there may be found more rigid stateliness than graceful dignity, Of verfification he was not negligent: what he received from Dryden he did not lofe; neither did he increase the difficulty of writing, by unneceffary feverity, but uses Triplets and Alexandrines without fcruple. In his Preface to Solomon he proposes fome improvements, by extending the sense from one couplet to another, with variety of pauses. This he has attempted, but without fuccefs; his interrupted lines are unpleafing, and his fenfe as lefs diftinct is less striking. He has altered the Stanza of Spenser, as a house is altered by building another in its place of a different form. With how little resemblance he has formed his new Stanza to that of his master, these specimens will shew. SPENSER. She flying faft from heaven's hated face, From living eyes her open fhame to hide, But that fair crew of knights, and Una fair, To reft themselves, and weary powers repair, Where ftore they found of all, that dainty was and rare. PRIOR. To the clofe rock the frighted raven flies, Soon as the rifing eagle cuts the air: The fhaggy wolf unseen and trembling lies, When the haarfe roar proclaims the lion near, Ill-ftarr'd did we our forts and lines forfake, To dare our British foes to open fight: Our conqueft we by ftratagem should make: Our triumph had been founded in our flight. 'Tis ours, by craft and by furprise 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 the effence of verse 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 airiness, lightness, and facility; what is smooth, 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 doubtlefs understood well, when he read Horace at his uncle's; the veffel long retains the feent which it firft 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 was overpowered by the neceffity of reflection, he wanted not wisdom as a statesman, nor elegance as a poet, CON |