fuch adjuncts and epithets as a painter or ftatuary might work after; he says only ultrices CURE, mortiferum BELLUM, mala MENTIS GAUDIA; particularly, malefuada is only applied to FAMES, instead of a word that might represent the meagre and ghaftly figure intended. I make no fcruple of adding, that in this famous paffage, Virgil has exhibited no images fo lively and diftinct, as these living figures painted by POPE, each of them with their proper infignia and attributes. ENVY her own fnakes fhall feel, * And PERSECUTION mourn his broken wheel; A PERSON of no fmall rank has informed me, that Mr. Addison was inexpreffibly chagrined at this noble conclufion of WINDSORFOREST, both as a politician and as a poet. As a politician, because it so highly celebrated that treaty of peace which he deemed fo pernicious to the liberties of Europe; and as a Ver. 417. et feq. poet, poet, because he was deeply conscious that his own CAMPAIGN, that gazette in rhyme, contained no strokes of fuch genuine and fublime poetry as the conclufion before us. It is one of the greatest and most pleasing arts of descriptive poetry, to introduce moral sentences and inftructions in an oblique and indirect manner, in places where one naturally expects only painting and amusement. We have virtue, as Mr. POPE remarks, * put upon us by furprize, and are pleased to find a thing where we fhould never have looked to meet with it. I must do a noble English poet the juftice to obferve, that it is this particular art that is the very diftinguishing excellence of COOPERS-HILL; throughout which, the descriptions of places, and images raised by the poet, are ftill tending to fome hint, or leading into fome reflection, upon moral life, or political institution; much in the fame manner as the real fight of such scenes and prospects is apt to give the mind a *Iliad. B. 16. in the notes: Ver. 465. com composed turn, and incline it to thoughts and contemplations that have a relation to the object. This is the great charm of the incomparable ELEGY written in a Country Church-Yard. Having mentioned the ruftic monuments and fimple epitaphs of the swains, the amiable poet falls into a very natural reflection: For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, Or this art Mr. POPE has exhibited fome specimens in the poem we are examining, but not fo many as might be expected from a mind so strongly inclined to a moral way of writing. After speaking of hunting the hare, he immediately fubjoins, much in the fpirit of Denham, Beasts urg'd by us their fellow beasts pursue, * Ver. 124 When Where he is defcribing the tyrannies formerly exercised in this kingdom, Cities laid wafte, they ftorm'd the dens and caves, He inftantly adds with an indignation becoming a true lover of liberty, as fuch he was, For wifer brutes were backward to be flaves. * But I am afraid our author in the following paffage has fallen into a fault very uncommon in his writings, into a reflection that is very far-fetched and forced; Here waving groves a chequer'd scene display, BOHOURS would rank this comparison among falfe thoughts and Italian conceits; fuch particularly as abound in the works of Marino. The fallacy confifts in giving defign and artifice to the wood, as well as to the * Ver. 50. † Ver. 16. coquette; coquette; and in putting the light of the fun and the warmth of a lover on a level. A PATHETIC reflection, properly introduced into a defcriptive poem, will have a ftill greater force and beauty, and more deeply interest a reader, than a moral one. When POPE therefore has defcribed a pheasant shot, he breaks out into a very masterly exclamation; Ah! what avail his gloffy varying dyes, * where this exquifite picture heightens the diftrefs, and powerfully excites the commiferation, of the reader. To this purpose I may add a paffage in an ODE to Fancy, + which I have heard commended for a fimi lar ftroke of a pathetic nature. After paffing through various scenes, the poet leads us, To fome abby's mouldering towers, Where to avoid cold wintry fhowers, * Ver. 115. + Dodfley's Mifcell. Pag. 80. Ver. 3. F The |