And merry tales in homely guise convey'd ;
Unpolish'd beauties grac'd the artless fong,
Tho' rude the diction, yet the fense was strong.
To smoother strains chaftifing tuneless profe,
In plain magnificence great Spencer rofe;
In forms distinct, in each creating line,
The virtues, vices, and the paffions shine:
Subfervient Nature aids the poet's rage,
And with herself inspires each nervous page.
Exalted Shakespeare, with a boundless mind,
Rang'd far and wide; a genius unconfin'd!

*Vide Hor. Lib. iii. Ode iv.

The paffions fway'd, and captive led the heart,
Without the critick's rules, and void of art:
So fome fair clime, by fmiling Phoebus blefs'd,
And in a thousand charms by Nature drefs'd,
Where limpid ftreams in wild meanders flow,
And on the mountains tow'ring forefts grow,
With lovely landscapes lures the ravish'd fight,
While each new scene fupplies a new delight:
No industry of man, no needless toil,
Can mend the rich uncultivated foil.

While Cowley's lays with fprightly vigour move,
Around him wait the gods of verfe and love;
So quick the crouding images arise,
The bright variety diftracts our eyes;

Each sparkling line, where fire with fancy flows,
The rich profufion of his genius fhows.

To Waller, next, my wandering view I bend,
Gentle, as flakes of feather'd fnow defcend:
Not the fame fnow, it's filent journey done,
More radiant glitters in the rifing fun,

O happy nymph! who could those lays demand,
And claim the care of this immortal hand:
In vain might age thy heavenly form invade,
And o'er thy beauties cast an envious shade ;
Waller the place of youth and bloom fupplies,
And gives exhauftlefs luftre to thy eyes;
Each mufe affifting rifles every grace,

To paint the wonders of thy matchless face.
Thus, when at Greece, divine Apelles ftrove
To give to earth the radiant queen of love,

From each bright nymph fome dazzling charm he took,
This fair-one's lips, another's lovely look ;

Each beauty pleas'd, a fmile, or air bestows,

Till all the goddefs from the canvas rofe.

Immortal Milton, hail! whofe lofty strain

With conscious strength does vulgar themes difdain;

Sublime afcended thy fuperior foul,

Where neither lightnings flash, nor thunders roll;
Where other funs drink deep th' eternal ray,
And thence to other worlds transmit the day;
Where, high in ether, countless planets move,
And various moons, attendant, round them rove.
O bear me to thofe foft, delightful fcenes,
Where fhades far-fpreading boaft immortal greens;
Where paradife unfolds her fragrant flowers,
Her fweets unfading, and celeftial bowers;
Where Zephyr breathes amid the blooming wild,
Gentle as Nature's infant-beauty fmil'd;
Where gaily reigns one ever-laughing spring;
Eden's delights! which thou alone, couldft fing.
Yet not these scenes could bound his daring flight;
Born to the task, he rofe a nobler height.
While o'er the lyre his hallow'd fingers fly,
Each wonderous touch awakens raptures high.
Those glorious feats he boldly durft explore,
Where faith alone, till then, had power to foar.

Smooth glide thy waves, O Thames, while I rehearse
The name that taught thee first to flow in verse
Let facred filence hufh thy grateful tides,

The ofier ceafe to tremble on thy fides;

Let thy calm waters gently fteal along;

Denham this homage claims, while he infpires my fong.
Far as thy billows roll, difpers'd away

To diftant climes, the honour'd name convey:

Not Xanthus can a nobler glory boast,

In whofe rich ftream a thousand floods are loft.

The ftrong, the foft, the moving, and the fweet,

In artful Dryden's various numbers meet;
Aw'd by his lays, each rival bard retir'd:
So fades the moon, pale, lifeless, unadmir'd,

Sir John Denham's Cooper's Hill.

When

When the bright fun burfts glorious on the fight,
With radiant luftre, and a flood of light.

The comick mufe, with lively humour gay,
In Congreve's ftrains does all her charms difplay.
She rallies each abfurd impertinence,

And without labour laughs us into sense.
The follies of mankind she sets to view,

In scenes ftill pleafing, and for ever new.

Sure Heaven, that deftin'd William to be great,
The mighty bulwark of the British state,
The scourge of tyrants, guardian of the law,
Beftow'd a Garth, designing a Nassau !

Wit, ease, and life, in Prior blended, flow,
Polite as Granville, foft as moving Rowe;
Granville, whofe lays unnumber'd charms adorn,
Serene and sprightly as the opening morn:
Rowe, who the spring of every paffion knew,
And from our eyes call'd forth the opening dew
Still fhall his gentle mufe our fouls command,
And our warm'd hearts confefs his skilful hand.
Be this the leaft of his fuperior fame,
Whose happy genius caught great Lucan's flame,
Where noble Pompey dauntless meets his doom,
And each free ftrain breathes Liberty and Rome,
O Addison, lamented, wond'rous bard!
The god-like hero's great, his best reward;
Not all the laurels reap'd on Blenheim's plains
A fame can give like thy immortal strains
While Cato dictates in thy awful lines,
Cæfar himself with fecond luftre fhines;
As our rais'd fouls the great diftress pursue,
Triumphs and crowns ftill leffen in our view;
We trace the victor with disdainful eyes,
And all that made a Cato bleed, defpife.

The Campaign.'j

The

The bold pindarick, and soft lyrick muse,
Breath'd all her energy in tuneful Hughes!
Mufick herfelf did on his lines bestow

The polish'd luftre, and enchanting flow!
His fweet cantatas, and melodious fong,
Shall ever warble on the skilful tongue!
When nobler themes a loftier ftrain require,
His bofom glow'd with more than mortal fire!
Not Orpheus' felf could in fublimer lays
Have fung th' omnipotent Creator's praise.
Damafcus' moving fate, display'd to view,
From every eye the ready tribute drew:
Th' attentive ear the bright Eudocia † charms,
And with the generous love of virtue warms;
She feems above the ills fhe greatly bears,
While Phocyas' + woes command our gufhing tears.
Abudah + shines a pattern to mankind!

In him the hero and the man are join'd!

High on the radiant lift, fee! Pope appears,
With all the fire of youth, and strength of years;
Where'er fupreme he points the nervous line,
Nature and art in bright conjunction shine.
How juft the turns! how regular the draught!
How smooth the language! how refin'd the thought!
Secure beneath the shade of early bays,

He dar'd the thunder of great Homer's lays;
A facred heat inform'd his heaving breast,
And Homer in his genius ftands confefs'd:
To heights fublime he rais'd the pond'rous lyre,
And our cold ifle grew warm with Grecian fire!

Fain would I now th' excelling bard reveal,

And point the feat where all the mufes dwell;

* See Mr. Hughes's Ode, entitled, An Ode to the Creator of the World, occafioned by the Fragments of Orpheus.

+ Characters in his tragedy entitled The Siege of Damafeus.

Where