His flight tow'rds heav'n th' aspiring BELGIAN But fell, like PHAETON, with thunder ftrook : THAT, bears the RADIANT ENSIGN OF THE And SHE, the flag that governs in the Sea. He is comparing the British Admiral's Ship to the Chariot of the Sun. You fmile at the quaintness of the conceit, and the ridicule he falls into, in explaining it. But that is not the queftion at present. The Latter, he fays, bears the radiant enfign of the day. The other, the enfign of naval dominion. We underftand how properly the English Flag is here denominated. But what is that other Enfign? The Sun itfelf, it will be faid. But who in our days, ever exprefs'd the Sun by fuch a periphrafis? The image is apparently antique, and eafily explain'd by those who know that antiently the Sun was commonly emble matiz'd by a starry or radiate figure; nay, that fuch a figure was plac'd aloft, as an Enfign, over the Sun's charioteer, as we may fee in representations of this fort on antient Gems and Medals. From this original then Mr. Waller's imagery was certain taken; and it is properly applied in this place where he is speaking of the Chariot of the Sun, and Phaeton's fall from it. But to remove all doubt I in in the cafe, we can even point to the very paffage of a Pagan poet, which Mr. Waller had in his eye, or rather tranflated. Proptereà noctes hiberno tempore longæ Ceffant, dum veniat RADIATUM INSIGNE DIEI. Here, you fee, the poet's allufion to a claffic idea has led us to the discovery of the very paffage from which it was taken. And this ufe a learned reader will often make of the fpecies of Imitation, here confider'd. V. Great writers, You find, fometimes forget the character of the Age, they live in; the principles, and notions that belong to it. "Sometimes they for"get themselves, that is, their own fituation and cha"racter." Another fign of the influence of Imitation. 1. When we see fuch men, as STRADA and MARIANA, writers of fine talents indeed, but of reclufe lives and narrow obfervation, chufing to talk like men of the world, and abounding in the moft refin'd conclufions of the cabinet, we are fure that this character, which we find fo natural in a Cardinal DE RETZ, is but affum'd by these Jefuits. And we are not furpriz'd to difcover, on examination, that their beft reflexions are copied from TACITUS. On the other hand, when a man of the world took it into his head, the other day, in a moping fit, to talk Sentences, every body concluded that this was not the the language of the writer or his fituation, but that he had been poaching in fome pedant; perhaps in the Stoical Fop, he affected fo much contempt of, SE NECA. 2. Sometimes we catch a great writer deviating from his natural manner, and taking pains, as it were, to appear the very reverfe of his proper character. Would you wish a stronger proof of his being feduc'd, at least for the time, by the charms of imitation? Nothing is better known than the easy, elegant, agreeable vein of VOITURE. Yet you have read his famous Letter to BALZAC, and have been furpriz❜d, no doubt, at the forc'd, quaint, and puffy manner, in which it is written. The fecret is, Voiture is aping Balzac from one end of this letter to the other. Whether to pay his court to him, or to laugh at him, or that perhaps, in the inftant of writing, he really fancied an excellence in the ftyle of that great man, is not eafy to determine. An eminent French critic, I remember, is inclined to take it for a piece of mockery. At all events, we must needs efteem it an imitation. 3. This remark on the turn of a writer's genius be further applied to that of his temper or difpofition. may The natural mifanthropy of Swift may account for his thinking and speaking very often in the spirit of ROCHFOUCAULT, without any thought of taking from his Maxims, tho' he was an admirer of them. But if at any time we observe so humane and benevolent a man as Mr. Pope giving into this language, we fay of course, "This is not his own, but an affumed manner." Or what fay you to an inftance that exemplifies both these observations together? The natural unaffected turn of Mr. Cowley's manner, and the tender fenfibility of his mind, are equally feen and loved in his profe-works, and in fuch of his poems as were written after a good model, or came from the heart. A clear sparkling fancy, foftened with a shade of melancholly, made him, perhaps, of all our poets the most capable of excelling in the elegiac way, or of touching us in any way where a vein of eafy language and moral sentiment is required. Who but laments then to fee this fine genius perverted by the prevailing pedantry of his age, and carried away, against the bias of his nature, to an emulation of the rapturous, high-fpirited Pindar ? I might give many more examples. But you will observe them in your own reading. I take the first that come to hand only to explain my meaning, which is, "That if you find a course of sentiments or caft of compofition different from that, to which the writer's fituation, genius, or complexion would naturally lead him, you may well suspect him of imitation. Still it may be, these confiderations are rather too general. I come to others more particular and decifive. VI. It VI. It may be difficult fometimes to determine whether a single fentiment or image be derived or not. But when we fee a cluster of them in two writers, applied to the fame fubject, one can hardly doubt that one of them has copied from the other. A celebrated French moralift makes the following reflections. "Quelle chimere eft-ce donc que l'homme? "Quelle nouveautè, quel cahos, quel fujet de con"tradiction? Juge de toutes chofes, imbecile ver de "terre; depofitaire du vrai, amas d'incertitude; "gloire, èt rebut de l'univers." Turn now to the Essay on Man, and tell me if Mr. Pope did not work up the following lines out of these reflexions. "Chaos of thought and paffion, all confus'd; 2. This conclufion is ftill more certain, when, together with a general likeness of fentiments, we find the fame difpofition of the parts, especially if that difpofition be in no common form. "Sweet is the breath of morn, her rifing sweet "With charm of earlieft birds: pleasant the fun, "When firft on this delightful land he spreads "His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flow'r, "Gliftring with dew and |