The profe of Cowley has never yet obtained its due commendation: no author kept his verfe and profe at a greater distance from each other: his thoughts are natural, his ftyle has a smooth equanimity; all is eafy without feeblenefs, and familiar without groffnefs. He was, in his own time, confidered as of unrivalled excellence; and, it may be affirmed, without any encomiaftic fervour, that his pages are embellished with all the ornaments which books could fupply; that his imagination equals his learning; and, had he not been corrupted by the tafte of the age, pofterity would have agreed with Milton concerning him, who is faid to have declared "that the three greatest English poets were Spencer, Shakspeare, and Cowley."

Butler, a man whofe name can only perifh with his language, paffed his life in the mift of obfcurity: the date of his birth is doubtful; the mode and place of his education are unknown; the events of his life are variously related; and all that can be told with certainty is, "that he was poor."

The poem of Hudibras is one of thofe compofitions of which a nation may juftly boaft; as the images which it exhibits are domeftic, the fentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the ftrain of diction original and peculiar. We must not, however, fuffer the pride which we affume, as the countrymen of Butler, to make any encroachment on juftice, nor appropriate thofe honours which others have a right to fhare. This poem is not wholly English: the original idea is to be found in the hiftory of Don Quixotte; a book to which a mind of the greatest powers may be indebted without difgrace. If inexhauftible wit could give perpetual pleafure, no eye would ever leave halfread the work of Butler. It is fcarcely poflible to perufe a page without finding fome affociation of ideas which was never found before: by the first paragraph the reader is amufed, by the next he is delighted, and by a few more ftrained to aftonishment; but aftonishment is a toilfome pleasure; he is foon weary of wondering, and

longs

longs to be diverted. Perhaps every reader regrets the paucity of events, and complains that, in the poem of Hudibras, as in the hiftory of Thucydides, there is more faid than done: it is indeed much easier to form dialogues than to continue adventures. Whether it be that we comprehend but few of the poffibilities of life, or that life itfelf affords little variety, every author who has attempted knows how much labour it will cost to form fuch a combination of circumftances as fhall have at once the grace of novelty and of credibility, and delight fancy without violence to reafon.

Imagination is useless without knowledge: nature gives, in vain, the power of combination, unless ftudy and obfervation fupply materials to be combined. Butler's treafures of knowledge appear proportioned to his expence': whatever topic employs his mind, he fhows himself qualified to expand and illuftrate it with all the acceffories that books can furnish: he is found not only to have travelled the beaten road, but the bye-paths of literature; not only to have taken general furveys, but to have examined particulars with minute infpection. If the French boast the learning of Rabelais, we need not be afraid of confronting them with Butler. But the most valuable parts of his performance are thofe which neither retired ftudy, nor native wit, could fupply: he that merely makes a book from books, may be ufeful, but can fcarcely be great: Butler had not fuffered life to glide befide him unfeen or unobferved. He had watched, with great diligence, the operations of human nature, and traced the effects of opinion, humour, interest, and paflion. From fuch remarks proceeded that great number of fententious diftichs which have paffed into converfation, and are added as proverbial axioms to the general ftock of practical knowledge.

But human works are not eafily found without a perifhable part of the ancient poets, every reader feels the mythology tedious and oppreffive. Of Hudibras, the manners being founded on opinions, are temporary and

local,

local, and therefore become every day lefs intelligible and less entertaining. Such remarks as depend upon standing relations and general manners are co-extended with the race of men; but thofe modifications of life, and peculiarities of practice, which are the progeny of error and perverfenefs, or of fome incidental influence, muft perish with their parents. The measure is quick, fprightly, and colloquial, fuitable to the vulgarity of the words and the levity of the fentiments; but fuch numbers and fuch diction can gain regard only when they are used by a writer whofe vigour of fancy and copiousness of knowledge entitle him to contempt of ornaments; and who, in confidence of the novelty and juftnefs of his conceptions, can afford to throw metaphors and epithets

away.

Butler died in 1680; and, fixty years after his death, a monument was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey; which occafioned the following epigram:

"When Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive,
No gen'rous patron would a dinner give.

See him, when starv'd to death, and turn'd to duft,
Prefented with a monumental buft!

The poet's fate is here in emblem shown;

He alk'd for bread, and he receiv'd a ftone."

Wentworth Dillon, earl of Rofcommon, was born in Ireland during the lieutenancy of Strafford, who was his god-father. His father had been converted by Usher to the Proteftant religion; and when the popish rebellion broke out, Strafford, thinking the family in great danger from the fury of the Irish, fent for his god-fon, and placed him in Yorkshire, where he was inftructed in the Latin language, which he acquired fo perfectly as to write it with purity and elegance, though he was faid not to be able to retain the rules of grammar.

When the ftorm broke out upon Strafford his houfe

1800.

was no longer a fhelter, and Dillon was fent to Caen, where the Proteftants had then an univerfity, and continued his ftudies under Bochart. The ftate of England and Ireland was long after this time fuch, that any one who was abfent from either country had very little temp tation to return; and therefore Rofcommon, when he left Caen, travelled into Italy, amufing himself with its antiquities, and particularly with medals, in which he obtained uncommon fkill. At the Reftoration he came to England, was made mafter of the horse to the duchefs of York, and married the daughter of the earl of Courtenay. He now employed himself in literary projects, and formed the plan of a fociety, in imitation of the Italian academies, for refining our language and fixing its standard, in which Dryden aflifted him. But all plans of new literary inftitutions were quickly fuppreffed by the contentious turbulence of king James's reign; and Rofcommon, forefeeing fome violent concuffion of the ftate was at hand, purposed to retire to Rome. His departure was delayed by the gout; and he was fo impatient, either of hindrance or of pain, that he submitted himfelf to a French empiric, who is faid to have repelled the difeafe into his bowels. At the moment in which he expired, he uttered, with an energy of voice expreffive of the moft fervent devotion, two lines of his own verfion of the Dies Ira.

"My God, my Father, and my Friend,

Do not forfake me in my end."

He died in 1684, and was buried with great pomp in Weftminster Abbey.

Of Rofcommon, as a poet, Fenton has given this character" In his writings we view the image of a mind naturally folid and ferious, richly furnished and adorned with all the ornaments of learning, unaffectedly difpofed in the moft regular and elegant order. His imagination might have been more fruitful and fprightly, if his judg ment had been lefs fevere; but that feverity, delivered in

à maf

a mafculine, clear, fuccinct ftyle, contributed to his eminence in the didactic manner; fo that no one can affirm, with juftice, that he was equalled by any of our nation, without confeffing at the fame time that he was inferior to none. In fome other kinds of writing his genius feems to have wanted fire."

But a higher teftimony in his favour is left us; that of Dryden, who acknowledges himself to have been diffatisfied with his own powers, till he had tried whether he was capable of following the rules laid down by lord Rofcommon in his excellent Effay on Tranflated Verfe; of the truth and usefulness of which his reafon was convinced, and he had endeavoured to obferve all his inftructions. On which Johnson remarks," that Roscommon deferved his praises, had they been bestowed with dif cernment; not on the rules themselves, but on the art with which they are introduced, and the decorations with which they are adorned in this effay." Yet furely the judgment, the kill in criticifm, for which Rofcom mon is fo juftly famed, is proved by the rules he has given, rather than the mode in which they are con veyed.

His next great work is the Tranflation of the Art of Poetry. Amongst his fmaller compofitions, the Eclogue of Virgil, and the Dies Ira, are admirably tranflated. His political verfes are fprightly, and when published first must have been very popular.

Of his writings in general the judgment of the public feems to be right: he is elegant, but not great; he never labours after exquifite beauties, and feldoms falls into gross faults; his verification is fmooth, but rarely vigorous; and his rhymes are remarkably exact. He improved taite, but did not enlarge knowledge, and may be num bered amongst the benefactors to English literature.