For firm as e'er before my limbs remain,
To dash the fluid waves, or fcour the plain.

He faid, and went before. The heroes move
To the dark covert of a neighbouring grove;
Which to the bank its fhady walks extends,
Where, mixing with the lake, a riv'let ends.
Prompt to contend, their purple robes they loose,
Their figur'd vefts, and gold embroider'd shoes;
And through the grove defcending to the ftrand,
Along the flow'ry bank in order ftand.

As when in fome fair temple's facred shrine,
A ftatue ftands, exprefs'd by fkill divine,
Apollo's, or the herald pow'rs, who brings,
Jove's mighty mandates on his airy wings;
The form majeftic awes the bending crowd:
In port and ftature fuch the heroes food.

Starting at once; with equal ftrokes they sweep
The fmooth expanfe, and fhoot into the deep;
The Cretan chief exerting all his force,
His rivals far furpafs'd, and led the courfe;
Behind, Atrides, emulous of fame;
Clearchus next; and laft Ulyffes came.
And now they meafur'd back the watry space,
And faw from far the limits of the race.
Ulyffes then with thirft of glory fir'd,
The Samian left, and to the prize afpir'd;
Who, emulous, and dreading to be laft,
With equal fpeed the Spartan hero pafs'd.
Alarm'd, the Cretan monarch ftrove with pain,
His doubtful hopes of conqueft to maintain;
Exerting ev'ry nerve, his limbs he ply'd,
And wishing, from afar the fhore defcry'd :
For near and nearer ftill Ulyffes prefs'd,
The waves he felt rebounding from his breaft.
With equal zeal for victory they ftrove,
When gliding fudden from the roofs of Jove,
Pailas approach'd; behind a cloud conceal'd,
Ulyffes only faw her form reveal'd.
Majeftic by the hero's fide fhe ftood;

Her fhining fandals prefs'd the trembling flood.
She whisper'd foft, as when the western breeze,
Stirs the thick reeds, or shakes the raftling trees:
Still fhall thy foul, with endless thirst of fame,
Afpire to victory in ev'ry game.

The honours which from bones and finews rife,
Are lightly valu'd by the good and wife:
To envy ftill they roufe the human kind;
And oft, than courted, better far declin'd.
To brave Idomeneus yield the race,
Contented to obtain the fecond place.

The

The goodefs thus: while, ftretching to the land,
With joy the Cretan chief approach'd the strand;
Ulyffes next arriv'd, and, fpent with toil,
The weary Samian grafp'd the welcome foil.

But far behind, the Spartan warrior lay,
Fatigu'd and fainting in the watry way.
Thrice ftruggling from the Make, his head he rear'd;
And thrice imploring aid, his voice was heard.
The Cretan monarch haftes the youth to fave,
And Ithacus again divides the wave:

With force renew'd, their manly limbs they ply,
And from their breafts the whit'ning billows fly.
Full in the midft a rocky ifle divides,
The liquid fpace, and parts the filver tides;
Once cultivated, now with thickets green
O'erfpread, two hillocks and a vale between.
Here dwelt an aged fwain; his cottage stood
Under the cliffs, encompafs'd by a wood.
From poverty fecure, he heard afar,
In peace profound, the tumults of the war.
Mending a net before his rural gate,
From other toils repos'd, the peasant fat,
When firft the voice of Menelaus came,
By ev'ning breezes wafted from the ftream.

He rofe; and, turning whence the voice was heard,
Far ftruggling in the deep, the youth appear'd.
Haft'ning, his kiff he loos'd, and spread the fail,
Some prefent god fupply'd a profp'rous gale:
For as the Spartain chief, with toil fubdu'd,
Hopeless of life, was finking in the flood;
The fwain approach'd, and in his barge receiv'd
Him fafe, from danger imminent retriev'd.

Upon a willow's trunk Therfites fat,
Contempt and laughter fated to create,
Where, bending from a hollow bank, it hung,
And rooted to the mould'ring furface clung;
He faw Atrides fafe; and thus aloud,
With leer malign, addrefs'd the lift'ning croud.
Here on the flow'ry turf a hearth shall stand;
A hecatomb the fav'ring Gods demand,
Who fav'd Atrides in this dire debate,
And fnatch'd the hero from the jaws of fate.
Without his aid, we all might quit the field;
Ulyffes, Ajax, and Tydides yield:
His mighty arm alone the hoft defends,
But dire difafter ftill the chief attends :

Laft fun beheld him vanquish'd on the plain;

Then warriors fav'd him, now a fhepherd fwain,
Defend him ftill from perfecuting fate!

Protect the hero who protects the state;

Guard

Guard him amidst the dangers of the war;
And when he fwims, Jet aid be never far!
He faid, and fcorn and laughter to excite,
His features foul he writh'd, with envious fpite,
Smiling contempt, and pleas'd his rancrous heart
With aiming thus oblique a venom'd dart.
But joy'd not long; for foon the faithless wood,
Strain'd from the root, refign'd him to the flood.
Plunging and fputt'ring, as his arms he spread,
A load of foil came thund'ring on his head,
Slipt from the bank along the winding fhore,
With laughter loud he heard the ecchoes roar,
When from the lake his crooked form he rear'd,
With horror pale, with blotting clay befmear'd:
Then clamb'ring by the trunk in fad difmay,
Which, half immers'd, with all its branches lay,
Confounded, to the tents he fkulk'd along,
Amidst the fhouts and infults of the throng.

If any fhould imagine, that we have been rather severe upon this Author, let it be observed in our excufe, that his prefumptuous attack of fo fuperior a character as that of the late Mr. Pope, has juftly divefted him of all title to favour: read the following extract from his preface *.

The language [of the Epigoniad] is fimple and artless. • This I take to be a beauty rather than a defect: for it gives an air of antiquity to the work, and makes the ftyle more fuitable to the fubject. The quaintnefs of Mr. Pope's expreffion, in his tranflation of the Iliad and Odyssey, is not at all fuitable either to the antiquity, or majestic gravity of his author, and contributes more to make his fable appear vain and abfurd, than any circumftance that feems of fo little moment could easily be fuppofed to do.

་

He must be a tasteless critic, indeed, who could remain unmoved, after perufing fo dogmatical a sentence, pronounced by fuch a poet, upon SUCH A GENIUS!

This preface, however, upon the whole, fhews the author to be a man of more reading and tafte than his Poem fpeaks him; and had he published that difcourfe without the Epigoniad, and committed the latter to the flames, his reputation would have sustained no loss on that account.

Odes

As

ODES. By Mr. Gray. 4to. Is. DodЛley;

S this publication feems defigned for those who have formed their tafte by the models of antiquity, the generality of Readers cannot be fuppofed adequate Judges of its merit; nor will the Poet, it is prefumed, be greatly difappointed if he finds them backward in commending a performance not entirely fuited to their apprehenfions. We cannot, however, without fome regret behold thofe talents fo capable of giving pleasure to all, exerted in efforts that, at beft, can amufe only the few; we cannot behold this rifing Poet feeking fame among the learned, without hinting to him the fame advice that Ifocrates used to give his Scholars, Study the People. This study it is that has conducted the great Mafters of antiquity up to immortality. Pindar himself, of whom our modern Lyrift is an imitator, appears entirely guided by it. He adapted his works exactly to the difpofitions of his countrymen. Irregular enthufiaftic, and quick in tranfition,-he wrote for a people inconftant, of warm imaginations, and exquifite fenfibility. He chose the most popular fubjects, and all his allufions are to cuftoms well known, in his days, to the meanest perfon*.

His English Imitator wants thofe advantages. He fpeaks to a people not eafily impreffed with new ideas; extremely tenacious of the old; with difficulty warmed; and as flowly cooling again. How unfuited then to our national character is that fpecies of poetry which rifes upon us with unexpected. flights! Where we must haftily catch the thought, or it flies from us; and, in fhort, where the Reader muft largely partake of the Poet's enthufiafm, in order to tafte his beauties. To carry, the parallel a little farther; the Greek Poet wrote in a language the moft proper that can be imagined for this fpecies of compofition; lofty, harmonious, and never needing rhyme to heighten the numbers. But, for us, feveral unfuccefsful experiments feem to prove that the English cannot have Odes in blank Verfe; while, on the other hand, a natural imperfection attends those which are compofed in irregular rhymes:-the fimilar found often recurring where it is not expected, and not being found where it is, creates no fmall confufion to the Reader,-who, as we have not feldom obferved, beginning in all the folemnity of

The best Odes of Pindar are faid to be thofe which have been destroyed by time; and even they were feldom recite among the Greeks, without the adventitious ornaments of mufic and dancing. Our Lyric Odes are feldom fet off with thefe advantages, which, trifing as they feem, have alone given immortality to the works of Quinault.

poetic elocution, is by frequent difappointments of the rhyme, at laft obliged to drawl out the uncomplying numbers into difagreeable profe.

It is, by no means, our defign to detract from the merit of our Author's prefent attempt: we would only intimate, that an English Poet, one whom the Mufe has mark'd for her own, could produce a more luxuriant bloom of flowers, by cultivating fuch as are natives of the foil, than by endeavouring to force the exotics of another climate: or, to speak without a metaphor, fuch a genius as Mr. Gray might give greater pleasure, and acquire a larger portion of fame, if, inftead of being an imitator, he did juftice to his talents, and ventured to be more an original. These two Odes, it must be confeffed, breath much of the fpirit of Pindar, but then they have caught the feeming obfcurity, the fudden tranfition, and hazardous epithet, of his mighty mafter; all which, though evidently intended for beauties, will, probably, be regarded as blemishes, by the generality of his Readers. In fhort, they are in fome measure, a reprefentation of what Pindar now appears to be, though perhaps, not what he appeared to the States of Greece, when they rivalled each other in his applaufe, and when Pan himself was feen dancing to his melody.

In conformity to the antients, thefe Odes confift of the Strophe, Antiftrophe, and Epode, which, in each Ode, are thrice repeated. The Strophes have a correfpondent refemblance in their stricture and numbers: and the Antiftrophe and Epode alfo bear the fame fimilitude. The Poet feems, in the firft Ode particularly, to defign the Epode as a complete air to the Strophe and Antiftrophe, which have more the appearance of Recitative. There was a neceffity for thefe divifions among the antients, for they served as directions to the dancer and musician; but we see no reason why they should be continued among the moderns; for, instead of affifting, they will but perplex the Musician, as our music requires a more frequent tranfition from the Air to the Recitative than could agree with the fimplicity of the antients.

The first of thefe Poems celebrates the Lyric Mufe. It feems the most laboured performance of the two, but yet we think its merit is not equal to that of the fecond. It feems to want that regularity of plan upon which the fecond is founded; and though it abounds with images that ftrike, yet, unlike the fecond, it contains none that are affecting.

In the second Antiftrophe the Bard thus marks the progress of Poetry.