ell, tho' hell's black jaws in funder part, breathe blue fire, cou'd more affault his heart.

nfus'd, and ftruck with filence at the deed, es, but trembling fails to fly with speed. teps the youth purfues; the country lay ex'd with roads, a fervant fhew'd the way : rer crofs'd the path; the paffage o'er nice to find; the fervant trod before; arms of oaks an open bridge fupply'd, deep the waves beneath the bending glide. youth who seem'd to watch a time to fin, vach'd the careless guide, and thrust him in ;

ging he falls, and rifing lifts his head,

flaining turns, and finks among the dead. ild, fparkling rage inflames the father's eyes, arfts the bands of fear, and madly cries, fted wretch-But fcarce his fpeech began, in the strange partner feem'd no longer man: youthful face grew more ferenely sweet; robe turn'd white, and flow'd upon his feet; rounds of radiant points inveft his hair; ftial odours breathe thro' purpled air; wings, whose colours glitter'd on the day, e at his back their gradual plumes difplay. form etherial burfts upon his fight, moves in all the majesty of light. ho' loud at first the pilgrim's paffions grew, den he gaz'd, and wift not what to do; Drife in fecret chains his words fufpends, in a calm his fettling temper ends. filence here the beauteous angel broke, me voice of mufick ravish'd as he spoke.)

Thy pray'r, thy praife, thy life to vice unknown,

fweet memorial rife before the throne:
le charms, fuccefs in our bright regions find,
force an angel down, to calm thy mind;
this commiffion'd, I forfook the sky,
ceafe to kneel-Thy fellow fervant I.
Then know the truth of government divine,
let thefe fcruples be no longer thine.

The Maker justly claims that world he made,
this the right of Providence is laid;
facred majefty through all depends
ufing fecond means to work his ends :

s thus, withdrawn in ftate from human eye,

e pow'r exerts his attributes on high,

ur actions ufes, not controuls your will, ad bids the doubting fons of men be ftill. What trange events can strike with furprife,

more

han those which lately struck thy wond'ring eyes? t taught by thefe, confefs th' Almighty just, nd where you can't unriddle, learn to trust! The great, vain man, who far'd on coftly

food,

hofe life was too luxurious to be good;

ho made his iv'ry itands with goblets fhine,

Ne'er mov'd in duty to the wand'ring poor;
With him I left the cup, to teach his mind
That heav'n can blefs, if mortals will be kind.
Confcious of wanting worth, he views the bowl,
And feels compaffion touch his gratefel foul.
Thus artifts melt the fullen ore of lead,
With heaping coals of fire upon its head;
In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow,
And loofe from drofs, the filver runs below.
Long had our pious friend in virtue trod,
But now the child half wean'd his heart from
God;

(Child of his age) for him he liv'd in pain,
And meafur'd back his fteps to earth again.
To what exceffes had his dotage run?
But God, to fave the parent, took the fon.
To all but thee, in fits he feen'd to go,
(And 'twas my miniftry to deal the blow)
The poor fond parent humbled in the duft,
Now owns in tears the punithment was just.

But now had all his fortune felt a wreck,
Had that falle fervant fped in safety back?
This night his treafur'd heaps he meant to steal!
And what a fund of charity wou'd fail!

Thus Heav'n inftructs thy mind: This trial o'er,

Depart in peace, refign, and fin no more.

On founding pinions here the youth withdrew, The fage flood wond'ring as the feraph flew. Thus look'd Elisha, when to mount on high, His mafter took the chariot of the sky; The fiery pomp afcending left the view; The prophet gaz'd, and wifh'd to follow too.

The bending hermit here a pray`r begun, Lord as in heaven, on earth thy will be done. Then gladly turning, fought his ancient place, And pafs'd a life of piety and peace.

AN ESSAY

ON THE

DIFFERENT STYLES OF POETRY.

ΤΟ

HENRY, Lord Viscount BOLINGBROKE.

wine,

as, with the cup, the graceless custom loft, nd still he welcomes, but with lefs of cost,

Affift my genius, and retrieve the fong
From dark oblivion, fee, my genius goes
To call it forth. 'Twas thus the poem rofe.

On fhallow foils, where quick productions rife, And wither as the warmth that rais'd them dies. "Here o'er his breast a fort of pity roll'd, "Which fomething lab'ring in the mind controul'd,

"And made him touch the loud refounding ftrings,

"While thus with mufick's ftronger tones he fings."

Mount higher ftill, ftill keep thy faithful feat,
Mind the firm reins, and curb thy courfer's heat;
Nor let him touch the realms that next appear,
Whose hanging turrets feem a fall to fear,
And strangely ftand along the tracts of air,
Where thunder rolls, and bearded comets glare.
The thoughts that most extravagantly foar,
The words that found as if they meant to roar ;
For rant and noise are offer'd here to choice,
And ftand elected by the publick voice.
All schemes are flighted which attempt to shine
At once with strange and probable defign;
'Tis here a mean conceit, a vulgar view,
That bears the least refpect to feeming true;
While ev'ry trifling turn of things is feen
To move by Gods defcending in machine.
Here fwelling lines with stalking struts proceed,
"And in the clouds terrific rumblings breed:
"Here fingle heroes deal grim deaths around,
"And armies perish in tremendous found:
"Here fearful monsters are preferv'd to die,
"In fuch a tumult as affrights the sky;
"For which the golden fun fhall hide
dread,

"And Neptune lift his fedgy matted head,
"Admire the roar, and dive with dire difmay,
"And feck his deepest chambers in the sea."
To raise their fubject thus the lines devife,
And falfe extravagance would fain furprise;
Yet ftill, ye Gods, ye live untouch'd by fear,
And undisturb'd at bellowing moniters here:
Bat with compaffion guard the brain of men,
If thus they bellow through the poet's pen :
So will the reader's eyes difcern aright
The rafheft fally from the noblest flight,
And find that only boaft and found agree
To feem the life and voice of majesty,
When writers rampant on Apollo call
And bid him enter and poffefs them all,
And make his flames afford a wild pretence
To keep them unreftrain'd by common sense,
Ah, facred verse! left reafon quit thy feat,
Give none to fuch, or give a gentle heat.

with

❝ 'Twas here the finger felt his temper wrought

"By fairer profpects which arose to thought; "And in himself a while collected fat, "And much admir'd at this, and much at that;

Till all the beauteous forms in order ran, "And then he took their track, and thus began.

Above the beauties, far above the show,
In which weak NATURE dreffes here below,
Stands the great palace of the bright and fine,
Where fair ideas in full glory fhine,
Eternal models of exalted parts,

The pride of minds, and conquerors of hearts.

Upon the first arrival here, are feen
Rang'd walks of Bay, the mufes ever-green,
Each fweetly fpringing from fome facred bough,
Whofe circling fhade adorn'd a poet's brow,
While through the leaves, in unmolested skies,
The gentle breathings of applaufes flies,
And flatt'ring founds are heard within the breeze,
And pleafing murmur runs among the trees,
And falls of water join the flatt'ring founds,
And murmur foft'ning from the shore rebounds.
The warbled melody, the lovely fights,
The calms of folitude infpire delights,
The dazzled eyes, the ravish'd cars, are caught,
The panting heart unites to purer thought,
And grateful shiverings wander o'er the skin,
And wond'rous extafies arife within,
Whence admiration overflows the mind,
And leaves the pleasure felt but undefin'd.
Stay, daring rider, now no longer rove;
Now pafs to find the palace through the grove;
Whate'er you fee, whate'er you feel, difplay
The realm you fought for, daring rider stay.

Here various fancy fpreads a vary'd scene,
And judgment likes the fight, and looks ferene,
And can be pleas'd itself, and helps to please,
And joins the work, and regulates the lays.
Thus on a plan, defign'd by double care,
The building rifes in the glitt'ring air,
With just agreement fram'd in ev'ry part,
And smoothly polish'd with the nicest art.

Here laurel boughs, which antient heroes

wore,

Now not fo fading as they prov'd before.
Wreath round the pillars which the poets rear,
And flope their points to make a foliage there.
Here chaplets pull'd in gently-breathing wind,
And wrought by lovers innocently kind,

Hung o'er the porch, their fragrant odours give,
And fresh in lafting fong for ever live.
The fhades, for whom with fuch indulgent care,
Fame wreaths the boughs, or hangs the chaplets
there,

To deathlefs honours thus preferv'd above,
For ages conquer, or for ages love.

Here bold description paints the walls within,
Her pencil touches, and the world is feen:

The fields look beauteous in their flow'ry pride,
The mountains rear aloft, the vales fubfide,
The cities rife, the rivers feem to play,
And hanging rocks repel the foaming fea,
The foaming feas their angry billows show,
Curl'd white above, and darkly roll'd below,
Or ceafe their rage, and as they calmly lie,
Return the pleafing pictures of the sky.;
The fkies extended in an open view,
Appear a lofty diftant arch of blue,
In which defcription ftains the painted bow,
Or thickens clouds, and feathers out the fnow,
Or mingles blushes in the morning ray,
Or gilds the noon, or turns an evening grey.

Here on the pedeftals of war and peace,
In diff'rent rows, and with a diff'rent grace,
Fine ftatues proudly ride, or nobly stand,
To which narration with a pointing hand
Directs the fight, and makes examples please,
By boldly vent'ring to dilate in praife,

While chofen beauties lengthen out the fong,
Yet make her hearers never think it long.
Or if with clofer art, with fprightly mien,
Scarce like herself, and more like action feen,
She bids their facts in images arife,

And feems to país before the reader's eyes,
The words like charms enchanted motion give,
And all the ftatues of the palace live.
Then hofts embattled Aretch the lines afar,
Three leaders fpeeches animate the war,
The trumpets found, the feather'd arrows fly,
The fword is drawn, the lance istol'd on
high,

The brave prefs on, the fainter forces yield,
And death in diff'ring thapes deforms the field.
Or fhou'd the fhepherds be difpos'd to play,
Amintor's jelly pipe beguiles the day,
And jocund echoes dally with the found,
And nymphs in meafures trip along the ground,
And e'er the dews have wet the grafs below,
Turn homewards finging all the way they go.

Here, as on circumftance narrations dwell,
And tell what moves, and hardly feem to tell,
The toils of heroes on the dusty plains,
Or on the green the merriment of fwains,
Reflection fpeaks, then all the forms that rofe
In life's enchanted fcenes themselves compofe;
Whilft the grave voice, controuling all the spells
With folemn utt'rance, thus the moral tells:
So public worth its enemies deftroys,
Or private innocence itself enjoys.

Here all the paffione, for their greater sway,
In all the pow'r of words themselves array;
And hence the foft pathetick gently charms,
And hence the bolder fills the breaft with arms,
Sweet love in numbers finds a world of darts,
And with defirings wounds the tender hearts.
Fair hope difplays its pinions to the wind,
And flutters in the lines, and lifts the mind.
Brifk joy with transport fills the rising strain,
Breaks in the notes, and bounds in ev'ry vein.
Stern courage, glitt'ring in the fparks of ire,
Enflames thofe lays that fet the breaft on fire,
Averfion learns to fly with-fwifter will,
In numbers taught to represent an ill.
by frightful accents fear produces fears,
by fad expreffion forrow melts to tears,
And dire amazement and defpair are brought,
By words of horror, through the wilds
thought.

'Tis thus tumultuous paffions learn to roll ;
Thus arm'd with poetry they win the foul.
Pafs further through the dome, another view
Wou'd now the pleatures of thy mind renew,
Where oft, defcription for the colours goes,
Which raife and animate its native shows;
Where oft narration feeks a florid grace
To keep from finking e'er 'tis time to cease;
Where cafy turns reflection looks to find,
When morals aim at drefs to please the mind;
Where lively figures are for ute array`d,
And these an action, thofe a paffion, aid.

There modest metaphors in order fit,
With unaffected undisguifing wit,

To deck a notion faintly feen before,
And truth preferves her fhape, and shines the

more.

By these the beauteous fimilies refide,
In look more open, in defign ally'd,
Who, fond of likeness, from another's face
Bring ev'ry feature's correfponding grace,
With near approaches in expreffion flow,
And take the turn their pattern loves to show ;
As in a glafs the shadows meet the fair,
And drefs and practise with resembling air:
Thus truth by pleasure does her aim pursue,
Looks bright, a fixes on the double'd view.

Three repetitions one another meet,
Exprefly ftrong or languishingly fweet,
And raile the fort of fentiment thay please,
And urge the fort of fentiment they raife.

There close in order are the questions plac'd, Which march with art conceal'd in thows of hafte,

And work the reader till his mind be brought
To make its anfwers in the writer's thought.
For thus the moving paffions feem to throng,
And with their quickness force the foul along;
And thus the foul grows foad they shou'd prevail,
When ev'ry questions feems a fair appeal ;
And if by juft degrees of strength they foar,
In fteps as equal each affects the more.

There ftrange commotion naturally fhewn,
Speaks on regardlefs that we fpeak alone,
Nor minds if they to whom the talks be near,
Nor cares if that to which he talks can hear.
The warmth of anger dares an absent foe;
The words of pity speak to tears of woe ;
The love that hopes, on errands fends the
breeze;

And love defpairing moans to naked trees.

There ftand the new creations of the mufe, Poetic perfons, whom the writers use, When'er a caufe magnificently great, Wou'd fix attention with peculiar weight. 'Tis hence that humbled provinces are seen Transform'd to matrons with neglected mien, Who call their warriors in a mournful found, And fhew their crowns of turrets on the

ground,

That leave their own, and feek another's place, Not forc'd, but charging with an easy pace,

breathe,

And in bright shapes converfe wirh men beneath,

And, as a God, in combat valour leads,
In council prudence as a goddess aids.

There exclamations all the voice employ
In fudden fluthes of concern or joy:
Then feem the fluices which the paffions bound,
To burft afunder with a fpeechlefs found;
And then with tumult and furprife they roll,
And shew the cafe important in the foul.

There rifing fentences attempt to speak,
Which wonder, forrow, fhame, or anger break ;
But fo the part directs to find the reft,
That what remains behind is more than guefs'd,

Thus fill'd with ease, yet left unfinish'd too,
The fenfe looks large within the reader's view:
He freely gathers all the paffion means,
And artful filence more than words explains.
Methinks a thousand graces more I fee,
And I cou'd dwell-but when wou'd thought be free?
Engaging method ranges all the band,

And smooth tranfition joins them hand in hand;
Around the mufick of my lays they throng,
Ah too deferving objects of my fong!
Live, wond'rous palace, live fecure of time
To fenfes harmony, to fouls fublime,
And juft proportion all, and great defign,
And lively colours, and an air divine.

'Tis here, that guided by the mufes fire,
And fill'd with facred thought, her friends retire,
Unbent to care, and unconcern'd with noife,

To tafte repofe and elevated joys,

Which in a deep untroubled leifure meet,

Serenely ravishing, politely fweet.

She fpoke: The patriot overfpread thy mind,
And all thy days to public good refign'd.
Elfe might thy foul fo wonderfully wrought
For ev'ry depth and turn of curious thought,
To this the poet's fweet recefs retreat,
And thence report the pleasures of the feat,
Defcribe the raptures which a writer knows,
When in his breast a vein of fancy glows,
Defcribe his business while he works the mine,
Defcribe his temper when he fees it shine,
Or fay when readers easy verse ensnares,
How much the writer's mind can act on theirs
Whence images in charming numbers fet,
A fort of likenefs in the foul beget,
And what fair vifions oft we fancy nigh
By fond delufions of the fwimming eye,
Or further pierce through nature's maze to find
How paffions drawn give paffions to the mind.
Oh what a fweet confufion! what surprise!
How quick the shifting views of pleasure rife!

chocfe,

And as they please the glitt'ring objects ufe ;
While to their genius more than art they truft,
Yet art acknowledges their labours juft.
From hence they look, from this exalted how,
To choose their fubject in the world below,
And where an hero well deferves a name,
They confecrate his acts in fong to fame;
Or if a science unadorn'd they find,

They fmooth its look to please and teach the mind;
And where a friendship's generoufly ftrong,
They celebrate the knot of fouls in fong;
Or if the verfes muft enflame defire,

The thoughts are melted, and the words on fire:
But when the temples deck'd with glory ftand,
And hymns of gratitude the Gods demand,
Their bofoms kindle with celeftial love,
And then alone they caft their eyes above.
Hail, facred verfe! ye facred mufes, hail!
Cou'd I your pleasures with your fire reveal,
The world might then be taught to know your right,
And court your rage, and envy my delight:
Iu whilst I follow where your pointed beams,
My courfe directing, shoot in golden streams,
The bright appearance dazzles fancy's eyes,
And weary'd out the fix'd attention lies.
Enough my verfes have you work'd my breast,
I'll feek the facred grove, and sink to rest.

"No longer now the ravish'd poet fung, "His voice in eafy cadence left the tongue; "Nor o'er the mufick did his fingers fly, "The founds ran tingling and they feem'd to die." O BOLINGBROKE! O fav'rite of the skies, O born to gifts by which the noblest rife! Improv'd in arts by which the brightest please, Intent to bufinefs, and polite for ease; Sublime in eloquence, where loud applaufe Hath fil'd thee patron of a nation's caufe. "Twas there the world perceiv'd and own'd thee great,

Thence ANNA call'd thee to the reins of ftate;
Go, faid the greatest queen, with OXFORD go,
And fill the tumults of the world below,
Exert thy powers, and profper; he that knows
To move with OXFORD never should repofe.
VOL. V.

I touch the beauties which I wish to fing.
Is verfe a fov'reign regent of the foul,
And fitted all its motions to controul? -
Or are they fifters, tun'd at once above,
And thake like unifons if either move?
For when the numbers fing an eager fight,
I've heard a foldier's voice expref's delight;
I've feen hie eyes with crouding fpirits thine,
And round his hilt his hand unthinking twine.
When from the fhore the fickle Trojan flies,
And in sweet measures poor Eliza dies,
I've seen the book forfake the virgin's hand,
And in her eyes the tears but hardly stand.
I've known her blush at foft Corinna's name,
And in red characters confels a flame :
Or with fuccefs had more adorn'd his arms
Who gave the world for Cleopatra's charms.
Ye fons of glory, by my first appeal,
If here the power of lines thefe lines reveal,
When fome great youth has with impetuous thought
Read o'er achievements which another wrought,
And feen his courage and his honour go
Through crouding nations in triumphant show,
His foul enchanted by the words he reads,
Shines all impregnated with sparkling feeds,
And courage here, and honour there, appears,
In brave defign, that foars beyond his years,
And this a ipear, and that a chariot lends,
And war and triumph he by turns attends:
Thus gallant pleasures are his waking dream,
Till fome fair caufe hath call'd him forth to fame,
Then form'd to life on what the poet made,
And breathing flaughter, and in arms array 'J,
He marches forward on the daring foe,
And emulation acts in ev'ry blow.
Great Ficttor's hade in lancy talks along,
From rank to rank amongst the martial throng,
While from his acts he learns a noble rage,
And fhines like Hector in the prefent age.
Thus verfe will arte him to the victor's bays,
And verfe, that rais'd him, thall refound his praife.
Ye tender beauties, be my witness too,
If fong can charm, and if my fong be true.
With fweet experience oft a fair may find
Her paffions mov'd, by paffions well defign'd'

Sff