ception of metrical melody, should have been habitually so negligent in his versification, which in general is full of false prosody, and is bound by no rules. The poets of the metaphysical school were particularly subject to this fault, which was probably owing to their fullness of thought, that was continually struggling for utterance, and allowed no time or place for correct modulation. Donne, the father of this school, was so careless in this respect, that his pieces can scarcely be termed verse; and his example seems to have perverted the rest.

Some of Cowley's most pleasing poetical effu sions are inserted in his prose essays, which are very agreeably written, and may be recommended to your perusal. They are printed along with his poems. Many of them (both the prose and the verse intermixed) turn upon that taste for rural retirement which was a ruling passion in him, or, at least, appeared so to himself. The images of such a life are so generally delightful, that nature seems to have pronounced it the condition best suited to human beings; yet there are too many examples of disappointment in the happiness it was expected to afford; and Cowley himself, when he was enabled to put his wishes into execution, found the most essential part wanting, a temper for enjoyment. A truly amiable character, how ever, shines through his writings, and their serious

strains

strains are all calculated to promote sentiments of piety and philanthropy.

From the grave and the sportive employment of wit, we may naturally proceed to the use of it in satire and burlesque; and in BUTLER'S "Hudibras" we shall find an example of this kind which stands unrivalled in the poetic art. The purpose of this work was to throw ridicule upon that party which subverted the monarchy and church of England in the time of Charles I. Their reign, indeed, was over before the appearance of this poem, and it might seem unnecessary to attack a humiliated faction; yet their principles were far from being extinct, and to expose them to contempt was no mean service to the opposite cause. Accordingly, Hudibras became a great favourite with the court and royalists: it was relished by a king who was himself a man of wit, and its severity gratified the party animosity of those who perhaps valued it on no other account. At this dis

tance of time it is read merely as a literary performance; and its merits are fairly estimated without scrutinizing the justice of its satire, or the motives of its author.

The fable of this burlesque heroic is copied from Don Quixote. It consists of the adventures of a fictitious knight-errant and his squire, who are the representatives of the two most prevalent

sects

sects among the parliamentarians,...the presbyterian and independent. The knight is described as a man of multifarious but whimsical and pedantic erudition; the squire, as a prating and dogmatical fanatic; and both, as deeply tinctured with hypocrisy and knavery. The piece has less action than conversation. The author's talent does not seem to have lain in the invention of incident, but he is inexhaustible in matter of argument and all that relates to opinions. So much learning was perhaps never since the days of Rabelais applied to a comic purpose. He likewise possessed the faculty of bringing together the most dissimilar ideas, and linking them by odd and fanciful connexions,...the characteristic of ludicrous wit. He had, withal, a fund of good sense and observation of mankind, which gave him a clear perception of the ridiculous in manners and character. Besides the leading topics of his satire, he has incidentally touched upon several other points in which men are deluded by false science or grave imposition; so that he is a writer not only to be laughed with, but from whom real instruction is to be derived; and he has furnished a variety of sentences which, enforced by the humorous language in which they are expressed, have passed into proverbial maxims. No one has contributed more than he to throw ridicule upon the imposture of judicial astrology, which was a folly once extremely prevalent, and by no means worn out at the period of his writing.

You

You will readily conceive that a work which corresponds to the preceding description is not calculated for hasty and uninformed readers; and indeed the learned and historical allusions in Hudibras are so numerous, that they have afforded ample matter for the annotations of scholars. It will be necessary for you to procure some assistance of this kind; nor will I promise, after all, that you will enter enough into the spirit of the performance to derive much pleasure from it. There are defects which will not fail to strike you. It drags towards the conclusion; yet it is an unfinished work, nor does it clearly appear what the author intended to make of it. The personages of the story are so contemptible, that no one cares what is to become of them. It must also be confessed, that the diction and imagery are not free from coarseness and vulgarity. Butler has been famous for his double rhymes, which often, from their oddity, heighten the ludicrousness of the matter; yet they are frequently halting and imperfect, and the style and versification in general are careless and slovenly. In these respects he is much inferior to Swift, who, with more ease and true familiarity, has also, in his best pieces, an air of good company which Butler wants.

I shall direct your attention to one more poet of the witty class, who deserves a distinguished place among original writers, though making a

small

small figure in the collection from the bulk of his productions. This is GREEN, a modern author, principally known by his admirable poem on "The Spleen." His purpose in this work was to suggest the most effectual preservatives against a foe to human happiness, which was a great object of dread half a century ago under the name he has adopted, and is not less formidable at present under those of low spirits and weak nerves.. Like a skilful physician, he enumerates the causes of this mental disease, and the most potent antidotes to their influence; and he offers a remedy for a fit of the spleen in his poem itself, made up of a most agreeable compound of shrewd observation, lively description, and rational philosophy, seasoned with wit and fancy. Butler himself has not in the same compass more striking assemblages of remote ideas. Green is particularly happy in allusion, or the application of known facts, or passages from authors, in a new sense. Thus, recommending exercise as a cure for the spleen, he says,

Fling but a stone, the Giant dies.

News he calls "the manna of a day ;" and speaking of the power of beauty over old-age, which "blood long congealed liquefies ;" he adds, alluding to the pretended miracle of St. Januarius's head,

True miracle, and fairly done

By heads which are ador'd when on.