fcriptions. From Cyrene he travels by land, for no better reafon than this; Hac eadem fuadebet hiems, quæ clauferat æquor. The winter's effects on the fea, it feems, were more to be dreaded than all the ferpents, whirlwinds, fands, c. by land, which immediately after he paints out in his fpeech to the foldiers: then he fetches a compass a vaft way round about, to the Nafamones and Jupiter Ammon's temple, purely to ridicule the oracles: and Labienus muft pardon me, if I do not believe him when he fays-fors obtulit et fortuna via—either' Labienus or the map is very much mistaken here. Thence he returns back to the Syrtes, (which he might have taken first in his way to Utica), and fo to Leptis Minor, where our author leaves him; who feems to have made Cato fpeak his own mind, when he tells his armyIre fat eft-no matter whether. I am, Your, &c. LETTER XXIII. From MR. CROMWELL. Nov. 20, 1710. ΤΗ HE fyftem of Tycho Brahe (were it true, as it is novel) could have no room here: Lucan, with the reft of the Latin poets, feems to follow Plato, whose order of the spheres is clear in Cicero De natura deorum, De fomnio Scipionis, and in Macrobius. The feat of the femidei manes is Platonic too, for Apuleius De deo Socratis affigns the fame to the genii, viz. the region of the air for their intercourfe with gods and men ; fo that, I fancy, Rowe miftook the fituation, and I cannot be reconciled to, Look down on the fun's rays. I am glad you agree with me about the latitude he takes, and with you had told me, if the fortilegi, and fatidici, could licenfe his invective against priests; but I suppose you think them (with Helena) undeferving of your pro tection. tection. I agree with you in Lucan's errors, and the cause of them, his poetic defcriptions: for the Romans then knew the coaft of Africa from Cyrene (to the fouth east of which lies Ammon toward Egypt) to Leptis and Utica: but, pray, remember how your Homer nodded while Ulyffes flept, and waking knew not where he was, in the short paffage from Corcyra to I like Trapp's verfions for their juftnefs; his pfalm is excellent, the prodigies in the first Georgic judicious, (whence I conclude that it is eafier to turn Virgil juftly into blank verse than rhyme.) The eclogue of Gallus, and fable of Phaeton pretty well; but he is very faulty in his numbers; the fate of Phaeton might run thus: The blafted Phaeton with blazing hair, } T LETTER XXIV. Nov. 24, 1710» O make use of that freedom and familiarity of style, which we have taken up in our correfpondence, and which is more properly talking upon paper, than writing; I will tell you, without any preface, that I never took Tycho Brahe for one of the ancients, or in the leaft an acquaintance of Lucan's; nay, it is a mercy on this occafion that I do not give you an account of his life and conversation; as how he lived fome years like an inchanted knight in a certain ifland, with a tale of a King of Denmark's mistress that shall be namelefs.- But I have compaffion on you, and would not for the world you should stay any longer among the genii and femider manes, you know where; for if once you get fo near the moon, Sappho will want your prefence in the clouds and inferior regions; D 3 not to mention the great lofs Drury-lane will fuftain, when Mr. C is in the milky way. Thefe celeftial thoughts put me in mind of the priests you mention, who are a fort of fortilegi in one sense, because in their lottery there are more blanks than prizes; the adventurers being at beft in an uncertainty, whereas the fetters-up are fure of fomething. Priests indeed in their character, as they reprefent God, are facred; and fo are constables as they reprefent the king; but you will own a great many of them are very odd fellows, and the devil of any likenefs in them. Yet I can affure you, I honour the good as much as I deteft the bad, and, I think, that in condemning these we praise those. The tranflations from Ovid I have not fo good an opinion of as you; because I think they have little of the main characteristic of this author, a graceful eafinefs. For, let the fenfe he ever fo exactly rendered, unlefs an author looks like himself, in his air, habit, and manner, it is a difguife, and not a tranflation. But as to the pfalm, I think David is much more beholden to the tranflator than Ovid; and as he treated the Roman like a Jew, fo he has made the Jew fpeak like a Roman. Your, &c. LETTER XXV. From MR. CROMWEL L. Dec. 5, 1710. TH HE fame judgment we made on Rowe's ixth of I find this memorable line, Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum For this he employs fix verfes, among which is this, As if on knightly terms in lift they ran. Pray Pray can you trace chivalry up higher than Pharamond? will you allow it an anachronifm?-Tickel in his verfion of the Phoenix from Claudian, When Nature ceafes, thou shalt ftill remain, Et clades te nulla rapit, folufque fuperftes, Which plainly refers to the deluge of Deucalion and the conflagration of Phaeton; not to the final diffoluYour thought of the priests lottery is very fine: you play the wit, and not the critic, upon the errors of your brother. tion. Your obfervations are all very juft: Virgil is eminent for adjusting his diction to his fentiments; and, among the moderns, I find you practise the Profodia of your rules. Your poem * fhews you to be, what you fay of Voiture with books well bred: the ftate of the Fair, though fatirical, is touched with that delicacy, and galJantry, that not the court of Auguftus, not-But hold, I fhall lofe what I lately recovered, your opinion of my fincerity yet I mult fay, it is as faultlefs as the Fair to whom it is addreffed, be the ever so perfect. The M. G. (who it feems had no right notion of you, as you of him) tranfcribed it, by lucubration: from fome difcourfe of yours, he thought your inclination led you to (what the men of fashion call learning) pedantry; but now, he fays, he has no lefs, I affure you, than a veneration for you. Your, &c. IT Dec. 17, 1710. T feems that my late mention of Crafhaw, and my quotation from him, has moved your curiofity. I To a Lady, with the Works of Voiture. therefore therefore send you the whole Author, who has held a place among my other books of this nature for fome years; in which time having read him twice or thrice, I find him one of those whofe works may juft deserve reading. take this poet to have writ like a gentleman, that is, at leifure hours, and more to keep out of idlenefs than to establish a reputation: fo that nothing regular or just can be expected from him. All that regards defign, form, fable, (which is the foul of poetry), all that concerns exactnefs, or confent of parts, (which is the body), will probably be wanting; only pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expreffions, and fomething of a neat cast of verfe, (which are properly the drefs, gems, or loofe ornaments of poetry), may be found in thefe verfes. This is indeed the cafe of moft other poetical writers of mifcellanies; nor can it well be otherwife fince no man can be a true poet who writes for diverfion only. Thefe authors fhould be confidered as verfifiers and witty men, rather than as poets; and under this head will only fall the thoughts, the expreffion, and the numbers. These are only the pleafing part of poetry, which may be judged of at a view, and comprehended all at once. And (to exprefs myfelf like a painter) their colouring entertains the fight, but the lines and life of the picture are not to be infpected too narrowly. This author formed himfelf upon Petrarch, or rather upon Marino. His thoughts, one may observe, in the main, are pretty; but oftentimes far fetched, and too often ftrained and fliffened to make them appear the greater. For men are never fo apt to think a thing great, as when it is odd or wonderful, and inconfide rate authors would rather be admired than understood. This ambition of furprising a reader, is the true natural caufe of all fuftian, or bombaft in poetry. To confirm what I have faid, you need but look into his first poem of the Weeper, where the 2d, 4th, 6th, 14th, 21ft ftanzas are as fublimely dull as the 7th, 8th, 9th, 16th, 17th, 2cth, and 23d stanzas of the fame copy are foft and pleafing; and if thefe laft want any thing, it |