"He lived a bleffing, he died a benefactor, and his name will ever live an honour to Ireland." IN the Poetical Works of Dr. Swift there is not much upon which the critick can exercife his powers. They are often humorous, almoft always light, and have the qualities which recommend fuch compofitions, easiness and gaiety. They are, for the most part, what their author intended. The diction is correct, the numbers are smooth, and the rhymes exact. There feldom occurs a hardlaboured expreffion, or a redundant epithet; all his verses exemplify his own definition of a good style, they confift of proper words in proper places. To divide this Collection into claffes, and fhew how some pieces are grofs, and fome are trifling, would be to tell the reader what he knows already, and to find faults of which the the author could not be ignorant, who certainly wrote often not to his judgement, but his humour. It was faid, in a Preface to one of the Irish editions, that Swift had never been known to take a single thought from any writer, ancient or modern. This is not literally true; but perhaps no writer can easily be found that has borrowed fo little, or that in all his excellencies and all his defects has fo well maintained his claim to be confidered as original. Gg 2 BROOME. |