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fount of inspiration, vary exceedingly in character; Cowley's poem being at once clumsy and fragmentary, although shewing prodigious powers of misdirected genius, and misapplied learning; Fletcher's being a grand but unequal production

the abortive "Faery Queen" of Christianity; Young's being a translation of the sublime of Hebrew into the elegant of English poetry; Moore's "Hebrew Melodies" being mawkish, and Byron's morbid renderings of their respective originals-while Croly, Aird, Smart, and Prior have all, in different degrees, entered into the soul of the Scripture writers. Croly, in his "Dothan," recalling the very spirit of the scene when the "Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha;" Aird, walking with emulous foot beside Ezekiel,

"Whose spirit stumbles on the corner-stones

Of realms disjointed, and of broken thrones;"

Smart mating with the magnificent aberrations, as well as the lofty flights of the lord of Adullam's cave-and Prior (as if he had written or read the lost volume, "The Book of the Acts of Solomon,") recalling from the "sepulchre of the kings of Israel," the majestic form of the Great Man to whom "God gave wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and greatness of heart, even as the sand that is by the sea-shore."

Prior's place as a poet, is in the second rank of the Pope and Dryden School-beneath these two masters, but on a level with Swift and Gay. His imagination is fertile but not creative-his language, except in his "Tales," is copious rather than terse-his wit is Swift's, but with the gall diluted; possessing Swift's ease, without his malignant animus-he displays the unvarying good sense, coolness, and self-command of a man of the world, rather than the ardour and enthusiasm of a bard, and has been well called the "most natural of artificial poets."

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