*

dregs of Crashaw, of Carew, of Herbert, and others, (for it is well known he was a great reader of all those poets) POPE has very judiciously collected gold. And the following ftanza is perhaps the only valuable one Flatman has produced.

When on my fick bed I languish,
Full of forrow, full of anguish,

Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying,
Panting, groaning, fpeechlefs, dying;
Methinks I hear some gentle spirit say,
Be not fearful come away!

The third and fourth lines are eminently good and pathetic, and the climax well preserved; the very turn of them is clofely copied by POPE; as is likewise the striking circumftance of the dying man's imagining he hears a voice calling him away;

* Crashaw has very well translated the dies iræ, to which tranflation Rofcommon is much indebted, in his Poem on the day of Judgment.

Of whom fays Lord Rochefter,

Not that flow drudge in swift Pindaric strains,
Flatman, who Cowley imitates with pains,
And rides a jaded mufe, whipt, with loose reins.

Vital

Vital spark of heavenly flame

Quit, O quit, this mortal frame;
Trembling, hoping, lingring, flying,
O the pain, the blifs of dying!
Hark! they whisper! angels say,
Sifter fpirit, come away!

I AM fenfible of the difficulty of diftinguishing resemblances from thefts; and of what a late critic has urged, that a want of feeming originality arifes frequently, not from a barrennefs and timidity of genius, but from invincible neceffity, and the nature of things that the works of those who profess an art, whofe effence is imitation, must needs be ftamped with a close resemblance to each other, fince the objects material or animate, extraneous or internal, which they all imitate, lie equally open to the observation of all, and are perfectly fimilar. Defcriptions therefore that are faithful and juft, MUST BE UNIFORM AND ALIKE; the first copier may be perhaps entitled to the praise of priority, but a fucceeding one ought not certainly to be condemned for plagiarism.

THESE

THESE general obfervations however true, do not, I think, extend to the cafe before us, because not only the thoughts, but even the words are copied; and because the images, especially the laft, are fuch, as are not immediately impreffed by fenfible objects, and which therefore, on account of their SINGULARITY, did not lie in common for any poet to feize. Let us however moderate the matter, and say, what perhaps is the real fact, that POPE fell into the thoughts of Flatman unawares, and without defign; and having formerly read him, imperceptibly adopted this paffage, even without knowing that he had borrowed it. That this will frequently happen, is evident from the following curious particulars related by Menage, which, because much has been faid of late on this head by many writers of criticism, I shall here infert." I have often heard M. Chapelain, and Mr. Dandilly declare, that they wrote the following line,

D'arbitres de la paix, de foudres de la guerre;

without

without knowing it was in Malherbe; and the moment I am making this remark, recollect that the fame thing happened to M. Furetiere. I have often heard Corneille declare, that he inserted in his Polyeucte, two celebrated lines concerning fortune, without knowing they were the property of M. Godeau bishop of Vence;

Et comme elle a l'eclat du Verre

Elle en a la fragilitè

Godeau had inferted them in an ode to Cardinal Richleiu, fifteen years before Polyeucte was written. Porphyry in a fragment of his book on Philology, quoted by Eusebius, in the tenth book of his Evangelical preparation, makes mention of an author named Aretades, who compofed an entire treatise on this fort of refemblances.And St. Jerom relates, that his preceptor Donatus, explaining that fenfible paffage in Terence, "Nihil eft dictum quod "non fit dictum prius," railed feverely at the ancients, for taking from him his best thoughts; "Pereant qui ante nos, noftra dixerunt.”*

* Anti-Baillet, tom. ii. pag. 207.

MENAGE

MENAGE makes thefe obfervations on occafion of a paffage in the Poetics of Vida, intended to justify borrowing the thoughts and even expreffions of others, which paffage is very applicable to the subject before us:

Afpice ut exuvias, veterumque infignia, nobis
Aptemus; rerum accipimus nunc clara reperta,
Nunc feriem atq; animum verborum, verba quoque ipfa;
Nec pudet interdum alterius nos ore locutos.*

Menage adds, that he intended to compile a regular treatise on the thefts and imitations of the poets. As his reading was very exten-, five, his work would probably have been very entertaining. For furely it is no trivial amusement, to trace an applauded sentiment or description to it's fource, and to remark, with what judgment and art it is adapted and inferted; provided this be done with fuch a spirit of modesty and candour, as evidently fhews, the critic intends merely to gratify

*Lib. iii. v. 255.

+ Dryden fays prettily of Ben. Jonfon's many imitations of the ancients," You track him every where in their SNOW."