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VOL. II.

He spread the airy Ocean without shores,

Where birds are wafted with their feather'd oars.
Then sung the bard how the light vapours rise
From the warm earth, and cloud the smiling skies.
He sung how some, chill'd in their airy flight,
Fall scatter'd down in pearly dew by night.
How some, rais'd higher, sit in secret steams
On the reflected points of bounding beams;
Till chill'd with cold, they shade th' etherial plain,
Then on the thirsty earth descend in rain.
How some, whose parts a slight contexture show,
Sink hovering through the air, in fleecy snow.
How part is spun in silken threads, and clings
Entangled in the grass in gluey strings.
How others stamped to stones, with rushing sound
Fall from their crystal quarries to the ground.
How some are laid in trains, that kindled fly
In harmless fires by night, about the sky.
How some in winds blow with impetuous force,
And carry ruin where they bend their course:
While some conspire to form a gentle breeze,
To fan the air, and play among the trees.
How some, enrag'd, grow turbulent and loud,
Pent in the bowels of a frowning cloud;

That racks, as if the axis of the world

Was broke, and heaven's bright towers were downwards hurl'd.

He sung how earth's wide ball, at Jove's command,

Did in the midst on airy columns stand;

And how the soul of plants, in prison held,
And bound with sluggish fetters, lies conceal'd,
Till with the spring's warm beams, almost releas'd
From the dull weight, with which it lay opprest,
Its vigour spreads, and makes the teeming earth
Heave up, and labour with the sprouting birth:
The active spirit freedom seeks in vain,

It only works and twists a stronger chain.
Urging its prison's sides to break away,
It makes that wider, where 'tis forc'd to stay;
Till, having form'd its living house, it rears

Its head, and in a tender plant appears.

Hence springs the oak, the beauty of the grove,

Whose stately trunk fierce storms can scarcely move.
Hence grows the cedar, hence the swelling vine

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Does round the elm it purple clusters twine.
Hence painted flowers the smiling gardens bless,
Both with their fragrant scent and gaudy dress.
Hence the white lily in full beauty grows,
Hence the blue violet, and blushing rose.

He sung how sun-beams brood upon the earth,
And in the glebe hatch such a numerous birth;
Which way the genial warmth in Summer storms.
Turns putrid vapours to a bed of worms;
How rain, transform'd by this prolific power,
Falls from the clouds an animated shower.
He sung the embryo's growth within the womb,
And how the parts their various shapes assume.
With what rare art the wondrous structure's wrought,
From one crude mass to such perfection brought,
That no part useless, none misplac'd we see,
None are forgot, and more would monstrous be."

Prince Arthur, book iv.

ELIJAH FENTON.

VOL. II.

51

FENTON.

1683-1730.

Born at Shelton in Staffordshire-Educated at Cambridge, but leaves without taking a Degree ---Becomes a Nonjuror-Secretary to the Earl of Orrery and Tutor to his Son-Acquires the friendship of Southerne and Pope-Publishes his Poems-Assists Pope in the OdysseyHis Benevolence of Heart and Indolent Habits-Death and Burial at Easthampstead, Berks -Works and Character.

THE brevity with which I am to write the account of ELIJAH FENTON is not the effect of indifference or negligence. I have sought intelligence among his relations in his native country, but have not obtained it.

He was born near Newcastle in Staffordshire,' of an ancient family, whose estate was very considerable; but he was the youngest of eleven children, and being therefore necessarily destined to some lucrative employment, was sent first to school and afterwards to Cambridge, but, with many other wise and other virtuous men who at that time of discord and debate consulted conscience, whether well or ill informed, more than interest, he doubted the legality of the government, and, refusing to qualify himself for public employment by the oaths required, left the university without a degree; but I never heard that the enthusiasm of opposition impelled him to separation from the church.

By this perverseness of integrity he was driven out a commoner of Nature, excluded from the regular modes of profit and prosperity, and reduced to pick up a livelihood uncertain and fortuitous; but it

'He was born May 20, 1683, at Shelton, near Stoke in Stafford, and was the youngest of eleven children of John Fenton, an attorney-at-law, and one of the coroners for the county of Stafford. His father died in 1694; and his grave in the churchyard of Stoke-upon-Trent, bears a Latin inscription from the pen of his son. Old Shelton Hall, in which Fenton was born, was destroyed by fire 22nd May, 1853.

2 He was entered of Jesus College, and took a Bachelor's degree in 1704. In 1726 he removed to Trinity Hall. Nichols in his 'Select Poems,' viii. 296, says he was admitted a pensioner July 1, 1700.

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