comprised in the late Collection, the "Letter from "Denmark" may be juftly praised; the Paftorals, which by the writer of the "Guardian” were ranked as one of the four genuine productions of the ruftick Mufe, cannot furely be defpicable. That they exhibit a mode of life which did not exift, nor ever exifted, is not to be objected: the fuppofition of fuch a ftate is allowed to Paftoral. In his other poems he cannot be denied the praife of lines fometimes elegant; but he has feldom much force, or much comprehenfion. The pieces that please beft are those which, from Pope and Pope's adherents, procured him the name of Namby Pamby, the poems of fhort lines, by which he paid his court to all ages and characters, from Walpole the " fteerer of the realm," to Mifs Pulteney in the nurfery. The numbers are fmooth and fprightly, and the diction is feldom faulty. They are not loaded with much thought, yet, if they had been written by Addifon, they would have had admirers: little things are not valued but when they are done by thofe who cannot do greater. In his tranflations from Pindar he found the art of reaching all the obfcurity of the Theban bard, however he may fall below his fublimity; he will be allowed, if he has lefs fire, to have niore smoke. He has added nothing to English poetry, yet at leaft half his book deferves to be read: perhaps he valued most himself that part which the critick would reject. WEST. WE ST. 1 GILBERT WEST is one of the writers of whom I regret my inability to give a fufficient account; the intelligence which my enquiries have obtained is general and fcanty. He was the son of the reverend Dr. Weft; perhaps him who published "Pindar" at Oxford about the beginning of this century. His mother was fifter to Sir Richard Temple, afterwards Lord Cobham. His father, purpofing to educate him for the Church, fent him first to Eton, and afterwards to Oxford; but he was feduced to a more airy mode of life, by a commiffion in a troop of horse, procured him by his uncle. He continued fome time in the army; though it is reasonable to suppose that he never funk into a mere foldier, nor ever loft the love, or much neglected the purfuit, of learning; and afterwards, finding himself more inclined to civil employment, he laid down his commiffion, and engaged in business under the Lord Townshend, then fecretary of ftate, with whom he attended the King to Hanover. His adherence to Lord Townfhend ended in nothing but a nomination (May, 1729) to be clerk-extraordinary of the Privy Council, which produced no immediate profit; for it only placed him in a state of expectation and right of fucceffion, and it was very long before a vacancy admitted him to profit. Soon afterwards he married, and fettled himself in a very pleafant houfe at Wickham in Kent, where he devoted himself to learning, and to piety. Of his learning the late Collection exhibits evidence, which would have been yet fuller, if the differtations which accompany his verfion of Pindar had not been improperly omitted. Of his piety the influence has, I hope, been extended far by his "Obfervations on "the Refurrection," publifhed in 1747, for which the Univerfity of Oxford created him a Doctor of Laws by diploma (March 30, 1748), and would doubtlefs have reached yet further had, he lived to complete what he had for fome time meditated, the Evidences of the Truth of the New Teftament. Perhaps it may not be without effect to tell, that he read the prayers of the publick liturgy every morning to his family, and that on Sunday evening he called his fervants into the parlour, and read to them first a fermon and then prayers. Crafhaw is now not the only maker of verfes to whom may be given the two venerable names of Poet and Saint. He was very often vifited by Lyttelton and Pitt, who, when they were weary of faction and debates, ufed at Wickham to find books and quiet, a decent table, and literary converfation. There is at Wickham a walk made by Pitt; and, what is of far more importance, at Wickham Lyttleton received that conviction which produced his "Differtation on St. Paul." Thefe two illuftrious friends had for a while liftened to the blandishments of infidelity; and when Weft's book was published, it was bought by fome who did not know his change of opinion, in expectation of new objections against Christianity; and as infidels do not want malignity, they revenged the disappointment by calling him a Methodist. Mr. Weft's income was not large; and his friends endeavoured, but without fuccefs, to obtain an augmentation. It is reported, that the education of the young Prince was offered to him, but that he requir ed a more extenfive power of fuperintendence than it was thought proper to allow him. In time, however, his revenue was improved; he lived to have one of the lucrative clerkships of the Privy Council (1752); and Mr. Pitt at laft had it in his power to make him treasurer of Chelsea Hospital. He was now fufficiently rich; but wealth came too late to be long enjoyed; nor could it fecure him from the calamities of life; he loft (1755) his only son; and the year after (March 26) a ftroke of the palfy brought to the grave one of the few poets to whom the grave might be without its terrors. Of his tranflations I have only compared the first Olympick Ode with the original, and found my expectation furpaffed, both by its elegance and its exactnefs. He does not confine himfelf to his author's train of ftanzas; for he faw that the difference of languages required a different mode of verfification. The firft ftrophe is eminently happy; in the fecond he has a little ftrayed from Pindar's meaning, who fays, S 3 fays, "if thou, my foul, wishest to speak of games, "look not in the desert sky for a planet hotter than "the fun; nor fhall we tell of nobler games than "thofe of Olympia." He is fometimes too paraphraftical. Pindar beftows upon Hiero an epithet, which, in one word, fignifies delighting in borfes; a word which, in the tranflation, generates these lines: Hiero's royal brows, whofe care Pindar fays of Pelops, that "he came alone in the "dark to the White Sea;" and Weft, Near the billow-beaten fide Darkling, and alone, he ftood: which however is lefs exuberant than the former paffage. A work of this kind muft, in a minute examination, difcover many imperfections; but Weft's verfion, fo far as I have confidered it, appears to be the product of great labour and great abilities. His Inftitution of the Garter" (1742) is written with fufficient knowledge of the manners that prevailed in the age to which it is referred, and with great elegance of diction; but, for want of a process of events, neither knowledge nor elegance preferve the reader from wearinefs. His "Imitations of Spenfer" are very fuccessfully erformed, both with refpect to the metre, the language, and the fiction; and being engaged at once by |