sitions, and the harshest constructions, vainly ima- and in general all Parnell's translations are excelgining, that the more their writings are unlike lent. The Battle of the Frogs and Mice, which prose, the more they resemble poetry. They have follows, is done as well as the subject would admit: adopted a language of their own, and call upon but there is a defect in the translation which sinks mankind for admiration. All those who do not it below the original, and which it was impossible understand them are silent and those who make to remedy; I mean the names of the combatants, out their meaning are willing to praise, to show which in the Greek bear a ridiculous allusion to they understand. From these follies and affecta- their natures, have no force to the English reader. tions the poems of Parnell are entirely free; he A bacon-eater was a good name for a mouse, and has considered the language of poetry as the lan- Pternotractas in Greek was a very good sounding guage of life, and conveys the warmest thoughts in word that conveyed that meaning. Puffcheek the simplest expression. would sound odiously as a name for a frog, and Parnell has written several poems besides those yet Physignathos does admirably well in the origipublished by Pope, and some of them have been nal. made public with very little credit to his reputation. There are still many more that have not yet seen compliments that ever was paid to any poet; the light, in the possession of Sir John Parnell his the description of his situation at the end of it nephew, who, from that laudable zeal which he has is very fine, but far from being true. That for his uncle's reputation, will probably be slow in part of it where he deplores his being far from publishing what he may even suspect will do it wit and learning, as being far from Pope, gave injury. Of those which are usually inserted in particular offence to his friends at home. Mr. his works, some are indifferent, and some moderate-Coote, a gentleman in his neighbourhood, who ly good, but the greater part are excellent. A thought that he himself had wit, was very much slight stricture on the most striking shall conclude displeased with Parnell for casting his eyes so far this account, which I have already drawn out to off for a learned friend, when he could so convea disproportionate length. niently be supplied at home. The letter to Mr. Pope is one of the finest The translation of a part of the Rape of the Lock into monkish verse, serves to show what a Hesiod, or the Rise of Woman, is a very fine illustration of a hint from Hesiod. It was one of his earliest productions, and first appeared in a miscel-master Parnell was of the Latin; a copy of verses lany published by Tonson. Of the three songs that follow, two of them were written upon the lady he afterwards married; they were the genuine dictates of his passion, but are not excellent in their kind. made in this manner, is one of the most difficult trifles that can possibly be imagined. I am assured that it was written upon the following occasion. Before the Rape of the Lock was yet completed, Pope was reading it to his friend Swift, who sat The Anacreontic, beginning with, "When very attentively, while Parnell, who happened to Spring came on with fresh delight," is taken from a French poet whose name I forget, and, as far as I am able to judge of the French language is better than the original. The Anacreontic that follows "Gay Bacchus,” etc., is also a translation of a Latin poem by Aurelius Augurellus, an Italian poet, beginning with, Invitat olim Bacchus ad cœnam suos be in the house, went in and out without seeming to take any notice. However, he was very diligently employed in listening, and was able, from the strength of his memory, to bring away the whole description of the toilet pretty exactly. This he versified in the manner now published in his works; and the next day, when Pope was reading his poem to some friends, Parnell insisted that he had stolen that part of the description from an old monkish manuscript. An old paper with the Latin after some time that Pope was delivered from the confusion which it at first produced. Parnell, when he translated it, applied the cha-verses was soon brought forth, and it was not till racters to some of his friends, and, as it was written for their entertainment, it probably gave them more pleasure than it has given the public in the peru- The Book-worm is another unacknowledged sal. It seems to have more spirit than the original; but it is extraordinary that it was published as an original and not as a translation. Pope should have acknowledged it, as he knew. The fairy tale is incontestably one of the finest pieces in any language. The old dialect is not perfectly well preserved, but this is a very slight defect, where all the rest is so excellent. The Pervigilium Veneris, (which, by the by, does not belong to Catullus) is very well versified, translation from a Latin poem by Beza. It was the fashion with the wits of the last age to conceal the places whence they took their hints or their subjects. A trifling acknowledgment would have made that lawful prize, which may now be considered as plunder. The Night Piece on Death deserves every praise, and I should suppose, with very little amendment, might be made to surpass all those night pieces and church-yard scenes that have since appeared. But the poem of Parnell's best known, and on to England, and are sensible how much that Docwhich his best reputation is grounded, is the Her- tor is cursed and hated, who introduced their spemit. Pope, speaking of this in those manuscript cies into your nation; therefore, as you dread the anecdotes already quoted, says "That the poem is wrath of St. Patrick, send them hither, and rid the very good. The story," continues he, "was writ- kingdom of those pernicious and loquacious animals. ten originally in Spanish, whence probably Howel "I have at length received your poem out of Mr. had translated it into prose, and inserted it in one Addison's hands, which shall be sent as soon as of his letters. Addison liked the scheme, and was you order it, and in what manner you shall appoint. not disinclined to come into it." However this I shall in the mean time give Mr. Tooke a packet may be, Dr. Henry Moore, in his dialogues, has for you, consisting of divers merry pieces. Mr. the very same story; and I have been informed by Gay's new farce, Mr. Burnet's letter to Mr. Pope, some, that it is originally of Arabian invention. Mr. Pope's Temple of Fame, Mr. Thomas Burnet's With respect to the prose works of Parnell, I Grumbler on Mr. Gay, and. the Bishop of Ailshave mentioned them already; his fame is too well bury's Elegy, written either by Mr. Cary or some grounded for any defects in them to shake it. I other hand. will only add, that the Life of Zoilus was written "Mr. Pope is reading a letter; and in the mean at the request of his friends, and designed as a time, I make use of the pen to testify my uneasi satire upon Dennis and Theobald, with whom his club had long been at variance. I shall end this account with a letter to him from Pope and Gay, in which they endeavour to hasten him to finish that production. "DEAR SIR, "London, March 18. ness in not hearing from you. I find success, even "Your most affectionate, "I must own I have long owed you a letter, but you must own, you have owed me one a good deal longer. Besides, I have but two people in the whole kingdom of Ireland to take care of; the Dean and you but you have several who complain of your neglect in England. Mr. Gay complains, Mr. Harcourt complains, Mr. Jervas complains, Dr. Arbuthnot complains, my Lord complains; I complain. (Take notice of this figure of iteration, when you make your next sermon.) Some say you are in deep discontent at the new turn of affairs; others, that you are so much in the archbishop's good graces, that you will not correspond with any that have seen the last ministry. Some affirm you have quarrelled with Pope (whose friends they observe daily fall from him on account of his satirical I can not finish this trifle without returning my and comical disposition;) others that you are in- sincerest acknowledgments to Sir John Parnell, sinuating yourself into the opinion of the inge-for the generous assistance he was pleased to give nious Mr. What-do-ye-call-him. Some think you me, in furnishing me with many materials, when are preparing your sermons for the press; and he heard I was about writing the life of his uncle, others, that you will transform them into essays and as also to Mr. and Mrs. Hayes, relations of our moral discourses. But the only excuse that I will poet; and to my very good friend Mr. Stevens, allow, is your attention to the Life of Zoilus. The who, being an ornament to letters himself, is very frogs already seem to croak for their transportation ready to assist all the attempts of others. "Homer will be published in three weeks." THE LIFE OF Henry, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke. [FIRST PRINTED IN 1771.] THERE are some characters that seem formed | know, was strongly attached to the republican by nature to take delight in struggling with oppo-party, Henry, the subject of the present memoir, sition, and whose most agreeable hours are passed was brought up in his family, and consequently in storms of their own creating. The subject of imbibed the first principles of his education amongst the present sketch was, perhaps, of all others, the the dissenters. At that time, Daniel Burgess, a most indefatigable in raising himself enemies, to fanatic of a very peculiar kind, being at once posshow his power in subduing them; and was not sessed of zeal and humour, and as well known for less employed in improving his superior talents the archness of his conceits as the furious obstinathan in finding objects on which to exercise their cy of his principles, was confessor in the presbyactivity. His life was spent in a continual con- terian way to his grandmother, and was appointed fict of politics; and, as if that was too short for the to direct our author's first studies. Nothing is so combat, he has left his memory as a subject of last-apt to disgust a feeling mind as mistaken zeal; and, ing contention. perhaps, the absurdity of the first lectures he reIt is, indeed, no easy matter to preserve an ac- ceived might have given him that contempt for all knowledged impartiality in talking of a man so religions which he might have justly conceived differently regarded on account of his political, as against one. Indeed no task can be more mortiwell as his religious principles. Those whom his fying than what he was condemned to undergo: politics may please will be sure to condemn him "I was obliged," says he, in one place, "while yet for his religion; and, on the contrary, those most a boy, to read over the commentaries of Dr. Manstrongly attached to his theological opinions are ton, whose pride it was to have made a hundred the most likely to decry his politics. On whatever and nineteen sermons on the hundred and nineside he is regarded, he is sure to have opposers; and this was perhaps what he most desired, having, from nature, a mind better pleased with the struggle than the victory. teenth psalm." Dr. Manton and his sermons were not likely to prevail much on one who was, perhaps, the most sharp-sighted in the world at discovering the absurdities of others, however he might have been guilty of establishing many of his own. Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, was born in the year 1672, at Battersea, in Surrey, at a seat that had been in the possession of his an- But these dreary institutions were of no very cestors for ages before. His family was of the first long continuance; as soon as it was fit to take him rank, equally conspicuous for its antiquity, dignity, out of the hands of the women, he was sent to and large possessions. It is found to trace its origin Eton school, and removed thence to Christ-church as high as Adam de Port, Baron of Basing, in college in Oxford. His genius and understanding Hampshire, before the Conquest; and in a suc- were seen and admired in both these seminaries, cession of ages, to have produced warriors, patriots, but his love of pleasure had so much the ascendenand statesmen, some of whom were conspicuous cy, that he seemed contented rather with the confor their loyalty, and others for their defending the sciousness of his own great powers than their exrights of the people. His grandfather, Sir Walter ertion. However, his friends, and those who knew St. John, of Battersea, marrying one of the daugh-him most intimately, were thoroughly sensible of ters of Lord Chief Justice St. John, who, as all the extent of his mind; and when he left the university, he was considered as one who had the ing the poet, and praising his translation. We fairest opportunity of making a shining figure in have another, not so well known, prefixed to a active life. French work, published in Holland by the CheNature seemed not less kind to him in her ex-valier de St. Hyacinth, entitled, Le Chef-d'-Eutre ternal embellishments than in adorning his mind. d'un Inconnu. This performance is a humorous With the graces of a handsome person, and a face piece of criticism upon a miserable old ballad; and in which dignity was happily blended with sweet- Bolingbroke's compliment, though written in Engness, he had a manner of address that was very lish, is printed in Greek characters, so that at the engaging. His vivacity was always awake, his first glance it may deceive the eye, and be mistaken apprehension was quick, his wit refined, and his for real Greek. There are two or three things memory amazing: his sublety in thinking and more of his composition, which have appeared since reasoning was profound; and all these talents his death, but which do honour neither to his parts were adorned with an elocution that was irre- nor memory. sistible. In this mad career of pleasure he continued for To the assemblage of so many gifts from na- some time; but at length, in 1700, when he ar ture, it was expected that art would soon give her rived at the twenty-eighth year of his age, he befinishing hand; and that a youth, begun in excel- gan to dislike his method of living, and to find that lence, would soon arrive at perfection: but such is sensual pleasure alone was not sufficient to make the perverseness of human nature, that an age the happiness of a reasonable creature. He therewhich should have been employed in the acquisi- fore made his first effort to break from his state of tion of knowledge, was dissipated in pleasure; and infatuation, by marrying the daughter and coheirinstead of aiming to excel in praiseworthy pur- ess of Sir Henry Winchescomb, a descendant from suits, Bolingbroke seemed more ambitious of being the famous Jack of Newbury, who, though but a thought the greatest rake about town. This period clothier in the reign of Henry VIII., was able to might have been compared to that of fermentation entertain the king and all his retinue in the most in liquors, which grow muddy before they bright- splendid manner. This lady was possessed of a en; but it must also be confessed, that those liquors fortune exceeding forty thousand pounds, and was which never ferment are seldom clear. In this not deficient in mental accomplishments; but state of disorder, he was not without his lucid in- whether he was not yet fully satiated with his tervals; and even while he was noted for keeping former pleasures, or whether her temper was not Miss Gumley, the most expensive prostitute in the conformable to his own, it is certain they were far kingdom, and bearing the greatest quantity of wine from living happily together. After cohabiting for without intoxication, he even then despised his some time together, they parted by mutual consent, paltry ambition. "The love of study," says he, both equally displeased; he complaining of the ob"and desire of knowledge, were what I felt all my stinacy of her temper, she of the shamelessness of life; and though my genius, unlike the demon of his infidelity. A great part of her fortune, some Socrates, whispered so softly, that very often I time after, upon his attainder, was given her back; heard him not in the hurry of these passions with but, as her family estates were settled upon him, which I was transported, yet some calmer hours he enjoyed them after her death, upon the reversal there were, and in them I hearkened to him." of his attainder. These sacred admonitions were indeed very few, since his excesses are remembered to this very day. I have spoken to an old man, who assured me, that he saw him and one of his companions run naked through the Park in a fit of intoxication; but then it was a time when public decency might be transgressed with less danger than at present. Having taken a resolution to quit the allurements of pleasure for the stronger attractions of ambition, soon after his marriage he procured a seat in the House of Commons, being elected for the borough of Wotton-Basset, in Wiltshire, his father having served several times for the same place. Besides his natural endowments and his During this period, as all his attachments were large fortune, he had other very considerable adto pleasure, so his studies only seemed to lean that vantages that gave him weight in the senate, and way. His first attempts were in poetry, in which he discovers more wit than taste, more labour than harmony in his versification. We have a copy of his verses prefixed to Dryden's Virgil, compliment seconded his views of preferment. His grandfather, Sir Walter St. John, was still alive; and that gentleman's interest was so great in his own county of Wilts, that he represented it in two Parliaments in a former reign. His father also was then the representative for the same; and the inOur author appears fond of this figure, for we find it interest of his wife's family in the House was very troduced into his Essay on Polite Literature. The propriety, extensive. Thus Bolingbroke took his seat with however, both of the simile, and of the position it endeavours to illustrate, is ably examined in a periodical work, entitled many accidental helps, but his chief and great rethe Philanthrope, published in London in the year 1797. source lay in his own extensive abilities. At that time the whig and the tory parties were | been sincere and disinterested; for the latter chose strongly opposed in the House, and pretty nearly to follow his fortune, and the next day resigned his balanced. In the latter years of King William, the employments in the administration, following his tories, who from every motive were opposed to the friend's example, and setting an example at once of court, had been gaining popularity, and now began integrity and moderation. As an instance of this, to make a public stand against their competitors. when his coadjutors, the tories, were for carrying Robert Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, a a violent measure in the House of Commons, in staunch and confirmed tory, was in the year 1700 order to bring the Princess Sophia into England, chosen Speaker of the House of Commons, and Bolingbroke so artfully opposed it, that it dropped was continued in the same upon the accession of without a debate. For this his moderation was Queen Anne, the year ensuing. Bolingbroke had praised, but perhaps at the expense of his sagacity. all along been bred up, as was before observed, For some time the whigs seemed to have gained among the dissenters, his friends leaned to that a complete triumph, and upon the election of a new persuasion, and all his connexions were in the Parliament, in the year 1708, Bolingbroke was not whig interest. However, either from principle, or returned. The interval which followed, of above from perceiving the tory party to be then gaining two years, he employed in the severest study, and ground, while the whigs were declining, he soon this recluse period he ever after used to consider as changed his connexions, and joined himself to Har- the most active and serviceable of his whole life. ley, for whom then he had the greatest esteem; nor But his retirement was soon interrupted by the did he bring him his vote alone, but his opinion, prevailing of his party once more; for the Whig which, even before the end of his first session, he Parliament being dissolved in the year 1710, he rendered very considerable, the House perceiving was again chosen, and Harley being made Chaneven in so young a speaker the greatest eloquence, cellor, and Under-treasurer of the Exchequer, the united with the profoundest discernment. The important post of Secretary of State was given to year following he was again chosen anew for the our author, in which he discovered a degree of same borough, and persevered in his former at- genius and assiduity that perhaps have never been tachments, by which he gained such an authority known to be united in one person to the same and influence in the House, that it was thought proper to reward his merit; and, on the 10th of April, 1704, he was appointed Secretary at War and of the Marine, his friend Harley having a little before been made Secretary of State. degree. The English annals scarcely produce a more trying juncture, or that required such various abilities to regulate. He was then placed in a sphere where he was obliged to conduct the machine of The tory party being thus established in power, state, struggling with a thousand various calamiIt may easily be supposed that every method would ties; a desperate enraged party, whose characterbe used to depress the whig interest, and to prevent |istic it has ever been to bear none in power but it from rising; yet so much justice was done even themselves; a war conducted by an able general, to merit in an enemy, that the Duke of Marlbo- his professed opponent, and whose victories only rough, who might be considered as at the head of tended to render him every day more formidable; the opposite party, was supplied with all the ne-a foreign enemy, possessed of endless resources, cessaries for carrying on the war in Flanders with and seeming to gather strength from every defeat; vigour; and it is remarkable, that the greatest an insidious alliance, that wanted only to gain the events of his campaigns, such as the battles of advantage of victory, without contributing to the Blenheim and Ramilies, and several glorious at-expenses of the combat ; a weak declining mistress, tempts made by the duke to shorten the war by that was led by every report, and seemed ready to some decisive action, fell out while Bolingbroke listen to whatever was said against him; still more, was Secretary at War. In fact he was a sincere a gloomy, indolent, and suspicious colleague, that admirer of that great general, and avowed it upon envied his power, and hated him for his abilities: all occasions to the last moment of his life; he these were a part of the difficulties that Bolingbroke knew his faults, he admired his virtues, and had had to struggle with in office, and under which he the boast of being instrumental in giving lustre to was to conduct the treaty of peace of Utrecht, which those triumphs by which his own power was in a was considered as one of the most complicated nemanner overthrown. gociations that history can afford. But nothing As the affairs of the nation were then in as seemed too great for his abilities and industry; he fluctuating a state as at present, Harley, after set himself to the undertaking with spirit; he bemaintaining the lead for above three years, was in gan to pave the way to the intended treaty, by his turn obliged to submit to the whigs, who once making the people discontented at the continuance more became the prevailing party, and he was com- of the war; for this purpose he employed himself pelled to resign the seals. The friendship between in drawing up accurate computations of the numhim and Bolingbroke seemed at this time to havelbers of our own men, and that of foreigners, em |