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subjects of poetry, the thoughts are so obvious (at least if they are natural), that whoever writes last, must write things like what have been said before:* but they may as well applaud the Ancients for the arts of eating and drinking, and accuse the Moderns of having stolen those inventions from them; it being evident in all such cases, that whoever lived first, must first find them out. It is true, indeed, when

unus et alter

Assuitur pannus,

when there are one or two bright thoughts stolen, and all the rest is quite different from it, a poem makes a very foolish figure. But when it is all melted down together, and the gold of the ancients so mixed with that of the moderns, that none can distinguish the one from the other, I can never find fault with it. I cannot however but own to you, that there are others of a different opinion, and that I have shewn your verses to some who have made that objection to them. I have so much company round me while I write this, and such a noise in my ears, that it is impossible I should write any thing but nonsense, so must break off abruptly. I am, Sir,

Your most affectionate,

and most humble servant.

* This subject has been discussed at much length, and with much acuteness and ingenuity, by Dr. Hurd, in the Discourse on Poetical Imitation; in which the difficulty of distinguishing RESEMBLANCES from THEFTS, is endeavoured to be pointed out.

Warton.

LETTER V.

FROM MR. WALSH.

Sept. 9, 1706.

Ar my return from the North I received the Ат favour of your letter, which had lain there till then. Having been absent about six weeks, I read over your pastorals again, with a great deal of pleasure, and to judge the better, read Virgil's Eclogues, and Spenser's Calendar, at the same time; and, I assure you, I continue the same opinion I had always of them. By the little hints you take upon all occasions to improve them, it is probable you will make them yet better against winter; though there is a mean to be kept even in that too, and a man may correct his verses till he takes away the true spirit of them; especially if he submits to the correction of some who pass for great critics, by mechanical rules, and never enter into the true design and genius of an author. I have seen some of these that would hardly allow any one good Ode in Horace, who cry Virgil wants fancy, and that Homer is very incorrect. While they talk at this rate, one would think them above the common rate of mortals: but generally they are great admirers of Ovid and Lucan; and when they write themselves, we find out all the mystery. They scan their verses upon their fingers; run after conceits and glaring thoughts; their poems are all

made up of couplets,* of which the first may be the last, or the last first, without any sort of prejudice to their works, in which there is no design, or method, or any thing natural or just. For you are certainly in the right, that in all writings whatsoever (not poetry only) nature is to be followed; and we should be jealous of ourselves for being fond of similes, conceits, and what they call saying fine things. When we were in the north, my Lord Wharton shewed me a letter he had received from a certain great general in Spain;† I told him I would by all means have that general recalled and set to writing here at home, for it was impossible that a man with so much wit as he shewed, could be fit to command an army, or do any other business. As for what you say of expression, it is indeed the same thing to wit, as dress is to beauty. I have seen many women over-dressed, and several look better in a careless night-gown, with their hair about their ears, than Mademoiselle Spanheim dressed for a ball. I do not design to be in London till towards the parliament: then I shall certainly be there; and hope by that time you will

* The most usual and common blemish of all modern English poetry; and in great measure occasioned, and almost unavoidably, by the nature and use of rhyme. Warton.

+ The Earl of Peterborough.

Warburton.

It is a maxim, says Hume, propagated by the dunces of all countries, that a man of genius is unfit for business. Warton. § Mr. Walsh's remark will be thought very innocent, when the reader is informed that it was made on the Earl of Peterborough, just before the glorious campaigns of Barcelona and Valentia.

Pope.

have finished your Pastorals as you would have them appear in the world, and particularly the third, of Autumn, which I have not yet seen. Your last Eclogue being upon the same subject as that of mine on Mrs. Tempest's Death, I should take it very kindly in you to give it a little turn, as if it were to the memory of the same lady, if they were not written for some particular woman whom you would make immortal. You may take occasion to shew the difference between poets' mistresses, and other men's. I only hint this, which you may either do or let alone, just as you think fit. I shall be very much pleased to see you again in town, and to hear from you in the mean time. I am, with very much esteem, Your, &c.

LETTER VI.

TO MR. WALSH.

Oct. 22, 1706.

AFT FTER the thoughts I have already sent you on the subject of English versification, you desire my opinion as to some farther particulars. There are indeed certain niceties,* which, though not much observed even by correct versifiers, I cannot but think, deserve to be better regarded.

1. It is not enough† that nothing offends the * There are perhaps readers that will say these niceties remind them of Eschylus and Euripides weighing their verses carefully in a pair of scales, in the fifth act of the Frogs of Aristophanes.

Warton.

† An uncommon maturity of taste and judgment, in so young

ear, but a good poet will adapt the very sounds, as well as words, to the things he treats of. So that there is (if one may express it so) a style of sound. As in describing a gliding stream, the numbers should run easy and flowing;* in describing a rough torrent or deluge, sonorous and swelling, and so of the rest. This is evident every where in

a person as our author, appears in these remarks on English versification. This subject has been since much enlarged upon, and more amply discussed, by several writers of considerable abilities, particularly by Lord Kaimes, and Dr. Blair, by the learned Mr. Samuel Say, and above all, by the ingenious Mr. Webb, in his Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry, and in Observations on Poetry and Music. Cowley, in his excellent notes on his Davideis, has given some good remarks on this representative versification.

Warton.

* I cannot agree with Warton, that these remarks exhibit any uncommon maturity of taste and judgment; that in describing a smooth stream, the numbers should run smooth, and vice versâ, is sufficiently "common-place;" and what school-boy does not know it? This representative mode of writing appears most striking, where the ear instantaneously perceives the effect, yet we are unconscious of any art or labour. I scarcely know a more masterly instance of it, than is exhibited in Cowper's "Table Talk." We feel the thing described; we do not stop to consider it as a beauty:

" "Twas thus, till luxury seduc'd the mind

To joys less innocent, or less refin'd;

Then genius danc'd, a bacchanal; | he crown'd
The brimming goblet, | seiz'd the thyrsis, | bound
His brows with ivy, | rush'd into the field
Of wild imagination, ❘ and there reel'd,

The victim of his own lascivious fires,

And dizzy with delight, profan'd the sacred wires." All is warmth, hurry, and animated enthusiasm, yet worked up into a passage of exquisite harmony, impressive in effect, and illustrative of the subject, without the least appearance of art.

Bowles.

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