den, and Pope; but, at the fame time, the numerous fubaltern stations are frequently filled with honour.

Many Poets of original beauty were in their own times fo obfcure as to be now totally unknown. Such are the authors of our most popular ballads, the general reception of which is a proof of their excellence, more convincing than the decifions of criticifm. The learned Poet has commonly owed much of his excellence to imitation; but the ballad-writer drew only from his own refources when he fung the wild wood-notes of nature. Their metre often poffeffes a kind of harmony quite different from claffical verfification, indeed, yet at the fame time pleafing to the uncorrupted ear.

Of Poets once known and admired, feveral are fallen into total difrepute. Drayton was honoured by a commentator who must have given fame to any writer. If Selden's tafte was equal to his learning, Drayton is indeed moft highly diftinguished. The Polyolbion is, however, no more read; and the flow length of the tedious alexandrine in which it is written, will prevent its revival, as it has haftened its oblivion.

The Gondibert of D'Avenant has been the fubject of critical controverfy from the time of its publication. Its plan was originally defended by the great Hobbes, and its execution has been greatly praifed. Yet few have attended to it with any pleasure, and ftill fewer have had a degree of patience fufficient to bear them through the perufal of it. The truth is, the stanza which he adopted, is better fuited to elegiac than to heroic poetry. A beautifully defcriptive paffage, interfperfed in the courfe of two or three hundred lines, will not alleviate the tedium of the reft; as an occafional flash of lightning cannot illuminate the continued gloominefs of an extenfive profpect.

For the honour of English literature, moft of the poetical productions which were admired in the reign of Charles, fhould now be configned to everlafting oblivion. They difplay, indeed, a fportive licentioufness of fancy, but they are incorrect beyond the example of any age. Some of the beft poets of the times, among whom were Mulgrave, Dorfet, and Rofcommon, though poffeffed of wit and tafte, produced nothing worthy of immortality.

immortality. The morals of the age were as licentious as the tafte; and the love of pleasure introduced an indolence, which admitted not an application fufficient to give the laft polish of correct elegance.

The study of the ancients, and of the French, has gradually refined the national tafte to a degree of taftidious delicacy; and writers who have poffeffed claffical beauty have been read with admiration, though they have had nothing to recommend them to the notice of a Charles the Second or a Sedley.

The number of minor poets who difplayed great merit, yet who seem to have derived it all from imitation, is too tedious to enumerate. Philips and his friend Smith were ect and claffical in a degree fuperior to their contemporaries. Philips has performed the task of imitation, with an accuracy of refemblance scarcely equalled by any of his followers but Browne. The Phædra and Hippolitus of Smith has ever been efteemed a fine poem, and the beauty of the ftyle and harmony of the verfe induce us to regret that he lived to finish fo few productions.

Within the space of half the last century, a defire to imitate the excellent models of our more celebrated bards, has crowded the middle ranks with a multitude too great to obtain, even for the deferving individual, any very diftinguished fame. One Poet has arifen after another, and fupplanted him as the fucceeding wave feems to fwallow up the wave that went before. Mott of them have exhibited an harmonious verfification, and have selected a profufion of fpendid expreffions; but have in general been deficient in that noble fire, and thofe fimple graces, which mark originality of genius. They are, however, read with pleasure, and fweetly fill up the intervals of avocation among the bufy and commercial world, who are not acquainted with the Greeks and Romans, and with whom novelty often poffeffes the charm of beauty.

There is a force and folemnity in the poems of Tickell, which at least place him on a level with his patron as a poet. His Colin and Lucy is one of the most sweetly pathetic poems in the language.

Broome,

Broome, though honourably affociated with Pope in the work of tranflation, feems to have had scarcely any other merit than this to bear him down the ftream of time.

Trapp wrote Latin verfe with elegance, and was a good critic, but it has been obferved of his Virgil, that he had done wifely to have stopped at his preface.

The genius of Collins feems in fome measure to have refembled that of Tickell. Dignity, folemnity, and pathos, are the ftriking features of his compofitions. None but a true poet could have written the fong over Fidele in Shakespeare's Cymbeline.

The English Tibullus, Hammond, has written truly elegant verfe; but I know not whether his reprefentations greatly affect the heart, though they are approved by the judgment and imagination. They have, however, ferved as patterns for the love fick nyinphs and fwains who delight in giving vent to their paffion in the language of poetry.

Love and its effects were beautifully described by the elegantly fenfible Lord Lyttelton. To affert that he was remarkable for poetical genius, were to leffen, by endeavouring to exaggerate, his praife. Force, fire, and an exuberance of invention, were not his excellences; but that equable beauty of fentiment and diction, which refults from an elegant mind. The graces diftinguifh his compofitions, as the virtues mark

ed his honourable life.

Moore's Fables difplay indubitable marks of genius; but he wants the fimplicity of Gay and Fontaine. He fhews, however, a talent for defcription, which would have fhone in the higher kinds of poetry; and a delicacy of mind, which, it might be fuppofed, could be acquired only in a higher Iphere than that in which he was born.

Genius and learning were poffeffed in a very eminent degree by Merrick. He had that peculiar kind of genius which qualified him to excel in the department of facred poetry. It is to be wifhed, that his verfion of the Palms were adopted in churches, not only in the place of Sternhold and Hopkins, but of Brady and

Tate.

Tate. Such an event would be no less advantageous to piety, than to taste.

No. CLXXVIII. CURSORY AND UNCON

NECTED

REMARKS ON SOME OF THE

MINOR GREEK POETS.

T

HE intrinfic graces of the claffic writers have charmed every mind which was fufceptible of the beauties of fpirit, tafte, and elegance. Since the revival of learning, innumerable critics have employed themselves in difplaying the beauties which they felt, or in removing the difficulties and obftructions which retarded their progrefs in the perufal of the antients. At prefent, there is fcarcely any room for criticism on the antients; and the most laborious Commentator finds, with regret, his profoundeft researches, and his acuteft remarks, anticipated by the lucubrations of former critics: but as there is fcarcely a greater difference between the features of the face, than between the faculties of the mind in different men, and as objects must ftrike various feelings in various manners, the works of tafte and genius may, on different reviews, furnish inexhaustible matter for critical obfervation. Upon this principle, authors, of the prefent age, venture to add to the labours of their predeceffors, without fearing or incurring the imputation of vanity or impertinence.

The prefent remarks fhall be confined to fome of the Greek Minor Poets, without minutely attending to chronological or any other order.

In the union of dignity with fweetnefs, of melody with ftrength, the Greek is better adapted to beautiful compofition, than any modern language. The Italian has all its foftness, but wants its force. The French poffeffes elegance and expreffion, but is deficient in found and dignity. The English is ftrong, nervous, flowery, fit for animated oratory and enthufiaftic poetry, but abounds with Saxon monofyllables, ill adapted to

exprefs

exprefs the mufic of mellifluous cadence. To compare the Dutch and the German with the language of Athens, were to compare the jarring noife of grating iron, with the soft warblings of the flute. The other languages of Europe are equally unfit for harmonious modulation, and indeed cannot properly be examined in this place, as the people, who fpeak them, have not yet diftinguished themselves by any writings truly claffical.

The Greek Epigram naturally falls firft under our prefent confideration. Of thefe little compofitions, which owe their origin to Greece, none can be infenfible of the beauty, whofe tafte is not vitiated by the lefs delicate wit of the modern Epigrammatift, Indeed, to relish the fimple graces of the Greek Epigram, the tafte must not be formed upon the model even of the celebrated Martial. Among the Latin poets, Catullus approaches nearest to the Greeks in this fpecies of compofition.

The Anthologiæ, ftill extant, are written by various authors, and there are fcarcely fufficient Epigrams of any one, to discriminate his manner from that of others. Suffice it to remark in general, that their beauty does not often confift in a point, or witty conceit, but in a fimplicity of thought, and a sweetness of language.

The golden verfes of Pythagoras, though not remarkable for fplendor of diction, or flowing verfification, are yet highly beautiful in the concife and forcible mode of inculcating morality, and virtues almoft Chriftian. The earlier philofophers of Greece conveyed their tenets in verfe, not fo much because they aspired to the character of poets, as because precepts, delivered in metre, were more eafily retained in the memory of their difciples. Pythagoras has comprised every neceffary rule for the conduct of life in this little poem, and he that commits it to memory, will not want a guide to direct his behaviour under any event: but though the morality of these verses is their more valuable beauty, yet are they by no means deftitute of poetical merit.

That generofity of foul, which ever accompanies true genius, has induced the poets and philofophers, of all ages, to ftand forth in the caufe of liberty. Alcæus, of whofe merits from the monuments of antiquity we may

form