varied excellence to the original position, the fundamental principle of wisdom and of virtue.

AS the heroick poems of Blackmore are now little read it is 49 thought proper to insert as a specimen from Prince Arthur the song of Mopas mentioned by Molineux 1.

'But that which Arthur with most pleasure heard,
Were noble strains by Mopas sung, the bard,
Who to his harp in lofty verse began,

And through the secret maze of Nature ran.
He the great Spirit sung, that all things fill'd,
That the tumultuous waves of Chaos still'd;
Whose nod dispos'd the jarring seeds to peace,
And made the wars of hostile Atoms cease.
All Beings we in fruitful Nature find,
Proceeded from the great Eternal Mind;
Streams of his unexhausted spring of power,
And cherish'd with his influence, endure.
He spread the pure cerulean fields on high,
And arch'd the chambers of the vaulted sky,
Which he, to suit their glory with their height,
Adorn'd with globes, that reel as drunk with light.
His hand directed all the tuneful spheres,
He turn'd their orbs, and polish'd all the stars.
He fill'd the Sun's vast lamp with golden light,
And bid the silver Moon adorn the night;
He spread the airy Ocean without shores,
Where birds are wafted with their feather'd oars.
Then sung the bard how the light vapours rise
From the warm earth, and cloud the smiling skies.
He sung how some, chill'd in their airy flight,
Fall scatter'd down in pearly dew by night.
How some, rais'd higher, sit in secret steams
On the reflected points of bounding beams;
Till, chill'd with cold, they shade th' ethereal plain,
Then on the thirsty earth descend in rain.
How some, whose parts a slight contexture show,
Sink hovering through the air in fleecy snow.
How part is spun in silken threads, and clings
Entangled in the grass in glewy strings.
How others stampt to stones, with rushing sound
Fall from their crystal quarries to the ground.
How some are laid in trains, that kindled fly
In harmless fires by night, about the sky.

1

Ante, BLACKMORE, 9. The song is in Bk. iv. ed. 1695, p. 95.

How some in winds blow with impetuous force,
And carry ruin where they bend their course;
While some conspire to form a gentle breeze
To fan the air, and play among the trees.
How some, enrag'd, grow turbulent and loud,
Pent in the bowels of a frowning cloud;

That cracks, as if the axis of the world

Was broke, and heaven's bright towers were downwards hurl'd.
He sung how earth's wide ball at Jove's command

Did in the midst on airy columns stand.
And how the soul of plants, in prison held,
And bound with sluggish fetters, lies conceal'd,
Till with the Spring's warm beams, almost releast
From the dull weight with which it lay opprest,
Its vigour spreads, and makes the teeming earth
Heave up, and labour with the sprouting birth;
The active spirit freedom seeks in vain;
It only works and twists a stronger chain.
Urging its prison's sides to break a way,
It makes that wider, where 'tis forc'd to stay:
Till, having form'd its living house, it rears
Its head, and in a tender plant appears.
Hence springs the oak, the beauty of the grove,
Whose stately trunk fierce storms can scarcely move.
Hence grows the cedar, hence the swelling vine
Does round the elm its purple clusters twine.
Hence painted flowers the smiling gardens bless,
Both with their fragrant scent and gaudy dress.
Hence the white lily in full beauty grows,
Hence the blue violet, and blushing rose.
He sung how sun-beams brood upon the earth,
And in the glebe hatch such a numerous birth;
Which way the genial warmth in Summer storms
Turns putrid vapours to a bed of worms;
How rain, transform'd by this prolifick power,
Falls from the clouds an animated shower.
He sung the embryo's growth within the womb,
And how the parts their various shapes assume.
With what rare art the wondrous structure's wrought,
From one crude mass to such perfection brought;
That no part useless, none misplac'd we see,
None are forgot, and more would monstrous be.'

FENTON

HE brevity with which I am to write the account of 1 ELIJAH FENTON is not the effect of indifference or negligence: I have sought intelligence among his relations in his native country, but have not obtained it.

He was born near Newcastle in Staffordshire of an ancient 2 family, whose estate was very considerable, but he was the youngest of twelve children, and being therefore necessarily destined to some lucrative employment was sent first to school, and afterwards to Cambridge; but with many other wise and virtuous men, who at that time of discord and debate consulted conscience, whether well or ill informed, more than interest, he doubted the legality of the government, and, refusing to qualify himself for publick employment by the oaths required 3, left the university without a degree: but I never heard that the enthusiasm of opposition impelled him to separation from the church.

By this perverseness of integrity he was driven out a com- 3 moner of Nature 5, excluded from the regular modes of profit and prosperity and reduced to pick up a livelihood uncertain and fortuitous; but it must be remembered that he kept his name unsullied, and never suffered himself to be reduced, like too many of the same sect, to mean arts and dishonourable

4

shifts'. Whoever mentioned Fenton, mentioned him with honour 2.

The life that passes in penury must necessarily pass in obscurity. It is impossible to trace Fenton from year to year, or to discover what means he used for his support. He was a while secretary to Charles earl of Orrery in Flanders 3, and tutor to his young son, who afterwards mentioned him with great esteem and tenderness. He was at one time assistant in the school of Mr. Bonwicke in Surrey, and at another kept a school for himself at Sevenoaks in Kent, which he brought into reputation; but was persuaded to leave it (1710) by Mr. St. John, with promises of a more honourable employment".

5 His opinions, as he was a Nonjuror, seem not to have been remarkably rigid. He wrote with great zeal and affection the praises of queen Anne', and very willingly and liberally extolled

''Perhaps a Nonjuror would have been less criminal in taking the oaths than refusing them; because refusing them necessarily laid him under almost an irresistible temptation to be more criminal; for a man must live, and if he precludes himself from the support furnished by the establishment, will probably be reduced to very wicked shifts to maintain himself.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 321.

Swift advised a Jacobite to comply with the law. The abjuration is understood as the law stands; and as the law stands, none has a title to the Crown but the present possessor.' Letters to Chetwode, p. 88.

For the character of Nonjurors see post, WATTS, 13 n., and Macaulay's Hist. of Eng. v. 90. For a defence of them see Hearne's Collections, &c., ed. C. E. Doble, Preface, p. 5.

2

Post, FENTON, 19 n.

3 Johnson wrote to Nichols :'When Lord Orrery [the fourth Earl] was in an office Lewis was his Secretary. Lewis lived in my time; I knew him. Lord Orrery [the fifth Earl] told me that Fenton was his tutor; but never thought he was his father's Secretary.' Gent. Mag. 1785, p. 10; post, SWIFT, 65. Nichols says in a note:-Fenton was Secretary to Lord Orrery when he commanded a regiment in Flanders, and was

dismissed in 1705.' Orrery was sent to the Tower in 1722 as a Jacobite plotter. Smollett's Hist. of Eng. ii. 425. See also Swift's Works, xvi. 381.

As Charles Boyle he took part in the discussion about the Epistles of Phalaris; as Earl of Orrery his name lives in the astronomical apparatus called after him, though not his invention.

* He wrote of him in 1756:-'He taught me to read English, and attended me through the Latin tongue from the age of seven to thirteen.... Tears arise when I think of him, though he has been dead above twenty years.' Hughes Corres. ii.39n. John Boyle, the fifth Earl, was born

in 1707.

5 Ambrose Bonwicke was dismissed from the head-mastership of Merchant Taylors' School as a nonjuror. Dict. Nat. Biog.

• Fenton wrote to Broome in 1727: -'You know what kind of usage I long met with in my pursuits, which indeed were not so much suits for favour as for justice, in desiring a bare equivalent for what I resigned.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. 140. According to Biog Brit. Suppl. p. 51, St. John (Bolingbroke) did nothing for him.

7

Eng. Poets, xxxv. 364.
He praises the Duke and the

the duke of Marlborough, when he was (1707) at the height of his glory.

He expressed still more attention to Marlborough and his family 6 by an elegiack pastoral on the marquis of Blandford, which could be prompted only by respect or kindness; for neither the duke nor dutchess desired the praise, or liked the cost of patronage".

The elegance of his poetry entitled him to the company of the 7 wits of his time, and the amiableness of his manners made him loved wherever he was known. Of his friendship to Southern3 and Pope there are lasting monuments.

He published in 17075 a collection of poems.

8

By Pope he was once placed in a station that might have been 9 of great advantage. Craggs, when he was advanced to be secretary of state (about 1720), feeling his own want of literature, desired Pope to procure him an instructor, by whose help he might supply the deficiencies of his education. Pope recommended Fenton, in whom Craggs found all that he was seeking". There was now a prospect of ease and plenty, for Fenton had merit, and Craggs had generosity; but the small-pox suddenly put an end to the pleasing expectation.

When Pope, after the great success of his Iliad, undertook the 10 Odyssey, being, as it seems, weary of translating, he determined to engage auxiliaries". Twelve books he took to himself, and twelve he distributed between Broome and Fenton; the books allotted to Fenton were the first, the fourth, the nineteenth, and the twentieth. It is observable that he did not take the eleventh, Queen in An Ode to the Sun. Nay more, he makes

'The nymph anew begin to moan,
Viewing the much-lamented space
Where late her warlike William
shone. Eng. Poets, xxxv. 243.
See post, FENTON, 21.
Florelio, A Pastoral, ib. p. 250.
Post, FENTON, 22. See also ante,
CONGREVE, 36.

2 'Where her husband's honour was
concerned the Duchess was lavish
with her money.' Pope's Works
(Elwin and Courthope), iii. 89.
'Who now his fame or fortune shall
prolong?

In vain his Consort bribes for venal song.' POPE, Ib. iii. 527. 3 An Epistle to Mr. Southerne, Eng. Poets, xxxv. 277.

To Mr. Pope. An Imitation of a Greek Epigram to Homer. Ib. p. 343. For Pope's epitaph on him see post, FENTON, 17; POPE, 425. 5 In 1717.

Ruffhead's Pope, p. 493; Warburton's Pope, vii. 235. Pope wrote to Fenton in 1720:-'I am now commissioned to tell you that Mr. Craggs will expect you on the rising of the parliament, which will be as soon as he can receive you in the manner he would receive a man de belles lettres, that is, in tranquillity and full leisure.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. 46. See ante, ADDISON, 103; post, POPE, 404.

355.

Post, BROOME, 5, 6; POPE, 133,