ing inftructs, and their fubtility furprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought, and, though he fometimes admires, is feldom pleafed.

From this account of their compofitions it will be readily inferred, that they were not fuccefsful in reprefenting or moving the affections. As they were wholly employed on fomething unexpected and furprising, they had no regard to that uniformity of sentiment which enables us to conceive and to excite the pains and the pleasure of other minds: they never enquired what, on any occafion, they fhould have faid or done; but wrote rather as beholders than partakers of human nature; as Beings looking upon good and evil, impaffive and at leifure; as Epicurean deities making remarks on the actions of men, and the viciffitudes of life, without interest and without emotion. Their courtship was void of fondnefs, and their lamentation of forrow. Their wifh was only to fay what they hoped had been never faid before.

Nor was the fublime more within their reach than the pathetick; for they never attempted that comprehention and expanfe of thought which at once fills the whole mind, and of which the firft effect is fudden aftonifhment, and the fecond rational admiration. Sublimity is produced by aggregation, and littlenefs by dif pertion. Great thoughts are always general, and confift in pofitions not limited by exceptions, and in defcriptions not defcending to minutenefs. It is with great propriety that Subtlety, which in its original import means exility of particles, is taken in its metaphorical meaning for nicety of diftinction. Thofe writers who lay on the watch for novelty could have little hope of greatnefs; for great things cannot have efcaped for

mer

mer observation. Their attempts were always analytick; they broke every image into fragments; and could no more reprefent, by their flender conceits and laboured particularities, the profpects of nature, or the fcenes of life, than he, who diffects a fun-beam with a prifm, can exhibit the wide effulgence of a fummer

noon.

What they wanted however of the fublime, they endeavoured to fupply by hyperbole; their amplification had no limits; they left not only reafon but fancy behind them; and produced combinations of confufed magnificence, that not only could not be credited, but could not be imagined.

Yet great labour, directed by great abilities, is never wholly loft: if they frequently threw away their wit upon falfe conceits, they likewife fometimes ftruck out unexpected truth: if their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage. To write on their plan, it was at leaft neceffary to read and think. No man could be born a metaphysical poet, nor affume the dignity of a writer, by descriptions copied from defcriptions, by imitations borrowed from imitations, by traditional imagery, and hereditary fimilies, by readiness of rhyme, and volubility of fyllables.

In perufing the works of this race of authors, the mind is exercised either by recollection or inquiry; either fomething already learned is to be retrieved, or fomething new is to be examined. If their greatness seldom elevates, their acutenefs often furprises; if the imagination is not always gratified, at least the powers of reflection and comparison are employed; and in the mass of materials which ingenious abfurdity has thrown together, genuine wit and useful knowledge may be fometimes found, buried perhaps in groffness of expreffion,

but

but useful to thofe who know their value; and fuch as, when they are expanded to perfpicuity, and polished to elegance, may give luftre to works which have more propriety though lefs copioufnefs of fentiment.

This kind of writing, which was, I believe, borrowed from Marino and his followers, had been recommended by the example of Donne, a man of a very extensive and various knowledge; and by Jonfon, whofe manner refembled that of Donne mor, in the ruggedness of his lines than in the ca

When their reputaco

gh, they had undoubt

edly more imitators, than time has left behind. Their immediate fucceffors, of whom any remembrance can be faid to remain, were Suckling, Waller, Denham, Cowley, Cleiveland, and Milton. Denham and Waller fought another way to fame, by improving the harmony of our numbers. Milton tried the metaphyfick ftyle only in his lines upon Hobfon the Carrier. Cowley adopted it, and excelled his predeceffors, having as much fentiment, and more mutick. Suckling neither improved verfification, nor abounded in conceits. The fafhionable ftyle remained chiefly with Cowley; Suckling could not reach it, and Milton difdained it.

CRITICAL REMARKS are not eafily understood without examples; and I have therefore collected inftances of the modes of writing by which this fpecies of poets, for poets they were called by themselves and their admirers, was eminently diftinguifhed.

A S the authors of this race were perhaps more defirous of being admired than underftood, they fometimes drew their conceits from receffes of learning not

very much frequented by common readers of poetry.

Thus Cowley on Knowledge:

The facred tree midst the fair orchard grew;

The phoenix Truth did on it rest,

And built his perfum'd neft,

That right Porphyrian tree which did true logic fhew.

Each leaf did learned notions give,

And th' apples were demonftrative:

So clear their colour and divine,

The very shade they caft did other lights outshine.
On Anacreon continuing a lover in his old age;

Love was with thy life entwin'd,
Close as heat with fire is join'd,
A powerful brand prefcrib'd the date

Of thine, like Meleager's fate.

Th' antiperiftafis of age

More enflam'd thy amorous rage.

In the following verfes we have an allufion to a Rabbinical opinion concerning Manna :

Variety I ask not give me one
To live perpetually upon.

The perfon Love does to us fit,

Like manna, has the tafte of all in it.

Thus Donne fhews his medicinal knowledge in fome encomiaftic verses :

In every thing there naturally grows
A Balfamum to keep it fresh and new,

If 'twere not injur'd by extrinfique blows;
Your youth and beauty are this balm in you.
But you, of learning and religion,
And virtue and fuch ingredients, have made
A mithridate, whofe operation

Keeps off, or cures what can be done or faid.

Though

Though the following lines of Donne, on the la night of the year, have fomething in them too fcholaftic, they are not inelegant :

This twilight of two years, not past nor next,
Some emblem is of me, or I of this.
Who, meteor-like, of ftuff and formext,
Whose what and where in difputations,
If I thould call me any thing. fhould . is.
I fum the years and me, and find me no
Debtor to th' old, nor creditor to th' now,
That cannot fay, my thanks I have forgo,
Nor truft I this with hopes; and yet fcarce true
This bravery is, fince thefe times thew'd me you.

DONNE.

Yet more abftrufe and profound is Donne's reflection upon Man as a Microcofm:

If men be worlds, there is in every one
Something to anfwer in fome proportion
All the world's riches: and in good men, this
Virtue, our form's form, and our foul's foul is.

OF thoughts fo far fetched, as to be only un expected, but unnatural, all their books are hill,

To a Lady, who wrote poefies for rings.
They, who above do various circles find,
Say, like a ring th' æquator heaven does bind,
When heaven fhall be adorn'd by thee,
(Which then more heaven than 'tis, will be)
'Tis thou muft write the poefy there,

For it wanteth one as yet,

Then the fun pafs through't twice a year,
The fun, which is efteem'd the god of wit.

COWLEY,