It remains that we give a fpecimen of his power in respect to numbers, which is the prerogative of our language, of the most extenfive influence, and which, notwithstanding, is the leaft understood. For this reason, therefore, we will produce fuch an inftance; and if, for the fhort time he is reading it, the reader will forget Mr. Dryden's Ode upon St. Cecilia's day, he will not be able to recollect a finer piece of lyric poetry in the British tongue.

ODE to DISCORD.

When Love's away, then Discord reigns,
The furies he unchains,

Bids Eolus unbind

The northern wind

That fetter'd lays in caves;

And root up trees, and plow the plains;
Old Ocean frets and raves :

From their deep roots the rocks he tears,
Whole deluges lets fly,

That dash against the sky,

And feem to drown the ftars.
Th' affaulted clouds return the fhock,
Blue light'nings finge the waves,
And thunder rends the rock.

Then Jove ufurps his father's crown,
Inftructing mortals to afpire;

The father would deftroy the fon,
The fon dethrones the fire:

The

The Titans, to regain their right, Prepare to try a fecond fight; Briareus arms his hundred hands, And marches forth the bold gigantic bands,

Pelion, upon Offa thrown,
Steep Olympius they invade ;
Gods and giants tumble down,
And Mars is foil'd by Encelade.

Horror, confufion, dreadful ire,
Daggers, poifon, fword, and fire,
To execute the deftin'd wrath confpire:
The furies loofe their fnaký rods,
And lafh both men and gods.

The chorus repeat the last stanza.

He was not one of thofe fine eafy writers that compofe a poem in a morning, but remarkably careful and curious about every thing he wrote; fo that his verfes never appeared till they had undergone a fevere examination; and, even after they had received the fanction of public applaufe, they were not fafe from his caftigation; he thought he had a right to trim and prune the products of his imagination as long and as often as he thought fit, and it is certain that he exercised this right thro his whole life. Like Ovid and Tibullus, his mufe was employed in transmitting the charms

of beauty, as far as they can be tranfmitted by thofe of poetry, to fucceeding times. He began where Waller ended; and, as he had conferred immortality on lady Dorothea Sidney, under the name of Sacharissa, so the countefs of Newbourg, who was Granville's Mira, will live as long as the English language: but, as much as he excelled in the amorous, he excelled alfo in other kinds of poetry; and had the genius and learning, as well as the fpirit and turn, of Ovid, as appears clearly from one of the most beautiful pieces of poetical criticifm that is any where extant.

This performance is his effay on the unnatu ral fghts in poetry. The earl of Mulgrave, afterwards fucceffively diftinguished by the titles of Normandy and Buckinghamshire, had wrote an admirable piece, entitled, An Effay on Poetry; the earl of Rofcommon had likewife written with the fame title upon tranflated verfe.

Our author, to compleat the fubject, wrote this third effay, to fhew, that, notwithstanding all the notions of poetic liberty, whatever is abfurd, extravagant, or unnatural, can never be either fublime or beautiful. He wrote likewife annotations to explain, to establish, and to confirm his rules, by examples. The fol lowing inftances will give the reader an idea of his poem.

Thus

Thus poetry has ample space to foar,
Nor needs forbidden regions to explore;
Such vaunts as his who can with patience read,
Who thus describes his heroes flain and dead.

"Kill'd as he was, infenfible of death, "He ftill fights on, and fcorns to yield his "breath."

The noify culverin, o'ercharged, lets fly,
And burst unaiming in the rended sky:
Such frantic flights are like a madman's
dream,

And Nature fuffers in the wide extreme.

The captive canibal, weigh'd down with chains,

Yet braves his foes, reviles, provokes, difdains ;

1

Of nature fierce, untameable, and proud,
He grins defiance at the gaping crowd;
And spent at laft, and fpeechlefs as he lies,
With looks ftill threat'ning, mocks their rage
and dies:

This is the utmost stretch that nature can,
And all beyond is fulfom, falfe, and vain.

I needed not to have travelled fo far for an extravagant flight, I remember one of British growth of the like nature,

* Ariofto.

See thofe dead bodies hence convey'd with

care,

Life may perhaps return with change of

air.

But I chose rather to correct gently by foreign examples, hoping that fuch as are con fcious of the like exceffes, will take the hint, and fecretly reprove themfelves: it may be poffible for fome tempers to maintain rage and indignation to the laft gafp, but the foul and body once parted, there must necessarily be a determination of action.

Quodcunque oftendis mihi fic incredulus odi.

I cannot forbear quoting on this occafion, as an example for the prefent purpose, two noble lines of Jafper Main's, in the Collection of the Oxford Verfes, printed in the year 1643, upon the death of my grandfather, Sir Bevil Granville, flain in the heat of action, at the battle of Lanfdowne. The poet, after having defcribed the fight, the foldiers, animated by the example of their leader, and en raged at his death, thus concludes:

Thus he being flain, his action fought anew, And the dead conquer'd, whilft the living flew.

This is agreeable to truth, and within the compafs of nature. It is thus only that the dead can act.

Beauty's