Ill-starr'd did we our forts and lines forfake, Our conqueft we by ftratagem fhould make: Our triumph had been founded in our flight, 'Tis ours, by craft and by furprize to gain : 'Tis theirs, to meet in arms, and battle in the plain. By this new ftructure of his lines he has avoided difficulties; nor am I fure that he has loft any of the power of pleafing; but he no longer imitates Spenfer. Some of his poems are written without regularity of meafures; for, when he commenced poet, we had not recovered from our Pindarick infatuation; but he probably lived to be convinced that that the effence of verfe is order and confonance. His numbers are fuch as mere diligence may attain; they feldom offend the ear, and feldom footh it; they commonly want airinefs, lightnefs, and facility; what is fmooth is not foft. His verfes always roll, but they feldom flow. A furvey of the life and writings of Prior may exemplify a fentence which he doubtless understood well, when he read Horace at his uncle's; the veffel long retains the fcent which it first receives. In his private relaxation he revived the tavern, and in his amorous pedantry he exhibited the college. But on higher occafions, and nobler fubjects, when habit 2 |