have seen it enough observed, that Cowley had a most happy talent of imitating the easy manner of Horace's epiftolary writings; I must therefore infert a specimen of this his excellence :

"Ergo iterum verfus? dices. O Vane! quid ergo
Morbum ejurafti toties, tibi qui infidet altis,
Non evellendus, vi vel ratione, medullis?
Numne poetarum (merito dices) ut amantum
Derifum ridere deum perjuria cenfes ?
Parcius hæc, fodes, neve inclementibus urge
Infelicem hominem dictis; nam fata trahunt me
Magna reluctantem, et nequicquam in vincla minacem.
Helleborum fumpfi, fateor, pulchreque videbar
Purgatus morbi; fed Luna potentior herbis
Infanire iterum jubet, et fibi vendicat ægrum."

There is another epiftle also, well worthy perufal, to his friend, Mat. Clifford, at the end of the fame volume. Pope, in one of his imitations of Horace, has exhibited the real character of Cowley with delicacy and candour:

"Who now reads Cowley? If he pleases yet,

His moral pleases, not his pointed wit;

Forgot his epic, nay Pindaric art,

But ftill I love the language of his heart."

His profe works give us the most amiable idea both of his abilities and his heart. His Pindaric odes cannot be perused with common patience by a lover of antiquity. He that would fee Pindar's manner truly imitated, may read Masters's noble and pathetic Ode on the Crucifixion; and he that wants to be convinced that these reflections on Cowley are not too fevere, may read alfo his epigrammatic version of it :

"Doft thou not fee thy prince in purple clad all o'er,
Not purple brought from the Sidonian fhore;

But made at home with richer gore?"

"Open, oh! open wide the fountains of thine eyes,
And let them call

Their ftock of moisture forth where-c'er it lies,
For this will afk it all.

'Twould all, alas! too little be,

Though thy falt tears came from a fea.”

Cowley being early difgufted with the perplexities and vanities of a court life, had a strong defire to enjoy the milder pleasures of folitude and retirement; he therefore cfcaped from the tumults of London to a little houfe at Wandfworth; but finding that place too near the metropolis, he left it for Richmond, and at laft fettled at Chertsey. He seems to have thought that the swains of Surry had the innocence of thofe of Sydney's Arcadia ; but the perverfeness and debauchery of his own workmen foon undeceived him, with whom, it is faid, he was fometimes fo provoked, as even to be betrayed into an oath. His income was about three hundred pounds a year. Towards the latter part of his life he shewed an averfion to the company of women, and would often leave the room if any happened to enter it whilst he was prefent, but still retained a fincere affection for Leonora. His death was occafioned by a fingular accident; he paid a vitit on foot with his friend Sprat to a gentleman in the neighbourhood of Chertsey, which they prolonged, and feasted too much, till midnight. On their return home they mistook their way, and were obliged to pafs the whole night expofed under a hedge, where Cowley caught a fevere cold, attended with a fever, that terminated in his death. All these particulars were communicated to me by Mr. Spence from his Anecdotes, who assured me he received them from Mr. Pope's own mouth. WARTON.

FAIN
AIN would my Muse the flow'ry Treasures sing,
And humble glories of the youthful Spring;
Where op'ning Rofes breathing sweets diffuse,
And foft Carnations fhow'r their balmy dews;
Where Lilies fmile in virgin robes of white,
The thin Undrefs of fuperficial Light,
And vary'd Tulips fhow fo dazzling gay,
Blushing in bright diverfities of day.
Each painted flowret in the lake below
Surveys its beauties, whence its beauties grow;
And pale Narciffus on the bank, in vain
Transformed, gazes on himself again.
Here aged trees Cathedral Walks compofe,
And mount the Hill in venerable rows:
There the green Infants in their beds are laid,
The Garden's Hope, and its expected shade.
Here Orange-trees with blooms and pendants fhine,
And vernal honours to their autumn join,
Exceed their promife in the ripen'd store,
Yet in the rifing bloffom promife more.
There in bright drops the cryftal Fountains play,
By Laurels fhielded from the piercing day:

I

5

15

20

Where

Where Daphne, now a tree as once a maid,
Still from Apollo vindicates her shade,
Still turns her beauties from th' invading beam,
Nor feeks in vain for fuccour to the Stream.
The ftream at once preferves her virgin leaves,
At once a fhelter from her boughs receives,
Where Summer's beauty midst of Winter stays,
And Winter's Coolness spite of Summer's rays. 30

25

THIS, with the exception of the Imitation of Waller, is by far the best of Pope's Imitations. What he has written as defcriptive of the characteristic style of Chaucer and Spenfer, is as unlike, except in the metre, as it is offenfive and disgusting: the turn of expreffions, the laboured elegance, the ornamented con. ceits, and the general caft of Cowley's poetical embellishments, are here moft admirably hit off; but in this Imitation, poffibly it was fo intended, Pope confounds the feafons, I think, with injuftice to Cowley, if it was intended; and if not, with his general want of correctness, where he speaks of trees and flowers, &c. He calls foft Carnations the humble glories of the youthful Spring;" but most probably the gaudy inaccuracy of flow'ry defcription, was what Pope had in view.

66

WEEPING.

WHILE Celia's Tears make forrow bright,
Proud Grief fits fwelling in her eyes;

The Sun, next those the fairest light,
Thus from the Ocean firft did rife:
And thus through Mists we see the fun,
Which else we durft not gaze upon.

Thefe filver drops, like morning dew,

Foretell the fervour of the day:
So from one Cloud foft fhow'rs we view,
And blasting lightnings burft away.
The Stars that fall from Celia's eye,
Declare our Doom in drawing nigh.

The Baby in that funny Sphere

So like a Phaëton appears,

That Heav'n, the threaten'd World to spare,
Thought fit to drown him in her tears:
Elfe might th' ambitious Nymph aspire,
To fet, like him, Heav'n too on fire.

NOTES.

VER. 13. The Baby in that funny Sphere] The expreffion of the "Baby on eyes," is fo common among our early writers of profe and verse, that perhaps it need not be pointed out. It accurs very often in Burton's Anatomy.