The verfes, I have in my eye, are these fine ones, addreffed to Lord Bolingbroke, Oh, while along the stream of time thy name What think you, now, of these admired verfes? Are they, befides their other beauties, perfectly ori ginal? You will be able to refolve this question, by turning to the following paffage in a Poet, Mr. Pope was once fond of, I mean STATIUS. Sic ubi magna novum Phario de litore puppis Solvit iter, jamque innumeros utrinque rudentes, Lataque veliferi porrexit brachia mali Invafitque vias, in eodem angufta phafelus Equore, et immenfi partem fibi vendicat Auftri, But, especially, this other, SILV. L. V. I. 242. - immenfæ veluti CONNEXA carinæ CYMBA MINOR, cum fævit hyems, pro parte, furentes Parva receptat aquas, et EODEM VOLVITUR AUSTRO. SILV.L. I. iv. t. 120. XVI. I release You from this head of Sentiments with obferving that we fometimes conclude a writer to have had a celebrated original in his eye, when "with "without copying the peculiar thought, or ftroke "of imagery, he gives us only a copy of the impref"fion, it had made upon him." 1. In delivering this rule I will not diffemble that I myself am copying, or rather stealing from a great critic From one, however, who will not refent this theft; as indeed he has no reason, for he is so prodigiously rich in these things, as in others of more value, that what he neglects or flings away, would make the fortune of an ordinary writer. The person I mean is the late Editor of Shakespear who, in an admirable note on Julius Cæfar, taking occafion to quote that paffage of Cato, O think what anxious moments pafs between Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death, obferves" that Mr. Addison was fo ftruck and affected with the terrible graces of Shakespear (in the paffage he is there confidering) that instead of imi"tating his author's fentiments, he hath, before he was aware, given us only the copy of his own im"preffions made by them. For, Oh, 'tis a dreadful interval of time, Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death, "are but the affections raised by fuch forcible images " as thefe, And All the Int'rim is Like a Phantafma, or a hideous dream Like to a little Kingdom, fuffers, then The obfervation is new and finely applied. Give me leave to fuppofe that the following is an inftance of the fame nature. 2, Milton on a certain occafion fays of Death, that he 1 "Grinn'd horrible a ghaftly fmile P. L. B.11..846. This representation is fuppos'd by his learned Editor to be taken from Homer, from Statius, or from the Italian poets. A certain friend of ours, not to be nam'd without honour, and therefore not at all, on fo flight an occasion, suggests that it might probably be copied from Spenser's, Grinning griefly B. 5. C. 12. And there is the more likelihood in this conjecture, as the poet a little before had call'd death - the griefly terror-704. But after all, if he had any preceding writer in view, I fufpect it might be FLETCHER; who, in his Wife for a Month, has thefe remarkable lines, 3 The The game of Death was never play'd more nobly, The meagre thief grew wanton in his mischiefs, And his fhrunk hollow eyes fmil'd on his ruin. The word Ghaftly, I would observe, gives the precife idea of shrunk hollow eyes, and looks as if Milton, in admiration of his original, had only look'd out for an epithet to Death's smile, as he found it pictured in Fletcher. THUS MUCH, then, may perhaps ferve for an illuftration of the first part of this Inquiry. We have found out several marks and applied them to various paffages in the beft writers, from which we may reafonably enough be allowed to infer an Imitation in point of Sentiment. For what refpes the other part of Expreffion, this is an easier task, and will be difpatch'd in few words. Only you will indulge me in an obvservation or two to prevent Your expecting from me more than I undertake to perform. When I speak of Expreffion then I mean to confine myself " to fingle words or fentences, or at most "the ftructure of a paffage." When Imitation is carried fo far as to affect the general caft of language, or what we call a Style, no great fagacity is, perhaps, required to detect it. Thus the Ciceroniani, if they were not ambitious of proclaiming themselves, are discoverable at the firft glance. And the later Roman poets, as well as the modern Latin verfifiers, are to the best of their power, Virgilian. The thing is per haps baps ftill eafier in a living language; especially if that language be our own. Milton and Pope, if they have made but few poets, have made many imitators; fo many, that we are ready to complain there is hardly an original poet left. Another point seems of no importance in the prefent inquiry. I know, it is asked, How far a writer cafually or defignedly imitates; that is, whether he copies another from memory only, without recollecting, at the time, the paffage from which his expreffion is drawn, or purpofely, and with full knowledge of his original. And this confideration is of much weight, as I have fhewn at large, where the question is concerning the credit of the fuppofed imitator. For this is affected by nothing but direct and intended imitation. But as we are looking at present only for those marks in the expreffion which fhew it not to be original, it is enough that the resemblance is fuch as cannot well be accounted for but on the supposition of fome fort of commerce; whether immediately perceived by the writer himfelf, is not material, 'Tis true, this obfervation is applicable to fentiments as well as expreffion, And I have not pretended to give the preceding articles, as proofs or even presumptions, in all cafes, that the later writer copied intentionally from a former, But there is this difference in the two cafes. Sentiments may be strikingly similar, or even identical, without the leaft thought, or even effect of a preceding original. But the identity of expreffion, except in fome few cafes of no importance, is |