But now my muse a softer strain rehearse, Turn every line with art, and smooth thy verse; Thy verse, harmonious bard, and flatt'ring song, What scenes of death and horror had we view'd, Nor must Roscommon pass neglected by, That makes ev'n rules a noble poetry.: Rules, whose deep sense, and heav'nly numbers show Nor, Denham, must we e'er forget thy strains, While Cooper's Hill commands the neighb'ring plains. Thy verse can show. Of this and the four next lines, Johnson says,— What is this but to say, that he who would compliment Cromwell had been the proper poet for King William "G. VOL. 1.-7 But see where artful Dryden next appears a She forms her voice, she moves our smiles or tears. Her hero pleases, and her satire bites. From her no harsh unartful numbers fall, That long has flourish'd, shou'd decay with thee; b I'm tir'd with rhyming, and would fain give o'er, In numbers such as Dorset's self might use. The noble Montague. It is of Montague that Pope says, fed with dedications,” and Tickell, that he rewarded them all.— . he was Whether in comic sounds or tragick airs. A writer in fashion, like the stoical wise man, is every thing he has a mind to be. Dryin's comedies are very indifferent, and his tragedies still worse. b Congreve shall still. Another poet in fashion: but it is not safe to prophecy of such. All he had of Dryden's mus was only his quaint audi ill-applied wit. 1 Hos negligently graceful he unreins His verse, and writes in loose familiar strains; How Nassau's godlike acts adorn his lines, And all the hero in full glory shines. We see his army set in just array, And Boyne's dy'd waves run purple to the sea. Nor Simois choak'd with men, and arms, and blood; Nor rapid Xanthus' celebrated flood, Shall longer be the poet's highest themes, Tho' gods and heroes fought promiscuous in their streams. He aids the hero, whom before he prais'd. I've done at length; and now, dear friend, receive I leave the arts of poetry and verse 1 To them that practise 'em with more success. And so at once, dear friend and muse, farewell. I leave the arts, &c. These lines have found a place in the twelfth chapter of "The art of sinking in poetry." Let verses run in this manner, just to be a vehicle to the words. (I take them from my last cited author, who, though otherwise by no means of our rank, seemed, once in his life, to have a mind to be simple, &c.) "—G. 1 Of greater truths. Addison, at this time, thought of taking orders. LINES TO THE KING. PRESENTED TO THE LORD KEEPER. TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN SOMERS, LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEAL! Ir yet your thoughts are loose from state affairs, If yet your time and actions are your own, Receive the present of a muse unknown: To the Right Honorable, &c., Sir John Somers:-Somers, equally emiaent as a constitutional lawyer, a statesman, and a patron of letters, was born at Worcester in 1652. He studied at Oxford, soon distinguished himself at the bar, made his first appearance in political life as an opponent of the policy of Charles II., established his legal reputation by his five minutes' plea in defence of the seven bishops, sat for Worcester in the convention of parliament, was one of the managers for the Commons in the conference with the lords on the word abdicate, was knighted and made Solicitorgeneral in 1689, Attorney-general in 1692, Lord Keeper in 1693, and Lord High Chancellor in 1695, and Peer, by the title of Lord Somers, Baron Evesham. After William's death, he retired from public life to letters, which he had always loved, and, in this capacity, was chosen President of the Royal Society. In 1706 he drew up a plan of union for England and Scotland, and was appointed one of the Commissioners for carrying it into effect. In 1708 he returned to public life as President of the Council, was dis missed in 1710, and died in 1716 of an apoplectic fit, at the age of 64. As a patron of letters, his name is closely associated with that of Addison, like whom he contributed to call attention to the neglected beauties of the Paradise Lost. He translated some of Ovid's epistles, Plutarch's Alcibiades, and wrote several tracts, one of which, called "The judgment of whole kingdoms and nations concerning the rights, powers, and preroga tives of kings, and the rights, privileges, and properties of the people, a This short address to his patron, is polite and proper, but, like the poem, which it introduces, very prosaic. A muse that in advent'rous numbers sings To To you, my lord, these daring thoughts belong, n Attend to what a lesser muse indites, Pardon her faults and countenance her flights. shewing," &c., &c., was reprinted during the discussions which preceded our own revolution, with the following date: Newport, Rhode Island: reprinted and sold by Solomon Southwick, in Queen-street, 1774. Somers left also a large collection of scarce tracts, from which a selection was published, in 14 vols., and in 1809-1812, a new edition, in 12 vols. 4to. edited by Sir Walter Scott. It is to him that Swift, in a letter to Bolingbroke, attributes "the regularity of an alderman or a gentleman usher;" and Evelyn says of him, in the 3d vol. of his memoirs, "It is certain that this chancellor was a most excellent lawyer, very learned in all polite literature, a superior pen, master of a handsome style, and of easy conversation: but he is said to make too much haste to be rich, as his predecessor, and most in place in this age did, to a more prodigious excess than was ever known." Addison, who was not yet known to Somers, was invited to wait upon him; and thus his second verses, like the first, opened the way to an im portant political as well as literary acquaintance.—G.] a Lesser muse. Little has two comparatives, less and lesser. Us leaves us at libery to employ either. The sound will direct us when te prefer the one t the other. As here, a lesser muse, is clearly better tha |