One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Dr. Swift, was a bright and clear genius; fo extremely piercing, that every the most striking circumstance, arifing from any fubject whatever, quickly occurred to his imagination; and these he frequently fo accumulated one upon another, that perhaps, beyond all other poets, of all ages and countries, he deserves, in this particular, to be the most universally admired. And this choice of circumftances, if any stress can be laid on the opinion of Longinus, that great director of our taste and judgment, renders a composition truly noble and fublime. The most remarkable pieces of this fort, are, The furniture of a woman's mind; Betty the Grizette; The journal of a modern lady; His poem on reading Dr. Young's fatires; Mordanto; The defcription of a city-shower; The defcription of Quilca; The description of the morning; and, The place of the damned. This power of the mind gave him alfo that desperate hand, as Pope terms it, in taking off all forts of charafters. To omit those of a political nature, fee The progress of poetry; The fecond part of Traulus; The progrefs of love; The character of Corinna; and, The beautiful young nymph just going to bed; where you will find, that his imagination could even dream in the character of an old battered ftrumpet. And, from the fame inexhaustible fund of wit, he acquired the historic arts both of defigning and colouring, either in groups, or in fingle portraits. How exact, how lively, and spirited is that group of figures, in The journal of a modern lady? vol. 8. fage begins thus: and ends, But let me now a while furvey, &c. 1. 116. Flew hov'ring o'er each female head, 1. 135.] [The paf And for a fingle portrait, if we confider the defign, the attitude, the drapery, or the colouring, what is it that can excel the reprefentation of Caffinus in the tragical Elegy?* Vol. 9. He feem'd as just crept out of bed, &c. l. II. and ending thus, On embers plac'd, to drink it hot, 1. 28. Throughout all his poetical writings, although many of them be dedicated immediately to the fair fex, there cannot be found, to the best of my recollection, one single distich, addressed in the:. character character of a lover to any one perfon. If he writ any poems of that fort in his younger days, they must have been destroyed, if they be not concealed. Those verses upon women, which are deemed the most fatirical, were written principally with a view to correct their foibles, to improve their taste, and to make them as agreeable companions at threefcore, as at the age of five and twenty. By what I can hear, the most exceptionable of his poems in that way, have produced fome very extraordinary effects in the polite world. This was, in truth, the ultimate defign of his writing the lady's dreffing-room, and other pieces, which are acknowledged to be fomewhat liable to cenfure, on account of their indelicacy. Among the admirers of Dr. Swift, many have compared him to Horace, making proper allowances for the refpective ages in which they feverally flourished. The refemblance, however, between them is not fo exceedingly strong, as that a fimilitude and manner of writing could have excited the leaft degree of emulation between them, further than to be equally renowned for their peculiar excellencies. Each of them had, independent of what is generally called a fine tafte, a thorough knowledge of the world, fuperadded to an abundance of learning. Both the one and the other of these great men held the numerous tribe of poets, as well as that motley generation of men called critics, it the utmost contempt; and, at the fame time, have manifefted themselves to be incomparable judges of all that is truly excellent, whether in books or men. Neither of them had the leaftregard for the Stoics: and whatever may be faid of their being of the Epicurean taste, which, if rightly understood, is far from being inconfiftent with the highest virtue; neither of them was attached to any particular system of philofophy. Homer was the darling author both of Horace and Swift. Horace declares in his epistle to Lollius, that Homer had abundantly more good fenfe and wisdom than all the philofophers; and Swift's opinion was, that Homer had more genius than all the rest of the world put together. Yet neither the one nor the other of them have attempted to imitate his manner; but, like heroes of a bold and. true fpirit, have induftriously followed the bent of nature, and ftruck out ofiginals of their own. But however ftrong may be fuppofed the resemblance between Horace and Swift, they were, in fact, upon the, whole, quite different men. Their tempers, their complexions, and their fortunes, were totally unlike. Each of them had, in many refpects, greatly the advantage of the other. Poetry was in Horace the business of his life; every defire, every comfort, and every paffion of his mind, were centered in the mufes he followed the example of the Greek poets, præter laudem nullius avarus. Poetry in Swift was only an appendage to his character: he wore it as an emblem of wit and fpirit, which gave him an air of grandeur in the republic of letters. Horace, by diverting his thoughts from all fublunary affairs, and perpetually ranging about from flower to flower, among the gardens, and groves, and wilderneffes of the Greeks, with infinite labour extracted, like an industrious bee, the quinteffence of their sweets; and by frequently experimenting all the changes of harmony, is defervedly the joy and admiration of the poetical world, for the mufic of his lines, and the variety of his numbers. His addreffes to the Emperor, to Agrippa, to Pollio, and his panegyric on Drufus, are prodigiously sublime: but his hymns to the Mufes, to Mercury, to Pan, to Apollo and Diana, to Venus, to his lyre, and to Bacchus, are abfolutely raptures of poetry, even the divine spirit of that amabilis infania," that de"lightful madnefs," which is only to be felt, impoffible to be described. His verses, nevertheless, are but few in number; the whole of his works, at a random computation, amounting only to about 7000 lines; whereof not above one half are of that species of poetry on which he defired to fix all his pretenfions to fame. And it was upon thefe only, that he bestowed the greater part of his life. Swift, on the contrary, from the age of one and twenty, was deeply immersed in politics during his whole life; fometimes fighting the battles of church and state, against a virulent, oppofing faction, which threatened to undermine the constitution; sometimes refifting the torrent of ecclesiastical, and frequently the torrent of minifterial power, whenever the rights of the clergy, or the liberties of his country, were occasionally invaded; and generally fighting with beafts of one fpecies or other, like a fierce and bold champion, refolutely bent on either death or victory: yet still he could find opportunities, by fnatching hours of leifure, to write poetry for his amufement. He had read many of the Greek and Latin poets; relished and admired what was agreeable to his own tafte; but never devoted either his his thoughts or his time to Apollo and the Muses. Throughout his whole works, there is no fuch thing as an ode to Calliope, to Mercury, to Venus, to Apollo and Diana, to his lyre, to Bacchus, or to Pan; nothing which was ever intended as a rapture of poetry. Is it not then fomewhat very amazing, if we confider him in this fair and true light, that he should produce, by the mere force of taste and abilities, without any laboured correction at all, fuch wonders in the poetic train, as to make any the most partial of his admirers, not only prefer him to all the poets of these latter centuries, but compare him to that immortal genius of the Augustan age, whose whole delight, speculation, and amusement, whether in bed or in the fields, was in meditating, writing, polishing, or correcting his verses? Swift. MISCEL MISCELLANIES in VERSE. CADENUS and VANESSA*. ΤΗ Written anno 1713. HE fhepherds and the nymphs were seen The counsel for the fair began, Accufing the false creature man. The brief with weighty crimes was charg'd, 5 That * See an account of the occasion of this poem in Swift's life, prefixed to vol. I. This poem is founded upon an offer of marriage made by a young lady to her preceptor. Whether fuch an incident really happened, or what gave the poet occasion to suppose it, need not here be inquired. His principal defign is to expofe the faults and follies in both fexes, by which love is degraded, and marriage rendered fubfervient to fordid purposes. Hawkef. This poem, one of the greatest length, and, I believe, the longest ever composed by the Dean, is of a very extraordinary nature, and upon a very extraordinary subject. As a poem, it is excellent in its kind, perfectly correct, and admirably condufted. Vanity makes terrible devastation in a female breast. It batters down all restraints of modefty, and carries away every feed of virtue. Vaneffa was exceffively vain. The character given of her by Cadenus is fine painting, but, in general, fictitious. She was fond of dress; impatient to be admired; very romantic in her turn of mind; fuperior, in her own opinion, to all her fex; full of pertness, gaiety, and pride; not without fome agreeable VOL, VIII. accomplishments, B |