genius, has given defigns from Homer far beyond any that have yet appeared. WARTON.

There are fome very good pictures by Kneller, at Donhead Hall, near Shaftesbury, Wilts, the feat of his defcendant John Kneller, Efq. particularly a St. Cecilia, and the Conversion of St. Paul; his natural daughter is painted in the character of Cecilia, which, in action and attitude, is very like that of the late Mrs. Sheridan, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. I fhould have imagined Sir Joshua must have seen it, or perhaps a copy of it. There is a painting by Sir Godfrey, at Donhead Hall, of Pope.

I take this opportunity of explaining a ridiculous anecdote, which Warton has admitted of Kneller's vanity. Walpole has related it in this manner: "Sir Godfrey," fays Pope, "if God had confulted you, the world would have been made more perfect." "'Fore God," replies Kneller, "I think fo." Now the real story is this: When Pope, with an affected and pert fuperiority, faid, "If Sir Godfrey had been confulted, the world would have been made more perfe&;" Kneller immediately turned the laugh upon Pope, by looking at his diminutive perfon, and faying, with a good-humoured fmile, "Fore God, there are fome little things in it, I think I COULD have mended." This is humourous and pleasant ; whereas, as the wits have told the flory themselves, Sir Godfrey's Aupidity appears equal to his vanity.

IX.

ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS.

IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1729.

HERE, WITHERS, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind,
Thy Country's friend, but more of human kind.
Oh born to Arms! O Worth in Youth approv'd!
O foft Humanity, in Age belov'd!

For thee the hardy Vet'ran drops a tear,
And the gay Courtier feels the figh fincere.

WITHERS, adieu! yet not with thee remove
Thy Martial spirit, or thy focial love!
Amidft Corruption, Luxury, and Rage,
Still leave fome ancient Virtues to our age:
Nor let us fay (those English glories gone)
The last true Briton lies beneath this stone.

X.

ON MR. ELIJAH FENTON,

AT EASTHAMSTED IN BERKS, 1730.

VER. 9 Horace :

HIS modeft Stone, what few vain marbles can,
THIS
May truly fay, Here lies an honest Man :
A Poet, bleft beyond the Poet's fate,

5

Whom Heav'n kept facred from the Proud and Great:
Foe to loud Praife, and Friend to learned Eafe,
Content with Science in the Vale of Peace.
Calmly he look'd on either Life, and here
Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear;
From Nature's temp'rate feast rofe fatisfy'd,
Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he dy’d.

9

NOTES.

From Nature's temp'rate feaf, &c.] Wakefield quotes

Inde fit, ut raro qui fe vixiffe beatum

Dicat, et exacto contentus tempore vitæ,
Cedat, uti conviva fatur, reperire queamus.

HIS integrity, his learning, and his genius, deferved this characer; it is not in any respect over-wrought. His poems are not fufficiently read and admired. The Epiftle to Southerne, the Ode to the Sun, the Fair Nun. and, above all, the Ode to Lord Gower, are excellent. Akenfide frequently faid to me, that he thought this Ode the beft in our language, next to Alexander's Feaft. "I envy Fenton," faid Pope to Mr Walter Harte, "his Horatian Epiftle to Lambard." Parts of Mariamne are beautiful, and it ought to take its turn on the ftage. Juft before he died, Fenton was introduced into Mr. Craggs' family by Pope's recommendation.

WARTON.

XI.

ON MR. GAY,

IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1732.

age:

OF
F Manners gentle, of Affections mild;
In Wit, a Man; Simplicity, a Child :
With native Humour temp'ring virtuous Rage,
Form'd to delight at once and lafh the
Above Temptation, in a low Eftate,
And uncorrupted ev'n among the Great:
A fafe Companion, and an eafy Friend,
Unblam'd through Life, lamented in thy End.
These are thy Honours! not that here thy Bust
Is mix'd with Heroes, or with Kings thy duft;
But that the Worthy and the Good shall fay,
Striking their penfive bofoms-Here lies GAY.

NOTES.

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10

VER. 1. Of Manners gentle,]" The eight firft lines," fays Johnson," have no grammar; the adjectives are without any fubftantives, and the epithets without a fubject."

It is fomewhat fingular that there fhould be an improper expreffion in Bishop Warburton's own epitaph. His genius and learning are called two talents, but learning is an acquirement. WARTON.

VER. 2. In Wit, &c.] This feems derived from Dryden's Elegy on Mrs. Anne Killegrew:

"Her wit was more than man; her innocence a child.”

WAKEFIELD.

VER. 3. virtuous Rage,] Silius Italicus, v. 652, has the fame

expreffion :

Virtutis facram rabiem.

WAKEFIELD.

VER. 12. Here lies GAY.] i. e. in the hearts of the good and worthy. Mr. Pope told me his conceit in this line was not generally understood. For, by peculiar ill-luck, the formu'ary expreffion which makes the beauty, misleads the reader into a sense which takes it quite away. WARBURTON.

The conceit in the last line is certainly very puerile, and a false thought borrowed from Crafhaw:

"Entomb'd, not in this ftone but in my heart."

CRASHAW, Poems, p. 94.
WARTON.