Above the clouds, but ftill within our fight, They mount with truth, and make a tow'ring

flight;

Prefenting things impoffible to view,

They wander thro' incredible to true: Falfehoods, thus mix'd, like metals are refin'd, And truth, like filver, leaves the drofs behind. Thus poetry has ample space to foar,

Not needs forbidden regions to explore: Such vaunts as his who can with patience read, Who thus defcribes his hero flain and dead: "(4) Kill'd as he was, infenfible of death, "He still fights on, and fcorns to yield his "breath *."

The

beyond credibility. Cuftem has likewife familiarized another way for hyperboles, for example, by irony; as when we fay of fome infamous woman the is a civil perfon, where the meaning is to be taken quite oppofite to the letter. These few figures are mentioned only for example fake; it will be understood that all others are to be used with the like care and difcretion.

(4) I needed not to have travelled fo far for an extravagant Aight; I remember one of British growth of the like nature : See those dead bodies hence convey'd with care, Life may perhaps return-with change of air.

* Ariofto.

But

The noify culverin, o'ercharg'd, lets fly,
And burst unaiming in the rended sky.

Such frantic flights are like a madman's dream, And Nature fuffers in the wild extreme.

The captive Cannibal, weigh'd down with chains,

Yet braves his foes, reviles, provokes, difdains;
Of nature fierce, untameable, and proud,
He grins defiance at the gaping crowd,

But I chufe rather to correct gently, by foreign examples, hoping that fuch as are confcious of the like exceffes will take the hint, and fecretly reprove themselves. It may be poffible for fome tempers to maintain rage and indignation to the last gafp; but the foul and body once parted, there must neceffa rily be a determination of action.

Quodcunque oftendis mihi fic incredulus odi.

I cannot forbear quoting, on this occafion, as an example for the present purpose, two noble lines of Jasper Maine's, in the collection of the Oxford Verfes printed in the year 1643, upon the death of my grand father Sir Bevil Granville, flam 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 enraged at his death, thus concludes, Thus he being flain, his action fought anew,

And the dead conquer'd, whilft the living few. This is agreeable to truth, and within the compass of nature: it is thus only that the dead can ac. D

And

And spent at laft, and fpeechlefs as he lies,

With looks ftill threatening, mocks their rage

and dies.

This is the utmost stretch that Nature can,
And all beyond is fulfome, falfe, and vain.
Beauty's the theme; fome nymph divinely

fair

Excites the Mufe: let truth be even there;
As painters flatter, fo may poets too,

But to refemblance must be ever true.

(5) The day that she was born, the Cyprian "Queen

"Had like t'have dy'd thro' envy and thro

(5) Le jour qu'elle naquit, Venus bien qu'immortelle,

Penfa mourir de honte, en la voyant fi belle,

Les Graces a l'envi defcendirent des cieux,
Pour avoir l'honeur d'accompagner fes yeux;

Et l'Amour, qui ne put entrer dans fon courage,

Voulut obftinément longer fur fon vifage.

This is a lover's defcription of his miftrefs by the great Cor neille; civil, to be fure, and polite as any thing can be. Let any body turn over Waller, and he will fee how much more naturally and delicately the English author treats the article of love than this celebrated Frenchman. I would not however be thought, by any derogatory quotation, to take from the merit of a writer whofe reputation is fo univerfally and fo july

"The Graces in a hurry left the skies "To have the honour to attend her eyes; "And Love, defpairing in her heart, a place, "Would needs take up his lodging in her "face *."

jufily established in all nations; but, as I faid before, I rather chufe, where any failings are to be found, to correct my own countrymen by foreign examples, than to provoke them by inftances drawn from their own writings; humanum eft errare. I cannot forbear one quotation more from another celebrated French author. It is an epigram upon a monument for Francis I. King of France, by way of queflion and answer, which in English is verbatim thus:

Under this marble who lies buried here?
Francis the Great, a king beyond compare.
Why has fo great a king fo fmall a ftone?
Of that great king here's but the heart alone.
Then of this conqueror here lies but part?
No-here he lies all-for he was all heart.

The author was a Gafcon, to whom I can properly oppofe nobody fo well as a Welchman; for which purpofe I am farther furnished, from the fore-mentioned collection of Oxford Verfes, with an epigram by Martin Lluellin upon the same fubject, which I remember to have heard often repeated to me when I was a boy. Befides, from whence can we draw better examples than from the very feat and nursery of the Mules?

*Corneille.

D 2

Thus

Tho' wrote by great Corneille, fuch lines as

thefe,

Such civil nonfenfe, fure could never please..
Waller, the beft of all th' infpired train,
To melt the fair inftructs the dying fwain

Thus flain, thy valiant ancestor * did lie,
When his one bark a navy did defy;

When now encompafs'd round he victor ftood,
And bath'd his pinnace in his conquering blood,.
Till, all the purple current dry'd and spent,
He fell, and made the waves his monument..

Where fhall the next fam'd Granville's athes ftand?
Thy grandfire's fill the fea, and thine the land,

I cannot fay the two laft lines, in which confift the fting or point of the epigram, are strictly conformable to the rule herein fet down: the word afbes, metaphorically, can fignify nothing but fame, which is mere found, and can fill no space either of land or fea: the Welchman however must be allowed to have outdone the Gafcon. The fallacy of the French epigram appears at first fight; but the English ftrikes the fancy, fufpends and dazzles the judgment, and may perhaps be allowed to pafs under the fhelter of thofe daring hyperboles which, by prefenting an obvious meaning, make their way, according to Seneca, through the incredible to true.

*Sir Richard Granville, Vice-admiral of England, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, maintained a fight with his fingle thip against the whole armada of Spain, confifting of fisty-. three of their beft men of war.

The