O fuavis anima! qualem te dicam bonam THE verfification of this tranflation of POPE, is, in point of melody, next to that of his paftorals. Perhaps the two following lines, in which alliteration is fuccefsfully used, are the most harmonious verfes in our language, I mean in rhyme: Ye gentle gales! beneath my body blow, The peculiar muficalness of the first of these lines, in particular, arifes principally from it's confifting entirely of iambic feet; which have always a striking, although unperceived, effect in an English verfe. As for example; Ye gentle gāles beneath mỹ bōdy blow. Even if the last foot alone be an iambic, it casts a harmony over a whole line † : Rapt into future times the bard begun. Phædr. Fab. L. iii. Fab. i. ver. 5, 6. + See WARTON on Spenfer, Sect. xi. pag. 259, &c. There There are many niceties in our verfification, which few attend to, and which would demand a regular treatife fully to discuss: we should furely use every poffible art, to render our rough Northern language harmonious. FENTON also has given us a translation of this epiftle to Phaon; but it is in no respect equal to POPE's: he has added another, of his own invention, of Phaon to Sappho, in which the story of the transformation of the former, from an old mariner to a beautiful youth, is well told. Fenton was an elegant scholar, and had an exquifite tafte; the books he * POPE highly valued him. In a letter to Gay, Vol. VIII. p. 169. he fays, "I have just received the news of the death of a friend, whom I esteemed almost as many years as you; poor Fenton. He died at Eaft-hamstead, of indolence and inactivity; let it not be your fate, but use exercise." Craggs, who had never received a learned education, had some time before commiffioned POPE to find out for him some polite scholar, whom he proposed to take into his family, that he might acquire a tafte of literature, by the converfation and inftruction of the perfon POPE fhould recommend. He accordingly chofe Fenton; but Craggs died unluckily for the execution of this scheme. Mr. Craggs had the candor to make no objection to Fenton, tho' he was a nonjuror; being, I prefume, convinced he was honeft as well as learned. tranflated tranflated for POPE in the Odyffey, are fuperior to Brome's. In his Mifcellanies are many pieces worthy notice; particularly, his Epistle to Southerne; the Fair Nun, imitated from Fontaine; Olivia a Character, an Ode to the Sun, and one to Lord Gower, written in the true fpirit of Lyric poetry, of which the following allegory is an example: Enamour'd of the SEINE, celeftial fair, The blooming pride of Thetis azure train, There fecret in her faphire cell, He with the Nais wont to dwell, He gave the mantling vine to grow, His tragedy of Mariamne has undoubtedly merit, tho' the diction be too figurative and ornamental; it does indeed fuperabound in the richest poetic images: except this may be palliated by urging, that it fuits the characters of oriental heroes, to talk in fo high a strain, and to use such a luxuriance of metaphors. FROM FROM this EPISTLE of Sappho, I may take occafion to observe, that this fpecies of writing, beautiful as it is, has not been much cultivated among us. among us. Drayton, no despicable genius, attempted to revive it, and has left us fome good fubjects, tho' not very artfully handled *. We have also a few of this fort of epiftles by the late Lord Hervey, in the fourth volume of Dodfley's Mifcellanies †, Flora to Pompey ‡, Arifbe to Marius, and Monimia to Philocles, in which last are fome pathetic strokes, and Roxana to Ufbeck, taken from the incomparable § letters of the late prefident Montefquieu; a fine || original work, in The best of his ENGLAND'S HEROICAL EPISTLES, are King John to Matilda, Elinor Cobham to Duke Humphry, William De Le Poole to Queen Margaret; Jane Shore to Edward IV. Lord Surrey to Geraldine, and Lady Jane Grey to Lord Guilford Dudley. In his BARON'S WARS, there are many strokes not unworthy of Spenfer; and his Nymphidia must be allowed to be a perfect pattern of pastoral elegance. + Page 90. & feq. Taken from Fontenelle. Lettres Perfans. A Geneve. 1716. Lady Wortley Montague, who refided fo long at Confantinople, faid, "One would have thought the Baron de Montesquieu had been born and bred a Turk, he has defcribed that people, and the women particularly, fo very accu rately." in which the cuftoms and manners of the Perfians are painted with the utmost truth and liveliness, and which have been faintly imitated by the Jewish, Chinese, and other Letters. The beauty of this writer, is his expreffive brevity; which Lord Hervey has lengthened to a degree that is unnatural; especially, as Roxana is supposed to write juft after she has swallowed a deadly poison, and during it's violent operations. I have lately feen feveral pieces of this fpecies, which, as the subjects are striking, will, I hope, one day fee the light. They are entitled, "TASSO to LEONORA ; written in an interval of his madness: LUCAN to NERO; juft after he was condemned to death: Lady OLIVIA to CLEMENTINA, on her refusing to marry Grandifon: CHARLES V. from the monaftery he retired to, to the King of France: GALGACUS, general of the Britons, to AGRICOLA rately."—" I had rather have written the fhort hiftory of the Troglodites, confifting only of ten pages, than the admirable, the immortal history of Thuanus in ten great volumes.” MES PENSEES. ccxlv. that |